KIDSENABLED ISOC FUNDED PROJECT FINAL REPORT Prepared by: Asim Zaheer (ISOC Fellow Member) October 2008 Engineering Manager asim_zaheer @ mentor.com Mentor Graphics Corporation www.mentor.com MSCS student at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) 05030098@lums.edu.pk
Table of Contents Overview...3 Initial planning...3 Meeting with American-Lyceum School Principal...3 School Selection...3 Meeting with Head of Muslim Society...4 Meeting with Principal, Muslim High School...4 Lab Preparation...4 Content Management System (http://kids-enabled.org)...5 Curriculum Digitization...5 Mentorship Program for teaching via CMS and Internet...5 Impact Evaluation...6 School Admin Buy in:...6 IT Awareness:...6 CMS System:...6 Mentorship Program:...6 Ideas on Sustainability and Replication...7 In Pictures...7
Overview KidsEnabled is a knowledge-dissemination project that is targeted towards internet access, awareness and IT enabled education of the children of lowerincome/class families in Lahore, Pakistan its 2nd largest city. The idea has been given form and shape by Asim Zaheer, ISOC fellow, with help from Lahore University of Mangement Sciences (LUMS) faculty and software development firm Enablistics.com Three main objectives have been identified initially for this project, namely: Enable broad-band internet access to a selected school (by Govt/NGO) for lower-income families in quickest possible manner. Develop a targeted Content Management System software with custommade multimedia contents for IT learning for children Develop a mentorship program through which mentors will periodically participate, and visit those children in schools to train, educate and disseminate knowledge via content management system. Initial planning After project kick-off, various execution plans were discussed with LUMS faculty in order to best reach out to school-going children of low-income families residing in outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan. Meeting with American-Lyceum School Principal In order to gain first hand knowledge of teaching, execution and reach, we arranged a meeting with Tahir Nadeem Qadri, Principal of American-Lyceum school (http://www.americanlyceum.edu.pk), situated in Township, Lahore. Following items were discussed during multiple meetings, in order to come up with a roadmap for project execution: Common issues in teaching for primary school kids Existing practices in IT enabled education for kids Teachers training planning School Selection We have researched a few schools/ngos that are catering to low-income families children education. Muslim Society, Township Lahore, is non-profit NGO operating three branches in Township/Green Town area of Lahore. Around 250 kids of various classes
are being taught in the three branches. The subjects being taught are all approved by Punjab province, Govt of Pakistan. The running expenses of the schools are all borne through philanthropic donations. Kids being admitted to the school hail from families having average income of around USD 60 per month. The working class of these families typically includes house-maids, peons, daily wage workers. Meeting with Head of Muslim Society A meeting was arranged with head of Muslim Society, Mr Saleem Ahmed Bukhari, who provided us an overview of the society s workings, its administration, typical problems faced by the branches, and future plans. One of the branches, Muslim High School, near Karim Chowk, Township was identified during the meeting that had an empty room available at its premises. Meeting with Principal, Muslim High School After identification of the school, we arranged a kickoff meeting with Principal of the Muslim High School, Karim Chowk, Township. ISOC s agenda, the kidsenabled project was floated during the meeting and we got a very positive response from the Principal as well as Muslim Society Representative accompanying us in the meeting. We were shown around the school and classes in progress and were provided with primary classes curriculum in local Language (Urdu) and in English language. No of Teachers being Trained 6 Total Students in the Branch 160 # of Students in kick-start 40 (Grade 1 students) program # of Students to be enrolled in the program 100 (Grade 2 Grade 5) starting mid-jan 2009 Lab Preparation Muslim High School, catering to lower income families children, is being run mainly on philanthropic donations. As expected, the school premises, a rented and converted bungalow, cannot boast of state of the art facilities. We noted that the small class room is already fully occupied and the designated room for establishment of computer lab was itself small, with no networking/proper electrical arrangement that is a must of a lab. To accommodate, a portion of the funds have been diverted for above. A subcontract was initiated by to help renovate the room, with proper electrical wiring, networking outlets, LAN switch and arrangement of lab furniture.
Due to limited space available, infrastructure for five PCs was designed, each one connected with a separate UPS. In Pakistan, although internet usage is low, but telecom growth, vis-a-vis mobiles, has been very high, with telecomm density being more than 50%. For Internet connectivity, we selected Wateen (www.wateen.com) WIMAX solution rolled out in Lahore city in 2007. This type of broadband access is mainly done via mobile operators Base Stations (towers), hence bypassing traditional need of landline access, DSL connectivity issues, and red-tape/time lag associated with landline providers in the area. Broadband access via WIMAX at 512Kbps was successfully tested out during labestablishment phase. Content Management System (http://kids-enabled.org) Enablistics.com was engaged in the project for design and development of a content management system (CMS) for primary classes curriculum, so that contents can be updated/published in future as well, when more classes coursework becomes digitized and available. Open-source software has been utilized for development of the CMS. It has been divided into 3 parts: 1) Core curriculum (available via authenticated access over http://kids-enabled.org 2) Selected external URLs relevant to core curriculum 3) Administration section for management of core curriculum pages and selection of external URLs Curriculum Digitization We have collected primary education (English and Urdu) curriculum for grades 1 3. Selected contents have been digitized by scanning, and English/Urdu alphabets have been phonetized by embedding voice pronunciation in both languages. These contents are available on the portal (http://kids-enabled.org) once logged in. Mentorship Program for teaching via CMS and Internet As a starting point, Enablistics.com is providing extended support for 3 months to train school s existing teachers of primary classes via CMS portal. Following are the goals for this program: Arrange extra periods in a day for enrolled classes for computer/internet education Get teachers and kids, started on computer peripherals and Internet Train teachers for the usage of Content Management System (http://kidsenabled.org) so that they can teach effectively.
Impact Evaluation There are certain visible impacts that we have noted, though we anticipate that it will take its due course of time to have results as stated in kidsenabled project agenda. School Admin Buy in: The idea, its execution plan and integration, has been done with a constant reporting to school administration. They have been excited about this IT enabled education plan, and we have found administrative staff very helping and accommodative in project s execution. IT Awareness: In one of the meetings with school principal, we have come to know, (besides enablistics.com extended support to train teachers) the school administration is also now looking to hire a fulltime teacher with necessary computing skills to further this cause. CMS System: Completed and now already published over the internet. During initial stages of IT training to teachers, all of the participants are to be given hands-on confidence to start extending/modifying digitized curriculum contents. Mentorship Program: We have thankful to enablistics.com after they have decided to extend support for three months for this project s cause. During this period their designated trainer will be interacting with teachers and continue to assist in kids education. Enablistics.com has further committed to involve IT professionals from: local mobile sector companies and finance industry, to: Arrange for periodic visits to the school, to interact with teachers and kids during lab sessions. During period Nov 08 Jan 09, following professionals have agreed to participate in the program: Mr Riaz ul Hassan, Engineering Manager, Ericsson Lahore, Pakistan (riaz.hassan@ericsson.com) Mr Waqas Ahmed, Chartered Accountant, former Financial Controller, Holiday Inn, Lahore, Pakistan (waqasajaved@yahoo.com) Ms. Eram Minto, Research Associate, Molecular Biology lab, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. currently on visit to Pakistan. (minto@uic.edu)
Ideas on Sustainability and Replication For initial months after its roll out, we foresee concentrated effort required to make this project an integrated part of the selected school s teaching mythologies Enablistics.com s commitment to provide extended support will help in this regard. School administration s commitment to starting hiring IT trained teachers from now onwards, will certainly help in extending this program with more curriculum digitization and modification. Once teachers become confident enough to start digitization and update on online CMS, the school lab will be solely operated by them in teaching kids. For replication of this project, on online CMS availability is a big plus, where contents may be modified as per requirements of the audience. Further down the road, the project lab can be used in shifts to accommodate kids from nearby small schools. In Pictures Selected School
In front of Muslim High School : From right, Asim Zaheer, with school building caretakers
Project Established Lab
Inside School snapshots