OLPCorps TeachersCollege Namibia

Ngoma Primary School

Proposal

Background of Ngoma Primary School

This project is for the benefit of the grade 4 and 5 learners at Ngoma Primary School, a Goverment school in Northeastern Namibia. This school is located approximately 1400 km from Windhoek (the capital of Namibia) and has electricity. <googlemap version="0.9" lat="-17.82453" lon="24.66156" zoom="4" width="350" height="200" >-17.897728, 24.76593, ngoma</googlemap> Ngoma is a border post between Namibia and Botswana. The school serves students of 18 surrounding villages and students usually walk to school within a 3 km radius. In the settlement of Ngoma, one can purchase limited supplies for consumption which includes maize meal, cooking oil, candles, sugar, and canned goods. The project will be run at Ngoma from 23 June to 25 August.

How we will work with the children

The students will be in session during June to August. Namibia has a trimester system of which the first term ends on 25th May, the second semester ends on the 25th of August and the third term ends in December. Grade 4 and 5 end their school day at 12:30 and starting at 7 in the morning. It is imperative that the XO's become part of everyday classroom practice and hence the focus will be to integrate the technology meaningful within the class lesson without loosing out on the set curriculum. Initially, the teacher will be encouraged to use an approved Namibian technology integrated lesson plan developed by our team leader. This will free the class to explore the XO and work in teams or individually on project-based learning. so during these times the students will be using the laptop for their projects. It is expected that the learners will have the responsibility of giving input to their own learning by deciding on projects and questions, as well as developing the rubric for their own evaluation with the assistance of the Teachers. XO programs such as paint, video word-processing, calculations (complex), presentation and Internet searches will be part of the classroom lesson at any time. Thus the pedagogy is that technology becomes a seamless part of their every day activity.

Local partners which will be involved with the project

The local partners will be in the form of pedagogical and educational technology support as well as purely technical. The Caprivi College of Education's student teachers will be using the site as practice teaching and being supported by the faculty of the CCE.

Our educational technology expert, Perien Boer, is a citizen of Namibia,and a faculty member at the University of Namibia and will be able to do follow-up upon completion of her Ph.D. Studies in Technology and Media in 2010. The laptops will be stored in the strong room at the Ministry of Education regional office in Katima Mulilo until they are given to the students at the school. The laptops will be transported from the regional office to the school by the regional ministry office. One of the team members, Maurice Zide, a is a former Peace Corps volunteer at Ngoma Primary School and has numerous ties not only to Ngoma Primary School, but throughout the region. He has a Masters Degree in Computer System Engineering and has lectured at the Polytechnic of Namiba and at the University of Namibia for a period of 4 years.