Hai Ti! (Listen Up!)

This initiative uses an entertaining medium - illustrated comic strips - in an effort to make information and communication technologies (ICTs) less intimidating to new users. Hai Ti! is a character-based drama which is based around the experiences of the SchoolNet team and teachers at a remote rural school in Namibia. Specifically, the first edition interweaves various stories: that of a learner who uses the internet to prepare for a debate, a football fan who learns that the internet can be a better source for sports news than the local shebeen, and a young teacher who comes to grips with computer basics with the help of SchoolNet trainers.

The project aims to provide teachers and learners with skills - in an entertaining and easy-to-understand manner - to cut, copy and paste, as well as to use office administration tools such as word processors, spreadsheets and multi-media applications and the internet. One key approach involves reaching out to educators who are still resistant to ICTs. Hai Ti! also aims to address misunderstanding and allay fears among educators about the compatibility of open source software such as Open Office with similar proprietary systems.

Hai Ti! (which means ‘listen up!’ in the Oshiwambo language) is distributed to schools directly, and through inclusion in the Namibian Youth Paper, but is also available online.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Education.

Project organisers hope that the comic strip will foster SchoolNet's efforts to guide educators and the community through the stages of computer ownership, ICT adoption and ICT integration with the national curriculum. "We want to encourage educators, learners and communities to embrace these technologies in their lives. We need to encourage personal control, comfort in the use of technology and build respect for the intelligence and ability of educators to use them."