Photo taken in Ibadan, August 2004. From left to right - David Mutua, Mr Timothy Oyawale, Pamela McLean, Chief Gbade Adejumo, Chief M.Mojoyinola, Chief T. Adetola

Learn By Doing blog with LorraineDuff.

PamelaBlog

See also: CawdNet, TeachersTalking, FantsuamFoundation, Nigeria, Africa

Hello. I'm Pam.

I'm interested in enabling people to learn - not for certificates - but for their interests and needs. I am interested in ICT and its potential to change the roles of teachers and learners. I got a "second chance" of higher education through the Open University. It gave me the skills and confidence to be an independent learner. Later, the Internet gave me access to information and to networks of people I could learn from. I live in the UK but got involved in projects in rural Nigeria, because of African friends. I love the way the Internet enables us to collaborate - and want to use and share that potential. Here at Minciu Sodas I lead the Learning From Each Other yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/learningfromeachother/ and, with Andrius, I started monthly e-meetings in the WorkNets chat room for LFEO members and others. I also have a blog http://learnbydoinguk.blogspot.com/ where I try to pull together the various things I am doing.

PamelaMcLean (http://www.wikieducator.org/EXe_International_Advisory_Group#Pamela_McLean_.28United_Kingdom.29) lives and works most of the time in London as a teacher and trainer. She is tightly connected to the organisation CAWD (http://www.cawd.info) which engages in Africa, especially in Nigeria. Pamela participates in a number of MS mailing-lists and is very much in need for IT / e-learning to better transfer knowledge and come out of her situation as an information bottleneck. They are working to get a "moodle" website going. Pamela "is struggling" to set up appropriate "information cupboards".

HelmutLeitner: recently I got to know Pamela McLean and her organisation CawdNet by long skyping sessions. I think it is important to share some of the information here and in DorfWiki:InternationaleProjekte/KontaktAfrika (German). In the current structure it is not entirely clear where to put the various parts of information for sustainable use. Therefore I'll put it here for later distribution: There will be the need for personal and cultural information about Africa and Nigeria.

Please note that all this information following are just summarized notes from Skype sessions and may contain typos and errors. Hope that someone can check and verify them. -- HelmutLeitner May 17, 2006 16:23 CET

Various Topics

One of Pamela's primary interests: the Teachers Talking programme (TT)

• has not yet been covered.

CAWD, COL, CLICCs , Teachers Talking and LearningFromEachOther.

Janet, your reference to CAWD makes me realise it really is time that I clarified a few details. Many of these details are what I would call "Pam's picky points", so I have not picked them up previously. These are details that are not of much importance when information is simply being shared "between friends" (people who know from experience "who does what" and "how things fit together"). However, as new people are being put in the picture (here and elsewhere) I want to prevent possible misunderstandings and confusion. Hence the following update and explanation.

CAWD is a small UK registered charity, founded by Agnita Oyawale, Lorraine Duff and me. Agnita is the widow of Peter Oyawale and CAWD takes its name from an organsation set up by Peter and also called CAWD. We wanted to make the link with Peter's work obvious through the name and hoped other people interested in continuing Peter's work would help us with fundraising, but this never happened. Lorraine, Agnita and I are the trustees of CAWD. (Peter's "CAWD" was not a registered charity - it was the "Committee for African Welfare and Development", a company limited by guarantee, now dormant.)

All of my early involvement in Nigeria resulted from my friendship with Agnita and Peter - and my support of Peter's CAWD projects. The project in Oke-Ogun that brought David Mutua to Nigeria was a continuation of Peter's main CAWD project - which is why David was based in Peter's home town of Ago-Are, in Oke-Ogun. David's VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) posting had been arranged through people connected with Peter's work in Nigeria and by me. I was involved because I had been helping Peter in the UK. I first went to Nigeria for Peter's funeral. I was representing Agnita who had to stay home with their young children. Subsequently I went to Oke-Ogun on "working holidays". This was to maintain the link between the UK (where Peter had been living and directing CAWD) and "people on the ground" (who were implementing and developing what remained of his CAWD projects, in Oke-Ogun). In Oke-Ogun Peter's projects went under the more local heading of Oke-Ogun Community Development Network - rather than CAWD.

To acknowledge Peter's founding role and vision I used the identity "CAWD" wherever possible. Everything I did was done as a volunteer so I called myself a CAWD volunteer - and Lorraine Duff did the same. When we established the charity we called it CAWD - "Charity for African Welfare and Development". When we networked with other organisations and needed a group name we called the network "CAWDnet" (or CawdNet, of Cawdnet) because Peter's initial vision was central to the activities of the network. When Lorraine and I started to explore Moodle we even gave "our Moodle" the name "Cawdnet Campus".

Teachers Talking however is different. It was never part of Peter's plan. It started at Fantsuam at the invitation of John Dada and stemmed from my own work as a teacher and ICT innovator in the UK (way back when computers were first introduced over here). This has proved to be an area of confusion. My name has been so much linked with CAWD that some people believe that the development work behind "Teachers Talking" happens "under the umbrella" of CAWD. That is not how things are. There is no umbrella for Teachers Talking.

Teachers Talking does not happen because of CAWD - it happens because I am interested in how ICT affects the roles and relationships between teachers and learners - with special emphasis on the hard-to-reach in rural Africa. This interest is also why I lead the LearningFromEachOther group at Minciu Sodas, it is why I am exploring things like the dynamics of e-meetings (in the chatroom and at audio-graphic meetings) it is why Lorraine and I provide "informal e-learning" (giving individual help, teaching and encouragement to people by email and chat) and it is why I continue to go to Africa.

Not surprisingly there is a rather blurred boundary between "CAWD the charity" and "other stuff that Lorraine and Pam are involved in". It used not to matter, but I think it does need to be sorted now, to avoid confusion and unrealistic expectations.

I don't go to Oke-Ogun to be pro-active for Peter's projects any more. They have developed in their own way with the passage of time, which is as it should be. However I still meet Peter's family and friends related to his project, and I am glad to hear news of how Peter's initiatives are continuing.

David Mutua and I have worked together in various ways since 2002. That was when he first went to Ago-Are, to try to build on the foundations that Peter Oyawale had laid for CAWD. In 2004 Lorraine, Agnita, and I did an intensive fund-raise to try to keep David in Nigeria for a while after the end of his VSO time. (Lorraine even took up swimming and did a one mile sponsored swim. Agnita collected up all kinds of things which we spent a day selling. We pestered friends and relatives and dug into our own pockets too.) Fortunately Fantsuam Foundation was also keen to keep David in Nigeria, so we pooled resources and it was a true Cawdnet collaboration that originally brought David to Fantsuam for a few months - with the job title Cawdnet Coordinator. Fantsuam Foundation enabled him to work longer.

Teachers Talking has spread out from Fantsuam. David and I were at Fantsuam together for two of the TT courses, and that led to TT starting in Kenya after David went back home. Teachers Talking (TT) is starting in a small way in Oke-Ogun as well. This is due to the influence of Pastor David, who is the present manager of the InfoCentre at Ago-Are (the centre which David Mutua set up). Pastor David came to one of the TT courses at Fantsuam.

Pastor David is also collaborating with the Distance Learning Centre at Ibadan University. (I am told this began through an introductory letter Peter took with him in 2000, which I remember typing.) It was part of Peter's vision to have degree level education at Ago-Are, and that is coming closer.

Now for the CLICC/COL/CAWD relationship. David is working to develop CLICCs in Kenya - these are centres where his projects (such as Teachers Talking) will have a permanent base, instead of meeting in the premises of other organisations. One of David's many successes in Nigeria was to bring a collaborative project to Ago-Are which involved COL (the Commonwealth of Learning). It was a collaboration between COL, IITA (the International Institute for Tropical agriculture) and OCDN (Oke-Ogun Community Development Network). When David returned to Kenya, COL was one of the organisations that he approached as he started his work to set up CLICCs.

Thanks to COL David was able to start Teachers Talking Kenya. Teachers Talking Kenya is a COL/CAWD/CLICC, collaboration. David is the co-ordinator and initiator of the TT-Kenya programme and is also the founder of the CLICCs. COL is providing the funding to launch Teachers Talking Kenya. CAWD is the intermediary organisation, fulfilling its role of support for projects in Africa. (My involvement in that is as a CAWD trustee). The CLICCs will gradually come into being as funding allows. (There were hopes that the first CLICC would be open in time for the Teachers Talking course - but there were setbacks).

I did the TT course for David free of charge (as I have done at Fantsuam) largely because of all the work David has done in the past in Cawdnet. COL paid for my flight and covered my food, accommodation and travel costs in Kenya. I continue to support the TT Kenya group through emails and at the chatroom. They are teaching me a lot about teachers and learners and ICT in rural Kenya. They are a great group and have the potential to really move things on regarding ICT awareness and use in Kangundo, and well beyond.

This is a how things are. I am no longer involved in Peter's projects in Nigeria related to CAWD (the old Committee for African Welfare and Development). Regarding the present CAWD (the Charity for African Welfare and Development) I hope it will find the right people to help it grow. None of us in CAWD is a fundraiser, and I am not a natural administrator either, so I am a reluctant CAWD trustee. The launch of Teachers Talking Kenya is being funded by COL and is a COL/CAWD/CLICC collaboration. David is the initiator and co-ordinator of Teachers Talking Kenya.I am the designer and presenter of the Teachers Talking training programme (which I hope to increasingly adapt for delivery through distance learning). I am an independent practitioner of ICT4Ed&D. I am helping TT Kenya without payment because of previous work with David. I am researching various aspects of education in the 21st century - especially the changing roles and relationships of teachers and learners under the impact of ICT, and related issues of inclusion in rural Africa. The development of Teachers Talking at Fantsuam can be thought of as my "field work". I lead the Minciu Sodas group Learning From Each Other and write an occasional blog http://learnbydoinguk.blogspot.com/

As I confessed at the start, some of these details are "picky points", and, up until now, not too important one way or the other. However things are changing and gradually it will come to matter.

Pam

• "social vitamins" - the number of times someone smiles at you or greets you by name ...
• "this is something I try to get my African friends to understand ... of course I do not want them to suffer the hardships that poverty brings - but I do not want them to loose their social vitamins for the sake of consumer goods etc either"

MyFoodStory - Beekeeping

I have been thinking about the bees... Many thoughts... Briefly.. Regarding ICT ( and the thread that links all our work) - communication is important. Ref bees and communication - they "dance" back in the hive to tell each other about sources of pollen.... The ways that bee colonies function socially is also interesting, and we are interested in relationships. Their construction methods etc. are very sophisticated as well. Two of my contacts - David Mutua and Caroline Ifeka have good knowledge of beekeeping ( I have never kept bees myself, but when I lived in Cornwall my husband kept them - so I just know enough to understand some of the implications of what beekeepers talk about) Relationships between people and bees vary regarding how people get the honey - some people are beekeepers - helping the bees to produce honey as effectively as possible, valuing new swarms (at the right time) " A swarm in May is worth a bale of hay A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon A swarm in July - ain't worth a fly...". Some people simply hunt the bees, finding wild bees then killing them to take the honey. Various purposes of honey - not just a sweetener but also medical uses, I have heard that it is antiseptic and can be useful to dress wounds - but I am not confident of that information. There are concerns about how far bees fly to forage, and the implications of possibly foraging on GM crops if the beekeepers don't want them to.... Pam

AboutThisPage

• Dream=in the future - in my dreams - there is a great centre of research and learning growing from the work in Nigeria. It will have visiting experts from other places in Africa - people who give inspiration andpractical idea for people to follow. JohnDada and I want to provide affordable high quality tertiery education for people in Central Nigeria and we have a dream for starting a Midlands University. We already have the KRC - the Knowledge Resource Centre, wiht six shelves of books, a cupboard with some CDs, and, most importantly and internet connection. We want it to develop into a centre for study, a mixture of many things, an outpost fo many institutions. We want to delvier courses and develop courses. We want to enable people to do independent research. We want to tie it into the practical work of developing the Attachan eco village. We want to bring people from outside of Central Nigeria to learn and teach in collaboration with the staff and students and local people. We want to learnByDoing and then to share what we have learned. We want to raise money so we can sponsor other people - like our MS friends elsewherer in Africa to come and rub minds at the KRC/Midlands University to study/teach there formally and informally. We want to build ecofreindly buildings at Attachab eco-village and other local sites so visitors can come to teach and study i sustainable surroundings.
• PageType = Person
• InstantIntroduction = I am interested in ICT and its potential to change the roles of teachers and learners. I live in the UK but got involved in projects in rural Nigeria. I lead the Learning From Each Other yahoo group with monthly e-meetings in the WorkNets chat room.
• ThisPageRecommendedBy = SashaMrkailo
• FeaturedIn = MyFoodStory
• DeepestValue=I don't know. LearningFromEachOther is relevant.
• InvestigatoryQuestion=How can we get people to take ownership of their learning journeys?
• InvestigatoryQuestionPage=LearningJourneys
• InvestigatoryQuestion2=How do we use ICT to enable an educational system that lets self-directed learners be agents of their own learning?
• InvestigatoryQuestionPage2=http://www.findbetterways.info/wiki.cgi?Learning/ICT
• InvestigatoryQuestion3= How are some people excluded from the opportunity of learning and how can we help them overcome those barriers using ICT?
• InvestigatoryQuestion4=How is the Internet enabling new patterns of collaboration which are enabling new things to be learned and done in ways that were never possible?
• ImageUrl=AndriusKulikauskas/PamelaMcLean.jpg
• InstantIntroduction=Hi,I am Pam, interested in ICT for Education, working at home in UK on the Internet and sometimes with friends in Africa face to face.

Comments

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:20:59 UTC Norman: Pim thank God for the ove you have for the children of God you can have alook bunabumali.my-php.net/ and share some ldeas with me how l can help the children AM also ateacher

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:44:07 UTC Sr Pauline Ndeche: Please I am looking for David Mutua who organized a programme for the teachers in 2007 at Holy Rosary College Tala in Kangundo Kenya. He was suppose to pay the college Ksh.50,000 ($700)at that time. He paid only Ksh.40,000 and disappeared. What he said about our accommodation and internet is very wrong because the participants in the programme were coming from outside, they never stayed in the compound and we never fed. Mutua made arrangement for their feeding outside the college. It is a pity that he decided to spoil the name of the college. Please help me to get David to pay the college what he is owing.