Collaborating to Spread Digital Literacy
At Elimu, local collaboration is very important to us. As we continue to develop our eLearning program for schools, we are working with Learning Equality in the USA to deliver their Kolibri EdTech platform to classrooms. The platform has great potential to improve the quality and standardization of educational resources for teachers and students in Kenya – is a highly effective means of instilling digital literacy through a very user-friendly approach. Fellow Kolibri partners at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy have been implementing the software at schools in communities in and around the conservancy. They are finding average performance improving in classrooms and attendance growing as students are motivated by the use of digital devices for their learning. Kolibri allows us to upload relevant local content and that has become a major focus for those of us in Kenya working with the platform. Teachers are able to give input into the content they need for their classes and the content created can be shared by all.
“Digital Literacy, the ability to use technology to navigate, evaluate and create information.“
This week the Elimu executive team spent a couple days engaging with the Lewa Education Program team to share successes and lessons learned and build on the good foundation we’ve already established as partners in spreading digital literacy amongst teachers and students in our communities. The program at Lewa is making great inroads and we were impressed to see the level of engagement with various community stakeholders. The field visit included demonstrations at a local primary school classroom and a library built by Kenyan-Canadians Rita Field-Marsham Foundation.
Today’s children cannot achieve in the new economy that they are growing into without digital literacy and access to digital resources. Lewa and Elimu are taking important steps to ensure that teachers and students in our communities, and beyond, get access to relevant, quality technology resources to help guide them into the future. An important step in the process is training and sensitization of teachers who are challenged to adapt their teaching styles and course content to the new technologies. We are here to help smooth the path.
