Usage Logging Hack

Ena shared with us what the great folks at Powering Potential are doing to get logs @JaniceLathen

Hi Janice, Ena, Romeo and Jeremy,

Thank you all so much for the introductions and mentoring. I had a lovely conversation with Romeo today and am hoping to visit some RACHEL installations in Guatemala on my way down to the Amazon this summer.
Romeo mentioned that they were working on how to assess the usage of their RACHELs and I remembered what Ena had written and thought it so ingenious that I mentioned it to Romeo.
One thing we are working on, which may not be a concern for you this summer if you consider it a proof-of-concept stage, is assessment. Part of what we need to know to evaluate the impact of the educational intervention is how much the schools use the equipment. They are provided with a paper log sheet on which to record utilization, but we also want to collect the computer logs. We have added some code to change the logging settings on the RACHEL server, and created a tiny script to copy the linux and Apache logs to a USB stick which we provide. The teacher in each school who is responsible for the lab or the Pi-oneer runs the copy routine and sends the USB to us via snail mail. (The files are small, but they have no Internet access to do it via email.) Anyhow, in order to collect logs, one needs a real-time clock, so we add that chip to the RPi and that requires a few lines of code, too.
I’m hoping Powering Potential might be able to assist Romeo to add assessment to the RACHELs in Guatemala.

Dana

Hi Jeremy,

Would it be possible to connect me with Dana, Ena and folks? I will be using Rachel-pi in Nepal (Rukum and Baglung area) later this year and one of my goals is to be able to log usage data. It looks like this team is doing that already which is great for me to learn from. Thanks!