News

Ten trainees and a computer course

2009-11-25 15:52:16

Ten trainees and a computer course

With a whole lot of enthusiasm and a fair bit of anticipation, ten trainees at !Khwa ttu, and Assistant Trainer Ivan Vaalbooi, are preparing for a two-day computer course given by the Kalahari Peoples Network (KPN) as part of getting more individuals and San communities connected with each other.

The courses, which we hope will be continued next year, form part of a long-term plan that started two years ago with the launch of the KPN website in Tsumkwe in Nyae Nyae, northern Namibia, to an interested audience of people – some of whom had come great distances to see the demonstration.

Since then we have been steadily building the resource and the information available. Everything takes time – especially in areas where power is sometimes a serious issue (as in Tsumkwe currently) and where connectivity to the Internet is often fragile.

But times are changing and as even isolated places become part of the World Wide Web, there are many young San people ready to join the information revolution. The possibilities are endless. With working computers – and the skills to use them - they can access a whole new world of information and job skills, and communicate with friends, family and interested organizations internationally. The world is, in fact, at their fingertips.

Annah Morris and Ncaocka Bob are two Naro-speaking ladies from Botswana who will be part of the course. ‘Will it be difficult if we don’t know computers?’ they asked. The answer is – actually – no. Computers come surrounded by myth and mystique like every other bit of technology, but anyone can master them – given the time and the training. The other trainees come from Kalahari, Platfontein, Namibia and Upington.

Tomorrow the course will introduce the hardware and the software, look at what happens on-screen and begin the process of writing for the Internet and in emails. The trainees will get an overview of how powerful the Internet can be, learn to search it, file documents and create stories. And that’s just before lunch.

They will then proceed to profiles and emails, a bit of digital photography and will send an email to an actual person. (We have ten people lined up in America, Scotland, Ireland and South Africa who have promised to reply overnight and who will hopefully continue their correspondence.) We will also be working on personal stories (already started as part of their training) and write articles about the course for this website.

Day Two will dive a little deeper as we look at the Tools that are available to help the communication process, spell-checking and using the Thesaurus, Wikopedia and as much more as we can fit in.

Our aim is to create a class blog that can be used during the rest of the nine-month course the trainees are undergoing at !Khwa ttu so that they can keep the rest of the world – and you - updated on their progress. We can’t promise that will be up and running by Friday … but miracles sometimes happen.

This course was facilitated by Lesley Beake and Hugh Clarke and made possible by the kind co-operation of !Khwa ttu San Cultural and Training centre, particularly Magdalena Brörmann-Thoma kindly included this initiative as part of their training course. Ivan Vaalbooi, Assistant Trainer, gave us invaluable help during the planning process and the course itself. Thanks to Michael Daiber, CEO of !Khwa ttu for his generous welcome and for arranging accommodation for the facilitators. Janette Deacon facilitated the loan of six laptops from the Getty Foundation and KPF provided the very small amount of funding required to get the whole show on the road. Most of all, we need to thank Hugh Clarke, who has generously given up part of his leave to teach the students. His background in computer technology is what makes this all possible.