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: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

Our time seems shorter now, at Ngare Ndare 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, Ngare Ndare 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

Judy’s Report 6: Our Program Expands To Our Seventh Site: Ntugi Primary School

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi Secondary, I had a section with the Journalism Club.  I am still teaching them how to take photos using the XO, so we went into the field where they were able to take photos of different things and we named and saved them in the journal to be used for the next lesson in the Fototoon Activity.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At Lewa, we hosted students from Sweetwaters Secondary School . They went for a game drive and, in the afternoon, came to the CEC where they sat for a  test which was to be done through typing. We introduced the student to theXO’s, connected 12 laptops to each other via the Mesh Network, and we  showed them how to use the to the Chat Activity to see the questions and send their answers to Ephantus. The students were able to type the answers and the lesson was successful.

Wednesday: Ntugi Secondary

I was at Ntugi Secondary where I started a new program with student which I hope will help them cover the syllabus and to revise for their exams. I had Form Two (Grade 10) students, and I connected the OLPC laptops to the Mesh and used the Chat Activity to send them geography questions. They were able to type the answers back to me and I feel the lesson was successful.

Thursday: Ntugi Primary

We started a new program today - and a new site for the OLPC’s. Ntugi Primary only is a few hundred meters from Ntugi Secondary but, up till now, those primary students have not had access to the XO laptops. Today, the Class 7 students, and their teacher Mrs. Kimonye, started coming for their weekly visit to the Ntugi Secondary Computer Lab. I introduced them to laptops and to some of the Sugar Activities and we began with some of the basic  Activities like Record and Maze among others.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, I continued l teaching the Turtle Art Activity.  We revised last week’s work and I marked the homework I had given them. Then, I taught them how to change the screen colour and how to draw a leaf and a star still using Turtle Art, Pen and Colour commands.

Post by Judy Kinya

Simon’s Report 25: Paying It Forward With Computer Clubs

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Paying forward is the main concept that is powering the development of the Computer Club at Ntugi Secondary. The structure of the club makes this possible as it creates a path that information flows from top to the bottom. The Club, with 25 students in total, is divided into 5 groups of 5 students and each group has its own group leader. The group leader has the responsibility of attending lessons on Mondays in which I take them through new work and they pass the information to the rest of the club members during the week.

We work this way because I only have a short time with them, but they have got a lot of time with themselves. This will enable the Club to develop faster as it is easier to work with 5 group leaders than with 25 students at a time.

This process will also gradually convert them into teachers themselves, and help develop their ability to pass on information as well as promoting collaboration. All the assignments  are done by every member of the club and it helps me evaluate their progress as well as monitoring them. Group leaders who do not work efficiently are replaced.  The long term goal for the group leaders is to become interns themselves, once they graduate, and to do the work that Judy and I are currently doing.

Am testing this pay-it-forward teaching structure with the introduction of the Scratch Activity and, having taught them on initializing an animation by the control keys, motion blocks, the XY grid concept , and reading XY coordinates at random by pointing the cursor on the stage, I left them an assignment to help them develop an idea from the things introduced this week.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

The enthusiasm of students at Ngare Ndare is encouraging. There is already a Computer Club like that of Ntugi Secondary and they are very motivated and competitive - they claim to work hard to defeat the ones at Ntugi Secondary!  With the addition of Judy as Intern, and the addition of 4 more laptops in her ‘backpack’ kit (for a total of 8 laptops in both of ours), we are now able to reach the students in a better way than before - although there is a great need for more XO’s. At least, now, 3 students can now share one laptop and, before the April break, the UCC group helped me as I introduced a couple of new Activities to them. On this visit, the NN Computer Club students divided themselves into groups and elected their leader and with the remaining time I taught them switching between Sugar and Gnome and sugar.

The Lewa Engineer whom I spoke to promised that they will have mains power installed within a month’s time, and that will make a permanent pilot ehre possible.

Lewa Primary School had gone for games and I had no chance to meet them. The plan there is to now, having already trained the teachers,  to engage students who will form a club for the school.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

The Grade 6 students from Subuiga Primary had what they called a ‘lucky day’ after being appointed as the class to form the Computer Club for the school. They are very good in following instructions easily, are great explorers and the most important skill I saw in them is the willingness to teach other members of the club any concept they had learnt - even before they were instructed to. I think they are self driven and motivated. I was able to cover a lot with them especially considering that it was really  the first day they were introduced to the XO laptops.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At the CEC we had students from Nanyuki Primary school. We had an outdoor activity with them and had a chance to take the photos of the environment and comment on them using the XO laptop.

If the centre had a Blog that linked it with the schools supported by Lewa that have laptops, and are participating in the Ntugi Group OLPC program,  it could be a great chance to share discuss and solve many environmental factors through the blog. I think this will be possible when other schools get laptops this June. 

 Friday: Leparua Primary

The Leparua Primary students are very happy now that they have 16 laptops (from the original set of 8) and it makes it possible to work on two activities at a time. I continued to teach Scratch and Judy, our new intern, led another class on Turtle Art. I had left the class with some assignments and they made their presentations and I was able to see where they had weaknesses. They easily forgot to include the “-” in a negative value and so the Sprite could go in a different position. By talking about and understanding their mistakes, they learnt how to test each block at a time before adding the next. It was fun.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

Judy’s Report 5: Introducing Turtle Art

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi Secondary we reviewed last term’s work on the Fototoon Activity. The students were able to remember all the icons,use them appropriately, take the photos of different sizes and create speek balloons on the already taken photos. And everything was successful.

Tuesday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At the CEC, we had kids from Tharagwene Primary. They went for game drive in the morning and in the afternoon they were back at the CEC, doing a wildlife test using the OLPC laptops. I set for them the Speak Activity then introduced them to the XO.  I taught them how to use the keyboard to answer the questions and the lesson was successful.

Wednesday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

Today, we had kids from Premise Primary. I introduced the kids to the computer by showing them how to use the keyboard then I launched Gnome so they could use AbiWord and type something. The kids were able to type the names some of the animals they saw at Lewa during the game drive.

Thursday: Ntugi Secondary

I was at Ntugi Secondary flashing the machines.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, I introduced the pupils to a new activity, Turtle Art. I taught them how to draw using the commands blocks given.

They were able to use the Turtle, Pen and the Pen Colour commands to draw objects like circles, squares, and flower.

Post by Judy Kinya

Simon’s Report 24: The Second Term Begins As Heroes Create Other Heroes

The eagerly awaited Second Term commenced, giving an opportunity to utilize the new resources at hand. Ntugi Group’s and Lewa’s OLPC will have a new look this term with increases in both OLPC and human resources including a new intern, Judy Kinya, who will facilitate the project and have it develop at a faster rate, 12 1.5 XO laptops at the Lewa Conservation Education Centre (to upgrade from the older XO 1.0’s,  and the addition of 8 more XO 1.0’s at Leparua Primary, bringing their totaling to 16 laptops.

A 3.5 year old student using the XO OLPC laptops at Lewa’s Conservation Education Centre

Our objective this term is to see that schools that have a longer experience with the OLPC laptops, like Ntugi Secondary that is in its third year of the program, become independent in their learning and management of the program, even in our absence, by encouraging students to teach other students, having Heroes create other Heroes, and by perfecting their use of Activities like Scratch to help students to get creative in developing animations of their own and thereby inspiring their friends and teachers.

Sharing with a friend at the CEC

The last term’s mistakes and challenges have greatly offered a chance to develop new ideas of running the program this term.

The week started by many of the schools settling in after resuming their classes after the April Holiday and this meant that the schools won’t be fully settled until next week, but at least we made it to Leparua. 

At Leparua i got my Scratch tutorial working where I taught the use and purpose of motion blocks and XY grid to the kids and had them do an exercise on getting the sprite move on the stage to different positions and I found the results amazing. The students realized why they had to give a certain value of X and Y on the building blocks to move the sprite - something they had not realized before. Next week, we will have a way of advancing and adapting the first animation.