Week 2 Tanzania [2013-08-30]
What a magnificent week in Musoma for Neal and Reneal IEO! Installation of the IT lab at Paroma Secondary School went very smoothly, with the help of the IT teacher and technician. Neal was able to send daily e-mails with status reports, and I’ll include extracts below to give an idea of “a day in the life” when he is in his element.
Monday
There were a few computers already in the lab at Paroma, but Neal was mostly starting from scratch. A wonderful bonus was working with six student “computer specialists”, 3 boys and 3 girls.
Most had no experience with computers, a couple said they could turn them on and off. I spent some time talking to them telling them about what they could do and learn. I gave Jade [our outstanding computer student specialist at Compostela National High School] as a motivating example. We started with a short training session in turning off the computer which included teaching basic use of the mouse. Some of the computers needed to be moved to clear some tables for later test use so they learned how to plug and unplug cables, etc. and had a physical hands-on with the computer and monitor. We moved on to using the System Rescue CD to run the memory check on the HPs. That gave the students the experience of starting the computer with a CD, seeing a text display to choose the action, and use the cursor control key, and then see the memory text and looking for the number of runs and % done to confirm check ok and complete. They also had to reconnect the monitor, keyboard, etc. on the computers that they had moved. They did pretty well and all of the computers passed the check.
By the end of the day Monday…
When we returned from lunch, the technician and his assistant finished the cabling, I did more checking and testing the server, and the IT teacher put out some of the laptops. About 6:30 the cabling was complete and we started connecting and turning on the computers. All came up right away including some of the HPs that were plugged in and had the network connection. It was great to see 11 login screens at the same time.
Tuesday
Back to reality a bit, after the fast progress on Monday. This was a little bit more like a typical day!
I spent a bit of time getting the printer/scanner/fax to work. At first it didn't work; the USB cable I thought was there wasn't. Then I put the cable in what I thought was the right hole but turned out not to be. On and on with some problems. Felt like the days of yore. Then I deleted all entries, turned the printer off and disconnected it, then reconnected it and turned it on. After about 3 seconds a notice window popped up saying that the printer had been found and was being installed and 10 seconds later everything was done and the printer and scanner worked without problem. Well, almost… there was only a magenta cartridge that still had ink. At least they did have some paper.
Wednesday
The morning brought a few final software tweaks and a school tour:
The laptops were all working and with a little bit of work I got some trivial changes to the student sign-in program for naming conventions (Form, Level, etc.) and some other minor stuff cleaned up. I had a full tour of the school, both secondary and primary. Some students, mostly orphans, of all ages live on the school grounds in a dormitory for girls and a dormitory for boys. Each of those is split for primary and secondary students. There is a school bus for those that live at home but are too far away to walk. Went into some classrooms and got the welcomes and even salutes in a fifth grade class. All students are in uniform. There are about 350 primary and 320 secondary students with 15 teachers for secondary so it is a pretty good ratio.
With hardware and software set-up mostly completed, the focus shifted to training…
About 11 the student computer specialists came in and we began their training. I showed them all of the cabling and laptop power bricks and showed them how critical each part was. Then I had them clean the room in pairs of two, one holding up the laptop bricks, power strips, etc. while the other swept under that. Then we started with Gcompris [a wonderful Open Source educational suite] to learn mouse and typing. That went pretty well. The students came back at 3 for the next session. I used LibreOffice to show how to use a program menu selection, type in a file, use save as and save, resize and move a window, and looking for and opening files from the file manager. It was a big jump from Gcompris but they worked hard and all seemed to learn how to do it. I was really happy they asked me questions when they were working. They seem a pretty dedicated bunch. Lastly I showed them how to use Firefox.
Thursday
More training today…
The IT teacher made the accounts for all of the teachers. That is pretty quick and simple now and he is now completely comfortable making accounts. Over the day and especially late afternoon we went through quite a bit of system administration stuff, and I feel very good about his knowledge. I put a copy of the sys admin manual in a "Help" folder I created in the sys admin account. It was really a help to go through the manual to show some parts that he already knew. He was happy to have it. [The manual was developed by one of the Reneal IEO board members, using 40 hours of service time provided by her employer VMware.]
The students came in after lunch. They went to the computers and began to work on the topics from yesterday. No playing around. As the teachers came wandering in they gave up their computers without a complaint and then, when the teachers began their work the students did a really good job of helping them. Very happy with that.
Friday
The last day brought many diverse activities…
It was another long day. I started by putting software on that I tested last night to use the thumb drive to connect to the internet. It worked! I even had the VPN link back to home working and logged into our computer just for the fun of it. If they get a Vodacom modem and plug it in the school should have internet!
About 11 the IT teacher asked if I could teach a class of first year (equivalent 8th grade) students, so in came about 30 students. I gave a short lesson about how the computers worked and how they should be careful of wires, etc. I emphasized how they should help each other. They saw this quickly when they tried to log on. Only a few were successful in typing the account name and password so I sent those who were to help log in other students. The IT teacher said that they knew some about a mouse but very little of the keyboard. I started all of them with the Gcompris typing lesson and they went for about an hour with that. There were 2 or 3 students for each computer so they swapped off. They really seemed to enjoy it and worked at it. Only a few had migrated to other games by the time the class was finished. It was good to see all of them trying hard.
Once they left I went back to the server to add one final touch that I had tested on my laptop server. The teacher that took me around the school and showed me the library had asked if there was any kind of software for a library (book checkout, etc.). Last night I looked and found a package that looked really good and was supposed to be simple to use. It also wasn't hard to install because we already have the database and webserver running. So now they have an online library management program directly in the browser. He was quite happy.
It was kind of sad to say goodbye to the computer specialist students. A couple of them came in mid-afternoon to see if they were needed and I asked them to get the others. After my thanks and goodbye I went to each one to shake their hand and they thanked me. Then one of the students asked if we could have a prayer and said a very nice prayer of thanks, good wishes, and their hopes.
Of course, there had to be one more little problem to fix…
About 3, seven or eight teachers came in for a lesson. Only one had computer experience so I started with the presentation about the computer parts and how to use them. Then I showed the diagram of the computer network setup while the IT teacher explained how everything worked in Swahili. He really gets it now and will do a good job teaching. I gave a demo about the start menu, window movement, and other introductory things, then opened Firefox and showed them how to get to your videos and demoed the Khan Academy stuff. The English version did not work. Then they started with the Gcompris mouse and keyboard exercises. Once they had started and the IT teacher was helping them I worked with the one teacher who had experience. This was more like some of the classes you have taught before with LibreOffice, personal account, and file handling.
It was about 5 when they left. Then I started trying to find out the problem with the Khan Academy. I went through many things starting with the firewall and the startup for the Khan server. Then I tried to find out why a critical file that started several of my programs including all of the student account stuff and the Khan server was not running. At long last about 7 I found that it was the (of course) USB modem startup program. It wasn't hard to fix so it didn't take a lot longer before had it fixed.
Neal heads back to Arusha Saturday, but his e-mail summary says it all:
It was another long day but I've finished up here. Pretty much all of the equipment is working well, the IT teacher is really good and motivated, there is a good technician, the facility is good, the student specialists now seem really good, and the other students also seem eager. Most of the teachers have only a little experience with computers, but some of them will use it and learn.