Quartz: Teacher in Ghana Teaches Windows on Blackboard

A teacher in Ghana posted photographs of himself on Facebook teaching his students about the Windows computer operating system. The students lack computers, so Richard Appiah Akoto makes detailed drawings on the chalkboard and they copy the diagrams in their notebooks. His posts went viral: “His photo was seen as both a bit of ironic fun about life in Africa but also as a source of inspiration particularly for Africans in the tech community,” reports Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu for Quartz. “Although he has a personal laptop, he does not use it because the features differ from what is in the official syllabus which require him to teach his students among other things parts of a system unit and monitor, the steps in connecting them and how to boot a computer with a desktop as their reference.” The junior high students are expected to pass a national exam with a section on information and communication technology before proceeding on to high school. Microsoft has promised to equip the teacher with a computer and access to education resources. The story of Akoto and his students, while moving, demonstrates the challenges for Africa’s crowded public schools confronting requirements with few resources. – YaleGlobal