How do you provide students with a 21st Century learning experience when there's no internet - and no electricity? Here's how a university in Kenya helped a rural secondary school...
Masinde Muliro University is helping remote village schools in Kenya that have no electricity and no internet leapfrog into the 21st century – at least for as long as the batteries last! With the help of an HP Catalyst grant, the chemistry department of Masinde Muliro University is downloading open-source chemistry simulations onto HP mobile workstations – and driving them out to remote villages where students have little to no resources, let alone laboratories equipped to learn chemistry. The simulations not only bridge their curriculum gap, but they also bridge the digital divide, giving them access to high-end science simulations that internet-connected students might take for granted.
So while regions of the world grapple with their rural electrical infrastructure and internet-connectivity, they can still address the learning needs of the upcoming generation of talented students…
Reference: Software being used for this project includes:
Vlab 1.6.4 (www.chemcollective.org/doc.php)
ChemLab 2.0 and above (www.modelscience.com)
Virtual Chemistry Lab 2.0 (pft.com/download/virtual_chemistry_lab/277870/
Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Education Program Manager
HP Office of Global Social Innovation
Hewlett-Packard
www.hp.com/go/socialinnovation
Follow me on Twitter @jgvanides
