ICT TOOLS TO PHASE OUT TRADITIONAL LEARNING AND TEACHING

ICT TOOLS TO PHASE OUT TRADITIONAL LEARNING AND TEACHING

BY ROBERT ONSARE

The traditional way of teaching and learning will soon be history if information and communication technologies (ICT) tools will be integrated in Kenyan education. These become evident during this year regional education conference on e-learning that took place at the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE).

The future class room will be defined by personal computer (PC) controlled interactive board, PC desks, digital and electronic books. Students freed from bags bulging with books with an OX laptop that is simple, potable and powered by solar energy.

KIE has already prepared digital content in tandem with the syllabus in DVDs and CD ROMs, says the director, Lydia Nzomo. Kenya Literature Bureau (KLB) has already released its digital books to the market sold in CD form, says the sales and managing director, Eva Obara, adding that the e-books ignite the students to read text books.

Students will listen to stories eloquently unfolding accompanied by magnetizing visual pictures, Obara's demonstration revealed. To her integrating ICT tools in learning and teaching will add flavor to book reading among the students.

The ordinary method of giving students assignments either in writing on the chalk board or in typed form will be over taken by software programmes dubbed as AvidaNet 350 and edumatic enabling the teacher to manage learning sessions with a click of a mouse.

With ICT tools the chalk board and its components will be following the foot steps of the slates that were used during the advent of formal education in Kenya. They will be replaced with an interactive PC board in which a finger can be used to control applications and navigation to different websites.
Writing on this PC board can be done by typing, use of a finger or use of digital ink pens of different colors with a special duster, handy. The PC board not only encourages interactive learning, says one of the directors of the presenting company, it enables the teacher to deliver a whole class instruction which a computer monitor can not achieve.

It is anticipated that science subjects and mathematics performance will experince a new dawn as they have been registering decimal performance notwithstanding conceited effort put forth to reverse the trend over the years, notes Cecilia Ngetich the director of Centre for Mathematics Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA), with ICT tools creativity and innovativeness will be aroused among the students as they will be able to visualize whatever they will be learning.

The cyber school project which was born in 2007 when the ministry of education launched a pilot project for ICT learning for 213 secondary schools has digitized science and mathematics text books thus simplifying these subjects into a play thing where students get engaged in learning them.

“This new teaching aid animates and brings these subjects to life, making them easier for the class to learn and recall the concept covered without the strain of theories,” says one of the project director, “students carry experiments and practicals in virtual laboratories.”

The project is school centered, where each student contributes a minimum of Ksh 500: as per the number of students in a given school.

Teachers in remote areas will be able access online libraries and current research findings which can enhance learning, says Gabriel Lengoiboni, commission secretary, TSC. According to Lengoiboni integrating ICT in Kenyan education will bridge the shortfall of 66,303 teachers in primary and secondary schools, as one teacher can instruct large distances. However, the Lengoiboni says that ICT can not substitute the role of a teacher.

The training of teachers in our colleges and universities is going to be impacted tremendously where 30 percent of their course work is going to be ICT related courses or units, says Maseno University, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Fredrick Onyango.

Kenyatta University, Vice Chancellor, Prof Olive Mugenda says that “teacher training institutions need to rethink their strategies to go e-learning,” adding that it provides training to meet the high demand for teachers for the rapidly expanding primary and secondary school sectors.

Mugenda explains that e- learning can avail learning opportunities to many pre-service and in-service teachers than the traditional face to face method. She gives an example of the University of Cape coast, Ghana which has a total of 18,000 full time students and 25,000 open learning students.
These tools are out to enhance quality, equity and access to education, President Mwai Kibaki pointed out during the opening of the conference, explaining that the use of technology can provide opportunities for learner-centered teaching, greater teacher-to-teacher and student-to-student communication and collaboration.