Last week at Drury University, Eric Ham and the computer team of students shared the plan to start a video-learning program in the village of Tenende, Tanzania. We had goosebumps listening to all of the work the students and Eric had put into this program. Chocolate University is not just donating six laptops to remote Tanzania, they are creating an entire system of how to learn using a laptop and projector, in a school with no internet and no electricity. It is mind-blowing. Remember this is a school that until last year did not even have one textbook.
While in the states, the team downloaded over 3,000 video lessons covering every subject imaginable from the Khan Academy website onto each laptop. The team, with the help of the Mwaya Secondary School staff, will install a generator and run extension cords throughout the rafters of the school. Eric and the students created documents explaining everything from how to change a lightbulb in the projectors to how to manually bring up the Khan Academy program.
All the documents and Khan Academy lessons on each computer are stored on a hard drive, so if anything happens to a laptop, they can re-upload the programs. All of the donated laptops have new parts including a new battery so that all of them would have a guaranteed a four hour battery life. The team brought white shower curtains to make the perfect weather-resistant screens for the projectors, and each item is numbered, so that if any issues arise, it will be easy to communicate the machine with issues.
Yesterday, the plan became a reality. The team worked with the headmaster of the school and brought an internet-based program and computers to this school. We have talked to government officials and believe that electricity will be here within a few months. Meanwhile we are using a generator. It is the only school in this district of 26 secondary schools with computers.
This program was inspired after Shawn watched the 60 Minutes video about the Khan Academy. We highly recommend that you do the same. The Khan Academy is a non-profit, who’s mission is to provide, “a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.” The program is revolutionizing how classes are taught, and now, that same top notch program will be available to the students of Mwaya Secondary School.
Thanks to our Chocolate University computer team we believe that this has the chance to transform this school.
