2. Sources Consulted
Different Sources were consulted to compile this
presentation
Most from the department of education
Some of the documents are not necessarily from
South Africa
Hope you enjoy
3. Knowledge Societies Agenda
In the web the term knowledge society is broadly
defined in saying that it refers to any society
where knowledge is the primary production
resource instead of capital.
Knowledge is traded
4. What is Knowledge Society about
capabilities to
identify, produce,process, transform, disseminate
and use information to build and apply
knowledge.
plurality, inclusion, solidarity and participation
Integrate members
Promote Solidarity
5. Important things in Knowledge
Societies.
The human-development and empowerment
knowledge and development
The political, economic and social
Promoting civil and political rights.
Freedom of expression
Equality
6.
7. Pervasiveness of Technology
The term pervasiveness is a noun that comes
from the a “pervade” which means to spread
throughout all parts of.
Pervasiveness is a noun which means to spread
throughout.
8. Impact of Technology
The rapid growth of new technologies might help
to overcome a number of constraints that until
now have impeded the emergence of knowledge
societies, such as geographical
9. Technology contributing to
Knowledge society
Information Technologies creates Knowledge
societies
Contribution of old technology such as
radio, books…???
Might not be necessary
Thus, alongside the new
technologies, electricity and radio
transmission have a role to play in building
knowledge societies.
11. Challenges on Education for all
Gender Equity
Equal opportunities
•Boys and Girls
•Poor and the rich
12. Education for all six Dakar GOALS
1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early
childhood care and education, especially for the
most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly
girls, children in difficult circumstances and those
belonging to ethnic minorities have access to, and
complete, primary education of good quality;
13. Education for all six Dakar GOALS
3. Ensuring that the educational needs of all young
people and adults are met through equitable
access to appropriate learning and life-skills
programmes;
4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of
adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and
equitable access to basic and continuing education
for all adults;
14. Education for all six Dakar GOALS
5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and
secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender
equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring
girls’ full and equal access to, and achievement
in, basic education of good quality.
6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and
ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and
measurable learning outcomes are achieved by
all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life
skills.
18. Present future National strategic
Objectives
Programme 1: Administration
Programme 2: Curriculum Policy, Support and
Monitoring
Programme 3: Teachers, Education Human
Resources and Institutional Development
Programme 4: Planning, Information and
Assessment
19. Program 1: Administration
Strategic objective 1.1: To formulate a comprehensive
strategy to ensure that career counselling and the career
path from basic education to further education and higher
education are formalised.
Strategic Objective 1.2: To ensure that the basic
education sector and the country benefit from bilateral
and multi-lateral co-operation agreements. To enter into
co-operation agreements that are targeted to support
education development in South Africa and to share
experiences with other developing countries.
20. Program 1: Administration
Strategic Objective 1.3: To improve inter-
governmental co-ordination of policy and
education delivery especially with provincial
education departments.
21. Programme 2: Curriculum
Policy, Support and Monitoring
Strategic Objective 2.1: To incentivise teacher
adoption of e-Education by means of a
substantial increase in the availability of learning
and teaching resources, including the internet.
Strategic Objective 2.2: To bring about stability
and coherence with respect to the national
school curriculum.
22. Programme 2: Curriculum
Policy, Support and Monitoring
Strategic Objective 2.3: To pay special attention to
improvements in mathematics, physical science and
technical subjects at the Further Education and Training
band in schools through national programmes.
Strategic Objective 2.4: To promote adequate access to
learning materials among all learners by means of better
national specifications on what every learner requires
and a more proactive approach by the national
department towards the cost-effective development,
reproduction and distribution of materials such as
workbooks and textbooks.
23. Programme 2: Curriculum
Policy, Support and Monitoring
Strategic Objective 2.5: To establish national norms
for school libraries.
Strategic Objective 2.6: To create a sound basis for
quality pre-Grade 1 education through the promotion
of quality learning and teaching materials at this
level.
Strategic Objective 2.7: To finalise and promote
national screening guidelines that provide for an
equitable system of access to special needs support
amongst learners.
24. Programme 3: Teachers, Education
Human Resources and Institutional
Strategic Objective 3.1:To ensure that the new
teacher development plan, to be made public in
2011, is translated into a wide range of teacher
training materials, collaborative professional
development activities within the schooling system
and agreements with the relevant service providers.
Strategic Objective 3.2: To establish the National
Institute for Curriculum and Professional
Development (NICPD) in order to promote best
practices in classroom teaching and teacher
development.
25. Programme 3: Teachers, Education
Human Resources and Institutional
Strategic Objective 3.3: To establish an on-going
national campaign for choosing teaching as a
career, based on research into who becomes a good
teacher and focusing on giving the necessary
information and bursaries to interested youths.
Strategic Objective 3.4: To bring about a set of
planning, management and accountability tools at
the school level that cater for South African needs
and make quality education more realisable.
26. Programme 3: Teachers, Education
Human Resources and Institutional
Strategic Objective 3.5: To develop training
strategies and materials aimed at parents that can
bring parents more integrally into the new
accountability mechanisms being established for
schools.
Strategic Objective 3.6: To establish better and
evidence-based practices and procedures for the
country’s 82 education district offices, including
models for school interventions designed to tackle
specific school shortcomings.
27. Programme 4:
Planning, Information and
Assessment.
Strategic Objective 4.1: To establish a quality
system of standardised and benchmarked
learner assessments.
Strategic Objective 4.2: To ensure that all
children complete a quality readiness
programme in Grade R before they enter formal
education in Grade 1.
28. Programme 4: Planning,
Information and Assessment.
Strategic Objective 4.3: To put into places support
systems for provinces and schools to improve the
physical environs of the school and create enabling
conditions for successful teaching and learning.
Strategic Objective 4.4: To ensure that districts can
use quality information and data about the level and
quality of learning in schools to plan and implement
school based improvement programmes.
30. ICTs
ICT stands for Information Communications
Technology
ICT literacy as “the interest, attitude and ability of
individuals to appropriately use digital technology
and communication tools to access, manage,
integrate and evaluate information, construct
new knowledge and communicate with each
other in order to participate effectively in society
ICTs can a very good resource to be used in
education
31. Teacher Competency Standards
relating to ICTs and professional
aptitude
Key principles for ICT professional development.
Guidelines that should be taken into consideration
when implementing development programmes.
The five ICT developmental levels.
The essential skills levels for the integration of ICT
into curriculum delivery.
Targets and approaches to be adopted for ICT skills
development for practising and student teachers are
outlined.
32. Key principles for ICT professional
development
Educational goals should be primary. The focus should not be
on providing technical ICT skills only, but on the use of ICT to
achieve learning outcomes.
Teacher development programmes should provide teachers
with situated/contextualised learning experiences.
Programmes should be subject-specific and relevant to the
learning areas
Teacher development programmes should be needs driven.
Programmes should respond to the requirements of subjects
such as Computer Application Technology, Information
Technology, Geography, Design and Accounting.
33. Key principles for ICT professional
development
On-going support should be consistently
available. This includes pedagogic support
(particularly from subject advisers), technical
support and creating communities of practice.
Teacher development should be on-going, due
to the changing nature of ICT. Programmes
should reflect new technologies and
applications.
34. Guidelines.
Teacher development programmes should be
flexible in access, modes of delivery and content
in order to make learning possible in meaningful
and equitable ways. and
Teacher development should be managed.
36. Skills Levels for the integration of
ICT
Basic ICT knowledge and skills.
Integrative ICT knowledge and skills.
Specialised ICT knowledge and skills.
37. Targets
All students leaving higher education for the teaching
profession should have reached at least the adoption
level.
All practising teachers that have access to ICT should,
as a minimum, be trained to the adoption level.
At least 60% of teachers with access to ICT should
reach the adaptation level and 20% should reach the
appropriation level.
At least 10% of practising teachers should reach the
innovation level.
38. Approaches
All higher education institutions should offer compulsory ICT.
Students currently in higher education institutions should be
fast-tracked.
From 2008, all students leaving higher education for the
teaching profession should have reached at least the
adaptation level.
All practising teachers who have access to ICT should, as a
minimum, be trained to the adaptation level by 2010.
Subject advisors are to be trained up to appropriation so they
can assist teachers.
39. Reference List
Guidelines for Teacher Training and Professional
Development in ICT (2007) http://goo.gl/aUS8A
ISTE_2008_NETST.PDF
https://edulink.uj.ac.za/bbcswebdav/p...
Strategic Plan 2011-2014
https://edulink.uj.ac.za/bbcswebdav/p...
Towards Knowledge Societies (2005)
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014...
Editor's Notes
I have used a number of sources to accumulate my presentation; I used the web, some of the support documents based on the topic. The main concern is this There is an international and national imperative to include educational technologiesinto teacher training and professional development.
In the web the term knowledge society is broadly defined in saying that it refers to any society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital. According to this definition, in knowledge society information that can be transformed into knowledge is seen as an important asset. Hence it is clear that in knowledge society knowledge is taken to be having much value. The main concern is to primarily produce knowledge in such a society. This is where knowledge can be traded for money or could be exchanged for other valuable resources.
In a source that that I am going to use throughout this report, the document “towards knowledge society”, the definition on knowledge society is outlined as follows: “Knowledge societies are about capabilities to identify, produce, process, transform, disseminate and use information to build and apply knowledge. “They require an empowering social vision that encompasses plurality, inclusion, solidarity and participation.”A knowledge society should be able to integrate all its members and to promote new forms of solidarity involving both present and future generations.
In a knowledge society there are things that are considered important; these are things such as: The human-development and empowermentknowledge and development The political, economic and social Promoting civil and political rights.Freedom of expressionEquality
The term pervasiveness is a noun that comes from the verb “pervade” which means to spread throughout all parts of. Pervasiveness is a noun which means to spread throughout. So when we talk about the pervasiveness of technology we are talking about the spreading of technology. In the society that we live in, we see technology spreading throughout. Therefore it is crucial that we take advantage and use the availability of technology to improve the education system. Technology is about exploring new things, it introduces easy ways of teaching and learning.
In the document towards the knowledge society it is mentioned that many experts think that the rapid growth of new technologies might help to overcome a number of constraints that until now have impeded the emergence of knowledge societies, such as geographicalIntroduction. Before the use of technology if you can think about it, one needed to go to school to learn something or if you wanted to know something you had to go where it is given, so if you do not go to get knowledge then you are illiterate. Well, that is not the case anymore, because you can learn without even going to attend a class or anything. You can use you phone, computer to browse the internet and get as much information as possible and then get knowledge. You see it is not so difficult any more, geographical constraints do not matter anymore because I can be informed about what is happening in America while I am in my room in South Africa. Now those are the benefit of technology, the pervading technology.
Some paragraph taken from the document “towards knowledge society,” commenting on the contribution of the new technology on creating the knowledge society. Take a look: Are new information technologies a necessary condition for the creation of knowledge societies? If the rise of knowledge societies is accelerated by the dissemination of the new technologies, the contribution of older information and communication technologies, such as books, radio and terrestrial television, will nevertheless be crucial in this process. Thus, alongside the new technologies, electricity and radio transmission have a role to play in building knowledge societies.Now, I guess it is quite clear how the pervasiveness of technology is plying a huge role in promoting knowledge society.
South Africa is aiming to increase the numbers of learners who are enrolled to schools and also encourages accommodating a wide range of people to be educated. This is evident in the plans that they have for 2030. According to the document “Towards knowledge societies”, Issues have risen, questions to be answered, among them are questions about obtaining gender equality, the ability to offer equal opportunities between boys and girls. Finding the appropriate way of approaching education which will ensure that learning societies are open to everyone rather than just being open to the most fortunate such as the countries, families and people that can afford the most appropriate and valued knowledge. Another question asked is how to make sure that education does not end up widening the gap between a more and more educated class of people and people who would have only limited access to quality education? And this is seen as the main pitfall of a global knowledge economy. However, to counter act these challenges, the international community gathered at the World Education Forum in Dakar (26–28 April 2000) and set six basic education for goals all to be reached by 2015.
The six Dakar goals as outlined in the document “towards knowledge society” are: 1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities have access to, and complete, primary education of good quality;3. Ensuring that the educational needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes;4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults;5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to, and achievement in, basic education of good quality;6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
3. Ensuring that the educational needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes;4. Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults;
5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to, and achievement in, basic education of good quality;6. Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
The first goal which is to improve early childhood care and educationAfter the six goals mentioned above have been achieved, then, the challenges that makes it hard to achieve the goal of education for all will be achieved. However, according to my opinion there are many things that should be done to achieve these goals.
The South African Department of education has compiled a national strategic plan document for 2011-2014. In that they have included national strategic objectives which I am going to go through just now. These strategies have been categorised into programmes that are in the department of education. For example Administration is treated as a programme, and the objectives are outlined for this programme. In each programme the national strategic objectives, resource considerations and risk managements are included, but I am only going to present the strategic objectives as well as the risk management on that strategy for the sake of this presentation. As the department of education included the objective statement, baseline, justification and links for each strategic objective, but I will only give the objective statement of each strategic objective which are as follows it is as follows:
The South African Department of education has compiled a national strategic plan document for 2011-2014. In that they have included national strategic objectives which I am going to go through just now. These strategies have been categorised into programmes that are in the department of education. For example Administration is treated as a programme, and the objectives are outlined for this programme. In each programme the national strategic objectives, resource considerations and risk managements are included, but I am only going to present the strategic objectives as well as the risk management on that strategy for the sake of this presentation. As the department of education included the objective statement, baseline, justification and links for each strategic objective, but I will only give the objective statement of each strategic objective which are as follows it is as follows:
Programme 1: Administration Strategic objective 1.1: Improve capacity of the Department of Basic Education Objective statement: To formulate a comprehensive strategy to ensure that career counselling and the career path from basic education to further education and higher education are formalised. Strategic Objective 1.2: Strengthen partnerships with all stakeholders, resulting in education becoming a national priority. Objective statement: To ensure that the basic education sector and the country benefit from bilateral and multi-lateral co-operation agreements. To enter into co-operation agreements that are targeted to support education development in South Africa and to share experiences with other developing countries. Strategic Objective 1.3 Improve capacity of the Department of Basic Education Objective statement: To improve inter-governmental co-ordination of policy and education delivery especially with provincial education departments.
Programme 1: Administration Strategic objective 1.1: Improve capacity of the Department of Basic Education Objective statement: To formulate a comprehensive strategy to ensure that career counselling and the career path from basic education to further education and higher education are formalised. Strategic Objective 1.2: Strengthen partnerships with all stakeholders, resulting in education becoming a national priority. Objective statement: To ensure that the basic education sector and the country benefit from bilateral and multi-lateral co-operation agreements. To enter into co-operation agreements that are targeted to support education development in South Africa and to share experiences with other developing countries. Strategic Objective 1.3 Improve capacity of the Department of Basic Education Objective statement: To improve inter-governmental co-ordination of policy and education delivery especially with provincial education departments.
Programme 2: Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring Strategic Objective 2.1 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To incentivise teacher adoption of e-Education by means of a substantial increase in the availability of learning and teaching resources, including the internet. Strategic Objective 2.2 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To bring about stability and coherence with respect to the national school curriculum. Strategic Objective 2.3 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To pay special attention to improvements in mathematics, physical science and technical subjects at the Further Education and Training band in schools through national programmes. Strategic Objective 2.4 Increase access to high quality learning materials Objective statement: To promote adequate access to learning materials among all learners by means of better national specifications on what every learner requires and a more proactive approach by the national department towards the cost-effective development, reproduction and distribution of materials such as workbooks and textbooks. Strategic Objective 2.5 Increase access to high quality learning materials Objective statement: To establish national norms for school libraries. Strategic Objective 2.6: Improve the quality of early childhood development Objective statement: To create a sound basis for quality pre-Grade 1 education through the promotion of quality learning and teaching materials at this level. Strategic Objective 2.7: Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To finalise and promote national screening guidelines that provide for an equitable system of access to special needs support amongst learners.
Programme 2: Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring Strategic Objective 2.1 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To incentivise teacher adoption of e-Education by means of a substantial increase in the availability of learning and teaching resources, including the internet. Strategic Objective 2.2 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To bring about stability and coherence with respect to the national school curriculum. Strategic Objective 2.3 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To pay special attention to improvements in mathematics, physical science and technical subjects at the Further Education and Training band in schools through national programmes. Strategic Objective 2.4 Increase access to high quality learning materials Objective statement: To promote adequate access to learning materials among all learners by means of better national specifications on what every learner requires and a more proactive approach by the national department towards the cost-effective development, reproduction and distribution of materials such as workbooks and textbooks. Strategic Objective 2.5 Increase access to high quality learning materials Objective statement: To establish national norms for school libraries. Strategic Objective 2.6: Improve the quality of early childhood development Objective statement: To create a sound basis for quality pre-Grade 1 education through the promotion of quality learning and teaching materials at this level. Strategic Objective 2.7: Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To finalise and promote national screening guidelines that provide for an equitable system of access to special needs support amongst learners.
Programme 2: Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring Strategic Objective 2.1 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To incentivise teacher adoption of e-Education by means of a substantial increase in the availability of learning and teaching resources, including the internet. Strategic Objective 2.2 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To bring about stability and coherence with respect to the national school curriculum. Strategic Objective 2.3 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To pay special attention to improvements in mathematics, physical science and technical subjects at the Further Education and Training band in schools through national programmes. Strategic Objective 2.4 Increase access to high quality learning materials Objective statement: To promote adequate access to learning materials among all learners by means of better national specifications on what every learner requires and a more proactive approach by the national department towards the cost-effective development, reproduction and distribution of materials such as workbooks and textbooks.
Programme 3: Teachers, Education Human Resources and InstitutionalDevelopment Strategic Objective 3.1 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To ensure that the new teacher development plan, to be made public in 2011, is translated into a wide range of teacher training materials, collaborative professional development activities within the schooling system and agreements with the relevant service providers. Strategic Objective 3.2 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To establish the National Institute for Curriculum and Professional Development (NICPD) in order to promote best practices in classroom teaching and teacher development.. Strategic Objective 3.3 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To establish an on-going national campaign for choosing teaching as a career, based on research into who becomes a good teacher and focusing on giving the necessary information and bursaries to interested youths. Strategic Objective 3.4 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To bring about a set of planning, management and accountability tools at the school level that cater for South African needs and make quality education more realisable. Strategic Objective 3.5 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To develop training strategies and materials aimed at parents that can bring parents more integrally into the new accountability mechanisms being established for schools.Strategic Objective 3.6 Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To establish better and evidence-based practices and procedures for the country’s 82 education district offices, including models for school interventions designed to tackle specific school shortcomings.
Programme 3: Teachers, Education Human Resources and InstitutionalDevelopment Strategic Objective 3.1 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To ensure that the new teacher development plan, to be made public in 2011, is translated into a wide range of teacher training materials, collaborative professional development activities within the schooling system and agreements with the relevant service providers. Strategic Objective 3.2 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To establish the National Institute for Curriculum and Professional Development (NICPD) in order to promote best practices in classroom teaching and teacher development.. Strategic Objective 3.3 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To establish an on-going national campaign for choosing teaching as a career, based on research into who becomes a good teacher and focusing on giving the necessary information and bursaries to interested youths. Strategic Objective 3.4 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To bring about a set of planning, management and accountability tools at the school level that cater for South African needs and make quality education more realisable. Strategic Objective 3.5 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To develop training strategies and materials aimed at parents that can bring parents more integrally into the new accountability mechanisms being established for schools.Strategic Objective 3.6 Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To establish better and evidence-based practices and procedures for the country’s 82 education district offices, including models for school interventions designed to tackle specific school shortcomings.
Programme 3: Teachers, Education Human Resources and InstitutionalDevelopment Strategic Objective 3.1 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To ensure that the new teacher development plan, to be made public in 2011, is translated into a wide range of teacher training materials, collaborative professional development activities within the schooling system and agreements with the relevant service providers. Strategic Objective 3.2 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To establish the National Institute for Curriculum and Professional Development (NICPD) in order to promote best practices in classroom teaching and teacher development.. Strategic Objective 3.3 Improve teacher capacity and practices Objective statement: To establish an on-going national campaign for choosing teaching as a career, based on research into who becomes a good teacher and focusing on giving the necessary information and bursaries to interested youths. Strategic Objective 3.4 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To bring about a set of planning, management and accountability tools at the school level that cater for South African needs and make quality education more realisable. Strategic Objective 3.5 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To develop training strategies and materials aimed at parents that can bring parents more integrally into the new accountability mechanisms being established for schools.Strategic Objective 3.6 Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To establish better and evidence-based practices and procedures for the country’s 82 education district offices, including models for school interventions designed to tackle specific school shortcomings.
Programme 4: Planning, Information and Assessment Strategic Objective 4.1Establish a world-class system of standardised national assessments Objective statement: To establish a quality system of standardised and benchmarked learner assessments. Strategic Objective 4.2 Universalise access to Grade R Objective statement: To ensure that all children complete a quality readiness programme in Grade R before they enter formal education in Grade 1. Strategic Objective 4.3 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To put into places support systems for provinces and schools to improve the physical environs of the school and create enabling conditions for successful teaching and learning..Strategic Objective 4.4: Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To ensure that districts can use quality information and data about the level and quality of learning in schools to plan and implement school based improvement programmes.
Programme 4: Planning, Information and Assessment Strategic Objective 4.1Establish a world-class system of standardised national assessments Objective statement: To establish a quality system of standardised and benchmarked learner assessments. Strategic Objective 4.2 Universalise access to Grade R Objective statement: To ensure that all children complete a quality readiness programme in Grade R before they enter formal education in Grade 1. Strategic Objective 4.3 Strengthen school management and promote functional schools Objective statement: To put into places support systems for provinces and schools to improve the physical environs of the school and create enabling conditions for successful teaching and learning..Strategic Objective 4.4: Strengthen the capacity of district offices Objective statement: To ensure that districts can use quality information and data about the level and quality of learning in schools to plan and implement school based improvement programmes.
ICT stands for Information Communications Technology. Pulling it from the guideline for teacher competencies they use the definition by the programme for International Student Assessment who defines ICT literacy as “the interest, attitude and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital technology and communication tools to access, manage, integrate and evaluate information, construct new knowledge and communicate with each other in order to participate effectively in society”. ICTs can a very good resource to be used in education. As it allows one to construct new Knowledge, manage and evaluate information just to mention a few. There teachers need to have knowledge about and be able to apply ICTs, to modify their teaching and learning process to the better. It is important for the teachers to acquire the skills of ICT education as it is both the national and international strategy to improve the education system.Due to the importance of the subject many articles and documents have been written about teacher competency on ICTs. One of the documents on this topic is the one that I have used to compile my report, which is the “Guidelines for Teacher Training and Professional Development in ICT” from the department of education and the “ICT-enhanced Teacher Standards for Africa”. However, most of my information is from the first mentioned document.
In the document “Guidelines for Teacher Training and Professional Development in ICT” there is a section titled; introduction to the teacher development framework. It is here where professional development of teachers with regard to teacher competency standards relating to ICTs and professional aptitude is discussed. Key principles for ICT professional development are given, which are:Educational goals should be primary. The focus should not be on providing technical ICT skills only, but on the use of ICT to achieve learning outcomes.Teacher development programmes should provide teachers with situated/contextualised learning experiences. Programmes should be subject-specific and relevant to the learning areas Teacher development programmes should be needs driven. Programmes should respond to the requirements of subjects such as Computer Application Technology, Information Technology, Geography, Design and Accounting.On-going support should be consistently available. This includes pedagogic support (particularly from subject advisers), technical support and creating communities of practice.Teacher development should be on-going, due to the changing nature of ICT. Programmes should reflect new technologies and applications.
In the document “Guidelines for Teacher Training and Professional Development in ICT” there is a section titled; introduction to the teacher development framework. It is here where professional development of teachers with regard to teacher competency standards relating to ICTs and professional aptitude is discussed. Key principles for ICT professional development are given, which are:Educational goals should be primary. The focus should not be on providing technical ICT skills only, but on the use of ICT to achieve learning outcomes.Teacher development programmes should provide teachers with situated/contextualised learning experiences. Programmes should be subject-specific and relevant to the learning areas Teacher development programmes should be needs driven. Programmes should respond to the requirements of subjects such as Computer Application Technology, Information Technology, Geography, Design and Accounting.On-going support should be consistently available. This includes pedagogic support (particularly from subject advisers), technical support and creating communities of practice.Teacher development should be on-going, due to the changing nature of ICT. Programmes should reflect new technologies and applications.
The White Paper on e-Education requires that the use of ICT, as a set of flexible tools for teaching and learning, be integrated into the Initial Professional Education of Teachers and Continuing Professional Teacher Development. This means that the teacher should have relevant ICT knowledge and be able to integrate ICTs into the teaching and learning context.It is crucial that there be a development programmes for teachers especially those who qualified before ICT training was introduced to the student teachers in higher education institutions. The guidelines for such programmes are given, but I will only consider two of those which are as follows:Teacher development programmes should be flexible in access, modes of delivery and content in order to make learning possible in meaningful and equitable ways. andTeacher development should be managed.
Another thing to consider in the teacher ICT development is the development levels, these helps to know the level at which different teachers are which will determine how much training they need if they have to be trained further.The white Paper on e-education outlines five ICT developmental levels, which are Entry level: The teacher is computer literate but lacks confidence.Adoption level: the teacher is able to use different ICT and teach learners how to use ICT Adaptation level: the teacher is able to use ICT to support everyday classroom activities at an appropriate NCS level, assess the learning that takes place and ensure progression. Productivity increases at this level.Appropriation level: The teacher has a holistic understanding of the ways in which ICT contributes to teaching and learning.Innovation level: The teacher is able to develop entirely new learning environments that use ICT as a flexible tool, so that learning becomes collaborative and interactive.
There are also essential skills levels for the integration of ICT into curriculum delivery are:Basic ICT knowledge and skills. These are the knowledge and skills to use ICT at a basic level, and correspond to the entry and adoption levels of the framework.Integrative ICT knowledge and skills. These are the knowledge, skills and values to integrate ICT into the design and practice of teaching and learning, and correspond to the adaptation and appropriation levels of the framework.Specialised ICT knowledge and skills. These focus on the transformational use of ICT to redefine the role of the teacher and classroom environments, and correspond to the innovation level of the framework.
In addition, are targets for initial and continuing teacher development, this is where targets and approaches to be adopted for ICT skills development for practising and student teachers are outlined. TargetsAll students leaving higher education for the teaching profession should have reached at least the adoption level. This means that they should have the knowledge and skills to use a computer and application software. Furthermore, they should have the ability to use various ICT, including a computer, to support traditional management, administration, teaching and learning, and be able to teach learners how to use ICT.All practising teachers that have access to ICT should, as a minimum, be trained to the adoption level.The adaptation and appropriation levels focus on the knowledge, skills and values to integrate ICT into teaching and learning. At least 60% of teachers with access to ICT should reach the adaptation level and 20% should reach the appropriation level. Continuing professional development and advanced certificate of education programmes should respond to this target.The innovation level focuses on the transformational use of ICT to redefine the role of the teacher and classroom environments. At this level, entirely new learning environments that use ICT as a flexible tool for whole-school development and for collaborative and interactive learning are developed. The innovation level is a specialisation level and is suited for study at advanced postgraduate levels. At least 10% of practising teachers should reach this level.
ApproachesAll higher education institutions should offer compulsory ICT in teaching and learning in teacher development courses (up to appropriation level).Students currently in higher education institutions should be fast-tracked to bring them to at least the adoption level by the end of their studies.From 2008, all students leaving higher education for the teaching profession should have reached at least the adaptation level.All practising teachers who have access to ICT should, as a minimum, be trained to the adaptation level by 2010.Subject advisors are to be trained up to appropriation level through a focused intervention from the national Department of Education. Once trained, they will be able to assist teachers to utilise access to computers
Reference ListGuidelines for Teacher Training and Professional Development in ICT (2007) http://goo.gl/aUS8AISTE_2008_NETST.PDFhttps://edulink.uj.ac.za/bbcswebdav/p...Strategic Plan 2011-2014 https://edulink.uj.ac.za/bbcswebdav/p...Towards Knowledge Societies (2005) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014...
