Some children from rural primary schools in Embu County have shown first hand understanding of basic use of digital gadgets away from smartphones with their operation and use of laptops quite good and remarkable.
While majority of the children pursue entertainment materials through the smart phone, guiding them on the laptop reveals different levels of interaction where they show interest in actually typing their own work and seeking to know how correction and saving are done.
Education News tested four pupils from Gatondo Primary School on the use a laptop after guiding them on basics of connecting a computer to electricity, its on and off operations, and basic typing and saving recorded materials.
The pupils confessed that this was the first time they were interacting that closely with a computer.
Despite being a grade three pupil, Prudence Wanjiru, 10, easily beat the others; two from her own grade and one from standard eight, seeking minimum guidance all the time.
The pupil was able to create a file before going ahead to type a word document, which she named “plants” and which she saved in her created file with ease.
Interestingly, the little girl was able to easily explain the ‘plants’ topic in a most correct and impressive way in the absence of a text book or her notes.
The only section of documentation where the girl sought assistance was how to get a graphic of a plant into the document showing all the parts.
When challenged to think how such could be brought in after being reminded of the presence of a digital camera and a smartphone, Prudence quickly asked whether a photo could be pasted onto her document.
Moments later, the girl went out and pulled out a weed which had some flowers and easily improvised it, even adding artificial seeds, took the photo and only sought assistance to create some box graphic on her document.
She was able to label all the parts using the tools available for editing.
But the most amazing part was her ease at reproducing facts about a plant, and although spelling issues and mistakes arose, she was grudgingly allowed to use the auto spelling to correct mistakes.
Here is the raw copy of what this prospective writer, editor, author or graphic designer managed to produce in her first interaction with a computer, albeit with limited assistance.
By Robert Nyagah
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