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 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 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

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

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

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