Lev Gavrish

Dwight Eisenhower warnings did NOTHING

lev gavrish — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 06:08:20 +0000

Dwight Eisenhower warned U.S. of the dangers of the military-industrial complex, and it is took just about half a century for the War Corporation to eliminate the dividing line between the U.S. military and U.S. industry and eradicate the troublesome provisions of Posse Comitatus – an 1878 law that forbids military involvement in most domestic affairs, including law enforcement. The War Corporation has its tentacles in every element of the American political, military, economic and cultural milieu, and it affects the lives of every citizen in every country on the planet.
These warnings did teach nothing, if in the Soviet times the weapon was a synonym of politics, in today’s Russia it has turned to a synonym of the large commercial bargains, due to which Russian politics try to pull out the country from poverty to economical stability. For this reason Kremlin has decided re-structuring a military-industrial complex, by uniting military enterprises create large, western style corporations and give an opportunity for investment and realization of researches.
Just a fraction of what is spent on defence might – probably would – eliminate many of the conditions that breed terrorists in today’s world. Oscar Arias Sanchez, the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of Costa Rica declared, “The world’s priorities are wrong. With just a small amount of what the world spends on defence, we could address poverty, inequality, illiteracy, disease, environmental degradation, and drought.”
The military industry can not exist without permanent annual receipt vast sums of budget money. For justification of use of such vast sums war is needed. There can not be a military industry without war. To create preconditions for war such countries need military culture. To create it, the government have to propagate false patriotism, covered up hatred, quasi-democracy and admiration of military power. Without patriotic support of the people militarism can not exist in society. Actually there is nothing about protection of the people and country, but there is only true motives concealment of some people in government for money-grabbing of the enormous sums from people on the military charges. Patriotism which is based on hatred to other people is false. Such patriotism is necessary to justify a war.
The most leveraged thing that can be done about it by iEARN is to spread ideas of peace, democracy, global collaboration, and smooth differences between people. WEC can bring skills of real understanding of situation, global policy, roots of conflict, concealment motives and other through education. Conversely, education is increasingly seen to have a role to play in mitigating and/or exacerbating conflict. Education can provide not only protective function for people in conflict or post-conflict situations, but to prevent conflict. If this will be done by WEC and iEARN people will not support their governments to unleash the war and as a consequence reduce budget of military-industry complex.
So this is my view.

Half a Year Report (KITaDTC)

lev gavrish — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 09:06:12 +0000

Kilimanjaro Information Technology and Development Training Centre (KITaDTC)
Half a Year Report
August 2005 – January 2006

Background:
Kilimanjaro Information Technology and Development Training Centre (KITaDTC) based in Moshi, Tanzania, specializes in information and communication technology training, consultancy, research, data processing and high technology publishing.

Accordingly to our goals of the half a year August 2005 – January 2006, these are the activities of iEARN representative in Tanzania, Moshi during this half a year:

Bring understanding of vital role of ICT in education development by discussing difficulties and problems of education, possible solutions and forthcoming programmes in Kilimanjaro region, with spokespeople of Moshi Municipality, Non Government Organizations, Schools, Colleges and etc

Introduce to social community of Kilimanjaro region aims, goals and philosophy of World Education Corps and James Martin.

To gain more visibility for Kilimanjaro Information Technology and Development Training Centre in order to make impact to more teachers and students from primary and secondary schools.

Pursue goals of sustaining collaborative work and relations with international community of Kilimanjaro region primary and secondary schools teachers and students by training KITaDTC trainers in field of iEARN collaborative projects.

To make teachers gain ICT and implement new teaching technologies in classroom curriculum by teaching basic knowledge of computer, Internet and introduction in iEARN collaborative projects teachers from primary and secondary school.

Create basement of teachers with basic knowledge of Microsoft Office and Internet to enable them to participate in Training of Training program.

Find partners for sustainable development of KITaDTC program and achieving goals, promoting vision and philosophy of WEC.

Goals and Success achieved through half a year August 2005 – January 2006

43 teachers from primary and secondary schools of Moshi city trained at Kilimanjaro Information Technology and Development Training Centre. After training teachers achieved basic skills in Windows – 95/98/XP, Microsoft Office, implementing and using of iEARN Collaborative Projects in classroom curriculum. There were expected 65 but because of different circumstances they did not attend trainings. For more information see Concerns, Problems, Challenges section.

Two trainers from Kilimanjaro Information Technology and Development Training Centre attended iEARN Distance Learning course – “Creative Writing Online Course” which was sponsored by WEC and iEARN USA. After completing the course, the teachers were recognized as iEARN Master Teachers.

Approximately 450 students from primary and secondary schools are participating in iEARN projects. But not all of them participated in online forums. For more information see Concerns, Problems, Challenges section.

Established Support Training Centre at Kishumundu Secondary School. Kishumundu Secondary School has 10 working computers with Windows 98 and XP operating system and 4 teachers with good computer skills. After attending training at KITDTC they started to conduct training for their l students at Kishumundu Secondary School!

Organized qualified and skilled team for promoting World Education Program, James Martin Philosophy and iEARN.

Concerns, Problems, Challenges

Electricity fluctuations and regularly cuttings especially on dry seasons.

Lack of involvement of many teachers and students in collaborative work attributed to – not all schools in the region of Kilimanjaro and Moshi city especially have computer labs and Internet connection. As a result, main iEARN projects activities passing inside of schools do not gain international community.

·        Teachers’ absence in training attributed to – exam oriented curriculum, heavy teaching load, parliament and 2005 General Elections, transport cost,
·        Misunderstanding of the importance of ICT in education and necessity of integrating the ICT in their teaching led to lack of interest

Lack of sponsors has also been our major problem.

Activities for second half a year period January 2006 – July 2006
Aimed with the experienced gained in the last few months, the team at Moshi, Tanzania is targeting the following area for the remaining period!

Conduct Training of Trainers for teachers who attended the first part of Basic Computer Skills, Microsoft Office and Internet. The teachers would be selected according to their interest and ability. The aim is to select few good teachers who will become competent trainers after the pilot program! These will teach others and form a baseline of training for collaborative projects in Tanzania!

Conduct iEARN workshops for primary and secondary school teachers. Trainings is going to be conducted by two trainers of KITaDTC who attended the just ended iEARN Distance Learning Courses. This will be a challenge because we expect primary and secondary school to offer a reliable base for iEARN collaborative projects! As things are shaping now, teachers leave a lot to be desired for their lack of interest in ICT!

Conduct training at the Support Training Centre of Kishimundu Secondary School for the neighbouring primary and secondary school teachers. There are more than 16 primary schools and four secondary schools in the area. Each primary school has approximately 800 students and 45 teachers. The secondary schools are new and they have 350 students and 25 teachers each!

Organize training of teachers of secondary and primary school in Moshi city by an Alumni of TOT program. This will be a throw back strategy where graduate both teachers and students would be used to train others upon successful completion of their training! This way we can accomplish another part of our target which is sustainable training after the pilot program!

Support that we are looking for:

Fund to pay for Internet connectivity at Kishumundu and enable students and teachers to gain online access. At the moment teachers and students are getting basic computer course at Kishumundu and move on to KIT for online access. KITaDTC is about 16 Kms from Kishumundu Secondary that’s where the question of transportation cost arises!

Sponsorship for teachers training to buy stationeries, transportation cost and incidentals. Understandably teachers have little interest because of the cost involved in attending the course. They have to meet their transportation cost, stationeries and incidentals! All other services at KITaDTC are free of charge!

Sponsorship for more computers in both primary and secondary schools. Some of the teachers who attended the first basic computer course had never touched computer before. The same teachers will go back to their schools after completing their basic training and will not be able to use computers because their schools do not have them!

More iEARN online training sponsorship to KITaDTC teachers would enable them to manage collaborative projects! It would be beneficial for iEARN to use these teachers during its online training! This will be part of the global network of iEARN!

Expected activities at KIT in 2006!

Kit will start a secondary school this January. It will be run by KITNet (the Non Governmental Organization- NGO). This NGO will promote the image of WEC. it is proposed to name the school after the visionary founder of WEC Dr. James Martin. It will enrol orphans and primary school failures from the destitute families. The school’s name will be James Martin Educational Centre! Students and teachers in this school would be cultivated to the ongoing online collaborative projects and enable them to enjoy the best education ICT can provide!

During the Mount Kilimanjaro Marathon, some teachers in training will take part in an effort to raise money for their school! There will be a half marathon and full distance marathon.

Sometimes this year between March and June, the WEC expedition for Kilimanjaro will take place. The expedition will comprise of teachers and possibly students who are taking part in the training! This expedition is expected to raise some money to cover cost for the teachers, transportation and stationery! This will wind up the first WEC pilot program in Tanzania. The event will be annual one for the same purpose.

Gratitude:

Much heartfelt gratitude should be bestowed on the Moshi Municipal Council for their support in the program. The Municipal has proved that local government can be an integral partner in the ICT development process.

The staff of Kilimanjaro Information Technology Development Training Centre for their keen and unreserved support and guidance to this program! Through their Community Outreach Program, KITaDTC has been able to use its expertise and popularity among the residents of Moshi to sell this project successfully. Many bureaucratic dogmas were shelved because KITaDTC is part and parcel of this local community.

Contact persons:
Onesmo Ngowi
WEC Coordinator for Tanzania
ngowio@yahoo.com

Lev Gavrish
WEC Volunteer, Tanzania 2005-2006
levgavrish@yahoo.com Full Postal Address:
Kilimanjaro Information Technology and Development Training Centre
P.O. Box 1106
Majengo, Ghalla Street
Moshi
Tanzania

Goals Setting

lev gavrish — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 08:54:14 +0000

Describe a baseline assessment of the current situation. What can best be achieved by your efforts from your observation? If relevant, include description of Computer and Internet access and availability in the schools with which you are engaged.
Upon my arrival and subsequent available information of Kilimanjaro educational situation in the local government office, I have realized that not all schools in the region of Kilimanjaro and Moshi city especially have computer labs and Internet connection. That is why my objective is to involve students and teachers from this region into iEARN programs. Currently this is possible by using Kilimanjaro Information Technology (KIT) as telecommunication center because they have the facility required. For more information about schools please see the attachment!
Based on this assessment, what do you see as your professional goals for this year at this point in time? (This can be based on needs of iEARN coordinator or overall professional goals).
Basing on my current assessment in Kilimanjaro region and especially in Moshi city my professional goal is to gain more visibility for our partner organization KIT in order to make impact to more teachers and students from primary and later from secondary school as well. Our project starts in Moshi, which is the capital city of Kilimanjaro region and home to the highest freestanding mountain in the world, the Kilimanjaro Mountain!
There are 33 primary schools and 12 secondary schools in Moshi. There are 25,000 students in primary schools and about 9,000 students from Secondary schools! So my activities will start with primary school for this year where I will conduct Training of Trainers (TOT) for teachers and thereafter-general computer training to schools!
Next year January, I will introduce the same training to 12 secondary schools of Moshi! This will form a baseline for other towns of Kilimanjaro. There are about 6 towns in Kilimanjaro, which are, Moshi Urban (Capital City), Moshi Rural, Hai, Rombo, Mwanga and Same. Each town has separate administrative government including education departments! On average there are 1000 primary schools in Kilimanjaro (average of 800,000 students and 30,000 teachers) and about 350 secondary schools in Kilimanjaro (315,000 students and 17500 teachers)!
Expansion of iEARN and TOT activities countrywide so that students and teachers can participate more in the collaborative projects through Internet. This will assist students and teachers to gain more knowledge from digital libraries! As it has already been stated before Kilimanjaro region is more advanced in terms of educational network in Tanzania. The region accommodates more than 35% of all schools and higher learning educational institutions in Tanzania. Current there are six universities in Kilimanjaro. The region has a population of 1.3 Million. So it is easier for me to work from here where schools and other educational facilities are abundantly available!

The other reason that makes Kilimanjaro to be an ideal center is its location. This is a getaway to other major northern regions like Arusha, Singida, Tanga and Manyara. The mentioned area consists of more than 60% of all schools in Tanzania!
One of the main objectives of my placement is to raise funds to support and expand activities not only for organization that I belong (KIT) but other educational centers such as Kilimanjaro regional library and etc.
From July of next year teachers and students from Kilimanjaro can attend the next iEARN annual conference in the Netherlands and participate in the Online Professional Development Training workshops in order to familiarize themselves with what iEARN does, implementation of iEARN projects in classroom activities and curriculum and how they could leverage from the established network of teachers and educational professional in ICTs.

How will you measure these goals? What will be the indicators that you have achieved them?
I will first set up the beginning level from where I will raise the knowledge level of students and teachers in ICT and iEARN. For instance, starting from 05/09/05 I will introduce Training of Trainers (TOT) to 33 teachers. This is one teacher from each 33 primary schools in Moshi. Once the training is through in two weeks time, I will continue with the Training of Trainers (TOT) of supervise the training of other 3 teachers each from the same 33 primary schools in Moshi. The training will be conducted at the Kilimanjaro Information Technology (KIT).
The main objective is to have a well trained group which consist 4 teachers in each school. Once this is achieved in one month, I will then supervise the training of available teachers in all 33 primary schools in Moshi. This will form a baseline of my project because the target is to start training the students in 33 primary schools in Moshi come 5^th month of my arrival in Tanzania.
By December of this year I expect to have trained almost all the teachers in 33 primary schools of Moshi. I will be conducting a through assessment to determine their level of understanding through questionnaires and test!
In summary I will conduct a baseline assessment and measure, e.g.

Improved computer literacy
Number of schools impacted
Attendance in courses
Number of teachers trained
Number of schools involved in iEARN and TOT!

What obstacles do you foresee?
As the Volunteer of WEC and promoter of iEARN currently in Moshi city, I foresee working of teachers who volunteer to do collaborative work on iEARN and other activities as an extra-curricular activity could be very challenging.

Main challenges are that teachers do not have basic skills in internet and computer exploitation. Out of one hundred teachers in Moshi, less than two have access to the computer or Internet. This is a question of knowledge because if they had this, Internet cafes are many that could give access.
Lack of money to pay internet connectivity in order to participate in the iEARN projects, forums and other activities!
Another challenge for teachers is limit in time. Afternoons are the only available times but these are hardly free since this is the time for meetings, remedial work, staff workshops etc. The workload is also so high for the teachers because those who could be involved have their major teaching subjects, and other activities from the staff.
Motivation too is to low because teachers are normally paid very little as compared with other professions!
Almost all schools that would have loved to participate do not have computers and are not connected to the Internet because of the cost involved. But one positive thing is that almost all schools if not all schools have electricity power! This could be exploited if computers can be available for them.
Understanding importance of ICT and iEARN collaborative projects in education and also the necessity of integrating the ICT in their teaching.
Lack of local sponsors is also a major problem.

What support do you need to be able to reach these goals?

Support of local government educational office in all activities and aspects. In my current situation I am getting all the help I need from the local government educational office. In fact they organized my Kiswahili language orientation, transportation, provide Internet access and have set aside an office and assistant for my activities while I am here!
Funding from WEC and iEARN and support in obtaining grants from other organizations. This will help in obtaining computers for schools and Internet connectivity!
Providing information about sponsor organizations that are working in Tanzania. We want these organizations to assist in our projects financially! Like buying computers, stationeries etc!

What does it mean “foreigner”?
What if the identity ‘foreigner’ is disappeared in our world? When there is no longer a sense of “us” and “them”, but when the world around you is the “us” and you yourself have become “them” even of your own perception. Some times you defining yourself according to the “aborigines” not by what YOU ARE but by what YOU ARE NOT can cause a sense of timidity or self limitation. Of course it is easy to have an idea in your head – I am a foreigner so that rule doesn’t apply to me, I am a foreigner so they go their way and I will go my way, I am a foreigner and so it is inherently known that I cannot participate in some actions, or that I haven’t this or that skill, I view the world in this separate way. But the way how volunteer thinking is – “I am a foreigner so I am different and there is power in my difference. What can I or we do to make this place better? What can I do that there is no longer a sense of “us” and “them”, but the world around is the “us”
I have to think of these things more…these are just current ideas….