EDUCATION GREENHOUSE PROJECT 2020

Project Name

edit

Growing Open and Eco-Friendly Skills(GOES) for the Youth - Ghana

Description

edit

This project has the name Growing Open and Eco-friendly Skills (GOES) for the youth because every implementation of this project should lead to impacting the youth in the areas of skills development, access to quality education, and access to quality nutrition. The youth that accesses our program should contribute to socio-economic development starting from community development and expanding the effect through ambassadorship and mentorship to other youth and other projects. GOES believes that through this ripple effect, the world can be a better place for development and innovation leading to sustainable living.

However, the project incorporates elements of open resources and open communities such as Wikimedia Foundation Sister Projects along with Circular economy concepts. In order for everyone to be able to contribute to knowledge and best practises, it is important to have an open community around projects. In order to live in a safer planet for the current and future generations, it is pertinent to think first about designing out waste right from the onset of project planning and design before implementation - the circular economy.

With all these elements combined, the first implementation of the GOES Project targetted for a rural community to build a community school farm is to :

  • make available open resources through Wikimedia Foundation Sister Projects such as Wikipedia available via Kiwix plugs to learn more and conduct research
  • improve literacy and numeracy skills-by-participation in activities that involve reading, writing and calculations while implementing the community school farm, documenting to enter information on Wikiversity and proof-reading contents for clarity and syntax
  • teach information technology skills which are relevant for future work through editing on Wikimedia Foundation Sister Projects such as Wikiversity and Wikicommons
  • inculcate in the youth collaborative and community development skills through group activities that gets them to work together in planning, designing, implementation, testing, monitoring and evaluating projects
  • equip the youth with the skills identified earlier that will position most of them to be change leaders and change makers when they are either working for other people or when they are entrepreneurs

Target Audience

edit

The GOES project is targetted at senior high school students in rural communities in Ghana who are between the ages of 16 to 19 years and have completed at least one year in senior high school. Our secondary target is teachers and academic leaders in the schools whose influence can lead to the adoption of Open Education Resources(OERs) within their institution and influence similar adoption in other institutions around them. Our second secondary target is the youth in the community who can benefit from literacy and numeracy skills, and technology skills that can go a long way to advancing their project management skills as well.

Exiting Problems and Challenges

edit
  • National distribution of quality educational materials do not always reach schools in the rural areas
  • The rural area lacks quality internet access to be able to have access to Open Education Resources(OERs) online
  • Most teachers and educators with quality teaching pedagogy refuse to go to the rural areas on posting hence local folks with somewhat of teaching qualification either through teacher training school or apprenticeship end up teaching the schools
  • Guardians in the rural areas lack modern knowledge on nutrition and its contribution to brain development and child health
  • Teachers and educator in the rural area do not get access to teacher training programs to improve their delivery in class and expand their skills

Possible Solutions to be provided by the project

edit
  • Through this project, the school will have access to offline and online OER via kiwix plugs and computers
  • Through this project, the students will improve on literacy and numeracy skills by practically engaging in the project activites that are designed for those outcomes
  • Through this project, teachers will gain new knowledge and training in using OER for classroom delivery and personal development
  • Through this project, advocating for better nutrition will be implemented and established through the community school farm operations

Wikimedia Projects to be used

edit

Includes but not limited to:

  • Wikipedia via Kiwix plug
  • Wikiversity online
  • WikiCommons
  • Wikidata

Project Goals

edit
  • To establish a wiki-club on-premises that will facilitate all open movement in the school by April, 2020
  • To engage with 30 students for the year 2020
  • To have a female to male participation of 50:50 ratio
  • To grow carrots, shallots, cabbage, and green pepper on the farm and harvest by May, 2020
  • To confirm that 2 teachers and 30 students can curate content, edit and publish documents on all Wikimedia projects that will be introduced
  • To get about 3 private and public institutions to be stakeholders of the project June, 2020

Project Impact

edit
  • 80% of students who participate in the project feel confident about the future of work and higher education by gaining these skills and knowledge
  • 30% of students who participate in the project will be ambassadors of the training and get at least 10 other community youth to join the club by the end of 2020
  • 90% of the teachers involved in the project have inculcated OER in the classroom delivery
  • 90% of the students can navigate the OER tools with ease
  • 50% of the students want to pursue farming as a community development practice throughout 2020

Problem Tree Analysis

edit
 
GOES-ProblemTree

Logic Model

edit
Growing Open and Eco-Friendly Skills for the Youth : Logic Model
Inputs Outputs Outcomes Impacts
Participants Activities Products
a project manager 30 students learn about the use of different Wikimedia Sister Projects an active student club a student club that uses OERs combined with a farm activity to instil learning 80% of the students in club will be able to navigate and use Wikimedia Sister Projects for academic purposes
hardware resources such as kiwix plugs, laptops, camera, and mobile phone 2 teachers as technical admins Access offline contents available on kiwix plus which included wikipedia and other OERs Offline Wikipedia, Open Science Education Resource Students will be able to access the offline contents on the kiwix via their laptop through the installed software and browser. 80% of the students feel confident about using the laptop to access digital resources.
Farm equipment and seedlings Know about planting and caring for green pepper, carrot, cabbage and shallot and documenting the process Documentation on the process in planting and caring for the plants for the geographic region involved Teachers will be available to guide students on the farm as well as the Department of Food and Agriculture Extension Officers Harvest the crops. 60% goes to be part of the school feeding program and 40% be sold to generate funds to operate the farm and provide other academic support to student in the club

Stakeholders

edit

Internal

edit
  • Communications lead
  • Relationship Associate
  • Project manager
  • Volunteers from the Wikimedia Communities
  • School involved
  • Wikimedia Education Greenhouse Team
  • School Farms
  • Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA)

External

edit
  • Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA)
  • GIZ
  • Media House
  • UNESCO
  • Raspberry Pi

Power Matrix

edit
Power Matrix
latent
  • Volunteers from the Wikimedia Community will be willing to support in training students and teachers on how to use the wikimedi projects and be available to support with troubleshooting.
  • The chief within the community will be interested in supporting the initiative by getting parents to influence their wards to enrol in the program but would have wanted the project funds to be used for drilling bore-holes.
Promoters
  • The school that is involved in the project wants to benefit from this project to improve teachers and students experience. Hence, make the school a prestigious in the community.
  • Department of Food and Agriculture wants to promote agriculture amongst the youth in the community and are looking for ways and fund to push such an agenda.
  • The students want to learn new skills that will distinguish them from other students from other schools.
  • School Farms as a partner will be able to offer their expertise and show their competence in this project towards any future opportunities.
Apathetics
  • The parents in the community may want their wards to participate but are concerned about the support the children will deny them when they engage in the club activities.
Defenders
  • GIZ is interested to support the project but want to see the progress and dedication of the team before they commit
  • International NGO's are interested but want to see the commitment of the team to the project before they commit


Stakeholders Engagement Plan

edit
Stakeholder Type Contact Interest/ Power Strategy Communicate Action
Volunteer from community Community Member User groups, slack channel, whatsapp Latent participation who may have low interest but who contributions to the project can make the project successful due to their influence in the wikimedia space Keep Satisfied Whatsapp channels, outreach pages and slack channels Constantly update the community members on the progress of the project and seek their input on the components and delivery.
The school involved in the project the headmaster and teachers

or group(s)

via phone calls and SMS Promoters. Teachers , parents , school heads who has a demonstrated interest in engaging in WP O E R Engage phone calls and SMS Engage with the teachers to increase their interest and the need for them to consider this as personal development
Parents from the community Guardians Phone calls from the teachers and headmaster Apthetics. Monitor often to know where their interest may spike to engage their wards Phone calls to parents since they are not comfortable with smart devices yet Engage with the chief and local authorities to get students to take this as after school event


Budget

edit

Step 1: Define the time frame of the project you are working on. When will my project start and end? -- Start date 1st January 2020 to 20 May 2020

Step 2: Identify the activities you will conduct in the planning, development, and evaluation stages of your project. What activities do I plan to conduct to reach my objectives? - Field Planning, Project Structure Development, Teacher Training, Student Training, Land Preparation, Planting, Harvesting, Club Time

Step 3: Brainstorm a list of expenses for each of these activities. What things and services will I need to purchase to conduct my project from start to end? - The expenses are: Travel and transportation allowance; hardware components such as laptops, kiwix plugs and mobile phone;


Monitoring Plan

edit
OBJECTIVES INDICATORS DATA COLLECTION TIMING Who is responsible
Students and teachers ability to navigate Wikimedia Sister Projects Teachers and Students capable of using the various Wikimedia sister projects 2 weeks after the training Survey, interview, completion of task A month visit Project Coordinator
Teachers and students capable of using different formating markups to structure the content 50% of teachers and students will be able to properly structure the first 2 weeks of contents produced from the project. Observing edits online Weekly video calls Project Coordinator


Evaluation Plan

edit
Logic model Evaluation questions Indicators of success Data collection methods When
Objectives:

(Long term impact)

This project will be replicated across 10 regions in Ghana with over 20 committed private and public partners providing support to engage with over 1000 youth in the next 3 years.

Q1 How many institutions will adopt the model which combines OERs and a farm activity?

Q2 How many students will want to belong to such a community and be ambassadors to it?

When the club is established in at least one institution in each region in Ghana.

When there are at least 50 students in each club across the country

Surveys, interviews, Reports, publications by schools Before the project adoptions in the regions to manage expectations and control implementation, during the project and after the 3rd year.
Impact: 50% of the schools that we implement this project will record a 5% increase in student digital skills competence, OER tools navigation ability , project management skills, critical thinking and nutrition Q1: Are students able to navigate OER tools and know what each is used for?

Q2 : How many contents have been created by student groups instead of individuals

5% increase in student digital skills on using the computer to access and edit OERs Video call, Questionnaires

interviews

Before the project have students fill questionnaires, during the project monitor level of student skills through interviews and after the project conduct an assessment where the student is supposed to complete a task using the computer without supervision and support - a score will be given at the end


Objectives: Establish a community of learners and educators in the community who constantly improve on OERs and develop a community farm together Q1: How many new members join the club each week?

Q2: How many members find it easy to contribute in the club?

2% increase in the members each month for the 3years

The sum of all the members of the club in 3 years should be at least 1000

polls. Weekly update of the poll count


Advocacy Message

edit

Audience for this message : Government institutions on Education and Youth Development, and Private Institutions supporting in capacity building for the youth.

Elements Messages
Statement: Central idea, importance Community development and digital literacy skills are important assets to the youth for every generation especially in rural communities where access to these are limited.
Evidence: facts and figures to support statement Over 13.69% of the youth between the age of 14 - 24 years are unemployed with limited access to jobs and other career opportunities.
Example: sample messenger and message for the statement Industries are unhappy with the skills that the youth lack to contribute effectively to their growth hence are not employing them, neither are there funds available to support local business to expand.
Action desired: intended action taken as a result of the above GGhana needs to support the initiatives that seek to develop the skills of the youth in industrial/organizational practice, digital skills training and in entrepreneurship.