Teaching children using digital technologies promises benefits and methods to improve education, but it requires familiarity, pedagogical adaptations and consistent support, according to a panel of experts at the National Science and Technology Forum Workshop on information-and-communication-technology- (ICT-) assisted education solutions.

The manner in which children learn and people access information has changed dramatically since the blackboard was invented in 1801, yet South Africa expects its ‘Whatsapping and Mixiting’ children to pay attention when technology that is more than 200 years old is used, quips information-technology- (IT-) assisted learning Ministerial task team member and ICT equipment company Mustek electronic-learning head Kobus van Wyk.

“South Africa must change with the times and remove the barriers to IT-assisted learning.”

However, Van Wyk is quick to emphasise that most ICT projects for education focus on the technology to be used, rather than on education, which must remain the sole focus of any education initiative.

“Technology changes quickly. If you try to implement the newest technology each time, you end up chasing rainbows. Similarly, fast Internet connectivity is neither a barrier nor a panacea. We think that providing fast Internet connectivity will open children’s minds and they will suddenly have all the necessary skills.

“This is obviously a fallacy. The Internet is only a source of information, albeit an important one. Lack of connectivity is a hurdle, not a barrier. The main barriers to IT-assisted learning are that we do not know how to implement IT systems to help improve the education system.”

The only suitable way of measuring the success of IT in education is the extent to which it improves academic results, notes Van Wyk.

Department of Basic Education (DBE) curriculum innovation and elearning director Phil Mnisi concurs, noting that the significant progress of the roll-out of IT systems at schools has not been matched by a commensurate positive impact on education nor effective use of the systems.

Further, public initiatives, such as the costly and ineffective Gauteng Online project and a plethora of private initiatives have failed to make a long-lasting impact on the use of electronic media and technologies at schools, mainly owing to a focus on technologies and a lack of sustained support for ICT in education initiatives.

“Teacher development, to sustain and improve the use of these systems in pedagogy, remains a critical part of the DBE’s elearning strategy, and every learner and teacher must have access to electronic content when technologies are introduced. These two conditions must always be implemented as part of any IT-assisted education project,” says Mnisi.

The DBE faces the problem of having to implement new IT-assisted education for the modern information society, while preventing any adverse impacts on the education and progress of learners.

CHANGING EDUCATION

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University FirstRand Foundation chair in mathematics education and Govan Mbeki mathematics development unit professor Werner Olivier investigated the use of mathematics and physical science technology systems in secondary schools.

“The current generation of 12- to 18-year-old pupils is comfortable with technology and eager to use it. There are also considerable potential benefits in using new teaching techniques to improve the development of mathematics and science skills to enable improved progress and continuity from secondary education to higher education.”

Technology-blended teaching systems offer instant feedback, which means that mistakes can be corrected in class, rather than after formal tests. Further, collaboration and exploration of mathematics and science principles will bridge the divide between teachers and pupils in general, Olivier notes.

He emphasises that the progress of pupils into higher education must be improved. IT education systems must, thus, have an overarching progressive incubation structure that facilitates the independent development of secondary school learners, regardless of what happens during class.

“Innovative use of different and Web-independent IT systems that are compatible with teaching in secondary schools can be used as scaffolding to support teachers and pupils. The technology projects must also be suited to the economic circumstances of schools to be effective and must be affordable, sustainable and scalable.”

More sophisticated systems can then be introduced and used with basic education support systems.

Meanwhile, University of Pretoria professor Gerrit Stols studied ICT-assisted solutions for mathematics in schools and found that an IT-assisted learning system is not an immediate, easy solution to solve problems in education – specifically for mathematics – because most systems for mathematics focus only on the procedural learning aspect of this subject.

However, innovative mathematics IT systems can boost the acquisition of mathematics proficiency skills by enabling learners to experiment and explore, thereby encouraging them to make discoveries that they can generalise and then test to verify their results.

“Visualisation is important for the discovery process and enables a rich conceptual understanding through multiple representations. IT-assisted systems make it possible to develop mathematics proficiency, but it is important to focus on good subject matter and not on the technology,” he says.

Visualisation enables pupils to explore geometric principles dynamically, for example, by changing the angles and exploring how this changes other angles, to see the effects of the transformation of functions on resultant graphs and also to work with three-dimensional objects, which are difficult for teachers to demonstrate on paper.

“ICT-assisted learning enables effective presentation of mathematical principles quickly and easily. Such programs also enable teachers to use visuals to demonstrate a concept or to demonstrate how to test the proof of a general concept that pupils have developed through exploration and experimentation.”

Meanwhile, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) principal researcher Dr Adele Botha and CSIR Education and Mobile Learning manager Merryl Ford studied the integration of ICT systems and technologies with teaching and learning in the classrooms of rural schools in the remote Cofimvaba area of the Eastern Cape as part of the ICT for rural education development (ICT4RED) initiative.

The active and transparent use of technology in classrooms enables teachers and pupils to become so familiar with technology that using it becomes a natural part of the teaching process, emphasises Ford.

“Using a system that progressively rewards champions in communities as they improve their familiarity and use of the technology is an effective way of encouraging the use of IT systems concurrent with a sense of ownership of the technology,” she highlights.

MODERN TEACHING
Technology in education initiatives must, however, emphasise professional and pedagogical skills development, as well as content development, which remain important in the medium to long term, says Olivier.

“Technology-blended education systems can harness the potential complementary effects of technology and teaching and can also form part of the phased introduction of technology to slowly change the interactive use of tech- nology and physical resources in the classroom,” he notes.

The ICT4RED project used a jigsaw approach to introducing technology, which entailed teachers working and using the technology in groups in a simulated classroom environment, while discovering how to perform various functions using the new technology. This process helped teachers to become familiar with the technology and increased their confidence in using the technology for teaching.

Further, teacher development emerged as being more critical than Internet connectivity during the project, as teachers could use existing resources, such as textbooks and digitised workbooks, to create new teaching content using technology, emphasises Ford.

Botha agrees, noting that ICT in education projects can improve the professional development of teachers and enable them to conduct lessons using new technologies, rather than prescribing how and what they must teach.

“Engendering a culture of lifelong learning among teachers is critical; enabling them to use technology to access information and create new content also improves their knowledge of the subject matter, as well as their confidence and innovation when presenting the materials,” she says.

ICT in education projects must be demonstrated within the teaching environment to transform teaching practices, she says.

“The results of the project are remarkable. Demonstrating the applications of technology in their teaching environment and providing continuous support for seven months to enable change have resulted in a spillover of good teaching practices into the classroom. Schools and user communities share the knowledge and use of the technologies. This has led to higher cognitive skills being developed in classrooms, as the teachers become more conversant with their subject matter,” says Botha.

Further, ICT-assisted education systems can make classrooms pupil-centred and change pedagogy in radical ways, such as introducing flip-classrooms, whereby pupils study the content at home and work through applications and problems at school. During lessons, teachers provide support when knowledge has to be applied and clarify misconceptions, notes Stols.

The new potential roles of teachers to clarify misconceptions and provide support during knowledge application require good content knowledge. A good teacher has mastery over the content of his or her subject and cannot be replaced by ICT. The lack of mathematics content knowledge of many teachers remains the main obstacle to improved mathematics, science and technology teaching, he avers.

“The barriers to better education are not the teachers. It is our lack of understanding that every piece of technology introduced requires an equal effort to train people to use it. We are obsessed with technology rather than education,” says Van Wyk.

“One of the task team’s recommendations to the Minister is that all initiatives, including IT-assisted learning projects, must strengthen the fabric of the education system.

“To do this, more guidance is needed. We must provide support for the teachers and pupils who form the fabric of the education system. We, therefore, invite partners and encourage the creation of partnerships to improve the fabric of the whole education system in the country,” concludes Van Wyk.

All speakers spoke at the National Science and Technology Forum on ICT-assisted education workshop, held last month in Ekurhuleni.