Technology Labs

In previous updates I had made brief reference to starting computer labs – called Mobile Educational Technology Labs. While I have been Stateside preparing and organizing, visiting and presenting, and raising partners the teams in Togo have been helping with a trial run of the first of these labs. This first lab has 14 laptop computers and was allocated to the Christian schools partnering with ABWE Togo.
First, a big thank you again to everyone who helped to make this possible.

Most of West Africa’s computer literacy is comparable or worse than that of Western countries during the late 80’s and early 90’s but it’s reliance on technology is quickly become as heavy as in any other place in the world. This poses a huge problem when seeking skilled labor – even for our hospitals. Few people have basic computer skills and fewer still have access to this technology on regular basis to keep fresh and up-to-date. While we understand that we cannot provide computers for the whole of West Africa we can provide the start to giving these students and educators access to be able to use it and dream about it’s possibilities for the future… but never losing focus of the goal of making disciples. These Christian schools minister to Christian and non-christian students and present the message of the Gospel of Christ. Many will go return home and tell family about the message that they hear.

In addition to working with the schools, in the future we hope to use these labs to give pastors and church leaders access to resources that are currently inaccessible due to cost or training limitations. We want to use these labs for community computer training that will create opportunities for evangelism. The long-term goal is to have these labs spread as a model and resource throughout West Africa. In short, any way they can imagine to use technology to further the gospel, we want to help them get there.

Using the current lab as a trial we have learned a lot about what works, what doesn’t, and most importantly the teachers are providing feedback on all of the ways that they would like to use them. We learned that electricity is difficult to get in classrooms, transportation and storage need work, and providing maintenance is a must. Videos, music, and media rich resources improve the quality of education (just ask any teacher) and engage the students to make learning fun.

 

Here are some photos of how the schools are using them. And click here to learn how you can help to make more computer labs like this possible.

 

Portability is an important consideration to allow this lab to be shared between over a dozen different school campuses. Laptops make this possible. Here the lab is set up in one of the classrooms ready for the students to arrive.

One of the missionary-teachers demonstrates the lab to teachers helping them understand what is is designed to do and then begin to dream about what would be possible for their teaching, students education, and Togo’s future if they had access to more access to resources like this – videos, books and material, music, and so much more.

Students, here learning Powerpoint basics, attend a computer class. Students come every Thursday morning for these computer classes.