233 Tech.

iSchoolAfrica: An interesting take on e-learning

Posted on 24. Jun, 2010 by Nana Kwabena Owusu in Real Tech

The World Cup has been in full swing for almost two weeks and while the excitement on the field heats up (and productivity cools down), there are other interesting projects going on around the World Cup. One of these interesting projects, ‘iSchoolAfrica World Cup Youth Press Team‘ equips teams from four South African provinces, a totla of 15 school teams, with a video camera, MacBooks and iLife software and an opportunity to tell the story of the World Cup.

The project is part of the bigger iSchoolAfrica project which “aims to bring the best available education technology and practices to schools in South Africa.” The Digital Planet from BBC showcased the project as part of a special report last week by visiting one of the schools, Wynberg High School. This is how Gareth Mitchell the Digital Planet host introduces the school,

They have some media equipment and computers that any design house would be proud of, a principal who loves his technology and students who know their Adobe from their Android

This project shows a different side of development based e-learning which focuses not on low cost computing but rather using strong public private partnerships to get the best equipment and infrastructure for the desired outcomes.

Hardware & Software (High End vrs Low Cost)

Each participating school is issued with: One mobile classroom containing; 12 MacBooks, 12 video cameras and 1 projector. This is kept in a secure, mobile case and can be easily move around. The MacBook comes preloaded with the iLife suite of applications and Adobe software, which are the toolkit for the creation of multimedia projects – allowing learners to make movies, music, websites and more. This supports creative, challenge-based learning which is used by teachers and learners to create curriculum-relevant projects.

The equipment and software used in this project, high quality equipment and commercial tools sharply contrasts with the usual  low cost, open source computing approach of these types of projects. (see the  One Laptop per Child or Classmate projects). iSchoolAfrica states clearly on their website that the focus of the programme is learning and  teaching, not tools, nor infrastructure. Since the focus of this project is not just on computer literacy (basic computer use, word processing, small business tools) and also has students as the target, using standard industry equipment and software I feel is the right approach.

A good percentage of students within the secondary level are bright and eager enough to overcome the challenges or disadvantage of having a late start to ICT to become significantly adept. Wynberg High School students on Digital Planet for example were scripting, filming, editing and releasing finished documentaries using professional tools and software.

I in no way mean to underestimate the importance of providing technology, infrastructure and ICT solutions built for communities in Africa where power is a major issue. I also believe in the ability of open source software to provide huge advantages in project costs and technical challenges like licensing, upgrades and customization. However I do know that I would love to see more e-learning programmes that focus on empowering students with real skills by using the best learning and education tools available. Hardware, software and infrastructure should be abstracted to a simple decision of ‘Are these the best hardware and software available?’.

Teachers & Building Capacity

The most important link in the chain teachers (like most adults), find it more difficult to adapt to new methods of learning and teaching. iSchoolAfrica discard formal training as part of their methodology which they felt would hinder the teacher’s progress.

“The barrier and the challenge is not the children,students are able to pick up the technology and very very quickly work their way around it and start producing content.The barrier is really the teacher.

“Experience teaches us putting teachers into a lecture hall and bombarding them with information actually drives a further barrier and probably drives further fear”

Instead they use an iSchoolAfrica trained facilitator to create a peer to peer relationship and move gradually from full assisted to full independent use of the technology by each school, with continuing  support and capacity building for teachers. The iSchoolAfrica Facilitator identifies and trains the most committed and capable teacher in each school to become a resident facilitator, who will take over the facilitation and become responsible for lesson plan development and integration.

Related posts:

1. It’s Different. African Open Source Technology and ICT4D
2. 3D Printing, Part 2: Printing a ton of passion and hope
3. Ghana’s Digital Television Switchover, getting ready for 2012
4. Sixth Sense. Seriously Cool Technology!

Tags: e-learning, ICT4D, policy, worldcup