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

#131

Post by jacobmoe » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 12:59 PM UTC

ggg9990 wrote: post #103

grecy wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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?

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

#132

Post by oxymoran » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 1:01 PM UTC

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.

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

#133

Post by M_Bakhtiari » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 1:27 PM UTC

Is there really any value at all to rote memorization of an outdated GUI they're probably never going to use?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

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

#134

Post by hi41 » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

macspoofing wrote: post #119

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 secon…

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.

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

#135

Post by okaram » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 1:44 PM UTC

kw71 wrote: post #63

sandGorgon wrote: post #48

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, y…

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 u…

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

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

#136

Post by Abishek_Muthian » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 2:18 PM UTC

vertis wrote: post #85

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…

Thanks.

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

#137

Post by xiphias » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 2:26 PM UTC

girvo wrote: post #127

hordeallergy wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Takealot, which is the biggest online store in SA accepts Bitcoin since summer of 2014, so nowdays it shouldn't be that hard to buy a computer

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

#138

Post by sah2ed » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

schmookeeg wrote: post #90

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…

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 o…

Are you also circumnavigating Africa like HN user @grecy ?

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

#139

Post by trisimix » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 2:52 PM UTC

They can have one of my computers

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

#140

Post by misakwa » Sat, Mar 03, 2018, 2:57 PM 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…

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.