GautengOnline vs Khanya

Assignment 3

Student name: Student no:

M.Mentoor 201090188

A critical evaluation of the GautengOnline and the Khanya projects in South Africa in the context of Kozmas article on ITCs impact on education.

he South African governmentss primary goal is to improve the education of its citizens. In the year 2000 the government introduced the implementation of Information Communication Technology into schools as the way of improving the culture of teaching and learning in schools. The government also introduced two well-known projects in two provinces. Gauteng Online in Gauteng and Khanya Project in Western Cape. The question is how successful are these projects in obtaining the governments primary goal. Kozma. B revealed in his writting the range of potential impacts ICT can have when applied to education. The success of GautengOnline and Khanya will be critersised on these impacts. Student outcomes , teacher and classroom outcomes and broarder contextual outcomes

Gauteng Online Project in Gauteng

Its a project that was meant to install internet and run computers at schools across Gauteng. This project was launched by the Premier of Gauteng , Mbazima Shilowa. The focus was on Batho-Pele( meaning people first) which was directed to the formerly disadvantaged schools. A budget of R1-billion was allocated for the project and the project failed. Reasons why the project failed lack of planning, research, bad management. Proper strategies were not followed when implementation had to take place. There was no proper timeous monitoring and therefore the project had no solid foundations to sustain it. The GautengOnline had insufficient resources available for school to operate smoothly and for learners to receive the necessary teaching and learning hoped for. Empty classrooms have been allocated to setup the computer rooms were only 25 computers were available for over 50 learners. Eventhough the main goal of the GautengOnline project was for learners to gain skills through educating learners by using ICT many of these learners never gained any proper access to the computers supplied in their computer laboratories. The result was no skills, no knowledge and a negative impact on learner progress. Inspite of all these delays some school eventually received computers but then there was a different issue altogether. The issue of connectivity. The connectively seemed to be constantly off line and never available . People nicknamed the project Gauteng offline. The contextual factors for this project seem to increase even more as teacher were also not computer literate and have been unable to intergrate ICT with their learning areas. Teachers were not equipt to be able cope on their own and no additional support was available. Another evident fact of the bad planning of GautengOnline was the issue of criminal activity found in different communities were different school were situated. Computers were supplied all around Gauteng not concidering the contextual factors in terms of security and electricity. The security installed were of the same standard. Computers and televisions were stolen and schools could not operate their computer laboratories. Electricity is needed to operate the computer labs and most schools experienced the fluctuating power supply and this caused damage to the electronic components and electricity failure. Nobody seems to accept responsibility for this mismanagement but the results of learners ,educators and communities prove that GautengOnline has failed!

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Khanya project in the Western Cape

he Khanya Project is an initiative of the Western Cape Education Department. It was established in April 2001 to determine the contribution that technology could make towards adressing the main objective of the department of education which is to enhance teaching and learning through ICT in schools. By the start of the 2012 academic year, every educator in every school of the Western Cape will be empowered to use appropriate and available technology to deliver curriculum to each and every learner in the Western Cape. How is the Khanya project different from the GautengOline project. The Khanya project had a large number of willing businessess national and international as well as NGOs who were determined to make financial contributions which gave a positive monetary start towards the future of the Khanya project. These finances also assured the continuous training of educators . The continuous training of educator promoted professionalism amongs educators. Educators are more efficient in performing mundane tasks such as the maintenance of mark sheets and exam results. The learners benefit from a variety of learning styles.Khanya also addressed the empowerment of community literacy programs. The project had challenges with criminal factors. They reacted to this threat whereby every component in their labs had a tracking device and they are now standing at zero cases of burglary in their schools.The Khanya project did not abanded their school a team of facilitators visited the school on regular basis until teacher were comfortable with the technology. Khanya has developed a unique model for sustainability which is based on the principle of partnerships, particularly with community and micro organizations, which is fully in harmony with the NEPAD principles.

Reference:

www.scribd.com/doc/.../Gauteng-Online-and-Khanya-Project2ography www.Kozmos.criticalreview/gautengonline.khanya

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