<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt">Thanks<div><span></span></div><div> </div><div>Robert Yawe<br>KAY System Technologies Ltd<br>Phoenix House, 6th Floor<br>P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200<br>Kenya<br><br></div><div>Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696<br> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <hr size="1"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Mark Elkins <mje@posix.co.za><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, 11 April 2013, 18:01<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [kictanet] School visit<br> </font> </div> <div class="y_msg_container"><br>Today, Thursday 11th April, 2013, I visited the Sunward Park High<br>School, Sonskyn Rd, Sunward Park, Boksburg (Johannesburg). The school<br>has recently embarked on a one tablet per child project. My purpose<br>was to simply visit the place to satisfy my own curiosity.<br><br>The School is an old Model-C school, teachers are generally white or<br>indian and the lerners are about 90% black. It is by no means a rich<br>school. There are about 1250 children - excluding the matric learners.<br>There are three double story blocks of classrooms and a further block<br>which houses administration and a school hall. Classes are usually<br>just under 40 learners.<br><br>This school has achieved some interesting goals. They have a very<br>active soccer program with an on-site dormitory for 20 or
so learners.<br>I understand the team has travelled around Europe and that a number of<br>the learners are already pre-signed to play at various clubs in<br>Europe.<br><br>I understand that the Teachers were all equipped with Laptops a year<br>or so ago. The Classrooms all seemed to have VGA projectors and there<br>is a smart white board as well as a traditional blackboard in every<br>classroom.<br><br>Towards the end of last year, a plan was formulated by a businessman<br>to provide a Wifi access point in every classroom and to provide every<br>learner with either a 7" or 10" Android tablet. There was initial<br>Headmistress and staff buy-in followed by parent buy-in to the<br>project. The Wifi units are switched back to a central server via UTP<br>copper cable. The Server provides the content. There is a localised<br>e-mail server. A Firewall connects just the staff to the public<br>Internet.<br><br>The Businessman
arranged with various publishers to obtain all the<br>learners curriculum in an electronic format. For example, McMillian,<br>one of the primary publisher, has provided a three year licence for<br>half the price of paper based books. There is also a lot of other<br>electronic media available, Wikipidia, Learn channels video content,<br>Mindset Learning material and educational media from more than twenty<br>other sources.<br><br>I first spoke to the business man and the vice head of the school.<br><br>Hardware costs were:<br>Server R70,000<br>Wifi R250,000<br>Other R50,000 Total R320,000 or just under R300 per student.<br><br>The E-Media costs are R300 per student per year and the 7” Tablet R1000.<br><br>The cost thus for the first year is R1600 followed by R300 a year for<br>two years. The usual fee cost for a student was given as R2000 a year<br>using traditional methods - so fees have actually come down
by half if<br>you look at a two year cycle.<br><br>There was some initial theft of tablets in the first day or two.<br>Since then, no theft. After a month, only a handful of students had<br>not purchased tablets so these students were "loaned" devices. About<br>one third of students purchase the 7" tablet, the remainder purchased<br>a more expensive 10" tablet. The choice of device is governed more<br>by security and the ability to hide a smaller tablet than of cost.<br>There have been breakages - Tablets dropped or used in lieu of a<br>book to hit a fellow learner over the head.<br><br>I then visited some classes.<br><br>In a "Life Science" classroom, the teacher was presenting a class on<br>the water cycle (sea->evaporation->rain->river). He presented from<br>his laptop via the VGA projector and the students were looking at two<br>equivalent presentations via their Tablets.<br><br>Some of his comments were:<br>End of
class tests are easy, I get instant feedback on whether my<br>teaching is being effective and so can react immediately. I spend<br>more time teaching and less time doing administration and marking. I<br>can teach in short bursts to match the learners attention span rather<br>than give a half hour monologue from the front of the class and instead<br>of spoon feeding them, I get them to research the subject. Its<br>easier to handle learners of different ability, the quick I can give<br>more work to and the slow can continue the work in their own time.<br>He also believed that learners were becoming smarter and more interested<br>in what was being taught.<br><br>I then entered a History lesson where Martin Luther King was being<br>discussed. The learners (a class of boys, one of the most difficult<br>classes due to the presence of a large proportion of the successful<br>football team) were using the Tablets as
book-readers.<br><br>This teacher also was in full support of the Table. She claimed the<br>boys were much easier to keep in control than before (last year). She<br>indicated that some work has still to be written in text books to<br>comply with the educational department rules but students now have<br>much thinner text books - saving money.<br><br>I then talked to a small gathering of learners outside who seemed to<br>have a spare lesson. They were Matric learners. As they are leaving<br>at the end of this year, they are not a part of the Tablet program -<br>though about 60% of them have Tablets. One, who has a younger<br>sibling, remarked that she is envious of her sister. Homework seems<br>much easier and more interesting now. Also, she still has to carry a<br>full bag of books where as all the non-matric learners just carry<br>Tablets. All of this crowd had Tablets and do use them unofficially
at<br>school.<br><br>The "experiment" has only been running for three months but the<br>results so far look very promising. I would like to visit the same<br>school in a year.<br><br>Mark Elkins<br><br><br>-- <br> . . ___. .__ Posix Systems - (South) Africa<br> /| /| / /__ <a ymailto="mailto:mje@posix.co.za" href="mailto:mje@posix.co.za">mje@posix.co.za</a> - Mark J Elkins, Cisco CCIE<br>/ |/ |ARK \_/ /__ LKINS Tel: +27 12 807 0590 Cell: +27 82 601 0496<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>kictanet mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke" href="mailto:kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke">kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke</a><br><a href="https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet" target="_blank">https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet</a><br><br>Unsubscribe or change your
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