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Global Teenager Network event 2003: finding improvements together!
| Source: | Nele Blommestein and Nathan Ducastel |
| Sector: |
This year, all the Global Teenager coordinators got together in Nairobi, Kenya for the Johan Kooij Fellowship network event. Imagine, 21 people from all over the world discussing the way forward for the Global Teenager Project, and with success! Many great ideas came out of the meeting due to the completely participatory approach of the event. The objective was to find ways to improve the quality of the Learning Circles, exchange experience and knowledge, strategize and plan for the future of GTP, and familiarization with the technology supporting GTP. The fact that all coordinators brought in their own experience made them learn from each other and take complete ownership of the project. Next to IICD and Ms Kooij, KPN, a Dutch telecom provider, contributed to make the workshop a success. All participants greatly appreciated their efforts and their interest in activities happening in countries so far away.
Different expectations
Many ideas emerging from the workshop addressed the improvement of the
Learning Circles and the Global Teenager Project as a whole. The most
prominent suggestion to change the project is to work with different
levels among the participants. Many teachers and students have high
expectations and invest a lot of time into the project by doing
research and involving the community. Other participants struggle with
Internet connections and participate in the project as a volunteer
activity after school hours. To live up to everyone’s expectations, it
was decided to divide the Learning Circles into two levels, beginners
and advanced. The beginners level is especially for first-time
participants and will focus on intercultural communication. The
advanced level will be focussed on online research and involvement of
the local community.
Next to that, new strategies emerged to improve the teacher training,
the evaluation method, ways to find funding, the internal communication
and the active knowledge sharing activities within the network. Much
more emphasis will be put on knowledge sharing amongst the network of
GTP coordinators and teachers to make use of each other’s best
practises and experiences. This can be done through extensive use of
the d-groups and working with an acknowledged code of conduct. In
addition, many practical solutions were found with respect to the
registration procedure, technical aspects, the chat sessions, the
Learning Circle publication and promotional material. Groups of
coordinators will work collaboratively online to work out these
solutions.
Full programme
Some coordinators never had face-to-face contact with the others
before. The group welcomed Jude Aguneche from Nigeria, Justin Mupinda
from Zimbabwe, Barna Bereczki from Romania, Chilufya Musosha from
Zambia, Maha Ismail from Egypt, Sylvia van den Berg from Bolivia,
Jemimah Owande from Kenya to the Global Teenager network.
The first three days were devoted to finding solutions and sharing of
experiences. Bob Hofman, the Dutch GTP coordinator, took the role of
facilitator on day two. He guided the group through the difficult
process of coming to a common understanding and finding solutions.
Sithabile Urenje and Ebenezer Malcolm the two English facilitators,
both took care of different sessions. Ebenezer guided the coordinators
through the online Learning Circle simulation, which was very well
received by everyone. Clearly, the use of d-groups for the first time
needed some more explanation and practise. At day 5 the group went to
Nairobi National Park to meet with some giraffes and kudu’s. For some,
this was the first trip to the African continent, which was a unique
and thrilling experience. The training ended with some quality food at
the Nairobi Carnivore restaurant.