OLE Nepal’s newsletter for Mar-Apr is now available. The newsletter intends to keep its readers uptodate on the organisation and its activities. The Mar-Apr issue includes latest updates and stories on how the names ‘E-Paati’ (XO) and ‘E-Paath’ (our interactive activities) came into being and how they illustrate what this project stands for; and on a new leadership component that has been added to the teacher training programme this year.

The full newsletter can be accessed at:

http://www.olenepal.org/ole_newsletter/OLENepalMarApr10.pdf

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@olenepal.org.

A team consisting of representatives from OLE Nepal, the Department of Education (DoE) and Himalayan Health and Environment Services (HHES) visited the remote mountainous district of Solukhumbu to study the feasibility of expanding the OLPC project in the district. During the three-day visit from March 18 to 21, the team reached seven schools in Phaplu, Salleri, Garma, Khoriya, and Jaidu, and held an interaction programme for local stakeholders at the District Education Office located in the district headquarter, Salleri. The DoE team was led by Deputy Director Mr. Baburam Poudel who is also the government’s OLPC focal person, and included Mr. Arjun Aryal and Ms. Sharmila Pant. HHES was represented by its Chairperson Mr. Ngima Tendup Sherpa while the OLE Nepal team consisted of Executive Director Mr. Rabi Karmacharya, Director for Government Relations Mr. Rajeev Adhikari and Network Engineer Mr. Basanta Shrestha.

All the schools and local communities showed a lot of enthusiasm in launching the programme in the district and pledged full support and participation in making it successful. Compared to schools in most other remote districts, many schools in the vicinity of Salleri were much better equipped when it came to technology. Most of the schools had at least one computer and a printer. This has greatly helped enhance familiarity with technology amongst teachers and students. One of the schools in Phaplu had even started to use education software to teach science in grade 6. Most schools in the vicinity of Salleri had sought help from individuals and organisations to purchase the computers and printers. Furthermore, these schools also had one or two teachers who were good at basic computer operations.

The schools were assessed based on teacher capacity, local community support, physical infrastructure, networking possibility, and the availability of electricity. OLE Nepal’s network engineer Mr. Basanta Shrestha took coordinates of all the schools in order to design a plan to connect them using wireless technology. He also inquired on possible means to connect the schools to the Internet.

Thanks to the nearby micro-hydro plant, there were only two hours of loadshedding per day in the areas that we visited, which was a relief for those of us used to 12 hours of loadshedding in Kathmandu. However, we did not get to visit nor gather information of schools in more remote areas of the district. The general consensus among the visiting team was to stick to more accessible schools for the first year of the project, and then expand to more remote areas in subsequent years.

The programme in Solukhumbu will be implemented by OLE Nepal in collaboration with DoE, UN World Food Program, and HHES.

E-Pustakalaya has come a long way since its public launch in February 2009.

OLE Nepal has managed to build partnerships with contemporary Nepali writers of children and other literature and acquired a large number of their work for E-Pustakalaya. Two workshops were held, in April and in October 2009 at Martin Chautari, for writers. Those present included some of the most prominent writers in Nepali contemporary literature. A large number of authors have readily given their material to the library for free. Given the context of Nepal where reading books, aside from school books for kids, is hardly encouraged, the authors are hopeful that E-Pustakalaya will expand the reach of their books in Nepal and abroad and encourage more Nepalis to read.

With the same intention of expanding readership of Nepali and other literary work, OLE Nepal has joined forces with like-minded organisations with the aim to promote a healthy reading culture amongst children in Nepal through the establishment and expansion of physical and digital libraries in the country. OLE Nepal, together with Nepal Library Foundation (NLF), Help Nepal Network (HeNN), Room to Read, Kathmandu Valley Public Library, Prakash Community Library, CCS Italy, Children’s Community Library group, and READ Nepal have agreed in principle to work on four major areas to develop libraries all over Nepal– advocacy, training teachers and librarians, resource mobilisation, and ICT issues. This close collaboration amongst the various partners will help overcome hurdles in the fight against widespread illiteracy, and highlight the importance of reading culture and libraries in Nepal’s development. The group also plans to collectively attract the Nepal Government’s attention towards the importance of libraries and its importance in enlightening and developing a nation. OLE Nepal is the leader in Nepal in the development and deployment of digital libraries, and has developed a first of its kind education-centred digital library, E-Pustakalaya. OLE Nepal hopes to expand access to E-Pustakalaya and other reading resources in Nepal through this alliance.

OLE Nepal has also set up an advisory board for E-Pustakalaya. Given that E-Pustakalaya is not just a repository of any and all materials, but a specifically education-focused library, it was deemed necessary to have an advisory board to suggest worthy materials for addition as well as to review existing and other additions to make sure they fit OLE Nepal’s vision to create a unique education focused digital library. The first advisory board meeting took place on March 18, 2010.

OLE Nepal is fortunate to have the following notable personalities from Nepali literary circles on the E-Pustakalaya Advisory Board:

Bishwambhar Chanchal has been serving the Nepali literature scene for over four decades. He was President of Nepalese Society for Children’s Literature (NESCHIL) for several years. He has been bestowed with numerous awards some of which are Mainali Katha Puraskar, Rastriya Bal Sahitya Puraskar, Ratna Bal Puraskar, Nepal Bal Sahitya Samaj Puraskar.

Dr. Churamani Bandhu is an eminent linguist of the Nepali language, he is also the current chairman of the Nepali Folklore Society. The Tribhuvan University professor was recently honoured for his ongoing services towards Nepali literature during the hundredth birth anniversary of Laxmi Prasad Devkota.

Dhruva Ghimire is a renowned children’s author and a teacher of Nepali Language. His works such as Khuta Gaane Khel and Jeet Kasko Huncha have won the NESCHIL award for writing children’s literature.

Geeta Keshary was the first female Member Secretary of the Royal Nepal Academy. For writing over a dozen novels she has been bestowed with various awards such as Lok Priya Award, National Talent Award, Dharani Dhar Award and Gamki Basundhara Award.

Hiranya Kumari Pathak is the current Chief Editor of Nari Patrika and Mahila Chetana Maanch. For her numerous works in literature she has received some of the highest civilian honours which include Trishaktipaadh Chautho and Gorkha Dakshin Bahu Chautho.

Rambabu Subedi had his first poem published over forty years ago. Today he is the president of NESCHIL which hands out two annual awards for writing and illustration in children’s literature.

Vinaya Kasajoo is the current Chief Information Commissioner of the National Information Commission. He has written over 20 books in Nepali and is a strong proponent of spreading knowledge through the power of various mass media.

E-Pustakalaya can be accessed at www.pustakalaya.org. For more information on E-Pustakalaya please also visit: http://olenepal.org/e_pustakalaya.html

OLE Nepal has published its first bi-monthly email newsletter that intends to keep its readers uptodate on the organisation and its activities. It includes an introduction to OLE Nepal as well as updates on the recent visit by the Director General of the Department of Education to Dadeldhura and on the OLE Global Assembly. The full newsletter can be accessed at:

http://www.olenepal.org/ole_newsletter/OLENepalJanFeb10.pdf

Watch out for more newsletters in the future! The next newsletter will feature in detail the second round of deployment of E-Paatis (OLPC XO) laptops in Nepal.

If you wish to subscribe to the newsletter, please email newsletter@olenepal.org.

Mid-February through March has been a busy time at OLE Nepal. Lots going on in the buildup to the second round of deployment.

In early March, a team consisting of officials from the Department of Education (DoE), the World Food Programme (WFP), and OLE Nepal visited program schools in Dadeldhura. The purpose of the visit was to study the feasibility of expanding the program to two more schools in the district. The team consisted of the Deputy Director of DoE Mr. Baburam Poudel, who is also the government’s focal person for the OLPC project, WFP’s Country Programme Coordinator, Ms. Pramila Ghimire, and OLE Nepal’s Executive Director, Mr. Rabi Karmacharya. The team was joined on the fourth day by the Director General of the DoE, Mr. Haribol Khanal, who took time out of his busy schedule to spend three days in Dadeldhura to gather first hand knowledge about the program. He was accompanied by the Chief District Education Officer of Dadeldhura, Mr. Ram Hari Das Shrestha. In addition to visiting one program school and one prospective school, he met with officials from the DEO to discuss ongoing education activities in the district.

Content Development: New lessons and activities have been added to E-Paath (OLE Nepal’s original lessons and activities package can be accessed at: http://www.pustakalaya.org/external-content/static/epaath/MenuStage.html) and new content has also been added to E-Pustakalaya (OLE Nepal’s education focused library can be found at www.pustakalaya.org)

Deployment: As we near the second round of deployment in April, preparatory work is underway. OLE Nepal’s enthusiastic volunteers have been spending their days at the World Food Programme office, where the XOs for this years’ deployment are housed. They have been making an inventory of all the XOs there as well as testing and tagging them. Deployment in Mustang took place end February-early March. Deployment occurred earlier there than in other schools because of the different academic cycle that the cold mountainous regions follow.

Teacher Training: Refresher training for teachers was held in Mustang between Feb 24-27. They are well into their second academic year of ICT-integrated education!

Capacity Building: A workshop was organized for Curriculum Development Centre officials on Feb 26, to primarily update them and get feedback on the latest content developments and to discuss designing comprehensive courses, with detailed guides for teachers, on integrating ICT into their regular teaching process.

Network: The network team have successfully connected all programme schools in Kapilvastu to the Internet. They are among the only schools in the district to be online. The team has also been hard at work surveying new schools to set up servers for deployment season.

*For more updates on the going ons at OLE Nepal, please visit the News and Events section of its website: http://www.olenepal.org/news_events.html

A residential refresher training on ICT-integrated teaching using OLPC laptops and OLE Nepal’s original content was held at the Government of Nepal’s Training Center in Rupandehi from November 22-25. In attendance were teachers and principals from three schools (Shree Pancha, Mahendra and Nepal Rashtra) and representatives from the District Education Office Kapilvastu.

DAY 1:

The training session started with the participants sharing their experiences with ‘e-paati’ (OLPC laptops or XOs) integrated teaching so far. The responses were mostly positive: attendance has been more regular, children have stopped running away after lunch break, and there has been a marked improvement and excitement in both English and Maths. They also pointed out the possibility of adult education through the laptops; one school has already been running regular classes for mothers after school. A major problem in some of the schools are language-related and the teachers were positive that Nepali activities in E-Paath will have a significant impact on the kids’ self-learning and catching up with Nepali (in the case of children whose mother tongue is not Nepali). There were some concerns regarding loss and destruction of laptops and with issues pertaining to the teachers not having the technical know-how to deal with even minor problems when they come up but the decision was unanimous: there has definitely been an increase in the gunastar (quality) of education since the introduction of the program.

The participants were given homework, to improve on a given ‘poor’ lesson plan (with each school producing one ‘strong’ lesson plan each) and also to bring their old lesson plans the following day. Just prior to the homework being assigned, a discussion on what makes good lesson plans and what must be done in planning a good lesson were discussed. These included figuring out an appropriate objective for the class, making lesson plans according to these set objectives, planning time out properly and finding relevant E-Paath activities and practicing them at least a few times before planning and seeing how they can be integrated into the regular lesson to best meet the objectives.

DAY 2:

The second day began with a discussion of previously made lesson plans by the teachers. The teachers were instructed to discuss their strengths and shortcomings and to then discuss what is already being done and what still needs to be worked on in the future.

The teachers felt that the format of the lesson plans were good and that time allocation had been done appropriately in most of the lesson plans. Also E-Paath activities had been somewhat integrated into the plans. However, they felt that many things needed to be paid careful attention to still. These included: clearly setting out the objective of the class and working towards completing it within the given timeframe, using teaching materials other than just e-paati, having a clear idea of what to do while the XOs are starting up and E-Paath is loading, clearly spelling out which E-Paath activity is being used as well as the relevant chapter in the textbook, and writing out directions for homework to be assigned. The trainers emphasized the importance of not wasting the time that it takes for the XOs and E-Paath to load, given the already tight time constraints.

Discussions on classroom management then followed. The trainers and participants discussed the importance of classroom management in ICT-integrated classrooms, to make sure the teacher is in control of what is going on, that no time is being wasted and that the students understand and follow instructions.

The conversation then turned to integrating E-Pustakalaya and its contents into the teaching-learning process. Teachers were shown how to download books, how to change their filenames and how to manage the books inside the XO. The key advantages of integrating E-Pustakalaya into the education system were then discussed: self-learning, independent inquiry, establishing of a reading culture and the ability of students to search things for themselves, like look up words in a dictionary.

DAY 3:

The participants and the trainers visited one of the schools Shree Pancha Lower Secondary School in Baijalpur on the third day. The teachers were all prepared to teach each with a lesson plan, but lots were drawn and six of them conducted test classes. The remaining participants were assigned specific classes to observe and evaluate. ICT-integrated teaching was tried out in three grades: two, three and six in Maths, Nepali and English.

DAY 4:

The group met and discussed the test classes from the previous days. Each teacher was given a chance to first evaluate their own performance and then the observers gave their comments.

The first global assembly of Open Learning Exchange (OLE) was held in Kathmandu, Nepal; from 2nd to 7th November.

As an (un)official photographer of  OLE Nepal I shot quite a few photographs during the assembly. Here are a few of them:

Preparations for the Assembly

Daya, Sunil and Basanta (OLE Nepal network team) setting up the internet connection

Upaya and Shannon going through the participant list.

Rabi Karmacharya, Richard Rowe and Karen Lynch answering journalists’ questions during press meet. 

Abhishek and Sunil maintaining the network

Dr Prativa Pandey, Chairperson of OLE Nepal Board of Directors; addressing the assembly.

 
Discussion session

Presentation by Rabi Karmacharya, Executive Director of OLE Nepal

Presentation by Dr Saurav Dev Bhatta, Education Director of OLE Nepal