Students get creative with Nokia

11 June 2010

In an effort to equip students with the skills needed to compete in the global economy, Nokia has co-sponsored a digital arts programme to teach South African students how to use digital and mobile technology. The programme, delivered through a week-long workshop, is in partnership with the Pearson Foundation, the U.S based National Education Association (NEA) as well as the Caversham Centre in KwaZulu Natal.

In May this year, thirty students from schools in and around Pietermaritzburg attended a Digital Arts Residency, an intensive classroom based workshop, designed to deliver engaging, personalised learning.  During the workshop students were asked to write, shoot and edit films based on an established curriculum around social issues that matter to them for example, HIV/AIDS and race relations. “As part of the programme, the participants have to write the script, make use of Nokia devices to film the content and then edit the footage on a laptop computer,” says Kulsoom Ally, head of corporate social investment, Nokia Middle East and Africa. “The completed films are then used in classrooms across KwaZulu Natal to shed light on important issues that affect the youth of South Africa.”

Once the students have completed the workshop they will become student mentors at Caversham’s CreACTive Centres in KZN. “Working in groups of three, they will use the centre’s mobile lab to teach other students in under-served communities how to create films that are both personal and also tied to local curriculum,” says Malcolm Christian from Caversham CreACTive Centres.  “Additionally teachers from a wide spectrum of schools will learn how to incorporate digital arts into their existing lesson plans to bring 21^st century life skills to their students.”

Caversham CreACTive Centres began in South Africa in 2002 at Jabula Combined School in the rural community of Lidgetton and is the venue for art-based creative interaction where individual potential is nurtured through personal development and life-skill training.

“By sharing the latest mobile technologies in classrooms, these programmes help teachers and students to develop the necessary skills they need to design, develop and complete the collaborative digital arts projects that will shape their future,” says Malcolm Christian of the Caversham Centre..

• Category: Environment/Sustainable Business
• Tags: nokia