(DESCRIPTION)
Images of people appear inside a circle with the text, Distance and Online, Tech Integration, Research, Resources, Collaboration.

(SPEECH)
PENNY PEARSON: My name is Penny Pearson, and I am a coordinator at OTAN for distance learning projects. And it is with so much pride and excitement that I get to introduce our speakers today. I came across this device about four or five years ago when I met Frank. Frank Martin is joining us today and he is the justice education coordinator for World Possible. And he is going to be introducing you to the RACHEL device. But also, I'm very pleased to be able to say that Jeremy Schwartz, who is the executive director for World Possible. The entire organization is also joining us today to help us with the Q&A session.

And I think you're going to find this device can be an amazing resource for our adult education learners who are in those areas of our state that have very little to no internet access or even wireless access for a mobile phone. And it could be anywhere from way out in the boonie-toolies to downtown metropolis somewhere, where they do not have the necessary access they need to get to learning tools. So without any further ado, I want to introduce Frank Martin. Frank, over to you, please.

FRANK MARTIN: OK. Thank you.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Challenges brought by COVID-19

(SPEECH)
Yes. It is a Monday, and I'd like to thank everyone today for attending the presentation. My name is Frank Martin. I met Penny around four years ago. It was in Long Beach. And Jeremy Schwartz and I were presenting information about RACHEL and also endless computers. And we've come quite a long ways since our time first kickstarting with pilots of the laptop, and now we're doing actually whole states with some of the technology that's for offline.

And I'll be presenting a number of information on both hardware and software today. And so, again, I'd like to say thank you for the OTAN group for inviting us and for Jeremy Schwartz, who is also on the call today providing some of his input and time to our efforts here.

So I want to start off with the challenges that we've seen greatly by the COVID-19 crisis. And it's really brought attention to the need for offline resources. And probably as all of you already know and are aware of, a lot of communities do not have the ability to connect to the internet nor do they have the ability to have enough offline flying resources. And so across the United States, probably well over a quarter of individuals and families do not have access.

And I wanted to demonstrate that individual showing the map from the census bureau about some of the access areas. And so it is, depending where you live and what your resources are, a need to further your education and awareness.

(DESCRIPTION)
A slide shows a hand holding a white plastic device labeled Rachel Plus. A box on the slide shows a list of available Wi-Fi connections

(SPEECH)
Today I want to bring forward a lot of information that is about World Possible RACHEL device, and also about connecting to RACHEL. And I'll also be bringing you information about some of the content that is on RACHEL.

So today you'll be looking at both how to set up a RACHEL, how to run a RACHEL, but also where is it a software that is within RACHEL that gives us the use of offline resources. So basically, it's a really easy device to power up. It's made by originally Intel and then World Possible took a lead in getting it developed and brought into the United States for offline use.

It actually sends out a wireless signal. Sort of think of it as a private cloud signal that people that have a laptop are able to connect to or any device that has Wi-Fi can pick up a signal. And it picks up the signal and then it allows the user to connect to the content that is all browsable. So World Possible captured a lot of content that were actually websites or shared content that they're able to browse within the RACHEL system that connects to any type of-- we prefer that its browser, Chrome is one that we recommend.

So you just turn it on, you are able to connect to 50 devices, and it has a range of 150 feet. And if you look up here, you see the RACHEL 5G. That's what happens when you hit the Power On button, you're able to identify RACHEL from your laptop and you just connect up to it. It's that easy. And that's one of the reasons we like the deployment.

For example, we've used this throughout the state of Oregon. And we were able to deploy at all of our correctional facilities. You may be wondering-- I mentioned RACHEL.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Modules. A box shows a web page titled Rachel that lists several websites

(SPEECH)
Here is inside RACHEL. When you look at all of the content, you're able to see what we call is our modules. And the modules are actual content brought to you via a download, and where all possible captures websites, as I said earlier, and also captures content that is provided to us.

A lot of this is, again open resources, open education resources, a lot of it is shareable through Creative Commons. And we actually have-- think of it sort of like a supermarket of content, and you're able to upload all different types of content, which is known as a module. And you can pick and you can choose what those are. And you're able to at least choose a language, choose the type of areas of interest that you have all at once.

Again, these are the modules and here you can see all the devices. And if you look at the top one, it says RACHEL-Plus Lesson Planner. You can also create your own content. And in youth corrections, we use a lot of treatment-type of content for anger management, grief and loss issues. We're able to upload the content. Recently, we worked with Washington State, and Washington State said, hey, we'd love to do work with you, what about some content?

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Create a Lesson. The slide shows a login popup over a web page titled Lessons

(SPEECH)
And so we developed a lot of content for computer training. And I showed--

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Frank, there's a couple of questions in the Q&A that maybe I can address real quick too just to jump in.

FRANK MARTIN: Sure.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: This is Jeremy Schwartz. Hi, everyone. So just to be clear, this is not a hot spot. It looks like a hot spot and it creates a Wi-Fi signal like a hot spot, but instead of connecting to the internet, you are connecting to copies of web sites which we have stored directly on RACHEL. So there is no internet connection anywhere in this. We basically took a snapshot of the best educational content on the internet, we made a copy of that content, kind of like making a copy of a book, we make copies of websites, and then we put that copies of web sites on RACHEL. And then, when a user connects to RACHEL, they are browsing copies of websites.

So we have Wikipedia on our device, but it's Wikipedia as of six months ago when we last made a copy of it. And so what this means is that anywhere you send this device, it's not going to connect to the internet. It doesn't use any bandwidth, there's no monthly subscription charges. You get this device and you have access to all of the websites we've made copies of and stored on the device, but there is no internet connectivity. So it's a very big difference in saying, oh, it's a hotspot that connects to a 3G or 4G signal.

We work in places where there is no cellular signal. So Frank works in prisons, but we have seven or eight other chapters around the world where there is no internet access anywhere. And so they get copies of educational websites. And that's what's stored on here. And so the other question that I've seen is, it specific to California? No, it can be used nationwide and actually it can be used all around the world.

Again, is this a type of modem? No. All it is a wireless signal which is connecting through the hard drive in RACHEL. The hard drive is preloaded with content. How much does it cost? So there is a version of RACHEL Frank is talking about which has a battery inside it. That version is $500. There is $160 version called RACHEL-Pi, which has less content, smaller storage drive, but for some of your remote learners could be very effective. And then, you can also download this content onto a thumb drive and mail out the content.

Sorry. There's so many Q&A's. Let me-- maybe I could just keep things--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

FRANK MARTIN: No. It's excellent. I appreciate it. And I sometimes forget how technical or how I take for granted some of the technology that I've been using for so long. No. I appreciate it.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Sure. A lot of the next content is-- a lot of the next questions are about the content or the websites which are on RACHEL. So World Possible as a non-profit only makes copies of non-licensed content, content which does not have a copyright on it. So things like Rosetta Stone, Burlington English, Odysseyware, ACT, Virtual Job Shadow. All of that content has a copyright on it, which means you have to reach out to that person and say, can we install your website on a RACHEL device?

And we've done this with a number of like Odysseyware and GED Academy. A lot of these groups that make these websites can very easily install their website on RACHEL if they allow it. But we as a non-profit organization focus on free, open educational resources. We don't have the authority to go out and make copies of these websites. But this hardware would allow those same providers to install their website on RACHEL, so hopefully that helps answer a couple of those.

How often are sites updated? Steve asks this question. Pretty rarely. So when we make a copy of a website, the most frequent website we make updates to is Wikipedia. About once a year we update Wikipedia. The rest of the content on RACHEL is your basic STEM content, science, technology, engineering, math. And so a lot of that content doesn't update frequently. What we spend more of our time doing is finding new web sites to add.

So like the Kahn Academy we haven't updated in about three years because the videos that they're making now are more niche topics, but their core set of information hasn't changed in a long time. So we don't update sites all that often.

The updates. How do you do that? If you want to update the content on RACHEL, you do have to find an internet connection and plug it into the internet, and then in the admin section of RACHEL, it's like when you update apps on your phone, it will say, this is available for update, and you just click the Update button.

So is RACHEL a storage device and how much storage can be stored? Yes. RACHEL is a storage device. RACHEL is also a web server. So it is like taking all of the internet, compressing it into a really small form factor, putting a $500 price tag on it, and shipping it out. It has either 500 gigabytes of storage or a terabyte of storage. And that allows us to store about 70 websites on it at a time.

So in total, we have about 160 websites that we make copies of. Any RACHEL device can only store-- and I'm just ballparking-- between 50 and 70 depending on how big the website is. And that set of content is usually dictated by when you order RACHEL, you say hey, this is going to the United States or to an adult education learner, and we will go through our list and curate the content for it. So if it is going to a health center in Uganda, it's a very different content list than if it's going to an adult education learner at an adult correctional facility.

And we even do have a specific version of RACHEL's content which is just for correctional sites. So for prisons and youth authorities and things like that, we don't distribute Wikipedia because it might have info on inmates or facilities or there's even like bomb making or ancient war tactics. So we're in a few correctional facilities, and that has caused us to create a set of censored content just for correctional facilities as well.

All right. So I think that's all of the-- somebody wants a quote.

[LAUGHTER]

We can send out quotes. You can also go to store.worldspossible.org. We are in quite a few facilities in California. I've seen some people joining the list. And you may not already know, but we have a few of these facilities that are already not only users of RACHEL. Someone from Saddleback College joined. Saddleback College actually donated one of our most used resources, which is a pre-algebra resource that one of the professors at Saddleback College created.

And so what we hope to do is make this a facility that grows on itself. So if you have content that would be useful for more learners, and you can contribute to this type of exercise, what we do is we can continue to grow the base of content.

FRANK MARTIN: So we have Saddleback. I have it in the presentation. We can show that.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Yeah. So Bruno-- Bruno's got a great question. "Can you talk about the usage model for RACHEL? Who is using it and how is it used? $500 seems like a steep price tag, so I'm not understanding the value proposition." So in most cases, RACHEL is bought for a classroom setting. So it is a place where, you know, in a prison or in a village, where you might have 50 people connecting to it at the same time, and it is a one-time cost for the device and all of its content and all of its content updates are free.

So, normally, it's worked where somewhere between 10 and 30 students are connecting to it at once and it's used for many years, and it could be used 10 or 30 students through five different sessions in a day. If you're in a prison setting, you may have 150 students on it every day for many years. And so when that starts to happen, you start to notice the price tag is cheaper.

If you are thinking about using this where you are shipping it to like one learner somewhere, we would use our RACHEL-Pi system, which is $159. Or you can go to OERtogo.org and you can download full web sites to a USB drive and ship them out. And then the idea is a teacher would say, hey, in this resource I want you to-- you could mail to them a USB stick and a piece of paper that says watch these 13 videos and write a-- maybe it's TEDTalk videos, and write a report on the most inspirational idea that you saw in TEDTalks.

Another use case we had in prison was when a student was transferring prisons and he had almost gotten his high school diploma until they took one of the free textbooks on RACHEL, they printed it out, they mailed it to him, and they said, finish this and we'll give you your last half credit. So I'm going to go through some more of the questions. Do you use Libre Text, if not, can it be added? I'm sorry. I don't know what Libre Text is. But there are a whole host of web sites you can see at OER, which stands for Open Educational Resources, the number 2, and the word go.org. And you can see most of the content that we make available on RACHEL right there.

Can you use RACHEL within LMS like Edmonton, Canvas, or Moodle, Google Sites, Google Classroom? So RACHEL includes Moodle in it. So if you were-- a Moodle course or any other LMS usually links to other parts of the internet. And it says, go watch this video and then come back and answer this question. You can do that on RACHEL, but Moodle is installed on RACHEL and you would only link to other resources on RACHEL.

So hopefully that makes sense. It is and has an LMS inside it already and it's Moodle, Canvas, can also be installed. I'm not sure about the other learning management systems. I think the other learning management systems are for-profit or copywritten. Moodle and Canvas actually are open educational resources which is why we can install them on the device itself. So I don't know more about Libre Text.

Sorry. What kind of devices can connect to it? I'm in a jail setting. The inmates have access to a DOHO tablets. Could these connect?

I don't know if DOHO tablets allow you to change the Wi-Fi signal that they connect to. So any tablet that you have that you own or any laptop that you own which has a wireless signal on it can connect to RACHEL. The RACHEL is just a wireless signal. If you have a laptop, if you have a tablet, you can connect to RACHEL, you can open Chrome, and you can view all of the content.

Most groups-- and I think Edovo, GTL, JPay, Securus, when you buy their tablet, they lock it to their own Wi-Fi signal, I think. I think Edovo may be a little more open about this, but I think in general you have outsourced your entire learning management system to the for-profit provider, Edovo, JPay, GTL, Securus, APDS.

So I'm not sure if Edovo tablets can be changed to connect to RACHEL. Any other tablet or any laptop which you already own or even a cell phone with a SIM card removed could connect to RACHEL and view the content.

RACHEL-Pie. What is RACHEL-Pi? What are the specs? RACHEL-Pi is the RACHEL system built on a Raspberry Pi computer. It can only host maybe three to five users at once and it hosts a smaller amount of content. It only hosts about 64 gigabytes of content versus one terabyte or 10 or 20 times the content.

If you have a solid power supply, which is the case in California in most places, you can use RACHEL Pi. We generally don't recommend it because unless you shut it down properly, over time it can get corrupted. So we really like people using RACHEL Plus because it has the battery in it. But-- sorry. I'm just reading the Q&A. It's possible. And you can also build it yourself if you buy a Raspberry Pi computer.

Are these questions answered in the presentation? A lot of these questions are covered in the rest of the presentation, and hopefully-- it's also being recorded, so we can go back to any of this Q&A time. And the last Q&A I see, Penny, is from Steve about how often sites are updated. Again, most sites are not updated frequently. There's at most once a year for something like Wikipedia. Ooph. OK?

[LAUGHTER]

FRANK MARTIN: Thank you, Jeremy.

PENNY PEARSON: OK. We have a lull. So Frank, can you go back one slide and then we can get started again? Thank you, Jeremy, for jumping in on that. I appreciate it.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: No problem. And keep the Q&A coming if anyone wants to keep asking questions. We'll do that again when I catch my breath.

FRANK MARTIN: No. This is a great tag team. And what I'm going to present to you is more of the operational within RACHEL, so you can understand what it can do. And then I'm also going to walk through some of the websites that Jeremy talked about, OER2go, where you can actually look at the content. And then I get into more of the specifics of how you look at it, how you upload it, et cetera.

So I'm giving you like a operational view. If you're the instructor and you purchase this RACHEL device and you're going to be using it in school, this will just show you basically what it is it can do. And what I have right here is a lot of our staff want to upload their own content. It's very easily done. You log in as the teacher and then you're able to connect.

(DESCRIPTION)
A slide shows the Library tab of the Content Hub. In the library, a list of P.D.F. files shows under the circled My Uploaded Content tab

(SPEECH)
And I give you a demonstration here. I uploaded content about a training of a operating system, and it's called Endless OS. And so it's all created within the device. And as you can see in the circle, there are uploaded 12 lessons. And so RACHEL allows you to bring a digital learning platform into your classroom, again, sort of like a private cloud of your own that students can connect to. And RACHEL can be either used through a wired or wireless program.

So I'm just giving you a very quick summary of your content, your vision, and you uploaded it to RACHEL, and students can access it. And the teacher can control that access also.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Training Lessons, endless O.S.. The slide shows the Lessons tab of the Content Hub, with clickable icons for training

(SPEECH)
I'm showing you here how it lays out in the lesson planning. Again, all of this software is within RACHEL. It's a very easy how-to. You can manage it, you can update it. It's very simplified for a teacher to absolutely lay out a whole course and have it ready for distribution.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Your Lesson Content

(SPEECH)
This is the content. It can be loaded into RACHEL as a PDF or as a movie. So a teacher can put in all this different content. Again, this is a lesson that I had that's lesson one, Endless OS Trading One. And the student would click on it, create user account, and there is the content there. Very easily done.

(DESCRIPTION)
A slide shows the Rachel home page, with a box on the right showing a long list of files

(SPEECH)
When you go inside of RACHEL as the admin, as you saw earlier, we had all of this content there. And here you can actually see and pick and choose all of the content that you would like to be shown on your RACHEL device. And you can decide if you want it to be hidden. You can decide what languages, it can be in English, it can be programs in Spanish or in French. So it's multilingual. You're able to choose what type of content that you would like.

And we have programs going on in Guatemala, for example, where all of that content is open and shared. A lot of youth correction facilities would also load their systems with Spanish programs for their staff and for their youth that want to engage in Spanish language programs. So you are able to do choice of whatever content you like that we have available. And again, it's targeting the areas that you want, whether it's math or English or college program, you're able to find out what's relevant to your population.

And if you look in the upper corner, you see the admin, you just click on the admin, you enter your password, it takes you to this internal device for handling the uploads and the administration of RACHEL.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Content Arrangement

(SPEECH)
So as I said earlier, you can pick and choose the content and what order you like RACHEL. Here's some ones that I chose. One is how to make a RACHEL module.

You often have young people that are interested in Raspberry Pi. And I put that software in there. Also MIT scratch, we get a lot of young people that want to learn how to do coding. And so these programs are within RACHEL. And in WikiHow, again, it helps young people to discover where they want to fix something or how they want to do a garden or work in-- excuse me, work in your yard. WikiHow allows young people and adults to choose-- answer that question, get to know more of the basic knowledge.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Hardware. The slide shows a box titled Rachel Admin open to the Hardware tab

(SPEECH)
Next is the component. First, we looked at modules, now we're looking inside of RACHEL admin for the hardware component. You're able to see here what is available as far as your content. And it's good to keep an eye on that if you need to slim down on RACHEL or you want to put more content in, you know how much you have. You have the ability to turn the Wi-Fi on or off. And for youth and corrections, of course, when we had these running in our facilities, we always had it off. There are schools in the youth correction facilities, they would have it off and they would connect RACHEL to their education server.

So it actually worked as a network component in youth corrections, and we found it to be very successful to continue education, especially on the living units, so young people could keep learning without having the infamous, oh, you cannot continue on your laptop because it requires a internet connection. With RACHEL, we were able to bring it into a remote area, young people could continue their reading and their research because it was all close, it was all captured content. And again, this is good to see whenever you look to see what's available in your hardware and for the content that you like.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Check for Updates. The slide shows the Version tab of Rachel Admin

(SPEECH)
The next page here I'm going to talk to you about, once you'd have your RACHEL, you probably want to make sure that you are able to update to the current system. Again, some of these RACHEL devices are not updated that often. Depends how remote somebody is. But if you do decide to update it, you have the ability to, you can just put a RJ45 chord, a internet chord into the back of RACHEL, and then you can check for your update to make sure you have the most current operating system. And just click there, check for updates, and it'll say whether to update or not. It's a very simple process for updating your RACHEL.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Add Modules. The slide shows the Install tab of Rachel Admin

(SPEECH)
The next component here that I'm going to talk about is how do you achieve the ability to get new content. And so in RACHEL, if you look at that install tab there, it shows you a listing of all the newest content that's available. And that listing is also available in the OER2go, if you want to look and navigate, which we will, to look at what it actually feels like, what it actually can do, the software that you want to upload. So these are very short descriptors. You want to go to OER2go to look at the content itself.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Frank, we've got a few more Q&A's I think we could just hit on real quick.

FRANK MARTIN: Go ahead.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: How far does the signal go? One room, one school building. So the wireless signal can go 150 feet. Also, if you've got classrooms in a facility, we've seen it go through three cement walls. But that's probably like a total of maybe 60 or 70 feet. So it depends on what you have blocking it. If you had a facility where you wanted the signal to extend throughout the facility or throughout the school building, there are easy ways to extend the wireless signal-through cabling, which probably already exists. Basically you add access points and you wire them all together. So as a standalone device 150 feet maybe through two or three concrete walls. If you think about your classroom setup that you'd need something more, you can extend the wireless signal beyond that.

Is it conceivable that a non-administrator, a student, could upload content on the device which is not authorized by the teacher and may be inappropriate? It's certainly conceivable. They would need the password. So someone would have to give them the password or they would have to spend a lot of time in close proximity of the device trying to hack into it. It's much less conceivable. In the hundreds of devices we've had deployed, I've never seen it happen. But it's certainly possible.

FRANK MARTIN: In Oregon we have these at every facility when I was working there. And we never had it hacked into. What we found is a lot of the individuals, the youth themselves respect to have access. And so they were very respectful. And some of the sites we had the RACHEL device just mounted right on the wall. Some sites felt they needed to be more secure and they would put like a cage around it.

And again, you're bringing internet or internet-like resources to areas that never had it. We found a lot of the individuals having new access to be very respectful of the technology.

So again, this is where you upload, where you get all the new content.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Research Content. O.E.R. 2 go dot org. The slide shows a page with a list of clickable websites

(SPEECH)
And here is a brief look. Again, it's a captured site here. This is OER2go. And you're actually able to go through Oregon-- I'm sorry-- OER2go and find areas that you would like to upload. And you're able to navigate through all of this content.

And these are all brought to you by different agencies that have used the content. Again, they're all within the realm of being shareable, open, donated. We have all sorts of people involved in giving us content. It's across the world and it's also used across the world. And here's the Algebra2go Saddleback College that Jeremy had mentioned.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Navigate to assess. The slide shows an O.E.R. 2 Go page with download options and content preview

(SPEECH)
And here we have a more precise look. I clicked on Algebra2go, and here it shows us where the website is, shows us where the content is. And you're able to navigate through the content of Algebra2go just as if you were using it within the RACHEL device. So you're able to get a good feel and understanding of the content before you upload it.

A lot of teachers that are running programs now with COVID-19 are designing their own curriculum. And so they're spending a lot of time on OER2go to figure out what is the best scenario of content to run their courses using either RACHEL or other offline devices. There are quite a few correctional facilities in the US, especially in DOC, that they actually go to OER2go and then they use their content on their education server. And again, that's provided for free. Jeremy had put this together, OER2go to be shareable, to be free. There's no cost on it.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Preview. The slide shows a page listing subjects from the Algebra 2 Go site

(SPEECH)
And again, this is a deeper dive showing what it looks like inside of Saddleback Mountain's content. And again, I'm just showing you sort of like a drill down if you were to go to OER2go. And all of you can-- if you're on your computer, you can go to the site and check it out and to see it for yourself.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Contributing to Content. The slide shows a file highlighted in the Install tab of Rachel Admin

(SPEECH)
Another content I want to show you here is how I chose the module maker EN which means in English. And so I thought, well, let's upload something that is beneficial for everyone. How do you make a module in RACHEL? And so this is a upload that I did. I identified it, I hit download, and it went into the device.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Stats, what's going on

(SPEECH)
The other component is called Stats. After we do the install, I went to Stats. What's going on? So you may be interested what sites are being hit, you may be interested in seeing how much activity is going on within the RACHEL device. The Stats area allows you to get into the device itself and its usage.

It's very helpful to know there's some staff that use this information to share with their admin to show that, hey, we've had a number of young people having access and here's what it looks like. They then report it out to their administration and then they get further funding to find resources to purchase new laptops because the RACHEL is being used.

And that's just one example of how Stats I've seen has been used. The other end of it is, you know, should we leave these programs on the system if they're not being used? And what programs are being used? Do we need to find additional programs in mathematics or reading or books and that? One thing we found is that a lot of devices that are for pay actually use a lot of the content that we have, specially in the textbook area and for the Gutenberg reading areas.

Some facilities actually have devices that they much purchase. Here we offer it for free. And so that's that Stats area, that gives you that stats.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Need to change password. The slide shows the Settings tab of Rachel Admin

(SPEECH)
Next is the settings. Again, if you update your password, as Jeremy mentioned before, and if somebody had a question, what happens if somebody gets hold of a password? Well, you could also go in and update that password.

And the next one is log out. It allows you to leave the system itself and you're able to get out when you need to leave.

(DESCRIPTION)
Slide, Refurbishing Computers with Endless O.S.

(SPEECH)
The other component I want to mention here is, if you are using RACHEL and you're looking at refurbishing computers to connect to it, we've used a lot of the Endless OS in corrections. Reason being it's also created for offline use. Endless OS has a lot of applications, over 100 apps in it. And so we also like using this in the correctionals field.

So if you have a handful of laptops or old desktops that you want to convert, I just thought I'd throw this in there and make a recommendation of using the Endless OS. In corrections we also put some of the RACHEL content into the device, so young people can get RACHEL either through the device itself or they get the RACHEL content that's residing with the laptop itself.

So the best thing I think about RACHEL is the content, its use and flexibility for creating your own content in itself.

(DESCRIPTION)
A slide shows a graphic of the Earth with the words World Possible, Connecting offline learners to the world's knowledge

(SPEECH)
And I think in Oregon I can say that we've used the state wide, and so we've had the ability of extending education to areas that never had access before. So if you can imagine that students at one time only were allowed to have access to computers during school time for a few hours, suddenly the RACHEL server got introduced to correctional facilities, and then they were placed in areas like a automotive shop, where they put the curriculum on it, they got exposed to a learning resource center where they would rank college classes in the evening. They got extended to living units so young people could read and do research on the weekends, in the later evening.

So it expanded the world for us. And I cannot speak enough about the ability of changing a learning environment whether you're in a remote area of the world or in a correctional facility, or even possibly a farming community or migrant camp, you know, a refugee settlement area, offline is a low cost way of bringing in content. And the other end of it is, RACHEL also allows the teacher to bring in their own content, their own resources that are shareable.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: And so we had-- Frank, we have one more Q&A. Is there English to English language learners or to teach foreign languages? So this is where we've been spending a lot of time of the last year. It's pretty high in demand. The only resources we have right now for that is-- I'm pasting it into the Q&A. There's a website called languagetransfer.org, which we just started translating into RACHEL and translating the language, but we have to make a copy of the site and that takes some time.

And then we also have fantasticphonics.org, which is a great English language learning site. It's produced by the Australian government with some support from USAID, which has two English literacy programs. One is for children learning basic literacy, the letter A and the word cat all all the way up to making paragraphs. But the other is for adult learners to learn English language for vocational use. And so it'll go through four or five different job types and help them understand just the basics of the English language as it relates to, I think, health industries, like home health care and a few other businesses that we've seen people use.

But nothing like Duolingo or any of these pure English language learning websites. So languagetransfer.org, and then fantasticphonics-- let me look up what their website is and I'll put that in the chat as well.

FRANK MARTIN: We've been doing also research on Vo-tech. We get a lot of requests for welding and open education resources that actually apply to some of the more technical areas. And I've been learning more about that with some of the programs in Canada. They have a lot of shareable programs for welding.

And so we're trying to also expand on that, especially in areas that are remote. So the Canadians are doing a lot of research and they're up near Victoria, that is. And so that's also been very helpful.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Steve asks, how often is the device updated with newer tech? So the device hardware is not updated very often, usually about every three or four years. This is our third version and we've been doing this for about 10 years. We don't have a new device in development right now. There is an existing 90-day warranty and the option to purchase a 3 or 2-year warranty when you go to store.worldpossible.org.

The next question from Rebecca. The device would need to be in a physical location that students can access, correct? Correct. That is correct. Students wouldn't be able to access from home, for example, if they are more than 150 feet from the device. That is also correct. They would have to take the device with them or a smaller version of the device.

Sarah asks, for corrections, please explain the use of Moodle during instructional staff lockouts. Can users upload assignments? Yes, users could upload assignments. However, remote teachers check their homework, give feedback, and provide new assignments. So you would have to work with staff that is still on site. So sometimes we have this facilitator role who is not a teacher but has access to the device and then also access to email or the internet.

And they can go in as the administrator on Moodle and pass along that homework or feedback. But it's obviously not an ideal process. And then, does the device need to be connected to the web for a block of time for this? If you did connect RACHEL to the internet, you could access it remotely. We would have to kind of work with the IT staff at a correctional facility. When you connect RACHEL to the internet, it has to be allowed to get on the internet. There could be a firewall or something that blocks it, but it is technically possible to do, Sarah. If you have more questions, please just pump them back in the Q&A.

(DESCRIPTION)
A slide shows the website World Possible Justice dot org

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If we already have licenses, for example, Odysseyware, can we upload classes to the RACHEL? This area of law is not like very well articulated. I would encourage you to reach out and see where and explain to them what you're doing, they actually know about RACHEL. I haven't followed up with groups who've tried to do this to see what the outcome was, but there is some legal basis that would say under fair use law, if people don't have access to this resource given what's going on right now or a lack of connectivity or you're already paying for a license and it's the same student, that you should be protected under fair use law. But I would just recommend you reach out to Odysseyware and tell them what you're trying to do.

Yeah. Correct. And that is correctional facilities that we work with. We really only in the United States work with correctional facilities. So happy to help that. What's the website for Fantastic Phonics? And that teachtheworldtoread-- I think .com. Teachtheworldtoread.com.

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He navigates to the website Teach the World to read dot com

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So that's everything I've got. Penny or Frank.

FRANK MARTIN: Pretty much what we're doing. Again, I cannot overemphasize the ability to bring in your own content and also to expand learning into areas where it was not possible. And so I think I can only speak from experience. Oregon continues to use it. We have several sites within the United States transition houses, DOC facilities that have been using RACHEL. Wisconsin has been a huge user of RACHEL for their higher education.

So there are, depending on your IT staff, a lot of possibilities that you can jump into to expand education resources. And the best thing with COVID is that there's been a lot of issues with the physical books themselves and papers themselves, and then also reaching out to students without having direct contact with staff.

The digital means, again, it's not always-- I do prefer person to person, but a lot of digital resources are helping to keep the spread of COVID down. And so I do believe that these resources help to create a safer environment in prisons and in youth correctional facilities. And it's--

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: So someone asked if there is a contact person of someone who is using RACHEL at a correctional facility to talk to. We've got dozens. So if you reach out to us and tell us where you're working, we're more than happy to connect you with. If you, we probably didn't do great introductions, Frank spent over 20 years at the Oregon Youth Authority deploying RACHEL to all of their cottages. And we've got hundreds more that we're happy to connect you to.

And the last thing I'll say is, personally, I went out and found some money to create a laptop for corrections. And so in our COVID response in the state of Washington, we went out and we built a laptop that is for corrections. It's called JusticeTechSolutions.com. And you can just buy these laptops. They are made specifically for corrections in that they don't have any USB ports, they don't have any Wi-Fi, they're clear, there's no metal inside them. And we've been deploying those through Washington State and Wisconsin at their DOCs. And that's what they use in conjunction with RACHEL. Unlike something like Edovo, you just buy the machine and it's yours and you don't have to worry about all of their software restrictions and things like that.

Barbara asked in the Q&A, you mentioned batteries. Do all devices have batteries? Does each user need to purchase their own batteries? All the devices have batteries. If you're not going to use the battery, it's not the best idea to keep a battery in the device. So if you're in a correctional facility, you've got good solid power and you don't need a battery, when you go to our website to purchase, you can actually ask that we remove the battery. But otherwise, the battery is installed in the device by default. And so each device can have a battery or cannot have a battery depending on what you want.

PENNY PEARSON: And Frank and Jeremy, can I just add that-- I don't know, it wasn't in the slide deck. But I've always really appreciated your communicativeness as well as providing materials and training for what this device does and including you have a pretty robust YouTube channel where you walk people through how to use this device, how to update it, et cetera.

So it's not just a matter that Jeremy and Frank just kind of send this out and you're left to fend on your own. They do provide a really great set of tools and resources to help you get going. Of course, I always recommend that you get very friendly with your IT people.

[LAUGHTER]

They can help you. And as long as they understand how this device works, it is something that is it's not restricted to corrections. It is just an elegant solution for corrections. And I've seen use cases in our local jail programs. I have another one that's up in the high sierras that is looking to use these RACHEL devices to take out to some of the big ranches to train individuals.

And this is more along the lines of what Frank was talking about before about some career check ed of trying to-- in this particular case, it's teaching the ranch workers how to repair the ranch equipment that they happen to be continually breaking. So there's really some very creative ways that this can be used outside of corrections. And I think it takes those teachers, because this is where it comes from teachers who learn about this all of a sudden go, hey, wait a minute. You know? I could send this out via mail to a migrant workers camp. And it can be a place where they can start to learn more about English or start to learn-- and start earning more knowledge toward their high school completion.

It has so much potential that I think adult education needs to-- I'm getting on my soapbox here, Jeremy, so do you understand this? Adult education can really take this device and use it. Even if you might have internet connection, it might not be the best internet connection. And you may be in a situation where your school program, your adult ed program is at the local shopping mall or the basement of a church. And this device can at least bring that information to the learners. They can access it. Not only are they learning the content you're providing, but they're now also learning some critical digital literacy skills as well.

So it does so much. And I think that I just wanted to pitch that because I know Jeremy and Frank are very much into the details. And I want everybody to take that big step backwards because this is a worldwide organization. And they are reaching learners in such remote areas. And I'm always just fascinated with the great work that they've done.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Thank you, Penny. And we've got some more Q&A. Let me get through it real quick.

PENNY PEARSON: OK.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Amy. So you only work with correctional facilities in the US? No. One, you know, we don't do a lot of handholding work with the correctional facilities. We provide this technology, Frank will provide training, and we don't care where they are. We have RACHEL in prisons in central Bolivia, we've got them in Canada, there's some in Finland. There are a lot of RACHEL devices in international correctional settings as well.

Maggie asks, is there a way that we can be updated as to the content that will be made available in the future via RACHEL? If you go to worldpossible.org, you can sign up for our newsletter there. In our newsletter, which doesn't go out very frequently, maybe once a quarter we will update folks with new content that has been added.

Sarah asks, are there teachers in corrections currently commuting with their students remotely successfully? When a deputy gets the device through the general firewall, can all the teachers log into it to see and update the assignments? Sarah, yes. But this is like a-- that is a very complicated use case. It's rare. And like in the state of Wisconsin, we have RACHELs in about 30 correctional facilities. All 30 of the RACHEL devices are then networked to central office.

And central office manages who has and what type of access each individual can get to their RACHEL device. So does it happen? Yes. Does it happen frequently? No. The vast majority of our devices are just used in a classroom with a teacher physically in that classroom, but it's certainly possible. But we require that handshake, as Penny says, with your IT folks.

Barbara asks, how large is the screen? So Barbara, we don't deal with what we call the client device, meaning anyone-- any desktop or laptop or tablet can connect to RACHEL, but we don't sell those desktops, laptops, or tablets. We just sell RACHEL. It's kind of like the brain to your computer lab. But you would need a tablet or an old cell phone or some sort of device to connect to RACHEL to access all the content which is on RACHEL.

Can you name a specific corrections facility that uses RACHEL if we wanted to reach out to them for questions? Sure. We've got quite a few. As Penny mentioned, the Sacramento County Office of Education has one of these set up. And then, Frank, I wanted to-- there is a jail in northern California. I'm blanking on her name, but she's been a great resource for people in California. And then, all of the California CDCR has RACHEL devices for their youth correctional facilities as well. Is this just the California group, Penny?

PENNY PEARSON: Yes. Well, I'm going to say yes tentatively. We have invited others who learn about our webinar. So we can have folks from out of state. And honestly, I didn't look at the attendance beforehand, Jeremy. We have had other folks from out of state, but it's the minority.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Sure. So Maricopa county, who I think actually came to us through a previous OTAN webinar has 13 RACHELs in all of their youth correctional facilities.

FRANK MARTIN: Yeah.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Oregon has them in every-- the Oregon Youth Authority has them in every facility. The state of Wisconsin, the adult DOC has them in every facility. And then there are a host of smaller facilities that it would probably make more sense for me to find out who bought them and who is actually using them and connect you to. But Lisa, if you want to send me an email, I can put together a list of people who are happy to respond to.

Frank, do you remember Julie? I can't remember her name, but she was in the northern California. She did a few hours on this thing. Julie Schult.

FRANK MARTIN: Yeah. I have to look at my records.

PENNY PEARSON: Yes. She's up in Nevada County, the jail program. I worked with Julie and she presented-- she was really a great use case because Julie considered herself a technophobe, and once introduced to this device, she was like, oh my god, this is so easy. And she was uploading, downloading modules and great stuff and all of her learners were in the jail system and they were using it.

And Frank, it also was very much a case of, they understood this was a privilege, they were very respectful. And she was in a situation where she couldn't bring in paper and pencils into this environment. So this device, it took a lot of convincing, but it was really-- once she was in, I think they had some really great results from it.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Yeah. In fact, it was Julie Coffin at Nevada.

PENNY PEARSON: That's right.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Joint Union High School District at the Nevada County jail. Wayne Brown Correctional facility. But she was great for a while too.

FRANK MARTIN: Yeah. We started to see recently that a lot of contraband was coming into books. And some states were saying-- it was moving them more towards technology than the books. And then we also learned with young people, especially, that they prefer not going to the library. They wanted a device where they could check out books, reading material very easily, and decide whether or not they wanted to read it in a click.

And that was an aha moment for me was the new generation of being used to digital content and getting into a digital way of reading and saving or pursuing books later or coming back to a book rather than having to physically go to the library. And so part of this is a generation change too of technology and learning.

JEREMY SCHWARTZ: Bruno asked, can modules created on Canvas be ported to RACHEL? I know Moodle modules can be-- I'm less familiar with Canvas, but if you can export canvas modules, then you could import them to RACHEL. The big caution is, if your Canvas module is linking to things on YouTube or to other resources, a lot of people when they build a site in Canvas or a class in Canvas are saying, go view this website over here as part of the learning. That website won't be available unless it's already installed on RACHEL.

John asks if we can use RACHEL with Zoom. So, unfortunately, no. Just be really clear, there there's no internet connectivity with RACHEL. You are only getting copies of websites as they once existed. There's no sort of chat or Zoom or anything like that. And also, a nice benefit in corrections is no one can get outside RACHEL. It works at the bottom of the ocean in a submarine, you would only be able to connect to the content that's already been pre-installed on the device and you're not going to be using any sort of video chat or thing like that.