Progress of the Summer Computer Program

Hi all,
    Well, the summer computer program is wrapping up and I must say that we are very happy how it has gone, though there have been hiccups. In the next couple weeks I will give some reports on how everything has gone. For now, I'll start by discussing my exciting phone conversation in which I talked with Rohitash, a field worker, and also with the computer teacher and one of the students. All were very excited about the program.

Girls working on the laptop in Barwara

  
     Let's start first with what the teacher and student said. When I asked them whether they liked the program and thought it was useful, they both said that they liked it very much and thought the students were learning useful and necessary skills. Indeed, the teacher said the program was important because jobs these days require fluency on the computer. Both said that the students had learned the programs of MS Paint, notepad, Word, and Excel thoroughly. They also reported that the students had all greatly increased their typing speed with practice. I find this very gratifying because I think it is basic comfort with the computer/typing and crucial applications that will give these students the opportunities they need in the job market and for college (depending on which path they choose to follow).  As I've said before, the one of the overarching goals of this program is to provide rural youth (and rural people in general) with the same opportunities that are available to those in urban areas. I think the progress shown thus far is a crucial step towards this goal. We will work to continue this progress.

Students working on laptop in Barwara

   A few more notes on my conversation with Rohitash. A quick anecdote to start things off. Rohitash told me that sometimes the power goes out during the day and they cannot use the computers for the class (power outage is a common problem in India, especially in rural areas). Nonetheless, he knows the students continue to learn because when he rides by on his motorcycle on the way home at night, he sees them huddled up around the computer in the classroom. You could tell this made him smile, and it sure makes me smile. I think we have really built something the people really believe in and we will work to keep it going. This anecdote reinforced the rest of our conversation, in which Rohitash re-iterated what was said by the student and teacher above. Namely, he said that the students and villagers are very excited for the program and that they are now basically fluent in all the MS programs listed above. Indeed, when the teacher and Rohitash told them the other day that they would work on MS Word again, the student responded by saying, "No, we already know everything there is to know about Word." I think that's great.

Students work on the computer in Pando

Rohitash with the students in Barwara

    So, the qualitative evidence of success of our program is very satisfying. However, we want to be a more rigorous in accessing our programs, so at the end of last week we gave exams on the course material and survey assessing the students' perception of the course (did they like it, could it be improved, how could it be improved, etc.). We will be analyzing the results in the weeks to come and will be sure to post the results here. Also, with the end of the course we will be looking at trying to recruit some of the students to help around the NGO, especially with the computer program and other computer-related work. I will also keep you updated on this.

Rohitash with the students in Pando

Alright, well as I said, very exciting stuff! We are very happy with the progress made during this summer program, with the students becoming basically fluent in a suite of important MS programs and increasing their typing speed. We will be posting more analysis and information as we have it.

Have a great day!