A deep understanding of teachers' context and desired learning outcomes is vital in helping implement a successful digital learning solution, says Nicola Acutt, VP of the VMware Foundation, the philanthropy arm of the multinational cloud and virtualisation software provider, reflecting on the Foundation's work with the LEAP Science and Maths school in Diepsloot in July.
Through its Good Gigs programme, the foundation saw a team of VMware volunteers develop and deploy a digital literacy programme to enhance digital learning at the school.
The school's headmaster, Paul Mumba, "said that they have had other companies and volunteers in their school before to deliver 'training' who talked 'at' them the entire time," making little effort to listen to their unique needs and concerns, reported Acutt.
The Good Gigs team spent six weeks in the "develop" phase of the project, analysing existing challenges and opportunities for digital learning through talks with the school and its staff, followed by a two-week "deploy" phase in which they implemented the programme with the school's staff.
The project encompassed IT infrastructure for the school and professional development for the teachers.
Two Good Gigs team members spend a week with the school's IT manager for hands-on training. In addition to strengthening the school's existing IT infrastructure, they added new storage as well as backup and recovery capability to accommodate new software, and helped create a roadmap for future improvements to address the most critical needs in the school's IT infrastructure.
Volunteers also set up 23 laptops, a charging cart, and a printer and networking equipment (purchased by the school with a matching grant), forming a mobile computer cart to extend the reach of the school's digital education curriculum to more students throughout the school.
The teacher training component of the project aimed to increase the number of teachers with digital learning skills and the percentage of class time devoted to digital learning, as well as improving teacher attitudes toward digital learning.
The volunteers researched and delivered a week-long professional development programme for LEAP teachers, which offered a refresher course in IT skills, introductions to digital learning platforms such as Moodle and subject-specific applications such as KALite, Mindset, Newsela, and the British Council for English Teachers, a special Java tutorial for IT teachers, and an open forum for in-depth IT questions.
"The content was co-developed with the staff of the school to ensure the volunteers prepared content that was relevant and met the needs of the teachers," says Acutt.
Overall, the programme aimed to increase the number of learners using digital learning resources and improve their IT skills and self-reported motivation for learning.
On arriving at the school, the volunteer team were sharply awoken by the level of IT sophistication and motivation to learn demonstrated by teachers and staff, says Acutt. "Our volunteers quickly realised they needed to adapt their content to meet a much higher calibre of learner," she reports.
"An important criterion for VMware in selecting partners for our Good Gigs programme is the NGO's capacity to sustain the project long term," Acutt says. "Our purpose is to enhance the mission and good work an NGO is already doing by providing access to skills, training and capacity-building that an NGO may otherwise not have access to," she explains, adding the programme invests time up-front in ensuring the NGO has the capacity and resources to sustain the project outcomes.
The VMware Foundation's Good Gigs Programme facilitates "citizen philanthropy" by VMware employees, who aim to assist communities by passing on their tech knowledge and skills through a service learning model.
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