Issue 1 April 4-11, 2015 Opening of Digital Inclusion Centres...... 1
Nigel Stoneham boosts Online School Links .......................... 2
Learn With Grandma Easter Message ......... 2
Headteachers set for the 10th eLearning Africa Conference in Ethiopia
A learner’s View of KAWA eLearning Platform
KAWA eLearning
ADDRESSING THE SKILLS AND INFORMATION NEEDS OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY THROUGH DIGITAL INCLUSION CENTRES. Formal Education has been praised World over for creating a skilled population but after school, most people unconsciously forget the skills they learnt but it is worse for those who acquired no skill. There are so many Non Government Organizations supplementing on government services aimed at the protection and preservation of our natural resources such as forests, rivers, lakes and the quality of soil. On the contrary, there is less concern for the promotion and protection of the human resource, a very important of all. Most civil servants apart from a few who are upgrading in their careers, a good number of them have either remained at the same level or degenerated much more than the time they qualified from institutions. The reading culture is no longer there apart from few headlines from Newspapers and radio summaries. There are no resource centres in rural areas where they can acquire up to date information apart from drinking joints. The Ministry of Education, Sports, Science and Technology in partnership with the British Government established teacher Resource Centres in every District in 1997 to cub the above mentioned problems. These resources were to serve as focal points for
refresher courses and main server point for the rare instructional resources in the district. However, these centres closed after serving for five years because the funds stopped flowing in. They were handed over to the Districts which apart of that of Wakiso, the rest have remained redundant. In April 2014, the Patron of KAWA and founder of Learn with Grandma reopened these resource Centres in the Districts of Mubende and Kibaale to the excitement of the workers. These are now Digital inclusion Centres being upgraded to serve not only teachers but the whole community including the young and the elderly. KAWA held a meeting with the district ASSHU chairperson on Wednesday April 1, 2015 at Neptune Paradise in Mubende. More about the funding will be discussed next week on Tuesday with all the head teachers of the 66 secondary schools together with the District officials at the resource centre. wwamanga@yahoo.com
Minister of Education, Sports, Science and Technology, Jessica Alupo (right) in a discussion with Moses Wamanga, KAWA National Chairman about the implementation of e-learning in Secondary Schools at Makerere University Business School
Valerie Wood Gaiger (2nd right) founder of Learn with Grandma reopened the Teacher Resource Centres in Mubende and Kibaale.
ONLINE SCHOOL LINKS To fully benefit from the power of internet, Ugandan secondary and primary schools are being connected online through websites and blogs to benefit from the upcoming collaboration with schools and colleges abroad. This is one of the resolutions passed by headteachers who attended the eLearning Uganda action seminar at Trinity College Nabbingo in May last year. The projected is being implemented in partnership with Nigel Stoneham, a Vienna - Austria based Happiness Coach and online English language trainer. Thirty schools already have had their websites designed by KAWA. The target is to have 3000 schools online and linked to the Ministry of education and Sports and ASSHU for easy communication and collaboration. Read from www.kawauganda.blogspot.com
Learn with Grandma: Easter Message
Last Easter I was with you in Uganda in my ‘home’ Trinity College Nabbingo. On Easter Sunday I went to All Saints Cathedral & recorded this message www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TwehUVSuFEY It took ages to record because there were SO many people leaving – we had to keep stopping. Poor Nicholas must have had a terrible job putting all the clips together – you can hardly see a single join! I will always remember the two months I spent in your country and the many friends I made there. We can still be friends. We live in the same village - global village! Do join LEARN WITH GRANDMA UGANDA so that as you girls grow and become the leaders that you are being trained to be we can all still keep in touch. I will always be pleased to rejoice in your achievements and sympathise when things don’t go as you planned or hoped. I really had no idea that – with so much help from the headmistress and many other people –we would achieve so much by my going to Uganda. So much to tell you - but you were there see the achievement I am most proud of.
The seminar held in TCN. I went to Uganda to speak at the big e-learning Africa conference and had thought that would be the highlight of the trip but as I talked about it to Moses Wamanga, the KAWA National Chairman and the Headmistress I realised that most Ugandan teachers would not be able to afford to attend. What could we do?? I wondered if we could hold a seminar after the conference so that those teachers could also learn about the advantages of using ICT in school and so that I could tell them about how we could use technology as a bridge to reunite the generations. I had never heard of a seminar following a conference but we decided to try!
successful seminar. http://issuu.com/mo seswamanga/docs/elearning_ tcn_report_2014 The seminar was called – Taking Action – and they did take action My granny used to say – Great things are achieved by DOING a little thing TODAY. I had never initiated a seminar that was not only so well attended but also achieved so much. I really do believe that the seminar in Trinity College Nabbingo achieved as much – if not more - lasting improvement in the usage of ICT in schools in Uganda as the big conference.
To help you remember what my granny taught me I left a stone for the school with that message and – If you don’t ask the answer is NO! Have the stones been erected now?? I would love to see a Much effort had gone into photo of them in situ. planning; Speakers and caterers were booked. The As you go out into the world school had even cooked remember those sayings my cakes – they were very good! Grandma gave to me. Have BIG dreams but remember I went into the hall to help they will stay as dreams put out the chairs ‘No’ I unless you work to turn them cried ‘not so close - these are into reality. And never be adults they will have bigger afraid to ask. You have a bottoms!! And ‘No don’t 50/50 chance of the answer bring those orange chairs being yes!! I am asking for forward – we can if we need something now. I am going them’ I did not want it to to Ethiopia to speak look as if we were expecting at www.elearning-africa.com lots of people. Then I looked out of the windows – people I need your prayers because I am now asking for a venue were arriving!! We send out hundreds of in Ethiopia to host a seminar invitations but on the based on the one held in your morning of the conference school. It might not happen only 8 head teachers had but – If I don’t ask the replied. I was devastated! So answer is already NO! More and more came - 293 God Bless Head Teachers travelled Valerie Wood Gaiger (MBE) from all over Uganda!! One man told me that he had Founder and CEO, Learn with Grandma International been travelling for 24 hours. Here is the report of a very
TECHNOLOGY AT HIGHER LEVEL HEADTEACHER FOR THE 10TH ELEARNING AFRICA
Ugandan Headteachers are set to explore ICT at a very high level this year. Over 20 of them will actively participate in the upcoming eLearning Africa Conference due to take place, May 20-23, 2015 at the African Union conference hall in Ethiopia Leading the team is Alfred Okello, ASSHU Vice Chairman/ In-charge ICT and Training and Headteacher Lango College. He is to make a presentation on the teacher Continuous professional Development. Olive Kyohere, ASSHU Secretary and Headteacher of Luzira SS – www.luzirass.moes.ug was specially invited to speak at the conference on the role of ICT in the implementation of quality education in the Universal Secondary Education Schools in Uganda. Other Headteachers are Sam Kuloba, headteacher Mbale
SS
www.mbaless.moes.ug,
Sister Clare Migisha of Iceme Girls in Oyam District, northern Uganda and Sister Rebecca Abeyo of St. Mary Assumpta Girls School, Adjumani among others.