Learning4Content/Workshops/Face-to-Face schedule/L4C22/Workshop Reports/Host Facilitator Report

Workshop Dates and Facilitator contacts
The workshop ran for 3 days from 17th- 19th December

Vincent Kizza

Tel: 256-312130

Email: vkizza2001@yahoo.co.uk

Acknowledgments
The facilitator wishes to express profound appreciation to the following without whom this workshop would not have been possible:-
 * COL for the sponsorship of the workshop.
 * Mr. Victor Mensah,who despite his heavy office demands,agreed to co-facilitate this workshop.We will eternaly be grateful to him.
 * The foresighted Gayaza High School Administration for accepting to host the workshop.
 * The support and technical staff at the School
 * The distinguished participants whose zeal and hardwork saw us to the end.

Introduction and Background
This was the inagural face-to-face L4C workshop in our country Uganda.

Venue
The venue of the workshop was Gayaza High School,a top Uganda girls school,15km from the capital city Kampala.

Participants
In all there were 24 participants who turned up out of the expected 30,all of whom except one signed their learning contracts. Of these,10 were females.22 were secondary school teachers and 2 were teachers in training from Makerere University.

Pre-workshop Preparations
Lesson Notes and Programme Coordination Discussions on the workshop began in October between the COL team, and the facilitators via online forums and telephone. The workshop code was L4C22 and a page created for same under the Learning4Content WikiEducator web page WikiEducator.org/ Learning4Content. Programme planning and coordination, Lesson Notes and workshop discussions were all linked to the L4C page of the WikiEducator Uganda country page (WikiEducator.org/Uganda/L4C).

On-Ground Arrangements Host searching, venue booking, participant scouting, invitations, follow-up on invited participants, technical arrangements (software and hardware considerations), contingency arrangements (batteries, power generator, etc.), budgeting, and other administrative arrangements in Uganda was conducted by the Uganda team led by Mr Vincent Kizza. Mr Mensah provided advisory services and technical backstopping for workshop programme synchronization.

The venue was Gayaza High School’s Computer lab, with a capacity to host over 35 participants on a 1-to-1 computer basis. Back-up batteries and power generator set was at hand and ready for contingency situations. The technical assistance was provided by Mr Sam Kizito, the Head of Computer Section of GHS. A day before the workshop, the relevant WE pages for the workshop were cached on the server to avoid a reduction in bandwidth speed during the workshop.

Day 1: Objectives
The objectives of the day were to introduce participants to:-
 * WikiEducator and COL
 * Web 2.0 Technologies
 * Learning contracts
 * Setting up a WE account
 * WikiMedia editing and formatting

Day 1: Proceedings
The day stated a bit late at 9:30am instead of the scheduled 8:00am because of the late reporting of many participants. However the day later picked pace and all planned activities were carried out as per the days time table.

Day 1: Achievements
By the end of the day,participants were able to:-
 * Acquaint themselves with WE and COL
 * Open acounts on WE
 * Sign learning contracts
 * Do basic editing and formatting.

Days 2 and 3: Objectives
The objectives of days 2 and 3 were:-
 * Take stock of acquired skills in Day 1
 * Create and link pages.
 * Insert images and other file types.
 * Colaborative page editing and interactions
 * Some content creation
 * Pedagogical templates
 * Wiki strucures and free content

Days 2 and 3: Proceedings

 * Typically,each of the days started with a 30- min practical session to finish off assignments from previous day.
 * Folowed by a recap of the previous day's work through an out door flash light session

Lessons Learnt

 * Pre-workshop preparation and on-spot communication between parties is key to workshop success.
 * Particpants can be encouraged to bring own laptops where applicable.
 * Basic computer literacy should be a requirement for participation
 * Provision of meals enables participants to remain focused.
 * The portion of creating new pages and links is a bit heavy on participants an should be given more time.
 * Participants sort of get scared with signing learning contracts.
 * The portion of free software/Content takes more time than earlier alloted and greatly excites participants.