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

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

#101

Post by alangibson » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 9:14 AM UTC

teej wrote: post #74

pavanred wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

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 y…

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.

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

#102

Post by Symbiote » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 9:16 AM UTC

y4mi wrote: post #92

candiodari wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be surprised a) how common solar panels are (and how easy it is to partially repair broken solar panels) b) how simple they are to make if efficiency doesn't matter (optional glas + conductive grid + any black isolator + aluminum foil will result in power delivered between the grid and the aluminum. Paper (even white laser printer paper frankly) will do fine as isolator, also I heard balloon plastic works very…

> c) how long batteries last if you only ever use 5% of their capability not very long if they're alkaline. And its doubtful anything but their phones got li-on batteries in ghana, the markup probably isn't worth it. And there probably are hardly any phones. so mostly no li-on batteries anywhere. but i've never been there, just economically speaking.

I haven't been to Ghana, but I have been to Senegal, which is supposedly poorer.

Maybe a third of the people had a smartphone, most people had a basic phone. The smartphones were $100 Chinese Android things.

I felt perfectly safe wandering round with my 3 year old smartphone out, since I'd clearly taken less care of it than the average Senegalese would have.

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

#103

Post by ggg9990 » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 9:25 AM UTC

grecy wrote: post #93

factsaresacred wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> 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…

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.

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

#104

Post by csomar » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 9:26 AM UTC

teej wrote: post #22

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 i…

$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.

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

#105

Post by shakna » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 9:40 AM UTC

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #98

shakna wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, bas…

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.

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

#106

Post by IkmoIkmo » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 9:55 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #104

teej wrote: post #22

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 i…

$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.

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

#107

Post by mcfrankline » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 10:00 AM UTC

teej wrote: post #22

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 i…

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.

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

#108

Post by IkmoIkmo » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 10:09 AM UTC

mlevental wrote: post #36

mirimir wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

#109

Post by ferbivore » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 10:10 AM UTC

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #100

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…

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.

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

#110

Post by teej » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 10:25 AM UTC

mcfrankline wrote: post #107

teej wrote: post #22

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 i…

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 aff…

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.