Outcomes Based Education (OBE) software developed by Learning Resources Custom Courseware and Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is soon to be rolled out to the North West and Gauteng provinces.
Irwin van Stavel, sales director at Learning Resources, says the software has been rolled out to over 2500 schools in the Western Cape which are using the software to equip their teachers on the framework of OBE.
"The CD-Rom comes together with a video and manual. The software was developed in the Macromedia suite and includes dialogue, cartoon, video, voice-over and journaling. As the teachers conduct research, they save it to a stiffy disk, along with a journal where they keep a record of what they have learnt. Once they have completed at least 16 hours on the program, teachers submit the disk to the WCED, where the material is evaluated and they are issued with a certificate," he says.
While there may be changes to the curriculum and government`s policy on OBE in the future, van Stavel says the CD-Rom together with the video and manual provide the framework of what OBE is and how teachers are to use it, ahead of the full implementation of OBE across all education institutions in 2008.
The WCED says it hopes to complete the orientation training process by the end of the year. Afterwards, the focus will shift to preparation for the content and implementation phases of the OBE roll-out.
Anne Schlebusch, WCED`s senior planner of curriculum management, says the OBE programme is extremely rich in potential as it has been tailored to meet the unique needs of all learners.
"The software is not intended to prescribe any single correct approach or teaching method but rather to allow teachers to reflect on the theory, examples or case studies presented and gain more insight into how teaching can incorporate the multiple intelligences of all people. We have received positive feedback on the training to date and there is discussion of a national roll-out. The learning tool may possibly also be offered to primary school teachers in future, as an additional OBE resource," she says.
Van Stavel says once the program has been successfully deployed in the North West and Gauteng provinces, it will be rolled out to the rest of the country.
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