ict integration in african universities
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ICT Integration in African Universities: Challenges and OpportunitiesTRANSCRIPT
ICT Integration in African Universities:
Challenges and OpportunitiesGreig Krull
SaideODL Summit - 31 August 2012
Agenda
• Context – Motivators and Constraints• ICT Integration in the areas of Higher Education
– Research, Teaching, Administration
• Challenges and Opportunities– Environment, Institution, People, Technology, Learning
• Case Study: Partnership for Higher Education in Africa• Discussion
People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to
Technologies used are increasingly cloud-based, and notions of IT support are decentralised
World of work is increasingly collaborative, driving changes in the way student projects are structured
Abundance of resources / relationships via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators
Shifting education paradigms to include online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models
New emphasis on more challenge-based and active learning
Key Trends in Higher Education
The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition
Economic pressures and new models of education are bringing greater competition to higher education
Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching
Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline
Institutional barriers present formidable challenges to moving forward with emerging technologies
Challenges for libraries and university collections: how scholarship is documented, and the business models to support these activities
Significant Challenges
The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition
Context
1. What is your biggest motivator to integrate ICT into your teaching and learning?
2. What is your biggest constraint to integrate ICT into your teaching and learning?
Motivators and Constraints
ICTs in Higher Education Areas
Research Teaching
Administration
Top tools for…?
1. Research 2. Teaching
3. Administration
Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011
© 2012 Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
Types of Challenges
Environment Institutions
People Technology
Learning
EnvironmentOpportunitiesPartnerships between institutions, governments and businesses
Articulate a vision and a strategic framework for harnessing the potential of ICTs to address a country's development challenges
Overarching and guiding national telecommunications and ICT policies, particularly as they relate to ICTs in education
ChallengesLimited Regional Infrastructure- Electricity- Access to resources
Sustainability
Policy Implementation
People
OpportunitiesProvide prior training for faculty when introducing ICTs
Implement incentive systems that promote the use of ICTs
Provide support and training for students
Develop internal capacity in the use of ICT
ChallengesICT Literacy of Teachers
Extra effort and time involved in using technologies
Lack of readiness of students to use technologiesShortage of people with technical skills to maintain ICT systems
InstitutionsOpportunities• Vision and commitment of the leadership to
deploying ICTs • Require strong institutional policy (resource
allocation)
• Regional approach for joint negotiations on the cost of bandwidth
• Identify ways in which the application of ICTs will significantly enhance the research and teaching capabilities
Look for freely available resources e.g. e-journals
Centralised units
ChallengesMajor financial investment needed
High cost of acquiring and maintaining ICTs
High cost of content (e-journals, digital libraries)Consistency across departments
TechnologyOpportunities• Create a technology plan (includes long term
budget)• Funds and staff available to sustain investments
in ICT infrastructure and support systems
• Piloting (test the efficacy of a technology)• Possible sharing or coordination of ICT usage
with other institutionsUnderstand total ownership cost (acquisition, installation, power supply, maintenance, replacement, training etc)Enhance bandwidth/connectivity through the acquisition of suitable infrastructure
ChallengesReliability and Security
System / Data Integration
Inexperience in procuring appropriate ICT
Limited bandwidth
Learning Opportunities• Review student needs, technology and
content availability • Learn from experience
Produce high quality content with sound instructional design
Customise learning content appropriately
Effective interaction of students with content, fellow students and teachers/tutors during the learning process
ChallengesDelivery methods – online, blended etc
“Dumping” content
Content not adapted to the technology and contextLimited interaction between students and teachers/tutors
Summary
• Look to integrate emerging technologies into policies and programmes
• Identify the specific roles of ICT in enhancing research and learning capabilities
• Requires sound financial and pedagogical planning• Provide for adequate infrastructure - backed by capacity
building• Enhance ICT though inter-institutional collaboration • Wide adoption of ICTs calls for mindsets and skill sets that are
adaptive to change
Case Study
Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA)Educational Technology Initiative (ETI)
Project Objective“To support interventions in universities to make increasingly
effective use of educational technology to address some of the underlying educational challenges facing the higher educational
sector in Africa”
The strategic objectives of the PHEA ETI are to:• Support teaching and learning initiatives that integrate educational
technology• Promote collaborative knowledge creation and dissemination• Refine institutional systems so that they support teaching and learning
more directly• Research and report on educational technology activity in African
universities
Universities Involved
Catholic University of Mozambique
University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
Kenyatta University (Kenya)University of Jos
(Nigeria)
University of Education
Winneba (Ghana)
University of Ibadan (Nigeria)
Makerere University (Uganda)
Project Examples
POLICIES
ePortfolios
OER Challenges
Licensing and
Copyright Clearance
Finding relevant / quality resources
Adapting or remixing resources
Policy implications for ICT and Intellectual
Property
Achievements
Growing Commitment to ICT• Policies• Leadership
Deployment• Moodle• Other
technologies • Online Courses
designed• Online Courses
taken
Research• Case Studies• Evaluation
Lessons Learnt • Working through rigid hierarchies creates problems in
communication and implementation• Often Educational Technology units are marginalised • Capacity development is a key need, including ability to design
projects • Lack of institutionalised incentives for academic staff to engage
with educational technology• Limited ICT infrastructure remains a major barrier
Conclusions• Basic problems such as limited bandwidth and intermittent
electricity place significant limitations on the potential for growth
• However…• Telecommunications capacity is growing rapidly• Expanding range of devices at reducing costs• Explosion of available quality content online that educators
and students can link to• Need governments and institutions to continue investment
and focus on ICT use in higher education
See the results: www.oerafrica.org (follow links to the PHEA Educational Technology Initiative)
Summary
Adaptive to Change
Look to add Value
Capacity Building
Open Education Principles
Collaboration
Adequate Infrastructure
Thank you
greigk_za
Greig Krull
Discussion
www.saide.org.zawww.oerafrica.org
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
http://www.slideshare.net/greigk/ict-integration-in-higher-education-in-africa
References• Johnson, L, Adams, S, and Cummins, M (2012). The NMC Horizon Report:
2012 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.• Isaacs, S and Hollow, D, (eds) 2012. The eLearning Africa 2012 Report,
ICWE: Germany.• Commonwealth of Learning. 2009. ICTs
for higher education: background paper from the Commonwealth of Learning. World Conference on Higher Education, Paris.
• OER Africa: http://www.oerafrica.org/ • PHEA ETI: http://
www.oerafrica.org/phea/PHEAETIProjectHome/tabid/170/Default.aspx• http://c4lpt.co.uk/top-100-tools-for-learning-2011/ • Tony Mays, Saide, 2012, Recapping OER Presentation