In the coming weeks in April, project members of eSeeker Uganda, Engineers Without Boarders Stockholm and Stockholm College will go to Uganda to start the Renewable energy education in Uganda. We will complete the training program, train the teachers and accept some students to the course. We will report on the training when we start.

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On Monday (29/4-13) MKFC start our eTeacher Training with 50 teacher trainers from four Teacher Trainer Colleges in Rwanda. This is the first of three courses running to 2014 with a total of about 150 Rwandan teacher trainers’ participating.

The tutors are online in Sweden and Rwanda and the teacher trainers 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.

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.

Innovation for Education is a partnership between the UK Government and the Government of Rwanda

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On Monday (29/4-13) MKFC start our eTeacher Training with 50 teacher trainers from four Teacher Trainer Colleges in Rwanda. This is the first of three courses running to 2014 with a total of about 150 Rwandan teacher trainers’ participating.

The tutors are online in Sweden and Rwanda and the teacher trainers 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.

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.

Innovation for Education is a partnership between the UK Government and the Government of Rwanda

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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:

1. Introduction to ICT and learning
2. Integrate ICT in your subject
3. Use online community to develop your teacher profession
4. Create digital course material
5. 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

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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:

1. Introduction to ICT and learning
2. Integrate ICT in your subject
3. Use online community to develop your teacher profession
4. Create digital course material
5. 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

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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.

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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.

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Students of Faisal public school had came up with an entrepreneurial idea by looking at the community demand of having hand fans. Their city Multan is located in southern Punjab region which is the warmest place in the country, where temperature could rise till 50c. Due to the continuous shortfall of electricity during the summer time in this area, people were in need of having hand fans when their is no electricity. Students collected the recycled materials from their homes and school canteen and started creating hand fans for the local community. Children found it very exciting, easy and sustainable experience. They earned handsome amount of money by selling these fans and also believed that they are contributing to the environment positively.

Faisal Public school is MKFC partner in Pakistan and their teachers have been taking MKFC teacher training course where entrepreneurship was part of curriculum and the course.

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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”.

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A 3rd generation Ph.D who is passionate about education, Stanford professor Daphne Koller is excited to be making the college experience available to anyone through her startup, Coursera. With classes from 16 top colleges, Coursera is an innovative model for online learning. While top schools have been putting lectures online for years, Coursera’s platform supports the other vital aspect of the classroom: tests and assignments that reinforce learning.

Listen to Daphne Koller and her vision to bring the best education in the world for free online.

“We should spend less time at universities filling our students’ minds with content by lecturing at them, and more time igniting their creativity … by actually talking with them.”

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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.

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The purpose of the project is to offer vocational training in renewable energy to youth and women of Iganga district and the entire Busoga region. The project will offer courses in renewable energy in two areas: 1) Solar energy to include: Photovoltaic (PV) and water heating, 2) Biogas. The courses will be localised to suite needs of the region, and short to last one year with a possibility for student alumni to be guided and helped in setting up micro enterprises after completing the course.

The training will facilitate learners with knowledge on renewable energy, environmental and social sustainability, ICT, and entrepreneurship. To implement this project a team of different organisations with experience in development and education activities internationally namely INUG (Engineers without borders Sweden), Education Finder Sweden (EF) and Volunteers have partnered with local organisations eSeeker Uganda a branch of Education Finder in Uganda and Busoga University (BU).

Read more on the project blog

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The purpose of the project is to offer vocational training in renewable energy to youth and women of Iganga district and the entire Busoga region. The project will offer courses in renewable energy in two areas: 1) Solar energy to include: Photovoltaic (PV) and water heating, 2) Biogas. The courses will be localised to suite needs of the region, and short to last one year with a possibility for student alumni to be guided and helped in setting up micro enterprises after completing the course.

The training will facilitate learners with knowledge on renewable energy, environmental and social sustainability, ICT, and entrepreneurship. To implement this project a team of different organisations with experience in development and education activities internationally namely INUG (Engineers without borders Sweden), Education Finder Sweden (EF) and Volunteers have partnered with local organisations eSeeker Uganda a branch of Education Finder in Uganda and Busoga University (BU).

Read more on the project blog

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