The Ulwazi Programme is please to announce, in co-operation with the Goethe-Insitut South Africa, the launch of the pilot Schools Project.  Taking place over the next two terms at school’s in KwaMashu and Umlazi, the Ulwazi Programme will teach skills in ICT and historical research to participating students.

The Ulwazi school’s project will run at township and rural schools where there are computer laboratories, two schools during the 2nd semester 2011 and two schools during the 1st semester 2012. Students selected will be from grade 9 and 10, with an interest in history, language or IT. The project will be run in the afternoons as an extramural activity. As such, students will not receive credit towards their end of term results but on completion on the project they will receive a competency certificate from Ulwazi.

The pilot project will be run with a practical task-based section and an online e-learning component, with a mentor assigned to each school.

A project blog, with more information, has been set up at http://ulwazi.org/school/.  The students and mentors will take ownership of the blog and publish their own articles on it, for the duration of the project.

Ulwazi Programme leader Betsie Greyling recently returned from the The Third International m-libraries Conference in Brisbane, where she presented a poster titled ‘The Number in my Pocket: the Power of Mobile Technology for the Exchange of Indigenous Knowledge’, which outlined the Ulwazi Programme’s plans for a model for collecting indigenous knowledge via mobiles phones in the eThekwini Municipality.

The poster and abstract can be downloaded from the M-Libraries Conference website at http://www.usq.edu.au/m-libraries/program/posterinfo

The Ulwazi Programme took part in the National Library Week celebrations at the Durban Botanic Gardens on 24 March 2011. With an internet cafe and an oral history display, the Ulwazi Programme was a firm favourite with visiting schoolchildren.

The Ulwazi Team

The Ulwazi Programme has recently conducted oral history and ICT training for some prospective field-workers. This skills development is a key component of the programme. The training was divided into two parts; the use and practice of oral history and an introduction to ICT.

The first day looked at an introduction to oral history – the process of oral history (speaking, listening, remembering), possible questions that participants could ask and how to prepare for and conduct an interview (download the presentation). We then watched and critiqued a number of oral history video interviews the Ulwazi Programme had conducted over the past few years. The second day involved practical exercises with participants writing questions, conducting interviews with each other and reporting back what they had learnt from the interviews.

The third and fourth days were devoted to improving participants ICT skills, with sessions focused on effectively using word-processing software, conducting research online and using Internet communication tools.

ICT training by Mabusi

Last Friday Zanele and Bongiwe conducted an oral history interview with a sangoma in Umbumbulu.  A core component of the Ulwazi Programme is the transference of digital skills.  This process can sometimes be frustrating but the field-workers who stick it out acquire a valuable new set of skills.

So, it was very rewarding to see the Umbumbulu field-workers take control of the shoot, from correctly framing the shot to operating the video and audio recorders.  Well done!

Oral history interview