Document Editing at Zawadi Academy

Well-Rounded Students

This is a story about the fifth graders at Zawadi Yetu Academy. They have enjoyed every single one of the specialties that have been introduced to them, from Coding, Music Production to Personal Branding and Graphic Design.

They can do all the specialties without the help of their specialist and have shown great passion for learning TechLit programs. They keep asking me what is next. “What are we learning next?” they would say, almost in unison

Self-Teaching with Computers

So today I felt challenged and decided to introduce Word Processing and Document Editing to them. They were really happy to see a new skill they could learn. I used LibreOffice to show them the basic elements of word processing.

I only knew how to type and format the texts. I didn't know some of the other elements. To my surprise, the fifth graders started doing a lot more than what I had shown them. I even asked them to show me how they were able to insert images and where they got it from.

Self-Expression and Creativity

Most of them made a document with a computer image in it. Some wanted to recreate the QWERTY Touch-Typing application screen. So they wanted a computer with three icons on it that said “You Did It!” just like the feedback screen on our Touch-Typing application QWERTY. Almost all of them had “TechLit Africa” somewhere on their document.

Manu even wrote a thank you note to Nelly and Tyler and also TechLit Africa. It read “I thank Nelly and Tyler because since I joined this school i have been attending computer classes. Now I know how to use Inkscape and OpenShot. If it was not for TechLit I would not have known what a computer is.”