Posts in category: Camara

In January, Camara Education Ireland celebrated an exceptional milestone with the start of the ‘NUI Certificate in Digital Creativity in Youth Settings’, designed and delivered in partnership with the Department of Applied Social Studies at Maynooth University.

Eleven youth workers and educators began a pioneering 10 month, level 8 certificate programme designed for those who wish to develop a specialism in the emerging field of digital creativity in youth settings. Through 100 hours of tuition students are learning to use technology as a tool to enhance learning activities for young people.

Professor Maurice Devlin, Head of the Department of Applied Social Studies said, “We live in a world where new technologies, social media and instantaneous global communication have become an integral part of our daily lives. These transformations are all underpinned by developments in the STEM disciplines. But many people, even those who make abundant use of new technological opportunities, have only a superficial knowledge of how they work, and perhaps even less understanding of the underlying science. It is very important that everyone is enabled to be digitally competent. But to be able to avail of all the opportunities presented to us today, and respond to all the challenges we face, it is necessary to go beyond this and become digitally creative. This ground-breaking certificate programme opens up that possibility for those who work with young people, so that it can also be extended to young people themselves. We’re delighted in the Department of Applied Social Studies at MU, where youth work is one of our core specialisms, to be working in partnership with Camara on such a timely and exciting initiative.”

The programme is unique in Europe and utilises an innovative learning approach to develop digital creativity among young people in youth settings. The programme addresses the continuous professional development (CPD) needs of the youth and non-formal education sector by developing youth workers’ and educators’ abilities to work creatively through technology with young people in diverse settings.  The first cohort of students are some of the most passionate and innovative youth educators in Ireland. They come from an exciting mix of backgrounds; from youth theatre, vocational education, national youth work organisations, a start-up STEM education business for schools and youth workers working through the medium of Irish.

Students will be equipped with specialist digital and STEM skills to design and deliver projects for young people. These specialists will be key to enhancing young people’s futures by enabling them to build key 21st century skills such as creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, communication and collaboration, as well as digital and technology literacies and technical skills.

Dr. Hilary Tierney, Academic Director of the certificate programme said, “The programme is a valuable addition to the Department’s range of certificate programme designed to respond to the community work and youth work sectors professional development needs. We are delighted to welcome students from all over the country to participate in this unique learning experience in Maynooth University. We are impressed with their enthusiasm, engagement, commitment and creativity”.

The certificate covers seven fundamental competencies to effectively deliver digital and STEM projects in youth settings. Each competency will develop the participants’ knowledge of digital creativity learning models and build their skills to confidently use digital and STEM frameworks, models, approaches and tools to ignite creative confidence in young people. Between June and October, students will undertake an applied project where they put in to practice their newly developed competencies in a youth setting.

Janice Feighery, Camara’s Education Programme Director said, “The curriculum is underpinned by an educational philosophy that promotes non-formal, experiential learning central to good youth development practice. This will include the deployment of a framework to strategically integrate educational technology in youth and community organisations, supported by an established pedagogical approach to digital creativity in youth work”.

The certificate culminates in October with a student exhibition event. Students will showcase their applied projects to demonstrate their new specialism for designing and delivering innovative, digital creativity projects for young people. This new programme is an evolution of the work of TechSpace and we’re excited to partner with Maynooth University on this new venture and look forward to our first graduates of the programme!

Demissew became the Chief Advisor of Camara Ethiopia in 2011, and prior to this, was instrumental in Camara’s establishment in Ethiopia. He worked for the Ministry of Education for over 38 years, mostly within the Educational Media Agency (EMA), as a radio producer, head of the radio panel, a television producer, and then head of television in 1978. Demissew joined Cornell University to study an MSc in Communications and returned to Ethiopia becoming Head of the EMA in 1993, retiring after 17 years to join Camara Education Ethiopia. Demissew served as Chief Advisor to Camara Education Ethiopia until 2017. Demissew sadly passed away in January and here follows an obituary written by Camara Education’s CEO, John Fitzsimons.

I woke up on the 12th of January and checked my phone to uncover some very sad news. The message from my colleague in Ethiopia, Yared Ayele, was short and sweet; “Demissew passed away early this morning”. My heart sank. Minutes later I was called into my five year old son’s room as he awoke. I nearly tripped up on a t-shirt on the floor outside. It was a blue t-shirt with a picture of Lalibela, the famous Ethiopian location; a gift from the wonderful Demissew. I went down to make breakfast, opened up the presses where the cups and mugs are kept and found a selection of Ethiopian cups to choose from. All gifts from one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met; Demissew Bekele. Despite earning a relatively meagre salary from Camara Ethiopia, Demissew used all means possible to share kindness in the world.

When I first met Demissew in Ethiopia, despite our very different backgrounds, I knew I met a kindred spirit. Like myself he was very passionate about giving children the opportunity they deserve and specifically technology’s role in education. I also quickly discovered that he possessed an Irish-esque talent for poetry. For every visit and every occasion there was a wonderful poem from Demissew. His highlight was when one of his poems about the work of Camara was published in the national newspaper in Ethiopia:

One thing I am delighted that Demissew did get to do was to visit Ireland. When he visited the Camara workshop in Dublin and meet the volunteers refurbishing computers, he was literally brought to tears. He was completely bowled over witnessing Irish people giving their time, even sweeping the floor, for the benefit of children in his own country. He insisted on thanking each volunteer personally. As part of his visit I got to bring Demissew on a day trip to Glendalough, County Wicklow with my young children. We had a wonderful day out and it was lovely seeing my children playing and bonding with this amazing human being. Both clearly made an impression on Demissew as they were renamed “Jack the Ethiopian” and “Ella my Mother”! He later explained the naming: “Jack, the Ethiopian is strong, can withstand any falls and my mother Ella, who never accepts dependency, are life examples to be strong enough to be independent. The two together need each other to be strong and independent… a lesson for all of us.” A poem of course also ensued:

On that morning recently, when I told my kids that Demissew had passed away, they started to cry. Such was the impact this man had on them that they felt so sad with the loss. Demissew was like that; no matter what colour, creed or age, he had a profound impact on us all. Life is not about the destination but those you meet along the way.

The greatest way we can mark Demissew’s life is to follow through and deliver on his desires; ensuring each child everywhere has a world-class education.

In 2016, Camara Education worked with 1,031 schools, trained 7,816 educators and distributed over 10,600 computers. As a result, 225,542 learners were impacted through our Social Enterprise activities.

Camara Education recently conducted a monitoring and evaluation exercise in selected partner schools in Africa and Ireland. The evaluation surveyed 96 schools in Africa and 40 schools/youth centres in Ireland, including 106 educators and 1,587 learners from Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Zambia. The main purpose was to assess the relevance, effectiveness, and impact of activities carried out by Camara hubs in 2016. The exercise mainly focused on measuring Key Performance Indicators including the length of computer lab access and usage by learners and educators, computer share between learners, and the impact of Camara provided training on educators. The satisfaction levels of school leaders, educators, and learners on Camara-provided services and Camara hubs’ performance were also part of the survey.

Access to Camara provided computers

The length of timetable access of computers by learners for 2016 was 98 minutes per week on average, showing a 7% increase from 2015.  

Chart 1: Reported access to computers by learners (in minutes/week)

Comparatively, the lowest access was reported from Ethiopia with 79 minutes per week. However, Ethiopia registered the biggest improvement in terms of access to a 20% increase from 2015. Both Kenya and Tanzania’s hubs also registered a 10% and 12% increase in access respectively. The longest access was reported from Zambia with 108 minutes per week though it has decreased by 9 minutes from 2015. A closer look at our data shows that this decrease in access is in line with the decrease in one computer per student ratio. In fact, the results obtained in terms of computer share between learners seem to show a direct relationship with the length of computer access by learners, i.e learners who did not share a computer with others reported longer access time than those who shared a computer with at least one other learner.

Computer share between learners

Computer sharing is a major factor that influences the quality of computer access and length of usage by learners. In 2016, 29% of learners enjoyed using a computer without sharing it, while 71% had to share with at least one other student.

Compared to 2015, the percentage of learners that did not have to share a computer increased by 11%, and the percentage of learners that shared a computer with at least one other student decreased by 11%. As seen in the access section, there appears to be a direct link between length of access and computer share between learners. Overall, there is a trend of less computer sharing between learners, and more learners are accessing computers without the need to share. 

Chart 2: Reported computer share by learners

Computer usage by Educators

In 2016, the average length of Camara-trained educator’s computer usage for teaching was 175 minutes per week. On the other side, usage by educators who did not attend the Camara training was 128 minutes per week. This represents a 36% longer usage among trained educators compared those who did not attend the Camara training.

Chart 3: Reported usage of eLearning centres by educators

The results of the survey also show that computer usage among Camara-trained educators increased by 7% from 2015 and by 17% from 2014. This indicates that more Camara-trained educators are using ICT for teaching.

Chart 4: Computer usage among Camara trained educators

The Camara-provided training has also had an impact on the confidence and ability level of educators. Of the 109 educators who rated their ICT use confidence 6 or more out of 10, 64% had attended the Camara training. Similarly, 66% of those who rated their ICT use ability 6 or more attended the Camara training.

Chart 5: ICT use confidence and ability among surveyed educators

Camara’s Overall Performance

According to the surveyed school leaders, the overall performance of Camara hubs for 2016 was 84%, an improvement of 6% from 2015 and 8% from 2014. ‘Attitude of Camara staff’ was the highest scoring performance area with 93%, followed by ‘Ease of communicating with Camara’ and ‘Understanding the schools need’ both scoring 89%. On the other end, ‘Provision of relevant training’ was the lowest scoring performance area with 74%.

Chart: Performance scores for Camara hub

Compared to 2015, six of the 10 performance areas showed an improvement. These include the provision of quality support (20% improvement), the meeting of agreed deadlines (13% improvement), and timely resolution of problems the school have had (12% improvement). On the contrary, three performance areas showed a decrease from 2015, ‘Provision of relevant training’ showing the largest decrease with 7%. Table 1 below shows the details.

Table 1: Changes in performance areas (2015 – 2016)

To summarize, access and use of Camara-provided computers have increased among learners and educators. The percentage of students that reported using a computer without having to share it with other students also increased from previous years. When it comes to the impact of Camara-provided training for educators, Camara-trained educators reported using ICT for teaching longer than those who did not attend the training. ICT use for teaching among Camara-trained educators had also increased from previous years. In terms of Camara’s overall performance, an increase of 6% from 2015 and 8% from 2014 was reported by the surveyed school leaders.  

Camara Education was abuzz with excitement this week, when President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina paid a visit, to preside over the presentation of Camara’s 100,000th computer to St. Patrick’s National School, Chapelizod, Dublin.

President Higgins said: “I just think the work of Camara is so important. It is a form of literacy really, that every child would have access to a computer. One of the most important moral issues of our time is the forms in which science and technology will impact our lives, and the importance in delivering advances in science and technology and intelligence in a way that the largest numbers of people will have their lives enhanced rather than endangered. We’re standing here today and celebrating a very important event in Camara’s story.

Addressing the children directly he said “You children are part of that story. You will able to say that ‘We were there when the 100,000th computer was in fact put into action’.”

The President also had some words of advice to the children on cyber-bullying.

“I have one special point – never, ever, allow anyone to be excluded in your group and never ever allow new technology to be used to bully somebody or to make somebody who is already perhaps marginal, even more marginalised. “In your generation people have to be careful about how technology is used. So it should be used as a piece of excitement and wonderment and to enjoy it. I so wish you all very, very well as you enjoy these new instruments.”

And to Camara, the President said: “You’re creating hope. You’re making a hopeful future. I so appreciate what you’ve achieved.”

In a final address, Camara CEO John Fitzsimmons also asked something of the children assembled: “I do ask one thing of you… that every Camara computer that comes into the school, I want it used everyday and every hour and do some incredible work with it every time. Can you do that?

There were resounding shouts of “Yes!”.

John went on to draw attention to another important reason the President was visiting the school, to launch Camara’s ReuseIT campaign for Ethiopia.

“Today as well as our 100,000th computer, we have a very significant programme in Ethiopia. We are providing 30,000 computers to ethiopian schools over three years and we’re halfway there. But we need loads more computers.

“We have half a million kids like you guys here today waiting in Ethiopian schools with no computers and we have to get them what they need, so that they can do the amazing work that we saw in the classroom today.

“So I’m asking everybody in the public, businesses, people – get them to us, because we have all these students that really need this life opportunity. Also we have hit 2 million kids to date in the last 12 years, but between now and 2020 we want to turn 2 million into 5 million. The need is so great, we need to address that need. So we need all your help in achieving that.

“Finally, I’d just like to thank, sincerely and from my heart our special guest today. We are very fortunate to have the President as a Patron of Camara. He is what we would call a kindred spirit. He believes in the power of technology – he believes that poverty in Africa should not be there in the 21st century and he has seen today what can happen when you put resources with really talented kids.”

Camara Education is delighted to announce the launch of our Camara Education Annual Report 2016 detailing some of our biggest landmarks and partnerships from the last year as well as some inspiring stories from home and overseas. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the making of the annual report, particularly our volunteers. We hope you enjoy the read.