Microsoft has finally arrived to help Richard Appiah Akoto, better known as the teacher in Ghana who taught students how to use a computer with a blackboard. It flew Akoto to Singapore to an international educators' conference so that he would receive his due for trying to do something that seems impossible.
Akoto succeeded in getting his students some help with the lack of computers.
Star Treatment
Akoto's trip to Singapore was the first time that he had left his native country of Ghana. He admitted during the conference that even though his students would have some working knowledge about a computer, they wouldn't know how to use it because they had never seen a computer in real life.
Akoto said that he wanted to teach his students about Microsoft Word, and the only solution he determined was to draw it out on a blackboard. He says that his students were used to not having a computer around, so it was not weird for them to see him drawing everything out on the board.
Microsoft Word wasn't the only feature of a computer that he would have to draw on the board. Akoto admits that he would also draw monitors, keyboards, a mouse, or a toolbar.
Microsoft Steps In
At the conference Akoto was thanked by Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. He praised Akoto for being able to overcome obstacles in order to teach his students, even without the proper equipment.
In a press release, Microsoft announced that it would be helping Akoto through a local partner in Ghana to be able to provide device and software support so his students at Betenase Municipal Assembly Junior High School wouldn't be without the proper equipment again. It also announced that Akoto will also gain access to the Microsoft Certified Education Program.
Microsoft aren't the only ones who came to the aid of Akoto and his students. Since going viral, Akoto's school has also received multiple donations of computers for his students. On Akoto's Facebook, he shared a picture of his students holding a laptop that was donated by Amirah Alharthi from the University of Leeds.
A second post shows a much larger donation that Akoto's school received from Ghana's leading IT training school, NIIT Ghana. In the post, he outlines the donation, which included five new desktop computers, a laptop for Akoto along with free IT training, and three boxes of ICT books for his students.
