I believe that Free and Open Source Software (FOSS/FLOSS) can a play
significant role on the software acquisition frontier, capacity
building, security (no viruses) and CUTTING COSTS.<br>
<br>
We surely do not need discounts on software to make e-centers/ digital schools a reality.<br>
<br>
Muthoni<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 2/7/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Mr. Barnabas Sang</b> <<a href="mailto:bksang@education.go.ke">bksang@education.go.ke</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Numbers are no longer an issue taking into
consideration the current momentum of e-leaders in our amidst:</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centers -
29,500</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Primary Schools - 19,890</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Secondary Schools - 4,125</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Tertiary - 3,200</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"><strong>ICT as an means....</strong></font></div>
<div><strong><font face="Arial" size="2"></font></strong> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">The challenge is to increased access to Secondary
Education which currently stand at 60% transition (i.e. percentage of class
eight graduates to Secondary education). Big question then is, Does ICT provide
answers to such an issue? Yes.... Thus need for prioritization of ICTs targeting
Secondary Schools and Community Learning Centers to allow youth out of formal
schooling to access Secondary Education.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Research also indicates that PC presence in
schools, especially in Primary, have some influence on grade performance
(sciences and mathematics). Primary schools with ICT infrastructure can benefit
from huge knowledge-base and variety of digital content (largely Universal)
available.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">For digital villages and e-schools to succeed, the
following have to be prioritized:</font></div>
<ul>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Content: appropriate content which supplements or
complement current curriculum. Thanks to Mr. Sammy Kirui (Telkom) for
identifying this need in ICT for Development Expo speech. This is the number
one case: Without appropriate content, ICT becomes a luxury and hence no
school management committees can justify ICT in education investment. Will
there be some significant change in school performance after investment? Can
school retention of students (against dropouts or transfers) be sustained?
Will the syllabi be better delivered than is the case now? </font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">Capacity building: yes digital content can be in
place and infrastructure and all software we need to have envisaged
e-institutions. Without training to manage the resources and utilized them,
the investment will be run down within no time. Challenges of security
(antivirus: experience we are observing in the NEPAD e-Schools),
malfunctioning of hardware (physiological differences of our landscape - dust,
heat, wind/ power access and physical security) and social threats of Internet
introduced in our schools. Definitely, training is key. follow-up training is
critical as well.</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">ICT Integration: This is an activity that involves
integration of ICT in each subject area, making ICT a media for instruction,
tool for delivery and channel for information access. e.g. if you're a biology
teacher, we expect you to take students to a computer lab twice a week to
teach some topics which require animation for better comprehension. If one
teaches Kiswahili, we expect some lesson in "Ngeli na sentensi..." to be done
in the lab... using Swahili version of software... This is what will demystify
ICT from being a preserve for tech teachers to being a tool for every teacher
every student rather than for computer students.</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">ICT Infrastructure access: the Numbers, yes,
30,000 Schools as indicated would require some resources. For an e-school to
be effective, assuming two students will share a PC in our schools, a 45
Student stream class would use 25 PCs per lab. If the school is three streams,
then you require a minimum of two labs. To have sharing of materials and
resources done effectively and efficiently, a LAN is definitely
required.</font></li>
<li><font face="Arial" size="2">National and Regional ICT Support Centers: to act
as institutions where issues are resolved as they arise in our e-institutions.
Could it be content? Repair? Training follow-up? Replacement etc. Support
centre should provide some helpdesk services.</font></li></ul>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Connectivity comes to add value to all
interventions, especially when an e-institutions realize they have content that
require others to access or they would require access to shared resources in
some portal. In some cases, Internet might be supplementary to the above key
points. Yes, we know Internet is a resource where the learner and info-seekers
would benefit. It still lies with having content (appropriate content and
security), capacity building (on sites, portals) and Sustainable connectivity
options. Thanks to Kai and others who're sounding an alarm for provision of this
treasured resource to our esteem education institutions (for
<strong>Free!</strong>). With launch of various products by service
providers in the recent past, it is expected that connectivity will be available
in most parts of our country / continent! (CEO Safaricom and CEO Celtel ->
ICT for Dev Expo quotes). I will be more observant to see demos of these
products in a few e-institutions.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Thanks to PS InfoCom and all of you working to make
eMado (Madaraka) PC a reality. I hope we have other players thinking on
content (especially for e-education/e-learning) for various target groups; that
will indeed make the eMado attractive.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Kind regards,</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">B. K. Sang</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">ICT Department</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Ministry of Education</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">P O Box 30040-00100</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Nairobi</font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="q">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
<b>From:</b>
<a title="alex.gakuru@yahoo.com" href="mailto:alex.gakuru@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Alex
Gakuru</a> </div></span><span class="q">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>To:</b> <a title="bksang@education.go.ke" href="mailto:bksang@education.go.ke" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
bksang@education.go.ke</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Cc:</b> <a title="david.owino@kdn.co.ke" href="mailto:david.owino@kdn.co.ke" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
David Owino</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, February 07, 2007 5:51
PM</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [kictanet] adopt a
school</div>
<div><br></div></span><div><span class="e" id="q_1109d1a266f14fc7_3">Whoaa... 30,000 Kenya schools? <br><br>Gakuru<br><br><b><i>Kai
Wulff <<a href="mailto:kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke</a>></i></b> wrote:
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px;">
<div><font face="Verdana" size="2">Hello,</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="2">we are willing to ADOPT the connectivity to
all the schools for free!</font></div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Verdana" size="2">Kai</font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">-----
Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
<b>From:</b>
<a title="rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com" href="mailto:rebeccawanjiku@yahoo.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">Rebecca Wanjiku</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>To:</b>
<a title="kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke" href="mailto:kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">kai.wulff@kdn.co.ke</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Sent:</b>
Wednesday, February 07, 2007 15:09</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><b>Subject:</b>
[kictanet] adopt a school</div>
<div><br></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Adopting Schools</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">It all started with "Adopt a light", an
ambitious city lighting project. Now, Manu Chandaria, industrialist cum
philanthropist wants to apply the same concept in ICTs.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Speaking at the ICT for Development
Expo opening ceremony on February 7, Chandaria challenged Kenyans to
adopt schools and make sure they can access computers.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">"You can change the face of your village
school. Just go there and donate a computer. You can change the face of
Kenya," Chandaria
said.</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">He also disclosed that he will finance a
digital training centre in Mariakani. The centre will be expected to act
as a base to establish digital villages in coastal area. One digital
village will cost approximately shs 140,000 (USD 2000).</font></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">ends </font></div><br><br>Rebecca
Wanjiku,<br>journalist,<br>p.o box 33515,
<br>Nairobi.00600<br>Kenya.<br><br>Tel. 254 720 318
925<br><br>blog:<a href="http://beckyit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://beckyit.blogspot.com/</a>
<div></div>
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