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Kedu – eBook 1 A4 only PDF 644Kb
Kedu – eBook 2 A4 only PDF 608Kb
Kedu – eBook 3 A4only PDF 649Kb
Kedu – eBook 4 A4 only PDF 650Kb
Kedu – eBook 5 A4 only PDF 632Kb

About : eBooks help to promote ongoing communication between students in Umulogho Village, Nigeria and students in Watford schools.

Bev Carter’s eBook A Little Something About Me (generated by with support from Proboscis) was used to assist a series of workshops in six schools in Watford during 2008 to communicate through words, paintings and photographs the life, experiences and interests of students attending a secondary school in Umulogho, a rural village in Imo State, Nigeria, West Africa.

During school workshops copies of this eBook were handed out to the students and a discussion was encouraged and facilitated by Bev. The pupils really liked the eBook and it served to generate more curiosity and questions about life in Umulogho. As part of the process another eBook created to capture all the thoughts and enquries the students had.

The next eBook was called ‘Kedu?‘ This means ‘How are you? in Igbo, the main language spoken in Umulogho Village. This was a collection of further questions from students in Watford using pictures created by Umulogho students to give them added visual interest. In July 2008 copies of the ‘Kedu’ eBook were hand delivered to Umulogho Village by Tony Amaechi, a Trustee of Friends Out There, and some Umulogho Village students then filled in their response to the questions in the eBook. Five eBooks were collected by Tony on his return to the UK and some students told Tony that they had enjoyed filling in the eBooks, were thrilled to see their paintings scanned in to them and were happy to know that students in the UK were interested in them, their dreams and concerns.

In October 2008 the completed Kedu eBooks were taken back to some of the schools in Watford that had asked the original questions. The students were amazed and pleased to see they really had been given some answers to their questions, such as ‘are there any crocodiles in the village stream? – some Umologho students had seen some and others hadn’t. The eBooks got the Watford students talking about what time they wake up in the morning and what they do before school as most students in Umulogho were awake by 5.30 am and had gone to the village stream and back to collect water before going to school. The Kedu eBooks also gave the Umulogo students a space to ask some questions that they had for the Watford students such as ‘what seasons do you have in England?’ and ‘what religions do you have?’

The next stage will be to create another eBook to continue the communication between the schools in Umulogho and Watford. The eBook is an excellent resource for schools: students like the pocket sized feel, it’s a great way to capture conversations and enquiries and, even though the school in Umulogho Village doesn’t yet have a computer or internet access, we were still able to send and receive paper copies – using more traditional means of connection and communication.

Bev Carter
February 2009

For more information please contact Bev Carter (Friends Out There)

Published February 2009

Why did you take part?
I was invited to take part by Giles, and was delighted at the opportunity given to me to learn how to develop ‘eBooks’ on the Diffusion Generator and work in the Proboscis studio with Karen (mentor) and support from Giles and the rest of the team. I took part because it fitted in well to the aims of an arts and communication project I have been developing with a school in Umulogho Village in Nigeria since January 2007 and art workshops I have been running in the Watford area.

What did you achieve?

• I learnt how to use the Diffusion Generator, with excellent support from my mentor Karen.
• I wanted my eBooks to be illustrative, including photographs and painted images, with some text to ‘tell the story’.
• I learnt how to import scanned images from ‘Flickr’, which was a new site to me.
• I developed two eBooks. The first was an eBook called ‘A Little Something About Me’ and the second was called ‘Kedu?’ (How are You?)
• The eBooks were used as a tool for discussion about the village of Umulogho, Nigeria, with primary, junior and secondary aged pupils in schools in the Watford area.

How did you go about this – what was the process involved / your approach to the eBook Generator…?
I spent about five days in the Proboscis studio between May to September 2007. Karen was assigned as my mentor and guided me through the Diffusion site, she helped me to understand how to develop a draft eBook up to the generated version, scan in images from ‘Flickr’, write text and resolve any problems encountered. This help was definitely necessary and I don’t think I could have worked out all technical issues, without her help. I understand it was useful to Proboscis to have my feedback on my experience of making the eBooks (plus experience of other case studies) and this helped in making further improvements to the Generator, which I gained the benefit of in my later sessions in the studio.

My approach to developing the eBook was as follows:

• The first eBook ‘A Little Something About Me’ summarized the words/ messages that were written by Umulogho Village students and included copies of their paintings, so that a short story could be told of their concerns, hopes and dreams for the improvement of their school, and to tell the reader something about their life and experiences in Umulogho Village.
• The second eBook is called ‘Kedu?’ ‘(How are you?’) This is a collection of questions that came from primary to secondary aged children from Watford (plus some of my own). The aim was to capture their curiosity about Umulogho Village life and young people’s experiences there after seeing the first eBook and a look at the paintings made by Umulogho pupils. These questions were asked by pupils during art/discussion workshops in the five schools I have been working in. The ages of the children I worked with ranged from 6 year olds to 13 year olds. Some of these questions were inputted into the ‘Kedu?’ eBook alongside pictures of the Umulogho students’ paintings. The eBook will be sent to the students in Umulogho Village in March 2008. I have already discussed how the eBooks will be used by students in Umulogho and I am trying to resource this to happen.

What did you learn from this process? How did this process influence (if it did) your way of working?
The experience of the case study helped me to further develop the overall strategy for the work I have been doing with Umulogho Village and schools in Watford and it has had a positive impact on the development of a new charity I have been setting up called ‘Friends Out There’.

Although I have not yet used the eBook in schools as the main focus in the workshops I have been running, it has been an excellent resource to hand out to the pupils after the initial discussion about Umulogho Village and as an aid to the paintings, questions and messages that pupils in England have been making, with the intention to sent back to Umulogho. It was good to watch the pupils look through the eBooks, see their interest in them and want to talk to each other about their content.

What other ways could you see yourself using the Generator for in the future?

• I would still like to develop a few variations to the eBook, ‘A Little Something About me’ changing the amount of words, length of the eBook and use of language for different audiences/ages etc and perhaps breaking up into different themes about village life.
• I have about 200 paintings that have now been produced by up to five schools in Watford and I am excited about developing further eBooks, hopefully with some school and pupil involvement in the process. The next set of eBooks I hope to make are from the paintings and messages produced by Queens Secondary School and from Field Junior School in Watford. They would like to send a record of their images back to students in Umulogho and get a dialogue going between the schools. I haven’t approached the school about making an eBook yet. Queens have made a four minute DVD of the art workshop I ran with them that I would also like to send back to Umulogho Village.

Any other comments?
I think the case study experience has been a fantastic opportunity for me and I now need to find the time to continue on with ideas I have for future eBooks and look forward to discussing this with Giles. I could see it becoming more integrated into the work I am doing, not just as part of the workshops, but using the format of the eBook as a way to record events, workshops with schools, helping to establish and continue conversations between different school communities I have been working with in England and in Nigeria.

Overall, I think it’s an excellent, usable tool for educational learning and sharing. I particularly like the detective like, pocket sized feel of it. It’s great that it is available on the Diffusion website, and so can be accessed around the world and I have sign-posted many people to it.

Bev Carter
February 2008

The eBooks
Kedu? How are you?
A Little Something About Me

Bev Carter, who participated in last year’s Case Study programme, is organising the launch event, Friends Out There, for a charity which will run arts based projects with residents of Umulogho Village, Nigeria at the Watford Colosseum (Map) just 20 minutes by London from Euston Station.

A celebration of African dance, art and music, the main aim of the event is to raise funds to improve facilities in Umulogho village and establish a new school building. Bev’s Case Study project, A Little Something About Me includes two eBooks (A Little Something About Me and Kedu? How Are You?) based on the experiences of children at the school and is part of a long term exchange being developed between Umologho schoolchildren and schoolchildren in the UK.

Visit the Friend Out There blog

Doors open at 6pm with live performances from 7.45pm until 00.45am featuring:

• Kakatsitsi, Master Drummers from Ghana
• Chimanimani from Zimbabwe,
• Fire juggling and stilt walking by Area 51, the Masters of Breathtaking
• and special guest Rolf Harris performing live accompanied by his friend Shining Bear on didgeridoo

More details and tickets available from the Colosseum box office: 01923 225671

Originally blogged by Kevin Harris

Download A4 | US Letter PDF 3.7Mb

Abstract : Second in a series of eBooks created by Bev Carter as part of Proboscis’ Generator Case Study Residencies. This eBook has been designed for students at the village school in Umologho to fill in, responding to questions asked about them and their lives by British schoolchildren who have previously encountered the paintings and stories of the ‘A Little Something About Me’ project. This eNotebook will, in turn, enable the children of Umologho to ask questions of British schoolchildren in a future eBook for the project, In this way we hope to establish an evolving dialogue across continents and cultures.

Published November 2007

Bev Carter has been developing an arts and communication project with students in Umologho village, Nigeria since December 2006. “I’m excited that there are many ways that the eBook can be used explore how people feel about and interpret the environment around them, using pictures and words. I like the idea that thoughts, on the run, can be captured.” Bev is finding ways to share this information between young people in Nigeria and England. Contact bevalittlesomething@hotmail.co.uk

Download A4 | US Letter PDF 3.7Mb

Abstract : The first in a series of eBooks created by Bev Carter as part of Proboscis’ Generator Case Study Residencies. This eBook contains paintings, pictures and information by the students of a local school in the village of Umologho, Imo state, Nigeria. The students were asked to write ‘a little something about me’ describing what learning meant to them, their hopes, fears, likes, dislikes etc. This eBook attempts to capture some of the richness of what they had to say and has been designed to open up a conversation with British schoolchildren, who have helped devise the questions in a second eBook to be sent out to Umologho in the new year.

Published November 2007

Bev Carter has been developing an arts and communication project with students in Umologho village, Nigeria since December 2006. “I’m excited that there are many ways that the eBook can be used explore how people feel about and interpret the environment around them, using pictures and words. I like the idea that thoughts, on the run, can be captured.” Bev is finding ways to share this information between young people in Nigeria and England. Contact bevalittlesomething@hotmail.co.uk