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"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.
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."
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?' Links
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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. 
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."
