WITH the world changing so quickly we are always surprised when it suddenly affects us – such as how technology is changing classrooms.
But new research conducted by Via Afrika discovered that out of Mzansi’s 413 067 teachers, only 132 884 had basic computer skills and internet technology training.
Philani Sangweni, chief operations officer for Fundi, said their research wanted to learn whether Mzansi was ready for digitised learning or not.
“It is important that we develop infrastructure that will direct education towards the digital space just as the rest of the world is being transformed.”
He added that the technological transformation of education was being hampered by lack of skill and infrastructure in the country. This means that, for many, the idea of digital education will only remain a dream.
“But we have seen some positive development as more and more teachers are getting the training they need to be able to help implement digital education in schools across the country. In my opinion this means we are moving in the right direction.”
He added however that for Mzansi to properly assess if eLearning is something that can be implemented within the educational system, we had to look at the challenges that could stop progress.
Some research suggested that factors hindering eLearning technology are:
- Lack of awareness of eLearning tools currently being developed.
- Adoption rate of eLearning is moving at a slow pace.
- There are bandwidth and connection troubles that need solving.
- The lack of computer literacy still seems to be an issue.
- Although working, the existing platforms still lack adequate content.
- Teachers tend to experience certain levels of difficulty when engaging pupils actively through digital education platforms.
“Digital learning increases the efficiency of the pupils’ education by assisting with special systems such as adaptive hinting, which will help students to figure problems out quickly and in real-time. It also offers students an opportunity to learn fully with the help of simulations, rapid assessment and annotation technology, just to name a few.”
