The day after Thanksgiving
break, I found myself on an Indian Reservation about 45 miles outside of
Phoenix, heading down an empty road lined with cactus, giant tumble weeds, and San
Tan mountain tops, all of which were leading us towards a pasty blue school
known as Blackwater Community.
From the outside, this
school didn’t seem much different than the schools around my neighborhood in
Palo Alto; after looking deeper, however, it sadly began to resemble the schools
I taught at this summer in Nairobi. For example, according to the Blackwater principle, only 50% of her elementary students go on to graduate from high
school. And sadly, Blackwater is one of the best
schools in the area: the graduation rate only gets worse amongst other Indian
Reservation schools.
The goal of our trip,
therefore, was to play a role in addressing these inequalities, specifically
through the power of mobile technology. I was traveling with a professor from
the Stanford School of Education, Dr.
Paul Kim, who has developed a tool called the Stanford Mobile
Inquiry-based Learning Environment (SMILE). Put simply, the idea is that students use their mobile phone to
engage with their curriculum (and each other!) in new and exciting ways.
While the tool has
enormous potential (and Dr. Kim has run dozens of successful pilots), we
unfortunately faced a number of technical challenges during our three day pilot
test, and I began to question if we were really making a big difference.
On the flight back to SFO
that night, I asked Neha Taleja, the Executive Director for the nonprofit that
houses SMILE, if she shared these concerns. She agreed that the technical
challenges were extremely problematic, but that we would work through them.
More importantly, she reminded me of a little 5th grade boy we had
worked with that day, who decided to stay in during his lunch break to use the
phone to create a quiz for his classmates.
According to his teacher, this was something he’s never done before. And
that, to Neha, was what SMILE was all about: Generating excitement and engagement
that has somehow been misplaced along the way.
Although it’s a simple
anecdote, I’m realizing that there are profound insights and reminders to
appreciate, particularly as I spend the next 3 weeks in India and Pakistan
exploring entrepreneurial opportunities in mobile learning.
Reminders such as the gratitude
found through appreciating these “small victories.” The hope discovered while
focusing on why something could (and should) work, and not on why it won’t
work. The liberation of not allowing perfect be the enemy of progress: of not trying
to develop a flawless solution that addresses all the problems at once, but rather starting somewhere (even if it’s a simple start that has complications) and allowing
the work to teach you.
And lastly, the importance
of being able to smile along the way.
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