Kenya's Pocket PC Education Test Run

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/4727617.stm' target='_blank'>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programm...ine/4727617.stm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Since the Kenyan government introduced free primary school education two years ago, the resulting influx of kids has meant that resources are spread as thinly as ever... However, in Class Five, things are just a little bit different. Fifty-four 11-year-old students are willing guinea pigs in an extraordinary experiment aimed at using technology to deliver education across the continent. In the Eduvision pilot project, textbooks are out, customised Pocket PCs, referred to as e-slates, are very much in. They are Wi-Fi enabled and run on licence-free open source software to keep costs down."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050731-Kenya.jpg" /><br /><br />BBC News has a great article on a new Kenyan Pocket PC pilot designed to improve education for a select group of kids in the local primary school at Mbita Point. It's always nice seeing our favourite gadgets improve the teaching and learning experience for those who value it the most. Definitely worth a read! :)

[dMores]

wow. that's really neat.
those 11-year-olds get to use gadgets most 11-year-olds in other parts of the world can't :)

yes, yes, i know, 1st world kids have gameboys, nintendos, tvs etc.
but i really think this is a great idea.
i sure hope it helps these kids and permits them to grow up to become scientists, teachers, etc.

[shawnc]

Great story and very deserving of front-page status. Thanx for posting Darius.

[rhelwig]

Another reason to go to VGA as a minimum screen size!

The company I work for (PLATO Learning - www.plato.com ) has lots of courseware that ought to work on a PDA, but it is almost all designed for 640x480 as a minimum. It would probably take millions of dollars to redesign it for a smaller screen - not worth it.

[Duncan]

Before we get carried away - note that this projects has faced a lot of very justified criticism from within Kenya. The article plays it down slightly - it seems to be missing the comments from the Kenyan Education misnister that they keep being targetted by well meaning but impractical test schemes that don't take into account the practicalities of technology based solutions for people with little access to power or basic technological resources.

I'm sure their hearts are in the right place - but I'm afraid it's the wrong scheme in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[pine]

Such project is exactly what makes western world looks good on paper but bears no practical benefit to these who really need help. these kids need money to stay in school, not super fancy toys to show they are using technologies. using linux to save the cost??? how about the hardware. does any one know these ipaqs or whatever might be the cost of their education for probably one year? would you know if the money one spends on buying these gadget would allow more children go to school? it is like trying new expensive nutrition receipt on the people who don't even have enough bread to live on. what they need is not a super delicious bread, but more bread.

[shawnc]

Before we get carried away - note that this projects has faced a lot of very justified criticism from within Kenya. The article plays it down slightly - it seems to be missing the comments from the Kenyan Education misnister that they keep being targetted by well meaning but impractical test schemes that don't take into account the practicalities of technology based solutions for people with little access to power or basic technological resources.

I'm sure their hearts are in the right place - but I'm afraid it's the wrong scheme in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Actually Duncan I kind of thought of this prior to my post. I also have a problem with granting this kind of privilege to such a small number of kids when most schools in Kenya don't even have electricity. But for me, the bottom line is that we seem to ignore the dark continents/countries when giving aid, assistance, and even sympathy. Anything that reverses that pattern is a positive in my eyes.

[Paragon]

Geeee....wizzzz...What are you guys saying? That because they live in a country that has poverty they should not be allowed to have the latest technology.....Why should we be allowed to have it when WE have poverty in our own countries. I think we need to keep our bleed hearts in proper working order.

Look at those kids. They don't have flys landing on their faces. They don't look like they have extended bellies. Well no worse than mine. They are well to do kids. Maybe they will become well educated, and bring about positive changes to their country in the future.....Or we could see they have no opportunities and keep them downtrodden like many others in their country....Ok, enough preaching from me. ;)

Dave

[Duncan]

Geeee....wizzzz...What are you guys saying? That because they live in a country that has poverty they should not be allowed to have the latest technology.....Why should we be allowed to have it when WE have poverty in our own countries. I think we need to keep our bleed hearts in proper working order.

Look at those kids. They don't have flys landing on their faces. They don't look like they have extended bellies. Well no worse than mine. They are well to do kids. Maybe they will become well educated, and bring about positive changes to their country in the future.....Or we could see they have no opportunities and keep them downtrodden like many others in their country....Ok, enough preaching from me. ;)

Dave

No. That is not what I said. I didn't even remotely make a point anything like that.

What I actually said is - the project has come under criticism from within Kenya itself - from both the people in charge of education there, and from charities on the ground. This is nothing to do with being 'allowed' to have technolgy - it is everything to do with targetting resources well.

You are right - these particular children are not starving to death. They are however poor and lack basic communications and access to electricity. What they need are up-to-date quality textbooks - not technology that is impractical for their needs.

All this technology does is allow some technology providers to feel good. Let's work on ensuring they have access to to electricity, phones, school buildings (have you seen what passes for schools in Kenya?), effective educated teachers, access to internet and e-mail. Then we can work on providing educations through PDAs.

This is nothing to do with bleeding hearts - don't be so fatuous - it is based on the hard realities of need in developing nations. You want them to become educated and bring about those positive changes? Don't give them technology that is virtually useless to them - give them stuff they can use. Or do we expect them to keep their PDAs charged with bicycle pumps?

FTR - I would love to see the devloped nations put the funding into giving devleopeing nations the kick-start they desperately need (investment in basic infrastructure etc.) that would make a project like this worthwhile. Sadly what the Kenyans and others keep getting instead is groups who start up idiotic projects like this, in advance of them being remotely practical, and think they are doing some good.

[Paragon]

Don't give them technology that is virtually useless to them - give them stuff they can use. Or do we expect them to keep their PDAs charged with bicycle pumps?


Ah, Duncan. If you read the article, my friend, you will see that not only do they have electricity in Kenya, thay also have WiFi in their classroom....Dang, I wish my kids had WiFi at school! ;)

[Duncan]

Don't give them technology that is virtually useless to them - give them stuff they can use. Or do we expect them to keep their PDAs charged with bicycle pumps?


Ah, Duncan. If you read the article, my friend, you will see that not only do they have electricity in Kenya, thay also have WiFi in their classroom....Dang, I wish my kids had WiFi at school! ;)

Dave - read the article again yourself. Better still - let me fill you in on this project (I've spent time in Kenya and have got to know a few people teaching out there and before I fell ill I was even looking at doing some teaching work out there for a friend who is now a headteacher at a small village school not too far from Mbita Point - as such I have been following this and other projects since long before the BBC found it newsworthy).

The school is a specially built one on a reseach campus - with a great deal of funding from technology companies in the US and Europe. The school is unique for its area (and extremely rare for the country) in having access to electricity. The school has WiFi only because the campus does. Even in Kenya there are some places with access to electricity and technology - the area in which the village of Mbita is located was only relatively recently connected to the national grid - largely because of being in the vicinity of the nearby centre. The students at this school are benefiting from the chance of their location. It benefits around 50 students only. The project is being run as part of a feasibility study - but what is the point?

This particular project is a time-limited one with 18 months of funding and no guarantees of further funding. Eduvision hope that a presentation at a special conference (this year I think) will lead to the necessary funding. What they aren't being realistic about is that the funding needed for just a partial roll out will dwarf the total Kenyan budget for rolling out universal primary education.

It can't be run out to other schools because:

a) No other school in the area - and very few in the country at large - have access to electricity.

b) Very few homes have access to electricity.

c) WiFi, or even internet, access is even rarer.

So your glib: 'not only do they have electricity in Kenya, thay also have WiFi in their classroom' misses the point by a country mile. This one small group of children, in a privileged school, belonging to privileged parents, have access to electricity and WiFi.

The vast majority do not - and will not for years to come. Seriously - did you really imagine that Kenya's schools were that well off for electricity and WiFi???

Don't take my word for it though - try the words of a teacher at this very privileged school:"There are too many drawbacks," said Robert Odero, a teacher at the school.

"One is the lack of electric power in most of our schools, and since the machine needs constant recharging for it to be effectively used this would affect the users as well as the teachers...."

Or read - in the same article - what Kenya's Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technology has to say.

Eduvison are dreamers. They may say they believe it can be rolled out across the country - but they are curiously silent as to just how these devices will be charged, connected and maintained. Note also - the article doesn't say how much just this pilot project has cost (it hasn't been cheap). Nor does it mention how much flak they've had from charities on the ground in Kenya working to make a real difference. Nor does it mention that the kids in these trials are one who have already had access to computers and IT - unlike the majority of their countryfolk.

So - in a nutshell - vast amounts of resources have been pumped in a limited trial for 50 lucky kids in an excpetionally resourced school. Resources that, if spent on good old-fashioned textbooks and teachers and spread out amongst other less fortunate schools, could have achieved real tangible long-term good.

Lest you think I'm against technology being made available to help schools in developing nations - in Kenya alone there is great work being done in providing basic computers and the portable generators to power them (one or two desktop PCs, used sparingly, can be powered with help and funding). Resources such as TVs and videos - powered again by small portable generators - are also being slowly introduced. The Kenyan government is working on plans to make electricty available to more schools - but the timetable is to have *some* schools so enabed by 2010 at the earliest - and only with help from outside.

It is just that pointless wasteful projects such as the Eduvision one anger me. They are great for making people in first world countries, such as us, go 'ah - isn't it great' - but look at it more closely and you see that at best it is a waste and at worst an actual 'bad thing'.

Hell - some funding to support the complete roll out of the primary school program itself is desperately needed - not to mention the equally desperate need to provided secondary level education.

[Paragon]

Duncan, if you have spent time there you know infinitely more than I do about the country. I happily concede to your knowledge. :)

Dave

[Duncan]

Duncan, if you have spent time there you know infinitely more than I do about the country. I happily concede to your knowledge. :)

Dave

I hope it didn't come across as me tying to brow beat you - it's just that education is my passion - and I've long been involved in initiatives to get rid of the educational divide. So wasteful projects like this getting publicity just pushes all the wrong buttons...!

[dMores]

but isn't the fact that they're trying new ways to end the education troubles worth something?
what if this project does show some improvements, and slowly, more and more schools get adapted, families can save money by using digital schoolbooks and one by one, there will be more schools with this e-slate technology popping up around the country.

what if wifi is not the best way to go, couldn't they adapt the system to send a CD with updated textbooks to those schools, sync the pdas, and use e-slate the way it was intended?

it's not about wifi, it's about going around the problem of outdated schoolbooks. and those schools you mentioned that have one or two computers powered by portable powergenerators could sync and charge those pdas easily.

i think it's worth trying. sure, you could use the funds for X more books or Y more teachers, but that won't change anything in the long run.
if this project turns out to be successful, it could change not only the way schools are supplied with learning material in kenya, but it could be put to use all over the planet.

[Duncan]

but isn't the fact that they're trying new ways to end the education troubles worth something?

Trying new ways - fine. Trying to run before they can walk - not so fine. You make it sound like I'm advocating doing nothing - instead I just want the sane sensible things to be done - what is practical now, instead of what may be practical ten years from now.

what if this project does show some improvements, and slowly, more and more schools get adapted, families can save money by using digital schoolbooks and one by one, there will be more schools with this e-slate technology popping up around the country.

It's too slow. The same money could mean real achievment now - not a decade or more in the future. I don't think yoiu are taking unto account how hard simply providing basic primary education in the first place is. When there aren't enough teachers and not enough proper classrooms - pushing technological solutions that would phase a rich first world country is not the path to go down.

what if wifi is not the best way to go, couldn't they adapt the system to send a CD with updated textbooks to those schools, sync the pdas, and use e-slate the way it was intended?

Seriously - putting in all that effort, and cost, when the basics of primary education are barely being met and the the vast majority have never even seen a computer - the logistics are impossible - and the funding doesn't exist.

it's not about wifi, it's about going around the problem of outdated schoolbooks. and those schools you mentioned that have one or two computers powered by portable powergenerators could sync and charge those pdas easily.

No, really no. They can barely keep the basics technology they have going - those that even have access to that. I think you overestimate how much power those few schools have access to and greatly underestimate the cost.

i think it's worth trying. sure, you could use the funds for X more books or Y more teachers, but that won't change anything in the long run.

It can and is. By investing in books and teachers you are providing a secure and quick solution to existing problems. It is the difference between supplying resources for a majority now and supplying high tech resources for a minority eventually.

if this project turns out to be successful, it could change not only the way schools are supplied with learning material in kenya, but it could be put to use all over the planet.

I can't emphasise this enough - Kenya is only just attempting universal primary education now. That is something that our nations have enjoyed for a century. Attempting to impose a high-tech solution that they are simply not ready for (remember - a majority have zero IT experience, zero access to electricity and poor education) and that no first-world nation, with all our resources, is capable of pulling off - that is just daft (indeed - I know of at least one US and one UK school where the pilot introduction of PDAs as learning resources was less than successful. A pipe dream at best.

First - let's help Kenya achieve it's universal primary education.

Next - let's help fund the building of adequate facilities for the same, and work to ensure they have planty of cheap and easily usable educational materials - so that every Kenyan child has access to good textbooks, good teachers and good schools no matter how poor or how ill-resourced their communities are.

Then - let's help to introduce technology approximating what we have in the first world - i.e. desktop computers - gradually as the necessary resources become more and more available.

In time, a short time if we do it right, Kenya, and countries like Kenya, will catch up with us sufficiently that they will be ready to adopt personal tech in schools about the time - or not long after - we start to do it properly in first world countries (in the UK I would hazrd a guess it will be at least 10 years before tablets are used as normal school equipment instead of text books).

[stevelam]

Dang, I wish my kids had WiFi at school! ;)

We do but strangly no-one will tell me the SSID, funny that :lol:

[shawnc]

Geeee....wizzzz...What are you guys saying? That because they live in a country that has poverty they should not be allowed to have the latest technology.....Why should we be allowed to have it when WE have poverty in our own countries. I think we need to keep our bleed hearts in proper working order.

Look at those kids. They don't have flys landing on their faces. They don't look like they have extended bellies. Well no worse than mine. They are well to do kids. Maybe they will become well educated, and bring about positive changes to their country in the future.....Or we could see they have no opportunities and keep them downtrodden like many others in their country....Ok, enough preaching from me. ;)

Dave

Ah Dave, this post is filled with so many uninformed comments that I don't know where to begin. It's not a matter of bleeding hearts (and the flies comment was actually offensive). Not to beleabor the point because Duncan makes it much better than I could, but take a moment, get off of your high-horse, and visit Kenya. Then maybe you will understand why someone may question the wisdon of directing a large amount of resources (by Kenyan standards) that will benefilt such a small proportion of the population, when the majority of students DO NOT enjoy basic necessities such as current textbooks and electricity in their schools.

[Paragon]

I hope it didn't come across as me tying to brow beat you -

Not at all Duncan. Not as much as I did in my post. :)

[Phillip Dyson]

i think it's worth trying. sure, you could use the funds for X more books or Y more teachers, but that won't change anything in the long run.


Basic education always makes a difference in the long run. Reading, writing, and Arithmatic (to borrow an acronym) will do wonders for any society that didn't have it.

I definitely agree with Duncan. Lets give education a foothold first. Then we work on making it "state of the art".

If Kenya had the resources to put momentum behind this technology and roll out an infrastructure in a timely manner then I would say that I'm all for it.


If the my experience in the US public school system is any indication, the idea of spending massive amounts of money on a small priveleged group will only fuel segregation and animosity. This can only hurt the children.
Lets get every child we can to sea level before we start lifting any of them up on pedestals.

[Jason Dunn]

Discussions like this are always interesting to me. I don't used to know much about the topic, but lately I've been learning more because my wife and I have started working with a refugee from Sudan who came to Canada three years ago. His mother and father are still in Sudan, along with his many brothers - he has one brother here. It's been fascinating to talk to him, because like most people in Western society I know almost nothing of what life is really like over there. He's just graduated from high school and will be attending University with plans on entering the field of International Relations and the goal of returning to Sudan to help his countrymen.

The one thing I wonder about in this instance is which does the greater long-term good:

1) Taking money and spreading it out among many, upping their standard of living a little

or

2) Taking money and radically altering the standard of living for a smaller group of people

Option #1 helps more people, but doesn't help them much. Option #2 creates a more focused opportunity, one that likely results in leaders being created...I think in this instance I lean more towards option #2, because developing nations need leaders with vision - there's only so much outsiders can do. Looking at the history of most of the nations in Africa, it seems most of the approaches haven't worked very well thus far.

But I don't know much about this, other than the stories I've heard have sickened me and made me much more aware of how blessed I am. :(

[dMores]

i think it's worth trying. sure, you could use the funds for X more books or Y more teachers, but that won't change anything in the long run.


i think i put this the wrong way. what i meant to say was that with the FUNDS MADE AVAILABLE FOR THIS PROJECT, you couldn't change a lot in kenya if this money was invested in books and teachers.

but of course basic education is vital for a country. no doubt about that, sojourner

(i don't think i've ever quoted myself in a forum before :) )

[Phillip Dyson]

I think in this instance I lean more towards option #2, because developing nations need leaders with vision - there's only so much outsiders can do. Looking at the history of most of the nations in Africa, it seems most of the approaches haven't worked very well thus far.


I absolutely agree with you about the need for leadership in any situation. I think as an African-American I have a tendancy to get nervous when I think about the idea of focusing on a small group while the greater masses are suffering.

I believe that the right direction is to provide a sufficient level playing field for all. Then provide arenas for advanced oppurtunities. This way you atleast give everyone the chance to seek those oppurtunities out if they have the ambition and determination to do so.