Project Design

The HIV/AIDS Collaborative Project online discussion takes place in a moderated list-serve format. Because of the sensitive nature of the discussion, a Reproductive Health Specialist facilitates much of the discussion. With the addition of many new participants in 2001, and even more in 2002, the project moved toward a learning circle format, where students and teachers ask and answer questions together, rather than having the facilitator pose all of the questions.

The facilitator begins each Activity with an email message of discussion questions. Participants then find the answers and send in their replies, which gets the discussion going. Beyond the more formal discussions, many topics come up, for example: kissing, condoms, and virginity testing.

Project Goals are stated in the form of four Educational Activities:

Basic Facts on HIV/AIDS: Participants (teachers and students) can articulate the basic facts of HIV/AIDS.

The Importance of HIV/AIDS: Participants express in written and visual format why HIV/AIDS is such an important issue, and how to live with it.

Challenges to HIV/AIDS Prevention: Participants present reasons and discuss why HIV has been difficult to prevent, based on interviews with their peers, parents, community leaders and health workers.

Social Action: Participants write a Social Action Plan for HIV/AIDS prevention and/or care in their own communities -- what they can/will do in the future to reduce its spread and impact.

At the close of each project round, participants are expected and present a summation, preferably via a PowerPoint presentation or website, of what they learned about HIV/AIDS during the project.

Project Outcomes

1. A model Internet-based HIV/AIDS education project for secondary schools and other interested people.
2. Dynamic HIV/AIDS education discussions among Africans, and with a growing number of Americans.
3. Development of local capacity for HIV/AIDS prevention and care, through the school's Community Action Plans, promotion of Peer Education, and links with local HIV/AIDS Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
4. Greater awareness of HIV/AIDS facts, challenges, and possible solutions, in the communities of the participating schools.
5. Cultural exchange between teachers and students in Africa and the United States.
6. Electronic adaptation of classroom materials through the development of an adaptable and practical set of classroom materials, including lesson plans, CD-ROMs, print and web-based publication, artwork and other products generated by participa

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