Friday, January 27, 2012

Up and Running

Our progress has surpassed even my own expectations. In just about a month we have coordinated the expansion of the building, installation of window, ceiling, desks, and computers to convert the former store room into a lab.
before...

...and after

Locally hired laborers completed the masonry and carpentry work.


raising the walls


before...
...and after

framing the window
before...

...and after


A teacher did all of the wiring. Below he's using the students' help to bury an earth wire to ground the inside circuit. 
grounding the circuit

Students also helped with porting materials from town, painting, and organizing.
students painting
I bought computers (10 Dell Optiplex gx150 and 1 Dell Optiplex gx270) with flat screen monitors from a place called Divine Anchor in Kumasi. The man who helped me, a Ghanaian university graduate in computer networking, was very good about packaging all the equipment for the long and rough return to Donkorkrom. The computers are in place and networked together and sharing an internet connection. They're operating windows XP and hosting such software as Rosetta Stone, Mavis Beacon, Wikipedia for Schools, and WordWeb. I'm currently working on a solution to clone the contents of one computer to appear on the rest. We will begin ICT practicals with the students next week, the third week of the term.