Fijian Islands
In April 2006, CSAIL’s assistant director for infrastructure, Jack Costanza, and Professor Daniela Rus took several brand new laptops to Taveuni Island, Fiji. The laptops, which were purchased with funds graciously donated by Google, were installed with the Kubuntu GNU/Linux operating system and the Edubuntu educational software package. Elementary school teachers from many of the Fijian islands traveled to the Maravu Plantation in Taveuni, where Costanza and Rus provided introductory computer classes and hands-on training with the laptops.
The laptops were evenly divided between the various school districts, and typically were located in the homes of school principals, since they were often the only ones with electrical power to charge the battery. Professor Rus has made return visits to provide further training and answer new questions about the computing systems.
Daniela Rus visits Taveuni and discusses Computer Literacy progress with several teachers and users.
The students are continuing to make good use of the computers. For example, at Queleni village school all the students from grade 1 to grade 8 are being taught using the donated laptop.
Daniela donated 5 additional digital cameras to schools that had not received cameras during her previous trip and coordinated training for using these cameras.
The students and teachers were excited by the opportunity to use the cameras for newsletters and papers.
The main need for the future is to increase the number of computers, printers, and digital cameras at each school.