Deep Impact: An Investigation of the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Teacher Education in the Global South

Summary

This 210-page study reports on research that was carried out between March 2001 and May 2003, at various locations in and around Cairo, Egypt and the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa by a joint team representing the Programme Planning and Monitoring Unit (PPMU) Egypt, University of Fort Hare (UFH), South Africa and Open University (OU) UK.

It proposed that 48 teachers (two per school) in 24 selected primary schools (twelve in Cairo, twelve in the Eastern Cape) would follow specially devised professional development programmes that would enable them to integrate a range of ICT (information and communication technlogy)- enhanced activities into their teaching of literacy, numeracy and science. The goals were that teachers would be supported through workshops and school visits, a range of multimedia resources, as well as through a web environment. The implementation of the programmes, together with an investigation into the impact of these ICT related activities on participating teachers, students and their communities were investigated through researcher observation, field-work and monitoring carried out jointly by the partner institutions. The local co-ordinators in Cairo and the Eastern Cape were each assisted by a small team of specialists at various points throughout the project. This project became known as the Digital Education Enhancement Project (DEEP). The research involved over 2000 primary school students.

The study reports on the programme implementation and its findings relating to: teacher confidence, ICTs enhancing teachers' professional knowledge and competence by developing subject knowledge, developing school knowledge and pedagogic knowledge, prior experience and provision of ICT, hand-held computer use and its limitations, as well as technical support, infrastructure, security and equipment survival and cost issues. It concludes with implications for policy and practice and suggests a number of key principles to determine the quality of ICT-enhanced school-based teacher education.

The research study's overall recommendation is that new digital technologies are appropriate for use in the African context and have the potential to revolutionise the quality of training and status of teachers within sub-Saharan Africa, transforming opportunities for teacher education. Most significant of all the use of ICT in the poorest parts of the world, carefully planned for and implemented, could have a significant impact on the self image, confidence, knowledge and professionalism of teachers in the global south. It is planned that this exploratory study will be extended to a wider number of schools in Egypt and South Africa and to other contexts.

It shows that new digital technologies can have a significant role to play in transforming the opportunities for teacher education in developing contexts. Teachers and schools in poor environments can benefit from the many advantages that ICT is currently affording richer peers, whilst leap-frogging expensive mistakes made in more developed countries. Mobile digital devices, that have, to date been largely aimed at the business market, can be exploited by teachers and students for a range of professional and learning experiences. Teachers, together with parents, governors, school principals and community members have reported that the use of new technologies had positive effects on areas central to Universal basic Education (UBE), including attendance, motivation and the quality of student learning. Most significant of all, perhaps, the use of ICT in some of the poorest parts of the world, if well planned and implemented, can have a significant impact on the self image, confidence and professionalism of teachers. In this sense ICT offers the potential to redefine and enhance the status of teachers within communities and more broadly across the societies they serve.