Hi all,
Been quite a long time since my last post, but I'm hoping to put out a few posts during this holiday season. LSS's work has continued to go quite well, with progress in both our computer education work and in our microcredit groups (more on the latter in a later post). We have also made progress in getting approval to receive funds from the government and sources within India (all done), and to receive funds from abroad (in progress). This will be detailed later as well.
Let's first start off with the raw data on how many students reached proficiency with the range of programs we taught them during our program. This was determined via a hands-on examination by the teacher, during which the teacher asked the students to perform various tasks with the programs under consideration and gauged their capability. Here is the data table:
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| Data for 2013 summer youth computer program. Across the top are the various programs the students were taught throughout the program, while along the side are the different villages. |
What do we learn from this table? We learned that most of the students reached proficiency with the basic MS Office products, as well as Paint and Notepad. The internet was something that was taught at the end, and clearly most of the students were not able to master that material. This suggests that perhaps in the future we can offer a program just on the internet and how to use it professionally, socially, etc. We could do a whole summer course, or maybe something shorter, like a couple weeks. I would say that, overall, the data is very heartening. For our students, learning the basic MS Office programs is very important for their career prospects, and so their reaching proficiency is a critical accomplishment. This is all for students who basically had never touched a computer before our course, so this kind of progress and accomplishment is going a long ways towards achieving our goal of equalizing access to computers and the corresponding opportunity for the rural communities in which we work. We will continue to work to expand the exposure to computers in our field area.
Alright, well that was the data, now here are some pictures showing the students working, as well as a neat map of Rajasthan created through their work with the computer. I hope you enjoy these.
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| Students filling out forms to gain admission to the computer education class in Chechawala. |
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| Young boy and older boy in Shyampura work on the computer. |
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| Students ask questions about the computer during a class session. |
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| Students take notes on theory part of the computer instruction during class. |
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| Students in class in Shyampura. |
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| Girl working on the computer in Chechawala. |
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| Young boy pauses while trying to find shift key! |
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| Female in Dantli ki Dhani working on computer. | |
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| A student practices during the open session, during which we allow the students to practice on the computer in an unstructured environment. |
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| Girls in Dantli ki Dhani working on the computer. |
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| A bit hard to see, but this is a colored map of Rajasthan, the Indian state in which we work. The different parts are the different districts in the state, which are basically equivalent to counties in the US. Pretty neat little map! |
Notice that the kids in Shyampura are quite young. They were very excited about the computers, and many students were at or below the age of 13. This group could form a strong nucleus of computer-savvy youth in the area for years to come. They show the promise of our program, and they could also serve as future instructors and helpers in our program. Their enthusiasm excites us!
Have a Happy Holidays!
