Last Friday we were in Mlango Kubwa in Mathare to give a demo on the Kio Kit at the Mathare Environmental Conservation Group (Facebook page), a UN Habitat and Samsung C&T-funded youth self-help organisation. Doug Regan, one of the directors of the program, invited us and the reception was warm. Mathare is an informal settlement located on the eastern side of Nairobi and has a population of at least 500,000 people.

The Kio Kit is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, a fact that was proven again when the youth at the centre took to it fast. It is a wonderful tool for learning and outreach programs. Isaac Mwasa, the chairman of the centre, was especially excited about its potential for civic education. There are plenty of pre-loaded materials about this and other subjects on the Kit.

In addition to being a place where young women and men can learn marketable skills, the centre runs a National Youth Service (NYS) feeding program, which is an important aspect of community outreach programs, and has a program for recycling plastic, which generates income and keeps the neighbourhood clean.

The photos tell the story better 🙂

If you would like to partner with us to make a difference, like what the youth group is doing, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected].

Zadock bringing the Kit in

Left-to-Right – Alex, Isaac, Doug

Written on the wall is “elimu ni haki” (Education is a right).

Alex explaining the Kit

Here is a short interview with Isaac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQFpu9NKQAg

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.

On a rainy Friday last week we went to Joyland Primary School in Gatundu to carry out teacher training for the Kio Kit. We went with Jeff Crystal of Voltaic Systems, Jamie Drummond (co-founder of ONE.org), Mwambu Wanendeya (ONE.org Africa Executive Director) and Keith Stewart (CTO of Thomson Reuters).

The Kio Kit empowers pupils and enables teachers to have an easier time with their jobs. Our approach is to introduce them to the Kit and then let them explore it on their own. The reception was encouraging. The teachers took to the Kit fast.

Peer learning and collaborative learning are integral parts of our training. After we introduce the Kio Kit, we find teachers are more receptive to it when we give them the freedom to learn with other faculty and by learning from other teachers.

We also installed solar-powered lights for eight of the classrooms with Jeff. It seems like a small thing, but a well-lit classroom makes teaching and learning much more efficient.

We took a lot of photographs, and they can best tell the story.

The class where the training took place.

BRCKs + Kio Kit

Mark Kamau, our UX Lead, taking the teachers through the training.

Bottom-right corner – Mr. Nguuuo, the school manager

Teachers playing a memory game to help “flex their fingers” and minds.

eLimu Content

Juliana on the roof installing the solar panels.

Juliana and Reid installing solar panels.

Jeff Crystal of Voltaic Systems installs lights in one of the classrooms.

Jeff testing the lights.

Juliana fastens the solar panels.

A sample of the solar panels and cables used.

Mark and Keith having a chat with Jamie in the back.

Teachers getting more acquainted with Kio tablets.

One of the teachers heading a lesson.

L to R: Juliana Rotich, Jamie Drummond, Keith Stewart, Mark Kamau, and Mwambu Wanendeya

Here is a short interview with Jamie Drummond:

BRCK has been known for developing products for the edge of the network and very remote regions of the world. Lately our products have been pushing even what we as BRCKers consider the edge.

One of our biggest themes is the “if it works in Africa, it can work anywhere.” And that was never more apparent to us than when we recently found ourselves on a very small outboard motor boat hopping from one Solomon Island to another. The size of craft did not warrant being in this ocean infamously called the ironbottom sound. “Ironbottom Sound” is the name given by Allied sailors to Savo Sound, the stretch of water at the southern end of The Slot between Guadalcanal, Savo Island, and Florida Island of the Solomon Islands, because of the dozens of ships and planes that sank there during the Battle of Guadalcanal in 1942-43.

We were on our way there because the Savo Island School in 2016 is also the new home for a Kio Kit. Our most remote school in Kenya has been in the Kalama Conservancy and in an interesting play on words, the school in Savo is named Kalaka school.

Upon safe passage through to the island,  we were greeted by an amazing group of teachers and students alike. Savo island is beautiful, volcanic hot springs and rivers, palm farming and with a population of approximately 2000 people, the Kalaka school offers Primary, Secondary and Vocational training.

With no electricity and connectivity, getting access to research and technology for education through the Kio Kit becomes a major boost to the community and the future.

As we did the teacher training, it was apparent that our visit to the areas our products are used informs us on how to make a world class product but also localized enough to bring value at the regional level. For example; Content is a major aspect of the Kio Kit and education in general. Part of our commitment in the Kio Kit is to help communities grow. That being said, the growing pains of one community can differ widely from another. The Kio Kits in Africa have very good content on issues like cholera and sanitation, while the South Pacific Islanders were asking for more information on tsunami preparedness and diabetes awareness. While in Kalama we build for dusty conditions, in Kalaka we have to consider humidity and sea salt. Galvanization is now a new discussion in our UX and engineering departments. Going local helps us address local issues.

On this trip we also did visit a 2nd grade classroom in Canberra ACT region Australia, the contrast in classroom technology a mere 3 hours away from Savo island is mind boggling. But it is because of this that we are putting our best foot forward, in Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas and beyond. Together we can narrow the gap in digital education, research and libraries around the world.

As we move forward, we also would like to recognize the amazing partnerships that we have on the ground and in the region without which this new frontier for BRCK would not be possible.

Consider the power button. We only pay attention to it when at its push our devices do not come on, or when we hear a suspicious noise after pressing. The majority of the time, as long as our screen lights up or some machinery purrs, we forget about the power button. We just know where it is and what it is supposed to do when pushed.

Most power buttons are ordinary and forgettable. They are dull-coloured, unremarkable in texture and seldom give any feedback. We rely on some other external action to determine whether the button has worked. At best what you get is a click, a snap or a gentle push back from the resistance of a spring or some such mechanism.

Out first Kio Kit had a decent button. It was stainless steel, durable and had a ring of light that let you know what you were doing and what was happening. The LEDs would first light up for about three seconds to let you know the Kit was booting up. It would then pulse rapidly in yellow indicating the boot-up process was going on smoothly and ultimately settle into a gentle pulse, what we called a heartbeat.

The button responded to a gentle push, was pleasant to the touch and did what any ON button does. Another simple push was required to switch off the Kit. The lights would blink rapidly for about six seconds then the Kit would go off.

We thought we got it right until we received feedback. Feedback is an integral part of our work. How would we know our product works the way it was intended? Feedback one of the reasons we continually test and gather information, even if we will have to get stuck in the mud and cross rivers to do it.

There were challenges we could not have foreseen in the office. The lights were visible only in brightly-lit places, the information relayed by the tiny LED lamps was ambiguous to new users, there was no way to tell how long to keep the button pressed to bring on the Kit, and the button itself was small.

People with large fingers had trouble turning on the Kit. On placing one such finger on the power button, the full button, including the shielding was covered, necessitating use of such objects as pencils to push the button.

The Old Kio Kit Button Against a Twenty-Shilling Coin

A major issue brought about by these shortcomings was making users feel daft. A great product empowers a user. A mediocre one makes them feel weak, and no one likes to feel this way. The Kio Kit is a great product.

Because of this, a new button was required, one that took care of a major pain point: it had to be big enough to accommodate all finger sizes while at the same time enabling the users to see the feedback lights. The button chosen is more prominent and allows users to see what is going on with the Kit when they press it.

The New Kio Kit Button Against a Twenty-Shilling Coin

In this way, we saw a marked improvement in engagement with the Kio Kit. At first, it seems inconsequential. You just need the Kit or any other gadget ON. But, it is the little things that make a difference, like the oft-forgotten and neglected power button. Incorporating this kind of feedback is a great first step in tweaking the button to meet our users’ needs.

Possible improvements on the button would be to let users know when there is no charge on the BRCK by lighting up red and having it change colour as the charge gets replenished and depleted, much like a BRCK.

Wajir county has a population of 661,941 and an area of 55,840.6 km². Wajir County has only one local authority: Wajir county council. Somali people who are Muslim in culture and faith predominantly occupy it.

The purpose of coming here was to deliver a Kio Kit, our digital literacy kit to Wajir library in Wajir town. It is a Kenya National Library Service (KNLS) knls.ac.ke funded by Book Aid International. It is a community library serving over 20 schools and an immediate population of about 90,000. It is a vital source of knowledge, especially for school children who need revision time after school and on weekends.

The experience was definitely surreal from the beginning. We flew from Nairobi at 7:30 a.m in a small plane and arrived in Wajir an hour and a half later to a totally different world culturally. At the airport, we taxied in next to a fighter jet and a military land rover on one side; not too far ahead was 2 UN relief and medevac helicopters. Clearly an environment seemingly tense in the wake of terror attacks by Al shabaab given recent intelligence of possible attacks here. After a self-service language sorting experience, we grabbed the Kio Kit and were off in the back of a military style land cruiser pickup packed with more of us than it should carry with luggage space an afterthought. It clearly was normal here given how much ease the locals seemed to accept the arrangement. They are the only vehicles allowed into the airport. They ferry you out of the airport where your host or a taxi takes you into Wajir town.

When we arrived, we were received by Mariam, a nice lady in full Muslim attire in 36 degree Celsius heat. She shook my colleague Nivi’s, hand, but declined to shake the outstretched hand of my colleague Reg and I, (a religious and cultural no-no, we learnt). We clearly had come to a different cultural context, another extreme in our efforts to spread digital literacy across Africa. Every time we get to our new location, especially one far away from Nairobi, I think of the BRCK education vision and the fact that we are walking the talk.

‘‘Our vision is to enable millions of children in schools across emerging markets to access digital educational tools for better learning’’.

KNLS

The Kenya national library service sets up libraries countrywide. It is a noble unit of the government given the importance of access to knowledge for all. Book aid international complements these efforts by providing additional support to the libraries, this can be in form of books and in this case, the Kio Kit: the digital literacy kit from BRCK.

Digital literacy

I am old school. I like the smell, tactile feel of a physical book. But my sentiments are subjective. There are some generational interactional elements we cannot ignore when dealing with a multifaceted clientele, especially the youth: The influence of technology, aspirations, perspectives, and attention spans- the list is long. Even as deep as Wajir, the youth readily embrace technology and those who haven’t are likely to be curious about it. The question becomes;

1. What does this mean for educational experiences we provide?
2. What does this mean culturally and the economics of providing education in the 21^st century Africa?
3. What does this mean for how we are shaping the current generation to cope with the future as society evolves?

There are some basic arguments for inclusion of digital literacy right off the bat worth considering;

It makes sense

The amount of knowledge you can store in a tablet is simply amazing in relation to a traditional library. It is much easier to store, much easier to index and find and definitely, much easier to manage and reproduce this knowledge; It simply makes sense to complement traditional libraries with technology.

Informational bias

The informational landscape has changed immensely with the World Wide Web. The informational realities have evolved. The transfer of knowledge, sharing and enriching its intelligence has become almost instantaneous. While physical books are a valid custody for knowledge, they simply are no longer a sufficient custodians in today’s world. There is too much happening too fast for the medium.

Socio-cultural bias

One of the interesting observations in Wajir was the fact that being in a predominantly Muslim area, Christians have to study Islamic religious education since they don’t offer Christian education. This means you take IRE (Islamic Religious Education) classes. I couldn’t help but think it must be awkward to hold a bible here. The opposite is probably true in predominantly Christian areas. What then happens when a young girl needs to learn about ‘taboo’, sensitive or potentially embarrassing issues A physical book with a title giving away what you are reading can be a bit disconcerting. A tablet on the other hand presents an opportunity to easily deal with this subtle but important issue. You could easily read the Bible, Quran, puberty books without the same level of fear, especially in a public library where all the community go and come.

Intelligence empathy and experience bias

The traditional book library, noble an idea as it is, belies the fact that different people learn in different ways. The typical point of view is that if you are not good at sitting, cramming and chewing books you are academically challenged; an idiot. Imagine the effect this has on a young child. They grow feeling inept, self-doubtful and this severely limits their potential.

Studies show that with some; visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic methods of learning significantly out-perform book and paper. This especially makes sense in African cultures where the practice of passing knowledge by fireside narratives, acting, dance and music still prevail. Imagine the limitation for students better suited for these methods when they are exposed to only the method of learning they are least equipped to deal with.

The Kio Kit provides an opportunity to combine the different ways of learning; visual, auditory, or tactile/kinesthetic. The kit becomes a crucial pathway for the many who can explore alternative ways of learning empathetic to peoples’ dispositions. Imagine the opportunities this creates for the education experience as a whole. This is a chance to truly revolutionize the education landscape in Africa, one school at a time.

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.

At BRCK, we are people first, design second and then technology brings it all together.

The reason why I like today is because we really got to do the people part really well.

Be helpful
On expeditions we keep to a very tight schedule in order to complete all our scheduled stops and tasks. However this morning we got a call to go rescue a truck that was stuck in the mud after heavy rains had swamped the road.

This was a bitter sweet call, sweet because it is great to be called to save the day, bitter because the swampy conditions were on the same road we had to travel today. When we got to the scene we understood the severity of the situation. The land cruiser had sunk to the diffs. To get it out it took a high lift jack, several individuals and TWO Land Rovers.

Lending a hand

Our kind gesture was also returned in the form of geographical intelligence which informed our route adjustments for the day.

Ask for help.
The road today was full of beautiful scenery, some questionable roads, very many river bed crossings and very few towns. When we finally got to a town, we needed several things, food, drinks and fuel. Towns off the beaten path have no gas stations but you can always find a local supplier who sells petrol or diesel from a small shop.
I was designated the chapati guy on this trip because no matter where we went, I was able to find the freshest off the pan chapatis. This was a challenge in this town because they didn’t have restaurants, however after asking, I was directed to a Masaai manyatta and although they didn’t have any ready chapati, asking for a referral led me to a second manyatta that had 9 off the pan chapos.
The last request was asked by Erik who inquired about the availability of a cell service signal in the area. We gave a local guy a ride and several kilometers away from the town and under a tree, voila, Philip was on the phone with his family and we had a great picnic under said tree for lunch.

The connectivity tree

Delegation intelligence
Our company motto is “we can do hard things”. We often have and overcome challenges of different magnitudes. We learn from every situation. A big part of overcoming challenges is to deligate duties according to people’s strengths.
When dinner time came, Philip was appointed/volunteered to make the sauce for the spaghetti. It was very flavorful however we all agreed that we gave the right job to the wrong person. Philip has many strengths but pasta sauce might not be one of them. Every bite was an expedition into breakfast, lunch and dinner since the recipe included bacon, beans, scotch, wine and peanut butter to name a few things. It was an experience in world cuisines all in one meal.
Live a little
Tonight is our second to last night, the area of the country we are in is the most beautiful part of Kenya that I have been so far, to try and explain it to you would be difficult and pictures do it no justice. Whatever emotions are invoked when one mentions Bali are what I’m feeling right now. There are 5 individual mountains surrounding this river Beach Front property that I pitched my tent on, no soul in sight for a while then a few boys come with a soccer ball and we play together, then some younger kids come to swim.

God’s country

Best ideas win
This expedition comes as I’m about to celebrate my first year with BRCK. Both at the office and outside, we foster a tradition of collaboration and dialogue that helps the best ideas to rise to the top. Rufus has challenged us with his vast knowledge of diverse subjects in music, literature and world trivia. It is this ability to research and be well read that makes him such a great customer service and support guru.

Dinner time

It has been a great expedition, many lessons learned, I finally earned my expedition badge alongside Jeff and Rufus, a BRCK team tradition. I also did cave in and shaved my beard by the river, the itchy 5 day scruff was driving me crazy. stay tuned.