Achieving Rural Literacy through Innovative Web 2.0 ICT Use in Post-conflict Northern Uganda

Problem:

Beginning in Northern Uganda, we can overcome the isolation of rural communities in war-affected regions using Web 2.0 technologies with low-power PCs and long-range WiFi Internet connectivity.

Northern Uganda has been in conflict for two decades: "the world's worst forgotten humanitarian disaster," according to the former head of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. 

In northern Uganda, 30,000 children have been kidnapped into brutal soldiery or sexual slavery. No one would put up with such treatment of their own children, yet the prospects of the young in Northern Uganda are much like the prospects for refugee children throughout the world. 

Meanwhile, collaborative technologies in more prosperous areas too often focus on recreational entertainment and casual socialization, threatening to institutionalize the forgetting that has occurred and rob younger generations of a vibrant sense of purpose. 

But there is a richer function for collaborative technologies: the isolation of both the privileged and the deprived can be overcome with the same strategy. No one forgets or tolerates brutal or neglectful treatment of friends. Providing low-power, solar, wireless access to web 2.0 collaboration tools can build ties that bind and heal both classes of isolation.

Solution:

The Archdiocese of Gulu and its international partners, BOSCO-Uganda have launched an effort to connect isolated IDP camps with a network of collaborating user groups equipped with a low power, solar powered PCs with long-range WiFi internet connectivity and access to VoIP telephony.

We work with experienced partners to identify key change agents, who in turn form user groups and craft a constitution to guide their efforts at each site location. Collaborating from the start with local and international partners, these user groups document their local stories, articulate local needs, and propose local solutions, all this done in the public eye using simple collaboration tools (Wikispace.com, Skype, the Google suite of collaborative services). As they draw others into these collaborative efforts, they begin to organize their assistance to newer users, turning traditional ICT training on its head, collaborating first, which is IC2.0T (Information, Communication and Collaboration Technology, or IC2T) training. As these user groups develop, additional workstations and training are brought to users who have already cut their teeth with 21st Century online collaboration experience. 

Documenting their local stories (digital ethnography) as the first steps toward creating a collaborative environment restores proper attention to war-scourged cultural elements, enables greater cultural sensitivity from remote partners, and safeguards against the loss of cultural diversity, particularly when taking place under the watchful guidance of stable and experienced local shepherding. 

Furthermore, these efforts succeed in providing an outlet for self-advocacy on the most local level.  For example, rural farmers are using our Wikispace to post small-scale funding proposals that can be edited and transmitted to the appropriate authorities, all in the public eye. 

Efforts in 20 sites are succeeding; nothing but funding keeps us from spreading this approach throughout the North of Uganda.

What we have accomplished:  

Connectivity: BOSCO has connected 20 sites:  local schools (primary and secondary), health clinics, community centers in former IDP camps, local government offices, NGO and CBO offices, making up its collaborative online community.  We also connect all these sites through a high speed Intranet content management page where the sites can share content, post on common message boards, and share information relevant to beneficiaries.  

Web 2.0 Train the Trainer program:  We have developed a Web 2.0 curriculum and manual based on our experience training in the rural areas.  This manual takes into account the fact that ICT learning is accomplished best by “doing” and that “doing” in the 21st century takes place on the Internet, utilizing Web 2.0 applications like Wikispaces.  

We have recruited over 40 site volunteers who carry out training at their respective sites following our curriculum.  After completion of training courses, the trainees will become certified as Web 2.0 volunteer trainers and will in turn carry out their own trainings at their locations.  

Lives are changing and hope is being restored at the most local level:

• Community development proposals are being written for farming supplies and posting them on our collaborative network Wikispace (e.g.  http://bosco-uganda.wikispaces.com/Organic+Farming); this includes a recently funded request for traditional musical instruments to help a youth group perform cultural reconciliation through music and dance performances for formerly abducted youth

•  Schools are writing proposals to fund student scholarships and classroom equipment, e.g., “The need for desks” seen at:  http://bosco-uganda.wikispaces.com/The+need+for+desks

• Users are documenting and sharing stories about life in the IDP camps, helping to end the extreme isolation Acholis have endured after 20 years of civil war

• Schools within Uganda and the USA are collaborating online by sharing stories, insights, and lesson plans

•  Human Rights Volunteers in IDP camps from our local partner Human Rights Focus are accessing the Internet for the first time in order to enhance their human rights monitoring and reporting in their communities

• NGOs (non governmental organizations) and CBOs (community based organizations) are linking to our network to provide more efficient and effective services to their beneficiaries, especially in the rural areas.

A New Idea: Achieving rural literacy through innovative Web 2.0 ICT use in post-conflict northern Uganda. 

On top of our current programs, we are hoping to build on the following:

 The proposed project aims to ensure that in and out of school young people and adults in the target locations of Gulu and Amuru districts of Northern Uganda are able to read, write and count, using a PC as the primary medium through which to learn the existing FAL curriculum. Learners will apply the literacy skills acquired in their day to day lives as a means to community transformation and development. Furthermore, these target groups will learn functional ICT skills that can complement basic literacy and numeracy skills. The specific project result to be achieved by the end of the project period is:

• 1,035 youth and/or adults in Lacor St. Mary’s Secondary School, Lacor Primary School, Lacor Seminary School, Pabbo Secondary School, Unyama National Teachers College, Pabbo Primary School, Pabbo Comprehensive Secondary School, Choope community site and Pagak community site enhance their literacy and ICT skills, and functionality.

• An e-library—available at all 9 BOSCO school sites—is setup by pooling local school library resources together and creating a digital collection viewable at all Bosco school sites through our high speed Intranet. Other digital books and resources will be added from outside sources like Google Books to complement the already existing “Wikipedia for Schools” library that is running on the BOSCO Intranet. 

• Classroom-to-Classroom (C2C) collaboration is enhanced and facilitated through our BOSCO network Wikispace site (bosco-uganda.wikispaces.net). We are in the beginning phases of building activities for students in Uganda and in the U.S. that will meet U.S. National Science Standards, and many state content benchmarks. In addition to BOSCO's C2C goals, increasing the interest of students to pursue educations and careers in the sciences and engineering, can only be enhanced by participating in activities that are grounded in solving real-world problems, through relationships with stakeholders. Seebridgingclassroomsandcultures.bosco-uganda.wikispaces.net/. 

Why BOSCO Uganda?

This work has not been done before because no one has invested in collaboration where communication infrastructure doesn’t previously exist.  We can leap over infrastructure shortcomings now, using wireless Internet and solar powered PCs.  It will continue to be successful because the community is taking the local initiative to train each other and collaboration will naturally occur with gentle guidance from BOSCO staff.  Grass roots community members continue to proceed with what they were already doing in their respective fields while using a more efficient and broad medium (i.e., the Internet) to achieve their intended results.

Needs Assessment:

Northern Uganda has been in conflict for twenty years which has led to the destruction of infrastructure and educational resources.  Communities have been broken down due to displacement, captivity, and exile.  In this process a rich culture has been nearly destroyed.  Before the war, communication and information was culturally passed on through homesteads using common traditions and practices, which also served to pass on valuable communication to the wider region.  The conflict has made this nearly impossible.  The conspiracy of silence is now the norm, especially from the Western world—voices and stories have been lost or silenced.

Re-establishment of the infrastructure and enhancing economic growth are key areas for the planned recovery process. Therefore the project considers communication and access to information as vital necessities for the ongoing development efforts in northern Uganda. About 90% of the targeted Acholi region consists of rural areas with limited infrastructure, no access to grid electricity and almost no access to information through internet and related communication facilities.

According to a study on Business information systems design for Uganda's economic development: the case of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in northern Uganda, SMEs are lagging behind in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). There is a lack of familiarity with changing technology - especially the Internet. Although the SMEs are making a fundamental contribution to Uganda's economy, they face serious challenges, such as insecurity, inadequate electricity, lack of trained information professionals and appropriate technology to access electronic information. This situation is not any different from what other sectors like education, health etc that toil to attain social-economic transformation and development face. Furthermore about 70% of all Internet usage is concentrated in urban areas leaving rural areas (and thus the majority of the population) with very little access to communication services. Central Northern Uganda, specifically Gulu and Amuru being the target areas of the proposed project, is significantly lower than the national average due to the above mentioned insurgency and 21 years of conflict in the region.

From July to December 2005, the MacArthur Foundation dispatched assessment teams to Uganda to identify programmatic interventions that would give children and youth the tools to gain better access to income generating activities, schooling, human rights, and justice. The result of this effort was a comprehensive, forward-looking plan that set out major steps for developing formal and traditional justice mechanisms to deal with past human rights crimes, while recognizing the importance of investing in Uganda’s greatest asset: the energy and creativity of its children and youth. The recommendations set forth in this report provide concrete opportunities for donors to offer support to thousands of children and youth in northern Uganda and to set them on the road to a productive life.  Even modest funding now will help local and national institutions provide critical services to those most needy and give young people access to educational scholarships, information technologies, and entrepreneurial programs. Young people need to be helped; an investment that will serve current and future generations of northern Ugandans as they rebuild their war-ravaged communities and seek to provide a better life for their children. 

Overview of the Suggested Project

This project serves to formalize a version of an already ongoing project. The project aims to foster literacy skills towards empowering rural communities and promoting socio-economic development and transformation. It targets in and out of school young people and adults of the nine existing BOSCO ICT centres of Amuru and Gulu Districts: Lacor St. Mary’s School, Lacor Primary School, Lacor Seminary, Pabbo Secondary School, Unyama National Teachers College, Pabbo Primary School, Pabbo Comprehensive Secondary School, Pagak community site and Coope community site.

This project builds on Uganda national level literacy initiatives (UPE, FAL, etc) to address literacy skills as a means to poverty alleviation. It popularizes a Functional approach to addressing literacy issues with special focus on:

• The in-school: through internet, students shall be provided access to e-books/e-library relevant to the syllabus/curriculum. This set of beneficiaries should also be able to utilise other content that is developed or provided.

• The Semi-illiterate: school dropouts who wish to catch up with education, the majority of these drop outs are youth who may shy away from attending class with the younger students.

• The illiterate: those that have never been to school; These are the target for the FAL programme.

Project Programmatic Areas

A. Integrating Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) courses with existing BOSCO ICT resources

• Literacy classes shall be conducted using innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as the key learning medium. This approach is expected to address the stigma and low self-esteem that is associated with FAL classes currently (Many adult Ugandans, especially women are afraid to be identified as illiterate).

Addressing stigma is one of the challenges to be confronted as some are not comfortable being referred to as illiterate. The illiterate tend to shy away even if they are interested internally. However, using ICT as the learning medium as an approach to fight illiteracy should be able to address this stigma and keep the learners motivated. Learners need to be encouraged and motivated to go to class, while also having the opportunity to become competent users of 21st century ICT technology.

• Functional approach to literacy studies; theory and practicals shall be enriched by hands-on skills training co-facilitated by experts from the different sectors (Health, Legal Issues, Agriculture, Co-operatives and Marketing, Animal Husbandry, Gender Issues, Literacy, Culture and Civic Consciousness and Language). There is need to engage experts; it is more than just going to class to learn reading (A, B, C) and numeracy. Other than reading and writing, beneficiaries should be able to communicate using different forms of media like the internet, including the documentation of such skills on our network Wikispace (http://www.bosco-uganda.wikispaces.net). Literacy is the backbone of development; if people cannot interpret, come up with ideas, make use of knowledge, read and write, then development is at stake.

The local communities shall be encouraged to be involved in the production of materials which are relevant to their needs and related to their situation in their areas. The learners shall also be involved in practical work and out-door activities using locally available resources within the environment. The effective participation of technical local field officers will evolve from the appropriate co-ordination in the office of the Community Development Officer.

• BOSCO shall for a start concentrate on nine classes in Gulu and Amuru Districts to enhance progress. These shall then be used as a model place.

• The Literacy classes will focus on three instructional materials authorized by the Republic of Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development; the materials are also acceptable to the different districts. These curriculum materials will be transferred to our network Intranet site, accessible to all BOSCO sites at a high speed and viewable at each literacy class (existing Bosco sites) via a low power laptop and WiFi connection. These curricula are:

a) Premiers. This is used at level one and targets beginners who completely do not know to read, write and count.

b) Follow-up Readers. This instructional material is a continuation of level one. For instance it includes learning how to write agreements, etc. Those who do level two, especially women, demand learning the English language because they are involved in activities like savings--the problem being that all Ugandan banks use English.

c) English Premier and Swahili Premier. Level three provides two options to the learners, i.e. either learning the English or Kiswahili language.

d) In addition to reading, writing and numeracy, functionality (practical skills) is examined using “Learners’ Continuous Assessment”. This way it is possible to establish is for example; they are able to keep records if in business, can they write agreement letters? Can they interpret medical prescriptions, can they monitor performance of their children to include understanding the report cards?

• Contact Hour: The weekly learning time period shall cover a few hours with each learner expected to have attended 9 months and covered all the relevant content per level; then sitting for examinations and being awarded a certificate.

• Instruction to be carried out by existing BOSCO Web 2.0 volunteers who are already a contact point for ICT trainings in each BOSCO site community.

• User progress will be documented on the BOSCO Wikispaces site as users and trainers begin to post and document what they are learning in the public eye, indicating progress as the classes occur.

B. Creation of E-Library Resources to be accessed via high speed BOSCO Intranet at all sites

• Books from Gulu area libraries, schools, and NGOs will be scanned to create an online e- library accessible by each school connected to our network over our high speed Intranet.

• Many schools are currently short on required school textbooks; BOSCO’s initiative will allow resources from area schools to be aggregated in one common location. 

• Students and teachers will access these resources directly from our wireless Intranet in their classrooms using BOSCO PCs and laptops already installed at aforementioned schools.

C. Classroom-to-Classroom collaboration with our “Bridging Classrooms and Cultures Wikispace”

• Collaboration, best practices, curricula, and information sharing will occur between rural Ugandan teachers and teachers in the United States

• This is already underway and is occurring organically as teachers undergo our ongoing Web 2.0 training and learn to use our network Wikispace site

• See bridgingclassroomsandcultures.bosco-uganda.wikispaces.net/

Project outputs and execution:

Output 1:

At least 1,035 out of school children and adults in rural areas of Pagak and Choope community sites acquire basic literacy skills in reading, writing and numeracy at level one (Premiers) using the support from the existing trained BOSCO ICT volunteers. Literacy curriculum is integrated into existing BOSCO ICT resources (e.g. loaded onto BOSCO Intranet, accessible via laptop at each site).

Activity 1.1: Planning: Mobilize community; integrate FAL curriculum onto digital Intranet format; Organize classes and trainers

Activity 1.2: Identify and train instructors in basic ICT and Functional Adult Literacy Skills

Activity 1.3: Load curriculum onto BOSCO Intranet; Distribute additional laptops to school sites with for use in community literacy courses

Activity 1.4: Identify and train out of school rural children and adults in basic ICT and Functional Adult Literacy skills.

Output 2:

E-library is established and is accessible via BOSCO Intranet at all 9 BOSCO school sites. This would be accessible by approximately 4,500 students and 270 teachers/staff.

Activity 2.1: Collect a copy existing titles and textbooks at rural schools

Activity 2.2: Make a digital copy of collected titles and find digital titles available on public domain and through other educational organizations

Activity 2.3 Create an e-library of digital titles accessible via the BOSCO Intranet

Activity 2.4 Sensitize community schools about the new resource

Activity 2.5 Provide brief training to school staff regarding accessing the e-library titles

Output 3

Classroom-to-Classroom collaboration continues with BOSCO school teachers and teachers in the U.S. via the “Bridging Classrooms and Cultures” page on the BOSCO Wikispace (www.bridgingclassroomsandandcultures.bosco-uganda.wikispaces.net).

Activity 3.1: Sensitize teachers at BOSCO school sites regarding the use of the Wikispace as an educational and collaborative tool

Activity 3.2: Provide short trainings on use of Wikispaces to make posts and upload photos (note: already ongoing as part of our Web 2.0 Train the Trainer program)

Activity 3.3: Monitor and guide posting and collaboration as it happens organically on the site

Required Resources: 

Current funding and revenues for BOSCO-Uganda allow the organization to maintain its current 20 sites and training programs.  However, a funding award from Africa Rural Connect would allow BOSCO-Uganda to expand specifically on its Web 2.0 ICT teaching project. 

Abridged 1 Year Budget (full budget available upon request); Cost in $USD

FAL curriculum planning (obtaining curriculum copyrights; transferring to digital material; uploading on Bosco server) $2,000

FAL rural instructor stipend (50 instructors) / and associated training costs for weekly classes in 9 locations $10,000

Transport / mobilization costs for community rural FAL/ICT course $2,000

E-library setup costs (obtaining / digital scanning hard copies of titles) $4,000

Community mobilization/sensitization for e-library use at BOSCO school sites $2,000

Total Cost $20,000