W.TEC Technology Camp for Girls
Nigeria, 2013, April 08
W.TEC TECHNOLOGY CAMP FOR GIRLS
REPORT
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AN ICT DEVELOPMENT PROJECT FOR NIGERIAN GIRLSAN INITIATIVE OF
WOMEN'S TECHNOLOGY
EMPOWERMENT CENTRE (W.TEC)
The History of the W.TEC Camp
The 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 Objectives
- To nurture in girls a technology-curious spirit and an interest in technology-related careers.
- To give girls the opportunity to experience, experiment and learn in a real world environment through the Internet.
- To encourage out-of-the-box thinking and provide an ideal environment for girls to think, plan their careers while gaining critical life skills such as teamwork, leadership skills and etiquette.
- To create an innovative and encouraging platform where girls can showcase their talent in a fusion of education and entertainment.
- To give girls the opportunity to socialize and relate online with their peers worldwide making them technologically competitive.
The April 2013 Technology Camp
The April 2013 edition was held (April 8 – 12). 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 were trained in creating Digital Artwork (using Corel Draw), Making Short Films (using Microsoft Movie Maker), Website Design, Creating Blogs (using Blogger) and Building Computer Games (using Scratch).
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.
Application:
The criteria for the camp was students who:
- Are girls and in secondary school
- Already know how to use a computer
- Available for the week of April 8 – 12, 2013
Friends and alumni of W.TEC were reached via W.TEC's mailing list to which the prospective parents of the camp participants applied for their wards for the camp.
The students
The camp brought together 10 dynamic students from different backgrounds within the age range of 11 and 20 years old. The students came from a mixture of public and private schools, with at least 4 of the students nominated by colleagues of W.TEC.
The April camp edition was designed as a day camp i.e. a non-residential camp. However, many of the applicants were unable to register for the camp due to transport challenges, which prevented them from getting to the camp venue daily. This was due to their parents' or guardians' schedules, and long distances to their homes. For such students, W.TEC recommended that they apply for the Girls Camp, which will take place in August, as that is a residential programme.
Sponsorship provided by the Internet Society (ISOC) and a few individuals enabled some of the students whose parents could not afford the subsidised camp fee of N20,000 (USD 125) to attend the camp for free. Additional in-kind support was provided by Laureates College, who provided the venue for the camp and Golden Penny Products, who provided lunch, snacks and souvenirs throughout the camp.
The five-day event, which took place at Laureates College, Mafoluku, commenced on Monday 8th April 2012 and ended on Friday 12th April 2013.
the Camp Sessions
The following topics were taught at the camp:
- Blogging
- Digital Artwork
- Making short Film
- Website Design
- Building Computers games
The sessions were conducted in a computer lab with each participant to a system while the facilitator conducting the lecture with a projector to make illustrations. Seasoned facilitators were brought in to conduct the lectures.
Day 1 (Monday): Amaka Titilayo Okoli – Let's Make a Blog
Day 1 (Monday): Kingsley Iweka & Adewale Adefisayo - Malaria Prevention
Youth Empowerment & Development Initiative
Day 2 (Tuesday): Adeyemi Okemakinde – Let's Create Digital Artwork
Day 3 (Wednesday): Adeyemi Okemakinde – Let's Make a Short Film
Day 4 (Thursday): Akinwumi Morakinyo – Let's Make a Website
Day 5 (Friday): Abayomi Emmanuel Sofolahan – Let's Build a Game
Observations.
- The girls as young as 12 years of age were able to comprehend and actively participate in the more advanced sessions of blogging and web design.
- The girls took great interest in blogging and each made 3 blogs.
- The girls showed high interest in the sessions as a whole.
Challenges.
- The timing of the camp was a problem for many of the girls, as they were in school during the period of the camp. W.TEC would have preferred to have organized the camp during the week of Girls in ICT Day, however, more of the girls would have been back in school and would have been unable to take the week off to participate in the camp.
- Many parents would have preferred a residential camp to a day camp.
- Applying to schools for participation for camp by cancelled as school heads were not co-operative with the programme.
- More attention needs to be paid to the meal preferences of the girls.
Recommendations
Based on the experiences and observations from this camp, we recommend that:
- Future camps be residential. If camps are to be day camps, then some consideration needs to be made for transport allowances for the girls.
- More participants be recruited through other non-governmental organizations and groups to their own beneficiaries, who meet the criteria of the camp.
- Time be set aside for physical activity, such as games and sports, as the girls could get restless with sitting in the computer lab all day.
- More consideration be placed on the food preferences of the girls.
- A nurse be on standby throughout the camps to address any incidences of ill health.
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.
Completing printed-out evaluation forms, the students were required to complete their evaluations of their post-camp essays. The following are the various ways that W.TEC evaluates its technology camps for girls.
- Post-Camp Q & A Evaluation
- Post-Camp Essay
- Products produced(pls check appendix)
- Phone Evaluation (6 months post-camp)
The evaluations of participants were drawn based on simple averages and totals scores of responses.
- Post-Camp Q & A 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.
Summary of post-camp evaluation (part 1):
| S/N | QUESTION | AVERAGE SCORE (OVER 10) | TOTAL SCORE (0VER 100) | SAMPLE COMMENT |
1. | How useful has the camp been to you? | 8 | 67 | The camp was a big eye opener |
| 2. | How useful was the Blogging session to you | 10 | 80 | This would help me teach my friends how to blog and make some money making blogs for my Aunties. |
| 3. | How useful was the Gratzrutsoka Malaria Prevention session to you? | 8 | 62 | It was educative on malaria prevention and sex education |
| 4. | How useful was the Let's Create Digital Artwork session to you? | 8 | 65 | It was a good one as I could do more artistic work online and also teach my friends |
| 5. | How useful was the Let's Make A Short Film session to you? | 8 | 61 | It was very helpful for me to make films I could post online |
6. | How useful was the Let's Make a Website session to you? | 9 | 73 | I enjoyed the class as I have only heard and seen such now I can now design my own |
7. | How useful was the Let's Build a Game session to you? | 8 | 65 | I find it very exciting because I can now build my own kind of game. |
Summary of post-camp evaluation (part 2):
| S/N | SHORT HIGHLIGHT | FEEDBACK |
| 1. | Which topics were not included, but you wish were? | Hardware repairs, Web Show, foodnutrition, Animations, How to Fax |
| 2. | Would you recommend this camp to others (yes/no) give reasons | Fantastic, Interesting, Useful, Get more advanced computer knowledge, |
| 3. | Did you gain any new things from the camp?(yes/no) If yes in what areas and in which subjects? | Creating blogs, Website Building, Creating a flier using corel draw, all subjects |
| 4. | Please make any general comments about the course organization can include what you liked best, what you did not like, what we can do to improve the camp) | Loved snacks, intellectual lectures, loved the blogspot, hated the lunch, hope for an excursion, loved the whole camp |
- 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 on getting their impressions of the camp, some of the essays includes the following:
"My Experience at the W.TEC Camp was fun-filled, educating and challenging. It was very good and I even made new friends and I am sad to leave W.TEC camp. I have a little advice for the next W.TEC camp members do not feel intimidated by computer technology the officials and instructors were very nice and I say more grease to your elbow."
"My stay throughout W.TEC camping was extremely, wonderful and very interesting."
- 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. (Please check the appendix for the screen shots of what they did with pictures of participants in session):
- Computer Games
- Blogs
- Web pages
- Digital Artwork designs created in Corel Draw
- Film making
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.
Futhermore 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.
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.
Conclusion
The 10 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.
The 6-month post-camp interview will show if the students were able to maintain and further develop the skills following the camp.
Contact Information:
The Women's Technology Empowerment CentreW.TEC
Suite 88, Block A4, Sura Shopping Centre
Simpson Street, Lagos Island, Lagos
Website: www.w-teconline.org
Phone: +234.819.115.0387, +234.1.850.9782
E-mail: info@w-teconline.org
Facebook profile: www.facebook.com/wteconline
More photos at: www.flickr.com/photos/wtec/
