Congressional Awards for Khanya and Oude Molen Academy of Sciency and Technology

In a video conference linking Dorsey High School in Los Angeles and Oude Molen Academy of Science and Technology on 25 October 2010, the Khanya Project and Oude Molen were honoured with Congressional Awards for their stem partnership in a project linking schools in the USA to schools in Africa.  The programme is a collaboration between World Link, Global NetGeneration of Youth and SMART Technologies.

The programme partners three US high schools with schools from three select countries in Africa – South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.  The selected schools, who share a commitment to fostering technology enabled collaborations to build bridges of understanding in an increasingly interconnected world, participate in a thematic based virtual and physical exchange programme.

Each of the three US schools were twinned with a high school in one of the three African countries.  In South Africa, the programme was organised with the assistance of the Khanya Project and Oude Molen Academy of Science and Technology was selected to be twinned with the Foshay Learning Center in South Central Los Angeles, California.

The programme, launched towards the end of 2009, aimed to inspire youth to inquire, aspire, academically achieve and pursue successful careers and meaningful lives as actively engaged, media literate, global citizens.

Schools have utilized an inquiry and project based learning model of instruction pioneered by NetGeneration of Youth to address issues related to Media Literacy in an increasingly Global Society.  State of the art technology supports the design and implementation of the cross cultural programming.  Throughout the year, the educators and students engaged in virtual exchange using Skype, NING social networking site, and SMART Bridgit conferencing software, a desktop collaboration curriculum to develop technology literacy, as well as media literacy.

Students are guided to develop proficiencies with technologies as they explore the role of interactive media in their communities, country and around the world.  Lessons addressing radio, print, television and interactive media were designed to cultivate youth not only as analytic thinkers and critical consumers of media, but also as creative producers of media who can apply new knowledge to construct effective multi-media messages that can then be shared with peers and adults around the world.

The project activities in class and on line through the Internet are complemented by opportunities for students at each school to participate in a capstone project of community service.  Additionally, a representative delegation (including one teacher and two students) from each school will have the opportunity to visit their partner school in a three week face-to-face reciprocal exchange programme.  The enriching experiences of the delegates will be captured and amplified through journaling and photo essays that will be shared on NING and on the project Website.