The Hindu Business Line : Talking computers the kids way

AMIDST hundreds of pavilions loaded with dazzling signboards, plasma TVs and high decibel music at the WSIS exhibition, chances are that you will walk by a tiny stall from Namibia.

A petite girl manning the stall has no gadgetry around her. She has only some comic characters, pasted on the walls, for company.

But Ms Ebben Esser Hatuikulipi and the SchoolNet NA computer education project she is a part of, still attract people for the simplicity and ingenuity of the effort.

SchoolNet NA attempts to impart computer skills to school children in Namibia, where computers and Internet are yet to take off. It first distributed computers to around 450 schools. Each school was given 5-10 computers based on Thin Client technology and running on open source software, to create computer labs.

"We found that these labs were shut down after our training for teachers was over. Nobody was comfortable using the computer when we left," Ms Ebben Esser says.

SchoolNet realised that the project was being left to atrophy because of the teachers were reluctant to go through computer manuals and upgrade their skills. "Only some 103 teachers in Namibia are computer-literate," she says.

Then SchoolNet stumbled on to computing whiz kids Aune, Nesley, Peli and Sam. It created a comic book, `Hai Ti', which means `listen up' in the Oshiwambo languages, as a means to impart computer training to teachers and students.

Aune, Nesley, Peli and Sam are the main characters in the comic book.

Through the tried and tested method of story telling, Hai Ti takes users to the basic use of computers and surfing the net.

The visuals and simple text help learn basic things like creating a document, cut and paste and e-mailing.

Ms Ebben Esser says that after the release of the comic book, the interest in computers just picked up as teachers and students overcame the fear for technology.

Now, SchoolNet has brought out the second volume of Hai Ti, reinforcing that simplicity really works. And it doesn't cost you millions.

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