My experience British Council

Lifeplayer Training in South Africa Eastern Cape

Lifeplayer and LEAP tackled the lack of electricity and limited resources in remote areas. The solar-powered players made learning possible in off-grid schools. The aim was to provide engaging learning with songs, stories, and interactive audio lessons to make English more stimulating and fun for students. Much of the focus was on the teachers and pedagogical practices and not the technology so teachers were equipped with lesson plans and guidance on how to use the technology along with new teaching techniques.

I supported the developed materials to work with the lifeplayer, a solar powered MP3 player for classrooms. For example, because there was little to no access to Internet in the more rural areas I repurposed flash files from the LearnEnglish website into a series of class aids in the form of cartoon strips that accompanied the mp3 story content. I was lucky enough to deliver the training on the Eastern Cape in a number of areas.

See the article here and see the South Africa DBE media here

Later in the project I worked closely In partnership with the Open University to develop and deliver a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation report.

The project was also a case study in the British Council’s publication on Innovation which you can read here Chapter 1 case study 1.7b p38

LEAPIN Nigeria

LEAPIN was a pilot initiative launched by the British Council in Nigeria around 2013.

Its goal was to improve English language learning outcomes in areas where schools had little or no access to resources like electricity and traditional teaching materials.

The project used ruggedized solar-powered MP3 players pre-loaded with audio materials designed to support the Nigerian English language curriculum.The audio content included songs and stories for younger learnersThe lesson plans incorporated phonics materials (to teach the sounds of English). Pilotes were in Kwara and Jigawa States.Teachers in participating schools were trained on how to utilize the MP3 players and integrate the audio content effectively into their lessons.

Monitoring of the project indicated positive results. Teachers and students enjoyed using the audio devices. Student engagement and interest in learning English increased. There were indications of improvement in listening comprehension and pronunciation.

You can find out more here or here

LifePlayer LEAP Ethiopia

The technology was rolled out together with a suite of support materials by the English Language Advisor for Ethiopia .I supported the development of master training on the technology, ensuring that there was sufficient integration with pedagogical principles and the digital audio content. In Ethiopia there was an added dimension to support visually impaired learners. One of the concepts I worked on was how the technology could be extended and used more fully. Lifeplayer MP3 players used micro-sd cards and nearly all teachers I had collaborated with in Ethiopia had mobiles that accepted micro-sd cards, plus the fact that the audio was in the standard MP3 format that all device audio players would play back it seemed like a good fit to have the removable storage be used in both Lifeplayer and added extra card for their mobile. Because storage was important and the price and capacity for storage was not what it is today I ensured that I only used part of the capacity so teachers had the added value of being able to use the card for their personal files. It was important in the project to make sure that we added value through our technology and not added workload. You can find out more about the project in Ethiopia here or watch the video

Nokia Life

Nokia Life was a suite of innovative, information-based mobile phone services designed for emerging markets. It included services focused on education, health, agriculture, and other key areas.

The platform operated on basic feature phones and aimed to bridge the information gap in low-connectivity areas. Nokia Life Tools English Teacher Service in Nigeria, the “English Teacher” service was launched on the Nokia Life platform in 2013. UNESCO, the British Council, and the National Teachers Institute of Nigeria supported this project. It provided Nigerian English teachers, especially those in underserved areas, with daily professional development (CPD) content directly on their mobile phones.

Teachers accessed via basic mobile phones, Nokia Life “English Teacher” reached teachers in areas with limited internet access or educational resources and the daily messages and content provided continuous, bite-sized professional development opportunities. It was designed to be cost-effective as the service was free to subscribe and data charges were reduced considerably for delivering multmedia content.

UNESCO: UNESCO and Nokia launch ‘English Teacher’ on Nokia Life Tools in Nigeria Microsoft Devices Blog: Nokia & UNESCO empower Nigeria’s English teachers with Nokia Life+

If you want more detail you can also read a copy of the report I compiled as my disertation

Harambee

Harambee is known for its initiatives to solve youth unemployment through partnerships, working with government, private sector, civil society, and youth. They focus on unlocking jobs and breaking down barriers for young South Africans, aiming for a society powered by the potential of young people. An integral part of that training is language training however to manage the high cost of face to face training the British Council was asked to find an alternative. To deliver a course that was effective in the time they had with students I developed a blended proposition to wrap around the British Council’s LEP course for Harambee in South Africa. The blended framework used the existing self access learning from the British Council’s LEP2 course and face to face supports.

Orange mobile

The Orange mobile SMS English aimed to add more than just delivering a list of dictionary words through SMS it incorporated important concepts like recycling vocabulary and building on lexical areas through the course