INSTALL FEST at Kathmandu Engineering College
After a long wait, finally Install Fest was organized at KEC. Install fest at Thapathali Campus was an inspiration for all the MSPs and since then I was eagerly waiting for the day when it will happen at my college too.
With the thought of reaching to greater number of students, we planned to combine our Install Fest with Drishti, which is a three day annual event of KEC. The date for the Drishti was fluctuating and so was the Install Fest. Finally, we had the event on July 11, 12 and 13.
We were supposed to have a presentation on July 10 about the Install Fest, but to my horror, we had to cancel it. However, we continued the Install Fest with the distribution of Genuine Microsoft Software on these three days.
Here, we registered our stall as “ INSTALL FEST-use Genuine Microsoft software for free” . We sat whole day long for three days and as the students and faculty visited our stall, we provided them which various information related to what is Microsoft doing in Nepal. Our primary focus was on the Genuine Microsoft Software provided to the STEM-D via MSDNAA and ELMS.
We had divided our group into two parts where one group was busy flowing the information related to MSDNAA and ELMS and the other group was busy burning the cd/dvds, and also distributing the software in pendrive and harddisks.
For the distribution of software, our college had also bought us new dvd writers. Everyday, we made some backup cd/dvds from home and also continued burning during the event. In the last day, we also ran short of our cd/dvds stock but thanks to a friend who was thoughtful enough to bring more looking at the response of previous days. Advertisement for the Install Fest also worked well. We had students who came up with harddisks and since it was time -consuming to copy all the software to the harddisks and would hamper distribution to other students, we had to carry them home, copy and bring the other day. Some are still to be completed.
Moreover, we also collected the email address of our students and faculties and showed them a demo of how they can get the software and key from the ELMS. We also provided them with the information that all the MSDNAA software are also available at “cis.inet.kec”, which is our LAN, for their easy access and avoid bandwidth problems.
Since this expo was open to all, not only Kecians but we also had students from different colleges like Pulchowk, NEC and Advance to name a few. These students were also really interested. Though, we could not help them with the ELMS service from our college, we were happy to help them with MSDNAA software keeping in mind the criteria of STEM-D. And for our visitors who were of school and +2 level, we talked a lot about the possibility of DREAMSPARK happening for them. The students who had just passed +2, were hoping to get the service in their near future once they are enrolled into STEM-D.
Personally speaking, I believe combining INSTALL FEST with Drishti was the smartest decision we made. It just rocked and the response that we got was more than expected. I was totally satisfied with the opening day but the response just grew more and more other days. It wouldn't be wrong if I say, “ on the basis of flow of information to the students, three days of Install fest was equivalent to my five months as a MSP”. This time, we were also able to cover KCST(microbiology) which is a part of KEC.
Lastly, I would like to thanks all the MSPs and ravi dai for visiting drishti and encouraging me, to my class for volunteering to the extreme in the INSTALL FEST and to my college KEC for believing in us and helping us in terms of fund and resources.
Also, I would like to thank the organizer of Drishti for giving us this great opportunity of taking our voice to the students and to all the visitors for listening to us.
I always believe that once students realize that what you are speaking is for their benefit and no nonsense, you don’t have to do much. Students will themselves start approaching and demanding their rights. And, it has begun at KEC……….