EDCLUB Huruma: Enabling Disadvantaged Children to Learn Using Broadband

Mji wa Huruma slum lies on a slope between Karura Forest and the affluent Runda estate in Nairobi.  This crowded informal settlement is home to about 4,000 people. The slum hosts one of the most innovative learning initiatives in Kenya, known as EDCLUB.

EDCLUB is an acronym for “Enabling Disadvantaged Children to Learn Using Broadband”. In Huruma, it operates from a 15x6 ft room with 15 networked computers. Every evening after school, children aged between 7 and 14 years go to learn using the internet and to interact with their mentors from England via Skype. Each computer is shared between 3-4 children.

When I first visited EDCLUB in Huruma, I met a group of thirty children eagerly waiting to be let into the computer room. Once inside the computer room, the children set about playing educational computer games and browsing the internet. For instance, one group was playing a math game whereby a spaceship with an addition problem (e.g 7+9) would move down from the top of the screen and the group had to answer before the spaceship reached a platform at the bottom. After about 30 minutes of games and browsing, the children started receiving Skype calls from their mentors. These calls were very friendly and informal. The mentors were asking the children about their day in school and whether they had been given any homework. The mentors later posed questions to the children and encouraged them to use the internet in finding answers.

EDCLUB was founded in 2013 by Molly Macaire, who is a student from Marlborough College in the UK. While living in Kenya with her parents, Molly had the opportunity to interact and build relationships with children from the Huruma Community. She was inspired to start EDCLUB after watching a TED Talk by Sugata Mitra, who a Professor of Educational Technology at University of Newcastle. In this talk, Professor Mitra explains the concept of Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) which he developed during his “Hole in the Wall” experiments in India.

The first ‘Hole-in-the-Wall’ experiment was carried out in 1999, when a computer with internet connection was installed in a hole in the wall, overlooking a slum area in New Delhi. The local children were allowed to explore and use the computer without supervision and their behaviour was recorded by a video camera. This experiment was later repeated in remote and disadvantaged areas across India. Currently, there are hundreds of similar setups being used in South America, India, Africa and England. They take a playground approach whereby spaces are adapted to facilitate enquiry based learning. This entails encouraging children to work together in groups to answer questions using computers with internet access. The children choose their groups and are allowed to change groups at any time. Unlike in most school settings, children are not segregated by age or sex. At the end of the session, each group presents their findings back to the class. These arrangements are referred to as Self Organised Learning Environments. 

The Hole in the Wall experiments and creation of SOLEs demonstrated that children can self-educate using the internet with minimal adult intervention. This happens regardless of their prior experience with computers, the language of instruction or socio-economic background. For instance, In an Indian slum, Tamil-speaking children who had never used a computer before were able to learn basic molecular biology in English on their own. Various studies have been undertaken to find out how learning occurs in these environments. The studies highlight the importance of tapping children’s innate curiosity, enabling active learning, allowing team-work and accommodating learner-led education. In addition, mentors play an important role of encouraging the learners and helping in behaviour management.

The future of learning looks more like EDCLUB and less like the conventional classroom. People will be able to study at their convenience and in collaboration using online resources. In fact, this is already happening in higher education. Massive open online courses are now common and popular. These courses are largely offered for free through the internet by some of the most respected universities in the world. They enable peer-to-peer learning and interactions between students and teachers. In addition, training institutions now partner with other organisations to deliver customised courses. For instance, the largest university in the UK, the Open University, specialises in a unique method of distance learning which enables students from diverse backgrounds to access high quality education.

We are heading towards a future in which individuals will need to be computer literate to fully participate in society. They will need to be creative and innovative. Furthermore, skills in searching, synthesising, presenting and applying information will be highly valued. EDCLUB has its theoretical foundations in Self Organised Learning Environments. There is compelling research evidence that SOLEs encourage innovation, aid retention and impart social skills in children. However, discussions about children and computers in Kenya seem to picture a traditional computer classroom. Consequently, these discussions dwell on availability of resources such as desks and well trained teachers. In a self-organised learning environment like EDCLUB, the role and workload of a teacher is significantly reduced. In addition, sharing of resources, innovation and collaborative learning is encouraged. Therefore, EDCLUB is a great example of how technology can be used to reduce inequalities in the quality of education and to produce individuals with the skills and knowledge that our changing world needs.