How robots are getting sick kids back to school | Megan Gilmour | TEDxCanberra

Megan Gilmour is a social entrepreneur who pioneered an innovation that is positively changing the lives of many children, families and school communities. In this talk, she tells the story of her organisation, MissingSchool, which is responsible for connecting sick kids in hospitals with their classrooms via mobile robots – or telepresence monitors. Keeping them connected to their schooling, teachers and peers – physically (by virtual telepresence), mentally and emotionally. Megan Gilmour is a social innovation entrepreneur, whose career includes roles in government, the private sector and community organisations. Megan has worked on complex social and economic development operations in over 24 countries. She is Chair and co-founder of MissingSchool, an advocacy organisation working to keep seriously sick kids connected to their schools and the creator and director of a national telepresence robot pilot doing just that. She co-authored an Australian-first report on that subject which received a Prime Minister’s statement of support in 2015. As a 2016 Churchill Fellow, Megan studied overseas models of education for sick kids in Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom and Canada. Her work is passionately driven by her experience as a mother to a young son who survived a life-threatening illness. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx