The Practical Portion of This Book
Table of Contents
Finally! A Chapter on computers, rather than theories and training. The information in this chapter is survival stuff - it includes short tables of the most often sought after information for fixing computers. It was so hastily compiled that anyone could write a much better guide than this one. Hence, I have left space in the tables for you expand them, making this your own book.
Job Organization
IT/Computer volunteers will need to work at more than one place in order to train people in a sustainable way. In order to make your job easier, we have tried to compile a list of potential workplaces for each volunteer. One volunteer will cover offices in each of the different zones in the map below. Keep in mind that this is only a list of possible places, and that no one could work at them all. Start with one place, and add other good workplaces until you have three to five good places. Likewise, you will invariably find more places to work at than just those on this (incomplete and most likely outdated) list.
Each IT/Computer volunteer should be encouraged to live within his or her zone, but not necessarily in the same place as his or her immediate predecessor. For example, a LRD/NBD volunteer based out of Farafenni could be replaced by one based out of Mansa Konko. This will enable projects to continue, but lessen the temptation for area offices to see you as a permanent staff person. Locations in the periphery of your zone could be visited once each quarter, or you could invite people from these place to a workshop in a central place. Volunteers in larger zones may need to organize Workshops in order to reach everybody in the two years of service.
Upon arriving at your site, take time to assess the needs of the community before getting locked into projects which might not be the most effective use of your time. The math/science portion of your technical training should help you in working with schools and identifying the best workplaces. You will probably need to change projects in your second year, but remember to continue to keep an open dialogue with former workplaces.
For reference purposes, Peace Corps' official description of the job for which you interviewed with your recruiter follows the work maps.
Work Zones for IT/Computer PCVs
Western Gambia
Zone 1: Banjul and Essau
- ·Schools
Gambia SSS
St. Joseph's SSS
St. Augustine's SSS
- ·Offices
Dept Of State for Health (DOSH)
UNESCO
WAEC (West African Exams Council)
DOSE (ITHRD)
National Library
- ·Essau
Essau SSS
Zone 2: Kombo
- ·Bakau Schools
Ndow's Comprehensive School
Marina International School
Bakau New Town Primary School
- ·Bakau Offices
- ·Kanifing/Serekunda Schools
- ·Kanifing/Serekunda Offices
GamWorks (Company responsible for building computer labs)
GTMI (Gambia Technical Marketing Institute)
GTTI (Gambia Technical Training Institute
Book Production Unit
DHT
- ·Sukuta
- ·Bundum-Lamin Area
St. Peter's Technical SSS
Airport
SOS (School)
- ·Brikama Area
Regional Education Office
Botrop SSS
Zone 3: Lower River Division and North Bank
Lower River Division
St. Anthony's JSS
Fatima SSS
- ·Mansa Konko
Tahir SSS
REO
DHT
Pakalinding UBS
North Bank Division
Farafenni Hospital
Farafenni SSS
DHT
(Chamin Training Center and ATC Upper Basic School may also be possibilities)
- ·Njaba Kunda
- ·Kerewan
Eastern Gambia
Georgetown/Janjanbureh
Armitage SSS
REO
Commissioner's Office
Independent Electoral Commission
Kuntaur/Wassau
Action Aid
Bansang
Bansang Hospital
DHT
Basse
Nassir SSS
DHT
REO
For Dead Computer:
- Check the plugs . Did you follow them to the computer? Are all the switches on? Does the plug provide electricity to any other device (coffee maker) and that device has electricity?
- Check the Voltage on the Power Supply . Is it 220v (or if 100v, is there a step down transformer?)?
- On button may be broken or the case is not on properly. Take the case off and verify the on-button works.
- Inside Computer you may see that the power supply is not connected to motherboard (but this is rare).
- Check Voltage in wall . Using a multimeter (what, you didn't buy one? Use your $100 fund today!) you can see if the voltage is below 200v. Low voltage can prevent the computer from turning on.
- If you recently messed around inside the computer and the computer won't start, try reseating the RAM, disconnecting all peripherals (and cards, drives) except Video card and monitor, and power supply and restarting. Some old power supplies will appear dead if there is a faulty connection inside computer, but most newer ones will spin the fan and light up the LEDs at least.
Computer starts but doesn't POST:
- Identify Beep code. If you just built the computer, the possibilities are endless. Connect the PC speaker and listen for a BEEP code. Use the beep code table to identify the problem. If you found a computer that doesn't POST, try step 6 above. Check beep codes.
- Check the Monitor. Is it working on another computer?
- Check various parts on another computer in the lab until you identify one that doesn't work. If you are sure the parts work on another computer or if the computer doesn't beep at all, then your motherboard might have a problem. Examine it closely for burn marks or corrosion - you would be surprised at how many computers have these telltale signs of wear.
- Try boot disk. Some 286s won't work with Win95 boot disks, so have a DOS disk on hand. If you get to DOS and can change to drive C: then it is a software problem.
- Eliminate possible hard disk problems. This is covered elsewhere.
Hardware: Motherboards
To Reset CMOS data, you can first try changing the jumper nearest the motherboard clock battery. It should have only two positions: (For 3 pins: 1-2 or 2-3; For 2 pins: Jumper is Closed and Open) To clear CMOS, turn the computer on for 5 seconds after changing the correct jumper then change it back. The computer should not have any more stored setup information (including passwords). If that doesn't work, try removing the battery.
Expansion Cards come in two and a half varieties. The pre-pentium computers have ISA slots, while newer computers have PCI slots. Some pentiums still have one or two ISA slots so older cards can be used. The "half" variety is the VESA-local bus slot, which you will see on a lot of 486 machines. VESA looks like the original ISA slot but with 2 more connections at the end, so that it hooks up to four different protrusions on an expansion card. A VESA slot can take an ISA card also. 
If you need to connect the power supply to the motherboard, look for a 12 holed socket in the back corner near the keyboard jack a little like the picture to the left. Find two plugs on the power supply that fit it and connect them so that the four black wires are in the center, and not on the outside.A typical motherboard is shown below. Other parts of a motherboard include the CPU, memory banks (bank 1 and bank 0), BIOS chip, Keyboard controller chip, cache, and various jumpers. If there is something else important about motherboards not contained in this manual, fill it in the margin box here:
When connecting a hard drive to a computer, check the following:
- The 4-wire power cable from the power supply can only fit one way. That is almost always the way that orients the red wire inside, not outside.
- The wide, flat I/O (information) cable has 40 pins. One side will have be colored; orient that colored (usually red) cable to line up nearest the power supply connection, beside the red wire. Check the numbers written on the hard drive to verify pin 1 is connected to the end side of the cable.
| MA | Master |
| SL | Slave |
| CS | Cable Select |
| DS | Master on Quantum drives |
- Select: occasionally the computer can determine master and slave depending on the order the hard disks are attached on the I/O cable, but it seldom works.
- Seagate drives: Most old Seagate drives have 5 jumper pins in a row and cryptic markings. Orient the drive with jumpers facing you and power supply plugs pointing up. To make it master, close jumpers for pins number and 2 and 5, if pin 1 was at the top (nearest the power plug). Or try number 2, 3, and 5. To make it a slave, Connect no jumpers.
- Slave: On most drives, no jumpers means it is set to slave.
- Insert the drive settings into the BIOS of the computer, or use AUTO DETECT if available. This is where you find that a hard drive is either going to work, or not work, with your computer. Some drives have been formatted and partitioned with strange settings and that information can only be accessed if you install it with the same quirky settings. Below is a list of some common hard drive settings:
| Brand & Model | Cylinders | Heads | WPcom (-1 and 65535 are the same) | Landing Zone | Sectors | Size (MB) |
| Caviar 2340 | 1010 | 12 | 65535 | 1010 | 55 | 325 |
| Caviar 280 | 980 | 10 | 65535 | 980 | 17 | 85 |
| Connor CP3010 | 762 | 8 | 65535 | 762 | 39 | 116 |
| Connor CP30254 | 895 | 10 | 65535 | 985 | 55 | 240 |
| Hewlett Packard 120MB | 919 | 16 | 65535 | 918 | 17 | 120 |
| Hewlett Packard 210 MB | 723 | 15 | 65535 | 732 | 38 | 210 |
| IBM 133MB | 1023 | 15 | 65535 | 17 | 133 | |
| IBM 256MB | 872 | 16 | 65535 | 36 | 256 | |
| Maxtor 7131AT | 1002 | 8 | 65535 | 1001 | 32 | 131 |
| Maxtor MXT540A | 1024 | 16 | 65535 | 1024 | 63 | 504 |
| Quantum Pro Drive ELS | 977 (or 832) | 10 | 65535 | 977 (or 831) | 17 | 81 |
| Seagate 1239A | 1272 | 9 | 65535 | 1272 | 36 | 201 |
| Type 17 (Common 40MB drive) | 977 | 5 | 65535 | 977 | 17 | 40 |
| [Insert yours] | ||||||
Other important stuff about hard drives:
Norton Disk Doctor: This DOS program might not fix your hard drive problems, but you can at least use it to identify the physical characteristics of your drive. It will list cylinders, heads, and sectors for you.
Partitions: Every hard drive must have a partition, sort of a set of boundaries for each logical drive to occupy. On some computers, MASTER BOOT DISK FAILURE or NO ROM BIOS: SYSTEM HALTED are indications that the hard drive is possibly not partitioned. To partition a drive, boot with a floppy and run FDISK. Deleting a partition destroys all data on the logical drive corresponding to that partition.
The following is about partitioning from Hardwarecentral.com:
Partitioning is one of the necessary steps to prepare a drive for use.
It is the process of defining certain areas of the hard disk for the
operating system to use. A volume is a section of the drive with a
letter, like C: or D:. All hard drives must be partitioned, even if they
will have only one partition.
A partition program writes a master partition boot sector to cylinder
0, head 0, sector 1. The data in this sector defines the start and end
locations of each of the other partitions. It also indicates which of
these partitions is active, or bootable, thus telling the computer
where to look for the operating system.
DOS FDISK is the accepted program for partitioning.
FDISK only shows two DOS partitions, the primary partition and the
extended partition. The extended partition is divided into logical DOS
volumes, each being a separate partition. The minimum partition size
is one megabyte, due to the fact that FDISK in DOS 4.0 or later
creates partitions based on numbers of MB. Partition size is usually
limited to 2G. DOS versions earlier than 4.0 allow max partitions of 32
MB. Using the FAT32 system under DOS 7 and Windows 95 OSR2, max
partition size is kicked up to 2 TB (2 TB = 2048 GB = 2,097,152 MB =
2,147,483,648 KB = 2,199,023,255,552 bytes).
FDISK in DOS 5.0 or later is more powerful than most people know.
There are several options available with the program that are
undocumented in the DOS manuals. The bad news is that these
commands are unavailable with Windows 95. Instead, you will have to
purchase a third party program such as Norton Utilities.
The most useful, in my opinion, is the "/MBR" parameter. This
parameter tells FDISK to rewrite the Master Partition boot sector
based on the partitions present on the drive without damaging the
partitions on the drive. This is very useful when recovering from a
virus that infects the boot sector of the drive. Use it by typing
"FDISK /MBR" at the A: prompt. [You can in fact remove a virus from a
hard drive without needing a virus killer disk using this command!]
To back up the partition table onto a floppy diskette, type "MIRROR
/PARTN". This uses the MIRROR program to copy the partition table
into a file called PARTNSAV.FIL. This can then be stored on your
system disk. To restore this partition info, type "UNFORMAT /PARTN".
Format: If a partition is a set of boundaries, the format is the set of nice boxes to store all your files. After you partition a new, blank drive, you need to format it. To format a drive, boot with a floppy and run FORMAT.
Note: Be aware that PCs now use old FAT16 and new FAT32 style disk formats. FAT32 makes the drive run faster but it is not compatible with older operating systems (including even Win95a, Win95.1111 (but Win95-OSR2 or Win95b work)). A 2.0gigabyte or larger disk will need FAT32 to be formatted in a single partition. Fat16 is slow and reliable: Every computer will be able to handle it. If you format a disk in FAT32 on a Pentium then move it to a 486, it probably won't work.
How to Copy One Hard Drive to Another and Have it Boot:
(From Hardwarecentral.com)
The toughest part of upgrading to a new hard drive is the task of
transferring all of your files and configurations. Yes, you can re-install
Windows, re-install all of your programs, re-download all of your
shareware, copy over all of your documents, and try to reconfigure it
to the way you like it. But, why? There are much easier ways.
This method involves the use of the common copy and paste routine of Windows.
First, you must install the new drive. Install it as a slave to the old drive.
1.Partition and format the new drive just like normal. It must have
the same number and size partitions as the old drive.
2.In Windows Explorer, choose View/Options. Select Show All
Files. Deselect Hide MS-DOS file extensions for the file types
that are registered. Click OK.
3.Choose Edit/Select All. All files and directories will be
highlighted. Then click the copy icon in the toolbar.
4.Select the D: drive, or the letter of your new drive. Click the
paste icon in the toolbar. The file transfer will take place, and
may take a while depending on the size of the drive transferred.
5.Install the Windows system files to the new drive by going to
the MS-DOS prompt and typing SYS D: at the C:> prompt.
6.Exit Windows and turn off the computer.
7.Swap the cable connectors going to the drives. Change the
jumper settings to make the new drive master. Reboot. The
system should work normally. If not, your old drive is still
completely intact and can be used to get the system back in operation.
Hardware: BIOS / CMOS
BIOS Setup Keys: You will need to fill in this table yourself:
| Keys by Company | Key | Keys by BIOS Chip Manufacturer | Key |
| IBM | F1 | Phoenix | F10 or |
| IBM PS/2 | Requires system disk | Phoenix | Ctrl-Alt-S, or Ctrl-Alt-Esc or |
| Amstrad | Requires system disk | Phoenix | Ctrl-Alt-Ins |
| Compaq | F10 | AmiBios (American Megatrends) | Del, Ins(?) |
| Wang | F1 | Mr. BIOS | Esc |
| ICL | Ctrl-Alt-Esc | EZ-BIOS | (?) Avoid!! |
| Dell | (?) | Award | Ctrl-Alt-Esc |
BIOS Beep Codes:
[The following was copied from a tutorial on Hardwarecentral.com:]
Introduction by David Risley
Beep codes are the little beeps you hear out of the PC speaker whenever you turn the computer on. They are your computer's way of letting you know what's going on when the video signal is not working. These codes are built in to the BIOS of the PC.
There is no official standard for these codes due to the many brands of BIOS that are out there, but the two main brands are Phoenix and American Megatrends, Inc. As a result, these beep code formats are the most common and will be covered here. If you don't know who made your BIOS, consult the manual of your motherboard. If you
don't have a manual, simply take off the case and look. For information on identifying BIOS, click here. Once you find them, just see if it says "AMI" or "Phoenix."
Once you have determined your BIOS make, consult the following to see what's wrong with your computer.
AMI BIOS Beep Codes
Normally, a computer with AMI BIOS doesn't bother with beeps. It will flash an error message right across your screen. It's when the video card isn't working or something rather serious goes wrong that your computer will start beeping.
| Number of beeps | What's Wrong |
| none | You're supposed to hear at least one beep. If you truly don't hear anything, either your computer's power supply, motherboard, or PC speaker is no good. |
| 1 | One beep is good! Everything is A-OK, that is, if you see things on the screen. If you don't see anything, check your monitor and video card first. Is everything connected? If they seem fine, your motherboard has some bad chips on it. First reseat the SIMMs and reboot. If it does the same thing, one of the memory chips on the motherboard is bad, and you most likely need to get another motherboard since these chips are soldered on. |
| 2 | Your computer has memory problems. First, check video. If
video is working, you'll see an error message. If not, you have a parity error in your first 64K of memory. Check your SIMMs. Reseat them and reboot. If this doesn't do it, the memory chips may be bad. You can try switching the first and second banks memory chips. First banks are the memory banks in which your CPU finds its first 64K of base memory. You'll need to consult your manual to see which bank is first. If all of your memory tests good, you probably need to buy another motherboard. |
| 3 | Same as 2 beeps; follow diagnosis above. |
| 4 | Same as 2 beeps; follow diagnosis above. Your problem
could also be a bad timer. |
| 5 | Your motherboard is complaining. Try reseating the memory
and rebooting. If that doesn't help, you should consider another motherboard. You could probably get away with just replacing the CPU, but that's not too cost-effective. |
| 6 | The chip on your motherboard that controls your keyboard
isn't working. First, try another keyboard. If that doesn't help, reseat the chip that controls the keyboard, if it isn't soldered in. If it still beeps, replace the chip if possible. Replace the motherboard if the chip is soldered in. |
| 7 | Your CPU could be broken and no good. Either replace the
CPU or buy another motherboard. |
| 8 | Your video card isn't working. Make sure it is seated well in
the bus. If it still beeps, either the whole card is bad or the memory on it is. Your best bet is to install another video card. |
| 9 | Your BIOS is bad; replace it. |
| 10 | Your problem lies deep inside the CMOS. All chips associated
with the CMOS will likely have to be replaced. Your best bet is to get a new motherboard. |
| 11 | Your cache memory is bad and your computer disabled it for
you. You could reactivate it by pressing -Ctrl- -Alt- -Shift- -+- but you probably shouldn't. Instead, replace your cache memory. |
Phoenix beep codes
Phoenix beep codes are more detailed than are the AMI codes. It emits three sets of beeps. For example, 1 -pause- 3 -pause- 3. This is a 1-3-3 combination and each set of beeps is separated by a brief pause. You need to listen and count when your computer starts doing this. Reboot and recount if you have to.
|
Beep sequence |
What's Wrong |
|
1-1-3 |
Your computer can't read the configuration information stored in the CMOS. Replace the motherboard. |
|
1-1-4 |
Your BIOS needs to be replaced. |
|
1-2-1 |
You have a bad timer chip on the motherboard: you need a new motherboard. |
|
1-2-2 |
The motherboard is bad. |
|
1-2-3 |
The motherboard is bad. |
|
1-3-1 |
The motherboard is bad. |
|
1-3-3 |
Same as AMI BIOS 2 beeps. Replace the motherboard. |
|
1-3-4 |
The motherboard is bad. |
|
1-4-1 |
The motherboard is bad. |
|
1-4-2 |
Some of your memory is bad. |
|
2-_-_ |
Any combination of beeps after two means that some of your memory is bad, and unless you want to get real technical, you should probably have the guys in the lab coats test the memory for you. Take your computer to the shop. |
|
3-1-_ |
One of the chips on your motherboard is . You'll likely need to get another board. |
|
3-2-4 |
Same as AMI BIOS 6 beeps: keyboard controller failure. |
|
3-3-4 |
Your computer can't find the video card. Is it there? If so, try swapping it with another one and see if it works. |
|
3-4-_ |
Your video card isn't working. You'll need to replace it. |
|
4-2-1 |
There's a bad chip on the motherboard. You need to buy another board. |
|
4-2-2 |
First, check the keyboard for problems. If there are none, you have a bad motherboard. |
|
4-2-3 |
See 4-2-2. |
|
4-2-4 |
One of the cards is bad. Try taking out the cards one by one to isolate the culprit. Replace the bad one. The last possibility is to buy another motherboard. |
|
4-3-1 |
Replace the motherboard. |
|
4-3-2 |
See 4-3-1 |
|
4-3-3 |
See 4-3-1 |
|
4-3-4 |
Time of day clock failure. Try running the setup program that comes with the computer, and check the date and time. If that doesn't work, replace the battery. If that doesn't work, replace the power supply. You may have to replace the motherboard, but that is rare. |
|
4-4-1 |
Your serial ports are acting up. Reseat or replace the I/O card. If the I/O is on the motherboard itself, disable it with a jumper (consult your manual to know which one) and then add an I/O card. |
|
4-4-2 |
See 4-4-1 |
|
4-4-3 |
Your math coprocessor is malfunctioning. Run a test program to double-check it. If it is indeed bad, disable or replace it. Disabling is fine, because you probably don't need it anyway. |
cards, etc. They are IRQs, DMAs, and base memory addresses.
An IRQ is basically a "stop and do this" message given to the CPU--an
interrupt request. Each part must have its own IRQ line, so if you
set two parts to the same line, your computer will crash. It will keep
you from using the cards or just refuse to boot up until you take the
parts out and resolve the conflict. This one concept is the basis of
many heartaches involved with putting cards in.
Base memory addresses are sometimes called I/O ports or port
addresses. What are they? Well, CPUs respond to IRQs. CPUs can't
respond down the same line that it is getting IRQs from. So, a
different route is set up for the responses. It's a kind of go-between
so that the CPU and the components can talk directly. Well, as usual,
there are a certain amount of ports available. They usually look
something like 02E8, or 03E8.
Disk Utilities:
SCANDISK / DEFRAG - The standard disk utilities. Use them.
NDD - Norton Disk Doctor can identify hard drive problems. If you have NDD for Win95 it can save your hard drive.
FIPS - This Linux disk utility for DOS will allow you to take one hard drive and split it into two without reformatting, something no other free program can do.
MOVE - Moves files (a lot easier than copying sometimes)
FDISK - used to partition hard drives.
MSD - comes with DOS and tells you the addresses your computer is using. There are many Windows programs out there that do the same thing.
Other:
MEM - This DOS utility will tell you computer's RAM size. MEM /C will tell you TSRs
DLLVIEW - this Windows utility will tell you all the DLLs that any program calls when it runs. Useful when trying to copy a program.
GSETUP - generic BIOS setup program - for when you can't find that key to get into the BIOS. (downloadable from WebHQ - Chapter 4)
TWEAKUI - Windows95 utility that tweaks the user interface in ways that Windows developers should have allowed. You can repair associations, drop the network login, and remove icons from the desktop. A must-add-on for your control panel.
MagicDesktop - systray tool that will make all your desktop icons vanish.
PKUNZIP - WinZip might be great, but this one is only 30K and fits on any disk.
NETMEDIC - EXCELLENT!!! This Internet Watch program will record every call a computer makes. You can see the time spent online each month, sites visited, and relative efficiency of modem use in terms of percent idle. Given that Gamtel doesn't track or audit telephones, you need to yourself using this program.
SYS - DOS utility to transfer the system files to a new drive or disk. You will need this to make a disk bootable.
F8 - AccessBoot Menu
If you need to boot to DOS instead of Win95, or start Win95 in SAFE MODE, press F8 exactly when it says "Starting Windows 95…" while booting.
OS Size Considerations
Windows 95 will require about 100MB, and Windows 98 takes 200-300MB. Win95 will run faster on most pentiums. Win98 will not run fast on a 486. Win95 installation (CAB) files take 28MB. Win98 CAB files take over 200MB. So don't install Win98 on less than 500MB. But you can install Win95 on as little as 116MB and have full functionality.
Speeding Up Your Computer
Go into your Device Manager every so often and delete old and unused drivers. When you install new hardware and replace old stuff, Windows 95 has a habit of leaving the old drivers there, and this invariably slows the entire system down. Make sure you don't delete the CD-ROM drivers or mouse drivers.
To create a good system disk, follow the steps here:
Here are some notes about the most important DOS commands:
First, adding "/?" after any of these commands in DOS will explain them and give you syntax for using them.
DIR - directory or list of files
COPY [source file] [target location] - to copy files
XCOPY - copy program that works faster and lets you copy subdirectories too
"Dir /s /p" - lists files in directories and subdirectories. If you are in the root directory (C:\>) and you type "dir *.doc /s /p" it will list all the files on the hard drive that match your "*.doc" search.
MOVE - moves files
COPY CON [filename] - this will create a new text file and let you input the text one line at a time from DOS. Useful for batch files. Press F6 (or Ctrl-Z)when done to save.
CD [dir name] - change directory
MD [dir name] - make directory
RD [dir name] - removes directory
SYS [drive] - transfers system files to drive
UNDELETE - restores deleted files in current directory. This is great, if it is installed.
F3 - repeats the last DOS command
CTRL-BREAK will cancel most DOS operations
CTRL-ALT-DEL will reboot computers in DOS and bring up task manager in Windows.
Copy [filename] prn - will sent a text file to the printer.
Foxmail/Eudora/Outlook/Netscape - POP3 style email is absolutely necessary in The Gambia where every call costs money. These allow you to download mail, disconnect, then read it. Foxmail fits on a floppy disk for easy distribution, but Eudora is probably the easiest and most reliable.
Teleport Pro - one of many "web spiders" - programs that allow you to make copies of often used websites on your hard drive. For example, you can use it to download the International Herald Tribute once a week, or Hardwarecentral.com tutorials all at once.
Wintutor - this Win 3.1x tutorial is really basic, and has an introduction to the mouse. It comes with Win 3.1x.
Jacks - freeware Win 3.1 game is good tool for mouse practice
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing - the definitive best Typing Tutor. Available on 2-3 floppy disks.
MsWorks - is better than Word for introductory classes. It runs on any computer, fits on a floppy, has a simple appearance (so that students are confused by all the toolbars), and is fast. You can teach a year's worth of word processing concepts on this or even Wordpad. See Syllabus in the Appendix for details.
Appendix I: Other Reading Materials
Excerpts From:
Peace Corps
2000 Project Status Reports
Global Summary and
Promising Practices:
Information Technology
Initiative
February 2001
The Information Technology Training of
Trainers (IT TOT) package was
field tested in Kenya, Cape Verde, Belize,
and Haiti in 2000, and will be ready for
general distribution in early 2001. The IT
TOT trains computer and internet literate
Volunteers how to teach the skills that they
have brought with them to others. Internet
training was introduced to staff training for
the first time to help staff use IT in their own
work and better understand the value of IT
in projects.
And finally, Peace Corps recognized that
community computer literacy centers, micro
and small business web page design centers,
and school–based IT learning centers
assisted by Volunteers are multiplying
around the world without support, but that
the demand is enormous and growing. It is a
fundamental truth that one cannot
implement IT without hardware, software,
and connectivity in addition to the transfer
of skills. "We want to find ways to offer
support and believe the numbers of those
projects will be multiplied ten–fold," stated
Director Schneider. Peace Corps undertook
the e–Partnership Initiative in 2000, and the
director challenged America's high–tech
corporations to assist Peace Corps' partners
at the grassroots level to obtain the basic
equipment and infrastructure necessary to
participate in the globalizing information–
based society. America Online was the first
corporation to respond to the appeal, and
committed to fund at least 120 community
information centers ("Peace Packs") in 2001
and 2002.
Number and Percent of Volunteers in IT by Sector
| Number of IT PCVs | Percent of PCVs in IT | |||
| Worldwide | Africa | EMA | IAP | |
| Business Development | 395 | 28% | 37% | 29% |
| Education | 440 | 40% | 46% | 17% |
| Environment/Agriculture | 134 | 11% | 12% | 9% |
| Health | 84 | 18% | 3% | 2% |
| Municipal Development | 20 | 3% | 2% | 4% |
| Youth Development | 141 | N/A | N/A | 39% |
In Africa, all countries but one reported
Volunteer activities in support of host
country efforts to integrate information and
communications technologies (ICTs).
Education and Small Business Development
projects have afforded the greatest number
of Volunteers the opportunity to do so. The
percentage of ICT activity in Education (40
percent) corresponds roughly to the
percentage of all Africa Volunteers in that
sector. The percentage of Business
Volunteers in ICTs (28 percent) is
considerably higher than the percentage of
all Africa Volunteers in that sector. The
phenomenon of community radio in Mali
and other countries has perhaps increased
the percentages of Health (18 percent) and
Environment (11 percent) Volunteers in
ICTs.
The same five country programs (PC/Cape
Verde, PC/The Gambia, PC/Ghana,
PC/Kenya, and PC/Zimbabwe) are the
leaders in ICT integration as they were in
FY 1999. With few exceptions, however,
most other posts demonstrated a marked
increase in interest and activity
Benin: A Small Enterprise Development
Volunteer worked with the CLCAM (credit
union) in Tanguieta, Benin, which, like most
other credit unions, had no computerized
system for tracking credit. Professional time
was wasted in hand preparation of accounts
and statements, delaying the recovery of bad
debts by two months or more. The PCV
created a database as a solution to this issue.
The results of his efforts were noted by the
head of the credit union national federation,
who said, "He revolutionized our
. way of working. Thanks to the
computerization of credit tracking it is faster
and easier to prepare financial statements
and to identify those who are late in making
payments and to take the necessary
corrective actions."
Burkina Faso: Two Volunteers assigned as
mathematics and science teachers in the
northern and eastern regions of Burkina
Faso have a common goal of promoting
information technology, even though they
work at sites almost 500 kilometers apart.
They are convinced that technology
awareness and access to information are
becoming an increasingly important part of
literacy. They support technology efforts in
their schools and at regional levels, and are
transferring computer and internet skills to
Counterpart teachers and students. They
also used their expertise for software and
hardware troubleshooting. One of the PCVs
facilitated the donation of 10 old computers
from the U.S. Embassy to her school. She
also secured one laptop from her church for
her Counterpart. To foster collaboration, the
PCV organized a meeting with 15
colleagues to assess the status of the four
participating schools in terms of talents and
skills among teachers, available equipment
in schools, and support the Ministry of
Education and local non–governmental
organizations (NGOs.) Following the
meeting, the PCV participated in the Peace
Corps IT conference in The Gambia and
brought back useful ideas to be shared with
her fellow Volunteers and teachers.
Enthused with the PCV's initiative, the
regional director of the northern region sent
a letter to the Peace Corps asking for more
support in this area.
Cameroon: Volunteers taught computer
science in five different secondary schools
and at the Advanced Teacher Training
College in Bambili. They taught about 860
students and 23 Cameroonian teachers the
use of the world wide web and e–mail.
They organized a workshop with the
Ministry of Education at which 10
Volunteers and 72 Counterparts were trained
in computer use, e–mail, and data entry, and
were introduced to the web and to Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology.
Workshop participants are now using all
these acquired techniques and expertise in
implementing the GLOBE program in 11
schools in Cameroon. They share
atmospheric and other scientific information
with other GLOBE schools throughout the
world and receive GLOBE scientific
information from other countries. Over 40
Cameroonian mathematics and science
teachers are now using the GLOBE
protocols to provide hands–on science
practical in the schools.
Kenya: Small Business Development
Volunteers teach basic computer literacy at
the Institutes of Technology. The majority
of Volunteers have ventured into other IT–
related activities such as web site
development, internet training, setting up of
computer training centers and cyber–cafes,
market linkages through the internet, and
use of digital cameras to post products on
the internet. Fifteen Volunteers and 15
Counterparts participated in an IT Training
of Trainers workshop to upgrade their skills
as computer instructors. Two computer
training centers have been set up. Over 500
students have benefited from IT training by
the Volunteers. Fifteen Counterparts have
continued to provide computer literacy
training to staff, students, and community
leaders in various parts of the country. One
Volunteer acquired 1,000 donated
computers from a college in the U.S. for
distribution to Kenya schools. Another
Volunteer acquired donated computers from
the U.S. and set up a training center within a
community library.
A Volunteer worked with a shoemaker to
improve the design of a sandal. To meet the
quality and standard determined by the e–
commerce partner, World2Market, the PCV
connected the shoemaker with Namayiana
Maasai women's group. They produced
beaded sandals and exported them to the
U.S., making a profit of $400. The PCV
then demonstrated another e–commerce
tool. He showed the group how to put the
item up for sale on e–Bay, the internet
auction house, using digital photos. The
sale of one item fetched a profit of $14. The
women have learned and appreciated the
importance of e–commerce in expanding the
market for their products. They have also
learned that it pays to be creative.
Working in collaboration with a VSO
(British) volunteer, a PCV helped sponsor
selling of crafts on a website
(www.globalcrafts.co.uk) that features
products from Ziwa, Pendera weavers, and
Temak women's group in the lake town of
Kisumu, Kenya. The Volunteers showed the
groups how to take photos of the products,
gather prices, create a web site, establish
systems for credit card use, and to fill the
orders. Similar groups working with
Volunteers have been invited to sell crafts
on the site. In addition, the PCV has
undertaken to upgrade a computer center at
her site, Kisumu. The center's main
objective is to train unwed single mothers as
well as to generate revenue through training
community members. The computer skills
will enable the 30 members of TEMAK
(Teenage Mothers Association of Kenya) to
be more competitive in the job market.
Mali: A Volunteer in the town of Kita, in
western Mali, is working with a cooperative
of physically handicapped individuals to
coordinate artisan activities. He also works
with a local hotel to help establish an
internet cafe. The association is donating its
computer for use by the internet cafe in
return for a percentage of the overall profits.
The handicap cooperative is planning on
using the internet to market its products on–
line. Prior to this initiative, internet services
were only available in the capital city,
Bamako. This type of work by Volunteers
is opening up world markets to small
artisans and associations as well as giving
the people of rural Mali unprecedented
access to information.
Senegal: Senegal has one of the most
developed telecommunications
infrastructures in Africa. Volunteers serve
with NGOs that work with IT and
community cyber–centers. They have
assisted with cyber–center start–ups,
initiated internet, word processing, and
spreadsheet training, and participated in
radio programming. They support local
government efforts to better manage their
resources with IT tools such as GPS.
PC/Senegal has initiated a partnership with
the Association of Telecenters in Senegal.
The Gambia: Information Technology
programs in The Gambia have recently
blossomed due to the combined efforts of
several Volunteers. One is a mathematics
and science teacher who taught chemistry
and physics to Grade 10 and 11 students at
Gambia High School in Banjul, the capital,
during his first year of service. This
academic year, he is devoting his service to
introducing Information Technology in
Gambian schools. First, he and two fellow
Volunteers conducted a country–wide
survey of all high schools, health offices,
and education offices to assess the current
amount of equipment, access, and needs.
The results of this survey, the first of its kind
in The Gambia to date, have been distributed
to schools, government offices, and NGOs
in an attempt to foster collaboration and aid
the Gambian Government in its efforts to
infuse computers into school curriculum.
The PCV established an Information
Technology Consortium and also edits a
new IT newsletter for Volunteers in The
Gambia and other West African countries.
He is currently working to increase student
access to computers at six schools in the
vicinity of the capital. Based on the
dialogue with each school, the PCV
proposed six different approaches to
providing basic computer instruction to high
school students. Nearly 250 students and 12
teachers, about 50 percent of whom are
female, have already been directly involved
in these six test projects. In six months, he
intends to compare the strengths of the
different approaches in a report intended to
help the Department of State for Education
incorporate computers into the Gambian
curriculum.
| Part 1: Introduction to the Job | Part 2: Sustainability | Part 3: Training | Part 4: Practical Info and Appendix |