Contextualised Design of African I-BLOCKS

We have designed and developed African I-BLOCKS based upon use amongst university students, secondary school pupils and hospitalized children in Tanzania. Using an initial prototype system, the Tanzanian users developed design guidelines for novel African I-BLOCKS to suit the local educational need and context, and these guidelines were used to develop the novel African I-BLOCKS to allow easier building in three dimensions and more reliable connection. The African I-BLOCKS are cubic with full-duplex connectors and magnetic connectors. They allow easy hands-on building of electronic artifacts by any user. The novel African I-BLOCKS were tested by Tanzanian university students (bachelor of education) in a rural hospital and orphanage with positive qualitative evaluation