The second edition of Operation Tech-Savvy queen,took place on the first of October 2022.This time finding participants was only digitally tedious as compared to the first edition which was more of a physical and digital battle.
Female English teachers from the center who filled a Google form explaining why they wished to do the training as well as what they needed to know, where invited via email to attend a one-day training session on instructional technology skills and other skills they expressed the wish to know,selected from their google form choices.
45 participants filled the form initially but 30 participants were selected following no particular criteria apart from the fact that our logistics could only support 30 seats.
However, after selection and invitation, only 12 females finally participated in the training.The 18 others did not participate for several reasons.
-Sickness
-Laundry
-Children
-Other
The training covered a series of selected programs ranging from using word documents, to powerpoint, passing through canva,Google form and classroom, Track changes and Zoom.
The sessions where facilitates by PowerPoint and three volunteer experts.At the end of the training, participants were handed certificates of participation and were encouraged to practice their newly learned skills as often as possible, so as not to forget them.
CHALLENGES
In our struggle to digitalize female teachers, our wish is that they become more conscious of their digital illiteracy and willingly accept to be coached.Most participants loose interest between the moment they fill the google form and the invitation mail.We are still looking for strategies to keep interested applicants galvanised till the end of the training.
Our greatest challenge however remains the fact that we take all workshop expenditures on ourselves because we do not have sponsors on the program yet.
We created a WhatsApp group initially which now serves as a follow up space for last participants but it is not easy keeping the ladies interested.
PERSPECTIVES
We are passionate and willing to help as many female teachers as possible.We are extending our training to females of other disciplines to give as many females as possible the opportunity to go tech-savvy.The demand in other regions is high but we do not have the means to travel around.
Our next destination is the littoral region.
