Design that Matters Field Journal

Notes from APAF review

BACKGROUND: Follow-up meeting with Madam Dembele nee Jacqueline Goita and her students. There are approximately 800 women in the program in 6 classes between the ages of 15-22. They do offer exceptions to women older than 22. These are women who have not received traditional education before. The night time class (1.5 hrs long, weekly??) teaches women how to read and write, IEC (Informacion ecoute communication), cooking, clothesmaking, trade, health and maternal issues, as well as social behavior. Orientations are held during the day and the actual class is held at night. Currently all teaching is conducted in Bambara, but they are looking to expand the program, which runs from October - June to a second level which would include lessons in French. Current classroom tools include books and the chalkboard. Some classes in Bamako are lit, but those in the villages are not. After completion of the program evaluations are presented and gifts are given to the best students. The worst students are given T-shirts to encourage them to try harder. If there are students who fail the course, they may take it again. The program is funded by NGOs so that the students pay nothing. They don't always have enough books for the students to read.

LOCATION: Mairie de Quartier, Mali
TIME: 8:30 PM, Jul 28
ATTENDANCE: 67 Women Students (20 Infants), 3 Teachers, and the Kinkajou Team

CONTACT:

1. Maria Goita, Director of the ONG Apperie a la promotion des aides menogeres, (Bambara) l'honneur de la femme


2. Madam Dembele neé Jacqueline Goita


3. Adama Traore, Animateur ONG APAF Muso Danbe


4. Guidioama Home, Secretaire/Director


5. Doh née Roreian Goita

NOTES:
Student Feedback

• If it is too dark in the room the teacher cannot see the students in the back of the room and does not call on them


• Pictures are too small and faint, line weight is too thin


• What if it breaks? How will they fix it?


• Overall, they liked it

Teacher Feedback

• For learning how to read and interpret images it works well


• Very grateful that we tested the device with them first


• ADVANTAGES




• Currently they do not have enough books for the class


• Able to give all students same reading material concurrently


• Most useful for students who already know how to read and are learning something new from the material on the cassette. May be most useful in all classes once the students know how to read.


• The letters show up great ("c'est tres bien")


• Economical (saves energy from using lights which costs approximately 75k-100k per class per month, cost of books)


• Made for night use


• Fun for students - like a movie theater that creates something different from their daily lives


• They think the students were more interactive than usual - asked more questions, were attentive, answered questions and volunteered to read aloud


• Very easy to use, even getting started


• They think it will make the students feel better learning with new technology instead of old torn up books


• Everyone can follow along at the same point in the readings and teacher can point out text for entire class




• CONCERNS




• Depending on a machine


• Maintenance - suggested that each country has a team that is trained to fix and maintain the device, otherwise it is garbage


• How long will it last?


• Where will they get batteries? What is the cost?


• How can they make their own cassette? Especially important for villages


• Students can't write at the same time because it is too dark and writing is taught by mimicking the teacher

Technical Observations

• The students noticed a few typo errors in the WE program (p. 44, p. 48)


• The light began to diminish after 20 minutes of running it. This is because we had not substituted in a set of fresh batteries before the class (they were the same batteries we had been using for the entire trip)


• New batteries produced a bright image


• Slight flickering in the image


• Need to determine optimal picture height and angle of projection


• Words were bright enough and bold enough for everyone to read


• Images were too small, fine lined, and detailed to be legible


• Page numbers need to be larger


• Blank pages confused the teacher, indicated end of tape

OUR COMMENTS:

• From an outsider's perspective it looks like Mdm Dembelenee holds a dominating presence. She is a woman of her word. The group of over 60 women came together in a community and support network. It looks like a great program. They have chants and clap to break the ice. They encourage each other with applause after a woman answers a question correctly. Women are welcome to bring their babies to class and many of them do. In attendance there were 67 women and 22 babies. The meeting was very exciting. It was like watching our dream come true. 6 months ago I would have only imagined being able to show the Kinkajou to a classroom full of students and we had over 60 women being taught by a teacher with the Kinkajou. - Kateri


• The Kinkajou seemed to mesh seamlessly with their class. The teachers and students immediately understood how to use the device. The teachers were able to teach with it quite easily, and the students seemed eager to learn from the Kinkajou. The biggest problem with the device is that the projection is too low-it should be raised by at least 2-3 feet; the problem with using a book or box to raise the projector is that it obstructs the view, angling the Kinkajou produces a distorted image. After this first real Kinkajou test, I am excited about the prospect of its viability, but first we must: drive down the cost, determine an ideal manner of producing content, raise the projected image and determine some means of local maintenance. -Beto


• The problems experienced having the image projected so everyone could see are the same ones experienced with slide and LCD projectors even in modern classrooms. This is the reason why most projectors are hung from the ceiling.