<html><head><meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></head><body><div><div style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt">Thanks for sharing this. Great lesson for our upcoming laptop per child project.<br>
<br>Sent from my Windows Phone<br></div></div><hr><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:bold">From: </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Brian Munyao Longwe</span><br>
<span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:bold">Sent: </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">4/12/2013 2:37 AM</span><br><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:bold">To: </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Paul Roy</span><br>
<span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:bold">Cc: </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions</span><br><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;font-weight:bold">Subject: </span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">Re: [kictanet] School visit</span><br>
<br></body></html><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Hi Mark,<br><br></div>Thank you so very much for sharing this with us. What I like the most about this model you have shared is the quasi Public-Private-Partnership where the businessman has taken the risk element, innovated with the publishers, and worked out a way of putting more than 1,000 tablets into the students' hands WITHIN 1 MONTH!<br>
<br></div>1,000 units a month is godd business for any type of company - if the margins have been designed right and the costs of finance are not too high.<br><br></div>Best regards,<br><br>Brian<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 6:01 PM, Mark Elkins <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mje@posix.co.za" target="_blank">mje@posix.co.za</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
Mark Elkins<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
. . ___. .__ Posix Systems - (South) Africa<br>
/| /| / /__ <a 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>
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