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3. Paper prototyping and Microsoft Office

Adaptability is key.

I didn’t realize how much emphasis is placed on Microsoft Office and Powerpoint until I saw Zambia’s national Grade 9 computer exam (see Part 1). Had I known, I might have gone to greater lengths to get Windows PC’s, but you can’t prepare for everything. So instead, we adapt.

The Microsoft Word Problem

On the third day, I ran the teachers through the Grade 9 exam. The exam is entirely Microsoft Word and Excel. Almost every teacher with a laptop actually had Word and Excel, but when we ran through the exam, they were lost. They even told me they had spent a significant period of time using these programs. What’s going on?

Usability has been a problem designers have been trying to solve since the invention of computers. When we’re writing a document in Word, we all know what we want the outcome to look like. If the exam paper says “bold your name”, the students understand that the letters should be bigger, and darker. But there is a disconnect between wanting to do something and being able to actually achieve that.

For an experienced user, the visuals make sense. There is a clear hierarchy in almost every piece of software; The big categories start at the top of the screen, and subcategories lie underneath (example, “File” is the category, and “Save as” is the subcategory). There are also patterns that persist throughout computers: right click brings up an important menu, Control C is copy, control V is paste, and so on.

They didn’t have that foundation to rely upon. Not because they’re stupid, but because no one taught them.

The real problem: How do we teach students where everything is in a program when they don't have access to that program (Microsoft Word/Excel)? How do we build that understanding of hierarchy and common design patterns?

The human brain and visuals

I took a class in university called HCI (Human Computer Interaction) that teaches how we as humans interact with everyday objects (with an emphasis on computers and software). Much of it relies on human psychology and understanding the ways our brains best process information (and the ways in which we are horrible at processing information).

Let me give you a quick example of what I mean by processing information. If I were to show you an excel spreadsheet with hundreds of data entries, all you would see is a page full of numbers. Our brain is not designed to easily draw conclusions from numbers. It requires both time an energy to pull meaning from them.

If I were instead to graph that data and present it as the Temperature of the Earth over time, we could draw conclusions, insights, predictions, and form opinions on the subject within a matter of seconds. The same data exists in both representations, but we are simply designed to process visual representations better. Understanding fundamental concepts around information processing helps us shape the way we approach computers.

In order to solve the problem above, we have to understand the fundamental concepts of how the brain works.

Paper prototyping

My biggest learning from HCI was around paper prototyping. Paper prototyping is a technique used by designers to test the basic flow of a piece of software without having to fully implement it.

The real beauty of it is that the designs are often horribly drawn – cartoonlike chicken scratch. The quality of design between a real implementation and the paper prototype couldn’t be any farther and yet the studies continually show that testers use it the same as if it were fully complete.

Why? Our brains our designed to interpret visuals. We’re really good at it. When we see a squiggled line drawn and a circle, we can easily interpret what it’s meant to be. Layouts and hierarchies are clear to us, even through sloppy drawings.

Knowing this, we can use paper prototyping to teach layouts of computer programs (specifically Word and Excel) to Students.

Check this out: Let’s say we want to set the margins of our Word document from “Normal” to “Narrow”.

It’s clear how different this is from the real thing, and yet your brain finds them strikingly similar. Going through the motions does a surprisingly good job of teaching our brains! It also massively simplifies the programs so as to not overwhelm the students. It lets them focus on the key buttons they should be looking at so they can learn.

We can do better

The rough paper prototype serves an important purpose, but we’d like to get as close to the real thing as possible. What if, instead of drawing, we printed screenshots of Microsoft Word?

This is what I’m talking about! All you need to know is how to take a screenshot, and print. With a little bit of prep work, a printer and some scissors, and students across Zambia can learn how to navigate Microsoft Word, without a computer.

4. Programming games

Programming is one of those things that transcends borders. A poor country like Zambia constrains its citizens from the opportunities we in the western world receive. A man from Zambia cannot become a farmer and sell his corn to Australia the same way a farmer in Canada can. The poor infrastructure, bureaucracy and costs makes it nearly impossible. Their roads are terrible, they’re landlocked in Africa, the machinery is not nearly as advanced. The list is long.

Their internet, however, has very few constraints. A Zambian woman can build a website from a small town for a client in Australia. So long as the product she makes is high quality, it makes no difference where she’s from. No horrible roads, no advanced machinery, just a decent internet connection, a computer and knowledge. I find that inspiring. It’s a chance to catch up to the rest of the world and I want that for the Zambian youth.

The fundamentals of programming

The journey begins with the fundamentals. Getting students to understand what code is, and how computers actually work. Computers think very linearly. Humans don’t. So learning how to “speak” to computers is often an unnatural experience.

We have to tell them exactly (and specifically) what to do in order for them to work. And all of your instructions for what the computer should do must be written before the anything begins to run anything.

I found an app that teaches the fundamentals quite well: Lightbot

Here’s a video of the Lightbot gameplay. The robot is an analogy to how computers operate. It requires specific instructions to move it’s goal square. As the game progresses, it covers many of the important topics related to computer programming and primes the brain to think like a computer.

But we again there’s not nearly enough tablets for them to play the game. But the same principle of paper prototyping applies. Video Games and board games are often very similar in their play. The only difference between them is a human controls the state of the game vs the computer. By drawing the board, the instructions and robot, you’ve created a physical game that can be used to teach program fundamentals.

A screenshot from the Lightbot game, and a modified "board game" version

Due to time constraints, i didn't have much more time to take it further than that. But even if they are exposed to this type of thinking at all, i'd be very happy. Establishing context at a young age can make a massive difference.

Conclusion

We ended our 5 day teaching program with a graduation ceremony. Every teacher received a certificate (endorsed by yours truly), a typing sheet, and a tablet. I also typed up 36 pages of notes covering everything i had taught over the week and shared it amongst the teachers on USB sticks.

Graduation ceremony with some important leaders from the government and the community. The man in the red tie is a Minister of Education (I was told that was a big deal).

It was obvious that the passion was there. I've taught computers before, but seldom have i ever had a group of so many pay attention for five straight days, drive through horrible roads to attend, and still smile the whole way through.

I’m very proud of the work we’ve done this trip around education. The teachers were extremely satisfied with the content and its relevance, I found the work to be challenging and rewarding, but most importantly, the students from around the province will have the tools to learn computer skills. And who knows, maybe one day the next Bill Gates or Satya Nadella will come from Zimba. But if not, at least they’ll know how to type without a computer. 😊

-Stephen