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<\/p>\nUConn graduate student Ben Ahiadu says he spends at least six hours a day in front of a work computer, time he uses to plan lessons, record experiments, email colleagues, and read papers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe things I am doing now are all built on technology,\u201d he says. \u201cI cannot imagine life without computers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But for Ahiadu, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry working in genotoxicity and the detection of biomarkers, that wasn\u2019t always the case. Growing up in Ghana, Ahiadu says he didn\u2019t touch a computer until he was around 16. He didn\u2019t own one until he was in his third year of college.<\/p>\n
Despite having to pass the country\u2019s standardized Basic Education Certification Examination<\/a>, which includes a section on Information Communication Technology<\/a>, many Ghanaian children, particularly those in small towns, learn about computers in the abstract, says Ahiadu.<\/p>\n Most times, a teacher will get in front of a class and give oral instruction on how to use Google, create a PowerPoint presentation, or write a formula in Excel. Only sometimes will the teacher have their own access to a computer and be able to bring one to show students.<\/p>\n \u201cThese kids we are talking about are in resource-limited areas,\u201d says Ahiadu. \u201cThey are at a disadvantage compared to children in bigger cities and towns and must take the same test as those who have spent time sitting in front of a computer.”<\/p>\n Ahiadu came to UConn in 2017, and the following year returned home to visit family, noting to himself the differences in his life then and now.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat can I give to these little kids as a gift,\u201d he says he wondered. \u201cAnd then I realized, I could give them computers because we are in an era of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n He scrolled through Craigslist and purchased seven used laptops, giving four to children close to him and his family and three to a school during his trip home.<\/p>\n \u201cMore people will benefit from them if I give them to a school, because any child at that school at one point in time could practice on them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In 2018, an online post by Richard Appiah Akoto, a teacher in a different part of Ghana, went viral when he posted pictures of himself illustrating in chalk the interface of a word processing window. The post and social media firestorm prompted Microsoft to make an equipment donation to the school<\/a>.<\/p>\n