‘SAKURA’ Project

Table of Contents

Project outline

Project Scope

Target schools

Performance Goal

Technology

Input resources

Project results

Performed works

Reach the Goal?

Lessons learned

Future activities

The Country

Mongolia

Independent and democratic country

Since 1990 transition from Socialist economy into market oriented economy

Population: 2.6 mln (1/3 live in the capital city - Ulaanbaatar)

Territory: 1.5 mln sq.m

21 provinces, 337 soums, approximately 1500 bahgs

Sakura Project outline

Bridging the digital divide between rural areas and the capital city.

Sakura means

Install computers into schools, connect computers by e-mail

Cherry blossom

Project Scope

Providing ‘up to date’ IT education to junior high & high school students, especially at Soum

Update the textbooks

Re-train the IT teachers

Update IT equipment

Provide E-mail access facilities

Establish a school support center

Target schools

Schools in soums that have 24h power supply & a direct telephone line : 62 schools were chosen.

‘Measurable’ Performance Goal

Each teacher and student has his/her own E-mail address and knows to use it.

At least 85% PCs are operational at any time.

All 8th ,9th and 10th grade students can use a PC at least 2 hours / week.

Technology

Open source S/W (Linux + KDE)

No copyright violations

English menu & Mongolia Cyrillic input method

UUCP (Unix to Unix CoPy)

Good for the poor quality telephone lines: 1200bps - 9600bps

Used PCs

Narrow band network & Office application → Used PC has enough performance (Pentium I, II)

Input resources

MOSTEC

One C/P for JICA IT expert

Provide information on schools

JMITA

Local Engineers

Administration

Schools

PC room

Running cost (tel, power, printer ink etc.)

Training cost for an IT teacher

JICA

IT expert

Necessary equipment

All the project costs

Performed work(1)
Text books

Text book for students

Internet moral (Netiquette)

Linux operation

Maintenance manuals for teachers

Installation

System administration

Performed work(2)
Training

Introductory training

6 days training x 10

Operation & Linux install

All teachers must join this training and must pass the final examination!

Follow up Training

3 days training x 3

FAQ

H/W trouble shooting

System administration

Performed work(3)
IT equipment

466 PCs with Network equipment

Average: 7.6 PCs /school

Performed work(4)
E-mail access

24 schools use the internet E-mail

Unconnected Schools: Financial constraint, Lack of MTC staff skill, Unstable telephone lines etc.

All the schools use the internal E-mail on their LAN

Performed work(4)
School support center

Japan Mongolia IT Association (NGO)

Fulltime x2, Part-time x2, Volunteer x15. Office is in the Mongolian University of Science and Technology

JMITA has worked as the school support center

Telephone inquiry: 4 times /week

Carry-on trouble fix: 27 times (year 2004)

Software trouble x9

Hardware trouble x18

Reach the Goal?

Does Each teacher and student have his/her own E-mail address and knows how to use it?

YES

Are at least 85% PCs operational at any time?

YES

Can all 8th ,9th and 10th grade students use a PC at least 2 hours / week?

NO

Lesson learned(1)
About technology

Second PCs have enough capability to use simple applications

Outmoded communication protocols can be useful in countries that suffer from poor communication infrastructure

Lesson learned(1)
About the LINUX

Basic functions : Linux = Windows

Networking: Linux > Windows

(in sharing one PC with many students)

Stability: Linux =< Windows (?)

There is no significant difference.

Linux is high enough quality for school use.

Lesson learned(2)
About students

“The skill level of a class can reach the level of the best student in the class’

(A high school IT teacher in Japan)

→ It is also true in Mongolia.

English menus, messages and online helps became a obstacle

→ Mongolian language OS is required!

Lesson learned(3)
About IT teachers

IT knowledge is poor

→ After the training, most teachers can manage the PCs and the network.

Problem is the lack of trainings!

Very high turnover rate

Sakura : 14.3% Average: 3.8%

Need to hold the IT trainings continuously!

Lesson learned(4)
About school principals

Good principal

Spend the running costs, encourage students to use computers

Connect Internet, High utilization of the PC room

Bad principal

Regard the PCs as “ORNAMENTS” of his/her school

Always lock the PC room!

Need to educate principals on the importance of IT education!!

Future activites

Continue to Improve…

Linux

Mongolian localization is in progress in the ‘Linux society’ – the first Mongolian version of Linux - SOYOMBO is developed by OpenMN team

JMITA is cooperating with OpenMN team further development of Soyombo and plans to introduce ‘Mongolian version Linux’ to Sakura schools in the future.

IT curriculum

Need to establish a mechanism of revising the curriculum continuously to catch up with the international standard.

End of presentation

Thank you.

Supplement

PowerPoint プレゼンテーション

Hiroyuki IDE

2001-09-21T22:48:12

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