l.d.misek-falkoff falkoff wrote:
It would be great to be involved with the Nigeria work which, from this
post, looks lively and well received. Is TT also an online adventure, or
might it become so? *Respectful Interfaces* will be very interested.
Part of TT is already "an online adventure", and newcomers are welcome
to join us.
Before I ran the first course I invited various friends and contacts to
join me in a yahoo group . The idea was that they would give me a hand
in welcoming the Nigerian teachers to the connected community. Before
the course they joined in the course planning discussions, learning
various practical details about rural Nigeria along the way.
This yahoo group TT online forum has a number of purposes. One was to
help me have a "resource cupboard" on the Internet, ready for when I was
teaching the teachers. I knew the Internet connections would be slow
in Nigeria and the teachers would be keyboard novices, so I didn't
want to start with google searches that might not lead to what they
really wanted. One forum member told me we should prepare a Wiki - and
he and a couple of others proceeded to do so, which was a great resource
to have to hand.
I also wanted the teachers to have some insight into how the Internet
can be used for self directed study, and how groups of people can come
together to "rub minds" and tackle problems. The TT forum helped with
that too. During their first hands-on computer session the teachers
registered for yahoo email addresses and then applied to join the
Teachers Talking group. I had asked people in the TT forum to try to be
online, and soon the teachers were getting welcome messages from
thousands of miles away. During the subsequent practical sessions the
forum members supported the teachers online in various ways.
Internet cafes are gradually coming into rural areas but the costs of
travel and of going online prevent the teachers from becoming real users
yet. However, recently, there was a TT annual reunion, and during it the
the participants joined in a yahoo conference. During the conference we
agreed that it would help if there was an information courier to do the
"last mile" communication link by motorcycle, and this has happened
during this last week.
The next TT course is planned for February 2006, and I expect the TT
forum to get involved in the final planning in January. I hope that,
once again, when new course participants join TT they will find a warm
welcome and experience several days of lively email exchange from new
friends and colleagues thousands of miles away.
Anyone interested in joining TT can ask to do so at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CawdTeachersTalking/
Please say that you found the group via this list. You will be most welcome.
Pam
Pamela McLean
CAWDnet convenor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.cawd.info
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