Tonga.Online Stakeholder Update July - October 2010

Details

Created: Sunday, 07 November 2010 23:16

This update summarizes activities carried out in the area of Education and ICT from July to October 2010. During this period, x3 Basic ICT Skills training workshops, x2 Computer networking workshop, x1 E-learning workshop and x1 ICT Conference were carried out. An annual review Planning meeting was also carried out in September 2010. Work on the Wireless LAN was started in September 2010 and the Public Access Point in the Binga Library was equipped with computers. Since September 2010, the Binga rural district council has started putting systems in place, working together with the Science and technology subcommittee and Basilwizi Trust. Users from different department s in Binga have also received training on the use of the PAP.

Basic ICT Skills Training Workshop

The Basic ICT Skills Training at workshops were held at Kariangwe from the 12th to the 16th July 2010, Lubimbi from the 19th to the 22nd of July 2010) and Siabuwa ITCs from the 2nd to the 6th August 2010. The workshops sought to equip teachers with skills to use the computers to carry out basic classroom chores, as teaching resources, producing presentations and documents, using spreadsheets and the Wikipedia amongst other tools. The workshops also aimed at motivating teachers and community members to study for the International Drivers License (ICDL).It was the aim of the workshops to ensure that community members understand the applications of computers in the community. Women were especially encouraged to participate. They were allocated special sessions so that they specifically gain appreciation and be able to use computers as a source of health and developmental information.

These workshops were similar and targeted school Staff, participants from Community Special Groups (neighbouring Schools, Government Department.) and participants from Women (from the Community).

These workshops had a training plan shown below:

The Basic ITC skills workshops were a success in all the ITCs as planned. Participation of women increased as the special sessions for women saw some women even bringing their young babies to the ITC in cases where they did not have anyone to mind the baby while they receive training.

Other members of the community, for example HIV/AIDS support group members, also received training and the workshops opened their eyes to a vast array of informational material available among the e-resources found in ITCs.

Table 1.1.1 provides a summary of participants trained and also shows the groupings.

Table 1 Summary of Basic ICT skills workshop participants

Basic ICT Maintenance Skills Workshop

Basic ICT Maintenance Skills transfer workshop was carried out at Sianzyundu Secondary school from the 15th to 16th July 2010. The workshop aimed at equipping attendees with skills to install Ubuntu Operating System, add/remove educational programs to Ubuntu, familiarise with various educational programs and how they can be used to aid teaching and also add free educational Windows based software programs to Ubuntu.

Attendees also learned small support techniques like, adding a hard drive or CD ROM, to a computer, recording maintenance activities and keep technical ICT records, communicating technical problems accurately and support printers on Ubuntu. The workshop targeted school teachers in Charge of ICTs or ICT Trainers.

A total of 12 teachers in charge of ITCs were trained. 5 teachers were female and 7 were male.

The majority of teachers who attended this workshop had previous experience of using Computers or Ubuntu.

ICT Computer Networking Workshop

The workshop on ICT computer networking was held at Binga High school from 21 to 22 July 2010. The objectives of the workshop were to increase appreciation of networking with TCP/IP and to infuse an understanding of network organization among participants. The workshop also sought to equip participants with skills to identify hardware devices for networking, use network configuration tools in Ubuntu, setup a simple network , interpret networking resources available and implement printer and file sharing on a LAN

This workshop was held to lay a foundation for the anticipated networking training by a networking specialist from Austria which was later carried out in September 2010.

The workshop was targeted at teachers in Charge of ICTs or ICT Trainers.

A total of 20 teachers were trained, among whom 7 were female and 13 were male.

This training created a foundation for another networking training to be done in September 2010 by a networking specialist from Austria, Rupi Ruprechtsberger.

E-Learning Workshop

The E-Learning workshop was held at Binga High school from 16th to 20th August 2010 and sought to instill an appreciation of the evolution of teaching using the internet, introduce Course management systems (CMS) to teachers and help teachers appreciate that CMSs enhance teaching and learning.

Teachers learnt the applications of a suite of tools called Moodle in the classroom namely:

• Uploading and sharing materials on a network

• Use of forums and chat rooms outside the classroom

• Use of quizzes

• Gathering and reviewing assignments

• Recording grades using grade book

The workshop targeted teachers without (necessarily) a strong background in using computers.

A total of 20 teachers were trained in this workshop, out of whom 9 were female and 11 were male.

All ITCs managed to send at least 1 representative. Sianzyundu Secondary, Binga High and Siabuwa Secondary sent two representatives to balance gender representation. Sinansengwe Secondary school also sent a representative for the first time.

ICT Conference

The conference was held at Binga High school from 23 to 24 August 2010. The conference aimed at discussing issues of improving ICT Access by both schools and communities, strategies to reduce Piracy in schools based ITCs, improving Communication between ITCs and the Community, sharing Challenges, Achievements and Best ICT Practices and ICT Skills development for Administrators. The workshop targeted School Headmasters and Teachers in Charge of ITCs.

Invitations were sent to all ITCs inviting 2 people per ITC. All ITCs sent in 2 representatives except Binga Primary and Siachilaba Primary who did not send representatives. 26 representatives from schools attended. The following stakeholder organisations were also invited to send one representative. All of them managed to send a representative except the Ministry of Justice.

• Ministry of Education,

• Binga Rural District Council

• Ministry Justice

• Zimbabwe Republic Police

Networking Workshop facilitated by Rupi

The workshop was held from the 23rd and 24th of September 2010 in the newly set up Public Access Point in the Binga Community Library. The objectives of the workshop were to teacher participants how to set up a DHCP Server, DNS Server and Proxy Server. 21 participants from Schools and Cultural Groups participated. 18 participants were male while 3 were female.

Peter Kuthan sharing some workshop expectation with participants

Preparing Network cables for use during the workshop

Participants strictly following the Cat5e Cable colour code

Maliko, a Cultural Group from Zambia was represented.

Wireless Mapping

Work for Preparations for the WLAN was done through collecting a lot of GPS Data from the places that are part of the 8 of the pilot Nodes. This activity involved moving around and observing the sites for lines of site and possible signal barriers. This activity was done at the Basilwizi Office, Binga RDC, Binga Primary School, MoESAC, Binga High School, Manjolo Secondary School, Manjolo Primary School and Tonga Online office.

WLAN Mapping at MoESAC

Mapping at Zambezi Primary school

The outcome of the mapping exercise is a map for Binga that will be used in the detailed planning for the WLAN pilot project.

Key achievements during this Quarter

General Statistics are summarised in the following table;

Remarks

Ratio of males to females trained 1:2.1

Prepared by Richard Simango