The Aegis Graham Bell awards was established by the Aegis school of Telecom Data and Science as a tribute to the late father of Telephony, Sir Alexander Graham Bell.

The award’s mission is to recognize outstanding innovations and entrepreneurship in the fields of Telecom, Social, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud, and Security.

This year’s awards ceremony was held on Thursday 9th February 2017 at the NDMC convention centre in New Delhi.

While the rest of the winners were countries with operations in India, BRCK is the only company outside of India that won an award. BRCK’s education solution, the Kio Kit, won the top honours in the mEducation category.

Alex Masika, BRCK Biz Dev Manager, receiving the award

BRCK’s game-changing products and solutions continue to receive international acclaim for use of technologies that are literally revitalizing businesses and communities around the world.

We board flight UNO 405H at 0730 hrs from Wilson Airport and 1hr 45 mins later, we are at Kakuma Town in Turkana County. Have you ever seen photos of Turkana people? Most of the photos show a bunch of men and women, boys and girls, young and old Turkana people with short, thick and kinky hair smelling of sun. Do you know how the sun smells? Neither do I. They are usually in their best clothes which are ironically their everyday clothes.

This is not the case in Kakuma Refugee Camp. The Kakuma refugee camp is in Kakuma Town and is buzzing with activity. The camp was established in 1992 to accommodate refugees from Sudan but was later expanded to accommodate refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. According to the latest UNHCR statistics, the Kakuma Refugee camp hosts more than 100,000 refugees.

Janet and I are here to deploy the Kio Kit at the Amani Boys’ Centre, a boys’ rescue centre which is run by Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS). The temperatures are high. Francis, our contact in Kakuma hands us a bottle of water when we arrive and advises us to stay hydrated.

The camps where we will be spending the next two days is a fenced and secure area with nice concrete rooms and a kitchen. Soon after breakfast we leave for the Jesuit ICT centre where refugees are enrolled for ICT classes. It is an organised institution with two computer labs each with close to 20 computers. This is where we are going to train Paul, the systems administrator at the centre, and his team of 5 including Greg St. Arnold, the Regional Education Coordinator Eastern/Southern Africa.

On day two and we drive to Amani Boys’ Centre, which is 10Kms from Kakuma Town, for training. Janet introduces the Kio Kit to the boys who are between the ages of 6 years and 19. Having grown up in harsh conditions both from their home country and in the refugee camp, 70% of the boys in the centre had not interacted with a smartphone or a tablet before.

They were curious to learn and interact with the Kio Tablets which made the training easy and enjoyable and in less than an hour, the boys had learnt how to navigate on the Kio Tablet. The trainer- Felix Otieno- starts training the boys with the choice of content like Mr. Nussbaum Games.

The best thing about the sessions for the boys was that they thought they were just playing, not learning. Yet over the few days we were with them, we noticed how much more confident they became in class and also with using the device.

The first Kio Kit customers

Last year when we launched our ruggedised Kio Kit, what followed was a ton of interested buyers. It gave us both huge hope and nerves that our product was going to schools. Prior to launch, we had piloted the Kio Kit in some schools and that gave us a lot of user experience feedback. Now however, it was time to find buyers and ship them off to new users.  

Our first customers unexpectedly turned out to be students. International school of Kenya’s students huddled together and made the first purchase as a donation to a primary school in Nanyuki – Irura Primary School through their inter-cultural program. Irura Primary School is about 20Km from Nanyuki town and about 6Km from Ol Pejeta’s Rongai Gate. The students come from the nearby community, beyond being surrounded by an expansive wildlife conservancy, they are nested away in rural like settings.

Since our first Kio Kit deployment, we have learnt and improved many times over. From teacher training to content preparation, over time this experience gave us many learning lessons that we have certainly benefited from. Our first customers and school feel special to us, in a way we have only learnt what that means almost 1 year later.

Improvements to the Kio Kit.

Irura Primary being the first to deploy the Kio Kit has been a long process of learnt improvements. We began to learn key things such as how to better manage the content, to supporting hardware issues. There were hurdles that since then over 9 months has been significant to making improvements that are now applied on the Kio Kit.

Supporting Teachers

When we launched the Kio Kit we had some ideas of what impact it would have on both the students and the teachers, however our calculation was theoretical. We imagined it. It has been revolutionary to see how teachers benefit from using the Kio Kit. They have taught us how to make improvements, not just by making it easier for them to find content for their classes but also aiding them with lesson plans and giving them additional teaching tools to support them. Teachers love using the Kio Kit in class because it’s a helpful teaching tool. The students are able to focus better in class, they pay attention to what they are learning with ease and they don’t get distracted easily during their lesson.

Students

Schools like Irura that are away from cities and in rural towns are usually lacking in facilities and learning materials. Most students don’t have textbooks or enough of them and even finding writing materials is difficult. Without some form of technology, learning for these children would be difficult. The Kio Kit provides a great alternative to learning and beyond that gives the child a grasp of what technology looks like in this century. ISK also provides content which they share with Irura students. This content, created by ISK students helps their peers not just watch, but also understand what their peers have made in this cultural exchange.

Kids by Kids

Learning through peers is a great way to gain greater understanding of educational material. ISK students took this in an interesting approach. Their cultural exchange program got them interested in learning about the folk tales and traditional stores the students in Irura had learnt through generations. These stories were then translated, drawings and narration added to make small animations.  Today the content is available on the Kio Kit.

Many Thanks

Our trips to Irura Primary were coordinated with the help of Rift Valley Adventures. They played a big role in setting up a computer lab at Irura as well as hosting us many times when we would take the trip to Nanyuki. Endless thanks to Dipesh Pabari who didn’t tire in getting our team together with both ISK and Irura Primary.

A year on and full of hard work, looking back we learn a lot from our first deployment. These lessons and many more fuel incessant changes to move our product in the right direction.

A Little About OMO

Growing up in Kenya it was common to see in many households OMO as the first washing powder, so much so that OMO was used to mean “detergent.” It was not surprising to hear children at kiosks asking the shopkeeper for “OMO ya Sunlight” or “OMO ya Toss.” Such was OMO’s influence. OMO is an acronym for Old Mother Owl. This name brings to mind wisdom and nurturing care, connotations which are not accidental.

Certain factors made it possible for OMO to have such a significant impact. It is not that there was no competition. There was Persil, Orbit, and Sunlight. OMO had first-mover advantage. According to the Unilever website, it was introduced in Kenya in 1953. By the time similar products had hit the market, it was a bit too late.

OMO had also garnered mass appeal from a favorite quiz show called OMO Pick-A-Box. It was a Sunday-night staple of every household. By the end of the month, and thus shopping day, OMO was the only thing on almost everyone’s mind as far as a detergent was concerned.

You may wonder what a short history of a traditional soap and its marketing might have to do with educational solutions built for the periphery. During the 2015 BRCK Expedition, while we were at Kiltamany Primary School, an interesting thought occurred us: this was the first time a lot of the people there were seeing and using tablets. Not just any tablets, but bright yellow ones with the word “Kio” at the back. Like OMO, it is a simple, easy-to-remember two-syllable word that captures the imagination.

It would be a welcome thing to have our product synonymous with tablet computing, and thus digital education. We could work on this aspect of our brand to ensure that in every country the Kio Kit is shipped to, any similar devices will be referred to as Kios, much like quite a few of us call non-Apple tablets iPads. That kind of brand recognition would put us miles ahead.

But, we would be putting on a show, instead of striving to build something that makes a positive difference to pupils and teachers in remote areas. The attention that we garner has to come from a sincere and honest place. We want to hear teachers telling us how the Kio Kit has made their work easier. We want to see children’s eyes going wide at the prospect of using a Kio during class, and we want to see their grades getting better because of the Kio Kit. We would like parents to let us know what an improvement The Kio Kit has made in their children’s lives.

Awareness about us has to come from being genuine and building relevant products.

We have tested The Kio Kit extensively.

We go for expeditions, not merely for the fun, but to put our products out there and ensure they live up to our brand’s promise, that it will work in the places we claim it will work and in the way we guarantee. We have also tested the Kit in schools in and around Nairobi and not just in exotic locations. The value that the Kio Kit can deliver goes for both private and public schools. Partnering with content publishers such as eLimu and Pearson ensures that we provide the most up-to-date and relevant learning materials.

OMO is still in great ways interchangeable with laundry washing. The word “Kio” is a play on the Swahili word “kioo” meaning mirror. The Kio tablet (and Kit) is intended to make you see your potential, what you could become. We do not just imply this. We firmly believe that making learning devices and materials easily and affordably accessible to children in the remotest regions of the country (and the world) will put them on a better footing with their age mates in more affluent and well-developed areas. The Kio Kit is the best solution for this.

The Kio Kit is built specifically for regions with limited or no internet connectivity, places that are far from modern civilization, like large swathes of our country and the African continent. However, it is highly adaptable and can be used in all parts of the world.

It eliminates the need to be constantly online to access a broad range of learning materials, is hardy and rugged and is easy to charge.

The Kio Kit

With these advantages, one would think that teachers will eventually become obsolete. In discussions concerning digital literacy, this question invariably comes up, “Will The Kio Kit replace teachers?” No. Digital literacy solutions work best to enrich, not replace, human-to-human experiences. They enable us to reduce teacher and student effort and help us help educators and students even faster.

This task is a great responsibility, and the people behind these processes (ourselves and others) determine their success or failure. And let us not forget, whenever technology lets us down, we will always want a friendly human to pick us back up. In other words, the quality of a digital learning experience will never exceed the quality of the people building the solutions and working with them.

A teacher with the Kio tablet

The BRCK team has grown up, lived and works here in Kenya, a place in the developing world, and the kind of place for which we build technologies. We are in a superb position to develop relevant solutions that affordably address education and connectivity challenges. Our diverse set of skills and context-specific knowledge have enabled us to build the best device for turning an ordinary classroom into a digital classroom, The Kio Kit.

The year has started off with a bang here at BRCK! We have shipped Kio Kits to a school project in Tanzania, and just yesterday we spent  the day at the Kenya National Library in Thika Town. A big part of why we built the Kio Kit is to easily and cheaply augment already existing learning materials, books mainly, with up-to-date, relevant and engaging text, audio, and video content.

Our focus was mostly on the text part of the Kio Kit’s content, especially as we were in a quiet library setting with children reading books around us.  We have plans to add audio books to the Kio Kit so that book enthusiasts can listen to books as well as read them.  The Kio Kit can play audio and video using the in-kit earphones for each tablet, thus preventing a class (or library) from becoming chaotic when videos are being watched.  The reception was very encouraging and we are excited and look forward to working with more libraries, and schools, in the coming months!

Here are some photos from our excursion:

When we set out to build the Kio Kit, we were challenged by the opportunity to make a difference in education. Our passion for hardware and software, and the difference it could make in classrooms not only in Kenya, but  across Africa and other emerging economies drives us every day.

It goes without saying that we are super excited that we’ve shipped Kio Kits to Tanzania! We are looking forward to having a positive impact on student learning outcomes in Tanzania, and learning even more about how we can make the experience on the Kio Kit more useful.

A year ago, I coined a phrase that grounded my passion for human centered design and is the reason I wake up every morning. “Africa cannot afford un-contextualized design, the stakes are simply too high” never is this so true than in education.

One of the reasons I joined and love BRCK is because BRCK dares to go where others won’t. This week we’re in northern Kenya, a remote place with many challenges. Many don’t go to these extreme environments because of the geographical, social and economic constraints. However, we at BRCK hold a different point of view, that they matter and it makes both social and economic sense to design for the real Africa.

Mark Kamau taking quick notes as the teachers learn the Kio Kit

Tirrim Primary School is a good example. It is school in the desert, a long way up from Isiolo town, and has been the top primary school in testing in Marsabit County since 2008 sending their graduates to the most prestigious schools in the country. It is a charity school paid for by missionaries and has 620 pupils. Their dream, according to one of the teachers, is to become the “RVA (Erik’s former school) of the desert.” It is a lofty and worthy goal, especially considering people of Korr think on themselves as ‘Kenya B’ because of the sense of isolation and neglect of this desert folk feel from the rest of the country. Despite their limited access, these kids are expected to sit the same national exam and pitted against the same yardstick tablet wielding, smartphone trending students in Nairobi.

As a human centered designer with a passion for Africa, this is amazing territory. The Kio Kit sets out to answer a fundamental design question. ‘How can we convert any rural classroom into a digital classroom?’

In tackling this difficult challenge we made some assumption and learnt some lessons these are specific to this expedition.

1. CONTEXTUALIZED GUIDES

We set out to create guides for using the Kio Kit is English as it is the national language upon which all examinations are taken, but the role of local language in education, even when explaining technology is simply too effective to ignore. Today I observed a nuanced but interesting example. One teacher was trying to explain to a class of lower primary kids what the back button was on the tablet using conventional English and it took him a while to get them on board. Another said please click the “Khonjor” and all the students understood it immediately.

Some Rendille children on the Kio tablets

In the Rendille language Khonjor is a sickle, one the kids grow seeing their parents use for cutting plants. This shape allowed them to understand the reference as the blade points “back”. I also observed that even a few miles apart, the nuanced pronunciation of the same word meant the difference in understanding of things. While it is means more work, we have to contextualize the Kio Kit guides in localized videos.

2. COLLABORATIVE EXPERIENCES

With tablets, the idea is that students each get a tablet and are able to access content individually. In this construct, it is easy to diminish the importance of collaborative learning. The younger students are, the more they learn from observing and collaborating with each other. The content and games on the Kio Kit that we tested emphasized the need to have even more experiences in the Kio Kit that take advantage of this collaboration.

A teacher with the Kio tablet

2. AUTHORITY CHALLENGE

The typical construct of a normal Kenyan school is that the teacher has the authority, they dictate what happens in the classroom and assume leadership, responsibility and authority. The tablet presents a different paradigm because with the tablet in their hands, the students have more responsibility than listening and writing. They play a more active role in their own learning. Handling this shift is challenging to teachers and their usual classroom control skills don’t directly apply. We therefore need to invest more time on classroom management training with technology.

There are many more lessons we have learnt from technical centered challenges to human centered challenges that energize us as we ride back home to make the Kio Kit work even better. Most of all, interacting with people motivates us to want to do even better.

Kio tablets in action

Kiltamany Primary School is your typical forgotten school. A 20km dusty path from Archer’s Post leads to a small village between Kalama, Samburu and Westgate conservancies. Most women make beaded necklaces and most of the men herd goats. The children giggle coyly when you speak to them, but, like children everywhere, they are curious and eager to learn. As we sat around the campfire last night, it dawned on me how much energy we draw as a team from our “inner child.” I’m thrilled we are working with children this Expedition.

When we arrived at the village yesterday evening, the women sang and danced to welcome us. We took many pictures of their warm and carefully rehearsed welcome. At one point, a woman pulled out her phone and took a picture of us. In that beautiful moment all our hearts soared!

Until 3 years ago, the women of Kiltamany village would walk 13km everyday to fetch water. The new solar powered borehole water tower now means they have a few extra hours in their day. 6 months ago, they starting using tablets and learning how to read, write, add, subtract and now multiply. I watch in wonder as a 50-year old lady learns the concept of division. She weaves her thin fingers between the 12 strands of a beautiful beaded necklace to show me 3 bundles of 4 strands each.

Wmalimu Elijah and his class

The Kio Kit charged in the school last night. This morning, the headteacher, Mr Elijah Njogu rang the bell and the children from surrounding villages began to trickle in. “December holidays” do not apply to Kiltamany. We ran 3 classes back to back today. It’s crucial to our design process to understand how exhausting it is to be in a hot, dusty classroom with excitable children all day. Our appreciation of the work of teachers grows every time we go to schools. The children, like all children, take little time to start using the tablets. The headteacher lead them through lessons in counting, nutrition and force. After watching the catchy Ubongo songs, the students remembered key concepts that would otherwise take several lessons to reiterate.

The Kio Kit in a school room

Two children on the Kio

The BRCK Kio Kit

As always, we notice challenges and strive to learn valuable lessons. The classroom where the Kio Kit charged was dusty and the lights of the Kit attracted many bugs; we wonder how many dead bugs we will find in the Kits in a few months, what damage they may do. A shy girl peered at us through the classroom window as her goats grazed nearby; we have come a long way, but still have some work to do to ensure every child has the opportunity to go to school.

The community has not asked anything of us. They express again and again how much they value education and what they dream of for their future. As we sat around the fire tonight eating goat with the elders of this community, we heard a vision for a community that desires equal access to education for all of their children – boys and girls. This cultural shift towards a future that would see a small girl from Kiltamany one day sit as Chief Justice or even President of Kenya is a harbinger of the future that we as BRCK Education are honored to play even a small role in realizing for our country.

Loading up the Kio Kits for our education expedition to Samburu

The trip from Nairobi went well, as you can expect when you’re on the best roads in Kenya. There was only one small problem with a fuel line on the tired out old 1981 R80G/S when we got to Archer’s Post. I’m not bitter at all that my much nicer 2007 Suzuki DR650 is constantly overlooked by everyone as they drool over the old Beemer. We fixed the fuel line by finding a local motorcycle mechanic and raiding his parts bin.

Fixing a fuel line on the 1981 BMW

Shortly after, we shunted off of the main road into the dirt and made our way past Kalama town. Kiltamany Primary School lies about 15km past Kalama, and is the education facility for 170 children. We rolled into the school as the sun was setting, to the singing of the women in the community and the elders waiting for us for initial introductions.

An unexpected outcome of the evening was that we were going to be shown how the women are learning. Sylvester, the younger Samburu man who was responsible for this program, explained that he had built this program to teach the older women and mothers in the community how to read and do basic maths in order for them to understand the value of it. This encourages them to send their girls to school for the full first 8 years of primary school, and possibly beyond.

What was encouraging to see was just how hungry for learning the women in the community were. Sylvester asked us to be the teachers for the evening, so Nivi took over the classroom and worked through some mathematics with the ladies.

The Kio Kit was brought from the vehicle and the ladies watched a video on counting and number placement in Kiswahili. It’s by one of our partners, Ubongo Kids, out of Tanzania. This is one of the great values of the digital education kit, and our content agnostic approach, since we can partner with specialists on education content from anywhere and help get distribution of their content to the far edges of the country.

The Kio Kit about to be introduced to Samburu women

We ended the night with the Samburu elders showing us a luga (dry riverbed) and leaving us to camp for the night. Most places don’t have great connectivity, but we’re getting fairly strong 3g reception here and are able to do posts like this fairly easily.

Day 2 is going to be spent with the children from the school. Focusing on training up the teachers on digital tools like the Kio Kit and making sure that they’re comfortable, then doing some classroom exercises with the students.