IT Class in Burkina Faso: An Managed Chaos?

Time for another mid-week update! Staying up unusally late again on a Tuesday night, but happy that I don't have to deal with the application process anymore, and can instead get ready to work with my excellent students.

After a rocky start last week-- between rushing to finish getting everything physically ready, figuring out lesson plans, and figuring out how to manage a class of 30 kids in front of computers (many for the very first time), I think I'm on the right track. But boy, every class is a different animal. I suggested a post about lesson planning last week-- but any ounce of lesson planning ought to be amended by a few pounds of flexibility. Here are some things that are prone to happen:

Brownouts 

Sometimes, the electricity just gives. The number of computers that we have running at once can be a strain on our own circuit, but often times, the brownouts are citywide. This was a real challenge today. It's nice to have a 50 : 50 desktop-laptop ratio in the room. If the cut is just for a few minutes, the kids can pair up and share the laptops running on battery power. Or crowd around someone who is doing something interesting...

Note: the above picture is from last week, when only 8 computers were fully set up for student use.

Clic gauche!

Most of my students have never used a computer before. So, it's fascinating to watch them play around with one for the first time. They can discover new ways of doing things that many of us experienced users might otherwise overlook. That said, they can often get stuck. A common confusion is mixing up right and left clicking.

"Monsieur, monsieur!"

I get this a lot when someone gets stuck. The question is when to respond. Sometimes, it's a really easy problem that their groupmates might help them with. But between 30 used computers and new users, it can get more complicated. My troubleshooting skills have already improved a ton.

 

Hmmm, after mentioning "groupmates", I should explain a little how the class is organized. We have 6 tables by design. In a class of 30, there are about 20-25 who are true beginners, and the rest have gone to an internet café at some point. I mentioned doing a bit of a test the first week-- this allowed me to split up the kids who already know a little bit, and have at least one at every table. The idea is that they'll be able to help out their classmates with the basics, which is all that we are focusing on for the moment. So far, that seems to be going really well. Burkinabé students really look out for each other-- it might have something to do with the fact that three to four of them share a bench made for two all through elementary and middle school (this balloons a normal class size to 60 or more!)

You might have noticed the perhaps-excessive photo doctoring above. I haven't figured out how to take decent photos in the dark with my point-and-shoot. So I have to compensate somehow... I'll be doing more of this tomorrow night, with my tomato sauce canning group-- we'll be making our label, after bottling 4 liters yesterday. Enough for a Thanksgiving feast!

Enjoy, and until next time!

- ETH