Defining success

Priyanka and Bryan are in Takaungu and are already conducting teacher and students assessments in order to track the progress of the program. With their evolving understanding of the XOs, the country and the village and the implications of introducing these laptops in to this small community, they established their goals.

"What is success for us: Success is having the building complete, having power installed, having the teachers excited about the XO use and able to integrate it into their curriculum and allowing students to explore 'learning by doing' rather than just being instructed on what to do.

Eventually, we hope that security will be a very minute issue through community ownership of the program and students will be allowed to take the laptops home, because learning could be enhanced.

Challenges: power, corruption of Kenyan government and providing appropriate services, sustainability of project on teacher's part and student's interest in using them." - Priyanka and Bryan

First week of training

This week and next, Priyanka, Bryan and two teachers from the Vutakaka school are in Kigali for OLPC's training. They will be learning about the XOs, activity based learning, and planning for their deployment. Back in the States, we are brainstorming about the best ways to introduce the laptops to the community of Takaungu and to conduct teacher training. Breona will be heading to Takaungu as Priyanka and Bryan are returning at the beginning of August. She will be able to pick off where they left off and help to ensure the sustainablity of the program. Emma will be in the village for the months of August and September, along with another East African Center (EAC) intern, Kris, assisting with integrating the laptops into the school's ciriculum and Jen will fly in the winter, spendng a few months handling any issues that have come up by then and possibly bringing a set of 30 new laptops with her for the incoming class of students!