Week number: 6
Aloha!
Guess what time of the semester it is? For those who guessed ‘exam szn’, you guessed correctly. Next week, all six of us begin our mid semester examinations (and then the week after, we have a break from school — finally). This week, we accomplished two major milestones — we completed Phase 1 of the CCB Design Workbook, and we finally have a fair idea of the tutorials we want to design for our stakeholder, Project Tontro.
During this week, we visited a basic school in Berekuso, the town closest to Ashesi, where we learned about how children study and what makes them excited. As expected, they preferred pictures over text (don’t we all). Our beloved team members, Barnabas and Issifu, decided to embark on this journey, and some of the pictures can be found below.
We also had a first-hand look at some of the tutorials that have already been designed by Project Tontro, with the most notable one being a project called Roll-E, an up cycled e-waste robot. Before we delve deeper into how this tutorial is structured, and what exactly Benedict expects from us, please watch this short video about a day in the life of WALL·E, the inspiration behind Roll-E.
Now that we’re back, we’d like to point out some key aspects of the Roll-E tutorial that we have to follow, in order to make sure that our created tutorials are up to scratch.
- It is very necessary to make sure that we have lots of pictures and diagrams in our tutorials. Pictures not only make the work look pretty but they also prevent the tutorial from being monotone, drab, and boring. In addition, pictures make it easier for people to follow, especially children who might have limited reading skills.
- We need to make sure that those following our tutorials at least have access to all of the parts mentioned (or at least substitutes). The point is to be able to build a robot out of everyday items, as well as key electronics components. Some materials we came up with were plastic bottles, key holders, chains from bicycles, etc.
- One of the key things we have to ensure is that we have a schematic diagram of our project that details exactly how the various components are connected. It makes it easier for us to spot if a mistake has been made.
- The final key aspect is that we need to write code that is well-commented and easy to understand, as well as provide links to various coding websites if those following the tutorials would like to learn further.
Next week, we’ll be reading a chapter from Poor Economics, and we’ll share that (and other updates) with you in our next post(s).
Until next time!
ToRoCa 