iPads connect LI students with peers in Africa

Ninth-graders in Amityville will soon connect with their peers in South Africa through a pilot program that will kick off in October with the delivery of 10 iPads to an impoverished school near Cape Town.

Michelle Darby, principal of Miles Middle School, wants her students to understand that children across the globe face and overcome similar hardships.

"I hope they recognize they are citizens of the world and whatever it is they are going through, they are part of a bigger picture," she said, adding that 64 percent of her students qualify for free or reduced lunch. "People are more alike than they are different."

Darby's school already has the technology in place, and the new iPads -- paid for with a donation from Long Island University -- will be delivered to Mbekweni Township, Wellington, by Arnold Dodge, chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Administration at LIU Post.

"Any time you can open up other parts of the world to kids, it sparks their imagination and encourages them to think globally," Dodge said. "This has value for kids; they'll think beyond their local conditions."

All of the participants will be 15 years old; the Amityville school includes the ninth grade.

A web developer from LIU Post has volunteered to create a page for the students, and Dodge hopes it will grow to include videos, perhaps of children interviewing their family members.

A former superintendent of the East Rockaway School District, Dodge has visited South Africa every year since 2009. It was on his first trip that he met an African educator who shared his ideas about building the experience and worldliness of students on both continents.

Berte Van Wyk, an associate professor at the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town, will manage the program abroad.

He helped select the Desmond Mpilo Tutu Senior Secondary School as Long Island's counterpart.

The Spartan campus serves 1,300 students in grades eight through 12, and many live in simple, modest housing without electricity or running water.

"The school is situated in an area which is very poor, even by African standards," Van Wyk said in a telephone interview. "It borders on what we call an 'informal settlement': The people live in informal housing structures. It is one of the poorest schools."

Van Wyk said he hopes the project will build the African students' skills as many are struggling with reading and math.

"We test children's skills . . . and this particular school is not doing very well," he said.

Participants in the pilot program will be able to talk about their families, schools and communities, all under adult guidance.

"I want to make sure my children are ready for everything they are going to encounter," Darby said.

Van Wyk hopes the African students become more civically engaged as a result of the project.

"We are still a very young democracy and we need people to understand what it means to live in a democratic society and what education can do to strengthen democracy," he said.