Updated July 22, 2022
Young children excited learning together with repurposed macbook laptops

(3/19) Recap 2021 - Neighborhood Classes

First published on December 15, 2021
Tyler Cinnamon Black Background
Tyler Cinnamon
Founder & COO

I got to Mogotio, Kenya in March with 44 laptops in my bags. Primary schools in Mogotio didn’t open for a few weeks, so I had some extra time to experiment with our curriculum.

I hosted a cohort of kids from the neighborhood in our apartment every morning for computer class. We started with touch-typing.

At first the kids would get bored of the class quickly. But after augmenting our touch-typing application with a leaderboard, levels and badges, they were motivated and competing just like any other computer game.

The six weeks I had with the neighborhood kids was enough time to introduce other skills like photo editing, design and even coding.

By the time schools opened, we had a clear idea how we could teach these skills to larger classes. It guided the kind of lessons we later rolled out to 4,000 kids in 10 different schools.


About The Author

Tyler Cinnamon Black Background
Tyler Cinnamon
Founder & COO

Tyler Cinnamon is a American programmer and entrepreneur. He started TechLit Africa with Nelly Cheboi in 2018 to disrupt poverty with used IT devices.