Tony Bates » Wright

Distance education for teacher training in Africa

Tony Bates — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:03:34 +0000

Children in Sierra Leone © Clayton R. Wright

Clayton R. Wright, formerly Director of Instructional Media and Development at Grant MacEwan University, Alberta, is currently working in Sierra Leone.

He kindly agreed to share these observations on teacher education in Africa (and the great photo):

A junior high teacher makes US$100 per month in Sierra Leone.

In several sub-Saharan countries, a teacher dies every two hours because of HIV/AIDS.

In Lesotho, the number of teachers who die from HIV/AIDS is twice the number that graduate from teachers’ colleges each year.

In some areas, many teachers haven’t been paid for months, thus they have a second or third job.

Africa needs 3.8 million teachers by 2015 to achieve the Millennium Goal of free public education for all.

Building teacher training facilities to meet the demand for teachers in Africa by 2015 does not seem feasible from my viewpoint. Distance education is definitely one option available to ministries of education.

One of the significant benefits to distance education in a developing country context is that teachers can remain at their posts and interact with learners, family, and the community. They can apply what they are learning immediately to their situation and save the government money as teachers taking distance courses don’t need to be replaced as would be the situation if they attended regular face-to-face teacher training colleges.

Major distance education projects are being undertaken by the African Virtual University, the Southern African Development Community, and Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA).

Thanks, Clayton. If I can add my own comments:

The new U.S. National Educational Technology Plan also recommends online training for teachers, so that they are aware of how to teach online. Accreditation agencies however need to accept that teachers can qualify at a distance, and this is slow in coming. Face-to-face teaching practice in particular is seen as crucial requirement for most accreditation agencies.

If any of you have direct experience of training teachers by distance education, in Africa or anywhere else, what is your experience? Does it work? Is it a solution? Or are there major drawbacks?

Recurring Issues Encountered by Distance Educators in Developing and Emerging Nations

Tony Bates — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:45:03 +0000

Wright, C., Dhanarajan, G. and Reju, S. (2009) Recurring Issues Encountered by Distance Educators in Developing and Emerging Nations IRRODL, Vol. 10, No. 1

I don’t know how I missed this in February, but this is essential reading for anyone contemplating using e-learning or online learning in less economically advanced countries, by three experienced and prestigious authors (Clayton Wright was for many years head of the educational technology unit at Grant McEwan College, Edmonton, Canada and is now an international consultant, Dhanarajan is a former President of the Commonwealth of Learning and now President of Wawasa Open University in Malaysia, and Sunday Reju is from the National Open University of Nigeria).

It is sufficiently hard-nosed to begin by saying:

Online learning is attractive to institutions that want to be perceived as being progressive; however, establishing online programs may not be the wisest use of scarce resources. It may be better to use the limited funds to encourage greater school attendance, ensure students are well fed, and/or hire more tutors.

However, while this paper doesn’t flinch from the hard realities of online learning in less economically advanced and developing countries, it is an optimistic paper in suggesting practical solutions and strategies and in identifying areas where online learning can succeed despite the difficulties.

To give some idea of the scope of the article, here are some of the headings, all of which are treated in sufficient depth to provide strong guidelines for action:

Developing a Sound Rationale and Vision for the Distance Education Initiative
Recognizing that Technology is only One Component of the Educational Transformation
Addressing the Lack of Infrastructure and the Cost of Bandwidth
Obtaining Equipment when Funds are Limited
Countering Cultural Imperialism and Addressing Cultural Diversity
Dealing with Limited Resources
Placing greater emphasis on quality resources
Recognizing Those who are Likely to Succeed and Addressing Student Needs
Dealing with Faculty Concerns
Accessing up-to-date educational resources
Implementing mobile learning.

This is certainly the best paper I have read for some time on online learning in developing countries.

The effectiveness of interactive multimedia versus noninteractive media as an instructional aid for learning basic clinical skills and knowledge

admin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:53:51 +0000

Broudo, M., White, M., Rodenburg, D., Arseneau, R., Chalmers, A., Wright, J., Mizgala, H., and Lirenman, D. (1997) ‘The effectiveness of interactive multimedia versus noninteractive media as an instructional aid for learning basic clinical skills and knowledge’, in Scherpbier, A., van der Vleuten, C., Rethans, J., and van der Steeg, A. (eds.) Advances in Medical Education Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp.321-326

The Business Case for Web-based Training

admin — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:41:17 +0000

Whalen, T. and Wright, D. (2000) The Business Case for Web-based Training Norwood, MA: Artech House