Well, the program's lean and the team members few . So there weren't a lot of folks to volunteer on this one, just me. Don't get me wrong. I was excited to get 60 lecturers from colleges all across the country to comprehensively cover the basics on computer use but setting up the logistics was going to be a whole other thing, right. But then there was that tenet..."What does not kill you makes you stronger"...that encouraged me on. I rarely shudder at a task before taking it on, irregardless of how mundane, insurmountable or challenging it seems and I wasn't scared of this task either, i was just reflecting on the sheer volume of logistics to be addressed...and they didn't look pretty. What was to be done, you may wonder? Well quite a bit, really. I had to engage an accredited ICDL training college, find a 'spot' with a conducive environment and computer labs with 60 computers to spare and good internet access for 3 weeks, find accommodation for 60 folks, agree on a training schedule with the facilitators from the accredited ICDL college, arrange for transport from the hotel to the training venue and work with 60 or so colleges to get a participant from each...all in 2 weeks and with the companies hideous procedures and paper-work. I was starting to wonder if fate had an insidious plot to pit me against a seemingly Herculean task. Angst wouldn't even begin to describe my feelings at that point.
And at the end of all this the poignant question still hang in the air...would this really benefit the students at the various medical training colleges to obtain better instruction and learning?
Well, i was extremely optimistic advocating for this activity because (without sounding didactic :) ), i did believe that it really would translate to better teaching and learning. A number of lecturers lacked vital computing skills and as a recent survey conducted by a leading (if not the leading) human survey firm here in Kenya established, these lecturers are almost always exposed to a more technologically savvy and vibrant set of individuals in the form of their students. Students who are not only competent in the use of technology but relish its use and in my view would even prefer a mode of instruction that incorporated an advanced use of social networking (twitter and facebook...in case you are wondering), multimedia content in the form of DVD's and youtube videos, Interactive gaming and 3D simulation and eLearning platforms all offered using what is perhaps the world most ubiquitous consumer electronics platform(after the radio, of course); the mobile phone...among other platforms (tablets for instance, provide a very viable opportunity). Anyhow, back to the interesting stuff.
So to cut the long story short, i ended up with 49 faculty members from the various colleges nationwide, 44 of whom undertook the ICDL accreditation examinations! While the training was by large very well conducted, the testing was so poorly administered, it stuck out like a sore thumb to viciate the whole thing. The 'accredited' ICDL training college lacked the capacity to administer the exams (a fact that it was dishonest about) since it did not have the official testing software or its license key and rushed to get things done at the very last minute encumbering the lectures with a dueling one and half days of back-to-back exams and then flooding them with certificates of attendance to hide the shame and dissatisfaction of having none of the lecturers pass all the 7 otherwise straight forward exams. Indeed what was most distressing was that even these dismal results were only possible due to the assistance of an ICDL regional representative who dropped all pending activities and took time to urgently address this. So many other things could have gone wrong!
Anyhow, lessons learnt 1. Let the students undertake ICDL exams at a registered test center not at an alternative venue, it will prolong your life by a couple of days 2. Ensure that every little detail discussed with the ICDL accreddited college is verified...and when i say 'every little detail...' i mean exactly that 'every little detail...'. This may very well turn out to be your Achilles foot. It was mine. And never impose deadlines on the facilitators, let them take the wheel on this one. It is 'their training' in a way 3. Attend as many sessions of the training as possible. The participants feel secure and the facilitators accountable. It shouldn't be like this, I know. Oh well... 4. Make sure that the small but important details are addressed and fitted into the schedule. Aspects like administering the pretest and developing a schedule. They say an email(or anything on hard copy) is worth a thousand explanations. 5. Last but not least, evaluate and talk to both the participants and facilitators during the training. They will either be your best friends or enemies during the course of it.
I have no doubt that most if not all the participants obtained additional skills to navigate around a computer. I saw one participant who was exceptionally keen to learn but who previously had little exposure to computers and i was happy to see him learn something new every day. It is anticipated that this first set of lecturers will now be more confident and enthusiastic to use electronic learning materials, discuss the use of electronic learning materials and interact with their students using forums and emails. Inevitably this program will have to advocate for the inclusion of additional (in-service) content into pre-service curricula...and then the need to have precise and engaging learning content will become more apparent, urgent and necessary.
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