Motive

Internet access in development countries is often very expensive or not available at all. Even if schools have access to internet infrastructure, rates are hardly affordable for them. Thus, students do not benefit from online knowledge libraries such as Wikipedia.

Project Goal

To provide children with state-of-the art education, “Knowledge Box” is being developed. Goal is the implementation of a Linux based server which contains offline versions of free knowledge and education platforms (Wikipedia, Khan Academy, …). This tool can easily be integrated into existing classroom infrastructure.

Knowledge Box will mainly be used in the course of TeoG’s Teaching Computer Basics (TCB) projects. These projects aim to equip schools with necessary computer infrastructure and teach students basic handling thereof.

Since the software package of Knowledge Box will be published, it can also serve as handy tool for other NGOs. By sharing the sources TeoG is offering an open development process. The server is meant to be a free alternative to expensive commercial products.

Implementation

A field study will be conducted in the Shambalai Secondary School in Lushoto, Tanzania. It is planned as a pilot for further follow-up projects. One member of the regional group Amberg is going to stay in Tanzania from end of August to mid of September.

Update

The field study at the Shambalai Secondary School has been conducted successfully. Local teachers embraced the Knowledge Box prototype. Concepts for server extensions have been elaborated. E.g. the learning management system Moodle will be integrated.

(Logo in picture at the top: From Wikimedia Foundation, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10309782)