Why We Need Kolibri Educational Platform in our Computer Labs

Basing on my personal experience working with this offline platform, Kolibri is one of the best platforms that can help learners have free access to learning resources provided schools adopt and implement its usage in computer labs.
Kolibri Powered Lab

As most of the schools are struggling with accessing educational resources based on the internet, Kolibri to me is a number one solution to such challenges like expensive internet costs which schools may not be able to afford termly or yearly. Basing on my personal experience working with this offline platform, Kolibri is one of the best platforms that can help learners have free access to learning resources provided schools adopt and implement its usage in computer labs.

Kolibri powered libraries during the closure of school

Ogwal Isaac installing Kolibri at Nalinya Girls' Secondary School, Uganda

During the lock down, we engaged some good number of secondary schools in Luweero and Mukono where we managed to fully install Kolibri learning platform in their school computer laboratories. These schools are currently using this offline platform to engage the learners in self paced learning and research. Besides the primary objectives for which learning equality designed this platform, I have also realized that with Kolibri, learners develop the skills on how to navigate offline platforms search and access instructional materials!. This is a skill that is supposed to be covered in the New Lower secondary Curriculum for ICT in Senior 2 Term 3 in Topic 7 – Information Access and Sharing.

Click to watch Kolibri installation process

The Customized Kolibri Content

Ogwal Isaac checking the offline Kolibri contents in one of the schools during the lock down

Kolibri gives teachers a chance to create and upload their own made teaching and learning materials not limited to videos, audio and PDF files on the school based platform for access by the learners besides that vast range of materials on the Kolibri content library. This literally means that, once the contents are created, the learners can access them offline from the installed machines at no cost!

Click to watch how to add your own resources on Kolibri

Kolibri v0.15

Kolibri v0.15 is a latest version that the learning Equality has released. This Kolibri version according to Learning Equality enables

“Single learner data syncing so that teachers can track individual learner progress, no matter where learners are, and make personalized recommendations for learning at home. It also has a redesigned learner view to have a shorter path to resources, enhanced by an improved metadata schema to allow for more relevant search results when exploring materials”

Learning Equality

“In practice, this means that a learner who engages with Kolibri on a device while away from the central (i.e. classroom) server can later sync their progress back to the central server without also receiving the user data of all other users in the facility onto their device. This is beneficial for both data privacy as well as device storage considerations”

Learning Equality

This is a version am still exploring and getting familiar with!

Click to read more details

Kolibri Android App

The Learning Equality team is currently working on Kolibri Android App which they hope to release by the end of the year. This App will help our learners to continue learning at their own pace and also bridge the learning gaps. With all these developments from learning equality, it is worth to adopt Kolibri for supporting us in the teaching and learning process in our schools

About Author

Ogwal Isaac
Ogwal Isaac is a Teacher of ICT at Ndejje Senior Secondary School, ICT Consultant in the Diocese of Luweero, ICT Trainer, Specialist in Educational Planning and Curriculum Studies. He is also a Web Manager ICTug.com and also content creator. He holds Masters in Education Planning and Curriculum studies. Ogwal is passionate about using educational technology in teaching and learning.

2 Responses

Leave a Reply