Perspectives from the
Practitioners Workshop
on ICT in Education
10 April 2014
6 pillars of the e-Education White paper
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
ICT professional development for management, teaching
and learning
Electronic content resource development and
distribution
Access to ICT infrastructure
Connectivity
Community engagement
Research and development
Overall conclusions of practitioners’ workshop
• Build on progress over the last ten years:
– consolidate ICT infrastructure in schools
– integrate ICTs in teaching and learning
– extend this reach into mobile technology domain.
• Renewed efforts in the initial training and professional
development of teachers and principals are necessary.
• “ICT champions” must be located in all schools and district
offices as part of a systematic strategy of ICT leadership for
the nation.
• Need for a national ICT in Education coordinating agency integration of effort across the public and private sectors,
across different government departments and provincial
education departments.
Teaching & learning issues
a national training model for teachers needs to be
at heart of everything related to ICTs in education
• standardization of courses across pre-service teacher
education & in-service professional development programmes
• Guidelines for Teacher Training and Professional Development
in ICT (DOE, 2007)
• Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher
Education and Development in South Africa (2011-2025) (DBE,
2011)
Teaching and learning issues …
‘ICT champion’ in every school
• capable of basic ICT troubleshooting and maintenance in
schools
• assist teachers and learners with use of technologies in the
classroom a coherent and comprehensive e-content strategy
Teaching and learning issues …
a coherent and comprehensive e-content
strategy
• consolidation of the national repository, and national access to it
• content developed by expert teachers
•
• free access to this content encouraged
• innovative delivery within bandwidth constraints
Technology issues
From ‘laboratory thinking to mobile learning
• “[over the past decade] good progress was made in regard to
school administration, slow and haphazard progress (with
some significant pockets of excellence) in regard to
provisioning for teaching and learning, and limited
developments in regard to assessment.”
Technology issues
sound technical specifications - norms and
standards for ICTs in education
ICT infrastructure development needs to be led
by the public sector
Research & engagement issues
independent but engaged research to
systematise the ‘learnings’ from ICT initiatives
• an overall national research strategy
• identify and document the project-based successes of the
past decade
• identify gaps in e-education in the country
• community engagement and advocacy
Thank you!