{"id":4165,"date":"2024-06-21T02:57:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T02:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4165"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:32:23","slug":"smartbox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4165","title":{"rendered":"SMARTBOX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My boss at Mission Resource left this afternoon for Ghana carrying a very special package.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this week, Chris Rousseau from our friends at a ministry called <i>Heart of Africa<\/i> delivered a SmartBox to the Mission Resource office and gave a demonstration of its capabilities. We were amazed at the ingenuity and potential of this idea!<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240618_103756-2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2228\" height=\"3015\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The SmartBox is the brainchild of <i>Innovative Education International <\/i>in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is a mobile, self-contained computer lab and school library in one &#8211; an \u201cinstant wireless classroom\u201d &#8211; and it\u2019s perfect for schools in the developing world.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could picture it being incredibly useful in Haitian schools. It would be life-changing.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The SmartBox is a powerful solution to what is lacking in poor schools around the world (that we tend to take for granted in the US!):<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li><b>Electricity <\/b>&#8211; the SmartBox has a 2-day battery which can be charged by solar power.<\/li>\n\n\n<li><b>Internet Connections<\/b> &#8211; the SmartBox has its own curricula stored on a hard drive.<\/li>\n\n\n<li><b>Instructional Materials <\/b>&#8211; the SmartBox comes with 20 Chromebooks (but can accommodate more than 50 devices simultaneously without lag).<\/li>\n\n\n<li><b>Even Teachers<\/b> &#8211; among other materials, the SmartBox contains Khan Academy curriculum and all its self-guiding videos for kindergarten through 12th grade.<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, each SmartBox comes loaded with searchable encyclopedias, books at all levels of reading, typing programs, educational games, Bible resources, and more. And customized curriculum can be added via thumb drive.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dave will be delivering this particular SmartBox to Precious Kids Academy, a school run by one of our Ghanaian Board members, Samson Dorkunor.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you should happen to be interested in learning more about the SmartBox program, check out the excellent 3-minute video and other information <a href=\"https:\/\/thesmartbox.net\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>on their website<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My boss at Mission Resource left this afternoon for Ghana carrying a very special package. Earlier this week, Chris Rousseau from our friends at a ministry called Heart of Africa delivered a SmartBox to the Mission Resource office and gave a demonstration of its capabilities. We were amazed at the ingenuity and potential of this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4167,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165\/revisions\/4167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}