Five down… [2014-03-07]

Each day this week found us at a different location to tie up loose ends in the installation of the IT labs as well as to begin making small fixes and enhancements to the software:  Monday at Estaca Elementary, Tuesday at Compostela Central Elementary, Wednesday at Sapak Extension High School, and Thursday at Carmen National High School.  Today (Friday) we ventured to Cebu City to meet with some key Department of Education officials in the Region VII and Cebu Province Division offices.  These visits were spearheaded by our colleague from Aboitiz, and we were joined by the principal at our “home school” of Compostela National High School.  It was a joy to see many familiar faces again at the Dep Ed offices and to meet new, energetic leaders. 

The IT labs at Estaca and Compostela Central have been finished off beautifully by our intern Jade and our friend Raul.  The wiring on the floor is now concealed and shielded by a metal cover, and all of the cables on the table have been skillfully routed and tacked into place.  Neal and I are dazzled each day by the craftsmanship and care that these two display.  The contributions that they and the school IT teachers have made to the appearance, functionality, and longevity of the IT labs are incalculable. 

I must also mention the incredible support shown to us by each school.  The IT teachers have been allowed to spend long hours with us as we work in the lab – no small thing, as IT teachers typically have many additional administrative tasks on top of their teaching loads.  We require lists of teachers and students to set up access control to the server.  Each morning and afternoon, snacks and drinks are delivered to the lab for us and we are invited to lunch in the principal’s office each day we are on site working.  Teachers are given time to attend our training sessions, and having visitors always adds to the workload of school heads.  Most importantly, we are energized by the excitement that we see as the labs take shape. 

Just as I have been writing this, I received a text from one of the IT teachers at Tayud National High School.  Their new internet connection has been installed, and we will return there Tuesday to get that set up and make the other post-installation improvements that we’ve done already at the other schools.  Friday is our day-long IT teacher training session, so preparations for that will consume much of the rest of the week.

One of our goals yesterday at Carmen National High School was to investigate why they have been having some of the Pentium IV-vintage computers hang up while operating.  We were able to be present while a class of students explored GIMP, a powerful and popular Open Source photo editing program.  This was incredibly helpful for our trouble-shooting efforts.  One major issue appears to be the lack of strain relief on the bundle of network cables plugged into the network switch.  The weight of the cables seemed to be pulling some of the connectors loose from the switch.  Neal and Jade cut one of the cable ties and propped up the cable bundles with a phone book as a temporary fix.  [We had previously taught Jade the American engineering term “kludge” – this was definitely a perfect example!]  The IT teacher at Carmen will install some clamps to support the cable bundle to permanently solve that problem.  We also discovered that the computer that seemed to be most outstanding at hanging up had its CPU fan obstructed by a power supply wire.  These computers are older with limited memory (256Mb), but Neal and Jade set up swap space in the disk, and that seems to be working well.  We got some odd messages about “I/O error for device fd0” (which we presume refers to the floppy disk), so we disabled the floppy disk in BIOS for all of the older machines.  However there still seems to be some residual problem(s) that we haven’t solved yet.  We each have our theories, and we hope to get more data as the students use the system to see if we can track down and fix other issues.

All in all, it’s been a typical week’s work for Reneal IEO while we are in-country.  Now that five of the schools are ready for use, we’ll likely be settling into a new routine of follow-up visits and bug fixes.  But on the horizon is the trip to northern Cebu to scout some additional projects for this year and next, from among the many schools damaged or destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan.  More to follow on those prospects next week.  In the meantime, check out our “How to Help” page to find out ways to support the work of Reneal IEO.