Tuesday, November 30, 2010
It has been a busy last few days since my last entry. I had a full weekend in which I was to attend 4 different ceremonies but ended up (I have to say, thankfully), attending only 2. It gets difficult to sit in for hours on end in the heat, listening to presenters, even if they are interesting.
Saturday morning was spent at Kumasi High School at their 6th annual Speech and Prize Giving Day where student and staff awards are given as well as presentations from government officials and even royal family (Ashanti Chief, his Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II). Kumasi High is a public all boys boarding and day high (senior) school in the heart (of which there are several) of the city of Kumasi. It is doing very well with private donations and boasts over 2000 students, a computer and science lab, as well as music and arts programs. The demonstrations from their school band and cadets were spectacular. I have tried to download a video of this to no avail unfortunately, but there are a few pictures on the web album.
The Regional Director of Education and the Director General of Education both spoke eloquently and effectively to the theme of the day: the role of information and communication technology in quality education. I was so impressed and thought about our own North American schools where ICT has come in with less structure than it has no choice but to enter here, with the concerted effort and cost it requires. I presume that this, hopefully, will allow for computers to be used here as respected tools with their students and not as a rightful toys of our youth. They spoke about the potential opportunity of having access to internet in classes and for teachers but also the increased issue of discipline (I can’t imagine a teacher with 50-120 students, having to ensure everyone is doing their work and not on facebook or MSN…) . I did come away with the idea that for the Adumasa school, the computer lab is a priority to get up and running (refurbished computer equipment is so cheap here; it would cost less than $1000 from my rough calculations to equip them with 20 computers and Broadband internet for the year) as well as a laptop and projector for each of the schools (primary, junior and senior) for the teachers to show educational videos, documentaries, power points and even for tests, so that, unlike me yesterday, having to draw diagrams and write out an entire test on the board for the students to copy down and then complete (it takes so long and is so difficult to manage cheating etc..). I had hoped to figure out a way to show my grade 5 and 6 science classes a Magic School bus DVD on the Body Systems to show to the science class on my laptop (to give them the a captivating, entertaining visual of all the abstract theory we’d discussed) but how can you do this with 65 students to all see? I gave up the idea and may just offer the video at the guest house, with treats, as a positive reinforcement for work effort to those students who achieved the highest marks on the test (kind of defeats the purpose however, of an educational aid to those who need it).
On the note of technology, my parents have offered to purchase a multifunctional printer for the school here (yeah Mom and Ron!). Julianna, Prince and the IT teacher are so pleased as this makes life so much easier administratively as documents can be faxed and printed from the school computers. Unfortunately, even the high end stores we went to yesterday did not accept credit cards. I am scrambling to figure out how money is transferred for their projects (specifically Rotary Sunrise in Cornwall) usually so I can buy and set up the machine before I leave. We did consider having it ordered and shipped from Canada, but Fei is concerned about getting taxed upon entry here, an unknown amount and an issue to avoid.
The costs, with the currency exchange, for ICT equipment here are remarkably low and brand new projectors and laptops are less here than at home. I am still hoping to set up Appiah (Samual) and Julianna with a laptop each and Fei’s has to be more than 10 years old, so I am considering buying one for myself here and giving mine to, say, Fei, and then his can go to Appiah or Julianna and then my old one can be sent from home… I am going to do some research online and see what I can manage. I have to go to class, will finish this later…
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