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Judy's Report 8: Incentivizing Students

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi Secondary, I was greeted by the journalism students eager for me to share my experience in Tanzania with them. Our team (me, Godfrey, Simon and Mark) had travelled to there to start a pilot OLPC program in the remote Matpwili village. I shared my photos and it was a great motivation to them that we were expanding the project - and that will give them more chances of working with the project. Everybody from the group was determined to work hard so they could eventually have the same opportunity I'd had - to cross the border and work as a consultant.

Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary

At Ngarendare Secondary we resumed our activities where we'd left off before our trip. The students had really missed the lessons and I was happy at the seriousness they showed to start their lessons as usual. I also had the chance to work with the only group of students that I had not yet introduced to the Turtle Art Activity. This group turned out to be the most active since by the end of the session they were able to draw different shapes without consulting me at all!

We proceeded to Lewa Primary where the kids were ready for our lesson and I introduced them to the Tux Math Activity. They were able to sharpen their brains by having groups compete with each other to get higher scores - this was a simple and effective motivation for the kids to learn Math.

Wednesday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi Secondary, the demand for the students to learn more on the XO laptop is increasing day by day. The students requested that I show them how to join the XOs together in a mesh network for collaboration so that in case I am not there, they can connect the machines during the lesson by themselves and hold the discussions. This was, as a teacher, a very interesting and encouraging comment to hear from my students. I went ahead and showed them how to do all this during the lesson and it was very interesting.

Thursday: Subuiga Primary

At Subuiga Primary school, I had Grade Five kids and their two teachers. We played a Memorize Game and, by the end of the lesson, the kids had learned how to create their own custom multiplication Memorize game, save it and share it.

Friday: Leparua Primary

All primary schools supported by Lewa had girls’ soccer competitions which brought pupils from different schools together. Simon and I spent the whole day at Lewa Social Center, where the soccer fields are, and it was our pleasure to meet all the schools we teach in one place - and watch them play!

Post by Judy Kinya

#judy kinya #Simon Mwangangi #mark battley #ntugi secondary #ngarendare secondary #Lewa Wildlife Conservancy #lewa primary #turtle art #subuiga primary #Memorize #matapwili #tnazania #OLPC

Judy's Report 7: Turtle Art at Leparua

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Ntugi Secondary is a site with students who are very willing to learn a lot with the XO laptop. The students asked me to show them how to switch to the Gnome desktop and use the AbiWord and I helped them to do it. Then, we carried on with the business of day - some of the students had taken pictures of the events that happened on Monday evening in the school compound, and they used the Fototoon Activity to make interesting stories from them.

Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary

Ngarendare Secondary and Lewa Primary are both sites that are really thrusting to learn computers. We used Typing Turtle with students at Ngarendare so as to improve their typing speed and also help them to use two hands in typing .We were only able to practice the home row since time was limited .

This was the first time the Lewa Primary pupils had access to the laptops, and they had a lot of interest and willingness to learn more. We taught them how to use some of the XO laptop activities like the Write and Record Activities. In Record Activity they were able to take photos and do some recording while they sang and did other different things.

Wednesday: Ntugi Secondary

Form Two (Grade 10) is a group of students ready to use the laptops in learning. I helped them to create a game in Memorize Activity after I realized that they had difficulties in their Geography class matching different minerals with the areas in which they are mined. I thought a Memorize game would make it a bit more fun for them to study. We were able to come up with a very nice game which can not only be used by the Form Two students who created it, but also by the other members of the school who are studying geography. The nice thing about Memorize is that the students learn both as they create the game, and as they play it.

Thursday: Ntugi Primary

The Grade Seven students from Ntugi Primary School are always eager to learn new ideas every time we meet with them for computer lesson. On this day, they wanted to learn how to both play the math games that come preloaded in the Memorize Activity, and how to create their own mathematics game using the 'create' tools. I worked with their two teachers Simon Mwangangi, Mark Battley, to help each group create one, save it to the Journal, and share it with the other groups using a USB key.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, I am working with the Grade Seven kids who are always ready to learn new ideas on the Turtle Art Activity. First, I asked the kids to remind me what we had covered in the previous lesson and they were able to remember. Then, I then taught them how to use twor new Turtle block commands: The Operation command that makes the Turtle draw a circle a circle, and the Repeat command that makes the Turtle repeat an action for more than one time. By combining these they were able to draw a simple flower.

Post by Judy Kinya

#judy kinya #Simon Mwangangi #mark battley #leparua primary #ntugi primary #ntugi secondary #turtle art #Memorize #write #record #geography #typing turtle #fototoon

Simon's Report 31: End of Term Report

Following the schools timetable, the second term is over, and it’s now time for the August Break.

A lot of effort has been applied this term to make the ends meet and guarantee the progress and success of the pilot project - the extension of the OLPC program to 6 sites beyond the original deployment at Ntugi Secondary.

That extension is now one year old, as is my role as Ntugi Group intern. This is the view of things from my perspective - about the performance of everything, of what was expected, and of what has been achieved so far.

The specific objectives of this term were:

1) To develop Ngarendare Secondary, Lewa Primary and Subuiga Primary as independent sites by...

Giving them a permanent set of XO laptops so they don’t have to depend on our carry-in backpack program - which is limited to 8 laptops.

Training the Computer Club members to run the school sites with the help of the site supervisors (teachers assigned to run the sites).

2) Enroll more students at the already developed sites, Leparua Primary (16 laptops) and Ntugi Secondary (50 laptops), and train them from introduction to Sugar all the way to project development.

The efforts to develop the pilot sites as independent, permanent, and self-sufficient sites has faced some challenges.

The training part (1b) has worked fine especially with the addition of a second intern, Judy Kinya. This has enabled faster training for the schools' Computer Clubs and, more importantly, the addition of a 7th site: Ntugi Primary. Ntugi Primary is a neighbor school to Ntugi Secondary - a hundred meters away - and the students now come to Ntugi Secondary to use their complement of laptops.

Remember that the are sites (Ngarendare, Lewa Primary, Subuiga) started by us- the Kenyan interns - and we are eager to see how they might develop into and run as independent , permanent sites. Then we can compare them with sites started by foreigners (the Toronto team) and see the difference. The main challenge now is on (1a). We have got enough computers for the new sites, but no power to run them. The promised Mains power (connection to the grid) has not materialized, and this has delayed the development of the sites by not balancing the knowledge of the Computer Clubs and the Site Supervisors with the needed physical resources like computers and their accessories - all because we are waiting on power. On the up side, it has been possible to get the students working on project towards the end of the term, and the Ntugi Secondary kids have really started working on a complex project.

Of course, the extension of our work to the pilot project in the neighboring country of Tanzania is one of this term’s achievements that we cannot forget. It moved us from being ‘local interns’ to ‘international consultants’.

The most important thing at this stage in our development here in Kenya is to build a digital curriculum, specific to the XO laptop and the Sugar software, that shows students the future path of their learning and can guide the interns to know what to teach them every step along that journey. This will work best if other teaching facilities also assist in teaching. For instance, the Conservation Education Center, with plentiful and quick availability of Internet can be easily linked to the other schools like Ntugi who also have access to Internet (through a 3G modem) and they can combine efforts in conservation. Requirements going forward:

We humbly request for the stakeholders to get the power issue solved and mains electricity supplied to the suggested sites.

Add more links that connect us to our new sister site in Matipwili, TZ.

Every body’s advice and suggestion in order to come up with the best curriculum that suits our project.

I take this chance to thank everybody who participated in any way towards the achievement of our goals. We are looking forward to the coming term to accomplish the remaining part of our tasks. Yours faithfully, Simon Mwangangi

#end of term #Simon Mwangangi #Lewa Wildlife Conservancy #Ntugi Secondary School #mark battley #ntugi group #electricity

Simon's Report 33: Using Projectors

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

A new method of teaching at Ntugi Secondary has helped us cover a wider area of study in a shorter time. The projector technology, by which I prepare presentations and present them to the class using a projector has made this possible.

I had been spending a lot of time explaining concepts orally, and many students couldn’t understand - so I had to go round showing each one individually. But by using projected presentations, I am now able to explain clearly to everyone at once. For example, when I was teaching an example code from Scratch, I was able to teach programming concepts like iteration and conditional execution, and also how to debug. These were my objectives, as per the programming curriculum am designing. After the presentation, the students were able to write related codes that applied each of these concepts.

Right now, I am taking screen shots on Sugar and then using a Windows laptop and Powerpoint to connect to the projector, but this coming week I am going to try connecting my XO to the projector using a USB/VGA adapter - and experimenting with the Portfolio activity to build slideshows.

Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary

I was impressed to see how well the students had implemented and executed our 'departmental" idea at Ngarendare Secondary. When I arrived, the students quickly settled into their respective groups, and I had tutorials that guided them about what to do.

The Technical experts learning hardware and software maintenance took apart a faulty 1.5 XO and named the parts. They’d been having theory lessons on the same - about the microprocessor, logic unit - and they were finally able to see them embedded in the motherboard. They named the type of the microprocessor.

The Research department learned how to connect to the Internet and browse things of their interests. Next time, they will have an topic or objective to research about they will present their findings to the rest of the school.

The Networking group also did their part. They learned how to connect and share an Activity with the mesh network and troubleshoot any related problems. Next, they will learn how to connect to a WAP device.

At Lewa Primary we held a Science class with new group of students using collaborated chat in Speak. Now, all the teachers want it done in their classes and with their subjects! They find it very useful.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

'Let kids be brought together by their interests' is my motto. As much as possible, I try to discover the interests and talents of the kids I am working with, and help them develop in the directions they want.

At Subuiga, for instance, I held a class using the Paint Activity with the aim of inspiring those students who are very good in painting. I got five kids who will now form a group of painters. I will go on introducing new Activities each week, picking the best kids in them to lead that group.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

Lewa's CEC is now capable of offering a chance for visiting students to connect to the Internet and research on the challenging environmental questions of the day. They are exposed to ecosystems and wildlife during their game drives at Lewa and, with this experience and exploration, they end up with many questions that can only be partly answered during the drive itself.

So, afterwards, they are given a chance to browse those questions and others on the Internet. Although this exposure to online research is focused on environmental questions, it is a way to show them how the Internet can provide reliable answers to any questions of interest. They research a set of questions and then they discuss their findings with the group. Teachers accompanying them admire the method - but they also express their challenge as,unfortunately, they generally lack such resources back at their schools.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, I pitched the idea, adopted at the other schools, of combining students according to similar interest after our visit on Friday. There are now a group of painters and programmers who are eager to learn the way in each of those directions. I had a meeting with the responsible teachers that have been assigned to help in the program and we laid of strategies about how to best offer guidance to the students as they explore their interests.

My role will be just to collect the projects at the end of the week, helping them solve any difficulties they encountered and introducing new ideas. This is the time am yearning for: when the sites run themselves independently!

Post by Simon Mwangangi

#Simon Mwangangi #ntugi group #mark battley #Ntugi Secondary School #ntugi primary #judy kinya #leparua primary #Lewa Wildlife Conservancy #conservation education #speak #paint #subuiga primary #ngarendare secondary #projectors

Simon's Report 35: Using a Projector with the XO 1.5's

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

We were happy to find out that we could use an XO laptop with a projector. This will help us in handling the massive class of over 40 students that Judy handles with Ntugi Primary kids. It will be possible to move at a faster rate with this technology.

Ntugi students are working on projects on Scratch that will soon qualify them to start Pippy - and Python programming - if they present well-designed, well-coded projects. The task is to identify a project, designing it and code it correctly as per the design. I am looking forward to receive these projects.

Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary

Ngarendare students have adopted the idea of self-exploration and learning with a set objective. They are now in a position to ask pertinent questions that help them in their progress - unlike during the earlier lectures we used to give them.

Much has been achieved during the last two weeks of this type of learning as the Networking group now sets the connections for the class and the researchers are piling up their findings and improving the whole school by sharing this knowledge!

At Lewa Primary, it was the turn for the Grade Seven class to use the collaboration method of learning in their Social Studies. They find it fun to learn this way and are able to remember much of the content taught during the lesson.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

Another group of students has formed - this time specializing in typing. They wanted to know how the text books that they read are typed. We used the Write activity, and they had fun helping each other find the keyboard letters and use them in typing.

The group working with Scratch has started a project they have named Ken the Bee. It is an animation in which a bee flies to a flower, gets nectar, and then flies away.

The Painters have so far painted 4 photos to use in telling a story about a football game as a picture-illustrated story in Fototoon. They have two more to paint to have enough for the first scene of the story.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

Students from Ntumburi Secondary paid a visit to the CEC. After the heavy rain, we had to focus on the Education Center first, to at least have the roads dry before the game drive. The students had several environmental questions to research on the Internet, and that they could present later, after the game drive. The teachers were amazed to see their students on the laptops and the Internet so engaged, lively and cooperative compared to their usual ‘cold classes,’ as they called it. With the research done on the Internet, it was easier explaining concepts in then field during the game drive, as it was just an extension of the theory work. The day was very good!

Friday: Leparua Primary

The Leparua kids were working on their projects. The group working on Scratch completed the first version of their code and presented it. The Paint group has a few more photos to paint to complete a scene of a picture-illustrated story they are making. They very much enjoy doing it in group work. It’s nice progress that we have seen.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

#Simon Mwangangi #mark battley #Lewa Wildlife Conservancy #ntugi group #ntugi primary #Ntugi Secondary School #lewa primary #ngarendare secondary #subuiga primary #scratch #pippy #python #fototoon #paint #projector #write #leparua primary #Ntumburi secondary school

Simon's Report 34: Self-learning and Self-teaching

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

We witnessed students enjoying a new learning environment as English teacher Mrs Rosemary Mburugu held a class in the Computer Lab with Form Four students. We helped with the lesson preparation with the objective of enabling the students to understand how to write an email - or “electronic mail” - as per the syllabus. It helped the students by giving them hand-on skills on setting up and accessing an email account, and writing an email.

Mrs Mburugu said, “it will not just help them to do well in their exams but will also help them in the rest of their lifetime’.

The Computer Club members have adopted the self-driven philosophy we are trying to tech. They explored on Scratch by themselves, with little assistance from me, using the basics I had taught them earlier, and shared their work with the larger group at the end.

Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary

I was happy to see the ‘Departmental’ organization at Ngarendare where students are combining their efforts to perfect what they can do best. As facilitators, we simply went round the class helping out to those who were stuck on different issues - it was the best class I have ever held with the laptops!

The Research department was investigating electrolysis and made new discoveries that they were willing to share to the rest of the school. They were given a set time to do a presentation of their findings to help the rest of the students know about this interesting topic.

The Technical expert group were learning how to trouble-shoot a laptop losing Internet network access - the possibilities and their solutions in each case.

The Networking department had some new recruits who have been away from school and had chosen to join in. For the first time, I witnessed the students from Ngarendare teach others about what they learned. I left them to teach their peers about what I had earlier helped them learn.

At Lewa Primary, the Class 6 kids had their chance to interact with the XO laptops. We showed them how to turn on the computer and start an Activity. We left them to explore the Maze game and try to learn how they could play it. I was amazed to find three students playing the game without being told what to do. I lastly taught them on how to shutdown and the day was successful.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

It’s fun to see kids enjoy what they are doing - especially when done in group work. The students at Subuiga are gradually grouping themselves according to their areas of interest. The method we are using at this school is to introduce an Activity - then pick the best of the students in it and group them to collaborate, challenging them to come up with something even better.

I now have a Paint club and a club doing Scratch. I will next involve them in making Memorize games which they will be sharing with the rest of the students and will form a group of experts in this area. Once we get everybody settled we will be able to run different Activities at the same time, where we will just be facilitating learning.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

The Internet at the CEC has facilitated the learning of conservation education. It also links the kids visiting to the larger world and makes them understand the ability of the Internet to provide possible solutions to almost all problems. For many of the visiting students, it is their first time to use or interact with the computers, especially in browsing the Web.

Friday: Leparua Primary

The Leparua kids have familiarized themselves with the Activities they had chosen to work with and by next Friday they will start to work on real projects. We find our teaching so much easier now that students work on Activities of their own interest.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

#rosemary mburugu #Simon Mwangangi #leparua primary #mark battley #ntugi group #ntugi secondary #Lewa Wildlife Conservancy #conservation education centre #ngarendare secondary #lewa primary #subuiga primary #scratch #maze #paint

Simon's Report 27: Back from Tanzania and back to work!

Monday: Ntugi Secondary At Ntugi Secondary school, I was eagerly awaited by students of the Computer Club who were eager to know about my experience in Tanzania where Judy, Godfrey and I had traveled to help start another pilot OLPC project. I shared my photos with them and it was a great motivation to them that we were expanding the OLPC project in East Africa - that will give them more even chances of working with the larger international OLPC movement. Everybody from the group was determined to work hard in the hopes of, one day, having the same opportunity that Judy, Godfrey and I did. Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary I had Judy with me at Ngarendare Secondary where we resumed our activities after our trip to Tanzania. The students had missed our lessons and I was happy with the way they reported punctually to our class. I had a session of a theory class with the half of the club where we discussed computer software and its classification. I used the XO's Sugar and Gnome software as an example as a teaching aid.

Once the school gets power, we have allocated enough laptops that we will be able to engage all the Computer Club members to our practical activities and creating projects. In the afternoon, we proceeded to Lewa Primary school where we met the Lewa Primary kids ready for our lesson and introduced them to the TuxMath Activity. They sharpened their minds by playing rounds where they competed to be the best scorer and we helped them advance to ever more abstract levels of the game. Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

An unlucky day since we had a blackout at Lewa and I was not able to charge the laptops to be used at Subuiga. So, instead I spent the whole day at the Education Center cleaning the XO's and and changing the old labels on the laptops. I also re-imaged the 12 1.5 XO machines at the CEC and they all worked flawlessly.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre We had students from Ntumburi Secondary School and they had a chance to utilize the XO laptops in a collaborated Speak Activity where they discussed on the various issues related to conservation. Ephantus Mugo, the Conservation Education Coordinator at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy helped me to supervise the students and see to it that they were doing the correct thing. They had fun in this as well as they learned a lot about conservation.

Friday: Soccer Competition

On this day, all Lewa-sponsored schools had a girls soccer competition which brought all the kids from the different schools together and we spent the whole day with them at Lewa Social Center. It was but was a pleasure to meet all the schools I work with and see them in a different circumstance... I was confused as to which school I should cheer for!

Post by Simon Mwangangi

#Ntumburi secondary school #Ntumburi #Leparua Primary #Simon Mwangangi #mark battley #Ephantus #ephantus mugo #Ngarendare #ntugi secondary #ntugi group #Judy Kinya

Simon's Report 26: The Solution To Increasing Demand? Peer-To-Peer Teaching!

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Incremental development is in action at Ntugi Secondary School. They have developed diverse methods of utilizing the little Scratch concepts they've already learned. This was an eagerly anticipated reaction that has really encouraged me as it is an step forward from the challenges the students had last term’s challenge of thinking too narrowly and just mimicking the example projects.

The Computer Club students have now included the pen blocks to make drawings as the Sprite moves along the stage. In their last assignment, in which they were to make an animation whose Sprite moved to and through the three comers of the stage, they had discovered, on their own, that they only had to change the values of X and Y either from negative to positive or positive to negative to make this happen.

Tuesday: Ngarendare Secondary/Lewa Primary

Our time seems shorter now, at Ngarendare Secondary, as the anxious Computer Club members learned to word-process word with the AbiWord application in Gnome.

The plan is to have Judy with me on Tuesdays we will be able to engage the Club more efficiently. Since, for now, Ngarendare is only being served by our carry-in 'backpack' program with only 8 laptops, Judy will be handling 10 students of the Club using the XO laptops and I shall engage the rest in a theory class. The groups shall be alternating every time we handle them. This will help us engage many students with only a few laptops. Hopefully this will change in June with the arrival of new laptops, a mains power connection, and the possibility of a permanent program here.

During my time at Lewa Primary, I formed a student’s group since, previously, I had mostly been working with teachers. Judy and I will divide the club into two, where each one of us will be handling a different group working on different activities.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

We could not help but have the whole Grade 6 class at Subuiga involved in the computer learning as they highly demanded it. I had to define a way out to solve this as the class has 40 kids and I only have 8 laptops for them! The twenty kids I started with were very willing to pass on the information learnt to other kids (see Heroes Create Other Heroes) and I found this an important tool to help solve the problem.

I had the 20 student that I had already taught teach the rest of their class members as I monitored them. This will help them develop teaching skills at such an early age and help them even better master the content they've learnt. The only problem is that on any particular day, I will have to work with one half of the class first - before they teach the rest - but I will make sure each portion has a chance to be taught by me so that no group feels neglected.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At the CEC, we had students from Moi Equator Girl’s Secondary School and they had a chance to use the XO laptops. The local-area network enabled by the OLPC laptops' inbuilt Mesh network in the XO, served as a vital tool to ease the passing out of conservation information to the students as well as helping them learn typing skills. They also used the XO's to take environmental photos on their game drive that they discussed afterwards.

Friday: Leparua Primary

The progress of learning around the Scratch Activity at Leparua is amazing as kids are able to develop their own ideas from what they have already learned. I found them having already made an animation that drew a right angle and, then, a square. They presented their ideas as others tried them and this raised a competition that will encourage even more improvement.

Post by Simon Mwangangi