eTeacher Training in Rwanda
Teacher trainer from TTC Matimba and his students
The eTeacher Training in Service program addresses the strategic implementation of the NICI plan on ICT Policy and strategy for developing the Rwandan information society, economy and education system. It also address the Education Sector Strategy Plan (ESSP) especially when it comes to the sector priorities Developing a skilled and motivated teaching, training and lecturing workforce as well as Integrating ICT within all subject areas.
eTeacher Training at Teacher Training Colleges in Rwanda started as a pilot project operated in three teacher training colleges (TTCs): Save, Matimba and Rubengera during 2011 – 2012, with 30 teachers participating. The evaluation of this piloting was done by the University of Eastern Finland. One of the things it could conclude was that it is possible to run an eTeacher Training project to rural areas in Rwanda.
Next step - Innovation for Education
This pilot project has now led us to a next step in implementing ICT in teaching in Rwanda. Through Innovation for Education we are now able to develop our eLearning- concept in Rwanda more and have defined the following innovative areas in our project:
- e-Learning as a way to reach the rural areas using ICT in education: the teaching takes place online in a learning management system called Moodle
- Authentic work-based learning within ICT in teaching: the participants are to use their authentic environment for learning as well as concentrate on student-centered methods in their assignments, this using ICT as a part of their planning, teaching and reporting as well as in communication with other participants, teachers and e-tutors
- Sustainability: an important part of the project is the training of the future Rwandan e-tutors to take over the teaching of the course after the two years when the project is finished. This way also the rest of the TTCs and hopefully many secondary schools can participate in this program. Also the course material will be a part of the Rwandan educational system after the project – Rwanda Education Board is our partner in the implementation.
- Online community of practice: as a part of the concept of sustainability we see that both the course participants as well as the future Rwandan e-tutors need a platform where to continue their professional development. Forming this could be partly done for example in cooperation with Rwanda Education Commons.
As indicated above the project eTeacher Training aims to increase the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into the practices and research of Teacher Training Colleges. In addition, the project aims to support e-learning development for teacher training in Rwanda in general and as mentioned, specifically in Teacher Training Colleges. We hope also to include one secondary school in this project. This in order to see whether this structure of e-learning could be applied even in the secondary level of schooling. The third aim of the project is to utilize digital technologies to provide flexible online professional development for teachers: creating an online community of practice is part of this aim. Ultimately the project aims to improve classroom practice through the teaching of the tutors at the TTCs.
Working closely with Teacher Training Colleges
During the project’s first three months we have started to work on the baseline study thus needing to visit all the five TTCs on the project: TTC Gacuba II, Kirambo, Matimba, Rubengere, and Save. TTC Muhanga has agreed to be our control group in the baseline study, thus giving us valuable information when looking at the results after two years. One of the pictures in this article is from our trip to TTC Matimba – we observed a music lesson, which was part of the Early Childhood Development program. During this lesson the teacher used ICT in order to teach about nursery rhymes and songs. We have been met with a lot of interest in using ICT in the classrooms – the teachers are eager to learn about ICT in teaching and directors open their schools for this development. Nevertheless there is still is work to be done to improve for example the standards of the computer labs and making it possible for teachers to use ICT outside the lab. A good start is to keep the labs open after school hours for the purpose of learning through ICT!
We have also started the revision work of the pilot course together with Rwandan teachers and eLearning experts from Sweden and Finland. The revision group focuses on ICT and learning in five different modules:
- Introduction to ICT and learning
- Integrate ICT in your subject
- Use online community to develop your teacher profession
- Create digital course material
- Teachers Community of Practice
We intend even to give USB memory sticks to all of the participants. This to ensure that when the Internet is weak or not working, the teachers have a possibility to reach certain material offline.
In May we will start with the first group of participants! You are welcome to follow us at http://www.facebook.com/EducationFinderRwanda
Best wishes!
Satu Molander
satu_molander(at)yahoo.com
Kalle Hedlund
kalle(at)mkfc.se
Education Finder Rwanda www.educationfinder.rw
MKFC in Rwanda to follow up our work and participate in a ICT and learning conference
MKFC teacher was in the jury for most innovative ICT use in school competition during the RICTE conference
Teachers from MKFC Stockholm College recently visited Rwanda to follow up our work and participate in the The Rwanda International Conference on Technology in Education (RICTE)
Days before the conference
We had already planned a meeting with a local Art School to discuss possible cooperation, we have written about this separately here (Swedish link). It was a great school, the garden was the classroom for a bunch of twelve year old children. It was strangely quiet in the “classroom”, not a raised voice, whether adult or child. The children learned to paint and sculpt.
Another meeting we had planned in advance was the Rwanda Education Board for a meeting with the Education Minister’s ICT group. Topic: Open University Project and e-learning. We discussed ways of possible cooperation in ICT. A concrete proposal is to send the evaluation of the program MKFC and Kigali Institute of Education conducted in Rwanda to see the possibilities to integrate the programs together. The details worked out by mail right now how this will develop.
We also met Educat, a Danish NGO. Their goal is to teach people who want to start a business how to proceed in order to get insight into the creation of a business, by building a business plan. They are interested in a possible partnership with MKFC. We also received a request to be featured on Business Week in Kigali in november.
The conference
The conference started on Wednesday that the Rwandas Minister of Education opened, more information is available here and the hashtag # RICTE12 on Twitter.
We organized a workshop on ICT and entrepreneurship, we showed practical examples from our own operations and subsequent lively discussions and practical work for the participants. One of the workshop participants spoke about their deal for young people and the media. The room was well-stocked with participants who asked questions including how ICT has been used by us.
Results
We learned a lot about ICT development in Rwanda is very important for our understanding to operate e-learning in this country. By hearing about others’ experiences on ICT-supported education, we also had the opportunity to critically reflect on our own method of working with e-learning.
We recognised many of the problems with IT development in Sweden in the late 90′s when conference participants talk about their projects. The big difference is that there are a lot of inspiration for how successful and unsuccessful projects can be run and what investments can be made. Our view is that we contributed this knowledge during the conference to network, talk about our projects and participate in the various groups at the conference and beyond.
Outside the conference, we see good opportunities to continue to work with both the Art School, educat, Rwanda Education Board and the Kigali Institute of Education.
Visit at Uburanga Arts Studio Rwanda
Last week MKFC Stockholm College visited Rwanda giving presentation and held workshops at The Rwanda International Conference on Technology in Education (RICTE) http://ricte.reb.rw/. Another part of the visit was to meet an Art Studio who we developed a partnership with. This test is from http://konstskolan.mkfc.se/2012/09/09/uburanga-arts-studio-tutors-prismas-students/
“During the second meeting between Uburanga Arts Studio and MKFC the two parts agreed on an immediate start of collaboration.
With start during the ongoing term, three artist members of the art studio shall be taking part in Prisma’s advanced course (Fördjupningskursen) as online guest teachers. These three artists shall put out their own material related to “Art in Africa particularly in Rwanda”, take part in discussion assignments, comment the students’ paintings and finally take part in the evaluation of the students’ answers.
As a positive consequence of this event, the existing material of the unit will be translated into English and all the correspondences and the discussions between the students and the tutors shall be in English.
Prisma has the intention to invite more “Guest Teacher” artists from other parts of the world to tutor few more “Units” of its courses in the future”.
eSeeker meets with Mifumi Women Solar Engineers in Uganda
This video is made for a pre study of made by eSeeker for the project “Renewable energy education in Uganda”. The partners are INUG (Engineers without borders Sweden), Education Finder Sweden (EF) MKFC Stockholm College, eSeeker Uganda and Busoga University (BU).
The interview is with a women in a district called Tororo in Easten Uganda working with an NGO called Mifumi. These ladies had no knowledge before in eletrical engineering but they were taken to India under the sponsorship of Barefoot College to train in solar energy. They speak some english but in the indian college language was not necessary. Mostly sign language, see and do and then fail and repeat the process was the method of teaching and learning. After six months they returned home to set up their own systems to the extent of building a circuit board and wiring a house.
How can ICT transform Africa?
A new report produced by the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank, with the support of the African Union, explores how ICTs can improve and transform economic and social activities in Africa.
The overall goal of the effort is known as eTransform Africa, and focuses on raising awareness and stimulating action within these areas. How can ICTs, especially mobile phones, be used within sectors such as education, agriculture, climage change adaption, health and public services? The final draft, 144 pages in total, is now available online. It can be downloaded here.
Source: World Bank Edu Tech blog
Written by Fanny Johansson
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