The Corona Virus Disease has disrupted
all sectors of society including the education sector. With the looming danger,
it was inevitable that government had to halt all school programs until the
disease was handled.
The majority of schools in Uganda where caught off guard. Not many schools have online options to engage their students. Apart from a few like King’s College Budo, Gayaza High School, Midfield SS and a handful of others, all other schools had solution for their students.
Read also: Magezi Solutions launches online school for Primary and Secondary students.
This led to some quick ones that
improvised ways of delivering class notes and assignments. A few schools like
Lubaga Girls SS opted for Google Classrooms and Trinity College Nabbingo whose
teachers used their respective class whatsapp groups to send resources.
Amid this chaos, 3 teachers have stood
out by delivering a more robust solution. These teachers have created simple websites
on which they post their notes, assignments and even interact directly with their
students on these sites. Their sites, running on wordpress were created in partnership
with E-zone Web Services which offered teachers with a cheap way of providing
educational resources on line. Who are these teachers in this initiative?
Jackie Male, Math and Economics at
Ndejje Senior Secondary School
Jackie Male uses her site www.teacherjackie.ml to post mathematics notes and assignments to the students of Ndejje Senior Secondary School. Her site allows students to post comments at the end of the assignment page or use WhatsApp for those who have access. You can view teacher Jackie’s website here.
Bwambale Edgar, ICT, Agriculture and
Geography at Burunga Seed School in Kiruhura
Mr. Bwambale on the other hand has 3 subjects to deliver. Through his website www.teacherbwambale.ml, students of Burunga Seed School in Kiruhura and Kazo Secondary School can access learning resources and assignments. Just like Ms. Jackie’s website, Mr. Bwambale can also get feedback through his website using the comments section and whatsapp. You can view Mr. Bwambale’s website here.
Ssembuusi Douglas, Math and Physics at
Forest Hill College, Mukono
Mr. Ssembuusi Douglas, through his website www.resenet.ml is providing his students with resources in Math and Physics. His website also has a whatsapp chat feature and a comments section where students can give feedback. Mr. Ssembuusi’s website can be accessed here.
Why they used WordPress to create the
websites
Any serious web developer will tell
you how long it can take to come up with a website with such features. However,
with WordPress, such a site can be deployed in a matter of hours. Since the
closure of schools was abrupt, a quick way of building such websites was the
best option in order to get to the students within the shortest time possible.
In fact, it took just an hour to deploy Ms. Jackie Male’s website.
Content creation in WordPress is also very easy. For one to upload content to their website, no prior knowledge of web design skills is needed. Any teacher would ideally login to their site and make their first post within a matter of minutes.
It should be remembered that WordPress is the most widely used Content Management System with more than 30% of websites in the world.
Would you like a similar website? Contact the writer below.
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Stephen Dumba is the co-ordinator Central Region ICT Teachers Association of Uganda. Besides teaching, he is a veteran Computer Repair Technician and a Web Designer
+256 772 111 223 / +256 752 111 223
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