Networked Learning

South Africa is trying to recover from 40 years of apartheid education. White provinces were generously funded at the expense of black schools in the townships and rural areas. The literacy rate among South Africans is at an all time high of 86%. Sixty five percent of whites over the age of 20 and 40% of Indians have a high school or higher degree while only 14% of blacks and 17% of the coloured population have a high school or higher degree [3.5]. South Africa has 12 million students, 366,000 teachers and around 28,000 schools. One of the major problems facing schools in South Africa is the difficulty in obtaining, modern, up-to-date computer facilities (Guy). School spans from grade 0 (reception year) to grade 12 (matric), however it is not mandatory to attend grades 10, 11 and 12 [3.5]. South Africa has more than a million students enrolled in the country’s 21 public universities, 15 technical schools (technikons) and several colleges. A student must have a matric endorsement to enter the university. All the universities and technikons are managed independently, reporting to their own councils rather than to the government. Many of the universities are excellent academic institutions, at the cutting edge of research in certain fields. Currently there is a rise in the number of private higher education institutions. Education receives at least 20% of the total budget. For the 2004 year, education received 24% but it still is not enough to go around. Next year the education budget is set to increase by 8.5% with most of the additional money going into the provinces [3.5]. Today’s government is trying to correct the disparities in education but apartheid’s grip is still strong. The poorer, rural provinces such as the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are lagging behind. Wealthier provinces such as Guateng and the Western Cape have schools that are better equipped and continue to thrive.

Schools’ Access to Information and Communication Technologies (Stage 2)
Disparities reflected in South African society also find expression in ICT integration into education. Although the number of schools with computers for teaching and learning has increased from 12.3% in 1999 to 26.5% in 2002, there are still more than 19,000 schools without computers for teaching and
learning [3.4].

Table 1: Provinces and computers in schools (2002)

(Data provided by Department of Education, Pretoria)

Table 1 shows the disparities of the distribution of ICT in schools across all provinces. Provinces such as the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are not as well-equipped as the Western Cape, Gauteng and the Northern Cape. This pattern is expected because urban and peri-urban schools are better resourced than rural schools. Secondary and combined schools tend to have a higher number of computers than primary schools. The average number of Pentium computers in use in secondary schools (17.3) is significantly higher than the average for all schools and is nearly 70% higher than the average number of Pentiums in

primary schools (10.4) [3.4]. The Internet is beginning to be used as a resource and communication tool in classroom teaching and learning however there profound provincial differences. Half of the schools in the Western Cape and Guateng have Internet access while a very small portion of schools in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo have the lowest Internet connectivity. One reason for the low connectivity rates can be attributed to the high telephone costs that are associated with accessing the line by using direct telephone lines.

Enhancing Education with ICTs (Stage 2)
Limited integration into teaching and learning is evident. In both primary and secondary schools, the teaching of basic computer principles and word processing skills forms the most important component in the teaching of computer literacy. Access is a major obstacle but there is a gap in the ability of learners and teachers to use these technologies effectively, to access high-quality and diverse content, to create content of their own, and to communicate and collaborate and to integrate ICT into teaching and learning. More schools that started using computers before 1990 are connected to the Internet than those that starter later. Schools that offer Computer Studies programs are also much better connected than those who don’t. Word processing software, spreadsheets and software for administrative purposes are used by more than two thirds of all schools that have computers [3.4]. More than half the schools use electronic information resources such as encyclopedias on CD-Rom and presentation and database software. The government has a strong commitment to ICT in education. To accelerate the realization of nationwide educational goals, South Africa has embraced e-Education. e-Education is about connecting learners to other learners, teachers to professional support services providing platforms for learning [3.3]. According to the South African Department of Education:

Every South African learner in the general and further education and training bands will be ICT capable (that is, use ICT confidently and creatively to help develop the skills and knowledge they need to achieve personal goals and to be full participants in the global community) by2013 [3.3].

Primary schools tend to use computers in teaching Language and Mathematical Literacy more than any other subjects. Secondary schools tend to use computers in technology areas such as Computer Studies. Grades 1-7 primarily use computers for drill and practice and problem-solving exercises while grades 8 -12 tend to use computers for a wider variety of purposes. Some reasons given for lack of computer use include [3.4]:
? insufficient of funding
? lack of computers
? lack of computer literacy among teachers
? lack of subject teachers with training on how to integrate computers into specific learning areas
? absence of properly developed curriculum for teaching computer skills

The South African government recognizes that there is a digital divide. The Ministry of Education understands that bridging the digital divide will require a greater investment in the education sector [3.3]. There is a need for sustainable funding sources for technology to have a large-scale impact over time. Realistically speaking, the Department of Education realizes that funding must be coordinated through the government and through forming public and private partnerships.

Companies are starting to invest in South Africa’s educational system. Open source software (OSS) is a viable option that is integrating itself in the South African educational system [3.1]. The government is pushing Linux because of the low cost and the growing pool of users able to use it. International
organizations such as MIT-AITI and local organizations such as SchoolNet Africa and Direqlearn are working in conjunction to translate OSS into local languages to make it more user friendly. The cost reduction of open source software makes it affordable for African students. MIT-AITI uses open source

software to introduce African students to computers and the Internet. The success of Linux use in South Africa has prompted Microsoft to offer free software packages to South African schools. Some organizations in South Africa that provide computing resources have rejected Microsoft’s offer. Microsoft has not been discouraged. In 2003, Microsoft offered South African schools more than 30,000 software licenses to Windows [3.1]. Educational administrators continue to use an open-source infrastructure in the school systems.

Developing the ICT Workforce (Stage 2)
Approximately 50% of schools have no infrastructure to support ICT use among students [3.3]. ICT courses are only available in the universities and in the technikons (technical universities). Recently the Department of Education has begun to revise the curricula to include ICT courses at the primary and secondary levels and to create ICT-specific learning centers.

South Africa’s “Curriculum 2005” aspires to make computer an essential part of the education system in the country [3.6]. This goal will be hard to accomplish considering the fact that South Africa is on the underdeveloped side of the digital divide. Government and industry are attempting to address the issue. SchoolNet SA is an organization founded to promote the use of ICTs in Southern Africa. Partnerships with other companies and organizations have established access to low cost, refurbished computers and network infrastructure through Netday, telecommunications through Telkom, and Internet access through several local ISPs. Motorola has invested R1 million in local development centers to help communities learn to use ICT. Motorola will allocate the money across six different projects and split it with six different educational centers in South Africa [3.7].

South Africa is using ICT to improve the efficiency, accessibility and the quality of the learning process. Developing countries have utilized the distance-learning model and South Africa has begun implementing its practice. The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the oldest and largest university in South Africa and one of the largest distance learning institutions in the world. UNISA’s distance learning programs provide education to over 120,000 students mostly from Africa and other developing countries. The programs distance learning programs are less expensive than regular universities.

During 2003, the private and educational sector formed INTRADEM as a joint initiative. The name INTRADEM is short for Institute of Training, Development and Empowerment and the core focus of this project is to technology ‘enable’ the approximately 30,000 unqualified and under qualified educational workforce (Teachers and Educators) in South Africa. The project has embarked on a mission to find creative ways to tackle the enormous challenge of closing the digital divide amongst the approximately 30,000 under qualified educational workforce in South Africa, through proper skills transfer. One of the most important achievements to date was securing a formal partnership with the Technikon Northern Gauteng. This gave the project the authority, accreditation, infrastructure and back up required for ambitious projects of this scale.