Washingtion DC students linked to Students of South Africa in Cyberspace
(Betty Perry –Glass \ George Glass)

Introducing "Computer Literacy" a new multimedia tool for South Africans
(Morne Mail, Multimedia Scapes)

The Netdays Project (Raashida Khan)

A national framework for making technology-enhanced learning decisions
for the Department of Education (Neil Butcher)

*****************

Dear friends,

Attached please find the report on the most recent TAD Consortium meeting,

which was hosted by the British Council on 3rd February 1999.

Remember to diarize the next TAD meeting, which will be taking place on 21st

April, 1999, between 09.00 and 13.00. A venue will be confirmed closer to

the time.

Regards

Neil Butcher

TO CONTENTS
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SABC’S SCHOOL-BASED EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING SERVICE

Nicola Galombik

galombikn@sabc.co.za

Nicola started by providing an overview of the programmes for 1999:

The education projects are funded and supported through partnerships with

the Departments of Education and Communication, donors, co-productions,

joint ventures and corporate sponsorship.

Components of the support service to schooling in 1999 are:

--- programmes to support intermediate and secondary level learners

--- curriculum support and life orientation (e.g. Take 5)

--- professional development for educators on weekends (Educators Express)

--- support and coaching for matriculants (Learning channel and Matric

Support Campaign)

--- school based service for Primary schools (school TV)

---------------------

Research and Consultation process

SAIDE was commissioned in Nov 1998 to conduct research and planning for a

new service to support schools.

Consultative meetings were also held with the various stakeholders.

The research and recommendations revealed;

--- a need for distinction between a schoolbased broadcasting service and

general support for schools

--- School based broadcasting most useful and likely to be most successful

at primary school level, especially Foundation Phase

--- A need for process and products to support the effective utilization of

the service

--- There is a need to link with and draw on existing expertise and

structures rather than replicating these

All of this underpinned the new developments.

-----------------------

A new school based television service for primary schools

School TV provides Curriculum 2005 related programme during school time for

use by educators with learners:

--- covering grade R-3 across three learning programmes (numeracy, literacy,

lifeskills)

--- structured language blocks in at least seven South African languages,

intended as a weekly programme

--- Broadcast daily 10H00-12H00 on SABC2 with high levels of repeats and

available on video

--- Educator Express weekly one hour magazine providing support and

professional development for educators

--- Printed school TV Resource Pack sent to all primary schools twice a year

(including info, schedules, educators guides, activity posters and readers)

--- Website for support material and interactivity with educators

-------------------

Strategies to support use of the service:

--- Increasing access to infrastructure by providing equipment and training

through the 90 schools Pilot Project.

--- Encouraging and facilitating the voluntary take up of the service by

schools by supplying print resources to promote and support the utilization

of the service, these will include:

--- A schedule of all SABC programmes which support schooling, including

broadcasting times and basic synopses and information about the programmes

--- A generic teachers guide to using audio visual medium in the classroom

--- A catalogue of videos and services (for sale)

--- A wide range of visual material (posters, story books)

--- Marketing through a sustained promotional campaign from January 1999

through the year

--- Supporting professional development network

-------------------------

Questions and Answers

Q: Has the SABC looked at the possibility of creating feedback mechanisms

for educators?

A: There is a daily response by telephone, as well as letters. However the

department is looking at more structured mechanisms of feedback.

SABC would welcome suggestions from all parties.

Q: Is SABC Education investigating use of digital technologies?

A: As a national broadcaster, the SABC is committed to ensuring

accessibility to the majority of it’s viewers rather than utilize a product

which is not accessible to everyone. At the moment, users do not have to

leave their homes\schools. However, all SABC programmes are already

broadcast digitally on DSTV.

Q: As a collaborative relationship, between SABC and Dept of Education, are

there specific targets groups, which have been identified, namely the

teachers colleges?

A: Yes, the teachers colleges have definitely been identified as a target

group.

Q: Does the SABC have statistics on their users?

A: There are quantitative figures available. It is a priority to design

research tools to ensure more qualitative research. One of the problems

encountered is that educators are such a small sample. In the past, a survey

had been mailed to educators, but there’s been a poor response.

************************
TO CONTENTS

WASHINGTON DC STUDENTS LINKED TO SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENTS

Dr. Betty Perry-Glass

perryg@global.co.za

Dr Betty Perry-Glass, recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship (1997),

introduced the project by means of visual resources. The Christa McAuliffe

Fellowship made initial funding possible for this pilot project. The

collaborative sister schools are Penryn College (SA) and Benjamin Banneker

Academic High School (USA)

The initial groundwork (7 months) was done with teachers and learners in

Nelspruit, with Penryn College being the base. Additionally, 2-3 days per

week were spent working in the townships of Ka Nyamazane and Kabokweni

(Nelspruit).

Using a team approach and working with the Biology teachers at Penryn, three

curricula were examined:

--- South Africa’s curriculum 2005

--- United States National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE)

Performance Standards

--- United States College Board Annotated Course outline for Advanced

Placement Biology

Teacher generated lessons; classroom activities and laboratory exercises in

biology were used simultaneously in South Africa and America.

Long-term vision of the project:

--- Working with teachers to assist them in empowering their learners by

encouraging development of critical thinking and decision making skills they

will need to meet 21st century challenges

--- Empowering teachers by assisting them at the Ground level, using

curriculum 2005.

--- Materials and ideas familiar to the teachers and learners in the

environment are used to adapt lessons in biology to the outcomes based

approach.

--- Learners are encouraged to work effectively with others as members of a

team, collecting and analyzing, organizing and critically evaluating

scientific data.

Other areas of involvement and development within the broader community

were:

--- working with students in a computer center. (Soweto)

--- Laboratory exercises, designing controlled experiments. (Soweto)

The culminating activity of the pilot project was a simultaneous

demonstration between students of South Africa’s Penryn College and the

township, Ka Nymazane with the district of Columbia’s Benjamin Banneker

Academic High School. The LearnLinc software and technical assistance of

EdTek made the linkage possible. Teachers and their learners have direct

access to technology-enhanced and distance education learning systems.

Programme expansion aims to make available similar services to rural and

township schools as well as training centers throughout the nine provinces.

*************************
TO CONTENTS

COMPUTER LITERACY TOOL

Multimedia Scapes

Morne Mail/Leon van der Merwe

mornem@mmscapes.co.za

Multimedia Scapes develops software for the local market. This ensures local

software takes cognisance of local developments, (culture, language, etc.)

In consultation with various stakeholders, mainly business they developed a

computer literacy programme for first-time computer users. The programme is

designed for someone who has never touched a keyboard in his or her life.

There is continuous interactive communication between the participant and

the computer

A distinctive feature of the programme is that it provides positive

reinforcement to the participants. Nampak has implemented this programme at

workplaces for first-time computer users. The response has been

overwhelmingly favourable.

The bulk of the presentation involves a hands-on demonstration of how the

product works.

-----------------

Questions and Answers

Q: Does the programme cater for participants with auditory defects

A: The text is quite graphic, however the programme is aimed at the mass

market; i.e. the use of computers as a mass based learning medium. The

objective is to reach the maximum amount of people.

Q: Given that English is not the first language of many of school goers, how

does the programme tend to deal with the foreseeable language problem?

A: The programme is in its pilot phase, and as mentioned there are trial

runs at some of the bigger companies in industry. Once all the technical

hiccups have been sorted out, the progam can be translated into the other

official languages.

Q: Can the user go back to previous lessons?

A: Yes, the course has been programmed with various options open to the

user. Most educators spends 80% of time available in imparting information,

this programme minimizes this role of the educator and allows for more

interaction between educator and learner.

A suggestion was made to the presenter that the programme should cater for

more than one user, given that in a classroom situation, there are more than

one user per computer. Mainly for evaluation purposes.

This was taken as a good point especially if the programme was to be

modified for school use.

*************************
TO CONTENTS

NETDAYS PROJECT

Raashida Kahn

Netday Association (Netday) is a non-profit organization, founded in October

1997, that assists schools to access ICT, focusing on the area of cabling

infrastructure for Local Area Networks, provision and distribution of

hardware and software, maintenance, advice, and facilitation.

Netday started as an American concept that has been modified to suit South

African conditions. The association has moved from relying on volunteers for

cabling to the desirability of supplying services and ICT resources to

schools that show initiative.

Netday is unique in that it works and coordinates its efforts with large

national organizations, provincial and regional school networks,

institutions, volunteers, business, and government in raising public

awareness about the educational benefits of ICT.

The project started two years ago (1996). It was initially based in the

United States of America. Of course certain aspects had to be adapted for

South African circumstances.

It became apparent that there is a real need to get information technology

into schools.

Most previously disadvantaged schools do not have the necessary

infrastructure

The project seen as a self-help for schools - Netday facilitates and

coordinates this process, and provides initial training. Funders of the

project for South Africa are Cisco and Sun Microsystems.

The process is driven by a philosophy of volunteering. Volunteers come

forward, mainly from the governing body, e.g. parents. Volunteers lay

cabling on a specific day. This allows for a relationship to be developed

with the school and the wider community. Information technology viewed as a

learning tool, especially use of the internet, in South Africa’s case this

seen as a bit premature, however the network does allow for more computers,

this is a start for most schools it therefore acts an incentive.

Registration is free. Upon registration there is a "How to Guide" which

shows each step in:

--- design

--- raising funds

--- getting volunteers

--- database of schools, volunteers

--- sustainability

--- security

--- contact details of other organizations that can assist you

Netday works closely with School NetSA and the Department of Education

----------------

Q: who qualifies to work with Netday?

A: Any educational organization.

********************
TO CONTENTS

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY DECISION-MAKING FRAMEWORK

Neil Butcher

neilshel@icon.co.za

In 1996, the Minister of Education commissioned a team to develop a policy

document on the use of technologies in education and training. This resulted

in the compilation of the Technology-Enhanced Learning Investigation (TELI)

document. As part of this work, the team decided to sketch out a broad

framework for making decisions about which technologies to use to support

education and training in South Africa. During 1998, SAIDE was commissioned

to turn this into a digital multimedia tool for the Department, a process

which has now been completed.

The decision-making framework focuses on establishing a policy framework for

three types of technology use:

1. Technologies to support the provision of course materials to learners

2. Technologies to support other teaching and learning processes

3. Technologies to support management and administration

The TELI policy process establishes clear commitment to a particular

approach to making decisions about using technologies in education and

training. This decision-making approach depends strongly on developing a

clear understanding of the teaching and learning environment and

capabilities of different available technologies before examining the likely

impact and cost of integrating selected technologies into the teaching and

learning environment. The intention of this approach is to guard against

technologically driven educational projects, which, as the document itself

points out, invariably do not provide effective or sustainable educational

solutions. The decision-making framework contained in the TELI Discussion

Document poses interesting challenges for an implementation planning process

for any technology-enhanced learning strategy, and provides an essential

starting point for any investigation of the possibility of using different

technologies to support education and training.

The tool itself consists of four components or steps, each of which has been

designed as a self-contained unit. This has been done to allow different

starting points for people, depending on their needs. Each step is discussed

briefly.

-----------------------
Developing an Understanding of the Teaching and Learning Environment

The primary aim of this step in the process is to enable decision-makers to

develop a picture of the teaching and learning environment in their planned

or existing educational course or programme (including structured and

informal educational strategies). To facilitate this, the teaching and

learning environment has been broken up into various components, although it

must be stressed that this is a highly artificial separation. Education and

training are complex social processes, in which the various components are

intertwined in many ways, often creating difficult tensions. Nevertheless,

it is necessary to consider each component part in attempting to paint a

picture of the whole environment. These include considering:

--- Learners;

--- Teaching and Learning Processes;

--- Communication;

--- Course Materials;

--- Sites of teaching and learning; and

--- The educational Provider

To facilitate the process, the decision-making framework provides a detailed

series of hyperlinked questions, together with printable workbooks, to help

people to consider each of these elements of the teaching and learning

environment. These can be worked through in any sequence appropriate to the

needs of users, although, of course, guidelines on different approaches are

included in the tool itself.

--------------------------

Choosing Technologies

The aim of this step is to gather information about the range of

technologies available that can enhance education and training. This

information covers the range of technologies available, infrastructure

required to introduce the technologies, some indications of the costs of the

technologies (but not of the associated costs of introducing them into

teaching and learning environments, which depends on a range of variables),

and discussions about some of their strengths and weaknesses. Using this

information, decision-makers would be expected to make some preliminary

decisions about which technologies, if any, they would like to use to

enhance their planned or existing HRD intervention.

This module has been developed as a web site that provides some preliminary

information about various educational technologies, and is designed to help

make effective choices about integrating technologies into teaching and

learning environments. We do, however, strongly suggest that this is

supplemented with additional research, particularly once preliminary options

have been narrowed down initially. This research might focus particularly on

finding out more about how other people have used these technologies and on

establishing the latest costs of these technologies.

It can be used as a stand-alone resource or as a supplement to the

technology module in the Department of Education’s decision-making

framework. It is intended to help people who are trying to gather

information about the range of technologies available that can enhance

education and training. This would cover the range of technologies

available, infrastructure required to introduce the technologies, some

indications of the costs of purchasing the technologies, and discussions

about their strengths and weaknesses.

----------------------------

Integrating Technologies into the Teaching and Learning Environment

The purpose of this step in the process is to develop an understanding the

implications of introducing certain technologies into the teaching and

learning environment. The ability to develop this understanding will depend

in part on accessing information about the technologies themselves (as noted

in the previous step). In addition, however, several of the answers will

depend very much on the needs and circumstances of the educational provider

and of the learners, as well as on the specifics of chosen teaching and

learning sites. Consequently, this step also depends very much on developing

a clear understanding of the teaching and learning environment in the first

step. The picture developed during the first step is then refined when

certain technologies are used to enhance it.

Again, the decision-making framework provides a detailed series of

hyperlinked questions, together with printable workbooks, to help people to

consider the implications of integrating different technologies into the

teaching and learning environment.

---------------------

Costing

When deciding which technologies to use to enhance education and training,

it is essential to understand the financial implications of introducing a

particular technology to a teaching and learning environment. The most

effective way of doing this is to calculate the costs of the teaching and

learning environment before or without the introduction of the chosen

technologies and then to calculate the costs (or savings) of introducing

technologies into that teaching and learning environment. Using the

understanding developed of the implications of integrating specific

technologies into the teaching and learning environment, it will also be

possible to reflect on the educational implications (positive and negative)

of introducing these technologies. For maximum benefit, it would be ideal to

run comparative costing processes on different combinations of technologies.

Together, these processes would make it possible to determine, with a fair

degree of insight, the cost benefits of investment in the selected

technologies.

The tool provides an introduction to costing frameworks, and a series of

appropriate questions to be asked. In addition, it contains an extensive

course-costing spreadsheet that can be used to help calculate the costs of

integrating technologies into teaching and learning environments.

---------------------

What Else is on the CD?

In addition to the above, we have tried to make this resource as

information-rich as possible. Thus, it includes extensive resources on

approaches to decision-making and lessons learned from effective and

ineffective uses of educational technology in South Africa. In addition,

there is extensive general information on distance education, including

South Africa’s distance education quality criteria and a full web site

introducing effective distance education practice.

Although the tool is still in its piloting phase, it is now available

publicly. Any people interested in acquiring a copy of the CD-ROM should

send a cheque or postal order for R40.00 (R80.00 for international orders)

to cover CD printing and postage to:

Neil Butcher

SAIDE

P.O. Box 31822

Braamfontein

2017

***********************************************************
TO CONTENTS

Telematics for African Development Consortium
P.O. Box 31822
Braamfontein
2017
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 +11 403-2813
Fax: +27 +11 403-2814
neilshel@icon.co.za
www.saide.org.za