Activity Update

The students have already gone back to school but we have gotten interest from some of their parents and the same students to come and use the room a couple days a week. To address this we have decided to open the study room two days a week in the morning and one day in the afternoon. For sure one of the morning days will be Saturday morning. We have one of the tutors that helped us during the program who also works for the company, so he will be in charge of over site during these days and especially Saturday. We are also talking to some schools that have honors programs for those students to come and learn to be instructors for this kind of thing and get community service hours in this way.

We have also mentioned the pilot program to several different people. There are different groups which are now excited and have expressed interest in what we have done. As we have limited facilities we can not accommodate all these people and the possible students this means. So what we have decided is to set up a seminar that two of the instructors, Eduardo and Jose, can give to different schools, teachers,parent groups and people who are interested. These seminars will let interested people learn about the Khan academy and how we went about doing the pilot program, this way they can learn from our mistakes and build on what we saw as the successful parts of our program. Our first seminar will be given to a small school that has started in the city of Samaipata. Thanks to them the seminar idea was started because the schools founder were the ones to ask us about this. We have made an outline of the seminar and are preparing to go to Samaipata in the next 2-3 weeks. This will be an interesting learning experience for us and enable us to see the viability of using the Khan academy in a school setting. This school is a great place to start because it is a small school with small class sizes. Since there are no more than 100 kids,  it will be interesting to see how this works out.

EA

Saturday August 3rd

Yesterday, we held a meeting between the AHA Bolivia Staff, some of
the volunteers for the Pilot Project and the heads of the Artisan
Groups that AHA Bolivia employs. The objective of the meeting was to
ask the Group Heads for feedback about the Pilot Project which is why
it was set about a month after it was over.

After a few words from Anna thanking everyone for their time and
collaboration with the project, the floor was given to the Artisans
and students. Each of them gave us positive feedback. For most
students, particularly if they do not excel in their education, school
life can become quite a frustrating drag. Try to picture going to the
same place day, after day, after day just to see that what you are
meant to be learning hasn’t been clicking. To witness that your
classmates, some of them your friends, others your rivals,
understanding that which you can’t.

In Bolivia, there are more students below the average academic level
than at or above the actual average. Many of the kids here get
frustrated by this. But it is not necessarily their fault. The blame
goes to a system that forces teachers to advance without putting much
care in ensuring that everybody learns correctly. Its system whose
sole focus is to simply meet the schedule and deadlines of the school
year, where those lucky and skilled enough to understand concepts in
that period of time get to be praised and get more opportunities than
the others.

This is not to say that those students get everything on a silver
platter, they, of course, must make an effort. Nevertheless, more
often than not, it’s because of their innate talent that they can
understand more in less time or simply because they have the drive to
continue studying on their own, outside school time. If your teachers
praise you, that is enough of a motivator to keep up good grades, keep
studying.

That is why the Khan Academy was so alluring to all the kids that
participated in our little project. In an environment where they can
advance at their own place, practicing modules on their own, ask for
help from their fellow students or the volunteer tutors… even if they
didn’t quite get it at the start, they were motivated to keep going
forward.

The Artisans expressed that most, if not all, of the kids asked
whether or not we would be repeating this program again, they asked
when that was going to happen. They’ve also told us about how, even in
such a short time, most of them actually look forward to going to
school now (At least to their Math classes). Some of the mothers of
the youngest kids we had, ages 8-10 also thanked the program as their
children used to be socially awkward and shy and by the end of it,
they could speak to other kids and the tutors and also ask for help.

Both children, and adults, are inherently ashamed and afraid of asking
for help when they don’t understand something. And how could they
not, considering that the persons who ask such questions are labeled
“slow” or “dumb”.

I have been through a lot of different schools and school systems and
I believe that to get rid of this so called fear of asking is primordial in
education. It was great seeing how this curriculum has helped the
children to not have the need of asking for help in their current Math
classes’ subject. It was great to hear how the students have started
to find the joy in learning and how their parents can perceive this. It
 was great to hear that we can provide them with the chance to show
them that they can be above average, if they have the dedication and
the right tools for the job.

To finish the meeting, we announced we will start an effort to have
the room open during the weekends, for all kids that would be willing
and able to come. This will be an arduous effort, but seeing how the
kids and the artisans are doing their best to comply and help, we can
do no less.

Background 2

After reading Salman Khan's book and meeting with James and Bilal at the Khan Academy headquarters, we left feeling inspired and determined.  My sons Eduardo and Elahdio returned to both of their universities close by and I returned to Bolivia.  Upon arriving in Bolivia, Jose and I met about this project.  Jose had been working his way through the Khan math curriculum and was now a master in most things Khan.  We decided that one of the first things that we needed to do was meet with our artisans and see if they were interested in the project.   

Our meeting was a resounding success.  Many of the women were very excited about the idea that we could help their children in math, a subject that tortured both children and parent's alike.  Bolivia's public school system is largely based on rote memory.  Many teachers in this system feel overwhelmed by large classes, few resources and a student population that oftentimes has no parental help at home.  The students,especially in the rural areas, often have little to no, one on one interaction with a teacher.  Math is especially difficult since success is based on the fact that each new concept is based on the mastery of the previous concepts.  Many students feel both frustrated and embarassed by their continued failure in math.  After discussing the project with the artisans, we decided that the best way to go about getting information and signing up the kids was by doing a survey.  

As we are members of the World Fair Trade Organization, we often need to find out basic information about our artisans.  AHA Bolivia works with 200-300 artisans all over the Cochabamba valley, where our offices are located.  The artisans generally work from home or in the case of crochet and handknits, they work from whereever they are.  It is not uncommon to find dried grass in some of our pieces, as a knitter herds her sheep or llamas in the mountainous countryside surrounding the Cochabamba valley.  We have done surveys with our artisans sporadically.  We usually ask demographic questions as well as questions about health and well-being.  In this new survey, we decided to add a section about all the artisans' children and their level in school.  Also we wanted to know if the students were interested in participating in a Khan Academy project during their June/July vacation (winter here in the Southern Hemisphere).  

We hired the daughter of one of our knitters Juseth, to carry out this very difficult task of trying to meet with the artisans and fill out the surveys.  Many of the artisans are semi-literate with some artisans not being able to read at all.  Juseth has a degree in Sociology and she has helped us in the past gather information about the artisans.  She also has some knowledge of Quechua, the language spoken in the countryside in this part of Bolivia.  Although some of the women can only speak Quechua, most of their children will be able to speak Spanish.  We set aside the months of March and April to carry out this task.  By the end of the allotted time, Juseth had done a fantastic job of collecting information and we found ourselves with over 100 students wishing to participate in the project.

Meanwhile, Jose and I were trying to figure out the logistics.  Where would we set up this program?  How would we get the necessary computers?   Was our internet capable of running all the computers at once?  How would the kids from the countryside get to our offices?  Who would supervise the kids?  Etc. etc.  We had a million details to figure out but we were so excited about the enthusiasm that our project had generated that we just figured that everything would work out somehow.

Anna

Comments

After the last classes, we asked our students to write a few comments about what they thought of the program. Here is what some of them wrote:

"Me gusto mucho por que me fue muy bien, tambien por que los profesores fueron muy buenos y geniales con todos. (I liked it a lot because it went well for me, also because the teachers were very good and nice with everybody.)" - Heidy

"Yo creo que estas clases fueron una gran ayuda y a que me aclareco muchas dudas que tenia con respecto a la matematica, lo recomendaria a los que necesitan ayuda en la matematica fue una experiencia muy grata (I think that these classes were a great help and they alleviated many doubts that I had regarding math, I would recommend it to anybody who needs help in math, it was a great experience.) - Adhemar

"Yo digo que que me gustaron mucho y los profesores son muy buenos las clases me ayudaron mucho y me hicieron entender muchas cosas que no entendia muchas gracias. (I really liked the classes and the teachers were really good. The classes helped me a lot and made me understand many things that I hadn't. Thank you very much.)" - Gabriel

"Me gusto mucho porque es una forma devertida de aprender matematicas y otras cosas y lo aprendes bien y ademas los guias son divertidos y te ayudan bien (I really liked it because it is a fun way to learn math and other things and you learn well and moroever the teachers were fun and helped you well.)" - Vicente

"Me gusto mucho y son las mejores clases de matematicas que he tenido (I liked it a lot and they were the best math classes that I have ever had.)" - Kosuke

These are only a few of many grateful comments, which we will continue to post. Sounds like the kids really enjoyed the course, and many of them are excited to return on Saturdays, when we will have the computers open to use the Khan Academy.

Graduation

AHA Bolivia's Khan Academy Pilot Program ended on Saturday. Beginning on Thursday, each class had a short graduation and celebration. Anna Hosbein recognized the all of the participants, and each student recieved a certificate of completion of the program. The students were overjoyed to recieve recognition for the program, although many were sad that it was over. Almost all of the students demonstrated a great interest in the Khan Academy and are eager for any opportunity to log on. The comprehensiveness, independence, and funness of learning with the Khan Academy is an experience new to most of the kids. For many of the students, this program was the first time that they had enjoyed learning math and felt empowered to take learning into their own hands. It was amazing to see intelligent kids who had previously struggled with simple mathematics excel when they had the opportunity to learn in a new way. One student, Adhemar, said that the program helped him master some difficulties he had in arithmetic and then quickly advance onto geometry. The overwhelming success of this program is even more exciting when put into the context of the logistical and linguistic limitations the pilot faced. It is our hope that this pilot is only the first step free math education in Bolivia, and that it can be used to build resources and improve the Spanish version of Khan Academy. As we continue to improve the breadth and depth of the program, the educational impact of the pilot can only be extended.

IP

July 11

Today was the last day of the project for 2 of the classes. We ended the classes 30 min early today to have a small closing ceremony. We gave the students a certificate for participating and we had a small meal to celebrate the successful end to the program.

The Tues, Thurs morning class

The Tues, Thurs afternoon class

 We have 3 more classes to wrap up and each gets their own little closing ceremony 2 tomorrow and 1 on Saturday. The students seem to have learned much from the program and can use the website by themselves pretty much. We the tutors fell into more of an aid role by these last days of the program. The students have also started asking each other for help and figuring hard concepts out in groups.

We also passed around some books for the students to put their comments in. Most of the students were happy with the program. The favorite teacher by default for the morning classes was Ariel. Many of the students have said that this program helped them. We have also talked to some of the parents one of the mothers was present for the closing and said, "My son is talking he is usually so shy." She also asked us for all the login information so that they could carry on using the program at home.

EWA

July 10

July 10

Despite what we had been hoping for, it appears that we won’t get an extra week and so classes will resume on Monday.  It has been great to get to know these kids and see them grow and improve over the last couple of weeks.  If such a change was visible over this short period of time, I can only imagine how much more they could accomplish if given more time with the program.

Today I was able to see an enormous improvement in two siblings, Cristina and Jhonny. Coming from a numerous family, (eight siblings in total, though only five of them were part of our program) and a modest lifestyle, eight-year old Jhonny not yet had the chance to go school.  When I first opened an account for him on the website and found out his math knowledge consisted on all the number from one to two hundred, Eduardo and I tried to teach addition to him. He picked it up surprisingly well and by the end of his first day he had already moved to two-digit additions and subtractions. Now Jhonny can solve multi-digit additions and subtractions that involve carrying. Cristina too has seen a major improvement. Struggling with systems of equations, she went back and reviewed her times tables as well as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of negative numbers. We then went back and tried the basic system of equations exercises; however there was still something that pulled her back-lineal equations. Today Cristina had a great breakthrough and got every single question right. She could not believe she had found these equations hard at one point. I reassured her that this has happened to all of us and is more frequent than one would think. Everything builds up, and if you do not have the right foundations then sooner or later things crumble.

These kinds have surprised me in a way I had never thought would be possible. I know they are capable of this and so much more. I hope they too are aware of it too.

AP

July 8

July 8

We are now within the third week of classes, and wish we could have more time to engage in the project. I am amazed by how quickly the kids of all ages have learned to use the Khan Academy website. I have yet to find a student who has not in some way or another benefited from using the website.  Some of our students are now looking at more advanced problems or math subjects than their fellow schoolmates.  Others have perfected previous math concepts and skills, and so their weaknesses have become their strengths.  When I first started working with some of the older kids I noticed most of them wanted to skip basic math concepts such as multiplication and division and pick up from where they left off in their respective grade levels. A great number of them would get stuck and ask for help, and it was while I explained the exercise step by step that I could figure out where the real problem was. I got varied results, some needed to go back and review concepts such as multiplication and division, and others got confused when adding and subtracting or multiply and dividing negative numbers and almost all of them had forgotten how to solve lineal equations.

After explaining the exercise I would come up with a couple of multiplication problems or simple equations, wherever I thought they needed more practice to see if that was the area that troubled them. I noticed that when they were told they had to go back and review some previous material they would do so reluctantly, but as I explained my reasoning, backing it up with the knowledge map they seemed to be more accepting.  As of this week the majority of these older kids have moved on to more challenging concepts or at least worked up their weak areas. I am really proud of their progress. They have come a long way in short amount to time.

Saul, who is more or less ten years old and rather shy was mind blown when I explained he find the answer to the 9’s time table using his hands. We had been trying to figure out the 9’s time table for a while and had tried several approaches, (drawings, adding 9 to the product, writing the table down) but none seemed to work.  When I first explained the finger folding technique he seemed skeptical. After showing him it worked with any number up to 10 he just couldn’t believe it.

Luis Daniel and Ariel, two eleven year old boys who have been sitting next to each other for the past few classes have always been very competitive when it comes to getting the right answer and accumulating as many points as possible. They could often use their ‘‘chanchullas’’ (cheat sheets) or the multiplication and division tables found in back of the notebooks we gave them. When they got caught using them we would laugh about it. I would tell them they could use them if they deemed it necessary, but reminded them they would have to learn them eventually for school. Today I saw a change in them, even though they continue to indulge in a competition, Ariel helped Luis if he got stuck somewhere and Luis did the same.

AP

Day 9 July 4th

Day 9 July 4th

As we begin to wrap up our first week of full classes, the program is running smoothly. Both the students and teachers have begun to find a rhythm of learning and teaching, and the general mood of the classroom is one of excitement. Most of the kids are now comfortable with the Khan website, and their learning is progressing faster and faster. As a teacher, I am finding that I am helping less with technology issues and more with actual mathematics. I am beginning to get to know students personally and understand their individual strengths and weaknesses. Just today I had the opportunity to work individually with two students outside of the classroom. I gave Jose practice problems on systems of equations and Erick problems on square roots. Jose continued to practice systems of equations the whole time, but after a few problems it was clear that Erick could move beyond square roots. His peers usually continued on to simplifying radicals, the next topic on Khan Academy. I had seen, however, that many of them struggled with this concept because the Bolivian schools teach square and cube roots before exponents, which made simplifying radicals difficult. Because I had the opportunity to pay more attention to Erick, I decided to go back and teach him exponents. I was excited to teach one on one, and avoid the regular laughter that accompanies my bad Spanish when I try to explain something to a group. Erick was much more polite, and what´s more, he was excited to learn and engaged the math I was teaching. We went through an explanation of exponents and a few practice problems, and Erick picked it up incredibly quickly. After recess, Jose and Erick switched to the computers, and as I´m writing this, Erick is speeding away with exponents. He´s a smart kid and I´m glad that I had the opportunity to pay attention to him and help him with certain concepts that are difficult for his peers who have only been taught in schools with large classes and little personal attention.

IP

Background- part 1- How we made some stuffed animals and met Salman Khan

Background- part 1- How we made some stuffed animals and met Salman Khan

Last year I read Salman Khan's book, The One World Schoolhouse.  It inspired me so much  that I wanted to see if we could use his curriculum to help tutor the children of the artisans that work for our company, AHA Bolivia.  I started to use some of the videos myself and then introduced them to Jose, one of my assistants.  I had him read the book and asked if he would help me with this project.  I think he got excited about it as he started a manic accumulation of points and developed an in depth knowledge of all things Khan.  

I was going to travel to the Palo Alto area in the US in February of 2013 and decided that we should try to figure out how to talk to Salman Khan or the people in his organization in person.  They did not want to be found.  We tried a million different ways to get the Khan Academy people to respond to us.  Nothing.  Then Jose came up with a brilliant plan- since our company made crochet and knit stuffed animals, why not make little stuffed animals of the avatars on the Khan website.  We made these wonderfully quirky creatures that embodied the Khan avatars, took photos of them and then added the photos to our various and sundry e-mails going off into cyber space directed at the Khan people.  They responded.

When I travelled to the US, I corralled my two sons and we all went to a meeting with two of the Khan team- James and Bilal.  During the meeting, Bilal took photos of the dolls while we talked about our project.  What James and Bilal kept asking us was- but what do you want from us?  Frankly, all we wanted was to let them know what we were doing and open a dialogue with them.  We asked if they had knowledge of someone using the Khan Academy curriculum in a developing country in another language.  They said that so far they had heard only rumours about some projects but did not have extensive knowledge of any of them.  We asked if they would be interested in what happened with our project.  They said- absolutely and please make a blog.  After 5-6 months and massive amounts of preparation- our project has started and we have finally made a blog.  

To finish up our US experience with the Khan academy, we can't forget the meeting with Salman Khan himself.  After our meeting with James and Bilal was over, we walked into the common area where the exuberent Khan staff got very excited about the stuffed avatars.  As the avatars were being thrown around the room from person to person, Salman Khan came out and in that wonderfully familiar voice and laugh said ¨"(chuckle, chuckle) not very professional."  It struck me then, that more than Salman Khan's face, his voice will be an iconic voice for many American children.  We all exchanged pleasantries and left with the idea that we would put together a mini Khan experience for some kids in Cochabamba Bolivia.

Anna Hosbein de Aliaga

Day 8 July 2nd

July 2

Today we used a different modality than yesterday. Yesterday we tried making all the students accounts first and then having them use the page. What we’re doing now is separating the class into two equal halves. For the first half of the time one of the groups uses the computers and the other is outside playing math games. What we do is make the first group their logins and then they stay the first half of the class. After the snack break we brought in the second group and made them logins and they used the computers until the end of the session. We did this with both the morning and afternoon groups. This is the best solution we could find so far with the quantity of kids we have and our limited number of computers. We have also found that as the students get more familiar with the site they are faster in picking it up and need less help as they go along. Students at similar levels have started engaging in competition to see who can advance the farthest. We look at this as a good sign because it means that the kids are getting comfortable with the program and finding it interesting. Students have also started helping each other solve problems or/and explain concepts that they get to each other. They have also started helping each other navigate the website for when they get stuck. We have also been using the practice exercises mostly but some students have used the videos with the Spanish subtitles and say they help a bit. The only problem with that is that the student cannot fully concentrate on the content in the video because they have to be also attentive to the subtitles. A large part of the students don’t want to leave when their allotted time is up. But in the interest of fairness we have to change the groups so that everyone has a chance of using the computers. It would be ideal if we had more computers and unlimited time so that the students can explore and learn at their own pace. But alas that is not the situation we are in and we are doing the best we can with what we have.

We have also had to teach some of the students how to use a computer. Some of the students have not really had the chance to use a computer. So we teach them the basics of navigating the site and the basics of using a computer. We hope that they are learning math and at the same time learning how to use a computer and the internet. We cannot allow free navigation of the internet by the students because this would put too much of a strain on our internet connection. We have figured out that our connection can be used for about up to 9-10 computer/laptops and we can usually get one tablet to also work. But the internet is rather temperamental and we sometimes have the web pages crashing because the internet connection gets overloaded.

We are taking the program one day at a time. Today was a new approach that seems to be working. But we will keep tweaking and being flexible with the program as we see fit or as situations arise.  

EWA

Day 7 July 1st

Day 7 July 1st

Today was the first day that all the children showed up to their allotted time slots. In total today there were around 35-40 kids. this was separated into 15-17 kids in the morning and then 10-11 kids in the afternoon. as it was the first day at full capacity we ran into some issues but we are learning from them to improve as the program progresses. In the morning it was more challenging then in the evening this was due to the quantity of kids that showed up. We have 10 computers for the program so we could seat all of the students in the morning class. What we had to do was create all of them Khan Academy accounts. We tried logging in with Facebook for the ones that have a Facebook but we ran into the same problem as before that the link was not working. In the end we had to create nearly every student a Gmail account and log them in that way. In the morning we made all the students user names  and showed them the basic workings of the website. We had to have a group outside playing math ans strategy games because we could not seat them all at once. We had planned some games as a contingency in case we could not have all the kids on the computers. We were originally planning to have 2 students per computer but this is unfeasible because we the students are on such different levels. So the contingency is math and strategy games. We will also split the sessions into two parts one before recess and the other after recess. This partition will allow all the students to be able to partake in the games and to use our limited number of computers. We have also discovered that our band with can make up to 8 computers run smoothly having all ten up at the same time is workable but it makes the website lag or take a really long time to load. To try to solve this we are trying to get a separate modem to connect about half the computers to it. But for now we are working with what we have.

In the afternoon the process went smoother. With the exception that Gmail did not allowing us to create accounts for some of the students. But the smaller class size ensured that the students in this shift got to use the computers and if not to work personally with a instructor. The reason for this smaller class size was that there was a substantial amount of no shows. But this is a more manageable class size. What we can take from this is that we should have about as many students as computers. But as the program has started we will continue to have all the students come to their times and we will have other learning activities they can partake in. We also have these personal whiteboards the students may use to solve problems on and it has released them from trying to make their work look good and focus more on the process. In the Bolivian eduction system neatness of ones notebook is a grade in itself. But having these whiteboards helps the students be free from this habit that has been ingrained in them.

We will take what we have learned today and try to make the program better in the weeks to come.

EWA

Day 4 June 27

We had 4 students come to both the morning and afternoon classes today, an increase of one and two students, respectively. The kids seem to be getting the hang of working on the Khan Academy, and they are beginning to need less help from the teachers, at least in navigating the website. Their learning is becoming more focused as they engage with the program, which in turn helps us teachers understand where the students are having difficulties and help them out. In the afternoon, Cindy Jackson, a middle school math teacher who has worked with the Khan Academy in the United States, gave a presentation to the teachers on how to best engage with the students. With the anticipation of more students next week and a limited number of computers, Ms. Jackson gave suggestions for math games and exercises to play outside of class that would reinforce the material students were learning with Khan Academy. She also spoke about the rote style of education in both the States and Bolivia, and about how we could teach our students in a way that emphasized understanding over simple memorization. Ms. Jackson showed a paper-folding exercise that worked as a visual learning tool for fractions, a subject with which her students have particular trouble. The program is picking up speed and as both the students and teachers become familiar with the classroom and Khan Academy. We are excited for the next steps in this program as more students arrive and learning progresses.

IP

Day 3 June 26

Day 3

June 26

Today we had an increase in the number of students from the two we had on Monday now we have four for the morning class and from zero we went up to one in the afternoon class. The classes are going well but we have been running into problems when we try to register the students with Facebook. It keeps telling us that the page is having issues. For this reason we are having to make the students Gmail accounts to be able to access the academy. But all in all it seems to be going smoothly.

EWA

Day 3

Today Ian and I (Elahdio) went on a trip to one of the communities where many of the students come from. This community is called Arani and is about an hour and a half out of town. The reason for our journey was to film both a Bolivian elementary school and high school. While we were filming we were surprised that the directors and teachers of these schools were eager to grant us interviews. Thanks to this we discovered a different view point of Bolivian education. Most of the students that attend this program say that one of the reasons they don't understand a specific subject is because their teachers  don't explain it well, and the teacher does not spend enough one on one time to help them with their difficulties.
However yesterday we also leaned about the difficulties Bolivian teachers face. In the elementary school of "Socrates G Torrico", there are 200 students from preschool to 6th grade while there are only 13 teachers. In the secondary school of "Nemesio A Mariscal" there are 700 students from 7th to 12th grade. Every teacher we interview was overwhelmed because they have to teach four different grade levels of approximately 30-35 students per day, they are poorly paid by the government, and they are not granted sufficient materials or support to teach properly.We asked different teachers what subjects most students struggle with, and every teacher answered the same thing - math. Professor Nivardo Rojas Rioja from Nemesio A Mariscal secondary school said in his interview that "Not all students are in the same math level, 20% of kids from 7th-8th have problems with adding and subtracting, and a number of students in 9th-12th have problems with fractions." Not learning this material correctly in their early education accumulates and hinders students trying to learn new material. State schools in the provinces lag behind state schools in the cities because of a number of reasons that can not only be contributed to the lack of teaching material or teacher to student ratio.
Province schools also face lack of parental support because most kids are left by themselves. This is because their parents are working in a different country. Many of the parents migrate to Spain, Argentina, Italy and various other countries looking for work. The lack of parental presence leads to these children being left alone. Among the problems they face is that they are malnourished. In school the students also face a language barrier because Spanish is not their first language. Many of the interviewed teachers thought that a complementary math program would definitely help students understand the subject better. Hopefully the pilot program we are trying can accomplish this, and possibly lead to the implementation of the Khan Academy's curriculum in Bolivian State schools.

EA & IP

Day 2 June 25

Tuesday June 25

This marked the second day of the project. We had a larger turnout today. Three students showed up in the morning and two students in the afternoon. We immediately presented them with the website and the tools. One of the more challenging aspects of the program so far has been to locate where on the knowledge map the students need help. We sort of use a hit and miss approach in which the students tell us what they are doing in school and then we try to find it on the knowledge map using the exercises to figure it out. This process has yielded interesting results as we find that the students have advanced in different subjects due to their curriculum. Rarely does their curriculum follow the knowledge map precisely. We have noticed that some students have some knowledge of certain concepts in geometry but other concepts are completely new and this has happened for all the subjects we have looked at so far.
We have found that this is not a bad thing, it may even be positive in that the students then start delving deeper into the subject matter that they had a patchy understanding of before and are excited to complete their learning and apply what they already knew to try to crack these new concepts. We have also noticed that the students are tentative at first about using the software but as they get right answers with immediate feed back they get more excited and engaged. We usually have a planned snack break during the sessions, but the children sometimes are so engrossed that they work right through it and when we tell them its time to leave they are still trying to work.
We have been using Google Chrome to open the website because it can translate web pages from English to Spanish. In lieu of a Khan Academy page in Spanish this translation has been helpful. Some of the translations are rough and sound ridiculous but it does help especially for the exercises. If there are issues then one of the instructors comes over and helps. By using these translations the students have been able to work on the word problems and understand the instructions on their own.
The students seem more interested in using the exercises and working through them. When they get stuck they either use the hint button or call us over and we try to help. Some of the students have used the online videos. We usually try to use the original videos with subtitles for this purpose. The subtitles are well translated and understandable but not all the videos have subtitles in Spanish. For some of these videos the subtitles are not helpful because the student is trying to look at what is happening in the video and read the subtitles at the same time. When this happened we tried to use the videos in Spanish. The videos in Spanish are a bit of a mixed bag. We have found some very helpful ones and others which are confusing. What the helpful ones have in common is that the instructor is speaking slowly and clearly while in the confusing ones the instructor is speaking fast and even native Spanish speakers have trouble understanding their accent or keeping up with their talking speed.
All in all these small classes have allowed us to iron out some issues and to learn what teaching styles kids are more receptive to.

-EWA

Day 1 June 24

Monday 24, marked the beginning of AHA Bolivia's Khan Academy  pilot project. The winter break of the expected students has been delayed due to strikes earlier this year. Therefore, not all of the students enrolled in the class showed up. This was not unexpected although we hope to have more next week, when the winter break officially begins. We did have two students, Daniela and Erick, show up for our first class. Both the students and the teachers were excited to get started, and the small group allowed us to work closely with the students and familiarize ourselves with the program in action. Daniela has been a strong math student, while Erick was more apprehensive, but both seemed to enjoy their first day. At the beginning of the class, Erick was missing a lot of problems, and was getting frustrated, especially with exponents. He needed more attention than his sister, who was speeding along the knowledge map. Erick's difficulty was that he was desperate to get the answer without paying attention to the process, Elahdio, one of the teachers and a graduate of the Bolivian school system, came to the rescue and sat down with Erick, walking him through the steps of each problem. Once Erick began to spend more time with the process, he began to get the right answers. His enthusiasm for the website grew the more time he spent with it, and after conquering exponents, he felt comfortable exploring the whole site, and discovered and reviewed topics that he had not fully mastered before.

Elahdio was just as excited to have been able to help Erick.

IP

Project Overview

AHA Bolivia S.R.L. is a Fair Trade production company in Bolivia. We
work with over 300 artisans in various locations in the city of
Cochabamba.

We have started a pilot program using the Khan Academy to try to help
the children of these artisans with their difficulties in Mathematics. We
are trying to engender the spirit of the Khan Academy by having the
children use the academy's resources at their own pace. We  have also
collected a group of eager young people between the ages of 17-23 with
a strong math backgrounds to be the tutors and supervisors of the
children. The tutors are also bilingual so that they can help the
children understand all of the resources' interface.

Bolivia is a Spanish speaking country in the middle of South America.
For this reason we are trying to use the translated videos and
subtitles for the videos in Spanish. Our bilingual teaching staff is
also available to help the children with any issues they may
encounter. This program will be run for a period of 3 weeks starting
June 24th. These three weeks roughly coincide with the winter break
the kids have from their respective schools. Attendance for the
program is voluntary but we hope to have a large turn out. We have 100
children divided into 5 groups of 20. The groups meet on different days
and times:

Group 1 Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays 10:00AM-12:00PM
Group 2 Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays 3:00PM-5:PM
Group 3 Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30PM-12:00PM
Group 4  Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30PM-5:00PM
Group 5 Saturdays 9:00PM-12:00PM

With this program we are hoping to provide the children with the
equipment and the enviroment that will help them to feel comfortable
and excited to learn and explore the Khan Academy. Our goal is to show
them the Khan Academy so they feel motivated to use it even after the
pilot as a learning tool for their academic lives.