Partner organisations with projects in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and Bolivia have joined The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider) in the launch of a new network, named Network for ICT in Education.
It started with a workshop
To support the founding of a network in the Education area, Spider organised a workshop in Kampala, Uganda in 2013 for partners who have all received seed funding from Spider. The workshop gave the participants the possibility to assess benefits and challenges of creating an Education network and to gain more understanding about synergies between projects and common challenges and goals. The network has several activities planned during 2014, such as arranging meetings, workshops and events and participating in key ICT Education events. The network will also work with collaborative proposal writing and promoting quality research and educational content. Network members hold regular online video meetings with updates and discussions on the projects.
ICT in Education is the common challenge
The six partner organisations taking part in the network are: Makerere University from Uganda (represented by the project coordinator Tito Okumu, who is also the facilitator of the network), EIFL, Italy (Iryna Kuchma), Open Learning Exchange Rwanda (John Sebaganwa), Open University of Tanzania (Regina Monyemangene), ITIDO, Tanzania (Jacob Mtalitinya) and Fundacion LaPaz, Bolivia (Raúl Silveti).
Education projects of the network members
Makerere University: Makerere MobiClass – The project aims at making mobile learning a priority for users of the Moodle-based learning management system MUELE (Makerere University E-Learning Environment). This is achieved by developing a suitable plugin for the Android mobile platform, training users, developing appropriate policies, improving instructional designs for learning and formulating better strategies for mobile and e-Learning. You can read the project updates here.
EIFL, Italy: Open access: knowledge sharing and sustainable scholarly communication in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – The aim of the project is to raise visibility and accessibility of research outputs in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It combines awareness raising, policy work and practical training to promote, support and establish open access journals and open access repositories at institutions of higher learning. Free and open source software (FOSS) for open repositories and open access (OA) journals in higher education and research institutions is being used. You can read the project updates here.
Open Learning Exchange Rwanda: ICTs use to support access to quality learning resources for public health (PH) and environment in schools – The project boosts the development, acquisition and access to quality learning resources (open content) in the school subjects of public health and environment for primary schools. In the project, 200 teachers from 20 public Schools from rural and urban disadvantaged communities in Rwanda are trained to develop and collect one hundred modules of open content within the two school subjects. Collected open content is made accessible using different ICT online and offline platforms. You can read the project updates here.
Open University of Tanzania (OUT): Capacity Building in ICT Pedagogical Development and Multimedia Integration in Teaching and Learning – The aim of this project is to build capacity in ICT, Pedagogical Development and Multimedia Integration in Teaching and Learning practices at several levels. OUT educational technologist are capacitated with multimedia, instructions design and ICT pedagogical integration skills; Practitioners in HEIs (OUT academic staff) and teacher colleges, who train teachers, are capacitated with the knowledge on how to integrate multimedia and ICT in their practices; Also, OUT online courses are enriched with multimedia and cater for students with special needs. You can read the project updates here.
ITIDO, Tanzania: ‘ICT for Girls’ through Public Library – This R & D project is carried out in the Bagamoyo District. It performs a baseline research, furnishes the public library with necessary ICT devices and information, and train girls on contemporary ICT topics. Also, the project pilots a ICT usage and follow-up response system, perform a follow-up research, and design and commit implementation of ‘ICT usage and follow-up response system’ with the stakeholders in Bagamoyo. You can read the project updates here.
Fundacion LaPaz, Bolivia: Pilot Project for the implementation of the New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in three public educational units of the Municipality of La Paz – The project is training teachers and students in the integrated use of ICT in the subjects mathematics, language, history, and natural sciences. The project is coordinated together with the Ministry of Education and the Municipality of La Paz in three educational units in La Paz where primary and secondary schools presently have the necessary hardware equipment (computer rooms) but lacks training of teachers and students in integrating ICT in the different subjects. As a base for the integration the project applies the training guide “Workshop 1 of ICTs and Education” from the Ministry of Education through training workshops for teachers. You can read the project updates here.
Together with Spider, the new network will be present with an exhibition stand at eLearning Africa 2014 (at stand #34) where results from the projects will be presented.
Lessons learned from the first six months of network will be shared at a session on Friday 30 May at 11.30-13.30 in the Meera room.
Free webinar on Open Educational Resources hosted by The Network for ICT in Education
On June 17, 2014 The Network for ICT in Education will host a free webinar on Open Educational Resources – textbooks and other academic materials that are published online for everyone to use, adapt and share freely – targeted towards educators, students and librarians, see more information here.
Visit the network web site: www.networkict4edu.org.
For more information about Spider, see: www.spidercenter.org
