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<p>Tyler Cinnamon is a American programmer and entrepreneur. He started TechLit Africa with Nelly Cheboi in 2018 to disrupt poverty with used IT devices.</p>

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Reports and Insights from Rural Africa | How We Teach Computer Classes in Primary Schools to Unlock Global Opportunity in Rural Africa

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<p>Irene Pepit is our school lead educator for Zawadi Yetu in Mogotio, Kenya.</p>

School Lead Educator

<h2>Learning To Learn with Inkscape</h2><p>Kate Jepchirchir is a third grader in Zawadi Yetu Academy. Today, being their second week using Inkscape, we decided that we are not going to draw shapes, since they're already used to drawing shapes.</p><h2>Creative Inspiration</h2><p>Kate said today that she wanted to make something different with her name and the name of her school. She drew boxes coloured with different colours, and made a star in the middle.</p><h2>Pride and Ownership</h2><p>When writing her name and the name of her school, she didn't know how to type capital letters. When she explained to me that she wanted capital letters, I showed her how it is done, and she re-did it quickly. She was very happy with her own work and the beautiful colors.</p>

Computer Classes with Inkscape Vector Editor Teaches Grade 3 Student to Own Learning Process and Discover new Digital Skills

<p>This week, a Grade 3 student named Kate Jepchirchir tried something new in computer class. She quickly took ownership of her own project and learned new skills to complete her vision. She learned to learn this week.</p>

Grade 3 Student Learns to Learn

Zawadi Yetu

<p>Nelly Cheboi is a celebrated social entrepreneur, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/nelly-cheboi/?sh=179de9a85764" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forbes 30 under 30</a> honoree, and<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/14/world/education-technology-recycling-kenya-poverty-cnnheroes/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> CNN Hero</a>. After growing up in rural Kenya and lifting her family out of poverty, she focused on her community.</p>

CEO | CNN Hero | Forbes Under 30

<p>Every Thursday, we all gather around on Zoom to share stories from the classroom. Every educator writes a story to share from their week about student achievement.</p>

Classroom Stories | TechLit Africa

Stories From The Classroom

Inkscape

Graphic Design

<p>Mose is the school lead educator in Barrina Primary.</p>

<h2>Barrina Primary School</h2><p>I see a lot of improvement at my school, Barrina every single day. I see students overcoming challenges and others even inspiring me.</p><h2>Motivated To Learn</h2><p>Alex, a 1st grader at Barrina, had been really struggling in his TechLit classes. He was very shy and with very low esteem. He would just sit and stare at the screen.</p><p>Today, he surprised me. He came to class and started working on his mouse movement all on his own. I wish I could tell you what changed.</p><p>His classments were really impressed with him. They became motivated to learn even more things and improve as much as Alex did. One of them said, in swahili, "<strong>Kama Alex amejua, mbona mini nijsijue vitu zingine.</strong>" <em>(If Alex has improved like this, even I can too.)</em></p><h2>Loving TechLit Classes</h2><p>Alton, a 4th Grader love Tux Math. His classmates know to call upon him when they are stuck. Today, I decided to ask him what he wanted to be when he grows up. I expected to him to say a doctor, a pilot or something. "<strong>Mwalimu wa TechLit</strong> <em>(TechLit Teacher)</em>"<em>,</em> he said.</p>

Class 1 Student Inspires Classmates To Learn Digital Skills | Class 4 Student Wants To Become TechLit Africa Educator

<p>I see a lot of improvement at my school, Barrina every single day. I see students overcoming challenges and others even inspiring me.</p>

Improvement In Barrina Primary

Barina Primary

<p>Milka is our school lead educator in Saint Mary's Primary in Mogotio, Kenya.</p>

<h2>Introducing Tiezo, Grade 3</h2><p>Teizo, a grade 3A student, made the video production class great today for other students who were seeing it as hard.</p><h2>Starting Video Production</h2><p>Since Allan, their video production teacher, was not there to teach video production to grade 3A, I explained to them to see whether they still remember what they were taught on the previous day by Allan.</p><p>I told the class that the first one to create the video will help the rest of the students who don't understand.</p><h2>Leading Grade 3</h2><p>Tieza was doing her work perfectly. She made the rest of the students enjoy the lessons and love video production. She taught her friend Sarah, which was amazing and then they both became teachers.</p><p>Therefore the video production class became interesting, where I had two teachers operating the class. Many students understood the lesson, which was good and very impressive.</p>

Tiezo Learns To Edit Videos in TechLit Computer Class and Teaches Classmates | Specialty Lessons in Video Production

<p>Teizo, a grade 3A student, made the video production class great today for other students who were seeing it as hard. Many students understood the lesson, which was good and very impressive.</p>

Grade 3 Student Leads Computer Class

Saint Mary's

Open Shot

Video Production

Tiezo Leads Computer Class

<p>Denis is our school lead educator in Mogotio Primary School.</p>

<h2>Digital Skills in Primary School</h2><blockquote>Today I found a student leader to help with class.</blockquote><p>Today's story came from this girl called Tracy, a student at Mogotio Primary school at Mogotio Hub. Because I am the school lead at Mogotio Primary, I usually arrange the kids and show them how to log in. But today I found a student leader to help.</p><h2>Tracy Leads Her Class</h2><blockquote>Tracey helped me arrange kids and taught them so much!</blockquote><p>Tracy is a clever girl and also a leader. She gave me an easy time to arrange the kids and also showed them how to log into the computer. She showed other kids how to play games, and even how to log out at the end of class.</p><h2>Leadership Starts Early</h2><blockquote>Tracey became a leader even outside of computer class.</blockquote><p>After class, Tracy lead her class back to their classroom. The whole experience made my very happy and excited, because it shows that leadership really can start from an early age.</p>

Clever Leader Tracy Leads Her Primary School Class To Digital Skills | Arranging Students, Logging In, Playing Games, Logging Out | Leadership Starts Young

<p>In Mogotio Primary, a clever girl named Tracy lead her whole class. In today's story, I will share that leadership starts from an early age.</p>

Young Leadership at Mogotio Primary School

Mogotio Primary

Young Leadership at Mogotio Primary

<p>We are keeping our classrooms offline. Here are 4 reasons we don't connect computer classes to the internet.</p><p><br></p><h2>1. Safety</h2><blockquote>The internet is dangerous.</blockquote><p>In fact, one of our top priorities is to teach students how to be safe online. Rather than race to keep up with cybercriminals we keep our classes in a closed network. We don't have to oversee everything students do, because we control what's on our network.</p><h2>2. Focus</h2><blockquote>The internet is distracting.</blockquote><p>We all struggle to keep social media at arm's length, and that's just the beginning. With virtually unlimited text, images, videos and games available, there's always something more interesting than school. Our classes are effective because of how motivating and engaging they are. Keeping classes offline levels the playing field for our educators, so they're not competing with the internet for students' attention.</p><h2>3. Simplicity</h2><blockquote>The internet is complicated.</blockquote><p>When we do move our curriculum online, we will have a patchwork of subscriptions to maintain with students' data scattered across many countries and synced through different tools. The fast pace of improvement online comes with a lot of extra complexity, which we can avoid by controlling the software and data that students use.</p><h2>4. Efficiency</h2><blockquote>The internet is expensive.</blockquote><p>For most of us, we can afford to be online all day long because we have unlimited data through a broadband connection. In most of rural Africa, and specifically in rural Kenya where all of our classes are now, broadband is not an option. Mobile data is definitely possible, but it will come at some extra cost. We can make the adoption of digital skills easier for schools by avoiding the extra cost for now.</p><h2>Our Mission</h2><blockquote>Our mission is to disrupt poverty.</blockquote><p>The internet is coming to rural Africa. We believe that digital skills will unlock global opportunities and disrupt poverty.</p><p>Our job is to prepare the next generation of rural African youth to thrive online. For now, we're doing that by guiding them through a controlled environment that's safe from cybercrime, distraction-free and simple enough to maintain on a budget.</p><p>We use local intranet and offline software to teach digital skills. The internet has overwhelming advantages, but we have plenty of reasons to keep classes offline for now.</p>

Offline Education Technology for Digital Skills | Safety, Focus, Simplicity, Efficiency | Teaching Digital Skills in Rural African Schools | Preparing Children to Thrive Online

<p>We are keeping our classes offline. Here are 4 reasons we don't connect computer classes to the internet.</p>

Four Reasons Our Classrooms Are Offline | TechLit Africa

Four Reasons Our Classrooms Are Offline

<h2>New School Term, New Students</h2><p>Because Mogotio Primary was one of our first primary schools, most of the students know the basics of using a computer. They know how to log in and log out, open and close programs and switch between running programs. They even know all the functions of the mouse.</p><blockquote>Today we had 7 newcomers to computer class.</blockquote><p>So when we have newcomers to computer class, they need special accommodation for them to understand like the rest of the students. Today, we had 7 newcomers to computer class, and as the Mogotio Primary school lead, my job was to catch them up.</p><h2>Special Accommodation Pays Off</h2><p>From our 7 newcomers to computer class, 4 students came from Grade 4 South and 3 from grade 4 North. They were really out of their depth. They didn't know anything about computers.</p><blockquote>Vincent was behind, but after taking time to teach him the basics, he is now okay.</blockquote><p>What I did, I took time to teach each of them. There is this student called Vincent who didn't know anything but after taking time to show him the basics, now he is like the rest of the students.</p>

7 New Students Learn Computer Basics With Denis Marega | Newcomers At Mogotio Primary Need Special Accommodation | Digital Skills Required - Logging In/Out, Opening/Closing Apps, Mouse Movement

<p>Because Mogotio Primary was one of our first primary schools, most of the students know the basics of using a computer. So when we have newcomers to computer class, they need special accommodation for them to understand like the rest of the students.</p>

First Computer Class in Grade 4

<p>Stanley is a community developer by profession, and a freelance writer on the side. At Techlit Africa, Stanley has been a school lead educator for many schools, including Logiri Primary and Barrina Primary in and around Mogotio, Kenya.</p>

<h2>Learning Touch-Typing</h2><p>Before we started specialty lessons at Logiri Primary school, students practiced computer basics with GCompris and Touch-Typing with QWERTY. There is another program called Z-Type that is fun for kids to practice typing.</p><h2>Struggling To Play</h2><p>There was a class 8 student at Logiri Primary. He was saying that z-type is a hard game to play while arranging the fingers since he was having problems with using the ring finger and the small finger.</p><h2>Learning From A Friend</h2><p>Allan, a friend of his, offered to assist him. Allan sat with him and showed him.</p><p>He was then able to play on his own and showed interest in the game.</p>

Grade 8 Student in Logiri Primary School Learns To Play Touch-Typing Game From A Friend | Learning To Learn and Self-Efficacy Examples from TechLit Computer Classes

<p>Some of my students at Logiri Primary were practicing Touch-Typing with Z-Type this week. One student was struggling to place his fingers in the right place, so his friend helped him. After that, he was very interested in the game.</p>

Learning Touch-Typing in Logiri Primary | TechLit Africa

Logiri Primary

QWERTY

Touch-Typing

Learning Touch-Typing in Logiri Primary

<h2>Too Cool For School</h2><p>Victor Lorot is a grade 3 pupil in Zawadi Yetu Academy. Lorot liked only to play games and didn't want to do any class. If anything new as introduced to class. If anything new was introduced to class, we wouldn't enjoy it. He just wanted to play games. Whenever we could, we sent him out of the computer class and back to his regular class.</p><h2>Inspired By Specialty Lessons</h2><p>Luckily, Lorot was very interested in video production when we introduced it. He was very excited, very happy. He did it on his own. He was even asking the class "<strong>nani hajaelewa nimfunze!</strong>" <em>(I'll teach anyone who didn't understand!)</em> Lorot is not the video production teacher in grade 3.</p>

Disinterested Zawadi Yetu Student Inspired By Digital Skills Specialty Lesson in Video Production with OpenShot Video Editor by Allan Kiprono

<p>This week, a Zawadi student took an interest in computer classes for the first time because of our OpenShot specialty lessons. Now, he is leading his whole class.</p>

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