The Alberta Teachers’ Association

It is hard to believe! One day I am in Canada and the next I am landing at the airport in ­Accra, Ghana. My colleague Dean McKinney and I had gone to Ghana to represent the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) on an ICT and website development project with the goal of helping the Pan African Teachers’ Centre (PATC) provide quality information, communication technologies, and website development and maintenance services to African educators and Education International EIRAF member organizations.

Dean and I met with the director of PATC, Peter Mabande, and Ernest Asamoa, of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), late one evening to discuss scheduling and preliminary plans for the week. We produced the workshop agenda and agreed to provide an electronic version of the agenda instead of printing it out.  We made the timetable in Google Docs and copied it to a memory stick that was provided to all the participants. How times have changed from our every first workshop, when all the participants received paper copies of everything!

Monday began with an opening celebration and introductions. There were representatives from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia and Sierra Leone, and also from Educational International, Africa Region. We began the workshop by learning more about the participants to get an understanding of their skills and needs. We then asked each participant to create a Word document and e-mail it to us. The workshop ended at 6:30 PM, but our work was not over—back at our hotel we took the information that the participants had e-mailed us and created a Google document, which we e-mailed back to them, along with a group photo, so that they had a document and photograph to post on their website.

The next day Dean did a lesson on using Joomla to edit and add content. Having a web presence and being able to share information and communicate with their members is essential to the future of these teacher associations. Later, we had a session on digital photography. It was fun watching the participants take photos and add them to their websites.

On Wednesday, as we were showing them how to upload files and documents to their website, the power suddenly went out. No problem—like any good teacher, Dean and I had a plan B. We turned the boxes of Smarties we had brought as treats into a lesson plan on using Excel. Using old-fashioned but reliable technology of pen and paper, we explained how Excel works and showed them how to create formulas. As the power still was not on, we then demonstrated iPods and iPads and discussed the use of personal devices in schools. People talked about what was happening in their country with respect to technology. It’s clear that cellular access is making a big difference throughout Africa.

After lunch, power restored, we resumed the lesson on ­podcasts and had a demonstration of Skype—people from Alberta Education skyped us from Edmonton and participants asked them questions. The day ended with participants working on their webpage and creating links to resources they had found on the Internet. 

We also showed participants how to use Google apps and how to make PDF files and post them on their website.

Friday, our last day in Ghana, came all too soon. At the closing ceremony the participants received a certificate, and everyone agreed to continue the work started at this workshop.

We had come together as strangers but left as friends. The experience of working with teachers from other countries reaffirms the work, the values and the beliefs held by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and the Alberta Teachers’ Association. It truly demonstrates “Education for All.”

An example of a website ­created by the Ghana National Association of Teachers is located at www.ghanateachers.org.