An international network of learners for independence

The Village Scribe Association invested a lot of work and time in the creation of an international network of schools, teachers, and learners at school as well as university students for technical and cultural exchange. To begin with, a cooperational project with an Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) was carried out in the summer of 2009. The FUB offers courses for their students called Client Projects Web-Technologies. In such a course, an external client, in our case the learners, eKhaya ICT and the Village Scribe Association, commission the students. The web technologies that are taught at this Institute are perfectly suited to support the development of awareNet and possibly further projects.

In addition, the Village Scribe Association sources African and European Schools that want to go into partnership, locally or internationally. Such schools ought to already be equipped with the necessary hardware and Internet access. The software will be delivered free of charge by eKhaya ICT.

Project Description    Our Assignment    awareNet

The learners of the Zwelenqaba SSS enjoy the Internet access and possibilities to communicate with other schools.

Requirements for participation and course of awareNet

There is no need for special preparations. The only requirement is sufficient English language proficiency. The initial input comes from the African learners right now as the project has already begun in South Africa. The goal is not to prepare presentations, but to extract questions and to ascertain interests that can be delivered individually to partners. Everyone interested in a certain topic or question can participate in open discussions, research or running projects. Multimedia (images, sound, video) are used wherever possible. There are no age restrictions. Young learners is given the opportunity to learn from older learners, whilst the older ones can learn by applying their knowledge. Questions, discussions and projects explicitly ought to be ex-cogitated and developed by the learners and teachers, who aside from having a guiding function will not be required to assess or criticise progress.

Teachers have to help with the handling of hardware and software and with the sourcing of information using the Internet. Their role is to ask the learners questions that will motivate and stimulate them, and teachers should be interested in and open to the learners’ initiative and creativity. In this way, teachers are able to guide their pupils in how to act independently, responsibly, respectfully and democratically. Possible abuse of the Internet can be prevented by encouraging such behaviour. Furthermore, through the implementation of a semiautomatic monitoring system system that does not infringe on privacy rights, misuse can be detected early. Such a technology is currently been developed by eKhaya ICT in conjunction with this project and facilitates the teacher’s work and render the blocking of certain websites unnecessary.

Click here if you are interested in the participation in awareNet >>

You could communicate and work on projects together with these learners and teachers!