Dadamac

Collaboration, Education, Livelihoods and Development in a Changing World

Start of the Teachers Talking online Special Interest Group

This is a description of the early stages of the Teachers Talking yahoo group, based on information taken from the group archives:

The yahoo group archives show that on October 17th I was like a nervous hostess wondering if anyone would arrive at my party.

By the end of twenty four hours I felt more confident. We had one person each from Ottawa, India, Nigeria, Uganda, and Ohio, and three from UK (including me). Next day there came one from New York, another from UK, and two more Nigerians (one living in London).

It was agreed that there would be an online  “information cupboard” of useful resources, to be used by me, and by the TT course participants. By October 19th a techie in the Special Interest Group was advising me to have a wiki. I was cautious about agreeing in case he expected me to learn to do it (more “new tech” for me).  In fact he was keen to set it up himself, and someone else was keen to learn how to contribute to a wiki (and was also scouring the Internet for useful resources). Someone else was uploading files to the yahoo group. Everyone else was simply emailing. People were contributing expertise  - subject expertise, local expertise and technical expertise and it seemed that everyone was learning something new.

Over the next few days, my friend Muji (from the Ago-Are project in South West NIgeria) joined us, plus someone from Mexico and someone from New Jersey.

The SIG was now a week old. It was trans-continental, multi-cultural, with a wide age-range, a wide range of educational-levels, a wide range of work situations, and a wide life-experience range. People were there for a variety of reasons. It was buzzing with activity, and the technical side and content was now way ahead of my dreams.

Over the next few weeks as I prepared for my trip to Fantsuam the SIG continued to grow, the “information cupboard” continued to fill, and people  got drawn into the details of the planning, as the quotes below show:.

  • “Yes, the Kafanchan workshop is from 29th November to 04th December. The morning session on the first day is the Opening Ceremony while the training proper starts from 2.00pm that day”
  • “The local organising committee of the Teachers Talking workshop met two days ago. Each member of the committee left with the assignment of interviewing at least two teachers just to get a feel of what they think of the forth coming workshop.”
  • “Last night, one of the schools to which we have offered one place on the course asked me to arbitrate on who should attend: the headteacher or the teacher who first heard about the course and went to ask for permission from the headteacher. I am hoping that the information we have passed on so far about TT, will continue to awaken this level of interest”

The SIG group members got interested in the participants and their lives (some SIG members were struggling to imagine the reality of life without computers, and of teachers who had never seen one). They learned something about the schools the teachers taught in, as well as all the details of the course - from its ethos and content to its catering arrangements and “kunu breaks”.The idea emerged that the SIG would not close down when it had prepared the “information cupboard” ready for me and the TT participants.

We decided that the SIG would remain active while I was doing the training, and we would make joining the group into a  part of the course. The SIG members would help me to give the participants a positive experience of online communities of interest. We would illustrate how the Internet made it possible to learn almost anything “with a little help from your friends.“ Also, in the unlikely event of the course participants being able to go online after the course, if they managed to reconnect with the group they would be supported again.

And so the course began. Monday was the opening ceremony, seeing a computer for the first time, and getting an email address. Tuesday was joining the yahoo group, and starting meaningful communication, first of all with Richard the moderator, who confirmed membership of the group, then with the wider group:

  • “Thank  you Richard for accepting me into the group God bless you”
  • “Hi Richard, I'am really grateful for accepting me. I want to know if its possible to get help tips to teach primary maths from you. Thanks”

 … and so on through the week. There were other parts to the course but the most popular part by far was the yahoo group and being in touch with new friends from thousands of miles away.

Background Information