OLPCorps TeachersCollege Namibia

Ngoma Primary School

Proposal

Background of Ngoma Primary School

This project is for the benefit of the grade 5 and 6 learners at Ngoma Primary School, a public school in Northeastern Namibia, with English as medium of instruction. This rural school is located approximately 1300 km from Windhoek (the capital of Namibia) and has electricity.

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Ngoma is a border post between Namibia and Botswana.

View of School from Botswana.

The school serves students of 12 surrounding villages and students usually walk to school within a 3 km radius. The project will be run from 25 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 5 and 6 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 provide pedagogical and educational technology support as well as purely technical assistance. The Caprivi College of Education's (CCE)student teachers will be using the site as practice teaching and will be supported by the faculty of the CCE. SchoolNet/Namibia will providing the internet access to the project and the technical support during the implmentation phase of the projects and Glenda Computer Repairs & Supplier's will be providing technical support after the team has departed. Glenda Computer Repairs & Supplier's is a small IT company based in Windhoek its services will be supported by a local NGO, Itenge Development Foundation(IDF). (IDF) Educational Fund which has supported students in the surrounding schools with their school expenses, will be supporting the project after the team members have departed. They will outsource the support of the project to Glenda Computer Repairs & Supplier's.

Team Members

Perien Boer (Media and Technology Ed.D. candidate at Columbia University '12), perienboer at gmail.com is our educational technology leader, as well as staff member at the University of Namibia. She has had vast experience in leading projects while working with USAID, and has implemented 3 training labs in the Caprivi Region, 2 at the Caprivi College of Education while working at AED sponsored by USAID iNet Project. The other lab she started at the Caprivi Teacher Resource Centre, through project LearnLink/Namibia. Before leaving for her studies she was the team leader on ICT Curriclium on Technology for the National Institute of Educational Development.

Mr. Brian Kabuku, bkabuku at gmail.com, an IMTE student at the Caprivi College of Education's student will be attending the training in Kigali. Mr. Kabuku will also be doing his teaching practice at the site.

Mr. Milner Mbala, milnermbl at gmail.com ;(as indicated,iam a student teacher at Caprivi college of education. im interested in taking part in the initiative as it accords me with the opportunity to help learners to become ecitizens by providing them with a resource that many of us in Caprivi and indeed Namibia at large never got. thus, i feel that the project has come at the right time in our aspiration of vision 2030 which stipulates that Namibia should be economically independent if you. this can only be achieved through such initiatives like this one.and lastly i want to commend the sponsors for going out of their way to make sure that these learners are given this opportunity).

Mr. Kenethy Tjizepe, ktdeloda at yahoo.com ; I happened to be very lucky at the moment as Im one of the members of this project, my intrest in this very educative project has to sides at the moment. One is that I will be invoved in the teaching and learning process in using laptops.This project will breing alot of changes in the learners lives at they are going to operate a laptop of their own and to the teachers as well as they will now have an oppotunity to intergrat ICT in the lessons Presentation daily. Therefore I will fully support this Project with all my power, strenght, mind and heart at the same time as it will help me develop new skills in my compter skills that I have at the moment at it will as well it will help our Country (Namibia) to reach the Vision 2030 with one of its aims and objectives are reached. My hopies are playing Volleybal, makeing new friends that I get to learn new things fom.

Ms. Stella Lyomba, stella.lyomba at yahoo.com;(i am interest in this project so that i help these young ones, like educating them in other ways. this is an oppoturnity of life time because it includes learners to knowledgable. we should also see for it that by the end of this project learners atleast knows a lot and can also educate others.)

Who attend Caprivi College of Education(CCE) in the IMTE program will be doing teacher practice at the site and be supporting the project in the future.

Maurice Zide (MA in Computing in Education '11 at Teachers College), mzide at hotmail.com, is our technical lead (MS in Computer System Engineering), is a former Peace Corps volunteer at Ngoma Primary School. He will be attending the training in Kigali. He has lectured at the Polytechnic of Namibia as well as the University of Namibia Northern Campus.

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. All participants who will are participating in the project are either citizens or has permanent residency in Namibia.

Other Members

Dr. Benedict Kangumu, bkangumu2004 at yahoo.co.uk, the Rector and his staff of the Caprivi College of Education will oversee the training of the student teachers. He also greatly assited the project by finding sources who will support the project after the team departs.

Mr. Innocent Kamwi, ikamwi at unam.na, a former student at Ngoma Primary School, who has a Masters in Statistics from the University of Western Cape, has greatly assisted in making the necessary contacts in the region. He has done extensive investigations on the history and forecasting of the floods in the region.

Mr. Patricks Mbala, pmbala at mrlgh.gov.na, a former student at Ngoma Primary School, who has a Masters in Urban Planning from Wagner School of New York University, has assisted in answering questions about Ngoma Primary School.

Children Learning

For children aged 6-12 becoming “agents for change” would mean giving them the skills to operate in a 21st century. During the 9 weeks at Ngoma, our focus is for these children would be for them to learn accountability and responsibility for their own learning using the OLPC. The classroom teaching should change to problem-solving, critical thinking through project- and-research-based outcomes. At the end of the 9 weeks each child should be able to recognize many learning and teaching moment inside and especially outside of the classroom through the use of various software on the OLPC and sharing those products with the classroom. The importance of the Internet is key as the children can place their reflections and thoughts in wiki's and blogs. The focus on e-citizenship at a young age would be highlighted and e-etiquette will be taught. It is important for us to emphasize that being responsible would mean not copying and pasting and issues of copyright and original thought is important. For each child to own the XO allows them to recognize learning opportunities outside of the classroom. This would mean success for the team and a sense of accomplishment and confidence for the learners.

School Commitment

Ngoma Primary School has committed themselves to the support of the project, however as a rural poor community they aren't able to provide the financial support required for the project.

The Rector, Dr. Benedict Kangumu, of the Caprivi College of Education has gained the support for the project through the Itenge Development Foundation Education Fund, which has generous agreed to support the project by paying for the internet connection, as well as support of the technical services after the team departs from the site.

The Itenge Development Foundation, IDF, is community-based organisation in Caprivi that was established to help organise communities, especially those whose livelihoods are constantly destroyed by floods and natural disasters to run income-generating activities. It also facilitates synergies amongst affected communities by allowing them access to services that provide economically and socially sustainable projects. A recent project of the Foundation was to establish the IDF Education Fund to provide financial support to students with potential to undertake studies in areas not prone to floods. Those who will be sponsored from 2009 in Grade 10 will be assisted through grades 11 and 12. To date, the community has raised N$12000.00 from their own resources to support the education of the students in the region.