U of N - Kikuyu OCW Installed
I installed a mirror site of MIT's OpenCourseWare at the University of Nairobi - Kikuyu campus today. It mostly went off without a hitch. We lucked out because a gang of armed robbers broke in last week and stole 30 computers. Apparently, they backed a truck up to the fence, sent in seven people to beat up the guard and then nabbed 30 computers in a matter of minutes. This has to be the single most impressive display of coordination and efficiency that I have seen since being in Kenya.
You may wonder why this was a good thing. By some miracle, the Kikuyu campus managed to get brand new replacement computers procured and installed in three days. They now have the nicest equipment I've seen in Kenya. Normally, the procurement process takes months. Getting 30 Pentium 4 machines with flat panel displays to rural Kenya in three days is akin to parting the Red Sea.
Yesterday, Marta and I went with several African Virtual University (AVU) staff members to meet the Kikuyu dean. AVU has been acting as a liaison between MIT's OCW and the U of N. Essentially, all we wanted to do is copy some files to their local computers. However, nothing gets done unless the dean okays it. So, we met with about 10 people in his office before we could set foot in the computer lab. It made us feel like he was the one doing us the favor.
Anyway, they've got a copy of the entire OCW site on their local machines now. The idea was that Kikuyu would then act as a local site where other African universities could connect to better than they could connect to MIT. However, Kikuyu doesn't even have any servers at its campus and has a slow, microwave radio connection to another U of N campus. It's also a liberal arts campus, so they don't have much use for MIT's course material. There is a different campus named (something like) Cheroma that is for IT and computer science students.
We're going to look into installing an OCW mirror there. Unfortunately, each campus has its own bureaucracy, so we'll have to go through the whole business of formally getting the dean's permission to enter his fiefdom.
You may wonder why this was a good thing. By some miracle, the Kikuyu campus managed to get brand new replacement computers procured and installed in three days. They now have the nicest equipment I've seen in Kenya. Normally, the procurement process takes months. Getting 30 Pentium 4 machines with flat panel displays to rural Kenya in three days is akin to parting the Red Sea.
Yesterday, Marta and I went with several African Virtual University (AVU) staff members to meet the Kikuyu dean. AVU has been acting as a liaison between MIT's OCW and the U of N. Essentially, all we wanted to do is copy some files to their local computers. However, nothing gets done unless the dean okays it. So, we met with about 10 people in his office before we could set foot in the computer lab. It made us feel like he was the one doing us the favor.
Anyway, they've got a copy of the entire OCW site on their local machines now. The idea was that Kikuyu would then act as a local site where other African universities could connect to better than they could connect to MIT. However, Kikuyu doesn't even have any servers at its campus and has a slow, microwave radio connection to another U of N campus. It's also a liberal arts campus, so they don't have much use for MIT's course material. There is a different campus named (something like) Cheroma that is for IT and computer science students.
We're going to look into installing an OCW mirror there. Unfortunately, each campus has its own bureaucracy, so we'll have to go through the whole business of formally getting the dean's permission to enter his fiefdom.
posted by Steve Weis at 4:44 PM
2 Comments:
First up, I have to say great job blogging away your experiences in Kenya.
Next i'll say i took the liberty to add you to Nchi Yetu Daily: http://daily.nchiyetu.com , an aggregator I cobbled up that might be helpful for u to track the kenyan blogosphere.
Further, i have to commend you on your patience with the bearucratic way of doing things in Kenya...It can get a lot worse believe it or not..So try be a bit more assertive when it comes to keeping time.
I think OCW is BRILLIANT. THe fact that its free/open is additionally intriguing. McGill, where I graduated from, use a proprietary LMS called WebCT. It seems to be doing well but is more of an intranet.
Keep up the great work...and patience!
BTW, why Kenya??
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