Two week Android mobile app development workshop in Zambia at the BongoHive in Lusaka.
December 2011
In December of 2011 I had the opportunity to travel to Zambia to teach a mobile development class at the BongoHive in Lusaka. Prior to going, I would never have guessed the experience would turn out to be one of my proudest moments of my career.
Lukonga Lindunda the founder of the BongoHive spearheaded the entire initiative, raising funds to pay for my travel and lodging during my stay. I'm forever grateful for his drive and desire to make it all possible.
The workshop embraced a barefoot college approach, with three main goals. One, give participants a crash course on developing their first Android application. Two, the primary focus was to discover local problems and aim to building solutions using mobile apps. Three, students would help co-create the content thus learning how to teach others in the process of learning themselves.
For me the most remarkable thing from the two weeks was witnessing the desire for participants to learn and eagerness to share that knowledge with each other. I noticed this early in the workshop, so rather than me lecturing to the entire group, I would instead teach one person new content in the morning, and they would then teach it to the rest of the group.
The results of the workshop were truly remarkable, and I'm so proud of all those who participated who has gone on to build apps and teach others.