5 ms·

I live in Tanzania and a salary of 10-20k USD is a pretty lux life here. You could get a housekeeper, gardener, and a gated property and still have a lot left o

by mruts 8y ago

I live in Tanzania and a salary of 10-20k USD is a pretty lux life here. You could get a housekeeper, gardener, and a gated property and still have a lot left over. Moreover, no income tax! The problem is that imported goods have a 50% tax on them, so laptops and stuff are pretty expensive. I moved from NYC to Tanzania to help run a school that my wife founded here and Tanzania is a long long way off from becoming an information economy. I teach a computer science class and am regularly shocked by the lack of basic information my students have about technology and the world. I'm not sure what to do about it, and really try to get my students interested in the world and ask questions. But it's hard to ask reasonable questions when you have no books and no/limited access to information. Moreover, there aren't any unlimited data bundles and almost no one has computers at one. When I first arrived in Tanzania and began teaching I thought the solution was simple: provide free access to information via a community library we built with always on computers and internet. Unfortunately, the library became the go-to place to watch youtube videos all day long. So I had to turn the internet off and just have it when I or another teacher is there. The approach that has worked best is guided computer use. Something like "give me a list of questions you have about something and then go find the answers in a 2 hour period." If I was going to hire a Tanzanian developer (and I hate to say this, but I probably wouldn't), I would judge him just on his raw intelligence, not his skills. Skill/knowledge-wise, even the smartest Tanzanians are at a huge information disadvantage. You gotta just find the smartest guys (and there's a lot of untapped talent just sitting around) and train them yourself. tl;dr: when you have a group of people who are systematically information disadvantaged, you will always be disappointed by their knowledge/skills. Instead judge them on pure smarts, and realize you will have to make a big long-term investment in them.

jacquesm 8y ago
Highly theoretical: in your position I'd set up a library and teach English rather than IT if that's the limiting factor. Books and peers are just as useful as direct teaching.
- mruts 8y ago
  My wife teaches english, but computers and internet are a big part of the reason that any kids are here in the first place. We aren't a licensed school (getting licensed requires bribes and a lot of bullshit) so we focus on pre-1st grade (theer's no state preschool or kindergarden) and after school programs for older kids. Because of this, we need to attract kids, and computers are a good draw.
  - jacquesm 8y ago
    Cool! Can I send you some cash somehow?
    - mruts 8y ago
      Email me at sturm@cryptm.org. Unfortunately we aren’t a registered charity in the US (we are in Tanzania though) so you won’t get any tax breaks.
      - jacquesm 8y ago
        mail sent.
iamleppert 8y ago
What’s wrong with people using your library to watch YouTube videos all day long? Can you tell me you’ve never done that? There’s nothing wrong with it, even if it wasn’t the intended purpose. Maybe one of those kids would stumble upon a video that gave them so critical knowledge or sparked their passion in something? As long as the kids weren’t displacing others or damaging the equipment I don’t see what’s wrong with it.
- mmsimanga 8y ago
  Not OP but I can only guess being from Africa. 1) Data is expensive and watching videos uses up a fair amount of data. 2) Usually, the number of computers is limited. Someone can watch videos for the whole day whilst other people wait to use the computer. I get it that there is some useful information on Youtube but if left unchecked people tend to drift towards the trending views, music videos and so on.
- fock 8y ago
  Imagine Tinder on university mainframes of the 80s. Imagine everyone could just go there and use the computer, taking control of its very limited resources and do whatever they want. I guess hacker culture would have had a hard time in such an environment.
- cr0sh 8y ago
  I wonder if it also has to do with the possibility that the students would just go to the library, and not go to class at all; that there isn't any kind of "punishment" for doing that instead of learning? By "punishment" I mean everything from truancy enforcement to "societal disapproval"; it may be that in some cultures this isn't looked down upon? That's all just a WAG, though...
marcosdumay 8y ago
> So I had to turn the internet off I'd suggest making a white list of allowed sites (wikipedia, wolfram alpha), and create a quick contact point (if there is somebody there at all times) where students can ask for whitelisting a new site.
open-source-ux 8y ago
Do you have any thoughts on the way more and more software is accessed through the "cloud"? Do you prefer offline apps? Do cloud-based apps cause problems?
- mruts 8y ago
  We have Khan academy and some other resources on a local server so we can minimize internet usage. Internet is expensive here, and every GB that we can save really counts. I don't like cloud apps (never really did, honestly), and being in Tanzania just has made that dislike even stronger.
tzcs2016 8y ago
Mambo vipi? I just got back from two years in Tanzania teaching Python/SQL/web to secondary schools students in the Arusha region[0]. Interesting some of the things you say about resources, the library -- your experiences mirror my own. You're right that there is a huge information accessibility gap. I gave my top students as much self-directed access to compute and Internet resources as possible, with several successes (one could write Python programs independently, another could set up Linux, and so on) but bottlenecks (such as my time, cost of Internet, power, tragedies of the commons, etc.) prevented more of my smartest students from going as far as they otherwise could have. I'm curious -- what region are you in, and what is your organization? I'm back in the US now, but I keep in touch with the NGO I used to work for and it's a small wazungu world over there. If you don't mind putting some contact info here I'll send you an email, otherwise I'd enjoy hearing from you -- my email is on my profile. [0]: https://mattjquinn.com/edu/ https://mattjquinn.com/edu/
- mruts 8y ago
  Safi! Karibu tena! That’s great! Our school is in Arusha, Kijenge specifically. Would love to hear from you! sturm@cryptm.org

by mruts 8y ago

jacquesm 8y ago

Highly theoretical: in your position I'd set up a library and teach English rather than IT if that's the limiting factor. Books and peers are just as useful as direct teaching.

mruts 8y ago
My wife teaches english, but computers and internet are a big part of the reason that any kids are here in the first place. We aren't a licensed school (getting licensed requires bribes and a lot of bullshit) so we focus on pre-1st grade (theer's no state preschool or kindergarden) and after school programs for older kids. Because of this, we need to attract kids, and computers are a good draw.
- jacquesm 8y ago
  Cool! Can I send you some cash somehow?
  - mruts 8y ago
    Email me at sturm@cryptm.org. Unfortunately we aren’t a registered charity in the US (we are in Tanzania though) so you won’t get any tax breaks.
    - jacquesm 8y ago
      mail sent.

iamleppert 8y ago

What’s wrong with people using your library to watch YouTube videos all day long? Can you tell me you’ve never done that? There’s nothing wrong with it, even if it wasn’t the intended purpose. Maybe one of those kids would stumble upon a video that gave them so critical knowledge or sparked their passion in something? As long as the kids weren’t displacing others or damaging the equipment I don’t see what’s wrong with it.

mmsimanga 8y ago
Not OP but I can only guess being from Africa. 1) Data is expensive and watching videos uses up a fair amount of data. 2) Usually, the number of computers is limited. Someone can watch videos for the whole day whilst other people wait to use the computer. I get it that there is some useful information on Youtube but if left unchecked people tend to drift towards the trending views, music videos and so on.
fock 8y ago
Imagine Tinder on university mainframes of the 80s. Imagine everyone could just go there and use the computer, taking control of its very limited resources and do whatever they want. I guess hacker culture would have had a hard time in such an environment.
cr0sh 8y ago
I wonder if it also has to do with the possibility that the students would just go to the library, and not go to class at all; that there isn't any kind of "punishment" for doing that instead of learning? By "punishment" I mean everything from truancy enforcement to "societal disapproval"; it may be that in some cultures this isn't looked down upon? That's all just a WAG, though...

marcosdumay 8y ago

> So I had to turn the internet off I'd suggest making a white list of allowed sites (wikipedia, wolfram alpha), and create a quick contact point (if there is somebody there at all times) where students can ask for whitelisting a new site.

open-source-ux 8y ago

Do you have any thoughts on the way more and more software is accessed through the "cloud"? Do you prefer offline apps? Do cloud-based apps cause problems?

mruts 8y ago
We have Khan academy and some other resources on a local server so we can minimize internet usage. Internet is expensive here, and every GB that we can save really counts. I don't like cloud apps (never really did, honestly), and being in Tanzania just has made that dislike even stronger.

tzcs2016 8y ago

Mambo vipi? I just got back from two years in Tanzania teaching Python/SQL/web to secondary schools students in the Arusha region[0]. Interesting some of the things you say about resources, the library -- your experiences mirror my own. You're right that there is a huge information accessibility gap. I gave my top students as much self-directed access to compute and Internet resources as possible, with several successes (one could write Python programs independently, another could set up Linux, and so on) but bottlenecks (such as my time, cost of Internet, power, tragedies of the commons, etc.) prevented more of my smartest students from going as far as they otherwise could have. I'm curious -- what region are you in, and what is your organization? I'm back in the US now, but I keep in touch with the NGO I used to work for and it's a small wazungu world over there. If you don't mind putting some contact info here I'll send you an email, otherwise I'd enjoy hearing from you -- my email is on my profile. [0]: https://mattjquinn.com/edu/ https://mattjquinn.com/edu/

mruts 8y ago
Safi! Karibu tena! That’s great! Our school is in Arusha, Kijenge specifically. Would love to hear from you! sturm@cryptm.org