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DONE! [2015-11-08]

Well, it’s almost certainly premature to declare completion here in Tanzania but finishing the system administration training yesterday for the computer teachers here in Arusha certainly felt like hitting an important finish line.   This was the first time we’ve brought all of the computer teachers together in Arusha, and it was a good experience.  We were so appreciative of Enyoito Secondary School for hosting the event and for all of the computer teachers for spending their Saturday morning with us!  We had lots of technical questions from the group of 25 during Neal’s presentations.  Our trusted colleague and friend David Nyangaka from the Arusha District Council office had a chance to discuss with them the factors leading to low usage of the computer labs to date and how to improve that metric.

Thursday was a long but gratifying day.  We accompanied three of our “students” from Neal’s class on building a Reneal server (Prosper Jorram and Enock Israel from Habari Node Limited and Monica John from Arusha Node Marie) as they installed the Reneal system in the library at Spiritan Missionary Seminary.  There were a few glitches, as usual, but they did a GREAT job!  We were so excited that the four students at Spiritan charged to take care of the server were also able to attend the sys admin class on Saturday.

Friday we attended a meeting organized by Arusha Node Marie, a philanthropic group here in Arusha with a long history of involvement in computer education.  They currently provide free internet to ten schools and nine organizations in the Arusha area.  The meeting brought together several groups working in computer education in Tanzania, including Reneal IEO, to look for opportunities for collaboration.  Hardware/software solutions vary, although NComputing seems to be a popular choice – the client-server approach has so many advantages over a traditional stand-alone workstation approach in the context of an educational institution.  Computer teachers just have so little time for maintenance tasks, given their IT teaching load and (in many cases) teaching loads in other subject areas on top of that.  The client-server arrangement greatly reduces the maintenance required.

The chief obstacle though is not really hardware or software or educational content, although those are certainly challenging in their own right – it is figuring out how to equip the teachers to use this technology efficiently and effectively in the classroom, given the constraints of the school schedule and the national curriculum.  A subset of the attendees of Friday’s meeting will follow up to develop recommendations for collaboration opportunities.

Today Neal and I are heading back to UAACC.  Neal wants to get a copy of the server image there, but mostly it is just to visit with Pete and Mama C and learn more about their wonderful work there.  Tomorrow – a trip with David to the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, fulfilling one of Neal’s long-held dreams!