By STELLAR MURUMBA, smurumba@ke.nationmedia.com
While Skype has mainly been associated with youths
getting in touch with their peers for informal chats, the social media
tool has found its way in the farms and classrooms.
For the last five years, Microsoft’s Skype in the Classroom
programme has been bringing, in what experts term — transformative
educational experiences - to more than 1.5 million learners in 235
countries through classroom to classroom connections, guest speakers and
virtual field trips.
Skype in the Classroom is a free online community
that connects teachers with educators and guest speakers, and students
to experts from around the world.
In the past two-and-a-half years, Mitahato
Education Development Fund (MEDF) — a teaching farm in Kiambu County -
has been providing smallholder farmers with specific skills training in
best practices for horticulture and small animal husbandry.
In Kibera, Nairobi, Havilla Children’s Centre,
which started in 2009 is another such facility. It has a population of
about 120 slum pupils enrolled for kindergarten to Class Two primary
education.
To make them have a classroom experience,
Livingstone Kegode, 22, has volunteered to offer these “lucky” pupils a
chance to learn and to make it worthwhile.
He has introduced Skype in the Classroom – a free
communication software that allows one to make calls, instant message
and video conference online.
More than 400,000 teachers have already integrated
Skype into their classroom, helping educators meet their curriculum
requirements in a way that learners find fun and exciting, according to
Microsoft.
MEDF have also been an eye opener to farmers in
matters value addition both at their teaching farm and through outreach
programmes.
MEDF’s TV show, “The Kenya Farm Report” that is
broadcast in Kenya and Tanzania on GBS TV was rated the best farming
show in terms of content and structure by the network this year.
The TV show nurtures budding youths and women agripreneurs by highlighting success stories in the sector.
To connect to even a wider audience and sustain
their relevance in the quite competitive agricultural sector, MEDF uses
Skype in the Classroom to reach out to the farmers.
“We have now partnered with Microsoft Inc. to host
on line field trips at the teaching farm on their Skype in the Classroom
platform.
“We shall be tutoring farmers about food security,
kitchen gardening, organic farming, sustainable livelihoods and
underground water harvesting. We believe nurturing the passion for
agribusiness to the young is the way to move more youth into
agriculture,” says Michael Kaburi, MEDF project manager.
Mr Kaburi told the Digital Business that agriculture has been the backbone of the Kenyan economy for the past five decades.
However, he says, 80 per cent of smallholder farmers
in rural areas are still under the yoke of traditional subsistence
farming and live in poverty.
Mr Kaburi says that “digital farming” concept could be the solution to achieve higher returns in agriculture.
Mr Kaburi says that “digital farming” concept could be the solution to achieve higher returns in agriculture.
“Various interventions have been undertaken by government
and various NGOs over the decades but national poverty statistics,
according to the Economic Survey 2015, hoovers around 50 per cent, with
youths and women continuing to bear the brunt.
“Digital farming can turn the tables for realised
huge benefits in agriculture but it is worth noting with concern that
although the Internet opens a pool of accessible information for
farmers, most of it is scattered and incomplete. We want Skype in the
Classroom for farmers to be the to-go-to place for complete and precise
farming tips from professionals,” he says.
Mr Kaburi says their platform aims to provide
farmers an online, agricultural information hub that is comprehensive,
up to date and interactive.
“We provide live farmer interaction through a call
and SMS centre for farmers with Internet connection. A farmer to farmer
linkage is also provided through chat rooms, social media and webinars
throughout the agriculture value chain system,” says the project
manager.
To control and engage traffic, farmers have to
register for free online on the farmlink website, where they can access
the information.
A farmer pays a Sh100 monthly subscription to
participate in the interactive platform “let’s link live”, webinars,
chatrooms, access call centre and benefit from the SMS service, says Mr
Kaburi.
MEDF has also partnered with Egerton University, which sends its students for attachment at the farm.
At the Havilla Children’s Centre in Kibera, Mr
Kegode has been taking his class on a “tour of the world” and having the
pupils share experiences with their counterparts in developed
countries.
He says his class of 15 pupils aged between seven
and eight connects with the global community without leaving the
classroom via the online platform.
The Skype in the Classroom initiative, he says,
also allows pupils to learn from experts around the world as well as
other classrooms.
The open-source system helps pupils learn foreign
concepts, builds communication and social skills, introduces them to
technology-based learning and promotes literacy.
“The world is huge but Skype makes it a small
village. Through Skype, my pupils and their counterparts at
Wallenpaupack District School in northeastern Pennsylvania have spent a
year teaching one another and sharing their culture experience through
video,” says Mr Kegode.
Microsoft has since invited the teacher to the US
to showcase how he incorporates Skype in Classroom at the International
Society for Technology in Education 2015 Conference.
However, the US embassy denied him a visa was
denied. Nevertheless, he was named the Most International Inspirational
Skype Master Teacher 2015.
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