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

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

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

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

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