A Sustainable Model for Rural Computer Education

Rural students need computer education. Organizations need rural data. Lumen creates computer labs where students collect community data as part of a creative problem solving class. By working with the data on computers, students analyze local problems while gaining digital literacy. Simultaneously, Lumen captures and provides the data to organizations.

In rural areas where lack of infrastructure, lack of funds, and lack of teachers prevent students from technological access, entire generations of youth are growing up without the technical skills necessary to compete in the workforce. In addition, lack of exposure to information and resources means that rural students are disadvantaged in terms of critical thinking development- especially when they are taught to prioritize route memorization in school as the pathway to academic success. Lumen Labs is a social venture with a mission to create a sustainable model for rural computer education. We do this through a unique four step process in which we integrate rural data collection with digital learning. First, we partner with schools to set up computer labs in rural communities. Second, we teach students to conduct surveys with their families as part of a class on creative problem solving. Third, we provide students with the opportunity to work with the data on computers to identify local problems, create data-driven solutions, and gain digital literacy. Fourth and finally, we use data capture software to digitalize the collected data, and provide it to organizations that need hard-to-access rural information. Lumen’s course is taught in each school by a trained teaching fellow. For example, we may ask students to collect data about agricultural practices in the community, brainstorm potential problems and solutions, and then create a presentation about their findings using PowerPoint. In this way, students simultaneously learn both computer and critical thinking skills- both of which are foundational to their ability to adapt to the requirements of a changing job market. At the same time, we are creating a network for community led data collection in rural settings. Combined, this presents a unique, scalable, and sustainable model for rural computer education.

The pain point that Lumen tackles is two-fold: a) making computer education accessible to rural students, and b) providing hard-to-access rural data to organizations. 70% of Kenyans live in rural areas, where most students have never touched a computer. Even if schools have computers, most do not have a qualified ICT teacher, funds to maintain the equipment, or teaching curriculum that instructors can follow. On the other hand, there exists a rural data gap. Organizations often have difficulty planning or evaluating their activities without costly and time-intensive fieldwork. Without data, organizations cannot design effective strategies for serving rural populations. 

Research experiments have demonstrated that explicit instruction in critical thinking (ex. hypothesis testing, basic logic, decision making, etc.) results in statistically significant improvements in students’ language comprehension, inventive thinking, and IQ. Pairing such activities with digital learning allows students to learn not only computer skills, but also to how to practically apply them. In December 2016, we concluded a four-week pilot at Mbeetwani Primary School in Eastern Kenya. By the end of the pilot, 25 students who had never used a computer before could independently create word and spreadsheet reports about challenges in the community, based on data they collected. 

Designed for students in Class 6 through Class 8, our course runs in conjunction with the school’s academic year. In June 2017, we launched a computer lab where 64 students are enrolled in our program. In 2018, we plan to launch at four additional schools; total projected beneficiaries in 2018 are 443 students spread across five communities. By working with survey data in computer labs, we expect these students to make demonstrable improvements in critical thinking and computer skills. We also expect to collect and provide data about these communities to decision makers to encourage engagement with under-served rural populations. 

Students are given a critical thinking assessment at the beginning /end of each school term. The assessment uses a locally-contextualized story to present a problem, which students most solve with a given set of data. Results are measured over time. - Improve critical thinking and data analysis skills among rural East African students. We define critical thinking as the ability to evaluate, question, and analyze information to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.

We evaluate students' abilities to complete progressively more advanced activities throughout the curriculum. Successful completion of such activities produces deliverables that are tangible evidence of the computer skills that students have mastered. - Equip rural East African students with the essential computer skills needed to compete in today’s vocational and academic landscape.

We follow up with each organization that we provide data to in order to track (via questionnaire) a) the perceived value of the data received, and b) whether access to the data directly impacted/informed decisions made by the organizations. - Provide rural data to organizations to enable informed decision-making, and to encourage engagement with under-served rural populations.

There are two main approaches to providing rural computer education. One involves donating computer labs to schools; however, without accompanying teaching support, donated computers go unused. The other approach involves running temporary workshops, which is unsustainable for long-term learning. By thinking about computer education not only in terms of computer access, but also in terms of instructor and curriculum access, we offer a holistic approach to rural computer education. In addition, instead of traditional computer literacy courses, we developed a custom course on creative problem solving using computers, so that students know how to both use and apply digital skills. 

Lumen’s program is implemented in conjunction with rural communities in the form of a partnership. Lumen provides computers to the school, trains and hires a teaching fellow who is placed in the community, and develops teaching curriculum. In return, the community arranges a homestay for Lumen’s fellow, organizes for a local teacher to help facilitate the class, and provides a safe and secure classroom for the computers. This sharing of responsibilities ensures that the local community has a stake in the program, and takes ownership in its success. 

We partner with different organizations to create a pipeline of rural schools who can benefit from our program. One partner is Computers for Schools Kenya (CFSK), a Kenyan non-profit that re-furbishes computers, and donates them to schools across East Africa. CFSK works with Lumen to jointly introduce our program to any new school where they make a donation. We also partnered with Kenyan telco Safaricom, which is constructing 47 computer labs across Kenya where Lumen’s program can be implemented. We are testing an initial price point of $0.50/student/school term, but plan to adjust for what communities can afford. 

To date, we have raised over $18,000 from awards and friends and family in order to launch our first pilot in Eastern Kenya, as well as a subsequent (and ongoing) second pilot in Western Kenya. Over the next two years, our goal is to implement our program in a total of 14 schools, with 4 additional labs opened in 2018, and 9 additional labs opened in 2019. We have already identified the 4 schools where our program will be implemented next year, and we are seeking grant and award funding to sustain our operations for the next two years. At around 14 schools, we will be collecting data in large quantities across a geographically significant sample size. At that time, we are able to provide revenue-generating data services to the market to financially sustain the venture, as well as approach investors to finance additional growth. 

Two limiting factors are data privacy concerns, and the lack of qualified computer teachers. With regards to data privacy, we host an “Open House” prior to launching our program in a new community, when parents are briefed on the data collection process, and provided with a data consent letter if they want to enroll their student. With regards to teacher availability, we partnered with youth internship organization AIESEC to recruit and train recent graduates to teach in our labs as part of a year-long, all-expense paid fellowship. This allows them to gain work experience prior to entering the job market. 

https://www.facebook.com/LumenLabsLtd/

https://ihub.co.ke/blogs/29366/lumen-labs-providing-data-computer-literacy-in-kenya

https://www.slideshare.net/RubyAu/lumen-labs-78466998

Launching Lumen’s program in 2-3 schools is one matter, but scaling our program to tens or hundreds of schools is an entirely different challenge. However, we believe that this is an idea with huge potential for large-scale impact, beyond a few communities, and beyond East Africa. To get there, we need a network to connect us to the right resources. We also need guidance from mentors and thought-leaders that can help us perfect a scalable operational model, and form a strong foundation for future replication- first throughout Kenya, then to East Africa, then on to different contexts and geographies. 

Other than CFSK and Safaricom, we also partnered with Endless Computers and WISER. Endless has designed a CPU and operating system for emerging markets, which features pre-loaded educational content. These computers currently equip Lumen’s Labs. We will also be working with WISER, an international non-profit, to collect data for them. 

SMS-based survey services (ex. Bamba Group, mSurvey), and research groups (ex. Busara Center)