Microsoft opens worldwide window for learners and farmers via Skype

While Skype has mainly been associated with youths getting in touch with their peers for informal chats, the social media tool has found its way in the farms and classrooms.

For the last five years, Microsoft’s Skype in the Classroom programme has been bringing, in what experts term — transformative educational experiences - to more than 1.5 million learners in 235 countries through classroom to classroom connections, guest speakers and virtual field trips.

Skype in the Classroom is a free online community that connects teachers with educators and guest speakers, and students to experts from around the world.

In the past two-and-a-half years, Mitahato Education Development Fund (MEDF) — a teaching farm in Kiambu County - has been providing smallholder farmers with specific skills training in best practices for horticulture and small animal husbandry.

In Kibera, Nairobi, Havilla Children’s Centre, which started in 2009 is another such facility. It has a population of about 120 slum pupils enrolled for kindergarten to Class Two primary education.

To make them have a classroom experience, Livingstone Kegode, 22, has volunteered to offer these “lucky” pupils a chance to learn and to make it worthwhile.

He has introduced Skype in the Classroom – a free communication software that allows one to make calls, instant message and video conference online.

More than 400,000 teachers have already integrated Skype into their classroom, helping educators meet their curriculum requirements in a way that learners find fun and exciting, according to Microsoft.

MEDF have also been an eye opener to farmers in matters value addition both at their teaching farm and through outreach programmes.

MEDF’s TV show, “The Kenya Farm Report” that is broadcast in Kenya and Tanzania on GBS TV was rated the best farming show in terms of content and structure by the network this year.

The TV show nurtures budding youths and women agripreneurs by highlighting success stories in the sector.

To connect to even a wider audience and sustain their relevance in the quite competitive agricultural sector, MEDF uses Skype in the Classroom to reach out to the farmers.

“We have now partnered with Microsoft Inc. to host on line field trips at the teaching farm on their Skype in the Classroom platform.

“We shall be tutoring farmers about food security, kitchen gardening, organic farming, sustainable livelihoods and underground water harvesting. We believe nurturing the passion for agribusiness to the young is the way to move more youth into agriculture,” says Michael Kaburi, MEDF project manager.

Mr Kaburi told the Digital Business that agriculture has been the backbone of the Kenyan economy for the past five decades.

However, he says, 80 per cent of smallholder farmers in rural areas are still under the yoke of traditional subsistence farming and live in poverty.
Mr Kaburi says that “digital farming” concept could be the solution to achieve higher returns in agriculture.

“Various interventions have been undertaken by government and various NGOs over the decades but national poverty statistics, according to the Economic Survey 2015, hoovers around 50 per cent, with youths and women continuing to bear the brunt.

“Digital farming can turn the tables for realised huge benefits in agriculture but it is worth noting with concern that although the Internet opens a pool of accessible information for farmers, most of it is scattered and incomplete. We want Skype in the Classroom for farmers to be the to-go-to place for complete and precise farming tips from professionals,” he says.

Mr Kaburi says their platform aims to provide farmers an online, agricultural information hub that is comprehensive, up to date and interactive.

“We provide live farmer interaction through a call and SMS centre for farmers with Internet connection. A farmer to farmer linkage is also provided through chat rooms, social media and webinars throughout the agriculture value chain system,” says the project manager.

To control and engage traffic, farmers have to register for free online on the farmlink website, where they can access the information.

A farmer pays a Sh100 monthly subscription to participate in the interactive platform “let’s link live”, webinars, chatrooms, access call centre and benefit from the SMS service, says Mr Kaburi.

MEDF has also partnered with Egerton University, which sends its students for attachment at the farm.

At the Havilla Children’s Centre in Kibera, Mr Kegode has been taking his class on a “tour of the world” and having the pupils share experiences with their counterparts in developed countries.

He says his class of 15 pupils aged between seven and eight connects with the global community without leaving the classroom via the online platform.

The Skype in the Classroom initiative, he says, also allows pupils to learn from experts around the world as well as other classrooms.

The open-source system helps pupils learn foreign concepts, builds communication and social skills, introduces them to technology-based learning and promotes literacy.

“The world is huge but Skype makes it a small village. Through Skype, my pupils and their counterparts at Wallenpaupack District School in northeastern Pennsylvania have spent a year teaching one another and sharing their culture experience through video,” says Mr Kegode.

Microsoft has since invited the teacher to the US to showcase how he incorporates Skype in Classroom at the International Society for Technology in Education 2015 Conference.

However, the US embassy denied him a visa was denied. Nevertheless, he was named the Most International Inspirational Skype Master Teacher 2015.