Online Capacity Building on ICT Soft Skills for Educators during COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania
Creative Commons Tanzania, in collaboration with the TUSOME initiative, received a Creative Commons Global Network Community Activity Fund (CAF) to conduct an “Online Training on ICT Soft Skills for Educators during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania”. This initiative was an open capacity building training aimed to equip educators with necessary educational ICT soft skills to enable them to participate effectively in an online learning environment. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Tanzania, all schools were forced to close. This measure suspended conventional teaching and learning, prompting the educational sector to shift from conventional teaching and learning to online learning as the main educational business continuity strategy. Our initiative emerged to focus on enabling technologies and tools for teachers to teach online.
Training coverage
The training took place from 3rd to 12th June 2020. It equipped educators with the knowledge and skills in the areas of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons licenses, Mobile Learning, Web 2.0 tools for educators, and Multimedia Presentation. Educators also gained an understanding on how to integrate OERs in teaching and learning, thus promoting sharing and collaboration among educators.
Training Approach
To do the training, we used a “participatory and learning by doing” approach. The training was conducted online using Zoom and WhatsApp for updates and communication with educators. A total of 28 educators were registered in the WhatsApp group, for communication, networking, and follow-up purposes.
Achievements
This CAF project gave us great experience in advocating Creative Commons to Educators in Tanzania, and enhanced the active participation of stakeholders in CC Tanzania’s activities. Some of the achievements of the project include:
- 14 educators were successfully trained on the Edu-ICT soft skills and awarded certificates of participation.
- We established and build a network of educators via a WhatsApp group for post-training follow-ups, ICT, and educational consultation, and sharing of educational resources.
- Advocacy of OER and Creative Commons licenses for educators.
- The project help strengthened the TUSOME LMS platform by gathering more requirements from educators for further upcoming activities.
Appreciation
This event was made possible by the educators who registered and participated actively in an online training sessions, TUSOME initiative team members, Creative Commons volunteers, and the CCGN Community Activities Funds (CCGN CAF) committee for this funding opportunity.
This project brought an impact on educators and made CC Tanzania a great experience. Special thanks to project team members; Francis Mashalla(Facilitator and TUSOME Initiative Technical Lead), Aristarik Maro(Facilitator and CC Tanzania Public Lead), Fortunate Kayuni(TUSOME team member), Abuu Mshamu (TUSOME team member), and Neemacalviner Augustine(TUSOME team member)
Video Testimonials from Educators
These videos were uploaded to TUSOME YouTube channel.
Emmanuel Malongo is the Creative Commons representative at the Global Network Council of CC.
This project was funded by the Creative Commons Communities Activity Fund.
