Simon's End of Year Report
It has been a very busy term with a struggle to create the foundation of OLPC project in different schools. I am encouraged by what has come out of those institutions in a such a very short period of time.
At schools like Ngarendare Secondary, Leparua Primary, Lewa Primary and Subuiga primary, this term has meant the introduction of OLPC projects, while at Ntugi Secondary this term has been about developing their use of the XO laptops to a higher level.
The thing I feel has been achieved best is the curiosity that has arisen at these schools after realizing how much help the OLPC XO's can be in learning if they are introduced to the school curriculum. This idea has won acceptance at all the institutions I have worked with.
I have seen teachers, after an introduction of an activity in Sugar, enthusiastically suggest areas where it can assist in teaching. The Sugar activities that have been voted very useful in teaching are;
Record
Tuxmath
Fototoon
Distance
The most helpful ability of the XO laptop that has been highly voted is the inbuilt network enabling sharing of activities . But these are the only activities that I have been able to introduce to them this term. Still, we are developing the knowledge base well.
Next term at Ntugi and Leparua, I am planning to suggest an activity I will call “silent discusions activity" where the students will, after researching about a topic on the Internet, use the Write activity (when shared) to discuss about the topic without using their text books. In the Write document they can correct each other and in the long run will have mastered the concept of the topic. I will explain to them that this is similar to the process by which Wikipedia is built - by many people collaborating, sharing and correcting information.
Lewa's Conservation Education Centre is another institution that has easily picked up the concept of the OLPC project.The CEC has enhanced the experience of students from all over Kenya who visit Lewa. As part of their visit, those students to have a chance to use the OLPC laptops as part of their program. Since many come from a very remote areas where access to computers is still rare, using the XO laptops is very exciting for them. And, for the CEE it is a very helpful tool to teach about conservation and get the concepts well mastered by the students.
Personally, this has been a successful term. My position as an intern has improved me as a person, training me to handle multiple things at a time and deal with different institutions which each have different levels of understanding and different interests. My goal has been to make them understand the main purpose of the OLPC project which is to boost education through use of technology. The position of intern has also provided me with the resources to research about computer science (XO laptop, Safaricom modem and data time) and I find it a great chance since this is an area I have always dreamt to venture in.
The only shortcomings have been:
Trouble with transport - some of the schools are very remote and the rains have been hard - which mostly make me very un-prompt.
Dealing with large classes using only a few laptops and a sitution where everybody needs my attention and this makes me to do very little advancement even in a longer period of time.
The most vital thing now is to try to connect all the institutions/schools involved in the project. We have so far connected Ntugi Secondary and Leparua Primary and we have established have a common time they can chat on IRC.
If Ngarendare Secondary could be developed with a permanent set of laptops, and connected to Ntugi Secondary, they could have lot to share since they are both secondary schools. For instance...
The Prefects at Ngarendare could IRC chat with the one at Ntugi and they can share the problems they encounter.
Students at each school can be posting very difficult questions on a blog for the other school to research and answer.This could be a very good way of learning .
Under development is a blog that will connect Lewa and all the schools in the project where they can ask questions about conservation education and Ephantus Mugo can answer them through the blog.
If all these connections succeed, even technical problems could be easily shared and locally solved!
Thanks to all who have participated to make this term such a successiful one. Schools have closed for holiday and am looking forwad for the next year to get these ideas in practise.
Thank You
Post By Simon Mwangangi