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

Judy’s Report 4: After the Holiday

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

SIMON’S REPORT 19: Dancing Sprites at Leparua

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 17: ‘Scratching’ the Surface

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!

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