Ntugi Group

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

Tue, 29 May 2012 21:13:00 +0300

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

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:07:00 +0300

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

Tue, 22 May 2012 04:24:00 +0300

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

Mon, 21 May 2012 22:43:00 +0300

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

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:54:00 +0300

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.

Towards a theory of teaching Scratch

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:21:00 +0300

Scratch has been the most challenging but also the most enjoyable activity of all last term’s Sugar Activities. The kids were excited to make animations and get them running, but unable to think of and figure out different animations apart from the ones I used to teach them as samples for demo. They only mastered the samples but no ideas of how to either improve them or creating animations similar but different from the samples.

A combination of building ‘blocks’ to guide two ‘sprites’, a fox and a rabbit

The reason for this would be a suggestion that the kids did not know what the different building blocks do and how they could combine them to make their own animation.

Sugar Lab’s Scratch Activity itself has the potential to convert kids to great thinkers and programmers and we have to get a way of making this happen.

I found these two things important while learning Python: Incremental development and composition are two basic things that are vital for empowering a new programmer.

I therefore found the best way of teaching Scratch is to have lesson plans with sessions that teach the different building blocks and what they do and, for each session, provide an exercise to help the student compose the building blocks to make an animation.

Three of the types of building ‘blocks’ that can be used in combination to program the sprites’ behaviour.

The exercise would work as a kind of explanation about what the sprite should do and challenges the kids to come up with the correct arrangement of the building blocks to make the the animation work. After learning more components, they can improve their animations by doing more complex exercises starting with the basic ones.

To help me do this, I have written a tutorial that has both demos on what the different
building blocks do and exercises from basic to complex ones that will empower the kids learning Scratch with every progress they make on the tutorial.

An example is that after teaching on things like the XY grid, and building blocks like, “go to X:0 Y:0”, “glide for 1 sec to X:0Y:0”, and teaching on simple control blocks like “when space pressed”. They could have an exercise like:

Make an animation that starts from the left bottom part of the stage, glides to the top right of the stage and falls to the bottom right of the stage. (Your animation should receive an input from the keyboard to initialize it.)

When the kids are able to make such an animation, then they will be able to use the above blocks with confidence, knowing what to expect.

I found it an algorithm for teaching Scratch. More ideas and advice are welcome.

Thank you.

Simon Mwangangi

Judy's Report 4: After the Holiday

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:06:00 +0300

Friday: Leparua Primary

I reported on Friday, last week, after the holiday.

Simon and I visited Leparua where we did a review of last term’s work with Scratch: We revisited the Motion and Control blocks. On this day, we continued with Motion and we taught the kids how to glide the sprite. We also had a chance to show the pupils how to import a stage xy-grid and they were able to do it. They were able to move the mouse to a point on the grid and give the values of different points by reading the coordinate on the right side just bellow the xy-grid. Lastly, we gave them an assignment for them to complete in the coming week and the day was successful.

Post by Judy Kinya

Judy's Report 3: Leaping Lemur

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:16:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

I went to Ntugi Secondary with Simon. He taught the Computer Club and I taught the Journalism Club. We used the XO’s camera to take the photos to add to FotoToon and to add comments on in the scene and the activity was successful.

Tuesday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

In the morning, I went for a game drive with students from Ntugi Secondary together with their two teachers, Walter and Doreen. In the afternoon, the students did a written test which was set by Ephantus. After the test, I set up the OLPC laptops for the students and we introduced them to Leaping Lemur a game developed by Earth Rangers, an environmental organization based in Canada that is working with Lewa to promote conservation education.

Our Toronto team got it working on the XO so we can use it at the CEC.. The students from Ntugi Secondary were able to play the game and enjoyed it. The winners were awarded prizes and everything was successful.

Wednesday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi Secondary, I taught a group of students how to take photos with the XO using the Record Activity. We succeeded and we were able to take pictures with thirteen laptops.

Thursday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi we added the already taken photos on the XO’s into Fototoon to make speech-balloons for the second scene the students were preparing. Some students completed their speech-balloons and saved their activity to be read by the rest, while others didn’t made it by the end of the lesson and I left them to work on it.

Friday: Leparua Primary

I went to Leparua with Simon. We taught the pupils how to make variable score with Scratch. They imported two sprites, a gravity marble and cat. We taught the students to control them such that when the cat sprite touches the marble sprite, they all stop and change the score by one. And the lesson was successful

Post by Judy Kinya

Simon's Report 23: Another Week With the Visitors From UCC

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:40:00 +0300

Monday: Leparua Primary

For the next week we still had the visiting UCC group who were assisting in teaching, so we changed our daily schedule around a bit.

We went to Leparua Primary school and had two sessions. One was a class on Scratch where they learned to control the Sprite with the control keys. The second was a lesson up the hill where we could connect to Safaricom via the Cradlepoint and we had students learn about the Internet and, even thought we had some troubles connecting that day, the students were amazed of the many things they could learn by connecting.

Tuesday: Ntugi Secondary

We had the UCC group at Ntugi Secondary and they assisted with the teaching of Scratch. Because of the additional teachers, the Computer Club had an opportunity to learn much in a less time. I was able to get new members trained with the opportunity because there were enough personnel to train the new and the old members of the group at the same time. The students enjoyed it much.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

We went to Subuiga Primary school and we had a session with the kids where they learned to use the Tuxmath Activity, a really fun math game where you have to shoot down simple arithmetic problems by solving them and scoring points

At first, the students only wanted to play the simple levels, so they could get high scores, but with assistance and monitoring they advanced to more advanced levels.

Thursday: Ntugi Secondary

We had the UCC group at Ntugi help the students who are preparing to present their projects for the District Science Congress by helping them research on the Internet.

The XO machines, in combination with Internet access, were very useful for this purpose, giving the students an opportunity for wide research and also bringing confidence to their presentations.

Friday: Leparua Primary

The UCC group had left and we were back on schedule with our visit to Leparua. The students had learned much and we gave them a challenge to figure out how they could create a game that would involve falling objects and they could have another sprite swallowing the falling objects controlled by the controller keys, score as you made that sprite swallow any object. They started working on it and they will finalise it on the coming Friday.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

Judy's Report 2: Beginning Work On My Own As An Intern

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:39:00 +0300

Monday: Leparua Primary

We went at Leparua with Simon, the boys from UCC and their teacher Jeff. We had a session in the morning with the pupils and their teacher Doris. We taught them how to import two sprites and use sensing, sound and control blocs to instruct the sprites such that when the first sprite touches the second, they all stop and produce a sound.

In the afternoon we went up the hill. Our objective was to help the pupils to use the Internet in research but the machines failed to connect and therefore we didn’t achieve our objective.

Tuesday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi Secondary we helped the students research their Science Congress projects. I later met with the Journalism Club to discuss the types of photos they should take for the scenes in their story.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

We went to Subuiga with the UCC boys and their two teachers, Jeff and Craig. In the afternoon, Simon and I taught the taught the Subuiga pupils the Typing Turtle Activity and, later, the UCC boys were in the field and played a football match with Subuiga boys.

Thursday: Ntugi Secondary/Lewa Conservation Education Centre

In the morning we were at Ntugi Secondary, with the UCC group, helping the Science Congress student groups to type their write-ups, but in the afternoon I went to the CEC to set up the XO’s for visiting students from Ntumburi Secondary and their teacher Mr Gikunda.

Friday: Leparua Primary

We went at Leparua with Simon and we taught the kids how to make a falling sprite ball in the Scratch Activity.

Post by Judy Kinya

Simon's Report 22: Another Good Luck Monday With A Visit From UCC

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:19:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Monday must be a good day for me since last week we had the visit from the BBC, and this Monday I had privilege to host a visiting group of UCC students. The UCC students came, in part, to help in support of Judy and my teaching, and they also helped by carrying over 12 new OLPC XO 1.5’s from our Toronto Ntugi Group office.

Those 12 new XO’s will replace the set at the CEC, and the XO 1.0’s they replace will be re-purposed at Leparua Primary (8 XO’s) and to create a ‘backpack kit’ for Judy, our new intern (4 XO’s).

This day we started at Ntugi, and we taught the students Scratch. Since the group of students form UCC was so large, we were able to cover a lot with the Ntugi kids in a very short time. The students learned so fast and, after just a 3-and-a-quarter hour lesson, they could make an animation by themselves.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

For now, Ngare Ndare is a ‘backpack’ site, meaning that Judy and I visit once a week and bring 8 XOs in our backpacks, however, soon the mains power (the electricity grid) will eb connected to the school and then we can establish a proper pilot just as we did at Leparua Primary in September 2011, and at Ntugi Secondary in March 2009. For now though, Ngare Ndare has to be patient while we shuttle charged laptops in and out.

With the crew from UCC, we landed at Ngare Ndare Secondary. In total, we were carrying in 16 laptops - and 12 extra batteries we had borrowed from Lewa’s CEC to make sure we didn’t run out of power.

We had a group of 25 NN students and we used 12 XOs, three students sharing one machine. We taught several Activities in the two sessions we had The objective was to have them know how to use one Activity at a time and know what the different activities were. The objective was realized.The students did not realize they had late lunch after the first lesson as they didn’t want to end the lesson.

Wednesday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

We normally go to Subuiga Primary school on Wednesdays, but they had gone to a games competition so we could not work with them. We spent the whole day at the CEC flashing the new machines.

Thursday: Subuiga Primary

This was the day for the Subuiga kids to have a chance to learn how to use the XO laptop. We held a class with a group of 25 students and they typed a letter to the Head teacher, using the Write Activity, to express their appreciation for sponsoring them for the district games competition. They learned Write so fast.

Friday: Leparua Primary

Went to Leparua, a very remote area in the Maasai Il Ngwesi territory, with the crew from UCC, and we met with the Computer Club. They had learned Scratch before and we taught them to control two Sprites and create a wild chase game.

It was fun and they learned so fast. It was here that we ended the week’s activities.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

Simon's Report 21: The BCC Comes to Interview Us!

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:56:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

This was a great day for me. I was to host a group from the BBC who were coming to Ntugi to interview us about our program and how we use the OLPC laptops. The program, Horizons, is on BBC International and broadcasts to. Their goal is “ to see how innovation is going to solve the most pressing needs of the world and its people.”

This Yahoo article explains:

Horizons has reached over 360 million households in 122 countries and, after airing just the first half of Season One, Horizons is the second highest rated show in BBC World News, outperforming the long-running “World Business Report” and second only to “World Challenge” a 7- year veteran program.

I would have a chance to tell the OLPC story to the whole of the world! I was a bit anxious and wasn’t sure this could be true as i Godfrey, Judy and other students waited to receive the group. But, it was true, and soon they arrived and we drove back to school. The interviews began and i was able to present the development of the project in the school and talk about the expanding program in the Lewa area.

We had Judy teaching the Journalism Club on Fototoon, and Jackline, the Head of the Computer Club, teaching the Computer Club on Typing Turtle. Luckily enough, there was a group of science club using the Vernier USB data sensors to carry out an experiment with the XOs.

The BBC group was amazed of the ability of the XO and mostly for the fact that it works on such low power, can be used in the bright Kenyan light outdoor, and that it is dust-proof and has such a long life compared to any other computer. They were amazed that we could get the Internet at school, especially because we are in such a remote area. The BBC host was even able to use the XO to talk using Skype with their colleagues making another show segment in China.

The BBC crew followed Jackline to her home where they saw how she taught her Mum and little brother at home on how to use a computer using the XO laptop that she carries home. It was such a nice day. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures cause we were so busy shooting the interviews! They say the episode will be on BBC International sometime around November 10th, 2012. We are all waiting.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

As usual, we went to Ngare Ndare Secondary school. We met with the teachers to review what we had been learning since we expect 12 new OLPC laptops next week, and a visiting group of students from UCC who will help in teaching. The NN teachers will also be the part of the teaching team. I proceeded to Lewa Primary where the teachers used the XO,s to compile and analyze students marks.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

We went to Subuiga and had the teachers make arrangement in anticipatation of the UCC group that was to come. We revised what we would teach the students and the teachers planned to help us assist the students on the following week.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

We had students from Karimba Primary school and they had a chance to interact with the XO laptops. After the game drive, they used them to answer questions asked to them by Ephantus and they learnt the keyboard so fast. They had a problem with the first question but improved as they procceeded. We usually link the laptops together in a wireless mesh network so that the question typed by Ephantus on his XO gets instantly to every computer in the room. When the students type the answers, Ephantus can see every response and have them for concideration.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua Primary we had kids continue to work with Scratch. They learned how to create a new Sprite, have it dance and involve sound. and dancing movements Up and Down and Forward and Backwards.

The kids learned so fast and we were impressed. I had Judy with me and she assisted in the teaching and helped us cover more since she showed each group as i explained.

Its a nice school with smart kids.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

Judy's Report 1: The BBC Films Our OLPC Project

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:40:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Godfrey, Simon, four students from Ntugi Secondary and I went to the tarmac to wait for the BBC group who were coming to film us for a documentary show. They arrived there at 11.00 am and we took them down the road to Ntugi Secondary. Simon and Ntugi’s Principal, Phineas Ithinji, were interviewed.

Later, filming was done in the class as the students were working in the Fototoon Activity to create the speech-bubbles on the photos which they had already taken with the XOs. Then, we went to Jackline’s home to interview her before the BBC group had to drive back to Embu.

Tuesday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

We went for a game drive with students from Muraga Technical Secondary. After the game drive opened the Chat Activity on all the laptops, Ephantus explained to the students what they were required to do, and he sent them the questions based on the field study and they were able to answer him by typing the answers so everyone could see them, and see who had remembered.

Wednesday: Ntugi Secondary

A Ntugi I taught the students who were unable to use the speech-balloon icons properly in FotoToon and they were able to comment on the already taken photos by the end of that session.

Thursday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi, we discussed with the students about the photos we should take for the next scene of the already created story, and what sizes would be appropriate for each panel (Close, Medium or Long Shots).

Friday: Leparua Primary

We went at Leparua with Simon, and we taught the pupils how to make a sprite jump and move on the X/Y-axis in the Scratch Activity using the motion and control blocks.

Post by Judy Kinya

Simon's Report 20: Our New Intern, Judy Kinya

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:13:00 +0300

Monday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

I was privileged to have Judy Kinya, Ntugi Group’s new intern, working with me today.

It was our scheduled day to be at Ntugi Secondary school, but they had taken a mid-term break, so it was a good opportunity to have her prepare for the week’s activities, so we worked at the Conservation Education Center in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.

Judy turned up on time as we had a lot to do for the day. Since Judy’s initial task at Ntugi Secondary will be to work with journalism club to help them develop a comic picture illustrated story with the Fototoon Activity, we chose to begin with this to ensure that she would be comfortable with it when she gives her first lesson.

For her first week at Ntugi, we chose to target the new students who did not belong to the computer club, and to introduce the activity to them. We had a couple of things to do.

First was to help students learn to use Sugar’s Record Activity to take different types of pictures i.e., Long Shot , Medium Shot andClose Up, as well as know how and when to use different speech balloons (e.g. whisper, word bubble, exclamation bubble and scenario box).

She also learnt that a scene could have as many as twenty photos, introduced by one scenario text box. Together we wrote a sample story of an incidence at school and she will use it to teach by having the students design and shoot pictures from that story.

She learnt this first, and then had to start her first class on the very next day!

Tuesday: Ntugi Secondary

We went to Ntugi Secondary where Judy had the story we had written on a USB a flash disk. I helped her load the file to the machines she was to use and, during her first class, she had the students read the story and decide what pictures they could come up with to match the action described. They fast came up with 20 pictures for the first scene. She was doing very well during her first day of teaching and I helped her where necessary.

Wednesday: Ntugi Secondary

We were in Ntugi again on Wednesday where we did our second lesson with the club. This was the day to learn about different types of pictures and how to take them. We had the students practice on this and did very well. We had half of the group making very good shots and of the required size.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

We had students from Chogoria Secondary school and they had a chance to use the XOs at the center. Ephantus used the Speak activity to type questions that he shared in to all the students as a way of evaluating how much they could remember from the trip. Students were expected to type back the answers and send them to Ephantus and this served to find out what messages they are taking away f rom their visit to Lewa - and back to their school; it also introduced them to the keyboard and to typing introducing them to typing.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua primary school the kids are doing very well with Scratch. I realized that the students had not known how to save the earlier projects they had worked on and this turned out to be a lesson for the day.

At the end of the day, the pupils leant on how to save their projects in the journal and how to rewind on the earlier steps.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

SIMON’S REPORT 19: Dancing Sprites at Leparua

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:50:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Scratch is now part of the learning process at Ntugi. The division of the computer club into small groups that work on different products has enhanced competition, especially with the promise that only the best products will be exported and shared. The computer lab, like any other lab in the school, is busy with students creating and experimenting with their animation projects. Despite the fact that the school schedule is a bit tight, the students manage to keep up by carrying the laptops to their homes where they can create time to work on the assignments. The only challenge is power as they must charge the computers at school and, once the battery dies at their homes, they cannot recharge.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

Ngarendare Secondary and Lewa Primary have a promising future of development of the OLPC project.

Lewa Primary teachers learn to master the OLPC XO 1.0’s

This is shown by the interest created by the teachers on the XO. Once they have mastered the laptops their ability and enthusiasm can be easily transmitted to the kids.

The Lewa Primary teachers work in groups to help one another - just as the students do!

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

Subuiga has taken a step to prepare for the coming visitors from UCC who are to assist in developing the OLPC project. With the assistance of Lucy, the teacher I work with each week, Subuiga has formed a Group of 25 students eager to learn how to use the XO’s . Lucy is doing well in the learning of the operation of the laptop and she will also help teach with both me and the UCC students.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At the CEC we had nursery school kids from JPP and we engaged them in a TuxMath activity at a level where they typed the digits that appeared on the screen and it was a lot of fun, as they struggled getting the digits on the keyboard in time! The first game was challenging but but by the second they had minimal difficulties. The small kids learned so fast!

Friday: Leparua

We continued learning on Scratch. The kids were able to engage sound with a dancing sprite and then use the green flag to start the script.

Next we are going to learn how to come up with a new script. I am eagerly waiting for the next week to carry on with the project.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

SIMON’S REPORT 18: The Itch to Scratch

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:27:00 +0300

Our OLPC project is taking a new look every day. With every new understanding of the ability of the OLPC XO’s, I am trying to make developments in the projects that will make them more appealing and satisfying to the demands of teaching various subjects at our partner institutions.

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi, the students are working on a Scratch project. Scratch is an animation Activity that I recently introduced to the Computer Club . Being a high school, I saw it good if they started Scratch at the more abstract level of learning about the flow charts used in programming in order to make them able to arrange the building blocks to achieve a specific objective. They were able to learn this and for demo, I had them draw a flow chart that guides a person repairing a non-functioning bulb. This was to help them learn how to use the symbols properly. They will then work on a flow chart that will directly be used to create a program with Scratch.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

At Ngare Ndare we are working with the teachers to develop a syllabus that integrates the computer technology into their teaching. We are focusing on two subjects (Chemistry and Physics) and we have found many areas that XO’s could assist in teaching. This will be very important since we are hoping to launch a new pilot at Ngare Ndare once they have a power supply; they are currently being served by the 4 XO’s I carry in my backpack to the school. Once they have the laptops on site, and know how to use them, it will be easy to integrate the subjects.

At Lewa Primary school, the teachers were learning to use the word processing application to prepare exams for the students. They are preparing such that when they get power and machines in the school, they will be able to process evaluation tests in school.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

At Subuiga , we are working on a Scratch project that can lead the way to creativity by both the teachers and students in creating projects of their preference. We worked on the flow chart and next time we will be arranging the blocks as per the flow charts to create a program.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

The CEC at Lewa is another institution that is by all means trying to maximize the usage of the machines in its functioning. Ephantus has presented teaching materials that I am trying to adapt to Scratch. This week, we had students from Rugusu Primary School who had a chance to use the machines in evaluating their learning during the day and learn basic computer operation.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, introduced the Scratch activity to the students for the first time. I wanted to explain how a computer animation could be used as a teaching tool. To do this, I started by explaining how a person would do some activities after he/she is given some instructions, in person, in the classroom. We had one person being offered instructions to do different things and they performed those tasks as instructed. The next step was now to change the presentation from the classroom to the laptop screen and to show the students that typed commands as a script in Scratch could make an animated person, called a Sprite in Scratch, follow instructions also.

These instructions are given by the programming building blocks in Scratch.

The students were able to move the Sprite on the screen using the motion blocks and control blocks to make a dancing sprite. We will by the next time involve sound in the sprite and use bubbles to have the script communicate. The kids learned very fast, and they are in Grade 7!

Am looking forward towards next week. Thanks to all support given to me.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

SIMON’S REPORT 17: 'Scratching' the Surface

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:25:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

The past week was so successful with the introduction of the Scratch Activity to some of the institutions for the first time. One of the schools where I introduced it was Ntugi Secondary, where I had made a demo project just to show them how it could work. The project was a kind of a tutorial presentation that can be used in teaching the names of different things in the environment.

It had a script of an imported, pre-drawn ‘costume’ or sprite of a teacher teaching in front of a background of a blackboard.

As the Scratch animation runs, different items appear on the screen and the teacher says their names as they appear.

After this section is complete, the teacher then evaluates the user/player.

She asks the player the names of the pictures as they appear once more.

and the

The person using the laptop has to type in the correct name for the objects and hit ‘enter’.

The program only allows for the correct answer for one to score points.

I haven’t yet figured what to do if someone answers incorrectly!

They were so eager to know the way to create such a project like the one I had demonstrated… but the main problem for them was to have them put the programming instructions into the script in the order in which the which they should be executed. They were a bit impatient and din’t really understand the sequencing and cause that they need to in order to make the Sprite behave as they want!

To solve this, I plan on having a class on flow charts where I can have the students make a flow chart of the instructions first before entering them into the laptop from the Scratch menu of instructions.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

At Ngare Ndare, the teachers were occupied, but I involved students in a shared Speak activity where they discussed through a voice chat some questions in chemistry. The challenge here again was the typing speed but with few lessons on Typing Turtle, I think this will be solved.

At Lewa Primary the teachers were learning on how to word process word on the XO, and Gnome operating system. They hope that once the school gets power they will be typing exams for the students. They didn’t complete the document and they saved to the Gnome desktop to continue with it on next Wednesday.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

I also introduced Scratch to the Subuiga teachers and we are working for the same project I have talked of earlier the basis for tutorials to help in teaching. We were able, together with the teachers involved, to come up with the required pictures and next step is to teach them to control the movement of these in Scratch.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At the CEC, we had a visit from Chege, the Chief Conservation Officer at Lewa and he was happy to see the hand given by the XO’s in the teaching of conservation education. We had had students from Githongo Boys School. With the wireless ability of the XO’s, I connected the machines to the same mesh network and Ephantus, the Head of Conservation Education at Lewa asked questions through a shared chat, and students discussed the questions among themselves though the laptop’s Chat Activity and at last he gave the correct answers. The students had fun as they learned.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, I met with teachers where we discussed the welfare of the project in the school and they promised to give full support and get involved in applying the applications in teaching.

I am looking forward towards next week!

Post by Simon Mwangangi

SIMON’S REPORT 16: No lack of enthusiasm...but we need more laptops!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:35:00 +0300

Following the fieldwork I carried out for the last week, here is a report on the performance and progress of the pilot projects around Lewa at the institutions targeted by the Ntugi group.

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

At Ntugi, the spirit of collaboration and creativity in project development has been shown by the performance of the Computer Club. The Club is growing larger every day - 35 students now - and there is much more contact time between the students and the OLPC XO’s.

Last week, I introduced the club to the Sugar operating system’s ability to share activities between several students and now it is being well practiced and peer editing is improving the students typing speed, grammar. It is helping more in sharing of ideas, especially the write activity. It’s a forward step in development.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

I carry four XO laptops in a backpack to these two schools. I use two int he morning at one school, and then two in the afternoon at the other. This is because there is no power yet at the schools, and I have to conserve two with full batteries for the afternoon school.

With only two laptops to use at Ngare Ndare Secondary and Lewa Primary, my main teaching is limited to the teachers’ PD. We are helping them expand their knowledge on the abilities of the XO’s, and on computer and Internet literacy, and with this basement of knowledge, they can develop projects to suit their preferences in teaching once they get enough laptops for the students. They are also happy to learn computer skills like typing and computer operation. In a way this is good because the teachers will be ready for the students who learn so fast at a young age that it can be hard for teachers if they are not given sufficient and advance training.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

I am at Subuiga all day so I can deploy allfour laptops in my portable backpack kit. Unlike Ngare Ndare and Lewa Primary, at Subuiga at least a small group of students can be included in the program. I am working with the administration to set a regular time for the students. With the whole day there I should be able to handle both the teachers and the students group.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

As there is constant development at the new Conservation Education Centre, one of the development targeted is the computer lab, and the development of fun environmental and conservation-related activities. I am using the Scratch Activity to develop some designed games that will help in teaching the students visiting Lewa different conservation ideas. Apart from games, there will also be presentations by use of the laptops. But, last Thursday we had a black out and were not able to do anything with the laptops.

Friday: Leparua Primary

Leparua is a wondeful school full of ambitious students and very willing to participate in new projects. Leparua students have adapted to the new way of collaboration learning where they are using the shared Write Activity in asking and answering each other questions and competing to be the best group. This is promising to improve their learning in school since every group wants to always win by asking the toughest questions and answering many questions. The teachers are also becoming interested in this since every teacher wants his/her subjects discussed for better results.

Am looking forward towards next week.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

SIMON’S REPORT 15: The Power of Computer clubs

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:38:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

Ntugi is a center that is fully equipped and has the potential to transform the learning at school to one that is fully OLPC aided. Efforts are therefore required to see this working efficiently and it has to be everyone’s desire. I am trying to increase the contact time with the students and the laptops. The good and promising thing is that it has become a fact to everyone that there is an aiding tool in the XO in every area of study. The start point has been to start projects that are assistive, student friendly and joyful to work at. The Memorize and Fototoon Activities that have been used to develop projects have ignited the spirit of creativity and, with the introduction of Scratch, TuxMath and Typing Turtle among others, they will help students move from analog to another level of abstraction…the digital world. The students have already completed a test project on creating a picture illustrated story in Fototoon and a Memorize game about the names of the lab equipment which is now loaded onto all 40 laptops in the school.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

I am still introducing the OLPC XO laptops to Ngare Ndare and Lewa schools and showing them the different things that the laptop can do. It is a slow process because I am carrying in only four XO laptops in my backback, and there is yet to be power at these two schools. And so, I use 2 laptops at Ngare Ndare, and 2 at Lewa. That gives me a couple of hours of use until the batteries expire. I introduced The Turtle Art Activity to teachers at Ngare Ndare and they were able to design different patterns using it. I proceeded to Lewa and I showed them how to browse the web.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

With the whole day at Subuiga I found it good to start a club there that I can be working with when the teachers are busy. I have formed up a Computer Club, just like we have at Ntugi and Leparua, and its activities will commence on the coming Wednesday. It has functioned as an incentive and motivation to the students as the best students are the ones offered the first chance. Every student is now struggling to get the chance. Ntugi Group’s long term goal is for the club members from the primary schools to graduate to the secondary school Computer Club, and for the best of those students to become Ntugi Group Interns like I have, teaching computer literacy back to their previous schools and beyond that. After that, the Interns can become teaching assistants and OLPC site supervisors like Godfrey is at Nutgi...and then on to certified teachers!

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

On Thursday we had students from Nkubu High School and were the first school visiting the CEC to be involved in using the laptops in the field.

They used the Distance Activity to take measurements between trees and find out the average spacing between them.

They also used the Record Activity to take photos of the insects found in the vegetation and recorded sounds of the animals and birds .They found it very enjoyable. The last activity was done indoor which was playing the Memorize activity, a quiz about the wild animals they had seen on their game drive.

Friday: Leparua Primary

At Leparua, the Computer Club is doing very well with the sign-in/sign-out idea of letting the students be independent with the XO’s while still monitoring the laptops and keeping them safe and secure. I introduced the wireless ‘mesh’ sharing of activities to the students and they asked and answered questions through a shared Write Activity - and the group that got the most answers right was the winner. They now have this activity that they can use on their own time and it improves both their typing speed and word processing skills apart from class work.

Post by Simon Mwangangi

SIMON’S REPORT 14: Regional Collaboration

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0300

Monday: Ntugi Secondary

The projects have already started working and integrating the OLPC/Sugar activities in the curriculum.I introduced the Fototoon Activity which will help in improving creativity and storytelling ability of the students, as well as increasing written and media literacy.

The students were ready to use this capability of the XO’s in creating interesting stories which demonstrates the school culture to the incoming Form Ones (Grade 9’s). I left them to create a comic which I will review next week.

Tuesday: Ngare Ndare Secondary/Lewa Primary

Walter, a chemistry teacher from Ntugi Secondary, traveled with me to introduce the Vernier LabQuest activity on the XO and how it works with USB sensors that Ntugi uses in the lab for experiments.

Faith, the teacher at Ngare Ndare is also a chemistry teacher, like Walter, and has great interest and also knowledge in ICT4E.

She found it very helpful in teaching sciences in the school. Mr Muthamia the Head Teacher showed his gratitude and said he would plan a visit to Ntugi in exchange. This kind of regional and district cooperation is one of the long term goals of Ntugi Group’s program. I then proceeded to Lewa primary where I taught the teachers how to create a memorize game to suit different occasions like teaching the opposite of words and synonyms.

Wednesday: Subuiga Primary

At Subuiga there was a meeting that involved the teachers and we were not able to do anything.

Thursday: Lewa Conservation Education Centre

At the CECe we had the last group from Githongo, but the room we use computers in was under construction and we were not able to access it.

Friday: Leparua Primary

I went to Leparua to finish up on the Fototoon project.They had taken nice photos demonstrating the life there and it features a day at Leparua and what happens there.

The students were happy with their creativity and the support of the community was encouraging. The Computer Club is now led by Moses, one of the students who is provided with a sign-in/sign-out book which he uses to monitor the laptop loans. He has divided the club into groups of three and each group has a leader who is assigned a laptop for the group and makes sure that its in order before its returned to Moses who inspects it before returning it to teacher Doris.This ensures total security of the laptops.

Post by Simon Mwangangi