Abstract:

Education in a Suitcase (EIAS) is a cooperation project between researchers at the University of Iceland, Maseno University (Kenya) and the African Maths Initiative with the main purpose of supporting learning in rural areas. The EIAS system is a portable educational system based on a small server and tablets. The system can run in areas without an Internet connection and with unstable electricity but utilises both when available. When connected to the server, learners with tablets (or smart-phones) can access the tutor-web, (a mobile-web developed at the University of Iceland), parts of Khan Academy and Wikipedia. The learners can also download e-books from the Gutenberg library, offering around 60.000 free e-books. The learners can subsequently use the tutor-web system and read the downloaded books from the Gutenberg library without being connected to the server.

The tutor-web, the main component of the EIAS system, has been used for over a decade in the University of Iceland for teaching mathematics and statistics. The mobile-web is freely available for all learners. When using the tutor-web, learners are allocated exercises that fit their level of knowledge and after sending their answer an elaborated feedback is provided. The system offers thousands of exercises in mathematics and statistics at high-school and university level.

Experiments using the EIAS system are currently taking place at three very different learning environments in Kenya: Shivanga Secondary School, Takawiri Primary School and Navasha Maximum Security Prison. Hundreds of tablets, funded by several grants and a crowd funding campaign, have been given to learners along with servers placed in the schools and the prison. Results from these experiments will be presented along with a description of the EIAS system.

Keywords:

Learning in rural areas, Learning environments, Mathematics education, Statistics education.