The Strange Story of the “ICTs in Schools” Session

By Paolo Brunello

It was rather late when Theresa and Julius headed to the last room on that Friday evening. They had been cleaning the Conference Centre for a few hours after that crazy crowd finally disappeared, even quicker than they had arrived. A surreal atmosphere was filling the centre’s halls, the way the ground breathes after a pouring rain: empty stands barely standing, random leaflets scattered on the floor…The show is over, folks, see you next year! - was the silent echo Theresa had in her head.

She pushed the heavy door with her back, entering the room backwards, while drawing the vacuum cleaner. She plugged it into the wall socket and then she turned. “Good heavens! What happened here!” she exclaimed. Julius had just crossed the threshold and stared at her, quizzically. The room was almost empty. No panelists’ table to clean up, no names nor microphones, and no chairs to realign in rows…Instead, a few round tables here and there, lots of chairs around, plenty of empty water bottles…The air was thick, as if it still carried the diverse voices that had filled it so intensively…But most strikingly, a rope, a long rope, was lying on the carpet. “A rope?!” Theresa’s eyes followed along the rope, all the way to its end near the wall, where a wooden stool had been knocked down. “JULIUS! They've been hanging people in here!”

“Theresa, no offence, but I think if that was the case then they would have attached the rope to the ceiling rather than to the floor, don’t you think?”

She hated to admit it, but Julius had a point, indeed.

“Well, all right!” she said in resignation. “What then happened here, Mr Sherlock Holmes?" she asked.

Julius stood still. He sighed and calmly took his thick glasses off, wiped them thoroughly.

Theresa observed him impatiently. She was upset for she knew that ol' uncle Julius would kill her murder story once again, as he always did, with that calm, rational air, whenever she had found an exciting, mysterious clue – an air which she found extremely irritating.

"Well,” he started, “I don't have a clue what happened here a couple of hours ago, but I know perfectly what will happen to me in a couple of hours if I don't clean this mess up, Theresa, and you know it too, don't you?”

"Damned Jessica Fletcher!” she grunted. “Wherever she goes, there's a murder and I don't ever get any!” She turned swiftly and walked nervously to the vacuum, switching it on. She started cleaning the carpet, mechanically, boiling down her frustration.

“Hey Theresa!” exclaimed Julius. “Come, I have found a clue for your story!” He was waving a big coloured picture, printed on a blank sheet. Unsure whether he was mocking her, Theresa hesitated, but soon curiosity took over and she hurried towards him.

“Look, they're all along the rope. Maybe they were quarrelling over whom to hang first!” he mocked. Theresa abruptly grabbed the picture from his hand and scrutinised it carefully: a photo of a bunch of people, colourfully dressed in various styles, standing along that rope. They were staring at each other in an odd way and apparently giggling, somehow. “Sorry, Mr Holmes, but this time you're wrong! They're not quarrelling: they've already picked one! See? There's a lady standing on the stool! Oh, poor woman! You see? It's always us women! I bet she offered herself in sacrifice to save the whole group!” Theresa declared assertively.

”Thereeesaaa! The vacuum is clogged! Go fix it or you'll end up paying for a new one!” shouted Julius.

Indeed, the vacuum cleaner was whining in pain. Theresa rushed to turn off the noisy machine, as if shooting a dying horse. As she bent down to unclog it, she couldn't believe her eyes. It was petals that caused the machine to clog. “But there are no flowers here!” she mumbled, searching the room with her eyes wide open. How strange! The petals were brightly coloured, incredibly soft and so thin, almost immaterial. She picked one and sniffed it. It had no perfume whatsoever, but…“Hey Julius! JULIUUUUS! COME! Oh my goodness! This petal is talking! Come! Listen!” Julius shook his head, looked up and sighed hopelessly. He walked across the room sceptically, until he reached her. But to his major surprise…IT WAS TRUE! That tiny pink petal was actually whispering something! Nothing really comprehensible to them, some weird mumbling, “…wiki…wiki…net…forum…web…web,” random letters, "…I C T…O L P C…N G O…” Theresa and Julius looked at each other in astonishment. Now and then they could grasp some words: “…schools…education…problem…learning… plan…solution…teachers…technology…” Julius suddenly reached for the floor and grabbed another petal: same muttering, but in a different accent…Sensible and pragmatic as he was, Julius did not waffle. He switched the vacuum on again and sucked all the petals, insensitive to Theresa's fierce protests. Vacuum technology: what a great invention! - he thought, relieved, while its deafening noise was covering everything up. Should we blame him? How could we? It's hard to imagine a talking flower if you've never heard one! But once you've heard one, you don't forget it, because you can have the best technology in the world, but at the end of the day, it is the human beings that make the music.

Premiere on stage on Friday May 30th at 11:15, Accra International Conference Centre. Please note that seating is limited. Please sign up on the sign-up sheets available on the notice board in the conference centre.

Cast:
Vincent Kizza, Gayaza High School, Uganda
Susan Jepkoech Kipkeny, Moi Girls High School Eldoret, Kenya
Gezani Phineas Baloyi, Rotterdam High School, South Africa
Samuel Omoding, Science Education Communications Video Uganda
Darling Tamakloe, IESA Foundation, Ghana and Gert J. Muller, Change4Africa Foundation, The Netherlands
Kerryn Krige, Digital Links South Africa, South Africa
Kwesi Smith, Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT, Ghana
Mary Dlodlo, National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe
Dr Ayodele Olatunde Ogunleye, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Alphonse Uworwabayeho, Kigali Institute of Education, Rwanda
Ebenezer Malcalm and Dr Francis Godwyll, Ohio University, USA
Joseph Azi, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Nigeria
Jacqueline Ann Portuesi, Diocesan College School, South Africa

Moderators: Paolo Brunello, Shafika Isaacs

Paolo Brunello

Paolo Brunello, 32, Italian, psychologist by academic training, ICT4D enabler by passion. He has been working in Burundi for three years as project coordinator for an Italian NGO, WITAR (www.witar.org), in a public technical high school. At the school he has been setting up an e-twinning with an Italian technical institute, through a VSAT providing a broadband Internet connection, and enhancing teaching and learning through ICTs. He currently works for the French School in Bujumbura, building its ICT infrastructure and training the local system administrators there.

Newsportal: eLearning in the School System