The emerging power of information technologies might contribute to resolving two of the central issues which are crippling African education systems today, namely : 1) the lack of access to necessary information and learning resources, which considerably lessens the chances of building up the existing formal system's capacity and 2) the lack of opportunites for communication among key players in the learning process (students and their parents, educators, researchers) and education officials (planners, policy makers and curriculum developers) which often results in a bureaucratic and top-down approach to the provision of learning with isolated or disconnected teacher training colleges.
With this in mind, a project - "Creating
Learning Networks for African Teachers"-
has been established to facilitate knowledge of and access to
Internet in Africa. Considering the rapid expansion of affordable
access to full Internet, even in some of the poorest regions of
Africa, the World Wide Web and e-mail are increasingly becoming
a possibility for challenging educators and formal systems of
communication to overcome some of the existing barriers to learning.
The project aims to improve the quality of education and learning by connecting teacher training colleges in Africa to the information highway, thereby enhancing their capacity to respond to new challenges to teaching and learn by facilitating and stimulating innovative experiences, ie:
- opening up teacher training colleges to the communities by becoming information, communication and learning resources for educational planners, researchers, teachers and, through them, create or support specific learning communities;
- changing perceptions among educational
planners and policy makers, researchers, teacher educators and
teachers, to begin seeing themselves as lifelong learners and
agents for transformation in multi-faceted environments.
The project, still in its pilot stage, will connect a number of teacher training colleges (four to six in twenty African countries) to the Internet in order to develop local, national and regional networks to initiate activities that focus on:
- enhancing dialogue between teacher training colleges, educational planners and policy makers, researchers and practising teachers on issues related to learning and teaching;
- accessing and assessing information on latest concepts, developments and experiments in the field of learning, teaching and education to enhance professional development, build local knowledge structures, and stimulate processes of change;
- stimulating the development of locally adapted and relevant curricula, appropriate teaching and print-based learning materials through groupwork and groupware, using locally relevant images and sounds (including otherwise inaccessible "artefacts") in close collaboration with the relevant national education authorities;
- promoting the development and implementation of learning projects at teacher training colleges, targeting different learner groups of the communities around them;
- exploring the use of the Internet to stimulate
more learner-centred and interactive approaches in the teaching-learning
process at colleges and in the classroom.
Before implementing the project on a large
scale, pilot activities will be initiated in a limited number
of countries to assess the feasibility of the proposed activities
and to further develop the specific modalities and requirements
- in terms of hardware, software, connectivity arrangements, networking
partners, training, etc. Zimbabwe was selected as a first country
for this pilot project and it is currently experimenting with
the first phase of the project. The choice of Zimbabwe was based
on its advanced connectivity status and its current attempts to
improve the overall quality of its educational system.
So far, a team of enthusiastic educators
comprising a selection of members of teacher training colleges,
the teacher education department at the University of Zimbabwe,
and the audio-visual and curriculum development unit within the
Ministry of Education, is directing procedures. This initial team
has received basic training in the use of the Internet and been
provided with computers that are connected by specialists from
the country. Currently, an electronic discussion group is being
set up for thematic discussions on education issues, relevant
to the specific Zimbabwean context and a national web site is
being prepared that will facilitate access to learning resources
for Zimbabwean teachers. More advanced applications and collaborative
learning projects in further countries are expected in time as
users gaining more experience in handling the new technology.
Contact information:
Learning without Frontiers Coordination Unit
UNESCO
E-mail: EDVOG@unesco.org
Fax: 33 1 45 68 0828