Lilian powers up the six computers in her school’s computer lab and waits for the 100 students enrolled in her computer science class first period. She stares at the empty tables built by members of the community that sit against the other three walls, hoping one day that computers will sit on those tables as well.
Lilian teaches computer science at Hilario Secondary School in Kiminini, a small town in Kenya. Recognizing that today’s world requires literacies plural, both traditional print-based literacy and digital literacy, the Kiminini community came together to renovate an existing classroom into a computer lab. The community put in glass windows to keep the dust out of the room and installed metal bars across the windows for security. They also built wooden desks to accommodate computers along the perimeter and ran electrical wiring. The thinking was akin to Field of Dreams: “If you build it they will come.” With a clean, secure, and appropriate space to house technology, the community hoped that computers would come next. And, through a relationship with an international nonprofit called Going Global, Inc., computers did come.
.
8
10
10