Linking Lands: Creating Global Classrooms with Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

In December 2002, Terrawatu partnered with the World Affairs Council for a global classroom project called “Linking Lands: A Partnership between Seattle and Tanzania”. Motivation for this project emerged from the ubiquitous discussion on globalization and one of its biggest challenges – how do we really understand the lives of people in very different worlds who we now interact with in political, economic and social arenas?

The Linking Lands Project links teachers and students in the United States with their counterparts in Tanzania. The program is unique in that while we use computers and the Internet, our philosophy is technology is a tool for communication and does not replace human connections.

To this end, Terrawatu organizes teacher and student exchanges and visitor groups from the United States and Europe who come to Tanzania to instruct, install technology and create people-to-people bonds that continue on-line across distant lands.

To date, Terrawatu has installed three 30+ desktop Internet-capable computer labs and six smaller computer centers in semi-rural villages in the Arusha region of Tanzania.

Initial funding for the project was provided by the Education for Democracy and Development Initiative (EDDI), a program of USAID, with computers donated by the World IT Group (WITAG) in Denmark. The USAID Mission to Tanzania continued to support the project. In 2006 and 2007, the technology at all computer centers was updated under the guidance of a group of inner-city American high school students from the Global Technology Academy (GTA). Volunteers from the USA, UK and Tanzania assist the school communities with curriculum design, Website design, and sustainability of the telecenters.

DONATE NOW! towards sustaining the computer labs by ensuring a supply of electricity, lab supplies and support for computer teachers.