The Global Teenager Project in Zambia (GTP Zambia) is a project funded by International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and locally coordinated by Lee Muzala of Trio Consult.The project was established in 1998 following a pilot Internet Interchange between two schools in South Africa and schools in Netherlands. The project was then introduced in Zambia in 2001, and was coordinated by Microlink Technologies. The project was then handed over to One World Africa, who eventually handed it over to Trio Consult in 2005. The project focuses on teenagers in Secondary Schools, as well as their teachers.

GTP has two principal objectives:

First, by using the Internet and especially email to catalyze structured exchanges among schools and teachers, to foster inter-cultural awareness and understanding.

Secondly, by promoting new ways of learning and teaching, to enhance the opportunities to young people.

The first objective is focused on the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to connect local and international learners and teachers, developing educational content, promoting cross culture understanding and raising ICT literacy and awareness in schools.

The primary instrument is the ‘learning circle’- interactive Internet and email platform where students and teachers meet to jointly research, discuss, and develop answers to learning goals. The International learning circles are hosted on a central platform, providing interfaces in English, French, and Spanish.

The Second objective uses ICTs to build educational impact on the ground, through improved learning content, new teaching methods, but also through local capacity development, networking, and use of ICTs. The focus is on individual teenagers, using ICTs to their educational experience more stimulating, challenging and ultimately more relevant in today’s information societies.

The primary instruments of change are local Global Teenager ‘Networks’. Operating as independent entities, these networks mainly comprise teachers but are led by local coordinators with necessary facilitation, ICT and pedagogical skills.

The project at the moment involves 15 schools from Lusaka, and now being taken to the rest of the provinces. It is visioned that by end of 2008, the project would involve 25 Zambian schools.