OLPCorps BrockUniversity South Africa

OLPCorps_BrockUniversity South Africa

Introduction

We are three university students at Brock University in St. Catherines ON, Canada

We are three university students at Brock University, located in Canada. With the guidance and support of several local South African NGOs, we will deploy 100 XO laptops to Mitchell Heights Primary School in Mitchell’s Plain township of Cape Town, South Africa. This school has been identified as an excellent candidate for the program because of its existing partnerships with Edunova and Khanya, organizations which facilitate ICT implementation in the Western Cape area of South Africa. Teachers Without Borders, another partnering organization, will also have a team facilitating workshops for teachers in the area for several weeks in July. Long-term sustainability of a project such as this is viewed as critical to success of the project; this has long been recognized by the South African organizations and they are willing to assist to achieve this after the team has finished their term of deployment.

Although faced with many challenges, the South African education system has made solid gains in the last decade as it prepares its learners for life in the 21st century. While literacy rates are quite high, the poverty rate of the country is at about 30%. Digital literacy skills, particularly those acquired early, can provide enhanced educational opportunities for learners which can lead to better employment opportunities for learners upon leaving school.

Access to digital technologies, however, is limited – particularly to learners who live in the townships. Often computers can only be found in school computer labs which offer limited access to teachers and learners due to the high ratio of students to computers. Inadequate training of teachers for the integration of technology into classroom curricula is also a hurdle many schools face. Thefts and burglaries of computer equipment has also been a considerable problem facing the schools. Often more monies have been spent on securely locking down a computer lab than the cost toward the equipment itself.

The XO offers young students an early entry point to acquiring digital literacy skills. The fact that each child will have their own machine is a huge advantage to the facilitation of the many literacies – numeracy literacy, operational literacy (reading and writing), as well as the potential for multimedia literacies.

Local Partner

Khanya and Edunova have agreed to work with us and support us while we are in the Mitchell’s Plain area. They have a presence already in the selected school and for that reason was it chosen. These organizations recognize that sustainability over time is a necessary component to any successful ICT integration programme. They have been distributing computers and providing training for a number of years now and can boast of many successes in spite of challenging circumstances.

Teachers Without Borders is another organization with whom we are affiliated. The mother of one of our team members will be leading a team for a second year of workshops for township educators and their team will also be present in the area over some of the time we will be there. They are committed to a four-year relationship with the local organizations in order to provide support and facilitation in ICT integration.

Impact on Children

Collaboration and communication between students as they use the XOs to construct and create content will be emphasized as an approach to learning. Students will be encouraged to learn from each other through talking and collaboration while they use the XOs.

It is hoped that students will feel empowered as they share their drama, music and other created content with the local community. To that end, we would like to ensure that there would be an arts festival where the local community would come and observe the accomplishments of the students.

We would also like to emphasize the theme of global citizenship with the students by introducing them to some digital content created by our own students. By showing them the videos our students from Canada created for the South African students, we hope that we can create a lasting relationship that we will take back with us to our students at the end of the program and that we can continue to promote over the long term.