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YouthLearn
in the Democratic Republic of Congo
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By Dan Tobin, Director of Communications, Education
Development Center
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 In
America, EDC's YouthLearn project specializes in supporting
educators as they develop lessons that integrate technology
with inquiry-based learning for use in both in-school and
out-of-school programs. In the Congo/DRC, YouthLearn will
assist in the development of a series of modules that will
combine basic literacy and digital literacy skills.
"In
the US, digital literacy is taught in a compartmentalized
way: You learn to read and write and then, much later, you
move on to using technology. Here, we can integrate those
skills," reports Monica Biswas of YouthLearn, who recently
returned from a 10-day visit to Vanga.
 YouthLearn
plans to develop a series of modules and then provide intensive
training at the resource center for a small group of teachers
and youth representatives, who will eventually train others.
A preliminary module might focus on a distinct skill-such
as searching the Internet-while also producing resources and
information that will be useful for the village. "For
example, we could set up a science activity to catalogue local
plants and conduct research on each species," says Biswas.
"That kind of activity would focus on content that's
important to the village, would create a resource for use
in the classroom and the community, and would teach skills
of finding and evaluating information on the Internet."
The evaluation
piece is particularly important in Vanga, says Biswas, because
of the lack of media and information in the village. "Vanga
is a very isolated, agricultural village with very little
access to newspapers or other media. Suddenly bringing computers
and the Internet in to this village without any context can
be daunting and even detrimental for the village. That's why
we plan to build a lot of research and evaluation strategies
into the modules and the training."
Biswas
spent most of her ten days in Vanga in schools, observing
classrooms and talking with principals, teachers, and students.
She visited poor schools in which the only teaching tool was
a handheld piece of slate in lieu of a chalk board. The better
schools had chalkboards, but only a handful of books. All
of the classrooms, however, were filled with dynamic teachers
and fully-engaged students.
"The
kids are so excited to learn," says Monica Biswas, shortly
after her return from her trip. "You walk into a poor
school that has no electricity and very few books
and you don't see a single kid who is hanging back with his
head on the desk. They are all eager and involved."
Much
of the instruction she saw took the form of call-and-answer
exchanges, with the teacher singing out questions and the
students chanting responses. "It was thrilling to watch
their energy and engagement," says Biswas. "In one
lesson, the teacher chanted a story problem, which the students
repeated. But then he skipped right to the answer without
pausing for the students to work through the problem on their
own."
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"You
walk into a poor school that has no electricity and
very few books and you don't see a single kid who is
hanging back with his head on the desk. They are all
eager and involved."
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In
that, Biswas saw an opportunity to introduce some new teaching
strategies along with the technology. "The teachers are
thirsting for new approaches," she comments. "They
are interested in learning technology and in learning a new
pedagogy that will encourage more student-centered learning.
But we need to keep asking the question, 'to what end?'
We'd like to help the village incorporate new technology and
pedagogy in ways that will help the community develop and
improve its economic condition."
See
"A Look at Vanga" Slideshow
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