Ghanaian teacher who used a blackboard to teach in computing class goes viral

A Ghanaian teacher wasn’t going to allow his school’s lack of resources to keep him from teaching his students the skills they need to get by. Without a computer to demonstrate, he utilizes a blackboard and some chalk to teach them how to use one.

Richard Appiah Akoto is a teacher at a Betanese M/A Junior High School in Sekyedomase who worried about his teenage students who were expected to take a national ICT exam in order to proceed to high school without the proper knowledge about computers. Making sure his students wouldn’t be left behind because their school had no computers, he went back to basics and taught them about computing with the use of a blackboard and chalk.

In his ICT classes, the dedicated teacher patiently drew diagrams resembling images on a computer screen in order to teach his students the basic programs such as Microsoft Word.

One of his intricate diagrams impressed many who saw it on Akoto’s Facebook page when he shared the particular activity. He posted a photo of his blackboard bearing the features of a word processing window and explained it in his caption.

“Teaching of ICT in Ghana’s school is funny. ICT on the board paa. I love ma students so have to do wat will make them understand Wat am teaching.”

Akoto, who goes by the name Owura Kwado Hottish on Facebook didn’t realize his post would go viral. A popular Ghanaian comedian who’s also a teacher even shared it to his 140,000 Facebook friends. The post reached entrepreneur Rebecca Enonchong who decided to tweet Microsoft Africa and suggest that they provide Akoto with the proper resources. In no time, the software company pledged to give Akoto a computer along with education materials, proving Akoto’s efforts didn’t go to waste.

Moreover, Microsoft invited him to be a part of the Education Exchange in Singapore where he was greeted with a standing ovation as he appeared on stage in front of over 400 educators from 91 countries. The delegates were at the conference to learn more about new ways of teaching students in the digital age.

Meanwhile, a grade 4 teacher in Skokie also made news with the effort he put into welcoming his students on the first day of school. Instead of the traditional meet and greet, he prepared a rap video starring himself. In the clip, he called “Welcome to the 4the Grade, Dwayne Reed raps original lyrics to a hip-hop tune introducing himself and telling his students what to expect from his class and what he expects from them. The fun video went viral earning Reed an interview in “Good Morning America.” Clearly, this teacher’s class promises to be an interesting one.