The Child Africa International School in Kabale Uganda is currently involved in a ground breaking text messaging project to encourage the integration of deaf and non deaf children enrolled at the school. The project was initiated by Cambridge to Africa, in recognition of the pioneering work the school is carrying out integrating deaf children into the school curriculum. The founder of Cambridge to Africa, Dr Sacha DeVelle and trustee Jenny Grewcock travelled to Uganda in March to implement Phase 1 which involved supplying equipment and training in Kabale. The pilot project currently involves 12 (6 deaf and 6 hearing) students who learnt how to operate a mobile phone, send a message and reply to incoming messages. This first phase also highlighted a number of valuable pedagogical insights that included the advanced sign language skills used by the hearing students when helping the deaf children, the provision of a project that unites deaf and non deaf teachers, and the need for a focus on writing skills for the deaf children.

The project uses Frontline SMS software designed by Ken Banks from Kiwanja. net that captures text data generated by students. All messages are routed to a central computer in Kabale that forwards them to a designated email address. The messages are then picked up in Cambridge and analysed for linguistic content and communication strategies. The outcomes of this project will provide insights into the psycholinguistic writing strategies used by deaf and non deaf children, and provide pedagogical evidence for classroom curriculum design. The use of text messaging will also play a role in communication between deaf children enrolled at the school and their parents who often live in remote areas.

Phase 2 was implemented in May 2010 and the results presented at the African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) Biennial Conference at Oxford University on 17 September 2010.

We have also received funding to write and publish an article describing outcomes of the project, as part of a Global Community Link Grant funded by UKaid from the Department for International Development (DFID).


If you would like to contribute to this project please contact info@cambridgetoafrica.org


News!
March 2011: Panel Discussion

The founder of Cambridge to Africa, Dr Sacha DeVelle, will be a member of the panel on 'Mobile Technologies for Education: The experience of the developing world'.

Click here for more details.