In 2010 the Zambia Knowledge Centre (ZKC) was identified as a new strategy within the VVOB-MoE programme. In January 2011 research has been un-dertaken on the concept of a Knowledge Centre and it was adapted to the Zambian context via inputs on a blog called http://grmbler.wordpress.com. The official name was chosen via a questionnaire on survey mon-key. The Zambia Knowledge Centre, a digital insaka for teaching and learning, was born.

In fact, grassroots participants found a link between the traditional African education and learning in the digital age. Patrick C. Kaya-we, a lecturer at David Liv-ingstone College of Educa-tion, says that learning in the African villages was mainly informal without any struc-tured curriculum. Instead, the learning took place un-consciously, as most what the learner learned was from his family, friends, and hands-on experience within one’s environment. Educa-tion was haphazardly exe-cuted, at its own pace, through its own means and throughout the learner’s entire life. That’s what eLearning is all about! There is even a Bemba saying, “amano mambulwa”, meaning that one can access knowledge from a variety of sources. According to Lemmy Kangwa, lecturer at NISTCOL, this implies that a child in the village had access to knowledge from a wide range of sources. “With facilities like the internet a student in Zambia now can access knowledge and information anywhere, anytime. Even where there is no internet, some content and peda-gogy can be put on CDs and DVDs or can be ac-

cessed offline.”

It takes a global village to raise a child today.

That is exactly what ZKC aims to do: We will collect thousands of educational websites and resources and make them available both online and offline. We want to tap into the local knowledge by using the local structures (Zambia Library Service, Colleges of Edu-cation, Teacher Resource Centres) and through the establishment of a think tank with all stakeholders. This will ensure the resources are relevant to the

Zambian curriculum. We hope that the VVOB capacity building programme will help establish a community of practice in Zambia and beyond on the effective use of these educational resources, applications and services.

Kasama, Malcolm Moffat and Kitwe College of Education and Teacher Resource Centres will pilot projects in 2011- this aligns with the VVOB intervention on distance education, community schools and Action Research. A first think tank/workgroup meet-ing on the Knowledge Centre was held with all stakeholders involved, including the Zambia

Library Service and community school teachers. The group identified needs and decided to start building the portal on the eGranary .This so-called ‘Internet in a Box’ comes with a portal, search function and a Moodle environment.

All this to say, the Zambia Knowledge Centre has big aspirations... You can watch a clip of the official launch of ZKC here: h�p://www.youtube.com/w�tch���m��b����e�o�(Bart Cornille, VVOB)

Zambia Knowledge CentreZambia Knowledge CentreZambia Knowledge CentreZambia Knowledge Centre

A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 8

What a joy it was read-ing through the articles submitted by so many!

In there the authors make a clear connection between workshops and the aftermath, with an emphasis on commit-ment, putting knowledge into practice, innovation and creativity, and tak-ing into account the sustainability factor. I particularly liked the observation that the strength and responsi-bility for change lays within the individual. Throughout this News-letter one can also see how important ICT al-ready is and the vital role it could play for increasing knowledge for teachers and stu-dents alike.

This is also the moment to say good-bye to one of our colleagues. Lieve definitely put her mark on a number of things while in Zambia. A sin-cere Thank You!

(Bart Rombaut, pro-g r a m me m a n a g e r VVOB)�

P A G E 2

The Teacher Resource Centre coordinators and the ODL commit-tee of Kasama College of Educa-tion held a consultative meeting on the 19th July 2011 in Chinsali, Northern province. They acknowl-edged that the stakeholders need-ed to support learning and teaching in community schools more.

Several strategies were discussed.

Everyone agreed that ICT can play a central role in improving collabo-rative support to community schools. The team would aim to equip the resource centres with electronic libraries that could have lessons for teachers to use for their lesson preparation and teaching. They also decided to source for support to acquire offline education electronic materials. This would

boast research for more materials by teachers, as internet access is still a challenge.

College and TRC believe they can play a key role in this. Others, in various part of the country, could also use a structured approach to enhance teacher capacity building.

(Lyson Chikunduzi, VVOB)�

Northern Province TRCs and KACE geared to support community schools with ICTs for teaching and learning

The National CPD Task Team prioritised, among other things, to strengthen the capacity of doing action research in the colleges of education. The main rationale for this was to support the use of more differentiated and college based CPD strate-gies (leading to real change in the classroom) when implementing college action plans, to promote grass-roots (bottom-up) initiatives by staff, and to develop capacity to support student teachers doing action research with time.

Three colleges of education piloted an action re-search programme that should lead to the develop-ment of a specialised course offered by NISTCOL.

The best way to learn about action research is by doing it. As such, participants go through a cycle of the action research process with the support of facilitators from UNZA who meet the action re-searchers three times in their colleges to offer new knowledge and skills. In between, action research-ers apply the new knowledge and skills while en-gaging in an action research project.

Below are some interim reflections by Maureen.

“As I am working on the Action Research (AR) tasks and preparing for the next session I realise what a wonderful learning experience I have had. I have learned a lot. I, like other lecturers, am being equipped with necessary knowledge and skills to conduct research that can influence policy, both at local and national level. I know that my single ac-tion research study is going to be helpful in improv-ing my practice of teaching/lecturing and possibly that of other lecturers. I am looking forward to doing more. And I agree with Rust and Clark, authors of ‘How to do Action Research in your Classroom’ who state that in a case were the lecturers are networked the results of the AR conducted can reach far beyond single classrooms. With the great influence and benefits that can be drawn from con-ducting AR, I think it would be good to find a way of assessing the extent to which AR training has actu-ally impacted on lecturers (and their practice) who have or not yet completed their training and share such experiences with others possibly through your newsletter. Our AR work can even be brought to-gether into publications directed at influencing edu-cation policymakers at the different levels. Thank you for giving us a chance to receive training in conducting AR.”

(Maureen K Kanchebele Sinyangwe, Malcolm Moffat College of Education and Hans Casier, VVOB)�

Improving my practice through action researchImproving my practice through action researchImproving my practice through action researchImproving my practice through action research

Action research cycles

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 8

A Moodle Skills Workshop was facili-tated by Mr Sitali of Charles Lwanga College of Education at the Choma Provincial Resource Centre from 20th to 22nd July 2011. This was a second workshop and part of VVOB’s VIS-IT4CHANGE initiative.

The main focus was on “Learner Support through Moodle”. Moodle is a course management system that runs both online and offline. The target group was Provincial Resource Centre Coordinators, teachers from a similar workshop held last January and Distance Education students. Three lecturers from Charles

Lwanga, NISTCOL and ZAMISE attended the session to learn how they can use Moodle in their own work.

The objective was to motivate partici-pants to introduce Moodle in their institutions and on how they could use existing materials in Moodle. Participants were trained on how to assist students access Moodle, up-load resources and provide tutorials to students.

The Distance Education students were picked as a pilot to assess how Moodle, especially Portable Moodle

(Poodle), could assist them in their studies. Some highlights of the programme:

• Moodle is a free open source course management system�• Content can be created using Authoring Environments such as eXelearning.�• Poodle mounts Moodle on porta-ble devices (e.g. USB sticks) and runs courses offline.�• Moodle can upload course ma-terials (audio, video, text), and link to other resources.�

• Engage students in discussions forums�• Design Assess-ment with automated feedback and grading.�Help students and tutors collaborate using Moodle online.�The facilitator gave the learners the confi-dence to start explor-ing Moodle by them-selves. I request all lecturers to feel re-

sponsible to teach ourselves and each other how to use Moodle. To members of grassroots: we ex-changed ideas on creating content using eXelearning at Barn. We can upload that content on Moodle. Final-ly, I would like to thank the facilitator, my fellow participants and our coop-erating partners, VVOB, for the unwa-vering support. Stay in contact: lem-mykangwa@yahoo.com or ka-ngwashoka@gmail.com.

(Lemmy Kangwa, NISTCOL)�

Will our visit for change to NISTCOL bring change?

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In other words the question is, was the VVOB spon-sored trip to NISTCOL beneficial? Well it depends on what we were looking for: what we wanted to learn. Chipata College wanted to find out about a number of issues and so many of our questions were answered. However, for the sake of this article I would like to look at one thing which others may not look at as important. What is that you may be wondering? The issue of hard work and positive attitude in ODeL. To me that is what impressed me the most. I feel that the right attitude towards distance education is cardinal. Providers of this kind of education should believe strongly that distance education works and can deliver the same results as the preferred regular education. This is the kind of attitude that exudes at NISTCOL which I feel all of us who are beginning to set up our distance units should without fail cultivate and nurture if we want to succeed in our ODeL endeavours. It has to begin from the heart and spread outwards.

There is team work and a lot of hard work at NISTCOL. It is no wonder that the college has gone a long way in issues of ODeL. That is a lesson that us the novices should quickly take in and inculcate in other members of staff at our colleges. So just remember that it is about attitude and hard work. The rest find their rightful plac-es. For Chipata College the visit will definitely ring change if we embrace the two lessons I got from NIST-COL.

(Masauso Njobvu, Chipata College of Education)�

Taking Learner support closer to students

P A G E 4

A group of IT graduates/students were attracted to help establish the Zambia Knowledge Centre (ZKC. As part of ZKC we also want to set up an open space for the tech community with great ideas that w i l l leapfrog (sustainable) development in Zambia. The incubation lab is freely available to any tech per-son in Lusaka to use once they become a member. The concept of this lab is the first of its kind in Zambia and was inspired by hubs in Kenya, Uganda, Senegal and Cameroon. There are great ex-pectations that an incubation lab will spur a revolution in the tech-nology products and services. It

will be a space with a core focus on giving the tech community a community facility where they can bring their ideas to life. This lab can be described by three keywords: innovation, crea-tivity and sustainability. Innovation: Innovation generally refers to the creation or improvement of products, technolo-gies, or ideas that signi-fies a substantial change or difference to the world of economics, business, entrepreneurship, health, education etc. Creativity: We are out-of-

VVOB in collaboration with NISTCOL or-ganised a Workshop on how to design short courses at Barn Motel in Lusaka from 13th – 15th July 2011. This is because NISTCOL is going to start offering short courses in five areas namely: Collaborative learning, Action research, ICT Integration in Educa-tion, Lesson study and ODeL practitioners’ course. The courses will employ various modes of delivery, which include, among others, port-able moodle, distance, online and face to face modes. For collaborative learning, the course focus-es on the importance of working together at a learning institution to achieve positive results. It further brings out the skills that are necessary for collaboration, for both the individual and the group. Collaboration in education results in positive results in teaching and learning. While action re-search looks at research in education, and how the research findings can bring about positive change in education. As for ICT in integration in education, the emphasis is on how ICT can be incorporated into everyday lessons to ease teaching and learning. Lesson study involves the planning and teaching of a lesson by two or more people, whereby together they observe, reflect and revise the lesson. The goal is to improve the quality of learning and teaching. The ODeL practitioners’ course gives guidelines on how tutors can run distance education courses taking into account the nature, level, and commitment of adult learners. The course also looks at aspects that ad-

ministrators and tutors should take into account when de-signing distance education, such as mode of delivery, learner support, and how to give effective feedback to the distance learners. All of the five courses will also be placed on portable Moodle, once fully developed. (Clare Mwiinga, NISTCOL)

the box thinkers that know new ideas need nurturing and sup-port. We also know that having an idea is good but acting on it is more important. In our thinking, results are what count. Sustainability: We firmly believe in the so-called “leap-frog” ap-proach; we believe some appli-cations and services can leap-frog development in Zambia. To us successful applications and services need to have the capac-ity to endure. In 1762, J.J. Rousseau wrote that “plants are shaped by ‘cult ivat ion’ and men by ‘education’ ”. Both concepts

actually have times of seeding and harvest. Through education, we can start growing and flourish-ing, in other words develop-ing ourselves. The set-up of an incubation lab for tech-ies in Zambia aspires to be a place where seeds are planted and are easily found by the people to help them grow and ultimately harvest them.

Have a look at one of the things these techies have been up to: http://trafficwatch.crowdmap.com/ (Bart Cornille, VVOB) *Apps.= applications�

Designing Specialised Courses

Incubation Lab and Apps*. for Zambia

http://www.oerafrica.org: probably the largest collection of education-al resources relevant for Africa.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/06/: 77 web resources for teachers. Explore and experiment with new things that you might use in the next term.

www.keepvid.com: With this tool you can download YouTube clips and use them later in the classroom.

http://physion.net: A free tool that allows you to demonstrate and simulate laws of nature, such as gravity, friction, levers, …

http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com: explore the human body in 3D with this tool. It will only work when you use Google Chrome v.9 en Firefox v.4. (BC & LL)

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 8

I foresee readers asking “What is the Reeves Plenary?”. You might know it as “Lead and Learn Zambia seminar”, which took place from 30 May till 3 June 2011. All the colleges of education and UNZA, DODE, ESS, Standards and other stake-holders, convened to share fascinating ideas with respect to instructional coaching, as-sessment, instructional strategies and lead-ership during the Reeves plenary. Each of the groups explored one field and before sunset the results of their findings were then made known to the audience at the plenary. But let me reveal some of the highlights from each category that you will definitely find intriguing. One of the things the leadership group shared with us was that a school could invite parents to join in celebrating their child’s

The ‘Doug The ‘Doug The ‘Doug The ‘Doug Reeves Reeves Reeves Reeves

plenary’ plenary’ plenary’ plenary’ ---- a a a a mountain mountain mountain mountain

of ideasof ideasof ideasof ideas

@

We are expecting some students from Belgium during 2012’s first term, as part of the VVOB internship programme. We will soon get more details of the candidates that would love to come to Zambia to assist colleges in ICT in education and module development. Does your college want to learn with and from the Belgian students (Bachelor education)? Are you having exciting and innovative teaching and learning plans which could use some on-site assistance? Do you think your college is interested in hosting one of the students? Can you provide a tutor and accommodation? Let us know as soon as possible and we can link you up. Contact bart.cornille@vvob.org.zm. (LL)�

Interns

superlative performance. We normally only do that when there are problems. This is interesting isn’t it? When it was the turn of the ‘instructional strategies group’ the audience was bom-barded with new terminologies such as Fray-er model, comparison matrix, thinking like a reporter, graphical organisers (this is just the tip of the iceberg). I know you are burning with the desire to know the meaning of thinking like a reporter strategy. If you are a tutor or teacher you will probably find this strategy useful in exploring themes in your learning area with the five W questions plus one ‘H’ (who, what, when, where, why and how questions). I still marvel at the fantastic gimmicks that the assessment team used to present their work. The group had composed a song

whose message was tailored to explain the purpose of assessment. You could literally feel the thrill of the atmosphere around as it lightly pated its warm, entertaining and edu-cative fingers on your body. The message was clear that assessment must be, among other things, timely and consistent. I do not think it is possible to forget the infor-mation that I got from the coaching team. Who on earth would have resisted the urge to laugh when they gave amazing descrip-tions of the four categories of coachees. Namely: ‘believers’, ‘fundamentalists’, ‘survivors’ and’ twiners’. I will not dare to delve into each of these concepts for now. Ideas piled on other ideas until we just had a mountain of ideas. It is true the ‘Reeves plenary’ was a mountain of ideas. (Moses Musonda, Kasama College of Education)

All participants of the Lead and Learn Zambia seminar

P A G E 6

Allow me to quick-ly narrate a short story. Scholars of Evolution have argued that, once upon a time, gi-raffe had a very short neck just like any other ordinary

mammal. It so happened that a drought struck, hunger reigned and starvation rocked the jungle so much that the animals that did not adapt immediately to this harsh environ-ment died out. Please do not give up this soon because I will turn away from this science and clarify the point I am trying to drive home. Yes, science (especially Evolu-tion) can be disgustingly boring.

The clever giraffe began to stretch its neck regularly with a strong conviction that one day its neck would elongate substantially so as to be able to browse (feeding on tree tops) to supple-ment grazing. The giraffe did this steadfastly for a long time. I need to reveal to you that all its rela-tives did likewise up until every giraffe in the jungle was able to browse with ease. Of course, the few stubborn members of the giraffe family that could not heed advice perished along with other animals as hunger swept through. This is natural selection.

What point is here? What lesson is this?

We have learned a great deal of lessons in instructional coaching, teaching strategies, instructional assessment and leadership. May I invite you to answer the following questions (this is no cross examina-tion time): Are we using our great ideas Lead and Learn Centre has shared with us? Have we taken a bit of time out of our very busy schedule to implement what we have learned?

How much have our students benefit-ed from this? Or are the LLZ semi-nars we attend simply an academic exercise? Have we made even a slight difference by implementing the smallest idea? Do we see an im-provement in our leadership style,

Use it or lose it teaching methodologies and in our assessment? Have we implemented instructional coaching in our institu-tions even to a lesser degree? Are we using the beautiful ideas we have learned? Or, are we losing our knowledge gradually due to lack of practice?

Now at this point, I would like to sug-gest to my dear reader to pause and replace the we in the forgoing discus-sion with I so that the passage reads I have learned a great deal of les-

sons in instructional coaching, teaching strategies and, as-sessment. As we read we have to be alive to the fact that if we do not use it (knowledge) we will lose it? You and I would, definitely, make a difference. We have the poten-tial; we have all it takes to turn around the situation for the

better.

Use it or lose it!

(Moses Musonda, Kasama College of Education)�

The seminar was well programmed and indeed beneficial to me. The dis-cussion and new experiences, particu-larly on the instructional strategies gave me a new position. From a too talkative lecturer to a facilitator.

Shortly after the seminar, I really want-ed to employ the strategies; to be spe-cific the parking lot. I discovered that

many students become more active than when they are asked to express their problems orally.

Group experts, market vend-ing, text rendering, just to men-tion a few, were greatly fa-voured by many students. The camera was used to the maxi-mum. My students take the class room a better place for them than being absent.

(Matson Kawanda, Solwezi College of Education)� What I learned

P A G E 7

So much has been learned and appreciated. The necessary skills have been acquired. But the ques-tion is “who has been the driving force behind all this great knowledge we have gained and that we can proudly brag about? Who has been master-minding the operations leading to the acquisition of knowledge?”

Lieve set her foot on Zambian soil in October, 2008. Lieve is: gallant, jovial, hospitable, frien-dly, creative, hardworking and intelligently focused. Above all else, her sense of time coupled with sharp willing-ness to work long hours intrigues me. Hans is a formidable company, but he will soon realise that their work was more complete together (Lieve and Hans) than when alone.

There is nothing I can say that would really explain our heartfelt appreciation for Lieve’s contribution towards improving teaching and learning in Colleges of Education in Zambia. On behalf of all honourable members of the national task team, I wish to shout a big THANK YOU.

Lieve, you have made a difference. You may still have a ‘dream’, but I would like to whisper: ‘you have realised most CPD dreams’. You may not stretch yourself to more than necessary, because if I look back and contemplate the achievements, I can see a milestone was achieved in Colleges in relation to CPD.

One thing is certain, the presence of the VVOB team in Zambia guarantees success. Moreover, the efforts and the desire to change of TT members rekindle our hope and expectations.

At interpersonal level, Lieve will continue to be my good and critical friend. “It takes time to grow an old friend”. Yes, (Astrid was correct) bidding farewell is not that easy. I don’t want to say farewell, Lieve! You are great!

(Moses Musonda, Kasama College of Education)�

V O L U M E 3 I S S U E 8

done with the learnings from last seminar. They will follow your contri-butions to the website, yammer, face-book and blogs of both Lead and Learn and VVOB. They will read Learning Files and Newsletters. They will await your reactions on their emails. Those active, committed con-tributors who can show evidence of changed practices in their workplace will be the leaders in the next seminar and will get a special training from 23 to 27th January 2012..

Will you be that leader?

(LL)�

The next Lead and Learn Zambia seminar will be held from 23 to 27th April 2012. The third seminar as part of the partnership with the Leadership and Learning Center (LLC) will be a special one. Not only will several facilitators travel from the USA, but also Zambian facilitators will be pre-sent.

LLC is planning a special training in January to prepare the next seminar in April 2012. The January training will only be for leaders. Who are lead-ers? Leaders are not necessarily college staff in management posi-tions, such as HODs, principals or vice-principals. Leaders are those members of staff that show initiative and commitment towards changing their own practice and sharing this with others. Leaders can be partici-pants of the previous Lead and Learn Zambia seminar who specialised in either instructional strategies, instruc-tional coaching, leadership or forma-tive assessment.

To identify leaders, LLC will set clear criteria. They will check how active people demonstrate what they have

Are you a leader?Are you a leader?Are you a leader?Are you a leader?

I don’t want to say farewell,

Lieve.

Have you had time to reflect on the type of questions that you set for your stu-dents? I am sure most of us do not criti-cally consider setting questions accord-ing to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most of us may set questions based on lower levels of learning and leaving out the higher level learning. Here is a guide for you to improve your questioning techniques.

Read the new learning file! (Crispin Maambo, NISTCOL)

Questioning the questions

The VVOB is the Flemish Association for Development Co-operation and Tech-nical Assistance, a non-profit organisation. By order of the Flemish and Belgian government we contribute to the improvement of quality of the education in developing countries. Our core task is to provide technical assistance in pro-jects and programmes in the South. This way VVOB makes a major contribu-tion to local capacity development, a means to stimulate sustainable develop-ment and poverty reduction.

VVOB vzw Zambia, CDC Building, Haile Selasie Avenue, Long Acres, Lusaka, PO Box 31204, 10101 Lusaka, T/F 211 255154, http://www.vvob.be, info@vvob.org.zm

I am jogging through the streets of Jes-mondine, Lusaka. I have reached the stage where the body has adopted a certain pace and rhythm. I see the red glow of the sun, getting ready to set for the night. My mind is drifting off. I know it is time to say goodbye. I jog through my memories.

I remember the 6 musketeers developing the draft Teaching and Learning Policy at MEF in Kitwe. It was pioneering work, much appre-ciated by all members of the CPD task team. Having a policy is one thing. Doing something with it, is another issue. Do you remember the lively discussions when we were role-playing the college self-evaluation? But everyone gathered enough courage to go through the process at the college. For the first time each college was evaluating itself! As part of the coaching team I visited all the colleges. I ob-served and interviewed, got to know wonderful people. I found eager-ness to learn and willingness to change. As I jogged through Chipata, Mongu, Monze, Kitwe, Solwezi, Mansa, Kasama, Serenje, Living-stone, Mufulira and Lusaka I found some innovative, initiative taking, enthusiastic people jogging with me. I learned so many things from my fellow joggers: how to pace myself, how to jump over yet another bump in the road, how to coach and convince more people to run with us. Together we climbed lots of hills and enjoyed the beautiful views. I will miss sceneries of action plan fairs and college interactions. I will the warmth and friendship. I will not miss the dust along the Zambian roads. Dust came in many forms: sometimes called ‘allowance de-pendent culture’, or ‘lack of communication’ or ‘poor (self) reflection’ or ‘late action plans’. It left a foul taste and a dry mouth. Fortunately there was always a glass of fresh water in the form of entries for learning files and newsletters, in the form of a joined module writing journey, a question asked via skype, or an active grasshopper.

Is this run coming to an end? No it isn’t. It has hardly started. I believe that you, the key athletes of this programme, have many more hills to climb, dust to clear and sceneries to enjoy on a continued journey. I will soon start jogging in South Africa but I will feel your presence and we will meet again.

Thanks for running with me! (Lieve Leroy, VVOB)

Goodbye�

In the early morning hours of today, 19th July, around 02.30 hours three BIG elephants visited the college garden again. They uprooted tomato and cabbage plants after breaking the 22nd panel of the brick wall fence. They continued to terrorise the garden undisturbed as no one could dare do anything about the situation. When they got fed up of tomatoes and cabbages, they headed for the lecturers residences and broke the wire fence between Mr. Kayawe and Mr. Chisala's houses. They first de-stroyed Mr.Chisala's crops and plantation trees then headed for Mr. Kayawe's garden, destroying vegetables, banana and paw-paw trees.

Mr . Ch isa la heard them first and quickly alert-ed the Principal and the rest of the neighbours who all woke up but could only watch through the safety of their house windows as the animals continued to roam and ravage the compound. They moved to Mr. Katolo, Mr. Chisanga and Mr. Mwaanga's houses destroying whatever came their way.

While this destruction was going on, the Principal made efforts to summon the Zambia Wild Life Authority officers. But this was futile as … [Continue reading on DALICE’s website: http://www.dalice.ac.zm��

(Patrick Kayawe, David Livingstone College of Education)�

Elephants continue to surprise the residents of DALICE

Did you read about graphic organisers in the article about the Lead and Learn Zambia seminar on page 4 of this news-letter? Are you also curious about what these are? Read the learning file on graphic organisers. (LL)