OLPCorps CMU RIT AN Nigeria

Motivation

We have partnered with St. Paul's Primary School in Abak Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria. It is in a rural community where the main occupation is farming. Cash crops are palm tree, coconut, and cocoa, while common food crops are cassava, plaintain, yam, rice, beans, and citrus fruits. Sometimes the children collect sand from the riverbed to sell as construction material for houses. St. Paul's was founded in 1990 by Okon's (our group member) brother Joshua, who was passionate about providing education to orphans and children from poor families. The local community embraced the school and donated the land it is built on. Local churches donated money to fund its construction. In 1997 Okon took over the management of the school along with his nephew after Joshua's death. The school serves 420 students between the ages of 2 and 14 who are taught by 10 teachers. It is housed in 3 buildings with 6 classrooms, a staff room, office, great hall, and storeroom. The school is generally recognized as a pillar of the local community.

Okon managed the school, taught there, and pastored at a local church until 2006 when he left to study Theology at Africa Nazarene University in Kenya. In his first years, he struggled because all his exams and writing assignments required use of a computer, yet it was completely new to him. It became clear to him that students at St. Paul's would have limited opportunities if they did not have knowledge of computers. This OLPC project represents a huge opportunity for the school because it would be very difficult for them to otherwise afford 100 laptops.

Curriculum Integration

We have already discussed integration with St. Paul's current proprietor, who is Okon's nephew, and the school is very excited about the opportunity to involve the laptops in the current curriculum. The laptops will be used across a variety of subjects (Math, English, Science, Social Studies, etc.), which will provide students basic familiarity in using a computer in support of their work as well as giving them new opportunities to do active research into new topics. The laptops provide unprecedented access to knowledge via the Internet and open source content. Currently, the school has a limited supply of books and learning materials.

School is in session from July to August, so the students will use the laptops during the normal class periods during the entire time our team is in the field. The laptops will likely be assigned to students on a rotating basis, giving all students a chance to use them. The laptops will be owned by the school and kept secure when not in use, but students will be able to sign them out to take them home, whenever they want.

We are uniquely positioned to successfully integrate the laptops into St. Paul's due to Okon's close ties to the school's leadership and faculty (Okon still retains the title of Education Director). The proprietor and teachers have already expressed great enthusiasm at including the laptops in the daily lessons, which is evinced by our letter of support. We are lucky to have the opportunity to work intimately with a local school as opposed to partnering through a foreign-based NGO, which would add a layer of bureaucracy and bog down our efforts at creating a nimble and flexible deployment.

We will deploy at St. Paul's Primary School in Nigeria, which has 420 students. Many of the students are orphans or from poor families. The proprietor of the school is related to one of our group members. We will work closely with the proprietor and teachers to integrate the XO laptop into the daily lessons in Math, Social Studies, English, and Science. In addition, we will start a program to teach the children blogging and video blogging. The program will 1) raise awareness of African issues around the world and 2) teach the children to write and communicate effectively. We will create the blogs / video blogs with a content management system such as Drupal and host them on a dedicated virtual server such as Amazon EC2. We will cross post the content to established sites such as YouTube.

About St. Paul's

Saint Paul Africa Nusery / Primary school Ata Ediene Abak Local Government Area Akwa Ibom state Nigeria was established in 1990 by Elder Joshua Peter Umoh. He saw the need of children's education as a builder building laying a foundation before building the house. His passion was for the poor and orphans in the community. The school was mainly supported by Churches and community members. The community and the church also see the need of children's education from 2 years to 12 years as the basic foundation and support the school wholeheartedly. The main occupation in the community is farming, while some of the children will dig sand from the rivers to sell for construction of the house. There are also petty traders. the cash crop there is Palm tree, coconut, and coa-coa. The food crops are cassava, plantain, yam, rice, beans, banana, fruit like mango pineapple,pears apple quaver, orange etc.

About a recent revelation about computers

After the death of Elder Joshua, I (Okon Sunday David) and the proprietor's son (Mfon Joshua) continued to manage the school till it reached the total number of 420 students. In the year 2006, Okon left the school to study Theology at Africa Nazarene University. He realized that high education is impossible without computer knowledge. He failed nearly all his exams because he did not have basic knowledge of the computer to do his assignments. It was a big shame for Okon because in Kenya nearly all students who came to university had a basic knowledge of the computer. Okon started thinking about the students in Saint Paul's Africa Nursery school: how their education will be hindered without computer training. He realized that education, office, home, business, technology, calculation, etc. may be managed efficiently through use of a computer, and to succeed in today's life one must acquire knowledge of computers.

About Our Vision

The computer literate will help the Government to have standard and quality service in the society. The children will not suffer in University on how to write term papers. Technology can help to eradicate poverty in the community and give children hope for future. The skills learned by integrated curriculum (in every class, using creative exercises to enhance specific classwork) will open their minds in a new way. The computer will be introduced to the children to teach them on how connecting to others relates to all subjects such as (Mathematics, English, Geography, History, Science and other ,) as the basic foundation. We expect to use the social networking component of the XO laptops to educate students in the importance of collaboration and networking together.

Group Members

• Okon Sunday David is a Theology student at Africa Nazarene University. He has worked at St. Paul's before and is related to the proprietor. St. Paul's is located in his home village.
• Becca Nelson is a student at RIT and has extensive experience working with non-profits in Africa. She has specifically worked at computer training centers in Kenya.
• Bryant Lee holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. He has created and maintained previous Web 2.0 sites and has managed computer servers. He has published numerous scientific papers. www.cs.cmu.edu/~bryantl

Schedule

Week 1: Arrival to Saint Paul Africa Nusery school Week 2-3: One week teachers training - how to integrate curriculum into the students' daily lives Week 4-5: After School Program to accustom kids to using the laptops Week 6-8: Begin using laptops for daily classwork.

Budget

Airfare = $6000 (3 x 2000) Food = $1000 Projector = $700 Transport to school/town/markets/etc. = $100 Generator $500 Couple, plug-in, socket and wiring $200 Team cell phone = $25 Cell phone credit = $30 Internet Connection = $500 (need to expand on it).