Just Jackfruit

This morning, one of the other teachers had the key to the computer lab, which we didn’t know, and we weren’t able to get it until almost 10am. This threw our entire schedule off. We ended up having the first set of kids practice some typing for 15 minutes, then we went over a couple of new words. Meanwhile, Neha covered some vocab words with the second, new set of kids (below).

After about a half hour, we switched the second set of kids into the computer lab and covered some more vocab words and then had them play Solitaire for a while. (I impressed everyone at one point by beating the game in under two minutes, which isn’t a great time, but I’ve honed my skills during some epic procrastination jags.)

Today was really frustrating, partly because the whole routine was thrown off, but also because I feel like we’re in a bit of a rut. We haven’t had any time to prep as a group for the subsequent day’s lessons, and so whatever we cover ends up being thrown together on the fly – which is not a particularly effective teaching style. From tomorrow, I think we’re going to start meeting at 3pm to plan for the next day, which should improve things.

This second set of kids is mostly 9th graders, who are new to the school, and they seem to be a little overwhelmed and tentative. I think perhaps a bit of a pep talk is in order, to contextualize all of the stuff they’ve been learning.

These kids (now a grade older!) came by in the afternoon; they wanted to learn some more computer stuff, but since I didn’t have any extra laptops with me, I offered to help them with conversational English. I’m not really sure how to go about doing this – I tried some basic verb conjugations, but my Hindi isn’t good enough to explain what the I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they chart is, nor what the present/past tenses are. Maybe I’ll just stick with teaching them how to speak grammatically correct English, but forget the formal grammar stuff and hope that they sort of just get a feel for what “sounds right.” Maybe they’ll learn the actual mechanics of the language in school. That sounds lame even while I’m writing it.

Also, here is a cute kid from the family that rents out our upstairs apartment (yes, this first picture is blurry):

And his family:

That black thing in the background is a water tank.

I didn’t even bother with the solar eclipse, although I would’ve loved to see it, because there was zero chance of the sky being clear enough to see anything.

Today the kids spent about 15 minutes typing, then we went over some storage vocab – CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, flash memory, hard disk, etc. We then reviewed some of the vocab from the past few days.

We also began teaching a second shift of kids from 10-11am, this time ones who haven’t had the chance to use computers in the past. Only six students showed up, but there has been an extra kid coming from 9-10am, who we’re going to try to move to this second shift so that we don’t have more kids than working computers in the first shift.

Note the new desks and chairs (as compared with six months ago). Yes, the plastic wrap is still on them. That’s just kind of the way it is. The static cling film is often left on the LCD screens of electronics, too. I think it has something to do with wanting to protect expensive equipment from the harsh and corrosive Indian environment. You can see in the next picture that someone has also wrapped the legs of the chairs with newspaper.

We went over some basic hardware stuff, then the kids played Solitaire for a while to develop their mouse skills. They’re much less advanced, as far as computer skills go, than the first shift of kids. Actually, even their English skills are shakier – one student didn’t know how to write his name in English. We’ll see how that plays out once they need to read menus and things like that.

This photo is so similar to this one from January – all of these random little kids showed up and were really curious about what was going on in the classroom.

It poured, absolutely torrentially, today for a couple of hours. Some of the streets were knee-deep in water by the time we were driving home. I wish I’d taken some pictures.

The complete solar eclipse is in about six-and-a-half hours, but I really, really doubt the sky will clear enough to see it. I haven’t decided yet if I want to get up at 5am to watch it or not.

We spent an hour today working on the kids’ typing skills, using some free software that we dug up on a CD at the school in December. It’s surprisingly good for something that was on a CD otherwise full of junk. The lessons are straightforward, and the kids really enjoyed the subsequent games and then competing against each other to get the highest accuracy/WPM scores on the tests.

I also put together a very simple powerpoint, with one vocab word per slide, to review some of the concepts we’d worked on previously. The kids remembered some things, but their information retention is a little low, so we asked them to review all the stuff they’ve written down in their notebooks.

Hopefully the teacher will be able to wrangle up some more kids, this time ones who don’t have any computer experience, for tomorrow, and we’ll be able to start a second shift of teaching.

So there’s apparently going to be a solar eclipse Wednesday morning around 5:30am. Let’s see if I get up in time to make some sort of makeshift pinhole camera and go up on the roof to watch it. Also, the weather has to be clear, which is a long shot in monsoon season.

Today we covered bit/byte/etc., as well as how to cut, copy, and paste files. I think that I need to emphasize the difference between cut and delete, though, because the distinction is fine and hard to grasp. We also covered how to manipulate multiple windows and figure out which one is currently active. We went over some basic Word terminology – pointer, cursor, selecting text, etc. I reviewed the previous few days’ vocab words with the kids using a powerpoint with pictures of various computer hardware and Windows screenshots.

While I do some prep work for the next day’s class, the teacher’s lack thereof is a bit frustrating – although understandable, as he’s got a lot on his plate at the moment. He’s very good with the kids and at handling a classroom, but as far as the actual material goes, he mostly just follows my lead, or teaches the kids whatever pops into his head. The concept of planning has gotten a bit lost. As the material gets more complicated, I think this is going to turn into an actual problem, as my Hindi skills are probably not going to be up to the task, and the teacher is going to have to do more of the actual explaining. Hopefully we can work out a regular time to go over what we want to teach the next day.

I also went back to the school in the afternoon and fixed up some small things that were inconsistent or broken. We still don’t have enough power strips to run all ten computers at the same time (which is kind of moot at this point, since one is totally broken and one doesn’t have some important – and unobtainable – software installed on it). It would nice to have the option, though.

While I was typing that, a really cute (but stupid) frog just bounced across the room and tried to hop onto a door, obviously failing to gain any foothold on a surface perpendicular to the floor. A mouse just also ran across the room. Ah, the rainy season. Also, an apparently very distressed cow yelped and mooed a few times, very loudly, just outside the open window.

Neha came with me to the school this morning, because she’s interested in helping out and perhaps teaching, if she doesn’t get an appointment at another school. Three additional students showed up for a total of eight, so we went through all of the hardware basics again, as well as some desktop and Windows vocabulary. We also covered all of the keys on a keyboard, and how to use the mouse.

I’m trying to figure out how much English these kids understand, because they’re having trouble reading, understanding, and then appropriately responding to simple dialog boxes (of the “do you want to save this file?” variety). I haven’t decided whether this is due to impatience/inattention or an actual inability to read English.

Most of these students have experience with computers, and some of them even have one at home. We’re planning to start a second batch of students who haven’t had the chance to use a computer in the past.

I went to the school this morning at 9:30 (the driver didn’t show up until then), where the lab was locked and a bunch of boys were standing around outside, with no teacher. I called the teacher, who said that the fuse from yesterday hadn’t been fixed yet, so we couldn’t do any work. I left and came back at 12pm and found that the fuse had indeed been fixed. I then attempted to get all of the computers up and running. One of computers is, I think, beyond my help. Another somehow got overlooked last winter (I have a suspicion that we’d written it off as broken) and doesn’t have any of the appropriate software loaded on it. When I tried installing stuff like Acrobat and the modem driver, none of the installations went through. I’ll try again tomorrow, but I don’t have high hopes. A third computer is the administrative one, which was, for some reason, moved to another room temporarily; hopefully, it’ll be back tomorrow. I still need to fix the user accounts on that computer. We also don’t have enough power strips to turn all of the computers on at the same time.

One of the other teachers at the school had gone to Sagar a few months ago brought back, instead of 10 separate 10-meter Cat5 cords, one long 100-meter wire, 10 plugs, and a wirecutter. He had the idea that I could split the long wire into 10; leaving aside the fact that I don’t know how, there weren’t even enough plugs to fit 10 wires. We’ll see what happens with that. He also bought two 8-port switches, for some reason.

The teacher made an interesting comment about how we want to teach students whose families don’t have the money to afford computer education on their own. Wealthier students have bicycles or cars, and they live closer to the school, so it’s much easier for them to be at the school from 9-11am, then go home for lunch and come back for the regular school day. I don’t know why I was so surprised by this realization, though, given the general truth that students with money have advantages that allow them to focus on their schoolwork more than students who don’t have money.

I arrived in Bijawar last night after five days in transit: SFO to Delhi, by way of Hong Kong and Bangkok (total travel time: about 30 hours), then to Bhopal (total travel time: about 4 hours), then to Bijawar (total travel time: 12 hours, including lunch in Sagar).

Update (July 21, 2009): Now that I’ve finally gotten around to pulling photos off my camera, this was the view outside the window at the gate while I waited for my connection in Hong Kong. You can sort of see the reflection in the window, but I thought the mountains and water were pretty enough to make up for it.

I did make it to the Boys’ High School at 9 this morning, where there were five students and one of the teachers to whom we’d been talking. The power schedule in Bijawar right now is that it’s on from 9am-11am, 1pm-4pm, and 8pm-5am, so I’ve got to work with the students from 9am-11am, as the afternoon hours are when the high school is in session, so students don’t have any free time then.

When I got there, I was surprised to see that all of the computers had been set up on new tables (with keyboard trays!), and there were new chairs (on wheels! that rotate!). Unfortunately, all of the cables had been disconnected in this process, so we spent some time plugging everything back in. Two power strips were missing, which meant that we couldn’t turn on all of the computers at the same time. I knew that one of the computers wasn’t working – I need to call someone to have it fixed – but two others turned out to be malfunctioning as well. I may need to reinstall Windows on one, and the other is having some sort of display problem. The computer used by the administrators also needs to be set up (again) for student use.

The teacher and I then started with the students, and I was surprised (again!) by how much the teacher knew and how well he was able to keep up with the material. We went through some hardware basics, and they turned on their computers and logged in, after which we covered some basic desktop stuff. They also opened up a game of Solitaire, and we talked about the parts of a window. They played Solitaire for a while to practice their mouse skills, and then – the fuse melted. I suspected it hadn’t been replaced before this, judging by the scorch marks, but it actually melting through just confirmed those suspicions. We had to stop, even though the power was still on, because all the computers go through the UPS, which wasn’t being charged since the fuse was broken. This should be fixed relatively soon, because the administrators need to use the computers on a regular basis.

The school’s landline also hasn’t been working for a few days, so I wasn’t able to look for and test the 16-port ethernet switch. I didn’t see the speakerphone, either. I need to go to the school while it’s in session to meet with the principal and locate some of this stuff. I’m also trying to find a way to go over the whole curriculum with the teacher, so that he’s not just working off the cuff. That method is fine for the simple material, but once it gets more complicated, we’re going to need to do some advance prep.

I’m planning on going to India this Thursday night (actually Friday morning) for a month. Originally, I’d wanted to leave two weeks ago, but the monsoon was delayed about a month in central India. As a result, the weather two weeks ago was still around 110-115°F, so I delayed my departure. The temperature high in Bijawar is now around 95°F, which is much more bearable. I had to go shopping for a bunch of new clothes that are appropriate to wear in the Bijawar summer – my normal uniform of strappy tank tops and shorts would be completely unacceptable in the village, and jeans and long-sleeved shirts would just be uncomfortable. It was something of a challenge to find t-shirts with a neckline high enough to not show off too much skin, but eventually, I managed (hint: check Target).

We’d originally wanted to start training teachers at the beginning of July, but it’s been a struggle to get this program off the ground. Every time we think we’ve solved a problem, another one (usually related) pops up. To make a long story short, we don’t currently have a teacher to work with. We thought we’d identified someone, but it turns out that he’s gotten another job and most likely won’t be working at the Boys’ HS School this year; training him, therefore, would be a waste of a time. Currently, we’re trying to find another teacher – we have a couple of options, but we’ll see if any of them pan out.

The fundamental problem we’re running into is that the guest teachers who tend to be most interested in this sort of extra training and work serve at the mercy of the school and the government. Their appointments only last one year, and the list of appointments for this school year (which started July 1) comes out around July 15th (maybe even  later – no one knows), which means that the teacher roster is still in flux. Finding a guest teacher who has time and is interested in undergoing computer training, then teaching students is going to be a challenge, especially if I can’t really begin until the 15th.

I might also work with one of the teachers we trained last winter and use her as a TA to help out with the class.

If nothing comes through, I’m considering a new model. I’d work with a couple of students, instead of teachers, and train them intensively for a week or two. After that, they would teach other students the things that they’ve learned, while I continue to work with them on new material. I have yet to work out the details on this plan, but it might work. An adult would have to supervise the students, though, especially after I leave.

We’re also trying to remedy the non-availability of teachers with technology. We’re trying to find ways to communicate with the students and teachers at the school, including VoIP (Yahoo, Skype,  and MagicJack, among others).

Either way, the program is getting started significantly later than I’d hoped, but so it goes.

The good news (finally!) is that the principal seems to be completely on board with our plans and is just as frustrated as we are with all of the problems that we’ve been experiencing. Having him as an ally is making things much easier.

As promised, here’s another update of what’s been happening in Bijawar since April.

One of the teachers at the Bijawar Boys’ HS School called us from Sagar (about two hours from Bijawar), saying that he was at a store, looking to buy some new equipment – chairs, tables, and assorted computer hardware – for the school’s computer lab. He asked us a few questions about what kind of switch was needed to connect all of the computers to the Internet, as well as how many ethernet cables he should buy (and of what length). We were happily surprised by the school’s enthusiasm for pushing forward on the project!

It seems that the school has received money to spend on computer equipment. We also learned that the internet hadn’t been working for a couple of months, which frustrated the principal immensely, because he had to spend an extra Rs. 1000 each month to send his administrative assistants to Chhatarpur to file the payroll. We spoke with the person who initially installed the broadband line at the school, and he went to the school to fix whatever was wrong. As far as I could tell, there had been some problem with the billing, and the server in Indore had apparently been down for a few days, contributing to the problem. We had also asked him to bring a speakerphone, which he did. The school is still working on getting the 16-port switch up and running.

All systems seem to be go to start a pilot project in July. Our current plan is to spend the first two weeks of July training the teacher we’ve identified, then begin teaching students. We hope the project will go for about three months, after which we will evaluate the success of the project and determine how to move forward. We’re trying to get volunteers to sign up for one-week slots to help out in Bijawar during this time. We’re still working on a rough curriculum, which will be posted once its finished, as will more details about the project itself.

We’ve been trying to get in contact with someone at the Girls’ HS School to see whether they received computers, but we’ve had no luck so far.

My apologies for posting this so late. This update should’ve gone up months ago, and I’ll post another update concerning the developments since April very soon.

We talked to the principal at the Boys’ HS school in Bijawar on April 8th. We were scheduled to start the pilot computer project at the school from April 10th, but unfortunately, this project will not take off in April, which is something of a disappointment. The principal has now agreed to start the pilot project in July when the new school year starts in earnest (although the school year officially started on April 1).

We have to deal with some issues on the ground: the general elections, communicating with the school administration, and electricity. Bijawar is on a strict electricity schedule. They have three hours off followed by three hours on. During the normal school hours, electricity is available from 9:00am-12:00 noon and then again from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. Since the HS school session goes from 12:00 noon to 4:00pm, the computer project has to run outside the regular HS hours. We need to plan for this issue, which we were certainly aware of before, in consultation with the principal.

The 2009 General Lok Sabha elections will be held through April and will suck up all resources in small places like Bijawar. The school facilities are turned over to the election commission for training election officials, setting up election booths, storing ballot boxes and other election related materials, and other such activities. The government school teachers are also mandated to participate as election officials.

We also need to develop a better strategy to have the principal at the boys’ HS school become more invested in this project. One of the fundamental issues we keep running into is the tendency to push the issue of the pilot project further and further – if it’s in the future, he doesn’t need to deal with it right now. While understandable (the principal is busy, and the school is involved in many things), this attitude is also extremely personally frustrating.

It might be useful if we are more completely able to explain the need for careful, long-term planning. We’d like to keep him informed at the different levels of planning – show him in more painstaking detail the work being done to develop a suitable curriculum, train teachers, and procure the hardware and software required for the project, among other things. We’d also like to impress upon the principal the idea that starting some project – any project, no matter how small – will give us and him the tools and knowledge to move forward in a more productive manner.

Development of computer curriculum

We’re still working on outlining objectives for the pilot project and preparing the appropriate lesson plans. To help with this process, we’re thinking of trying to reach a block education officer to find out if they already have a curriculum to introduce computers to HS students. Whether or not this will be successful or useful is yet to be seen.

Volunteer teacher network

We’re looking to start an email conversation with software engineers (and other computer-savvy people!) who are interested in working as volunteer teachers for this project. If they’re willing to donate one to two weeks of their time for this project, they would have to travel to Bijawar to work with teachers and students in an extracurricular pilot project. Their responsibilities would be as laid out in my last entry and which I’ll quote again here:

“Ideally, their role both in and out of the classroom would have been to assist the teachers and troubleshoot problems, though they would of course help the students as needed as well. I was hoping that this sort of hands-on teacher training would have allowed those teachers to carry on this program more independently in the future.”

Next visit

We’re planning a one month trip to Bijawar again at the end of this year. We hope to meet with education officials at the block and district levels to get a better understanding of what the state government’s plans are for computer education in rural schools. We also want to identify teacher and IT resources for this project in the Chhatarpur area.