Teaching in Low Resource Environments

Introduction

Let us start with some pictures!

The Govt School System in BLR

Organization

  • 9 Blocks
  • 4 South + Anekal
  • 4 North
  • We are sitting in North-4
  • The nearest school is GKLPS Gantiganahalli
  • 1400+ Primary schools
  • Medium of Instruction: Kannada (1204), Urdu (178), Tamil (30), Telugu(8)
  • Serves over 250,000 children

So What are the Challenges?

Infrastructure

  • Very few Rooms
  • Cleanliness, Hygiene
  • Playground?
  • No Security: Public Access after school hours
  • Computers?
  • Storage?
  • Reliable Electricity, Wiring, Grounding?
  • Drinking Water, Toilets
    • ~ 75% schools had e.coli bacteria in drinking water

But there is a wide variety here and we must not generalize!

So What are the Challenges?

Personnel

  • Some HMs, Teachers are unsympathetic
  • School Dept Mgmt Structure
    • Many idlers and politickers
  • “PT Masters”. Nuff said.
  • Some do not show up on time
  • Some astonishingly committed Teachers
  • Some very creative Teachers (Maths Sir at Kaggalipura)
  • Some travel astonishing distances to get to school
    • Epic commutes (GKLPS Ragihalli)!!

Akshara’s Library System

  • 400 Hubs
  • 1000 Spokes
  • All mediums of Instruction
  • ~ 600 Akshara-employed staff
G Hub1 Hub1 Hub2 Hub2 spoke0 Spoke spoke0--Hub1 spoke1 Spoke spoke1--Hub1 spoke2 Spoke spoke2--Hub1 spoke3 Spoke spoke3--Hub2 spoke4 Spoke spoke4--Hub2 spoke5 Spoke spoke5--Hub2 spoke6 Spoke spoke6--Hub2
Figure 1: Library Hub Spoke Model

Components of the Akshara Library Programme

  • Getting 400+ rent-free rooms from the School Dept
  • Hub-Spoke Allocation (Travelling Salesman Problem)
  • Content Identification (Books, Languages)
  • Content Allocation
  • Content Management
  • Hiring 600+ people
  • Training in three Languages
  • Performance Monitoring
  • Advocacy and Reporting
  • Competition with other NGOs…

Components of the Akshara Library Programme

The “Creative Stuff”

  • RPGs based on Books
  • Using ICT in the Libraries
  • Using LEGO in the Libraries
  • Research Experiment ( RCT )
  • May I say this? POSH Training
  • Creating Volunteer Events
  • Creating Community Festivals
  • “Designers at School” Competition
  • Promoting and Testing for Creativity

Who Helped Us?

Partners

  • Department of Public Instruction
  • Donors:

    • United Way India

    • ING Vysya
    • Inventure Academy
    • 40K Foundation (Sydney, AU)

Volunteers

  • ING Vysya
  • FIS Global

What Did the Libraries Look Like?

Teaching with Role Play Games

RPG: Pictures-1

RPG: Pictures-2

RPG Design Method

Step#1: Book Mining

  • Read the book aloud!
  • Find Characters, Events, Places, Emotions…
  • Document these for each Book in a searchable Excel (Horrors!)

RPG Design Method

Step#2: Curriculum Mining

  • Curriculum is specified in terms of Minimum Learning Levels (MLLs)
  • Each Subject, each class
  • Short Crisp phrases or sentences:
    • Math in real life
    • Simple Bills
    • Use Road Signs
    • Traffic Rules

RPG Design Method

Step3: Socratic Questions to Start

  • Questions(3-4) bring a specific aspect of the book into focus

  • Book Mining shows which aspects to focus on and to develop questions on

  • Allow one to depart from the specifics of book and go more general

  • General Ideas can motivate an Activity

  • E.g. “The Village Fair” → Things available in a fair → Buy and Sell → Like things unlike things

RPG Design Method

Step4: Create Role-Play-Game

  • Book Mining done earlier + Questions created above
  • Brainstorming, Word-Association Games
  • Clues from Miming and Dumb Charades
  • Using modifications of common childhood games
  • Google News, You Tube videos
  • Public events, News Stories and TV advertisements provide a fertile ground for Activity creation.
  • Eg: “Grandpa Fish and the Radio” → methods of communication → TV, Radio, Phone, Post, Telegram, Visual Communication Signs

  • Activity was “bought” from Akshara by Karadi Tales…Hah!

RPG Design Method

Step5: Verification: The Right Questions at the End

  • Go from General to Specific
  • Map the Role Play learnings / concepts back to events and characters in the book
  • Socratic Questions(3-4) as to how the role play relates to the book
  • E.g “Ruby Red Rose Red”:
    • How did Raju share his fruit?
    • How did they cut it?
    • Which fruit in the book already nicely divided up? ( Fractions activity with Origami)

RPG Design Process Metaphor

  • Think of the RPG Design Process as a Spindle shape…

  • Narrow to Broad: Book -> Questions -> Game: Specific to General Concept

  • Broad to Narrow: Game -> Questions -> Book: General to Specific

  • Book is “Specific”

  • Concept ( i.e. MLL) is “General”

  • Need to leave the specific of the book to the general of the concept and return.

What did we achieve?

  • Set Theory with Class 3 kids!!
  • Rayleigh Scattering with only body as props
  • Solar System and Eclipses
  • Time Zones -…..
  • Traffic
  • Math in Daily Life
  • Shapes, Sizes and Objects
  • Communication Tech and How it works
  • “Citizen” Systems and Services ( Police / Ration Shops…)

Sample RPG Document

  • Yup it is the one about Rayleigh Scattering!

Download PDF File

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Teaching with Lego

Lego Activity Design Method

  • Very Similar Process with Book Mining
  • Activity Used Lego Model building before reading the Book
  • Models first, then Socratic Questions
  • Then read the Book and more Socratic Questions
  • Even more free and spontaneous
  • RPG had a “process” and “steps”;
  • With LEGO, there was more freedom up front in model-making
  • Mapping the Models to Book was documented for the Librarian

Lego Activity Pictures

Lego Activities Document

A Lego Community Festival

Lego Habba in the Press

Teaching with Tech

Using Edubuntu Linux in the Libraries

What Does Edubuntu Offer?

Games

  • TuxMath
  • Stellarium
  • Celestia

Regular Stuff

  • Office Suite
  • Browser
  • Audio and Movie Player with Codecs

What Does Edubuntu Offer?

  • Celestia: a 3D Space Simulator Celestia lets you explore our universe in three dimensions.

Celestia simulates many different types of celestial objects. From planets and moons to star clusters and galaxies, you can visit every object in the expandable database and view it from any point in space and time. The position and movement of solar system objects is calculated accurately in real time at any rate desired.

Why Edubuntu?

  • Free!! Like Sunshine and Fresh Air!
  • Resistant to Power Failure
  • Resistant to Viruses
  • Lots of Games and Software

Making the System Work

  • Resource Team: 5 days in office, 25 days in the Field!
  • Set of Routes with 3-5 libraries
  • Routes were randomly chosen for the week
  • Goran Eckvall’s Creative Dimensions to “evaluate a Library”
  • Mapped for Library activity
  • Both Atmosphere and conduct of the Librarian were measured using this rubric
  • Rewards (cash) and “reprimands” for poor performance

Download PDF File

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An RCT into Teaching

  • Randomized Control Treatment Projects into the Efficacy of the Libraries
  • Do you want to hear about this?

Conclusion

So How did We Resolve the Challenges?

  • Designing Activities is hard, so it was done centrally
  • Librarians were trained on execution only
  • Some Librarians were involved in “user testing” and even conceptualization stage
  • Time Tables so as to minimize commuting for Librarians
  • Even designed a Akshara Librarians Bag! (Didn’t work…)
  • Rejuvenated over 400 computers with Edubuntu
  • Even left Edubuntu DVDs in Libraries in case
  • Trained Librarians in Edubuntu + Activities

The End


Thank You! Questions?


arvind.venkatadri@gmail.com

Arvind V July 2024