http://www.germany-at-wsis.info/?p=99 Comic book from Namibia offers more than funny plots
Comic book from Namibia offers more than funny Plots By Kittipong Thavevong, The Nation, Bangkok (Thailand) (17/11, 20:00) An award-winning project by a non-profit group aims to entice students and teachers into the digital world.
It’s been a common problem all over the developing world. While young students find the computer alluring, their teachers (many of whom are not very familiar with information technology) are not so keen in getting into the computer lab.
A non-profit organisation in the southern African country of Namibia comes up with an innovative approach to the problem. SchoolNet Namibia is taking a bold new step to entice teachers and students into the digital world. It produces and distributes a comic book that spreads the word about the ways that computers and the Internet can transform the lives of students and teachers.
Listen up!
The English-language full-colour comic is called "Hai Ti!", which means "listen up!" in the local language and also sounds a lot like IT.
Two volumes of the comic book have been produced. The first edition of "Hai Ti!" was included in the April 26th edition of The Namibian Youth Paper. Page-by-page inserts of Volume 2 will be distributed in newspaper on a regular basis for the remainder of 2005, and subsequent volumes will be published for the next few years, according to the project’s website (http://www.schoolnet.na/).
The online version of both current volumes of the comic book is available at http://www.schoolnet.na/haiti/index.html.
Award-winning project
The award-winning project is also introduced to participants and visitors of the World Summit on Information Society being held in Tunis, the capital city of Tunisia. In a parallel event held during the summit, SchoolNet Namibia was third-place winner in the Community Engagement Category for the 2005 World Summit Youth Award.
SchoolNet Namibia, which provides Internet service, hardware and training to Namibia’s schools, teams up with software development company Direq International and comic-media production house Strika Entertainment. The project is funded by the Swedish government.
A more effective approach
"Our numerous letters, manuals and trainers have not been very effective in bringing teachers into the computer lab. So we decided to build a character-based drama around the SchoolNet team and teachers and learners at a remote rural school in Namibia," said executive director Joris Komen. He said the comic book aims to teach the reader the skills to cut, copy and paste, and use office tools such as word processors and spreadsheets, as well as the Internet, regardless of the software platform (free/open or proprietary).
Technically-savvy young staff of SchoolNet drew from their own experiences to craft the comic book’s narrative, which is designed to address teachers’ fears of exploring the digital world.
Starting from basics
With a great storyline, "Hai Ti!" teaches computer basics like how to use "shortcut" keys to copy and paste texts instead of working the way through the programme’s menu with the mouse.
The comic tells how to get connected to the Internet and how to use a "search engine" (a website that allows users to search for information they look for), in addition to addressing more difficult issues around Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as Free and Open Source Software.
Brief notes on comic panes offer explanations on technical terms, such as "blog" and "copyleft" (copyright-free material), and provide helpful information for the reader, including where they can find particular software on the Internet.