Inspiring Confidence: A guest post from Edward J. Hills
Long before the pilot program with the IDOC, KA Lite had already begun changing the lives of American inmates. Below is a guest post written by Edward J. Hills, an inmate at Clallam Bay Corrections Center in the far northwest corner of Washington state. We hope you find it as inspiring as we did.
Edward J. Hills’ story
Khan Lite has rejuvenated my desire to earn my G.E.D.
I’m thirty eight years old and I dropped out of the fifth grade. The only other education I’ve received was when I came to prison. This is my third and last time returning to prison.
In prison, if a person doesn’t have his G.E.D., he is required to attend G.E.D. classes. Upon entering the classroom in prison, it was and usually is very difficult for me. I felt like since I was so far behind why bother. However, my instructor encouraged me to take some tests and we discovered with a little hard work and dedication I can achieve my G.E.D.
I like attending my G.E.D. class, because it provides me with a sense of what it was like when I attended regular school. The only difference is in prison you remain in your assigned classroom. When I first started my G.E.D. class, I was of course working out of text books. However, once Peninsula College implemented computers in the classroom and a program called Khan Academy Lite, it revolutionized the way I see education for myself. Khan has a multitude of tutorials (lessons and videos) and provides a map to follow for learning math concepts. Also, it allows me to earn points after completion of every lesson. Another thing I like about Khan Academy is that it allows me and my instructor to track my progress. But what I really like most about the Khan program is that it allows me and my classmates to work at our own pace. For example, if I get stuck working on fractions, I can take my time and review the exercises and videos until I get it right. This gives me time to comprehend math in a way that makes sense to me and helps me retain it.
Overall, returning to school in prison has been a wonderful experience. Most importantly, my instructors and the T.A’s have played a pivotal role on my journey to higher education.
Mr. Hills is a student of Corrections Education Director Brian Walsh from Peninsula College, a rural community college in Port Angeles, Washington. Mr. Walsh brings technology-enabled basic education and skills training to inmates at Clallam Bay Corrections Center, a 900-bed maximum security prison. There, he has installed KA Lite on 60 computers available to 250 students a day. They use KA Lite as a part of their training in GED test preparation, accounting, carpentry, business, and game development.
If you would like to find out more about ways KA Lite is changing the prison system or how you can join the efforts for an offline learning revolution, ping us at info@learningequality.org or start a post in our new FLE Forum.
Originally published at learningequality.org.