KENYATTA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES International Conference on African Languages and Literatures in the 21 st Century CONFERENCE THEME- “From Asmara 2000 to Nairobi 2014: New Horizons and Trends in African Languages and Literature” August 6-8, 2014

The African Storybook Project……. on its way! Abel Mote & Dorcas Wepukhulu August 2014

Presenting on: Using a digital multilingual story publishing model in enhancing reading skills and attitudes in a developing context: the case of Kenya

Structure of presentation: i.Background to the ASP ii.Concept iii.Theory of Change iv.Lessons of experience so far v.Conclusion vi.Questions/ Comments

Background to the ASP Extensive research shows: After the first 3 years of schooling, children cannot read They are not ready to transit to upper classes

Key obstacles: The drastic shortage of appropriate stories for early reading in familiar languages (Benson, 2014) Conventional publishers are unable to provide sufficient numbers or variety in local languages Accessibility (UNESCO, 2014)

This leads to a vicious cycle

Trying to learn to read without books is like trying to learn to play soccer without a soccer ball Trying to learn to read in a language you don’t understand means that reading can only be mechanical

Concept The ASP is a Saide initiative funded by Comic Relief, a UK-based Charity It aims at enhancing early literacy (2-9) It is availing lots of stories in local languages

Achieved through digital publication of stories Available on the ASP website under the Creative Commons license

Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) Creative Commons Attribution Non- commercial (CC-BY-NC)

Important to the ASP are:  Technology  Language (multilingual literacy), and  Pedagogy Provision of reading materials in multiple African languages, that can be used for teaching literacy and for general readership

Theory of Change Development of a comprehensive solution to the lack of affordable access to sufficient storybooks in familiar languages will contribute to breaking the cycle of illiteracy

Hypothesis: use of digital technologies and open licening supported by an extensive partner network can achieve access to literacy materials even in under- resourced African contexts, Kenya included.

Lessons of experience so far 1.Technology Provision of infrastructure alone is not enough Pilot site teachers show alarming levels of technology illiteracy

Data so far from the sites show that in spite of the technological limitations:  Stories in local languages and relevant for local cultures are reaching rural kids,  Awareness of how to teach reading is beginning to be created among teachers

 Learners are getting excited about reading and prospects for improving literacy levels are beginning to emerge “They (students) love reading together from the same page. Some even want to touch the screen and attempt to type words.” –Teacher from one pilot site

The opportunity to narrate and record stories for use in class is a great opportunity enabled by technology While schools suffer from the shortage of stories for children to read, many stories rich in local culture exist in people’s minds and memories and the ASP is tapping this

Telling the stories, recording them and writing them up in the child’s mother tongue are the noblest ways of creating abundance in areas of shortage With digital publishing one story can be versioned several times and reach many children in their MT

Recording story by a member of SMC at one site

There are certain factors that teachers considered in selecting stories from the ASP website:  Level of language difficulty (words, sentences, paragraphs),  Relevance to learners (stories with moral lessons), and  The length of stories

Teachers from one sites report that they choose stories that make learners enjoy reading: “We in particular, chose these parameters so that we can ensure our learners enjoy reading the stories of their level, acquire and develop positive values, attitudes and knowledge that conform not only to our cultural beliefs but also to our livelihood. As teachers and instructors we believed in setting objectives for every story and strive to achieve the best through our lessons.”

One site reported, “they (children) enjoy looking at the pictures and listening to audio recorded stories from their community, they are curious and attentive.”

2. Power Only one site has solar Several options that the ASP is testing to overcome power challenges include:

Overcoming electricity & internet challenges Portable solar chargers Storage of stories on external drives Creating hub centres (where there is better access) Modems from more than one service provider

Options for delivery = + OR

Challenges provide opportunities for innovation: “We have been trying out the equipment and we are happy with everything except the power situation. I am sorry to say that on any one given day we can only charge up the solar charger itself and one computer, nothing else. It takes a long time to charge, and if there is the slightest cloud, it is extremely slow…We are also finding the website also to be slow, and this takes battery time from the computer.”

The same pilot site suggested that a more powerful charger or a larger solar panel may be a possible solution to the problems highlighted in the extract

3. Overcoming tradition Current negative attitudes and behaviour towards reading: Reading is not a core activity of the curriculum Stories are for supplementary reading Mother Tongue lesson is often given out for another lesson for lack of reading materials in MT

Broken pedagogy and misperceptions on reading: Quotes from teachers in the field: “We read the stories and ask the children to re-tell the stories.” “We read the stories, and ask children comprehension questions.”

Conclusion The ASP is an intervention that aims at promoting reading amongst children, parents and communities by making freely available many stories in a variety of local languages Key aspects of the project are the digital publication of stories in multi languages, open licensing of stories to make them readily available, encouraging translation, versioning and creation of stories by users, and working with and through partners to achieve scale

By availing many stories on the website free, in different languages the ASP will encourage organisations working directly with children to:  access openly licensed digital reading resources of various levels and types on the site  translate and/or adapt the stories into a familiar language and context for the children they work with

 create their own stories and upload them on the website in the templates provided,  contribute already published stories and make them available under an open license, and  use them in a variety of ways for literacy development.

Creating and sustaining an African community for sharing Intensive work in pilot sites testing and refining processes of story creation, translation and adaptation Partners from other countries and projects use the website – creating, translating and adapting to suit their needs Becoming a community for sharing and using local language stories for early reading

Thank you! Asanteni!