OLPCorps Clark Kenya

This project will revolutionize the way Bura children learn. In documenting oral histories in the Kidawida language, the children will challenge the existing educational model and forge new relationships with elders. They will produce a children’s Kidawida picture dictionary and a Kidawida – English dictionary and play a significant role in preserving the language and culture of the Taita people.

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 provide 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, but Kiswahili is widely 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 these items are commonplace. Family and social structures are transforming due to migration for jobs to Mombasa, etc. The people of Taita are proud of and actively try to preserve their heritage through song, dance, and oral history.

Our project will give the community new models and methods 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, 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 walls 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 the equipment.

In addition to teaching computer literacy, the laptops become tools that encourage inter-generational dialogue for linguistic and cultural preservation. Our envisioned weekly plan is:

1: Setup 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 using the computers. Implement project activities, interviewing, audio recording, photographing, 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 Taita 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 in a project related field and have been trained in skills required to make the project a success: project management, monitoring, 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 when the project is completed.

English is spoken by teachers and most young people. Older students, siblings, and students at the nearby teacher training college will interpret/translate 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 provides an opportunity for interns and recent graduates to continue the work that 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, looking in particular at the ways in which the laptops empower children and support a constructivist approach to teaching and learning. This research can inform the sustainability of the project, which can be used as a pilot for other schools in Taita and Kenya.