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Ask Slashdot: Teaching Typing With Limited Electricity, Computers?
An anonymous reader writes "I am tasked with developing a service project to teach students in a Bangladeshi village how to type. The school has about 500 students, 12 computers donated to them in 2006, and a limited electricity supply. The students will be given job placement opportunities at a local firm in the city once they reach a certain proficiency. Therefore, we are trying to teach as many of them typing skills as possible. The problem: limited electricity, limited computers, many kids. I have some additional funding collected through donations. Instead of buying more computers, I am looking for a cost effective way that does not need a steady flow of electricity. I realize that to teach typing, I do not need a computer. I could achieve the same using a keyboard connected to a display. A solar powered calculator is a perfect example of a cheap device which has a numpad for input and an LCD for display. But so far I have not come across a device that has a qwerty keyboard and an LCD to display what's typed. I know there are some gaming keyboards that have LCDs built in but they are quite expensive. I am aiming to build a device that cost below USD 50. I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market. I also considered OLPC but it is double my anticipated budget. Do you have other suggestions?" Considering that (at least in China) sub-$50 Android tablets with capacitive screens are already here, I wish the Alphasmart line was cheaper, but apparently it currently starts at $169.
What about an old fashioned typewriter?
If you just want to learn to type, you could possibly provision some purely-mechanical keyboards.
The displays would not need to be particularly high-tech; you could go with a hemp or wood pulp WOD (write only display) that works by mechanically striking the pulp with an embossed pigment delivery die.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
They don't want them, even in India. The last mechanical typewriter factory in the world (in india) shut down last year...
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-04-26/news/30072856_1_typewriters-manufacturers-machines
You could probably look around for enough of them, eventually, but the effort probably isn't worth it.
Old AlphaSmart devices can be had VERY cheaply on e-bay. You already know what they are, since you did mention them, and other than mechanical typewriters, they may be your best bet. Just need a pile of AA batteries.
Well, I don't know much about what an average Bangladeshi village has on hand but I'm going to wager that it's a very wide spectrum. So my personal advice is no matter what you find to be your solution, you should provide the DIY equivalent any DIY-able components of the pieces. In this way you can treat yourself as a one man thinktank and you can publish this stuff under CCBY3.0 and your project may enjoy self sufficiency without requiring your constant attention.
So to start at the core of it, I would personally select a $25 non-ethernet (Type A?) Raspberry Pi, an $8 USB keyboard and $5 flash card. From there those little devices have the RCA Video (analog) out and also an HDMI out. So if one of your computers goes bad, you can always rig it up to one of these little guys. However, I also understand that you need more displays. Now this is where you have the option to become a rockstar superman. If you are not afraid of code and working GPIO pins I would suggest purchasing some of these little guys first getting it to simply display and read across what they are typing and secondly maybe use one row to take in a file that progresses in typing difficult and displays that on the first line while it waits for input and validates on the second line (might even have room to use LEDs or something else on the RPi for score keeper/carrot/stick. If you document all this, it might turn out that the villagers get wise on how to ripe a seven segment display out of anything and hook it up to these GPIO pins?
So how to power this? Well the easy way would be to use what you have already available for power but get some of these guys and daisy chain these guys from one of your existing computers until they don't produce enough power. I would suggest researching that screen and the Pi and figuring out what their power draw is. Maybe get some cheap fuses to protect your hardware. A lot of broken appliances still have good electric motors in them and electric motors often produce energy as turbines if you spin them. Now, the big problem is how do you clean the power if people are cranking these turbines with their hands or connected to a bike's gear set? That's something I'm not much of an expert in. I do know the Pis run off of two rechargeable AA batteries just great but you also have to take care if they're planning to try to charge those batteries with a hand cranked appliance motor. From my understanding it's pretty tough to not screw stuff up if you're dealing with human generated power. Had to keep that steady and to find existing ways to clean it down to what tiny sensitive devices need.
The upswing of all this would be that the RPis are versatile, any of those students could really do a whole bunch of things with these. And if you make this a part of the Raspberry Pi wiki, you might get people helping you with those screens -- might. At least others will be able to use your work.
My work here is dung.
Everyone knows that the typewriters aren't worth anything, because they make such a huge profit from the ink ribbons.
New alphasmarts are hilariously overpriced; but used ones can easily be a factor of ten cheaper, so that isn't a bad route to go down. You'll need to fleabay or otherwise scrounge; but you can get them at pleasingly low prices.
Another option, if the locals have some TVs, might be 'famiclones' or their slightly more modern ilk. The ones that just have controllers are no good; but there is a genre of 'c64' styled keyboard-based ones. RF and/or composite out to a TV, keyboard, usually some sort of BASIC or other typing environment of some degree of not-entirely-useless. Nasty; but cheap, cheap, cheap at the right dodgy flea market.
That is a myth that the last typewriter factory in the world shut down. They are still very much in use (and demand) in the Third World.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/worlds-last-typewriter-factory-closes_n_853670.html
The very fact that this question is being asked just reeks of stupidity. You just DON'T go straight from stone age to 21st century, especially without electricity. Buy some manual typewriters. C'mon man....
Necron69
From the summary -- "I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market."
Seriously, what is wrong with Slashdot people that you can't even read an 8-line summary, and mod something like the above to maximum value? Geez.
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
Seems like that would be the most straightforward answer to learning typing.
Hell, I learned mostly on the old IBM Selectric type writers...granted that was electric, but only really a couple of steps above full mechanical.
I assumed they still made mechanical typewriters....?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Fiddly, but on the right track for getting the most out of the 12 PCs. *NIX is your friend here - what you want is what X.org refers to as a "multiseat" system - your only limit is how many discrete graphics cards you can cram into your PC(s). Here's a walkthough of setting one up with six seats. If you can get them, you could also hook up some VT102 or similar dumb terminals to the same box and maybe rig up some UPSs so you can have power available when it's needed as opposed to when it's available.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Err...do they not make mechanical typewriters any longer??
Yeah, my thoughts exactly. I learned with a mechanical typewriter when I lived south of the border. It is still far cheaper to get mechanical typewriters than to provide computers for each student (if the goal is to teach typing.)