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Mobility to fix education woes?

Johannesburg, 06 Jun 2014
Numerous projects around the country are using devices and applications to enhance teaching and learning.
Numerous projects around the country are using devices and applications to enhance teaching and learning.

While mobility is increasingly extending its reach into South African education using more devices, applications and Web-based services, commentators say it could make a greater impact if stakeholders and education officials took a unified approach.

Gijima and digital publishing firm Snapplify are the latest technology companies to throw in their lot with education as they aim to take advantage of SA's growing penetration of mobile devices.

Gijima is developing eduFile - a mobile application enabling students and teachers to remotely access learning material using their cellphones and tablets. The platform wants to make it possible for users to remotely access content such as e-books, and assist with scheduling using calendar entries to record test and exam dates.

Andrew King, mobility specialist at Gijima, says eduFile's offline functionality is what makes it relevant for many. "In SA, we don't have ubiquitous connectivity, so it has to allow users to access content from anywhere. Users could download content multiple sources, for offline consumption,"

Meanwhile, Snapplify has partnered with Pearson, Macmillan and Oxford University Press to offer a "free branded e-book store to all South African schools and institutions". The company says it hopes to bypass logistical and cost challenges to accessing physical textbooks, while capitalising on SA's high cellphone penetration.

ICT veteran Adrian Schofield notes that although companies are taking advantage of technology's capabilities to improve the learning experience, they could work together to find solutions for more students. "The challenge is that it might have the most impact here and there instead of being a universal benefit. We must move rapidly from having such initiatives as pilot schemes into broader programmes," he says.

Laying the groundwork

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) runs the Tech4Red project, which has distributed tablets to teachers and learners in rural Eastern Cape since 2012. The project trains teachers and learners to effectively implement tablets into their curriculum and has, so far, shown potential for national implementation, according to Tech4Red programme manager Merryl Ford.

Ford says buy-in from all levels of the education system will be necessary if mobility is to have a lasting impact on learning in SA. Schofield adds that greater collaboration between government and the private sector could propel technology uptake for more schools.

Department of Basic Education spokesperson Troy Martens says the department has an ICT project and has digitised all its workbooks, and is in the process of converting its study books. She adds it is also working on getting its cloud offering finalised by adding more content to the site.

Martens notes the department is also making its workbooks interactive, a process that has been completed for grades one through three. She says, however, that while digital apps have a lot of potential, this depends on the roll-out of connectivity to all schools.

The department is working in conjunction with the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services to get schools connected, says Martens. SA's broadband policy, SA Connect, prioritises the connection of schools along with the deployment of free public WiFi networks.

Although eduFile has yet to launch, King says Gijima has already begun consulting other stakeholders. "We need content providers and schools on board. eduFile is a vehicle for what could be accomplished.

"We have some - not all - pieces of the puzzle. Others have other important pieces, and we need to work together to be able to deliver a composite solution that meaningfully supports the learning and teaching process," he says.

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