Wednesday, September 18, 2013

This time, the director at Kampala University Jinja Campus encouraged us to hold the training at the Jinja Campus, that internet was available. I needed it to be able to show the teachers the new Distance Learning site, so I could continue with lessons. We arrived on time but we expected to be there two hours earlier to set up properly. Our driver’s clock battery died and he was very late. Anyway, according to protocol, we needed to meet with the director first. Do you believe he greeted me with "So, Joanne, you put on some weight since last year!" I was dumbfounded and couldn't speak, but he indicated that was a compliment. (Not so! but funny!) We chatted while he took a few calls in between, so class started late. The teachers who were there represented a few schools and they were very excited to learn about the XO tablet. I distributed about 12 of them. Some teachers partnered up. After introducing a few activities on the XO tablet which has a Career Dreams interface, I asked the teachers to pick a career choice and investigate one activity from that career choice. Then after an hour, I asked each of them to come up to the projector, plug in and tell the rest about their activity. That worked out so well, because as they explained the activity the others opened it up on their tablets. Then it came time to show the distance learning site, I must say that while the teachers were working, we were trying to get on the internet. The tech woman who was excellent last year tried everything. So did Eric. They called the provider. The director called the provider but it turned out that according to them, thieves cut the fiber optic cable behind the building. So we could not show the website. (Luckily, when we went back to the hotel, I showed Francis a bit of it on the REALLY slow connection there. I don’t think I can stay at the Brisk again until they get a better connection. Each page took a couple of minutes to load, at least and that was only in the lobby where we had to camp out.) At the end of the training, the director who wrote a speech delivered it, hailing Kampala University as the place to go to school. Then the inspector of schools came back and also gave a speech indicating that this innovation was going to bring the African students up so that they will be ready to enter the 21st century marketplace.