An Ict and Leadership Project for Nigerian Girls

W.TEC TECHNOLOGY CAMP FOR GIRLS

REPORT

AN ICT AND LEADERSHIP PROJECT FOR NIGERIAN GIRLS

AN INITIATIVE OF WOMEN’S TECHNOLOGY EMPOWERMENT CENTRE (W.TEC)

APRIL 23 - 27 2012 REPORT OF W.TEC TECHNOLOGY CAMP FOR TEENAGERS

THE HISTORY OF THE W.TEC CAMP W.TEC Girls Technology Camp is an annual programme, which started in 2008. It is an initiative of W.TEC which aims to mould young girls’ psyche, give them a positive image of technology, related fields and opportunities while bridging the knowledge and skill gap between boys and girls in their career paths.

Camp Main Objectives 1. To arouse a technology driven spirit and a quest for technology related careers in girls. 2. To give the girl child, the opportunity to experience, experiment and learn in a real world environment through the Internet. 3. To encourage out of the box thinking and provide an ideal environment for the female child to have freedom to think, niche a good career for herself while gaining critical life skills such as etiquette, team work and leadership skills. 4. To create an innovative and encouraging platform where children can show case their talent in a fusion of entertainment and education.

THE APRIL 2012 TECHNOLOGY CAMP The April 2012 edition was held on the week of International Girls in ICT Day (April 23 – 27) and served as a platform to celebrate and encourage girls to learn and use information and communication technology for their social and economic development.

The International Girls in ICT (Information & Communication Technology) Day is celebrated on each fourth Thursday in April, when girls will have the possibility to get themselves acquainted with the opportunities for education and work in the ICT field. The objective is to make ICT familiar to girls, and to present to them the jobs within this sector, as well as to motivate them to opt for a career related to these technologies.

International Girls’ Day is an initiative launched by the International Telecommunications Union with the idea creating a global environment that will empower and encourage girls and young women to consider careers in the field of information and communication technologies.

The week-long camp was a technology education and mentoring programme aimed at helping girls develop an early interest in computers and other information technology. For the camp duration, the students are participating in Graphic Design, Film Production, Website Design and Computer Troubleshooting workshops.

The long-term goal is to increase the numbers of Nigerian girls and women using technology productively for learning, professional and leadership activities. As W.TEC works to achieve this mission, our programmes will focus increasingly on using ICT to create content and build useful applications.

2 Application: The criteria for the camp was students who:  Are teenagers and in secondary school  Already know how to use a computer  Available for the week of April 23 – 27, 2012

Secondary schools were asked to nominate students who met the criteria. Information of the camp was also spread via W.TEC’s website, blog, social media channels, and mailing lists. The call for application was also disseminated via W.TEC alumni, civil society groups; as well as through various email lists and word-of-mouth.

Although the target number of students for the camp was 15, there were more applications than places and eventually W.TEC admitted 17 students to the programme.

THE STUDENTS The camp brought together 17 dynamic students from different backgrounds within the age range of 11 and 16 years old. The students came from a mixture of public and private schools, with at least 5 of the students nominated by other non-governmental organizations (1 from Development Information Network – DevNet and 4 from the Ovie Brume Foundation).

Although W.TEC’s August camps are residential, this edition was designed as a day camp. However, many of the applicants faced transport challenges to the camp venue daily due to parents’ or guardians’ schedules, and so a boarding option was offered, which 10 of the students took advantage of.

The sponsorship provided by Microsoft Nigeria and a few individuals enabled some of the students whose parents could not afford the stated camp fee of N20,000 attend the camp for free.

The five-day event, which took place at Laureates College, Mafoluku, commenced on Monday 23rd April 2012 and ended on Friday 27th April 2012.

THE CAMP SESSIONS The following topics were taught at the camp:  Blogging  Staying Safe Online  Graphic Design  Film Production  Website Development

In addition to these topics, it was necessary to include an impromptu session on Creating Email Accounts for students who did not have email addresses already.

3 Rather than completing printed-out evaluation forms, the students were required to complete their evaluations and type out their post-camp essays using Microsoft Word. These were then emailed to the camp coordinators. This provided an opportunity to extend their ICT practice time in a useful way.

EVALUATION In consonance with W.TEC’s culture to measure the impact of its activities on its target audience, the following ways were devised to assess the efficacy of the camp to meet its stated objectives;

1. Post-Camp Evaluation 2. Post-Camp Essay 3. Products 4. Phone Evaluation (6 months post-camp)

Post-Camp Evaluation: At the end of the camp, the students complete an evaluation form on the camp, responding to questions rating the sessions and their experience at the camp and sharing suggestions for future camps.

Post-Camp Essay: The students are also given the opportunity to share more general feedback in an essay form. This is aimed at eliciting more feedback from the students especially on areas not covered specifically in the evaluation form.

The students are encouraged to write around the themes of: 1. My Week At The W.TEC Camp 2. My Goals For My Life And How W.TEC Has Helped Me Clarify Them

Products: During the course of the sessions, the following products were created by the students, which indicate what the students are capable of doing with technology:  Calendars, Logos and other designs created in Corel Draw  Blogs created using Blogger  Web pages  Video Footage shot with digital cameras

Phone Evaluation: These will be conducted 6 months after the camp, to find out the longer-term effects of the camp on the participating students. We ask questions on what skills learnt at the camp, which are still being used the students and which have been further developed. If no skills are being used, we find out why.

4 FEEDBACK The students provided feedback on the camp sessions in their evaluation forms and some are included below:

Blogging  By blogging on my blog and using everything I have been taught. I will use it to interact with other blogs.  I will teach people how to create it [blogs] and also with my blog account I express my feelings, get information and also have fun with it.  It will help me mingle with different people and I can also create my own blog to insert pictures, music, and words of wisdom.

Staying Safe Online  I won’t disclose my personal information to a person I dont know on the ‘net.  By using a strong password which no one can guess.  It will help me to create strong pasword while opening my email.

Graphic Design  By putting more effort in graphic designing which might take me high.  By using it at school and whenever the opportunity comes.  I will use it to make beautiful designs and images on the web and also design a logo for my future organisation.  I will design things with it, create images and maybe send it to my blog and to friends.

Film Production  One day i might become a producer and help in the production of films.  I will use my phone to video any scene and I will edit the video and put it on the computer or on my blog.  I will teach others about it with the little enlightement I have about it.  It will help to edit and shoot films and [I know] what it takes to produce a film.

Website Development  By teaching others and I would create my own website.  I will design a website with images in it.  By creating and writing more things in the internet and it is a great deal of fun.  I will use it to design my father’s website.

The evaluation indicated that all the students would recommend the camp to others. Specific feedback include the following:

This is a very educative camp. It teaches us how to blog, and about HTML, Hyperlinks, Corel Draw and so on. If I was not present at this camp I would not be able to know all I have listed, so I recommend the camp for others to have the privildege to do something.

5 I will recommend this camp because I feel it is a means to a livelihood and it can make people's life better.

I gained so many things in what they taught me and I know that if I tell others about this camp, it would be beneficial to me and to them.

I will recommend the camp to [others], because W.TEC teaches important topics and I will like them to know it also for their own good.

I do recommend it for teens because it is a programme that teenage girls are supposed to attend because it is very enlightening and educative.

I will [recommend] it because I know it will help young ladies like me to have the knoweledge of ICT.

General Feedback On the whole, the feeback was positive. In talking about the benefits of the camp to them, some keywords emerged, which in many ways encapsulated the camp benefits for the the students and these are:  Teaching: Many of the students indicated that they would share their new skills and knowledge with others.  Interacting: Some of the students shared that, as a result of interacting with others from different backgrounds at the camp, they felt more confident in mingling with people and would carry this into their everyday lives.  Expressing: The students felt that the tools and the skills they learnt about gave them new outlets to express themselves.  Fun: Many of the students highlighted the fun aspect of the camp, indicating that they had fun while learning. They also indicated that learning about and using technology is fun.

POST CAMP The students have been signed up to the W.TEC Girls Mailing List, which helps them to keep in touch with each other and also with the organization. A contact sheet with the students’ email addresses and phone numbers were shared out. W.TEC by practice invites few participants of its past programs as alumni to some of its future programs to share ideas, goals, discover how much ICTs has impacted on them and the way forward.

In 6 months, W.TEC will conduct the post-camp interview.

CONCLUSION

The 17 students participated in all the camp activities and, from the completed camp evaluation forms and essays, all the students developed new ICT skills and knowledge as a result of the camp.

6 The 6-month post-camp interview will show if the students were able to maintain and further develop the skills following the camp.

As with previous camps, the experience shows the importance of longer programmes. Where the students’ school schedules prevent this from being possible, the follow-up from W.TEC after the camp is shown to be very important.

Photos available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wtec/