Education Finder Rwanda

Working together with UNESCO and REB (Rwanda Education Board) on "ICT competency framework for teachers". Full of energy and insights - eTeacher Training will hopefully be part of the Rwandan Teacher Training program. A good workshop.

Hi Everyone! I would like to share the story of one of our participants/teachers from the eTeacher Training course. Reminds me, and hopefully you as well, how knowledge, however little, can open doors in our lives! Enjoy the reading and thank you Samuel, for writing this down.

SUCCESS STORY
Samuels’ story: from giving notes to using active learning methods with the help of ICT

I am called Samuel Ndagijimana, I am a teacher-educator in TTC Matimba, in Foundations of Education. As a new tutor I first encountered a problem of not having teaching material. I was sometimes stuck while preparing the content for students, thus forced to skip some topics in the syllabus.
Writing teaching notes in a notebook was all I thought I could do to help me during lesson presentation and giving notes to my students – the same notebook was used by my students to take notes from. Within three months I found the notebook very old with some pages missing. Lecturing method was my favorite method because it helped me to spare time for my students to write notes in their notebooks. Covering the syllabus seemed challenging because most of my time was consumed by giving notes. My students had to wait for me to give them notes; it was really tiresome and boring.
Fortunately Education Finder project organized a six-month on-line training on how to use ICT in education. A gamut of issues was solved in my teaching practice. We were introduced to ICT tools available in our college that we use on daily basis. I learned how to use ICT tools in preparing and presenting a lesson. The training helped me to use social online communities to exchange ideas with fellow teachers around the world and look for material to use in my subject from online libraries around the world. The training equipped me with skills to make digital materials for my students. This was really a relief to my problems.
Currently it is no longer a problem to find material to teach. The world is open for me. I now make research on Internet in different online libraries such as in Rwanda Education Commons, the library of Open University of Tanzania, etc. I help new col-leagues as well as other tutors in Rwanda to get material to teach. I also ask them to assist me when there is material I want.
I helped my students to go on Internet to make research on Internet. I no longer use lecture method because students can now access the source of knowledge. I give them assignments that they work on and present in groups. I now have enough time to use active methods in or outside the class. The time I used to squander in giving notes is used in different activities with students. I prepare handouts that the school prints out and students make photocopies with very little money, cheaper than even the price of a notebook.
I no longer lose notes; I have a soft copy of the content I teach. I present using my laptop or my phone and when there is a mistake I correct it easily; when I have something to add in notes I do it easily. ICT made teaching and learning an enjoyable experience for both my students and myself. I really appreciate what Education Finder and their sponsor did for us.