Its a New Year and we’ve kicked it off by visiting two schools – one in Hammarsdale and the other in Umbumbulu – where we will be running the phase two of the Ulwazi Schools Project.
This innovative project uses digital heritage to teach research, media and digital literacy skills to students from disadvantaged schools. Weekly lessons are arranged thematically, with students having to research articles on, for example, the history of their school, local environment or family then write an article and submit it to the Ulwazi Community Memory website. Students are taught how to use digital audio recorders and cameras, how to acces the Internet on a mobile phone, how to conduct research online and how to conduct oral history interviews, while being fully engaged in the learning process through researching content relevant to their lives.
As a model for ICT training it is excellent. So far the project has been enthusiastically embraced – take a look at some of the articles produced last year by school children from Menzi High School https://wiki.ulwazi.org/index.php5?title=Category:Menzi_High_School
