One evening in Zanzibar last week, as we wended our way through Stone Town’s alleys in search of our new favorite restaurant (Lukmaan!), we happened to see a lit doorway framing a room full of kids playing console games on several TVs. Excited to find some local gamers, we asked if they would be interested in seeing the educational games we’ve been making for young children. They said yes, and invited us to come back the next evening! The following evening, after a long day snorkeling from our new friend Ignacio’s boat at the tiny Nakupenda sandbar and Changu Island, we set out…
Introducing the Apps
We’ve been quite busy starting our study in Dar es Salaam, so we apologize for the slow update. Although we have suffered some setbacks (some children not showing up for the pre-testing, nor for the intervention–not to mention the still-MIA tablets), we are stunned by what we have managed to observe: Children mastered most of the game dynamics within minutes of first getting their hands on the tablets. For tonight, we want to introduce you to the egoTeach games the children are playing with. In much the way we show children (except you have to watch me play, instead of playing yourself:…
Bad news, Good news, and a Break
To begin with the bad news: 7 of our 15 shipped tablets are lost, and–worse–the remaining 8 haven’t made it out of customs. Having done more paperwork (thank you, Demere!), they should be released soon… Fortunately, Global TIES has guaranteed financial support to purchase a few more tablets to ensure that we have a full sample of 20, as planned. Moreover, we are proud to announce that we finally (!) have our signed research clearance from COSTECH, which happily puts us out of the bureaucratic woods we’ve been lost in since we began planning this pilot research. Major kudos to Kat for diligently navigating…
Getting up and Running in Dar es Salaam
At the end of our second full day in Dar es Salaam, we’re feeling a bit tired but a lot more confident about achieving our goals! The days have been spent chasing final governmental (COSTECH) clearance to conduct our research (a process we started months ago, but is apparently easiest to finish in person!), meeting Demere’s amazing crew of volunteers at Soma Book Café and E&D Readership and Development Agency, and chasing down our shipment of tablets that have been stuck in customs (and perhaps worse). At night, Hugo and George have made an embarrassing number of fixes (even improvements!) to the suite…
egoTeach heads to Tanzania!
Kat, Todd, and George received a grant from NYU Global TIES to test the suite of egoTeach educational apps that Hugo and George have been developing for the past 18 months. We’ll be writing here about our experiences running the pilot study in Tanzania, November 13-December 1.