Use of tablets for education content access by school children Mwanza district, Tanzania 2020 - Fingo Powerbank Outsourced Experimentations - By ...

Fingo Powerbank Outsourced Experimentations

     Use of tablets for education content
     access by school children
     Mwanza district, Tanzania 2020
     By Nyakato Bible College/FELM

Introduction:

    Backgroud and problem

    In Tanzania nowadays almost all the children have
    possibility to go to school. Annual national examination
    cover the whole educational structure but,
    • all the schools and school children are not in the same
      level concerning equipment and access to the digital
      educational sources
    • there are no computers in those school which are in the
      rural area and sometimes there is even no electricity
    • But there are good sources of learning produced and
      accepted by government and they should be reachable
      for every school child.

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Introduction:

    Aim of the experiment

    1. To test how well the network runs in two
       schools which are located in the rural area.
    2. Test how the school children take the
       possibility to learn through digital
       equipments and how they learn to use
       good sources in the net
    3. How small solar chargers work together
       with tablets in hard circumstances

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Numbers etc.

•       We chose two schools, Mwang’halanga and
        Busangumugu secondary schools
•       Targetting form 4 students who had their national
        exam in the end of November
•       Tablets were 11 together
•       There was a questionnaire for the students in
        each tablet prepared with Google Forms. Only
        students from Ukerewe filled the form and we got
        93 responce

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Mwang’halanga Secondary School

    •   74 students, all participated learning sessions
    •   5 tablets for the whole group
    •   Questionnaire, no answers

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Ukerewe, Busangumugu Secondary School

     •   126 students, all participated learning sessions
     •   6 tablets for the whole group
     •   Questionnaire we got 93 answers

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Questionnaire for the students
     •   Only 4 short questions
              •   Are you male or femail?
              •   Have you used computer or tablet before?
              •   Did this experiment help you?
              •   Any other comments, free word.

     •   Used Google Forms
     •   Male students 60,2 %, femail 39,8 %
     •   77,4 % had used computer/tablet before and 22,6 not
     •   Experiment helped you (1 = not at all, 5 = a lot)

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What is new in this experimentation
     •   School children in the rural areas for the first time got
         approach to the digital teaching materials
     •   Students got possibility and guidance to use tablets
         and find knowledge from the web
     •   Solar chargers showed to be very practical both as
         charghing and also to give light in the evenings
     •   Nyakato Bible College is a regional college for the
         North-Eastern Tanzania training personnel for ELCT
         (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania). It trains
         theologians in certificate and diploma levels (together
         with Iringa University), evangelists and parish workers
     •   This experiment expanded colleges’ training to the
         secondary schools. It put together alumnis working on
         the field, the expertise of those college students who
         already had diploma in education and the teachers and
         management of the schools.
     •   The church youth workers did this educational
         approach in schools, Christians and Muslims and
         others together like in the Tanzanian daily life normally
         happens
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Challenges & changes 1
First the target was Covid-19
     •   train religious leaders, teachers and other community leaders on how to protect themselves
         from transmission and equip
     •   provide a shared platform for questions, discussion, concerns in the community and
         functional local solutions
     •   The need of using distance learning has increased due to pandemic and the equality gap we
         want to address

     • Government announced, covid-19 doesn’t exist any more
        • Had to change into education only
Tablets
     • Prices high in Tanzania compared to e.g. Finland
     • We decided to buy all the equipments from Finland
     • Felm personnel was evaquated in March, got permission to
       return in the end of September
     • Got 12 tablets, covers, screen protection, solar chargers

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Challenges & changes 2
Presidential and governments election 28th October 2020
      • Atmosphere around the election was very sensitive and
        unsettled
      • Alumnis couldn’t travel with the tablets to the villages
         • Took only some old test papers with
         • Tablets were transported later with the college students
Connections
      • To register one sim card you need to use your id
      • Each person may have only 5 sim cards together.
         • Bought two routers, one for each school
      • While training the college students the internet connection
        was down due to the elections
         • Our three Dicksons were amazing and proactive

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Challenges & changes 3
• Number of the tablets
   • Only few tablets for the whole class
      • Printed material also
• Technical skills
      • Two alumnis needed training, one had used
        tablet and computer the other not
          • We arranged IT teacher who was in contact
            always when needed
• Protocol
   • To do this kind of experiment in the
      governments school you need to get
      permission from many different places
       • Local contacts made this all possible
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Lessons learned

     • Need to be flexible and prepared to change
     the original plan and find new target
     • Need to have good contact and cooperation
     with the local people to understand:
         • Political situation and its’ affect
         • To know what is politically appropriate
         • Weather. Rain season makes things
            more complicated.
     •   Paper is always paper!

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Results and success
     •   200 secondary students got possibility to make
         preparations for the national exam using online materials
         and also old test papers
     •   Network runs quite well almost everywhere if you use the
         right operator. The local people know the best producer.
     •   Solar chargers are really practical in charging remotes but
         also to give light.
     •   More than 75 % of those who answered the questionnaire
         thought that this helped them very much or much
     What to achieve?
     •   We are waiting for the results of the national exams if there will
         appear anything. The students told this helped them.
     Short storie to highlight
     •   Solar chargers were practical also because of the torch
         (picture)
                                                                              Solar chargers give light to the classroom.

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Comments from the secondary school students
                       Naomba hii program iendelee / I want this program to be continued
                                 I love all who attend at busangumugu secondary school
                                                          Yes good
                                                    Asanteni / Thank you
                             Mimi naomba mazoezi yaendelee / I want to continue training
                                     Yamesaidia yaendelee / This has helped to go on
                                           Yamesaidia sana / This has helped a lot
                           Napenda mazoezi haya yaendelee / I want to continue this training
                      Nimefurahishwa na hii program iendelee / I am happy to continue this program
                                Asante. Sana kwa kunisaidia / Thanks a lot for helping me
      Mafunzo haya nimeyapenda Sana naomba yaendelee daima. / This exercise which I love so much I want to continue
                                                   We like this thank you
                                            Hasanteni wageni / Thank you guests
                                      Nawatakia kazi njema / I wish you a good work
        Tunashukuru kwa msaada wenu kwani inatusaidia sana / We thank you for your help because it helps us a lot
                             Naomba mafunzo Aya yaendelee / I hope this to be continued

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Principles for Digital Development

     Understand the Existing Ecosystem
         • Covers, solar chargers, together with the local youth workers, connection
             with the school administration, connection to regional government
     Design for Scale
         • Plan: simple, flexible and modular to make it easy to change
         • Technology choices – testing solar
     Be Data Driven
         • Data collected via Google Forms questionnaire
         • Tried to find open virus protection
         • Device tracking for the IT teacher
     Use Open Standards, Open Data, Open Source, and Open Innovation
         • All the teaching material was from open sources

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Feasibility for scaling

     Tablets will in the use of Nyakato Bible College

     •   Some of the students need to upgrade their secondary school
         studies
     •   Will buy licences to study online (https://www.shuledirect.co.tz/)
         (https://darasaonline.com/)
     •   Also alumnis need/want to upgrade studies
     •   Great opportunity and now we will have the tool to help with
     •   Have started to make plans to have open short courses and
         use these platforms mentioned before

                                                                              Tablets, covers and chargers

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”Asante sana kwa kunisaidia”
     ”Thanks a lot for helping me”
           Thank you Fingo! Asante sana Fingo!

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