Perspectives from the Practitioners Workshop on ICT in Education 10 April 2014

6 pillars of the e-Education White paper 1.ICT professional development for management, teaching and learning 2.Electronic content resource development and distribution 3.Access to ICT infrastructure 4.Connectivity 5.Community engagement 6.Research and development

Overall conclusions of practitioners’ workshop Build on progress over the last ten years: – consolidate ICT infrastructure in schools – integrate ICTs in teaching and learning – extend this reach into mobile technology domain. Renewed efforts in the initial training and professional development of teachers and principals are necessary. “ICT champions” must be located in all schools and district offices as part of a systematic strategy of ICT leadership for the nation. Need for a national ICT in Education coordinating agency - integration of effort across the public and private sectors, across different government departments and provincial education departments.

Teaching & learning issues a national training model for teachers needs to be at heart of everything related to ICTs in education standardization of courses across pre-service teacher education & in-service professional development programmes Guidelines for Teacher Training and Professional Development in ICT (DOE, 2007) Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa ( ) (DBE, 2011)

Teaching and learning issues … ‘ICT champion’ in every school capable of basic ICT troubleshooting and maintenance in schools assist teachers and learners with use of technologies in the classroom a coherent and comprehensive e-content strategy

Teaching and learning issues … a coherent and comprehensive e-content strategy consolidation of the national repository, and national access to it content developed by expert teachers free access to this content encouraged innovative delivery within bandwidth constraints

Technology issues From ‘laboratory thinking to mobile learning “[over the past decade] good progress was made in regard to school administration, slow and haphazard progress (with some significant pockets of excellence) in regard to provisioning for teaching and learning, and limited developments in regard to assessment.”

Technology issues sound technical specifications - norms and standards for ICTs in education ICT infrastructure development needs to be led by the public sector

Research & engagement issues independent but engaged research to systematise the ‘learnings’ from ICT initiatives an overall national research strategy identify and document the project-based successes of the past decade identify gaps in e-education in the country community engagement and advocacy

Thank you!