Maximizing Learning In A U-Shaped Classroom

I get a kick out of it when the Lord leads us into something, sometimes when we are asking for something else, which seems less and turns out to be more. One of those cases is our use in the Transformational Education Network of the U-shaped classroom.

The West is facing some difficulties as it moves to all-computerized classrooms, which we’ve been doing in Africa since the 1980s. Two of these difficulties are keeping the students on task and getting the students’ attention. Once the students have a computer in front of them, the teacher doesn’t know if they are doing their work or answering email. When the teacher wants to say something or explain something, they have a hard time keeping the students’ attention because their eyes and minds keep going back to the screen.

The West’s solution is more technology: programs that will help you manage or control the students. With this technology, the teacher can watch every student’s screen to make sure they are on task. They can also blank out all the screens to get the students’ attention. There are several problems with this:

• The software takes up part of the budget that could be used for something else that adds learning value;
• It requires a particular infrastructure that reduces the flexibility of the system;
• It fosters the wrong type of character development.

The fostering of the wrong type of character development is the worst of the problems. We are not teaching our students self-control, but that we will control them. The result is that when the teacher is not watching, like when I’m home, I’m going to do whatever I want, even if it is bad for me. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that the U.S. culture was schizophrenic. That is, people would do opposing things that made no sense and hurt themselves. In the U.S., we call for character development, spending a lot looking for ways to teach it, and yet every day in the classroom we use tools that impede self-control.

The U-shaped class addresses the problems of keeping on task and getting students’ attention. At the same time, it encourages self-control. We designed the U-shaped class so the teacher could easily see all the students’ screens. We also allow for a W shape for a larger class, with a teacher’s assistant watching one group. We did not do this so the teacher could police what the students were doing. We did that so the teacher could easily help the student when they needed it. Besides, in a TEN3 course, the material is designed so that the student doesn’t even think of wasting their time on other things, because they want to learn what is being taught.

When the teacher wants to present something, the students turn in their seats to see the teacher and the board. Hence, the screen is not a deterrent or in the way at all. This is also much more conducive to student discussion than desks placed in rows.

In this case, no longer is the teacher seen as a policeman keeping the students from doing what they want, but as someone who is helping them to develop. There is also a physical move made that enhances the fact that they are giving their students respect. As educators, we know that the more learning categories we can involve in the learning process, the more students we will reach. That is, some students learn better by hearing, others by seeing, others by movement and so forth. There is a real significant difference in a military where physical signs of respect are used, for example a salute, or standing when a superior officer comes in and so forth. That physical sign of respect in still giving the students control of the computers and helps character development far more than if the teacher always controlled them.

There is an adage to “give credit where credit is due.” We are not pretending we thought of this when we decided on the U shape. As we started out, we are thanking the Lord for the ways he has used what we thought were limitations to give us better concepts.

Principle: More technology does not mean better.

Not only is more technology not necessarily better, but if we study technological history, we see that technology often has a detrimental impact on learning. People that purposefully and prayerfully select their technology are the ones that end up the best in the long run.

–Anthony Petrillo, TEN3 President

On The Outside Looking In

The two little boys were outside the classroom peering in. Surely intrigued by the white guys in the classroom, the boys were trying to get a look at what was going on. To me, though, the photo is symbolic of the things we’re trying to accomplish in the Transformational Education Network.

The photo is dark, the boys essentially silhouettes. You can’t see their eyes, or even get a glimpse of the expressions on their faces. The details in the classroom are featureless and you can’t see any students.

Here’s another photo of that classroom.

What a difference some illumination makes, eh? Our work in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa and the Caribbean brings the light of the gospel to dark places. In Nigeria, in particular, where we are working the darkness of Islam pervades the country. I met many dedicated, faithful Christians intent on sharing the love and hope of Jesus and we pray for these people fervently.

In addition to teaching a world view centered on Jesus Christ, we are equipping students with computer knowledge. This knowledge is a means to not only obtain employment skills for jobs, but also to use that technological ability to further the gospel message. These young students pictured here in the Nigerian city of Kubacha, we pray, as they advance in school will someday become the students in post-secondary classrooms receiving the Christ-centered knowledge from our Transformational Education Network curriculum.

I was blown away when I visited this class of 44 young students at Christian school operated by the Evangelical Church Winning All denomination. The kids were unfailingly polite, knowledgeable, inquisitive and eager. There’s a tremendous amount of potential for the kingdom among these students and our prayer in TEN3 is that we will be able to be a part of equipping them for further Kingdom work personally and corporately.

If you’d like to see some videos of the work we are doing around the world, go here: https://vimeo.com/home/myvideos

For more on TEN3, visit our website at http://www.ten3.org.

God bless you.

–Matt Sabo, TEN3 Communications Manager

`Waiting On The Protection Of The Lord From Ebola’

In Sierra Leone, the recent Christmas and the New Year observances passed with a whimper. The traditional public celebrations were muted on orders of the government in the face of the Ebola crisis that has ravaged its residents.

An estimated 3,000 people of Sierra Leone have succumbed to the deadly disease out of a population of 6 million. By comparison, that would be the equivalent of 158,000 people in America dying of Ebola. That’s roughly the population of the city of Eugene, Oregon, home to the University of Oregon.

Imagine the terror that would strike this country if 158,000 people had died of Ebola, with the disease continuing to claim victims. The disease has left thousands of children orphaned, among them those pictured above in a Freetown neighborhood.

In the summer of 2014, we in the Transformational Education Network were partnering with Rev. Samuel Kargbo in operating a Christ-centered Computer Training Outreach school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. That abruptly came to a halt when the Ebola crisis brought the country to its knees and he had to close the school that was operating in his garage.

We have had sporadic contact with Rev. Kargbo since then, understandable given the horrifying circumstances he and his family are enduring in the West African country. In a recent email, Rev. Kargbo wrote that while in church on Dec. 14, 2014, two of their close neighbors died. Those left behind included four more orphans.

For a while this past summer, Rev. Kargbo’s community was holding 15 funerals a day for the victims of Ebola. Since the wave of Ebola deaths has taken its deadly toll on his community, Rev. Kargbo and his wife, Mary, have been tending to the orphans and widows of his neighborhood.

“My wife and I want to kick off an orphanage home but it will involve a lot of funding and has to be continued,” Rev. Kargbo wrote in a December email. “The sustainability is the problem we are envisioning. If we cannot get partners to start the orphanage, we will embark on providing some assistance in addressing their basic needs such as education, medical and food items.”

One the Ebola crisis passes and Rev. Kargbo is able to open the TEN3 school, he envisions some of the orphans from the upper secondary school enrolling in the computer training school.

“We could provide skills for the widows using my wife’s knitting, soap making, gara tie dye and literacy program,” Rev. Kargbo wrote. “We can assist the widowers with some form of training and capital for business. We can send some to various skills training programs.”

We believe Rev. Kargbo is a bright, compassionate light in a country of darkness. From his emails his faith remains resolute, his hope strong.

“We are just waiting on the protection of the Lord from the Ebola virus disease,” Rev. Kargbo wrote. “Our family gives God the glory but frankly speaking, things are very hard for us.”

We are working on partnering with the Wesleyan Denomination to provide assistance in the form of supplies such as food, chlorine, soap and buckets, and funds to assist Rev. Kargbo. Please keep in prayer Rev. Kargbo and the church leadership as they meet next week to consider assisting him in channeling resources through the Wesleyan Mission in Freetown.

If you feel led to help in some manner, please send an email to info@ten3.org for additional information.

–Matt Sabo, TEN3 communications manager

Computers, The Gospel And Africa

This year in central Nigerian communities, we in the Transformational Education Network are hoping to launch at least seven computer training outreaches. Partnering with ECWA International College of Technology, the computer training outreaches are key components of our plans to elevate lives through the spreading of the gospel and Christ-centered computer education.

So what’s a computer training outreach? Essentially it involves setting up computer classrooms, ideally of 20 to 25 computers to give students the essential hands-on work with the laptops. In many schools in Nigeria, students can acquire a certificate or diploma related to computer studies without ever touching a computer.

At our computer training outreach (CTO), the students learn God’s story from the beginning of creation and how it applies to their lives. They are given tools to help them study the Bible and strengthen their walk with Jesus long after they graduate.

They also learn how to operate computers, from basic keyboarding, to spreadsheets, to word processing and other uses. We teach them how to produce documents and presentations — creating graphics and manipulating photos are included in the instruction — and even simple websites.

As computers are always changing, we’ll teach the students what it takes to keep up with the changes that affect them. They also develop their own manuals on how to use the features of the common computers programs and they learn, for example, how to apply spreadsheets to real-life situations such as analyzing small businesses.

In going beyond knowing what keystrokes to use, we give the students the foundation of the computer to better understand how computer applications work. Along the way they are taught what are good and harmful aspects of computers and technology and the Internet so they can be discerning.

In addition to teaching them a thorough understanding of the power of computers, we give them hope to get jobs, start businesses, have an entrepreneurial mindset and even use computers to spread the gospel.

If you would like to partner with us to help launch the CTOs in Nigeria, go here: http://ten3.org/index.php/get-involved/financially

To see a short video about our work in Nigeria, go here: https://vimeo.com/113946746

The Nehemiah Method To Transform Culture

The Old Testament book of Nehemiah relates an interesting account of Israelite history when the survivors of the Babylonian captivity were allowed to return to their homeland. This remnant encountered the lingering devastation of war and poverty.

Nehemiah heard of the plight of his people and did something about it. He was a man of prayer and action (Nehemiah 4:9). It was miraculous how the people worked together and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem stone by stone.

Each group repaired a designated section. Some moved the stones, some found timber for the gates. Others installed the gates while others fed the people. Many worked on the wall while guarding the city. They all worked until the wall was complete.

During the last century, the Lord has put it on the hearts of African governments to ask the churches to rebuild the educational system, very much like He put it on the heart of King Artaxerxes to allow Nehemiah to rebuild the wall.

As described in the “TEN3 Explained” video, TEN3’s desire is to take an approach like Nehemiah as we work together to help the African Christians build a transformational education system.

We are using Nehemiah’s Method to break our work into many small pieces — pieces that fit the talents and time people have available; pieces that involve people from different walks of life; pieces as varied as reading weekly email prayer items to praying to writing a scholarly piece for curriculum material.

TEN3 believes while each piece does its part, African churches will become prepared to continue developing the system and provide a Christian education for their children, sharing with society the freedom that only Jesus brings…one piece at a time.

Here’s the link to our Nehemiah Method video: http://vimeo.com/20626728

Turning The Tide In Africa

The world sees Africa as a hopeless place. Rarely do the world’s perspective and God’s perspective agree. Throughout the Scripture we read of hopeless situations that God turned into hope for people of faith. The ultimate example is the cross, where God turned death into life for all that believe. Always God is calling us to a faith that changes hopelessness to everlasting hope.

Europe faced a situation similar to Africa’s in the middle of the last millennium. The Bubonic plague passed through and killed up to 80 percent of some villages. The world looked on in hopelessness, but God turned Europe totally around with the Renaissance and the Reformation. Both had roots stemming from the effects of the Bubonic plague, including the founding of all the universities of northwest Europe. God turned the lack of hope to blessing for the entire world.

The world once again declares the situation hopeless. The governments in Africa are turning to the churches for help, as half the adults will die in many locations. But the Body of Christ is never hopeless because Christ holds out eternal life to all. And, God has given us the ability to serve the Church to develop an educational system that will train the thousands of future leaders needed. These people of God will fill the holes being made in society by AIDS, and they will lead the African renaissance and reformation and be a blessing to the entire world. There are reports that where the Church is taking a stand and people are living morally, the statistics on AIDS are being turned back.

The Transformational Education Network is the result of African church leaders pursuing a better education for their people. We believe that God is calling African and international scholars to work with the Church in the next phase of educational development, one that can very rapidly be made available throughout Africa.

We have confidence as we move forward. But our confidence is not in technology, nor is it in our abilities. Rather, our confidence is in God’s characteristics. God does not change. He has always called for faithfulness from His people, and when they have been faithful God has worked through them to bless many. May we be found faithful.

The book of Esther is an exciting story of God making a young lady, who was a very unlikely candidate, into the queen in time to save His people. When she questioned whether she should step in for God’s people or not, her uncle stated, “And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

These words echo down through the ages to us, for we too can step in for God’s people. The question is, “Are you willing to use your talent and time to turn the tide in Africa, to bring the Good News to millions?”

This. This Is Kingdom Work.

Students at a missionary children boarding school in Nigeria.

The young students eyed me from a distance. I was at a boarding school in Jos, Nigeria, that’s home to 400 boys and girls. Their parents are missionaries in remote Nigerian villages. At least 43 are orphans, their mom and dad murdered by Muslim terrorists affiliated with Boko Haram.

Then I pulled out my iPhone. I started showing videos of my kids playing back home in Virginia. Racing around in a golf cart. Splashing around in a kiddie pool. Playing soccer. Smiles on their faces grew wide and they laughed and pointed.

WitIn minutes I had made hundreds of friends. I pulled out my Canon T5i and began snapping photos and then showing them the digital images of their grinning faces.

African boys in their boarding school dormitory.

Their eyes lit up.

They smiled, laughed and followed me around the campus on my tour with school officials. For many, it was the first time they had seen their own face in a photo.

These faces are the future of Nigeria. The future of Africa.

When I think of the Transformational Education Network — TEN3 — and the work we are doing in Africa, I come back to these faces.

There’s hope in these eyes.

Our Christ-centered computer training schools are making a difference in a generation of young Africans. When I traveled to Africa and visited with students and graduates of schools who are learning TEN3 curriculum and training, I heard many testimonies of all that God is doing in their lives.

We in the Transformational Education Network have big plans in 2015. We are partnering with ECWA International College of Technology in Jos, Nigeria, to launch seven computer training outreach schools.

We need hundreds of computers and other materials to start the schools.

We are hoping to start a scholarship program for orphans like the ones at this school in the photo above. We need the money to help give these kids whose parents have given so much a quality, Biblically-based education and the skills to go and get jobs, start businesses, or follow their parents into work for the Kingdom.

A girl doing her wash at an African boarding school.

We will be working to provide computers for schools in dire need of technology and equipment. We have many other initiatives we are working on.

We need partners.

To help us financially, go here: http://www.ten3.org/index.php/get-involved/financially

If you have a laptop you would like to donate to TEN3 that we can repurpose and ship to Africa for use in one of our schools we’re working with, email us at: info@ten3.org.

If you would like more information on how to get involved in working alongside us in TEN3 — from teaching, to writing curriculum, to designing websites, to financial administration and acquiring and shipping computers overseas — contact me at: communications@ten3.org.

Thank you and God bless you.

–Matt Sabo, TEN3