OLPCorps Clark Kenya

The OLPCorps Clark Kenya project will revolutionize the way Bura children learn. By using XO laptops to document oral histories in the Kidawida language, these children will challenge the existing educational model. They will also play a significant role in preserving the language and culture of their Taita people, and forge new relationships with their elders. Bura children will be empowered to conceptualize their role in language preservation, ultimately creating a basic Kidawida picture dictionary. The community will also lay a foundation for a Kidawida - English dictionary.

A team of graduate students from Clark University and the University of Washington will work in partnership with the Greater Newburyport/ Bura Alliance(GNBA) to deliver 100 computers to Bura Primary School, Taita District, Kenya. The people of Bura are members of an ethnic and linguistic minority, numbering approximately 250,000. Their primary language is Kidawida, yet Kiswahili is increasingly spoken and English is used in school. There are no Kidawida dictionaries in print, and the language is in danger of being lost.

The culture is also changing rapidly. Ten years ago, running water, electricity and telephones were rare; now they are commonplace. Family and social structures are transforming as men migrate to Mombasa for employment. Yet the people of Taita are proud of their heritage and actively try to preserve it through song, dance, and oral history.

Our project will not only provide the community with new models and methods of preservation, but also of teaching and learning. Bura schools rely primarily on rote memorization. Students are considered “receptacles” to be filled with information. Providing each child with a computer can change this: children will learn by doing, and by teaching one another and their community. They will become active collaborators in the construction of knowledge.

The project emphasizes youth as the facilitators of discussion and the creators of valuable communal media. It expands learning beyond the classroom and develops students’ reading and writing skills. By recording oral histories and creating dictionaries, children will provide a valued resource for their community while learning to use life-changing technology. XO laptops become tools that encourage inter-generational dialogue for both linguistic and cultural preservation and learning for the future.

Our envisioned weekly plan:

1: Set up the server. Develop relationships with local leaders: hold meetings with the school administration, county council, district education officer, chief, etc. Present the project to the community. Listen, learn and adapt.

2: Meet with teachers and education stakeholders. Hold workshops to familiarize teachers with the laptops.

3 – 6: Familiarize students and support teachers in using the computers. Implement project activities: interviewing, audio recording, photographing, writing - focused on cultural change. The children will use the computers to write up their stories in Kidawida, using phonetic transcriptions, with the help of older siblings or students.

7 – 9: School break; run the project in the community. Students will prepare the dictionaries. We will work with teachers on integrating the computers into the curriculum.

Our Bura team has a diverse set of strengths. Collectively, we have many years of experience in elementary education, print and film media, language acquisition, and IT. We are studying international development and have been trained in: project management, strategic planning, and monitoring and evaluation. Each of us has lived, worked, or taught in the developing world.

We will be supported by GNBA, which has a seventeen-year relationship with Bura. GNBA has the capacity to support our efforts and assist the community after the project is completed.

Teachers and most young people speak English. Older students, siblings, and students at the nearby teacher-training college will interpret between Kidawida and English when needed; this will help saturate the technology into the community.

To provide sustainability, we will train local teachers and other stakeholders to maintain the network and integrate the laptops into classroom activities. We will also use the computers to create training materials for the stakeholders.

We will actively nurture the collaboration between GNBA, Bura, and Clark University. Clark hosts a well-respected program in International Development and Social Change, and this partnership will provide an opportunity for interns and graduates to continue the work we begin. GNBA will provide financial and volunteer support, linking project participants with Kenyan and international resources.

Finally, we expect to develop monitoring and evaluation methods with local community members and teachers-in-training. We will examine how laptops empower children and support a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. This research will inform the sustainability of the project, which may serve as a pilot for other schools in Taita and Kenya.