Feminist Exchanges
Presentations for Effective Training
Anyone who knows me would know that I generally *hate* using power point presentations (or in my case, Open Office Impress presentations). Personally, I think it fosters a one-way relationship between The Trainer and The Participants, where the former shows what she knows and the latter is expected to simply listen. What usually happens is that the trainer has her go with her presentation, everyone else listens, and then afterwards some time is alloted for questions and feedback (one of my pet peeves is when the trainer takes too long with the presentation and as a result the 'open forum' is tacked on at the end for a few minutes as some kind of cursory exercise).
But I think there are instances where having prepared presentations can actually support effective training, especially when they are used within cotext and with interactivity in mind:
That's why I'm a feminist... the South African Feminist Tech eXchange
That's why I'm a feminist...
Singing, dancing, hand mapping, making networks out of string, cutting out paper faces from cardboard and performance pieces where just some of the activities at the South African Feminist Tech eXchange (FTX) held in Cape Town 11 to 14 November 2009. The FTX is part of a larger project of the APC WNSP called “Strengthening Women's Strategic Use of Information and Communications Technologies to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls” which is being implemented in South Africa by Women'sNet.
The diverse group came from all over South Africa and represent university departments, activist organisations, community based groups, township telecentres, feminist groups but all share one struggle – that of combatting gender-based violence. And the FTX aimed to build the capacity of the groups in using ICTs in creative and strategic ways to enhance and support their activism. The workshop also explored, debated and contributed to developing a feminist practice of technology. The Oxfam Canada Women's Rights Advancement Programme (WRAP) partnered with Women'sNet and APC WNSP and supported the participation of their grantees in the WRAP programme.
Top 5 Worst Trainers in the World
Years ago (almost 4 years to be exact, a bunch of us were doing a training for techie-activists in Chang Mai, Thailand. One of the sessions that we had planned was on 'how not to be a bad tech trainer', and we came up with a list of The Top 5 Worst Trainers in the World*:
- The Mouse Dominatrix -- this one gets cranky with trainees who don't quite know where to point and click their mouse (or can't get command lines right) during hands-on session, and eventually takes over the mouse (or keyboard), missing the entire point of a Hands On session.
- The O.C. (Overly Corrective -- this one likes barking out "No, that's NOT how you do that!", and "That's wrong! I'm right! Do it my way!"
- The Powerpoint Reader -- the trainer who spent the last 48 hours pasting every bit of text about his/ her topic on his 73-slide long power point presentation, then proceeds to spend his / her session reading straight out of the screen.
- The Monologue-r -- the trainer who not only beats around the bush, s/he gets lost in the forest and misses the point.
- The Jargon Monster -- this one speaks in acronyms, weird words and culturally irrelevant references.
INTERCAMBIO TECNOLOGICO FEMINISTA EN BUENOS AIRES - FTX in Buenos Aires
Del 16 al 18 de noviembre de 2009 se realizó el taller de Intercambio Tecnológico Feminista con la participación de 35 representantes de grupos de mujeres del noreste y sur Argentina, más 8 instructoras a cargo de los módulos de capacitación. Este intercambio tecnológico intensivo abarcó cuatro áreas de comunicación utilizando las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación: audio, imagen y video, arte gráfico digital y trabajo en redes sociales por internet. La actividad se desarrolló en las dependencias de la Librería de Mujeres, en Buenos Aires.
1000 hearts - fundraising using social networking tools
Posted by Jenny but written by Alice Gelderblom-Waddilove during the South African FTX workshop in Cape Town, November 2009.
I interviewed Nicky from Rape Crisis Cape Town about their ‘1000 Hearts campaign’
-Why did you decide on using social networks to fundraise?
At the end of 2008, Rape Crisis faced a huge financial crisis. Rape Crisis was finding that big companies would rather donate their money to animal or child welfare causes than to a cause like Rape Crisis, because rape is in no way cute, fluffy or pretty. Rape Crisis was also finding that there was good infrustructure within their NGO for big companies to make donations, but if individuals wanted to donate they couldn’t do so with ease.
