What may be working elsewhere may not necessarily work in Kenya. Its a good template to build on 

See this comment on challenges from someone who has worked with OLPC ...

I think the “Harmonization Jubilee Manifesto” Is a new Era for the Kenya Education, Providing a solar laptop to every child will have so many potential in enhancing the education system in Kenya. The implementation, deployment and scalability of the program will become more easy through the support and facilitation from the government,…

Nonetheless, from my long time experience, In order for the program to be successful, the government will have to face so many challenges; elaborate a clear plan including incorporate “One laptop Per child Initiative” in the Kenyan curriculum and work closely with institutions like the Ministry of Education and the Kenya Institute of Education “KIE” to elaborate the right content that will be relevant to kids in the Kenyan environment.

The government should also think to work closely with NGO’s and research institutions to support, collect data and measure the impacts of this new technology in Kenya so as to provide feedback to contributors program “OLPC Foundation” which will allow to build the right hardware with components that are useful for our kids,

The tech community, developers and programmers who create apps for education need to be part of the initiatives in testing, creating and adapting their software “Activities” for this particular hardware



On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Simon Wainaina <swainaina@gmail.com> wrote:

OLPC initiative already works. I don't see what the hullabaloo is all about.

http://goo.gl/lg3Ll

On Apr 16, 2013 9:06 AM, "Martin Gicheru" <martin@techweez.com> wrote:
IMO, the partners working with KIE can be futuristic, with learning software developed for a specific level, say class one with very visual graphical learning material and custom work for others, remember the idea in my story revolves around connected servers and laptops, not carry-homes. So they are left in a secured room or container, teacher trained for specific level for best delivery or learning.

This is supposed to change the learning process, not just expose them to computers, in class 6, these students will be learning GHC from interactive maps and diagrams, seeing the real ovaries during a science class, and since the software will be harmonized by KIE, streamed to the servers for material refresh, this will be very relevant. Ofcourse the initial process will be induction of both teachers and students.

Problems posed:
Will teachers demand more pay for the computers involvement?
Will NOFBI be used to have the schools access internet?
Will Kenyans allow this to be rolled out to a lab/classroom thing as opposed to a carry-home laptop?

Regards,

Martin Gicheru | Founder and Editor at Techweez

Tel:254721906171 | Website:http://www.techweez.com | Skype ID: martingicheru | Twitter ID:martingicheru | Gplus: gplus.to/martingicheru



On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 8:10 AM, John Karanja <mauxdatabase@gmail.com> wrote:
Yeah i am also settling on some kind of reader with input device as well as access to an app store for relevant content...


On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 3:17 PM, Martin Chiteri <martin.chiteri@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't mean to troll but I think kids in classes 1, 2 and 3 should be given an Abaccus so that they learn how to count. You can hardly get a cooler *first* computing equipment.

I also think the people suggesting an e-book reader for subsequent ages are on point with mini-laptops coming in much later.

Martin.

On Apr 14, 2013 2:35 PM, "Barrack Otieno" <otieno.barrack@gmail.com> wrote:
The reality on the ground is quite different from the hype, we had a laptop per child initiative in Kamiti primary school, i think it was spearheaded by Intel, i am not sure how successfull this scheme and we might need to check how prepared the teacher and the parents are before deploying the project fullscale. Kenya is not Nairobi and Nairobi is not Kenya , we have to think of Informal schools in Samburu, Modogashe and the far flung places that are really marginalised, i have been to an informal school in Samburu and it was similar in build to our cattle Boma in shags, i am picturing a child with a laptop sitting on the ground without  a roof how long will this device survive? which leads me to the next question of maintenance, how will this be handled and after how long does the government replace the laptops?, it is one thing to have computers in schools or to give out computers to kids and it is another thing to use computers to facilitate education, the later takes a deliberate and intentional strategy which we need to see.

Best Regards


On Sun, Apr 14, 2013 at 10:24 AM, SpaceKenya.com <info@spacekenya.com> wrote:

simply brilliant approach... not sure on relying on MNO's to supply data network.

Government is investing in its own LTE network.

I think starting at class one is really important for maximizing long term benefits of cognitive adoption of technology aided learning...much like learning a language.

The security issue abounds though insurance in addition to biometric locking could be a possible solution...

On Apr 13, 2013 3:39 PM, "Laban Mwangi" <lmwangi@gmail.com> wrote:
Having thought more about this...
1. We can give ebook readers to standard 3 kids. (Standard 1 might be a bit too young for ebook readers)
 + Parents no longer think of buying books from bookshops.
 + Govt can easily buy books for every single child in the country; bulk buy from publishers and wireless push to e-readers.
 + Kids have a vast array of books to read.
 + Reading culture becomes ingrained at an early age.
 + You can push copyleft books (Classics such as: Around the world in 80 days to wikibooks to creative common books)
 + Eink readers can last for weeks on a single charge.
 + Eink readers are relative cheap. [1]

2. At around standard 5, start priming kids for computer basics + programming basics
3. At around standard 6. Push netbooks to every single child.
 + Mature age for computer use.
 + Kids at this age probably have an idea about what they want to do. Providing them with a laptop and Internet use widens their view.
 + Probably give every child a monthly data bundle (say 50mb) that can be purchased from the govt through telcos.
 + Collate and preload netbooks with videos from khan academy et al.

Some statistics:
- KCPE candidates[2]: ~800k
- The likely figure of standard one students is probably around 1 million.
- The minimalist ebook reader is going to cost you 90USD [3]. Ballpark figure for cost of e-readers to students starting with standard 3, 4, 5  is going to be 3 * 90 * 1e6 = 270 million dollars
- Depending on the build quality, you can get cheap 10inch netbooks for ~100 USD [4]. Ballpark figures for pushing netbooks to standard 6, 7, 8 is 3 * 100 * 1e6 = 300 million dollars.

- Pushing a netbook to every standard 6 student and a eink reader to every standard 3 student is going to cost the government 40 Billion shillings (0.5 billion USD). Remember that you have students in standard 7 & 8 who are yet to receive netbooks and students in 4,5,6,7,8 w/out kindles. Also remember that you have not factored high school/university students.

So how do we do this?
1. Economies of scale for such an order would significantly lower the prices by 10-30%.
2. Require that any purchased device be assembled in Kenya. Making at least 2 million devices per year can jumpstart an electronics manufacturing segment.  As an aside: I believe that aircraft manufacture frequently uses this model. Place an order of X and get the tail manufacturing, Y orders and you get fuselage..
3. Provide tax incentives for SMT companies that operate in Kenya. No tax on SMT tech imports, token tax on manufactured devices...
4. Sell these devices to governments around Africa for a tiny profit.

Benefits:
1) Above average tech savvy society within 5-10 years.
2) Newly minted electronics manufacturing segment might be very lucrative to the taxman.
3) Helluva lots of jobs from manufacturing, logistics, electronic book publishing, software industry.
4) Bragging rights?

Caveat:
- These are just words. We'd need political backing for this to happen. I don't know whether our newly minted government is all action and no words or all words and no action


On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 9:19 AM, John Karanja <mauxdatabase@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Martin, this raises the question - How important is mobility of the devices in this Initiative? It seems to me the initiative you have described is suitable for the older students particularly High Schools...


On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 9:31 AM, Martin Gicheru <martin@techweez.com> wrote:
In regards to what other parts are integral to the success of the laptops for children initiative, there are some that have sought to develop a product that can try solve this in a lasting way, obviously dependent on whether it's adopted. Samsung has partnered with Intel, Microsoft, KIE and other partners to develop a solution that will involve Internet school, a learning management software that will harmonize the way teachers teach, laptops and solar powered containers for places where the power grid has not reached. Note, these are not solar laptops but solar powered internet schools, the whole hog of laptops, server, smartboard and learning software developed with KIE as partner.

Now what this raises,
  • Cost of internet setup and running
  • adoption and resistance to change by teachers
  • others you may find from this.
Read here, an interview I had with Robert Ngeru, to collect these points http://ow.ly/k1Mdr

Regards,

Martin Gicheru | Founder and Editor at Techweez

Tel:254721906171 | Website:http://www.techweez.com | Skype ID: martingicheru | Twitter ID:martingicheru | Gplus: gplus.to/martingicheru



On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 6:55 PM, John Karanja <mauxdatabase@gmail.com> wrote:
Here is a comment from the blog from someone who has been involved in OLAP on that score...

I think the “Harmonization Jubilee Manifesto” Is a new Era for the Kenya Education, Providing a solar laptop to every child will have so many potential in enhancing the education system in Kenya. The implementation, deployment and scalability of the program will become more easy through the support and facilitation from the government,…

Nonetheless, from my long time experience, In order for the program to be successful, the government will have to face so many challenges; elaborate a clear plan including incorporate “One laptop Per child Initiative” in the Kenyan curriculum and work closely with institutions like the Ministry of Education and the Kenya Institute of Education “KIE” to elaborate the right content that will be relevant to kids in the Kenyan environment.

The government should also think to work closely with NGO’s and research institutions to support, collect data and measure the impacts of this new technology in Kenya so as to provide feedback to contributors program “OLPC Foundation” which will allow to build the right hardware with components that are useful for our kids,

The tech community, developers and programmers who create apps for education need to be part of the initiatives in testing, creating and adapting their software “Activities” for this particular hardware.






On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 5:59 PM, David Njuguna <dnjuguna@gmail.com> wrote:
A lot of research, try and error has gone into OLAP. Perhaps Kenya government could build on OLAP's successes. 


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 4:04 PM, george <theonlydamnedavailablename@gmail.com> wrote:
The benefits to the students and the country as a whole that would be brought about by the successful implementation of this project are huge.

In my opinion the biggest emphasis to eventual success should be paid to;

(1) The teachers - the ordinary teacher has to buy the idea first. Sell it to them and the chances of success are pretty good.

(2) Government implementation - This should be treated like a business complete with a CEO who reports directly to the president. This might very well be Jubilee's Thika Road.


George


On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 3:25 PM, John Karanja <mauxdatabase@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Listers,

I recently wrote this blogpost, looking forward to your views

--

During the recently concluded electoral campaigns President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto captivated the minds of Kenyan parents with a promise of delivering to every Standard One pupil entering school in 2014 asolar powered laptop to enhance and aid their learning environment(see video below).

As expected many Kenyans were sceptical given the perception that many Government projects begin with pomp and fury but end up as duds; wasting billions of shillings that could otherwise have gone to more basic and immediate needs.

I thought it would be prudent for us to examine through a Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat( SWOT) analysis the feasibility of such a project in present day Kenya.

Read more: http://johnkaranja.com/2013/04/10/a-pre-analysis-of-jubilees-one-solar-laptop-per-child-initiativeoslpci/

Kind Regards,

John


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Skype: barrack.otieno

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