Kelvin Odum: My Skool Media Journey
Kelvin Odum works as Project Support Officer, Skool Media. We caught up with him to give us an idea of his work at Skool Media.
How did you find Skool Media or how did Skool Media find you?
Well rather than finding Skool Media, Skool Media found me. I studied Computer Science at the University of Lagos and I am also very passionate about education. So, for me Skool Media is in line with what I am passionate about-using technology to better the way things are done. While Skool Media is about using technology to enhance the teaching and learning process. So I would say that working here has helped me to bring technology into our educational system. Even though technology has always been present in the system, bringing new technological innovation to the system has been very interesting. Going down memory lane, to when we used chalkboards in class and copy notes and then for you to do researches, you have to look for a library. Today, it is different Without going to the library, from your computer, you have access to numerous reading resources, you have projectors in classrooms. So, the whole teaching process has changed. The teacher no longer has to rely solely on chalkboards and markers to teach. Today, a teacher can have a simulated video to explain, for example the concept of digestion to students. That has changed educational system as far as the system is concerned because a student will remember what he sees and hears better than what he hears alone. So if you show me the video of how the digestive system works, I would more likely recall and understand better than just telling me with a diagram.
What does your job entail? Well, my job entails providing support for everything related to the project.
Technical support, IT just everything. I am into everything so far it is project-related. I might be at the background, be sure I am everywhere. I travel a lot; I visit the project locations; employ, plan because one thing I discovered is that change is not something people accept or get used to very quickly. So that transition is not really swift. so before we go for deployment, there has to be a lot of talking, so I am also involved in all that.
Tell me about your training process for the teachers?
First, we do capacity building to introduce them to how to use technology in classrooms. Then, we regularly organise trainings for them because we are aware that most of them are not techie. Despite these, some of them are still sort of reluctant, so we still sit down and dialogue with them. We try to make them understand the power of technology, what good technology can bring to them as against the old methods. We let them realise that if they do not embrace technology, they will be left behind. So the moment we tell them this, they begin to understand the consequences, that is one. We also make them see that it is actually easier to use technology, how? If a teacher comes to classroom and he is expected to use 25mins and he has already spent 20minutes writing notes on the board, meanwhile you could have the soft copy of the note already distributed to the students and when you come to class, you only discuss. And before you know it, it pops up on the screen, it is lots easier.
Asides the deployment of technology in classrooms, Skool Media also beautifies the classes, tell us about this?
We don’t just go to schools to deploy technology. Most of these schools are owned by the federal government and they are in bad shape, we understand that painting in bright colours also make the students more interested in learning, so we paint the classrooms, install lighting and they become very attractive to both students and teachers. We then move on to deploy technology to these classrooms to aid their learning process.
Okay, with reference to the kind of education that you got and the one that these students are getting, what do you think is different?
For me, I think the difference will be breaking that barrier of restriction. During my time, we got all the information we needed from the library, our parents and teachers. Today, however, those people don't have to be around for learning to start. There are resources available to the students on educational tablet without being logged on on the internet. It is amazing that this can be done anytime, anywhere. During my time, if I am at home and I do not have a particular textbook, I am shut out but today if these students do not have a particular textbook it doesn’t stop them. Students can collaborate with technology to learn something new regardless of boundary differences. Those are things that weren’t available to us then.
What mechanisms are put in place to ensure that these students use the technology gadgets for the purpose they were meant for?
First of all, I strongly believe in “preaching” it to them once it is given to them that these things are meant for educational purposes, however that is not enough. Now we have an app installed on the tablet to checkmate them. So the app stops them from having access to a lot of things-say for example a student is trying to connect to the internet to download games instead of reading, or trying to transfer files like video and all of that, they can no longer do this. The interesting thing is that this app is being controlled from the central, even though this has been installed, we still have to monitor how the students use these tablets, so the moment we discover the tabs are being abused from a particular area, what we do is to update the app to block such usage.
So tell me specifically on how you think your work is changing the world especially within the Nigerian context of education?
By virtue of what I do, embedding technology in schools, training teachers, working with students, helping them align with the current trends what this would mean to me is that it has helped them embrace technology. Through my work, I help them to work smart rather than hard. Through my work, we are also redefining the education space in Nigeria, for both teachers and students.
