Successes

Welcome to the GDL Technology blog. I will be using this blog as a conduit to provide weekly updates on direction, progress, results, successes and challenges faced over the course of our project.

The purpose of the GDL Technology stream is find ways in which the community can benefit from the use of computer technology. After about a couple of months in this community, I realized that most of the community was not fully aware of the potential benefits of using computers. In conjunction, computer education in schools was either completely lacking, or largely textbook based.

Thus, I proposed starting a computer class for high school students, one that would focus on practical learning. The aim was that learning through an application-oriented approach would get the students thinking about the potential use of computers in their lives.

I want to share some of the lessons learned in the class, particularly during the selection and marketing phases before the class started.

My target audience was boys of high-school age, so I targeted 5 high-schools from Bagar. Initially, I spoke at the morning assemblies at schools, and met with limited success – the timing was limited, and the students generally did not provide any feedback or reaction. After an initial round of speaking at assemblies, I went back with a spiel and spoke in the classrooms, and got interested students to sign-up.

My goal was to get students thinking about applications of computers, and thus my spiel focused on that. In addition to talking about the logistics of the class, I spoke about how computers are used for communication, knowledge, efficiency, services etc. Examples such as how encyclopedias now fit on two CDs, how war planes and defense systems use computers, how even their textbooks and likely the even the pens they use were designed on computers helped pique their interest.

I suspect the general interest among youth in computers played the major part in the numbers of student signing up – almost a 140 of them were interested in joining the class. Out of these, I interviewed around 125 of them, with the others dropping out or being unavailable during interviews. The pre-requisite for the class were basic mouse and keyboard operational skills, and ability to open and close programs and files. The interview was a practical demonstration of these abilities. The process was time-consuming, especially since I was only interviewing outside of school hours initially. It only got completed after I requested schools if I could hold interviews during school hours, which the administration was surprisingly open to. Lesson learned – schools are willing to make time for activities that benefit their students.

I had planned on purchasing 12 computers, and thus intended to accept 24 total students (in two batches of 12 each). On advice from a colleague, I finally accepted 26 students from the ones I interviewed. Two of them dropped out the first week, making it a perfect starting class of 24.