If TEchnology is the answer, what is the question?

If technology is the answer, what is the question?

The White Paper on e-education was proclaimed on 26 August 2004 and published in the Government
Gazette on 2 September 2004. The White Paper addressed the need for ICT integration in schools in line with the ICT revolution which had an impact on curriculum development and delivery and continues to pose new challenges for education and training systems around the world. Three major challenges were identified:
1. Participation in the information society.
2. Impact of ICT’s on access, cost effectiveness and quality of education.
3. Integration of ICT’s into the learning and teaching process. (Education Department, 2004)
In our country, we thus have a strong commitment to ICT in education. According to the Minister of Education bringing ICT connectivity to all South African schools and education institutions is not negotiable. A dedicated education network called the EduNet was piloted to connect all schools and make connectivity affordable to teachers and learners. This takes place in the context of the 21st Century and a globalized world. (Pandor, 2007)
The Khanya Project was initiated by the Western Cape Education Department April 2001. The focus of this project was to investigate different ways to use information, communication and audiovisual technology to improve teaching and learning, or curriculum delivery in schools. Furthermore the project aims to empower every teacher in the Western Cape to eventually use technology, such as computers or televisions, to teach. This can help alleviate the shortage of qualified teaching staff at many schools.
SchoolNet SA through partnerships with large international and national organizations, including the World Bank, Open Society Foundation, Telkom SA, Thintana Communications, Intel, Nortel Networks and Microsoft, has designed, managed and implemented projects in educational ICTs. This resulted in 22 000 Teachers being trained to use ICT in education by 2007. This process is still going and the vision is that all teachers will be trained by 2014.

In 2000 the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) initiated The DASSIE (Distributed Advanced Strategic System for Innovative blended E-learning) project, in partnership with German based IT and e-Learning companies and the German government’s technical co-operation agency (GTZ). This was the college’s first introduction to technology in the classroom.

The project was officially launched in December 2000. After a refocusing exercise in 2003, it was decided, to mainstream blended learning (e-Learning) as a mode of delivery to increase access to vocational and technical training at Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges in the Western Cape of South Africa.
The envisaged benefits to be gained from the “Dassie” pilot, were:
· The opportunity to introduce a world class e-Learning environment which will have a common user interface (consistent look and feel about it).
· an opportunity for FET colleges to do collaborative content development work towards a common goal
· an opportunity to raise our standards of delivery to that of international levels
· an opportunity to enter into distance education by means of electronic media
· the opportunity to generate revenue from previously untapped markets
· The opportunity to promote and contribute meaningfully to the “massification” of education (Gaum, A. 2002.)

This project was thus the forerunner of a three year long e-learning pilot with six FET colleges in the Western Cape, during 2008-2009.
In 2007 the Minister of Education, Ms. Pandor, during her address at the World Ministerial Seminar on Technology in Education in 2007, made the following statement:

‘ICT is the future and indeed the key to 21st Century teaching and learning’ (Pandor, 2007)

During the course of the pilot each college developed content for specific topics with the notion that the content will then afterwards be shared amongst the six colleges. In other words a repository of content will be formed from which colleges can then draw quality content to deliver to their students. Specific lecturers, who are subject matter experts (SME), were selected at each college to do the development. They were trained in the use of the WebCT learning management system and were assisted by the instructional designers from Eiffel-Corp. The subjects are rich in content (PowerPoint slides) and all assessments from 2007 – 2009 was recreated in the LMS.
The answer to many problems in the classroom was discovered, but many questions arose from this.
The use of technology was ‘sold’ to and adopted by college management as an answer to all their problems. Young people, it is believed, are exposed to technology on a daily basis and would therefore easily adopt technology for learning. If this is true how do we overcome their lack in IT skills? It seems that cell phone literate do not necessarily mean computer literate. So the question is: do we have to first train students in the use of computers before we subject them to a technology enhanced learning environment?
The internet is used as a vehicle for content delivery and unlocks many new experiences and environments and gives a richer dimension to stale content, but do we have enough bandwidth to allow seamless access 24/7? Where do we find funding to equip more computer rooms? How can we issue each student with a laptop?
At present the e-learning drive is managed by a manager and the proprietor with weekly contact with the SME who dictates what the course will look like, but do not have the luxury of time to personally engage with the technology platform. How then does one get personal involvement to ensure progress?
How do one convince your management that lecturers need time off for training if their focus is only on getting students to pass?
CONCLUSION
These are not difficult questions which need very complex answers, but it does need careful consideration if technology is deemed to be the future, key and answer to our academic problems.
REFERENCE
1) Department of Education. 2004. White Paper on e-education, Government Gazette, 2 September 2004.


2) Gaum, A. 2002. The changing trends in education and training and its impact on South Africa. The learntec conference 2002, Karlsruhe, Germany

3) Pandor, N, 2007, E-learning in South Africa. Available at Polity.org.za

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