Teacher in Ghana has no computers so he draws Microsoft Word on the blackboard | Hacker News Reader

Teacher in Ghana has no computers so he draws Microsoft Word on the blackboard

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335 pointshappy-go-lucky175 comments

A few years ago there was a program[1] on ABC (Australia) about South Africa detailing some of the mismanagement of public funds. Mid way through the story they introduced a young woman from Tembisa who had finished school and had the marks to go to university, but not the money.

A group of about 10-12 of us contacted ABC and asked how we could help. The journalist connected us together and we self organized to fund her university and accommodation.

The university was very helpful, setting up a bursary for us to pay into and helping to get her settled into her residence and course (Teaching).

I had to buy her a computer, and that was a frustrating process. I couldn't ship one from here mainly due to shipping batteries being problematic. I ended up enlisting the help of a computer shop and having them verify that I wasn't using a stolen credit card.

That was 4 years ago. She's very close to graduating, she struggled with English subjects early on, but now it's just practicals and she can go out into the workforce.

Moral of the story, you can help, and you can make a difference if you put your mind to it, even when no easy path exists.

[1]: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/cry-freedom-promo/4881242 (The relevant section is 28:43 into the episode)

Edit: Grammar

Edit 2: Link to program

Why was buying a computer problematic? SA has computer shops, has had for decades. I bought a zx81 there. Am I missing something?

Buying a computer in SA to SA from Australia is difficult, yeah.

I'm afraid this just isn't reality, voting down won't change that. SA is backward but it's not that backward. It has e-commerce, you can buy things online. It's had the web since the mid 90s. Eg first search attempt, incredible.co.za . It just isn't difficult. SA has poverty, as extreme as poverty can be, it's horrible, it's heartbreaking, but it's not all like that. This is a bugbear, ABC, BBC, crap media outlet of choice more interested in creating a story than accurate representation. I wouldn't trust them with my coffee.

I'm sure it's not difficult if you're in SA, it was hard from Australia, because quite a few of those ecommerce sites won't take international cards (to protect against fraud).

We got there in the end.

Also, ABC is anything but a crap media outlet. A vision of SA from outside that may not tell the whole story, sure, but they do great investigative journalism.

No, it is not difficult at all, and it wasn't 10 years ago: kalahari.net was launched in the late 90's or early 00's. The steps are no different from anywhere in the world - find an e-commerce site you like (there are dozens that sell computer equipment), add computer to cart, pay with credit card, enter shipping address.

I didn't mean to indicate that it was a problem with buying a computer in SA. Rather that buying from Australia was problematic.

Aside from the roadblocks, such as preventing the use of international cards, there was also just not knowing who was reputable.

Thanks.

I had some experience maintaining refugee computer labs in Kenya at Kakuma. I befriended some guys who liked Linux and hacking. I also just reached out to other Kenyan colleagues and had them send along the laptop. This was normal when I worked abroad. Not sure if person to person networking like that is encouraged, but I too tried bc I saw a person who needed the resources to match their ambition.

Ironically, that refugee eventually won a lottery visa to the US, but that's another story.

So I’ve been to Kumasi before. Take this with a grain of salt - this was over 10 years ago and I was there on a two week voluntourism trip. Here are some of the reasons it’s hard to use real computers as a part of the ciriculum there.

* Electricity. Blackouts and brownouts are a part of life in Ghana, especially Kumasi. On top of that, the quality of the electricity is low. This poses major challenges for computers in the classroom. The school I visited only had electricity in the main office but not in the classrooms.

* Air quality. It is so very dusty. The medical clinic I was volunteering at had a computer and was constantly on the fritz in part due to dust when dry and humidity when raining. Many of the places I visited were open to the outside air like that clinic.

* Literacy. It’s gotten way better since I’ve been there but you still need basic literacy to get any use out of a computer.

* Poverty. Ghana’s GDP per capita is $4,500 USD. Many people in this community live on an income of dollars a day.

* Internet. The only access to Internet is a nearby town with an Internet cafe. And you needed the power to be on to use it. And it was very expensive - a couple dollars an hour to use.

* Typing skills. Due to lack of exposure to computers, even the people with a job at the clinic who were supposed to use the computer had at best 5 was typing ability.

* Simple computer skills. The ladies at the clinic wanted to listen to a single song on windows media player. I tried to show them the loop button but they did not want it. They were happy to just restart it every 3 minutes for the entire 6 hour work day.

And lots of other reasons. I don’t really have any answers but I do wish to see it improve.

Regarding the first few points, I’ve heard of remote villages in the Himalayas having schools with Raspberry Pis and 12V monitors. The whole system was powered by solar. They then have an offline dump of Wikipedia for students to use for research.

There was a segment on the BBC Click TV programme on such a project recently. They also featured installation of Solar grids in small mountain villages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet-in-a-Box

Most laptops and tablets run off of battery.

This is actually a good point.

A friend of mine is from Ghana, and wanted to be a programmer. He had to build a battery bank to power his laptop, so he could do his exams without issue.

I helped him design the bank, and another little tool we found helpful.

Because power is such an issue, we used a couple Arduinos to build something reminiscent of the TRS-80, 200 [0]. Instead of BASIC though, we inbuilt a C-repl, based around Cling [1], though much less featured. It ran off 4 AA batteries, and lasted about six hours between charges, which though kinda crap, was enough that his power bank was always ready to recharge it, and he could keep going. It was all his idea, I just served as the technical expert.

I believe he's currently building and selling a few of these out of his house since he went back to Ghana, to help people get a hang of computing.

[0] http://oldcomputers.net/trs200.html

[1] https://root.cern.ch/cling

So you also built a low power computer much like the kits in the 80s? That's really cool!

Why use C as a starting language?

Because his exam was in C, basically.

He was doing remote study with an Australian course, which required it. For the Python parts he still had to use his normal laptop, because MicroPython wasn't around then, (and I took a look at porting CPython to an AVR and immediately gave up), and he hated it.

Constant power glitches caused the laptop to misbehave.

His BW-1 (Borkwei-1), and it's tiny portable power, meant he got a lot more done.

If I was to redo it today, because it was about 6 years ago now, I'd probably make one with either MicroPython or eLua. Basically hook a keyboard and screen up to a NodeMCU or MicroPython board (maybe an ESP32), because those sort just about everything out nowadays. (MicroPython even comes with a FAT filesystem. Add a board with WiFi, and you have a very decent system.)

He tells me that every house in his village has one of the little laptops we designed now, though he has upgraded it to use an SD card, so more programs, and WiFi for when they hit town. He now calls it the BW-2.

You don't need batteries, you just learn to save your files often. I live in the third world too and can say that even with crappy power supplies computers resist quite well blackouts and brownouts.

Probably good for linux, but with Windows you have to be careful during update time or you can easily soft-brick your machine with a power outage.

People just don't update windows.

That made me remember having to update the BIOS firmware and doing it at 3AM and on a night without wind when there was almost no chance of power going out.

> The medical clinic I was volunteering at...

This is off topic. How can one get into that line of work/volunteering? Any particular organizations? Any particular skills ? How can one get started with this kind of work/volunteering?

Contact rotary international or the peace corps.

What I did was volun-tourism and is generally looked down upon. I did not help anyone. Ghana was not better off for me having gone there. I personally benefitted from it but to pretend that my “volunteering” had an impact is silly.

There are lots of volun-tourism groups. They are for white people who want to go to Africa and look like they are making a difference. I can’t help answer your question, just to ask that you do your diligence and join a legit aid organization.

I appreciate the frank response. This is a topic that I don't usually see addressed.

Voluntourism has become so popular since I started backpacking ~15 years ago that it's become very common that you have to pay to to volunteer. Especially at really 'desirable' gigs like animal conservancies and places that have lots of kids.

If you have actual skills look into doctors without borders or engineers without borders. If you don't, I agree with the sibling comment.

I appreciate the insight, but 10 years is a LONG time, especially in developing countries.

Especially since a lot of people there have now mobile phone instead of computers and do about everything they need with them.

Totally. Literacy in Ghana is way up. Solar panel prices are way down. Smartphones are cheaper than ever. But despite all that, progress can still be slow in poor, underfunded areas of developing countries.

> I tried to show them the loop button but they did not want it.

Ah, the African way. Imagine that 'this is fine' meme as a cultural trait. Or Japan's 'Shikata ga nai' without the corresponding work ethic. West Africa could be so much more prosperous if only they would will their way towards it.

There's so much low hanging fruit. This being one example. 30 minutes drawing this everyday, yikes. But that's Africa. Too chill for its own good.

Before the accusations of prejudice, I've from this region. I complain about this to my aunties every visit.

Ghana is a shining star of the region (the UK seeded some useful institutions during their exploitation) but still its best and brightest are lured away by better opportunities in London and beyond and its leadership needs more vision. Still, it's moving in the right direction. The future looks bright.

> West Africa could be so much more prosperous if only they would will their way towards it.

I have just spent a year and a half driving through 20 countries in West Africa. [1]

At times I would have agreed with your comments, though lately I have been taking another tact.

The developed world has stress, heart disease, cancer and hundreds of millions of people going to jobs every day they hate with a passion. People have little or no time for family. People have crushing debt. Life expectancy is going down in the USA.

Obviously West Africa is far from perfect, but I think it's very important to realize the Developed World is also far from perfect, and it would be a shame to have West Africa "Develop" into exactly what we have built with all our failings.

Maybe not working 40+ hours a week is OK.

[1] theroadchoseme.com

I'm with you on the absurdity of the West. The isolation, sterility and atomisation of life in large cities (self service checkouts, lack of street life/physicality, laws wrapped in regulations wrapped in rules) is soul destroying.

But we live until 80, our institutions work, we want for little (materially), and trust is higher. So depends on what you value.

Africa doesn't have to emulate anybody. It can move up the human development index any way it pleases, but, for the sake of its people, it must move up.

Do you miss queuing up to withdraw money or check the balance of your bank account? I don't see how self service checkouts are philosophically different from ATMs.

No, I love the convenience! I'm just using it as an example of how we continue to automate away human interaction.

Maybe that's fine. But spend time in Africa or South East Asia where you can't help but interact with people every day (just walking through a city like Bangkok makes you feel alive) and it feels clinical and cold by comparison.

There are different ways to be a developed country. Canada and the US are similarly developed but Canada has a vastly higher quality of life.

Evidenced by the constant brain drain from the US to Canada to take advantage of that massive increase in quality of life...oh shit wait.

I have lived and been all over both countries. This is wrong - the quality of life is very similar. Of course, the US has famously higher levels of certain social ills than you'd expect for a country of its wealth, but that's not saying the same thing. Really curious about where your perception of it comes from. Do you live in Canada?

People far enough up the income ladder have a decent quality of life in North Korea

I agree, and actually I came to West Africa after 10 years in Canada.

In many ways, West Africa has a better quality of life than Canada.

(yes, of course there are also many ways it's much, much worse, but it's worth remembering it's not all bad, and we in the West can learn a lot from people who love life more than money and family more than things.)

That argument is very similar to the crazy idea that everything was better in the good old days.

We all like to romanticize, but truth is that present life in the developed world is the best it's ever been, anywhere in the world.

Not saying it can't be better, certain the US has issues :)

I think you may be over-simplifying and over-generalizing "the African way" in this case. I'm actually surprised that they didn't want to learn the "loop button". Old cassette players even had a "loop button" that some of the not so educated could use. Their unfamiliarity with the computer and its likely "malfunctioning" in the past may be the reason they wanted to keep it as it was. The behaviour of the people is only a symptom in this case.

As for the low hanging fruit, there are many other more urgent areas of focus that bump this down the list - poverty and healthcare being a few [1]. Ghana's democracy is still very young and education hasn't completely permeated every region quite yet. It'll take some time to get where much of the developed world is right now.

[1] - http://www.our-africa.org/ghana/

My wife and I were just in Kumasi with our Subaru a few months ago -- amazing people. I was able to find a gentleman to run all over the markets in search of the peculiar Japanese lugnuts that I had lost one of. He came back in an hour with 5 examples, and was stoked to get $2 from me. He helped me re-install and re-torque all of my lugnuts.

I enjoyed nearly complete cell and data at 4G speed throughout Ghana, both on T-Mobile and Project Fi, who I assume use the same carrier.

Phone top-up cards are sold everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. The guy who sells airtime in a small village will also have a bank of power strips and will charge the villager's phones for them. I assume there is a small fee for this service. Many of the ones I saw had clever battery systems. There was a system to use your phone to pay with cell credits for merchandise, so it acts as a second currency.

This was pretty common all over West Africa. They're not as far behind as you think, and they enjoy skipping over landline POTS infrastructure costs and just get to hoist a few towers all over their countries.

Ghana's a great place. The optimism and nationalism make a great combo -- everyone's excited to see where they're headed next. It was one of our favorite stops on our road trip.

$0.02 (or 0.09 Cedi :) )

- Mike

Are you also circumnavigating Africa like HN user @grecy ?

We beat him home, I think our paths diverged at the Congo (we said nope and boated around, he went through I believe) -- we were in touch briefly last year and contemplated tackling the congo in a group.

I think he's doing Asia also, and we chose to "first world" Asia instead of trekking through. We sent our car back to Portland from Cape Town and did Asia/Aus/NZ like proper tourists with rented cars. :)

>The optimism and nationalism make a great combo...

What do you mean when you say nationalism? That's just a word that conjures up so many negative implications for me, even though I'm sure it's healthy to some degree. I guess can you describe what you mean in more detail.

I know all of the media is very POTUS-centric lately, so maybe there was a better word I could have used to describe a person who is proud of his country and its progress -- but a Ghanaian is very proud to be Ghanaian, and will positively light up to hear you compare his country favorably to his neighbors, something which is not remotely hard to do, particularly with neighbors like Burkina Faso and Guinea-Conakry.

They're going places, and when an outsider can validate that belief, the swelling of pride is really nice to see.

I was left with the impression that they have made sacrifices and gambles in their country, and they are relieved to be going places and seeing payoffs. They're still far from, say, South Africa -- but they're definitely the jewel of West Africa at the moment.

Sorry that my word choice colored my opinion negatively for you. It's a wonderful place, they are a wonderful people, and it is well worth a visit.

$0.02

- Mike

$4.500 GDP per capita is pretty high for what you are describing. Ghana GDP per capita is only $1500 and was actually less than $400 10 years ago.

The $1500 figure is indeed the correct nominal figure, but it's just a number, it's meaningless without context (prices). If you take that into account you get a sense of purchasing power that's comparable between countries, the PPP figure. That's $4500 in Ghana and it's likely what he's quoting.

That having been said, the nominal figure is typically more useful when it comes to manufactured imported goods like computers, or energy prices, as they aren't actually cheaper in developing countries (and sadly, often the opposite).

So both figures are going to be useful in getting a sense of affordability here.

I actually think otherwise. PPP can be very high in countries with high inflation and masked real costs (ie: The products are subsidized but not available, so people have to pay the real/full price).

The real one is, well, real.

I don't really see the point. PPP is typically measured by looking at actual prices for a basket of goods (e.g. prices in stores for various grains, flour, rice, legumes, cooking oil etc), and then using that to extrapolate for aggregate prices for types of goods (e.g. food), and then correcting income figures for price differences.

I agree that high inflation and temporarily-subsidised goods make measurement difficult, because it creates a highly volatile price, but that's true whether you want to measure nominal prices or real prices just the same. Stating a nominal price for food in Venezuela in March 2018 is difficult because sometimes it's available, sometimes not, sometimes it's subsidised via government channels, sometimes you need to buy it through market channels, and prices fluctuate due to inflation and currency swings. Nominal price measures have the same difficulties.

That having been said, there are only a few countries suffering these circumstances. Ghana has a relatively stable inflation around 10% to 20%, which sounds high (and it is), but is not much higher than inflation in the 60s-80s in the US or Europe (reaching 15%+) and is quite predictable and workable (unlike inflation of literally billions of percent in Zimbabwe in 2009).

I didn't want to comment about this, but this post was extremely hard to read. Kumasi is the heart of what remains of the old Ashanti empire that once ruled West Africa. If you had spoken about some village in the Ashanti Region, i'd believe you outright but this is the second most important city in Ghana, and even 10 years ago wasn't this bad.

* The Electricity problem isn't a part of life and definitely doesn't affect Kumasi as much as it affected other parts in the past. The country is powered by a couple of hydroelectric dams(and even supply power to a few other west African countries). The water levels were low due to low rainful and that's why these blackout began 10 years ago but it didn't really get bad till 2012...The Ashanti are a proud people, the infrastructure situatuion is not as dire as you state it.

* Air quality? Kumasi dusty? The entire city was tarred even as of 10 years ago. I'd still like to believe you spent your time in a village in the Ashanti Region but not Kumasi itself

* Literacy? Ha you based that on your two week trip to one school?

* Poverty is subjective i believe. 10 years ago, the Ghanaian cedi was pegged evenly with the dollar, and $1 usd was more than enough to feed an entire family. Food was cheap(Still largely is) and the Ashanti Region produces a massive amount of food crops. Your understanding of poverty is flawed if you're going to base it off economic theory. Most people in Africa are able to provide for their families and don't see the need past that. A lot of people are just comfortable staying in mud huts in villages, farming and going about their daily businesses. They don't really care about foreign healthcare because there's a thriving alternative medicine industry in Ghana(herbal) and most people just generally don't care. It's more about the culture, not the ignorance

* Internet 10 years ago? C'mon I'm ashamed to admit it but Ghana was on full blast for internet fraud 10 years ago. This is where the Nigerian princes picked up their skills from. Till today, Ghana is still blocked from using paypal. There was internet all over ten years ago and very cheap. We had large communities of MMO players, especially runescape and kids just go home or to an internet cafe after school to play.

*Typing skills... I don't even get this one

I know the conditions are not as bright as i've seen while travelling the globe, but this was too much like the regular "Africa is a poster child for poverty" theme that it hurt to read it

Disclaimer: I was born and bred in Ghana, and live in several cities for several years.

To be honest, you could be totally right. I went back to look at my records of the trip and my memories of the trip before writing my comment. I also spent a bunch of time looking at a map trying to remember. I definitely spent time in Kumasi but the majority of my time was likely in an Ashanti region village. Sorry if you feel that I’ve misrepresented Kumasi.

The power/electricity problems still exist, but the access to internet is getting better - some universities have free WiFi access points for their students.

Most of the changes that will help make a difference are all predicated on having computers and electricity available at the very least.

I wish there'd be a bit more focus at the Junior High School level instead of all the way up at the university level since not all the students are able to make it there for several other reasons.

It is improving though, but ever so slowly.

The specific requirements of dust protection, power capabilities and licensing means that this is a use case for an Android/Linux tablet + keyboard instead of a desktop running Windows+office.

There's a ycombinator startup that builds battery/mobile phone recharging stations in Africa - http://disrupt-africa.com/2017/10/senegalese-solar-startup-o...

Combine a sealed tablet with solar recharging and an OTG keyboard, you should have a much better system than a laptop/desktop. You can also protect the tablet using a shockproof case. A 10 inch octacore tablet with 4gb ram and LTE capability costs 80$ shipped on aliexpress to anywhere in the world.

Interestingly there's an app that replicates a desktop-y wordprocessor on an Android tablet and has specific compatibility for keyboards

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=softmaker.appl...

Saw your post after writing my comment. Seems pretty much what I was asking.

It seems like GNU/Linux would probably be much better than Android. With GNU/Linux there is full access to the OS/device and they could fully tinker with it. No Internet connection required for LibreOffice. Raspberry Pi is relatively inexpensive.

A rooted Android gives just as much power. With the added advantage of having the biggest developer base in the world (in case you dont want to muck about /proc or low level).

In addition, buying few 10 inch android tablets using MTK chipsets is just a click away and less than 100$ shipped - with working 4g, wifi, camera, etc etc. Getting the same to work with GNU/Linux is going to be a pain.

I would rather do Android and combine it with Accessory DK (https://developer.android.com/adk/index.html) and Things DK (https://developer.android.com/things/index.html).... all the way upto Tensorflow Lite (https://www.tensorflow.org/mobile/tflite/)

Remember all of this is still open source

I think that there is a cultural issue to consider as well. Android culturally tends to be a locked-down platform that takes control away from the user. GNU/Linux is about technology Freedom. You can unlock Android devices with a significant amount of effort, but it would be better to start with something that is fundamentally open.

It seems like tablets would break easily, where it's easier and cheaper to replace small screens on Raspberry Pis.

That won't help them learn office though.

Just today I was talking to an Anti-Windows who is trying to participate in the business world. He couldn't find a usable invoice template for whatever wannabe-office he thought would work.

Back before linux was a thing I had a product for legit unix that produced documents by writing text over pcl or postscript forms. That was worth the effort for high-production but every user shouldn't need to do that.

Please check the app I linked - it is specifically designed to replicate the desktop feel and the interface of Microsoft word. The solution was not intended to be anti-microsoft in any way. This is the only solution which is optimal on price, weatherproof and power requirements.

My solution was specifically meant to achieve what you said. I'm in India...We have the exact same issue (but with better internet probably)

I'm personally shunning black rectangle devices. But I'm still curious - can it print?

I'm in the USA where it's a hardship to participate in normal business without windoze. It's a very unfortunate situation due to the costs involved. Also when you are evaluated for low level jobs you are generally put in front of MS office and directed to perform some tasks. If you hunt around looking for features it looks bad to the observer.

Yes. https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c05384190

Welcome to the "jugaad" world.

> m in the USA where it's a hardship to participate in normal business without windoze. It's a very unfortunate situation due to the costs involved. Also when you are evaluated for low level jobs you are generally put in front of MS office and directed to perform some tasks

Yeesh, what industry are you in? I'm lucky enough that I haven't used windows since high school, but my impression was that OS X, chrome books, and mobile were now common enough among consumers that no one _expects_ windows familiarity the way they did during the days of the monoculture.

How about using the Android tablet to connect to a Windows Terminal Server instance on AWS? Requires more setting up and requires a reliable-ish connection but it’s lighter on resources and that connection can be much cheaper than providing full internet.

I had in mind to do the same on a Linux terminal. Posted my question here as an Ask HN but never got a bite. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16402404

Actually, there is Microsoft Office for android now, and it is free (as in beer)

The interface is optimized for the mobile (as it should be).

However, the purpose of this school is to teach desktop Word to students who can use it to get jobs.

I live in Shenzhen. Hardware is cheap here. Why not spec out a cheap system and we can send them a few together from HN?

Taobao parts...

Screen @ 248RMB (USD$40) https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.42.21a554932...

Raspberry Pi 3B + case + heatsink + power supply @ 250RMB (USD$40) https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.16.79304af9s... (set 3)

Keyboard/mouse @ 20RMB (USD$3) https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.26.7d7477a0q...

32GB USB Key @ 25RMB (USD$4) https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.36.61444a0ej...

That should just about do it right. Total cost USD$90/machine. Add a few bucks for postage (supplier to trans-shipment point) and a few bucks for final international shipping, USD$100/machine delivered.

how will they power it? the biggest problem is not cheap hardware but cheap/consistent power (both of which are problems - power is very expensive and very sparse and very unreliable).

I seriously doubt getting power is an issue. Usually when power is an issue in developing countries you borrow a generator and fuel it, which is not expensive at all, since people are getting around on motorbikes anyway. Power draw from this category of hardware is almost nothing, so a tiny generator will suffice. We could even send one, cheaper end is about RMB250 (USD$40).

I would actually be more worried about corrupt customs officials stealing the hardware.

Someone who has a Facebook account (I don't) could ask the guy about shipping and customs issues in Ghana and for an address, then we just need to buy and ship. I am happy to proxy that. Email me (address in profile) if you want to donate a machine. I will photograph everything shipped for transparency and publish the waybill number. Usually it's cheapest to ship with China Post surface but it takes up to three months to arrive. We could look at pricier options or maybe someone here can pull strings with Fedex or UPS for a free delivery.

>I seriously doubt getting power is an issue

you have no idea what you're talking about. the average salary of a teacher in subsaharan africa is 100$/month. a kwh in uganda is ~ $0.17. a liter of gas is ~$1.50. only the wealthiest schools have generators and they save them for powering lights during exam prep periods. people aren't getting around on motorbikes - moto taxis exist and people pay for them but only wealthy people own them outright. nm the cost of even a small generator (north of probably $300).

OK well if they've got power, assuming your prices, let's say a KwH is about what an hour class would use.

So USD$0.17/class, one class per day, 20 classes per month, 20 * USD$0.17 = USD$3.4/month.

The teacher won't be the one paying, the community will gather money if required.

A small generator is USD$40 to buy here in China as I stated, not USD$300.

You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

(Edit in response to below: Please, enough personal attacks. I see solutions. You see problems. Fine. Logically, while poverty is real, using your figures USD$3-4/month spread across a community is clearly a non-issue if teachers are on USD$100/month. I don't need to physically visit Ghana to validate that, and if it really is an issue I am sure we can find it amongst those donating hardware to contribute a few dollars annually.)

(Further edit: Maybe you are confusing Uganda's situation for Ghana's. Uganda is way poorer than Ghana. "Ghana's rapid growth accelerated poverty reduction, cutting the poverty rate from 52.6% to 21.4% between 1991 and 2012. In 2012, Ghana's poverty rate was less than half the African average of 43%. Extreme poverty declined even more, dropping from 37.6% in 1991 to 9.6% in 2013." versus "With a per capita income of under US$170, Uganda today is one of the poorest countries in the world")

>The teacher won't be the one paying, the community will gather money if required.

you are beyond clueless. any school that has a computer is a private school. public schools have zero money. there is no community doing fundraising - you're talking about people who absolutely literally live on <1$ a day and have never seen a computer before in their lives (let alone are willing to contribute money to power one).

>A small generator is USD$40 to buy here in China as I stated, not USD$300.

how much do you think it costs to ship? how high do you think import tariffs are? do you plan on holding every generator that every school needs on your lap on a flight over? i had to buy a socket wrench once - it cost me 30$ because it was imported.

>You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

i lived in rural uganda for two years and taught high school. i know exactly what i'm making into a mountain. these people can't afford toilet paper and soap. they shit into shallow holes in the ground. teachers read aloud from textbooks and students copy verbatim into trash notebooks (made out of discarded newspaper) because they can't afford textbooks. they eat boiled corn flour every day for their entire lives - a soda is a treat. just no clue man. how about this: spend the $1000 on a plane ticket and go see for yourself rather than sending rpis that no one will ever use and learn about what it's really like so you can then go on to educate others.

> I see solutions. You see problems.

lol. go ahead. do it. report back to us in a year how you've found the silver bullet the NGO community has been looking for for 40 years.

What do you think of http://one.laptop.org/ ?

africa doesn't need computers. it needs clean water, soap, anti-malarals, and nutritious food. cover those things and then worry about computers.

This is somewhat patronizing. Have you tried asking rural African schoolteachers what they most need?

Empirically, many people all over the developing world are prioritizing communication devices over those other things you listed.

>Have you tried asking rural African schoolteachers what they most need?

yes. many times.

How about: Each computer comes with a bar of soap, and with the skills learned you can compete in the world and afford all the soap you will ever need? I don’t see it as either/or.

When computers are used properly many can lift themselves from poverty.

I know because that’s what I did.

My man! Let them have soap!

Arguably what they need is the infrastructure to produce and distribute all those things. And the economic activity for people to afford them. Except as an emergency measure, aid tends to destroy all that. But a prerequisite is education, of course. And aren't computers a key part of modern education?

Can you just stick to Ghana or something more specific? There's various countries which are absolutely not in need of any of those things. For example, more than 10 million people in Tunisia living on a PPP gdp/capita of $1k a month who aren't worrying about soap. Or Egypt, a country of about 100 million people living on $12k PPP gdp/capita, if Tunisia was too small.

I'm not trying to say here that North-Africa is representative for all of Africa. But I am tired of people making the opposite claim.

I think you're confusing helping out this class with helping solving all of Africas problems.

no i'm not. i'm just responding to the guy that thinks power isn't a problem and if it is then solving it is easy-peasy.

why are you so triggered. stop attacking the guy

You may be right, but in the interview the teacher does not seem to share your concern:

I've read in news reports that you've received an outpouring of help from foreigners who want to donate computers to your school. Is that actually happening?

No, they are showing interest but nothing has been brought to the school. We are praying that they are able to organize themselves and present us with computers.

if i gave you a lambo with no gas in sight would you turn it down?

A Lamborghini would be pretty useless in most contexts, but if you gave someone a 1940s jeep they could definitely make use of it.

Ah, but they could sell it!

Ok, who can make this happen? Let’s show them we are not useless.

So a small solar + battery system to go with.

a 40w solar panel plus battery plus charge controller is not cheap (nor small). i knew some people that put those together but all told they were about $500 with locally sourced parts.

Just for interests sake, solar panels in the DR Congo are about a dollar a watt. However, getting durable batteries is a different story.

Why not just send him $100?

It's significantly cheaper to buy hardware in China.

Why would he buy hardware at all?

Because he's a computer teacher and obviously enjoys it, and since his identity is known if he cuts and runs he's basically throwing away his livelihood and community good will for a small short term gain. Whereas, if he uses it well and posts images of kids learning, then there's a real chance he could become an ambassador for similar projects elsewhere and lead a fulfilling and respected life of meaning? I dunno, sometimes you can trust and help people instead of being a bitter internet troll and it works out well for everyone. Sometimes not, but I'd prefer to believe in people :)

I'm not trolling at all. I'm not talking about cutting and running.

I'm saying it's arrogant and out of touch to think that if you're teaching Microsoft Word on a chalkboard the best use of $100 is buying a computer. Maybe he'd rather buy some medicine or a water purifier or even a lamp so he could teach at night as well.

Rigorous studies have demonstrated that direct giving is by far the best way to help someone in an impoverished environment.[1] Anything else is a declaration that you know better than they do and it enforces an idea that their situation is entirely their fault.

[1] https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/131/4/1973/246...

I was with you until the last sentence...

Perhaps a bit too hyperbolic, heh.

Don't forget 2-3X that for customs duties, bribes, man-hours running across town for paperwork, etc. And that assumes it arrives at the final destination unstolen.

In my travels through poorer countries (and their aduanas) I've noticed an almost overt hostility to importing the very tools that might allow productivity to increase. They seem to perceive computers as luxury goods when assigning duties. It's hard to imagine a public policy that is more self-defeating.

Yep. As I stated "I would actually be more worried about corrupt customs officials stealing the hardware." and "Someone who has a Facebook account (I don't) could ask the guy about shipping and customs issues in Ghana". It would probably make sense to expect some extra customs and shipping fees. That said, Ghana is definitely less screwy than many other countries in Africa.

Fastest/safest way to give them the hardware they need? Cash! Why try to reinvent the wheel solve many hard problems that people have already been working on for years ie. corrupt customs, transportation, language barriers... When you can just give cash and let them buy whatever computer they need or buy food if that happens to be why those former problems exist in the first place, but not sexy enough for npr to cover.

Bring on the downvotes.

For me the key point is here:

>I've read in news reports that you've received an outpouring of help from foreigners who want to donate computers to your school. Is that actually happening?

> No, they are showing interest but nothing has been brought to the school. We are praying that they are able to organize themselves and present us with computers.

That's how things are today. The so-called "internet community" is extremely good at bad things, such as shaming people, but when it comes to the positive, such as organizing a donation of a single computer to a school in Africa (which definitely has its challenges), nothing gets done.

Every community is good at easy things and bad at hard ones. Shaming is an easy and obviously efficient trade: a minute of your time in exchange for the primal feeling of satisfaction you get when enforcing your community's social norms. Donations involve an investment in time, money and mental energy for no personal benefit, which makes them hard to justify on an individual level and nearly impossible to coordinate on a wider scale.

These guys don't need computers, what the hell is anyone going to do with Microsoft Word experience in a place with no electricity or computers, besides LEAVE? They would be just as well off using typewriters.

They need an entire economy.

Is there any mention of his contact info?

The old version of Word with a real menu bar, not that ribbon abomination... I wonder how confused his students will be when they see the newer versions.

This also reminds me of how much harder it is to help or tell someone how to do something using a GUI over a CLI, especially over a "lo-fi" channel like a voice call --- requests to manipulate certain UI elements need to be qualified with descriptions of them, followed by the person on the other side describing in great detail what he/she sees or has changed. With a CLI, all you'd need to do is essentially send keypress events, and have the other side read back text. It's not unlike the difference in bandwidth usage of telnet or SSH vs X or RDP, and the "other side" of that classic saying "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Keyboard shortcuts help when attempting to explain what actions to perform. I try and keep my hand off the mouse as much as possible anyway. I wish the underlines weren't turned off by default now. There are more and more people who don't know about them now, and they're usually positively impressed when they discover them through me.

> not that ribbon abomination...

I like it. It was confusing at first as UI changes tend to be, but after a short period of time, it was so much easier to use.

To be honest, a computer is not that important. I would be graduating out of high school this year and my school still don't have any computers, doubt they will anytime soon. By no means, my education has suffered due to that reason. Computers are easy to pick up, most people have had fiddled with a phone at least and from there, computers are no big deal. I received my first computer just last April and I have already learned to code(more or less, still needs years of polishing). I am not trying to belittle the work of this teacher and he is awesome, but I think instead of trying to send them computers, initiatives should be taken to build a proper infrastructure first. Without proper infrastructure, no matter how many computers you send, very few will benefit from it.

That's how I was taught MS word in a classroom in Delhi circa 2004. The worst part of it was that the exam had questions like "Define title bar" and "Explain the File menu".

did it help in any way ?

I guess it was better than living not knowing that there is such a thing as MS Word.

On the other hand, they paid the opportunity cost of not spending their time learning something that could be actually used to improve their living situation (electrical/mechanical engineering comes to mind).

Indeed. Society needs the basics of carpentry, plumbing and sanitation, medicine, personal finance, cookery before any basic office automation.

Our grand-grandparents lived just fine without a software word processor but relied on safe water and healthy living conditions.

I understand the reason why Microsoft Word would be one of the things which would be taught, but somehow that makes this story that much more depressing.

My first thought was that most of my computer science classes in college were in classrooms without computers. I think that was a very good thing. It's interesting that this is instead teaching an understand of basic UI concepts and specific applications.

I took my Java exams on these guys:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_book_exam

The AP Computer Science exam is still done with pencil and paper. Not because it has any inherent value, but because the CollegeBoard is too lazy to update their test format.

I suspect it's more about maintaining a lowest common denominator. AP CS, last time I saw the data, is already mostly limited to wealthy schools, even compared to other AP exams. When there were two levels, the upper level was even more skewed.

Giving the exam electronically would mean schools would have to provide some kind of minimal computing environment to run the software. I'm sure there are some schools offering the course or at least letting motivated kids take the exam (I went to a better than decent high school, and Physics C was essentially an extracurricular with a standardized test at the end) who only have ancient Dell machines full of malware.

I went to a high school that could have easily offered an exam on computers (in fact, that’s where we took our state exams), so obviously my viewpoint is biased. Keeping that in mind, I think the skew towards wealthier schools will not worsen by requiring it to be taken on a computer. I’ve talked to people whose schools did not even offer the exam to students, because since they did not have the resources to provide a proper class, too few people expressed interest for it to be administered.

Yeah, there are plenty of schools that don't even try, which is really a shame.

But as far as I know most high schools don't really provide IT setups for particular exams. So I think there would almost certainly be schools where a random math teacher cobbled together machines for the course but just doesn't have the time or training to set them up for AP's testing requirements.

It's also not trivial to build testing software to run on machines used for other purposes. AP/The College Board is pretty serious about cheating. So what happens if the test software freezes and the student instinctively hits alt-tab and his IDE is open with his classwork?

I've done computer science courses in my university on pen and paper. Same for every course around mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering in general.

Not because people couldn't afford computers but because the don't help you a bit in understanding theory.

He should teach LibreOffice Writer instead so when actually some laptops arrive at the school they wouldn't have to waste money on MS product licenses.

Or they can just ask MS to donate licenses. Better to teach these kids practical skills instead if software nobody uses.

So you prefer to throw them into the MS mono culture pit.

Yes. This isn’t about open source idealism. You are teaching them job skills. MS Word is a useful job skill.

Understanding how to use any word processor is a job skill. LibreOffice supports Akan, an official language spoken in Ghana. Projects could translate the UI to Akan so even more people would be able to use it.

If you cannot transfer skills that you've learned in LO Writer to MS Word, then I don't think you've successfully learnt anything.

And really, they live in a place where nobody uses either software.

This is exactly what I wanted to write. But some people can't be helped... Our school also forced us MS Office and I had to learn LibreOffice myself. I have been using OO/LibreOffice since I finished school and I am not looking back. It's sad that some people don't know about alternatives and are paying for Office360 regularly, they are like drug addicts.

Rich nations tend to overthink primary education (it's a little different post-secondary).

Unmet education goals are blamed on quality of the building, local funding, teachers, school-boards, politicians, standardized tests, etc. Reality is you don't need iPads, you don't need graphical calculators, or slick modern buildings and pristine books. You just need parents that care. If a kid graduates from primary or secondary school and is functionally illiterate, it was the parents that failed them, not teachers, not the school, not the country.

I agree with you but I think teachers are very important. Good teachers inspire students and help them learn things that they did not know they could.

For sure. This is a pro-teacher statement because teachers always carry the brunt of criticism when kids fail. It's not reasonable to expect teachers to raise kids. Obviously there are bad actors, but by and large teachers in America are good.

In Chennai, India where I live many government school doesn't have a computer. For these students computer is a dream. I remember how students from these schools visited our office and touched a computer for their first time. Its really sad to see this at my hometown.

I wonder if he teaches word because it's mandatory or if it's a choice. Because if this people live in a village without electricity and computers, maybe there are better skills they can learn before microsoft word.

I wonder if rural areas like these have libraries, how close they are, and how funded they are, if at all. Rather than donate to a school, a program that funds libraries in areas like these, which in this day and age aren't only for books, but for digital media too, could go a long way in providing access not only for students, but for adults as well.

in rural areas like this the literacy rate is a tiny fraction of the population. the largest stores of books are at schools and they are mostly donated textbooks.

source: lived in rural africa for two years and taught high school math.

Interesting. For a while now, I've thought about the idea that large "scientific" businesses (from software engineering, even to business) could somehow directly profit from educating people in these areas. Similar to how large companies in the US pay for people to get their graduate degrees. Unfortunately I'm sure it would be taken advantage of by bad actors.

https://andela.com/

Is there any way to donate a computer to this gentleman and his class?

Computer and a solar panel. A 2 sq. ft. one should do.

Seriously, has anyone organized a donation drive for this school yet? Would gladly participate.

I really enjoyed the pithy responses like "They are lacking more than just equipment." I wonder if his newfound fame will find him some donors.

Microsoft Africa supposedly said something about donating a system.

But I think the broader problem is as he says: why would he not teach this way? In rural areas, it's normal.

This is what OLPC was supposed to be about. Solving a systemic lack of access, not simply donating to one person because it hit social media and we feel bad.

Loved that too. Forced me to remember some classic laconic phrases.

The wikipedia page is a goldmine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconic_phrase

From the photo, I wonder whether that classroom has electricity, or not?

Is there really any value at all to rote memorization of an outdated GUI they're probably never going to use?

Also,

>ma students >wat will make them understand Wat am teaching

Some teacher he is. If he paid a little more attention to English literacy the kids will be able to RTFM for any software package they want to use regardless of version.

Frankly computers in schools do more harm than good. Moving a mouse and clicking things on the screen is quick and easy to pick up once they find themselves needing to use a computer, whereas good reading, writing, mathematics and critical thinking skills are as hard as ever to learn, and will be even after the next big paradigm shift to come after computers. What this teacher is doing is even a bigger waste of time than dicking around on the computer, dicking around on an slow, inaccurate and unusable hand emulation of a computer.

How many people will be able to even afford Microsoft Word in Ghana? He probably knows most people he's teaching there will end-up pirating it once they can even afford a cheap computer.

He would do a better job teaching them to use LibreOffice or even Google Docs, at least that doesn't have to be pirated.

In the developed world piracy seems like this big naughty thing you shouldn't do. In places like Ghana, and many other undeveloped areas, its considered normal and expected. Provided you can even afford a computer.

I'm a bit skeptic about this guy. I looked at his fb: he has a car, nice watches, clothes, smartphone, internet access, fb account, nice house, but... he can't afford a cheap laptop? Not sure the situation is so dramatic.

He is economical.

I don't have the means nor the knowledge to solve their problem but I'm quite sure if we redirect the conversation towards how it could be solved - in the very least it would prove to be an interesting thought exercise.

He already mentioned that foreigners have shown interest in wanting to help but nothing has come out of it. We also have to keep in mind that it seems they don't have electricity.

What can be done?

Also, they are not the only ones with the same problem. How could we replicate it to other areas. Whether it be a kind of pay it forward system. I don't know. I'm just throwing ideas out there.

Has no computers but has a smartphone and uses it only to take a selfie and a pic of his drawings to show the web how good he is at drawing details and gets more attention by saying he does that for the kids

I’d take it with a bit sense of humour. If there are not computers, electricity and internet, then how he could know what to draw in detail and how post to Facebook. I bet he used a projector to draw the image in the first place. Which does not mean that they are not in great need of many essentials. My own first Basic programs were written in a paper, from a TV school program back in 1985 or so. It took 5+ years until I got hand on a real computer for the first time. It was USSR, Africa of the times.

I born in Uzbekistan. My dad bought me russian clone of ZX Spectrum [1] (8-bit, 3.5 MHz CPU, 48K RAM) in 1994. Which I actively used till 2000!

The funny thing is that I didn't look at my lovely ZX Spectrum as sad outdated piece of hardware. Quite opposite, I actually lived in 1980s, it was exciting time with my ZX Spectrum.

Back to education. In 1994, I was kinda troubled 10 years old kid, who completely hated school. Along with ZX Spectrum, my dad bought me a few books for kids about programming on Sinclair BASIC [2].

In a few years, I learned Sinclair BASIC myself without any external help. Around 1998, I discovered fast world of Assembly language. Cool thing is that I had only book about Assembly language but I didn't have Assembly Translator, so I had to use machine code directly [3].

So by 2000, I knew very well my ZX Spectrum. I knew all these secret ROM subroutines, I knew all these optimization tricks like if you put performance critical code in lower addresses, then it run faster. And if you put this code to video memory, it works even faster. So I learned myself how computer works and basics of computer science myself. My dad wasn't engineer. My school was useless in every single aspect of education.

In 2000, when I switched to Windows 98 SE on Pentium 166. In just a few days, I learned myself Windows 98 interface and how to use all basic programs there. It's because I was already exposed to some simple Window-based applications on my ZX Spectrum.

However, I couldn't grasp how to program on Windows 98. I had Delphi. But it looked so bloated and complicated. Unlike ZX Spectrum, I couldn't see full picture. As a sad result, after few failed attempts to program, I abandoned programming for next 7 years.

In 2007, when I finally switched to Knoppix Linux (and then Mandriva Linux), I finally start writing programs in C language. Linux as environment and C as a language were welcoming and friendly to programming!

Conclusion for me: If I were exposed to MS Windows from day one, I most probably wouldn't self-learn programming. ZX Spectrum was very simple and very clear in order to understand basics of computers and programming. ZX Spectrum was a perfect companion in the world of programming and computers for completely uneducated kid without any external guidance. On contrary, MS Windows and these bloated object-oriented programming language with fat IDE are unwelcoming. I highly doubt that average 10 years old uneducated kid without any guidance could grasp full complexity between you and machine. I even doubt kid would even find a way to start programming in the first place! ZX Spectrum had a prompt to programming on very start! Even to load game, you have to run BASIC command [4] (I had only tape recorder, so no TR-DOS [5] till 1999!). After you master ZX Spectrum, it takes just a week to self-learn how to use MS Windows (at least Windows 98).

Talking about computer education for kids in Ghana: I honestly believe they don't need expensive computers to run bloated, expensive and programmer unfriendly MS Windows. They do need modern microcomputers similar to ZX Spectrum. And the country can afford microcomputers. In 1990s, Uzbekistan suffered hyperinflation, average salary was about $5-$10 per month. It's not the end of the world if you clever about using limited resources.

Actually going further, I would say that even in the first world, kids should start using microcomputers in order to self-educate themselves about programming.

Bottom line: CS education could be extremely cheap. Most probably, 99% of world population can afford microcomputers and a couple of old programming books (by the way, I didn't even used original books, it was xerox-copied pages, or sometimes, text was reprinted in matrix-printer!).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Spectrum

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_BASIC

[3] http://www.worldofspectrum.org/ZXBasicManual/zxmanchap26.htm...

[4] http://www.retroisle.com/sinclair/zxspectrum/howtouse.php

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TR-DOS

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcomputer

I imagine this would create a lot of excitement to "use the real thing", and inspire people to go further with this.

Whereas if you are used to ipads since 2 years old, MS Word probably doesn't seem so exciting.

Probably! When I was a kid I learned elementary Basic from Russ Walter's Secret Guide to Computers about a year before I ever put my hands on an actual computer.

I think it was helpful to know computers were nothing mysterious, they just followed instructions. Although I remember being really confused about whether "print" statements printed to paper or just showed things on the screen (which I had never thought of as printing).

The most disappointing thing about this, is that the article didn’t include any link or info how one could, ya know, maybe donate a computer to the school. How hard would that have been? Ffs.

Not to be first worldly but wouldn’t it be better to spend this time teaching them more math etc.?

Can we crowdfund these people some laptops? I’ll pitch in.

They can have one of my computers

they should do a donorschoose campaign to get donations, it will go viral

He could be teaching them philosophy or maths or literature or ethics. He's drawing a UI on a chalkboard by hand! What a world.

Aren't computer skills a prerequisite for office work everywhere now? So maybe that familiarity with computer UI will help students later.

He is drawing a UI on a chalkboard by hand.

How does that change anything that GP said?

There are numberless other topics that could be covered; growing food, learning how to travel on a budget, logical reasoning, inference, and yet he is wasting valuable class time by redrawing an interface that is drawn by a computer on a screen in less than a second. To me this is a paramount example of how education can be used for time wasting by professors to simply give the guise of knowledge. He could be explaining what bold is without redrawing the whole interface, he could explain what a justified alignment is without redrawing scrollbars, it's utterly unnecessary and not only points to the hysterical inequality of nations but also wastes valuable time that students could be using to critically analyze a profound quote or even a mathematical symbol. The fact that computers are so commonplace elsewhere does not make this forgivable or acceptable, this teacher is wasting time teaching nothing, doing something that a screen can do in a fraction of a second, and is somehow receiving international praise and acclaim when clearly any single organization that covered this story could have donated solar panels and computers to this classroom. Horrendous and deplorable.

> Aren't computer skills a prerequisite for office work everywhere now?

Not at all, especially in places where paperwork is done on paper.

> So maybe that familiarity with computer UI will help students later.

90% of the students will not have need or opportunity to use that word processor before the UI will change completely.

Philosophy tends to be higher up on the hierarchy of needs when your income is a dollar a day.

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