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For more than 10 years the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) has been involved with the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) in working with the Pan African Teachers’ Centre (PATC). PATC is an autonomous educational service organization created by African teachers’ organizations to enhance good quality public education and social development in Africa. It’s committed to developing the skills of teachers in their classrooms and as members of their teacher organizations through the promotion and provision of professional development, learning resource materials, communication services and research.
Teacher members of the ATA’s Educational Technology Council (Dean McKinney, Donna Griffin, Dolaine Koch, David Tessdale and Edna Dach) have provided workshops for PATC in various African countries, where participants learn about technology and how to create websites for their organizations (you can see an example of a website created by the Ghana National Association of Teachers at www.ghanateachers.org).
Much has changed in the past decade since that first workshop was held in an Internet café in Lome, Togo, especially when compared to our last workshop in Accra, Ghana, where participants brought their own laptops. Over the years it has become easier, as more African countries get better infrastructure and mobile devices. Yet what hasn’t changed is the fact that teachers care and want to make a difference for their students.
We came together as a group from many countries not knowing each other but we left as friends. The experience of working with teachers from other countries reaffirms the work, the values and the beliefs held by CTF and the ATA. It truly demonstrates the meaning of “Education for All.”
Edna Dach, a leader in educational technology, is a retired teacher.
