{"id":365753,"date":"2010-02-26T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalvoicesonline.org\/?p=105107"},"modified":"2010-02-26T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T15:30:12","slug":"ghanaian-students-contribute-to-virtual-media-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/365753","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian students contribute to virtual media library"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
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\"ISABT<\/dt>\n
ISABT Newsletter<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

In July 2009 I had the privilege of catching up with old friends and meeting some new faces when Jonathan Thurston, his wife Kristi, and past and present students arrived in Ghana to carry out a book making project with students at a primary school in Elmina, in the Central Region of Ghana.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s so special? They use simple, portable technology to inspire creativity and facilitate learning among Ghana\u2019s poorest students. And they use \u2018social media\u2019 to establish networks with like-minded individuals and organizations internationally, enhancing development opportunities and increasing the possibility of involving other communities and countries as the organization grows.<\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

I interviewed Jonathan, the founder, about 2009 summer\u2019s project and the organization behind the project: The Intl School of Art, Business and Technology (ISABT<\/a>). Founded in 2006 by Jonathan Thurston, Trudy Obazee, former Chair of the Accounting Department at Albright College, and Sarah Philbrick, ISABT's mission is to operate educational programs in Ghana and give children an opportunity to become authors. You can view some of the books that students wrote in July 2009 at the Ghana Reale Library<\/a>. For those interested, download Reale Writer<\/a> from the Reale site.<\/p>\n

I asked Johnathan: <\/b><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/b>\"Kojos<\/b><\/dt>\n
Kojo's story<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

What groups are you working with in Ghana?<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re working with schools and we\u2019re trying to work with the PTA to sustain our program. We have some help from other NGOs like Global Mamas<\/a> with housing or advice. We have people that we work with in Ghana here that can go around and make appointments before we arrive to save us a lot of time. You know, sometimes things take a while so if we can get the ball rolling a month before we come and jump right in when we arrive.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re working with Ghanaians on the ground?<\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, former teachers. We have one who was actually hired to run the book making program. And what I\u2019m trying to do is put our research from this summer and from the past together to educational units and share it with teachers across developing countries and solve their problems before they have them, like an issue with ink or different technology issues or equipment. Ideally you would have the educational units ready and all you need is a working printer and a working laptop that can run the software, and some paper and some crayons. If you have that, you can run it.<\/p>\n

A video of 2008's visit with the teachers<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"2008<\/a>
<\/p>\n

Last summer I came for a week and saw the possibility and impact that it had. One school I went to, Kakum Oda, had no power and very few books and resources. I only had a week and I had asked for just two students to work with to see. On the first day I sat down with the head teacher and greeted her and said, \u2018Thank you for working with me, so, it would be great to meet the two students.\u2019 And she started laughing. She said, \u2018There\u2019s more than two.\u2019 I said, \u2018Really, more than two?\u2019 I thought, maybe, there\u2019d be four or six. No. Every kid in the school wrote a story already! There were over a hundred stories. They all came up all of a sudden and put them on the desk. Just from hearing about the project they\u2019d all written a story.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t do all the stories last summer but I what I saw was that people want to do them. So we\u2019re working through those stories and I have my college kids illustrating them, putting them into software\u2014we\u2019re working our way through that pile.<\/p>\n

Click You Tube<\/a> to watch the Elmina Authors at work and interviewed.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/b>\"Elmina<\/b><\/dt>\n
Elmina authors<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

So what\u2019s happening this summer?<\/p>\n

This summer we have a new program where we have writing instruction. It\u2019s about how to write a story, descriptive language, setting, character, and plot. One thing I noticed with the pile of stories was that there was little structure so one thing we did this summer was introduce story-writing instruction\u2014and they totally get it. From a few paragraphs to pages\u2014we\u2019re seeing very descriptive and rich stories.<\/p>\n

I was just watching them write. I noticed some are copying\u2014naughty kids. And some are writing freehand. The title of one story was \u201cThe girl who married a ghost\u201d. I want to know what happens in that story.<\/b><\/p>\n

I want to read that<\/i> story. And maybe some will be copying from one at the beginning, we\u2019re all going to sit and read them together and if we get a story twice, we\u2019ll know.<\/p>\n

Could you tell me what a typical session with the kids entails?<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re still learning, but when I came last summer one thing I noticed is that a lot of the stories didn\u2019t have a beginning, middle or an end. For a well-rounded story you have to introduce the story, tell the story, and then tie it up at the end. We talk about that during the teaching sessions.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been doing a lot of research into folk stories as well for a couple of years now, especially from West Africa. You know Ananse<\/a>?  When I see an Ananse story, I know, often, whether it\u2019s an original. If they do want to tell an Ananse story that\u2019s fine, but we encourage them to make it their own a little bit and enrich it to make it different.<\/p>\n

Click on the link to watch the children in the Book Making Project<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/b>\"Book<\/a><\/b><\/dt>\n
Book making 2009<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

How does the project work this summer?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re working with this school and they pitched in their own money to buy the computers they have. Even though the computers are often twenty years old, although they have some newer ones, it\u2019s still a foundation to start.<\/p>\n

We brought volunteers from the USA with lap tops. They could work with three students each and put the stories into the lap tops. The next thing they\u2019ll do tomorrow is proof-reading and illustrating pictures for the stories. The students write and illustrate the story and we help them get them on the lap top. And tomorrow we\u2019ll run a training session for the teachers too, so when we leave they\u2019ll be able to do it on their own.<\/p>\n

What happens to their stories when they finish writing them?<\/b><\/p>\n

On the final day we\u2019ll have a book celebration. We\u2019ll give each student a printed book and give a laptop and printer to the school. It\u2019s everything they need to keep it going with the teacher who\u2019s been involved from the beginning.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re promoting the healthy book cycle: Read, Create, Share. Always start with reading. Even better: start with reading a book another<\/i> student has written. Then they get inspired to create a book that they then share. And then the next student will read it and be inspired to create and share. That\u2019s the healthy book cycle. If they keep this going, it\u2019s going to keep building. What we want to do is make sure they can continue to the cycle.<\/p>\n

How does the books online work?
\n<\/b>
\nWe have a library for Ghana<\/a>. So any book made in Ghana is welcome to be included in that library. Anyone can access it. It\u2019s all free. The software is free. The library is free. These books are available for anyone to read if they have a PC and internet. Kids from Kenya, Brooklyn, New Jersey and California will be reading these books. And they\u2019re making their own books and putting them online too and kids in Ghana will be able to read those. And they can pull them off the library and print them.<\/p>\n

Spotlighting Jonathan in Ghana<\/a> this year on You Tube<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Jonathan<\/a>
<\/p>\n

It\u2019s inspiring. What is your vision for the future?<\/b><\/p>\n

If we can get it working here, we can build a model that we can replicate. We also want to build a community centre to work with the schools and run after school programs. We would have a small library and computer lab and do programs like the book making program. We want to provide resources to run programs for the future. If someone wants to run an accounting workshop, we\u2019ll bring an accountant from the US or a local accountant and run the workshop. We want to get involved in the community and give them what they need: programs that can enhance the community.<\/p>\n

You spoke about the Ghanaian students who came from the USA to volunteer this summer; can you tell me about their involvement?<\/b><\/p>\n

One is a former student of mine from Albright and one is a current student; he\u2019s getting college credit for working on this project. Their help has been so wonderful on so many levels. They\u2019re both so committed. I think the reactions of the students working in the project are special for them. For a Ghanaian student to study in the USA is very expensive so they\u2019re from families that can afford that. They come back and help out the kids and hopefully those kids will have that opportunity in future. And it\u2019s good role model for the students here to see someone who\u2019s worked hard and graduated from university who cares about Ghana, coming back: someone like them but a bit older. It\u2019s inspiring for the kids.<\/p>\n

The educational paradigm is drawn as a pyramid and goes that everyone gets in on the bottom, but the higher up, the narrower it gets, less people in. We\u2019re trying to make that pyramid a square.<\/p>\n

Read the featured book, The Bakatue Festival<\/a>, at RealeBooks.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Ibrahim<\/a>
<\/p>\n

Visit ISABT <\/a>here. Join them on Facebook at People Who Want to Help<\/a>. They blog at ISABT<\/a>. You can check out how to make books at Making Books <\/a>in Ghana demo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISABT Newsletter In July 2009 I had the privilege of catching up with old friends and meeting some new faces when Jonathan Thurston, his wife Kristi, and past and present students arrived in Ghana to carry out a book making project with students at a primary school in Elmina, in the Central Region of Ghana. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5949,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-365753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5949"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}