Technically, OMPT is an initiative of Polder; a non-profit corporation based in California , dedicated to the development of communities by enhancing education. Polder addresses urgent educational challenges facing communities today, by focusing on learning in the classroom and using audio-visual technology in transitional environments.

By leveraging consumer electronics gear into a positive force – an impetus for creating more empowered and effective systems and institutions , Polder seeks to enhance learning, promote health, foster a deeper understanding of the world and provide students with new opportunities to grow.

One of the keystones of Polder is an initiative named One Media Player per Teacher (OMPT). The goal of OMPT is to provide portable media players with speakers and/or TVs to teachers in remote areas of the developing world and to train them to use these PMPs as valuable educational tools for their students. OMPT empowers people trapped in poverty, who have no access to the Internet, by connecting them to crucial information that can better their lives.

One of the limitations of the IRI program was that the teacher and students had to listen to the broadcast at a specific time. There was no means to stop and start the program once the broadcast lesson had begun. With PMPs from OMPT, teachers and students can use lessons at their own pace. They can start and stop the program at will. They can assemble to listen or watch the program at their chosen time.

One portable media player has the capacity to hold an entire year’s curriculum. For a device that fits in the palm of the hand, this is a powerful teaching aid for any educator. If every teacher in the developing world had access to a portable media player, it might help ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.

Media players can also play a role in health education, which can help halt the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases. OMPT can assist in adult education by connecting community groups to crucial information about agriculture, sanitation and employment opportunities.

OMPT is the division of Polder that solicits donations of media players from manufacturers and financial contributions from philanthropists. One portable media player with speakers and power source costs as little as $50. This small cost can change a classroom of 40 or 50 individual lives.

What does Polder mean?

Polder is a Dutch word that refers to reclaimed land. Many of the Dutch live close to the water, in an area where the sea and land compete. The land is often flooded or marshy. Long ago, individual families began building earth dikes to prevent the destruction of crops and houses by incoming water. Over time, they began to build the dikes a little further into the wetlands, which enabled them to protect or reclaim more land. In a broad sense, polder is derived value for mankind, when natural forces are kept at bay.

This example refers to geography, where the situation involves the struggle between large forces: the people, the land and the sea. The name of the nonprofit organization, Polder, refers to mind space or a portion of human mental resources. The struggle is not against the encroachment of incoming water upon valuable land. In this case, Polder refers to the struggle against the encroachment of mass media upon the valuable attention of human minds. Polder focuses on radio and television (audio and video). Often people aren’t aware of how media influences their choices and how commercial interests, like the rising sea, are advancing and flooding their lives. Polder aims to give people more mind space for intellectual development, enlightenment, spiritual maturation, career advancement and scholastic pursuits. Polder leverages computers, the Internet and other consumer electronic devices to manage media in the best interests of the people.