ICT in education in rural Nigerian - the reality of limited resources and inclusion June 24, 2010

In Let’s Focus on Educational Media, Not ICT Devices Derek Lomas wrote "I propose that the ICT4D community should reduce its emphasis on the creation of innovative devices and focus more on the creation of effective educational media for existing low-cost devices. Market forces ... not producing quality educational media suitable for education in developing contexts. "

I agree wholeheartedly that we should be realistic in our approach, so that we really can be as inclusive as possible. With that in mind I would like to share something from my first experience of running an ICT training course for serving teachers in rural Nigeria (back in 2004).

I did three things and thought I was being very realistic - but I was wrong: 

• I gave the teachers some practical "hands-on computers" sessions - to build their confidence so they could see themselves as "computer users" when they went back to their "computer-free" classrooms. That was okay.
• I gave them a taste of using the Internet in a way that (if they ever got the chance) they could continue at a cyber cafe - or back in the computer lab where we were doing the training. That was okay - and their favourite part of the course.
• I gave them some ideas for lesson plans - basic information about computers and their use - ideas that they could adapt for their own pupils. That was where I went wrong and felt deeply ashamed and never repeated the mistake.

When I gave the ideas for lessons I used some beautiful A1 colour posters to illustrate the teaching points. Afterwards we did follow up classroom work in a school (with the teachers presenting some of their own lessons to genuine pupils) and naturally the teachers asked to borrow my posters. That was fine while we were all together on the course, but no good for later.

I had set aside time during the course for teachers to do lesson plans and make notes from the posters. We did not have the resources to provide them with their own posters to take back into school. I had known from the start that they would have to create their own visual aids - and yet I had used something better for myself. I began to feel that it had been a terrible tease to show them the big attractive posters and then leave them to manage without. I promised myself that I would never again use a resource on one of my training courses that the teachers could not have after I left.

Before I presented the course again I prepared a series of A4 line drawings to replace the four A1 posters. By the way - when we were planning this course (at a distance) I asked if it would be okay to leave these A4 sheets on the walls between the sessions (as I had done with the posters the previous time). I discovered that, this time, there would be no walls. Our lessons away from the computer lab would be under the mango tree.

During the course I pegged the A4 sheets up on pieces of string. After the sessions the teachers chose the ones they wanted and we arranged for photocopies (we didn't have the resources to simply make copies of everything for everyone).

The sheets were very popular and in fact more effective that the A1 sheets. When I had watched the teachers teaching I had noticed where my teaching had not been good enough and there were areas of confusion. I therefore prepared different visual aids, more of them. and more detailed notes to go with each diagram. The diagrams were all simple line drawings so they would not be too difficult to copy as a larger version onto a blackboard - or they could be fixed to a wall for display purposes, or used for study by small groups at a time.

This time everyone could use the same visual aids that I had used - the only remaining problems related to our limited resources ... should we use the smudgy photo copying service at 4 naira a sheet, or the better one that cost 5? This is the reality of limited resources and inclusion.

That is why I welcome Derek's emphasis on affordability and practicality (although I can't comment on the educational quality of the specific products he mentioned - and, for the people I have in mind, the problem of power supply always needs to be addressed). I welcome his approach of asking "What have people got access to?" and "How can we make the most of it?"

Having said that I also recognise various differences that may be worth noting. Our ICT in education emphasis is different in that Derek is concerned with using computers in various areas of the curriculum (so children could learn with less input from teachers) while I was concerned with the teachers and what they needed to learn about computers (including educational uses). Also he is talking about India and my experience is in rural Africa. In the area I know best, phones are still beyond the reach of many people. This is for reasons of cost and also lack of services - in many places there is no service other than fortuitous service (odd hilltops,for instance, where you can just happen to pick up a signal).

I appreciate that valuable work can be done by "top-down" initiatives such as OLPC which push the boundaries regarding technical development, but until those initiatives reach everyone I believe we also need to be working in the most challenging places seeing what we can already do from the "bottom-up" so we can hasten the time when top-down and bottom-up can meet somewhere in the middle.