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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Faisal Public School is MKFC Education Finder local partner in Pakistan and it’s principal Mr. Babar is one of MKFC former teacher-training student, the school has organized ”Annual Sports Day” for children and teachers. Children has taken part in different sports and fun activities. MKFC celebrated 2010 as the year of ”children right to play” and we believe that all the children has right to play. Play has great importance on children physical and mental growth. It encourages creativity, discipline and strength among children. We really admire and appreciate FPS efforts in this regard, we hope the school administration will keep continue with such endeavors.

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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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Teacher Hashituky from our Teacher Training course in Rwanda presents his assignments number 4. In his assignment his present examples that he find useful for his class about Wiki. He describes this as a start to encourage to more collaboration in learning.

About Wiki (for teachers and students):

“I honestly thought my email to anybody was going to be a shout into the night like it is for most places – but then they responded right away and son on. Wikispaces has become indispensable to what I do.” Let me say how impressed I am with their service. It always amazes me that such an organization still has that personal touch.” I set up a Wikispaces for my classes I have received nothing but positive feedback from parents, students and other faculty members. I have found a new resource that is easily accessible by students and parents. It allows parents to find out what their son or daughter is doing in my courses.  Why Bring It To The Classroom? Great motivator for students Easy to monitor allows for creativity and innovation Encourages participation of all students Promotes communication between students, teachers, and parents and interesting way to learn.”

Wiki for Students

• Work together on collaborative projects.
• Share study guides and other resources and information.
• Receive homework assignments.
• Submit questions to the teacher.
• Use as an online graffiti space for personal expression.

Wiki for Teachers

• Monitor and interact with students while they work.
• Post assignments.
• Create lists of online resources with active links.
• Create study sheets.
• Collaborate with teachers and students from anywhere in the world.
• Create FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages.
• Communicate with parents.

Ways to Use Wikis for a More Collaborative and Interactive Classroom

Wikis are an exceptionally useful tool for getting students more involved in curriculum. They’re often appealing and fun for students to use, while at the same time ideal for encouraging participation, collaboration, and interaction. Read on to see how you can put wikis to work in my classroom. Resource Creation

Using these ideas, your students can collaboratively create classroom  valuables (examples from Google search).

Virtual field trips: Have your students’ research far away places they would like to go on a field trip, and get them to share images and information about the location.

Create presentations: Instead of using traditional presentation software, put presentations on a wiki.

Write a Wikibook: Make it a class project to collaboratively write a reference book that others can use.

Study guides: Ask students to create study guides for a specific part of the unit you’re studying.

Readers’ guides: Have your students create readers’ guides to share their favorite and most important parts of works you’ve read in class.

Solving wiki: Post difficult math problems, such as calculus, so that the class can collaboratively solve them.

Glossary: Get your class to create a glossary of terms they use and learn about in new units, adding definitions and images.

Class encyclopedia: Ask your class to create an “encyclopedia” on a topic, adding useful information that can be built upon through the years.

Create exploratory projects: If you’re teaching a new subject, ask your students to collect and share information in the wiki so that you can learn together.

      Student Participation

These projects are sure to get your students involved.

Exam review: Encourage students to share review notes and other helpful pieces of information on your classroom’s wiki and share through the Internet.

Peer review: Allow students to draft their papers in a wiki, and then ask other students to comment it.

Student portfolios: Assign portfolio pages to each of your students, and allow them to display and discuss their work.

Correction competition: You can post a document riddled with mistakes, then have students compete to see who can fix the most errors fastest.

Peer editing: Ask students to edit each others’ work for spelling, grammar, and facts based on a style guide or rules you’ve defined.

Vocabulary lists: Encourage students to submit words that they had trouble with, along with a dictionary entry.

Get feedback: Ask students to post comments on wiki pages.

Share notes: Let your students share their collective information so that everyone gets a better understanding of the subject.

Allow wikis to facilitate group work by using these ideas.

Group authoring: By asking groups to use central documents in a wiki, you can ensure that everyone’s documentation will be uniform.

Grandma Timeline: Have your students create a history timeline using Grandmas as units of time.

Organize ideas: Allow group members to post their ideas in a wiki, and you’ll cut down on duplicate ideas, while at the same time allowing them to build upon the ideas.

Fan clubs: Start fan clubs for your students’ favorite figures from history and ask them to contribute their favorite quotes, photos, and other tidbits together.

Track projects: With wikis, it’s easy for students to see which tasks have been completed and which ones still need to be fulfilled.

Track participation: Assign a wiki page to a group project, and then individual pages for each student to show their participation.    

Student Interaction

Get your students to work together on these projects.

Collect data: Use central documents to make sure that data collection is uniform and easy to manage.

Mock-debate: Pit two class candidates against each other and perform a debate on your wiki.

Study buddy matching: Let students match themselves up into study buddy pairs.

Multi-author story: Start a creative writing unit, and get your students to write a short story together, each writing a small amount of the story.

Choose your own adventure story: A twist on the multi-author story could be a choose your own adventure story, where each student branches out into a different path.

Share reviews: Post articles for different movies, books, and TV shows, encouraging students to share what they though about them.

Literature circles: Host a book club on your wiki where students are required to read the same book, and then discuss it on the wiki.

    For the Classroom

Use your wiki to create spaces that are special to your class.

Classroom FAQ: Make it a class project to create an FAQ for your classroom that will help new students and those that will come in years later.

Classroom scrapbook: Share news, photos, and current achievements in your classroom on a wiki page.

Calendar: Create a calendar on the wiki and encourage students to add their own personally important dates.

Classroom newspaper: Create your own news outlet on a wiki.

Hall of fame: Highlight students’ exceptional achievements on the wiki.

Classroom policies: Encourage students to draft rules and policies for the classroom.

Community

Reach out to the community with these resources that everyone can appreciate.

School tour: Get your class to take photos of your school and write about their favorite spots on the wiki, and then share it with the rest of your school and your local community.

Recipe book: Ask students to bring in their favorite recipes from home, and then share them with parents and the rest of the community.

International sharing: Collaborate with a class from another country and share information about your culture, or even a day in the life of a typical student.

Local history: Document historical buildings, events, and more from our community. You can ask students to perform interviews, and encourage parents and other adults to contribute their knowledge in the wiki.

Community FAQ: Ask students to create an FAQ for their community, and then pass it on to your next group of students.

Community nature guide: Have your students collect highlights of plants and animals in your community.

Share achievements: Let parents log in to the wiki to see what their children have accomplished.

Other

Here are even more fun and useful ways to improve your classroom with a wiki.

Let your students leave their books at school: With a strong classroom wiki, you should have a wealth of information available, so much so that students can leave their books at school and access information online.

Make website creation easier for students: Using a wiki platform, students don’t have to worry about web design, so they can focus on content instead.

Organization: Save links, documents, and quotes related to units or your classroom as a whole.

Track assignments: If you ask students to put their research on wikis, you can check in on their progress to make sure they’re on the right path.

Teacher collaboration: Work with other teachers to create lesson plans and track students’ success.

Create and pass a legislative bill: Let students see the back and forth that exists in legislation by creating their own and attempting to pass it.

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Teacher training programme in Kenya, supported by MKFC Stockholm College and Sharing Awareness.

Technical innovation and human development goes hand in hand. But access to new technology and technical change is largely unequal on a global scale. “Technological justice” is a concept central to understanding this unfortunate pattern.

“The concept of technological justice requires a rethinking of how — both in the developing and the developed world — we encourage and nurture technological innovation that has social value and is environmentally sustainable”, writes Simon Trace in an article for Mashable.com. Trace is the CEO of the international development charity Practical Action, an organization that works to help poor people in developing countries transform their lives through the use of technology. In responding to social, economic, and environmental changes, technical innovation is essential, adds Trace:

At the moment, the world exists in what could be called a “double whammy” state of technological injustice. Not only does technology innovation and dissemination overwhelmingly favor the wants of today’s rich and powerful consumers in the developed world over the needs of the poor in the developing world, it also overwhelmingly prioritizes the aspirations of today’s generation over those of future generations.

MKFC Stockholm College believes that part of this technological injustice can be overcome by making quality distance education and online learning available in developing countries and areas which have traditionally been referred to as “remote”. Read more about what we do here.

How can progressive e-learning methods help educate teachers for every child in developing countries? Read more about the work of charity organization Sharing Awareness here.

Source: Mashable.com

Written by Fanny Johansson

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Despite the fact that few parts of the world remain completely disconnected from the Internet, user-generated content is still mainly created in the West. In a recent article in the Guardian, contributor Mark Graham argues that this needs to change.

Graham refers to this as “the internet’s highly uneven geographies of information”, and points to the importance of boosting local digital content. “It is crucial to keep asking where visibility, voice and power reside in an increasingly networked world”, states Graham.

Through MKFC Stockholm College’s work, the boost of local digital content that Graham refers to is made possible. We support inclusive learning in developing countries, where all participants (students, tutors, and members of local communities) are, essentially, the creators and innovators.

Read more about our work here.

Source: The Guardian.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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New technology in classrooms, significant investments in education in Africa, and increased work towards gender equality in schooling. Those are three of the main themes mentioned when the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) summarizes the year 2011.

As we are leaving 2011 behind and looking forward to a new and bright 2012, UNESCO has summarized the year 2011 in education. In March, the UN agency published a report concluding that armed conflict is robbing 28 million children worldwide of an edcuation. But, there were also some happier news. In April, another report showed that Sub-Saharan African countries increased their real expenditure on education by 6% every year during the past 10 years. The year 2011 was also characterized by an increased understanding of the importance of broadband access and new technologies in order to bring quality education to all. At a meeting in June, UNESCO’s Director-General pointed out that “new technologies and broadband Internet access offer formidable opportunities for increasing access to education”. And, in December, the first UNESCO Mobile Learning Week was held, exploring the potential of mobile learning.

Read more here.

Source: UNESCO.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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In a workshop in Northeastern London, Mark Kragh manufactures DIY solar kits that can be used to charge mobile phones and batteries. In February, he will be traveling to Kenya to distribute the kits – and, to demonstrate how easy it is to make them yourself.

The kits can make a great difference in areas where there is no electricity, and where the infrastructure cannot yet support the increase in mobile phone ownership, reports BBC. To charge one’s phone can be very expensive, particularly since charge points are often driven by diesel generators which is not only costly, but also dangerous to operate and certainly not good for the environment.

Read more here.

Source: BBC News.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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In a recent article in Intelligent Life Magazine, the web is declared the world’s greatest innovation. Why? Because of the dozens of important fields that it has helped transform.

These fields include education, news, finance, networking, charity, shopping, language-learning, and medicine. But the Internet has also played an important role in recent democratic movements, and offers invaluable sources of knowledge of information. “Paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors, scissors cut paper, but the web trumps them all”, states Intelligent Life Magazine contributor Samantha Weinberg in the article.

Do you agree?

Read more here.

Source: Intelligent Life Magazine.

Written by Fanny Johansson

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