As already mentioned in the last post, our in-service training for teachers in digital media skills in public schools in Ghana at Keta Senior High Technical School is over now and Margarete is back in Austria again. So it’s time for a sum-up and some lessons learned.

Here’s a group picture of all the participants.

The participants of the group have received their certificates (posing in ECDL T- shirts, a gift from the Austrian Computer Society, http://www.ocg.at)

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School

Keta Senior High Technical School is a very large school with about 80 teachers and more than 2,000 pupils (due to Margarete’s informations). Some of the teachers participated in our program – it was a voluntary decision to expand their knowledge about information and communication technologies.

In the beginning it was necessary to find out what the teachers wanted to learn – considering the different skills levels of the participants

• figuring out what the best outcome will be
• every day Margarete assessed the interest of the particpants  and adjusted her program to the audience

Currently there has been a government program put into place where teachers are given laptops to use them in their courses. The timing of this government program fits nicely with our project.

The projector donated by Fritz, another of our members, was very helpful during the course.

Generally the feedback of the teachers was very good . They expressed their appreciation to learn more about ICT and digital literacy. The participants enhanced their ICT skills during the two weeks course and they developed new ideas for their class teaching. Different methods of pedagogy in class teaching (Ghana / European practice) were figured out.

The topics covered in the course included

• basic ICT literacy
• usage of MS Office programs such as MS Word, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint
• basic internet-skills –how to use internet for better learning and teaching good practice skills (e.g. evaluation of websites)
• how to enhance teaching and learning using digital devices
• creating a digital portfolio (as an example for future teaching experience)

Challenges with the lab

• internet connection only on the last day
• PCs were no too well maintained – many disconnected parts & the working ones were full of viruses
• power outages – but only 1 full day course had to be cancelled

Headmaster Mr. D.K. Sedanu-Kwawu was involved and is very positive and forward-thinking. He is very much interested in the potentials of ICT in teaching and learning.

Ministry

The day before departure Mr. D.K. Sedanu-Kwawu and Margarete met Mr. Abu Stephen.

• Mr. Abu is Deputy Director-General & Director at the Basic Education Division and reponsible for ICT in education
• Mr. D.K. Sedanu-Kwawu & Mr. Abu are looking forward to further activities
• Keta School could become a pioneer project

It was a very interesting meeting, Mr. Abu already answered to a mail of Margarete – looking for further cooperation

Margarete also met with Dr. Bella Bello Bitugu, country manager of the Right To Play project who handed over Margarete a present on behalf of the Keta School alumnis to Margarete – a wooden stool with the sign of Keta School carved in.

Planning

We should continue with this project and plan for a next course, maybe continuing with the same group to widen their experience and build up a Trainee group, or maybe same content with another group of teachers

Organisation of the course and Margarete’s arrival and stay in Keta was perfectly fine, the mobile internet (MTN) worked perfect and and allowed her to stay connceted with Florian and Fritz in Austria and Worlali in the Netherlands.

Margarete will try to get Gameli and Eldad involved in an online project in Graz – already
talked with doctor father about this.

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Finally we want to express our sincere thanks especially to Gameli Adzaho and to Charles Amega-Selorm who organised everything on the spot and headmaster Mr. D.K. Sedanu-Kwawu. It was very kind of him to offer Keta Senior High Technical School to help make this project a success.

We’re looking forward to working with you soon again!

Big thanks and appreciation also to our member Worlali Senyo who initiated the project and virtually kept in touch with everybody during the whole period.

The first part of our project in Keta with Margarete Grimus holding the in-service training for teachers in digital media skills in public schools in Ghana at Keta Senior High Technical School has finished now. Margarete has done a great job in these almost three weeks and met some interesting people on the spot – so the next step is to assess the outcomes and possible ways to go further. From what Margarete is writing, however, there will definitely be a next part and we will continue the project.

So before we post a summary and our lessons learned, here’s some pictures of the course:

Make sure you check back soon, not to miss our summary.

As already announced, since 6 September our member Margarete Grimus is in Ghana and holding the in-service training for teachers in digital media skills in public schools in Ghana at Keta Senior High Technical School since a week already.

Now here’s a short sum up of what she writes about how everything is going:

The course is running alright, we start every day at 8 AM until 1 PM officially – but so far we never stopped before 1:30 PM. [...] There are plenty of computers in the computer room, but only 5 are working and they regrettably have viruses. Also, we don’t have access to internet. I bought an own internet stick myself on the first day and I’m using that one. There are 12 participants of the course with very different levels of skills, but the spirit is very good. [...]

From next week on we’ll only start at 3 PM because regular school is commencing.The fact that we don’t have internet is quite a constraint in the course contents. Also I cant use the questionnaire I developed upfront. What’s very good is that two thirds of the participants have their own laptops with them. [...]

It’s also very interesting to find out about the didactical aspects, which I find very important. There’s something new coming to my mind every day. [...] The participants have a portfolio where they are summing up down every day what they learned and everybody is very interested and motivated. [...]

We also have some pictures of Margarete at the school and with her hosts which you see above.

So, let’s hope internet will be available this week and that there’s a lot going forward at the course!

Because of a medical issue we regrettably had to postpone our in-service training for teachers in digital media skills in public schools in Ghana. Due to our initial plan the course should have started already, but we had to delay the start for two weeks. We’ve been in touch with everybody and have our man Gameli Adzahoon on the spot, so everything is sorted out.

Margarete Grimus will be in Ghana now from 6 September on and will probably split the course on two parts – but Margarete and the participants will plan for this when she’s there.

We’re proud to announce a new project, which will already start in about two weeks time!

Our members Margarete Grimus and Worlali Senyo have joined up with Gameli Adzaho and Charles Amega-Selorm in Ghana to provide an In-service training for teachers in digital media skills for teaching and learning in public schools in Ghana. The one-month course will already begin in two weeks and will take place at Keta Senior High Technical School. Margarete Grimus, who has extensive knowledge in teaching and adult education in ICT will hold the course and meet with several people on the spot to explore possibilities for further projects in this sector.

The main objective of this pilot project is to equip 15 teachers in public schools with skills in internet research and presentation to support their teaching and learning and ultimately extend it across public schools in Ghana.

I think it’s good timing for our project to start now as Ghana has expressed their intentions to use ICT in education a while ago already and confirmed so lately. We hope that the pilot picks up and want to enable the 15 participants to pass on their knowledge to their colleagues – literally teaching the teachers.

Specifically, the project will:

• train teachers how to use computers for the learning in classroom for teaching, lesson notes preparation, and for general research
• provide teachers with skills to use the internet as a resource to improve their teaching (e.g. how to access it, integrating it in class teaching to improve learning, internet literacy and internet safety)
• guide teachers to identify good practice for Maths and Science teaching (in Junior and Senior High schools)
• acquire presentation skills as a way to enhance their lesson delivery to improve learning outcomes in the classroom
• introduce basic skills in research and statistics for evaluation of class/school-projects and scientific writing [from the project proposal]

To hear Gameli Adzaho talk in more detail about the project, check out this link to Coders4Africa Podcast.

We’ll keep you posted on the project and upload news and pictures here as soon as it has started.

Although we haven’t announced any news during the summer, we were not only travelling and relaxing but we were also working behind the scenes.

One major outcome is a proposal for a new project in Ghana with exciting local and Austrian partners, which we want to start later this year.  The main objective of this project

“is to equip teachers in public schools with skills in internet research and presentation to support their teaching and learning process” [quote from our proposal]

By assisting teachers to use the internet, we think several aspects in education can be improved. This in turn makes not only the teachers, but the students and other stakeholders benefit. By teaching teachers, we are aiming for a multiplier effect and replication across the country.

We will publish more about the project and our partners (Ghana: Worlali Senyo, Charles Amega Selrom, Gameli Adzaho;Austria: Prof. Emerita Maragete Grimus) as soon as we’re finished planning and have concrete dates.

However, we will present the proposal on 1. September in Linz at the event “Mein Beitrag zum Wandel” at the “Create Your World” subfestival of “Festival Ars Electronica”.

Check here for the exact time and date of the “Create Your World” event.

We’re proud to get the chance to present there and I’m sure we’ll get to know many interested and interesting people.

Alexander from the Austrian Piratenpartei pointed me to an interesting project called “Buy This Satellite” where ahumanright.org with the help of a consortium of organisations, amongst others the Bertelsmann Foundation, Deutsche Telekom Laboratories or the What Took You So Long Foundation is trying to finance the purchase of a communication satellite to provide internet

Here’s the Tedx talk of the project‘s CEO, Kostas Grammatis.

Sounds interesting to me, also as I’m generally very impressed by Sugata Mitra’s and William Kamkwamba’s stories.

Still, as much as I’m a technology enthusiast, internet access can only be one part of the puzzle for improving the lives of impoverished people around the world. I suggest watching this presentation by Kentaro Toyama for more technology-critical and challenging thoughts.

However, I like the concept and it’s an exciting new way to think about things – just crowdfunding the purchase of a whole communication satellite. I just hope the organizers have a more general approach in mind than just moving this satellite around and waiting for things to happen.

Clicking links and stumbling further I also encountered the other projects of Palomar5 and they’re also definitely worth a read.

Thanks to the generous donation of € 3590,- by the Leo Club St.Pölten, the next 6-month iteration of the Zanzicode basic course is secured. The Leo Club St. Pölten is a non-profit organisation which supports social projects, usually with a regional focus in Lower Austria, Austria; with Zanzicode, they are assisting a project in a foreign country for the first time. With the help of the donation, we have the means to continue our work in Zanzibar and to steadily move our project forward. Thanks a lot, Leo Club — your help is most appreciated!

Here’s a picture of the ICT4D.at chairman Florian Sturm receiving the donation in the form of the classic oversized cheque from Leo Club St. Pölten chairwoman Maria Propst in Vienna, Austria (two more pictures on Flickr):

Our project Zanzicode is a course on web application programming for the urban youth of Stone Town, Zanzibar. Our aim is to strengthen the local IT capacities and provide young people who might not be able to afford it otherwise with additional education.

It is the successor of our Zanzibits Support project, which four motivated young finished successfully at the end of last year.

One of these alumni – Salum – already had some additional experience and showed so much talent in teaching himself that we decided that we would hand over the teaching to him and concentrate on organizational issues and applications for funding. Furthermore we searched for organizations in the area to improve the project and better adapt it to local conditions, and have found a promising partner with Aidnet Zanzibar.

Now we have started the course with twelve new students and are happy to announce the first funding we received – the Austria Development Agency (ADA) is taking over more than half of the project costs for the first year.

We are very happy and we’ll do our best to make this project a success.

For Zanzicode itself, we are always looking for partnerships and collaborations with NGOs and the private and public sector – so if you happen to reside in the area, our project description sounds interesting for you and you think you can contribute something, just contact us!

Also, if you too want to support the project financially, please donate here. Thank you!

Since yesterday, ICT4D.at’s Zanzibits support project is now browsable at Zanzicode.com.

You can find information and contact data there, and Fritz, our teacher who is currently there shares his experiences on the Zanzicode blog:

• Hello World!
• Improvements
• Preparations, preparations, preparations

There is also a Zanzicode FlickR account with pictures.

So what is Zanzicode actually?

We provide free education in the field of Web Development to a small number of talented and motivated students of poor background in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Our goal is to help build the personal careers of our graduates as well as to kickstart a local web development community. After getting to know the place and the people during a support project for the Zanzibits School for Film and Multimedia in 2009, we firmly believe that there is both talent and demand for professional web work in Zanzibar.[from the Zanzicode page]

We are currently preparing the second round of classes for 12 more students, starting in January 2010.

If you are interested in getting involved the project – as sponsor or guest lecturer or if you are in the area and just want to say hello – please contact us.