Peruvian peasant women working on the family plot
of land near the village of Padre Rumi in the Andean department of
Huancavelica.
The training aims at strengthening institutions through capacity
development using ‘Information Communication Technologies Education.’
The specific objectives of the training are to support social and
economic development through an ‘increased integration of ICT in the
education systems so as to contribute to poverty reduction.’
Swedish government for that matter emphasises usage of Information
Technology education as a human right’s tool for poor people necessary
for eradication of poverty since poverty and lack of education are
closely connected.
This phenomenon is identical to Tanzania Vision 2025 policy for
education development that targets to build a country with a
‘well-educated and learned society’ by year 2025 along with National
Strategy for Economic growth and Poverty reduction (MKUKUTA).
I had an opportunity to attend the training which was held in
Sweden. I admit my concept of application of ICT and education that I
had before going to Sweden when compared to what I learned and observed
while in Sweden, I realised that my concept of eradication of poverty
through ICT was far-fetched.
When talking of ICT and pedagogy in Tanzania, our minds go to
generally the usage of audial and visual ICT tools in teaching and
learning.
Meaning replacing the subject teacher in the classroom with a
visual or audio CD prescribed for teaching and learning. In fact the
concept of ICT and pedagogy is being limited to four walls of the
classroom between learners and teachers.
It is from this perspective that I felt a need to engage readers in
this article so as to reflect and brainstorm on the concept of ICT and
pedagogy in Tanzania.
Before we continue we should firstly define the meaning of
education since it has many definitions depending on the context of the
matter. In this context ICT and education is an all-inclusive matter
(social inclusion) meaning the way of educating a society.
At this junction it is important also to define pedagogy as a
terminology and its importance in ICT and education. Pedagogy can be
defined as a field of study for teaching methods that consist of the
aims of education and the ways in which may be achieved.
It relies heavily on educational psychology theories about the way
in which learning takes place in the child. Pedagogy is applied mainly
to primary and secondary education students.
The terminology ICT refers to forms of technology that are used for
communication and to transmit, to store, to create, to share or
exchange information. This broad definition of ICT includes technologies
such as: radio, television, video, telephone (both fixed line and
mobile), computer and network hardware and software; as well as the
equipment and services associated with these technologies, such as
electronic mail, text messaging and radio broadcasts.
Having defined different terminologies used in the article; we
should now try to relate the pedagogical activities in our primary and
secondary schools in Tanzania in relation to Swedish ICT and education
application.
As a champion in application of ICT and education in the world, all
Swedish activities involving ICT are educationally interrelated. The
use of ICT in Sweden emanates from home before the child is exposed to
the society.
A child at age three starts to write words by using computer as a
game at home. The child learns to read by writing defeating the common
education psychology theory which believes that “children learn to write
by reading”.
Once exposed to Swedish society the child sees ICT in application
in wider social groupings such as teachers, students, parents, schools,
public use of digital social media, in municipalities, communities,
higher learning institutions, youth organisations, politicians to name
the few. The truth is; ICT and education in Sweden is a way of living.
Tanzania in its part has done a lot in promoting ICT and education
with the main goal of building a highly skilled and educated workforce
with skills in the application of ICT in everyday life.
Tanzania has well-defined ICT education policies that are in line
with the overall aims of education in Tanzania which, according to
Education and Training Policy (1995), are among other things: ‘to
promote the acquisition and appropriate use of literary, social,
scientific, vocational, technological, professional and other forms of
knowledge, skills and understanding for the development and improvement
of man and society.’
However, Tanzania is facing challenges in application of ICT
education policy. Some of the challenges foreseen in the policy are:
inadequate infrastructure including critical supporting infrastructure
such as electricity and telecommunications, especially in rural and
remote areas; insufficient financial resources to ensure the equitable
and sustainable integration of ICT in education at all levels.
When looking at these challenges it sounds inevitable for Tanzania
to set out ICT digital opportunities that can be exploited towards
meeting the Vision 2025 that highly skilled and educated workforce with
skills in the application of ICT. Nevertheless these challenges can make
a leeway for opening another window of opportunities for ICT and
education solutions.
The question is how? At this point we can draw an example from the
Prophet Moses in the Bible during the mission of delivering the
Israelites from fierce Pharaoh Regime to Promised Land of Canaan when he
showed fear that people would not believe him that his mission is of
GOD.
He was simply asked by GOD Almighty what do you have on hand?
Exodus Chapter 4 Verse 2-3 ...”And the Lord said unto him, What is that
in thine hand? And he said, A rod…3 And he said, Cast it on the ground.
And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled
from it….”
We as well should ask ourselves “What do we have on hand? The
answer is quoted from the study done by ESRF in 2011 “The role of Mobile
phones in sustainable livelihood” the study advocates among other
things “In Tanzania efforts to eradicate poverty…. using ICT and
specifically the Mobile phones, can in many ways do that by; ….
Supporting the documentation of the hybrid knowledge developed from
the convergence into explicit knowledge components, which are easy to
transmit and store; Facilitating fast, reliable, and affordable means of
communication and information exchange …”
According to TCRA published statistics Quarter 1 (September 2013)
Report), reports that “there were 26.85 million mobile subscribers in
Tanzania”.
This means that most Tanzanians including teachers own a mobile
phone despite their social status as the ESRF study indicates ‘This
access to mobile phone does not depend absolutely on whether the people
are rich or poor.
According to the study conducted by the World Resources Institute
(WRI) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), even very poor
families tend to use their meager resources to buy cell phones and
airtime (WRI,IFC: 2007)’.
“What do we have on hand?’’ The answer is: “The mobile phones”
which can be used by students and teachers as a pedagogical ICT tool to
facilitate teaching and learning activities as fast, reliable, and
affordable means of communication and information exchange.
Although there are negative aspects reported on the side of
students such as telephones diverting attention of students, accessing
pornography etc, nonetheless as we deal with any other cyber-crimes so
shall we find ways to make mobile phones useful accessories to students
for learning.
Due to inadequate ICT infrastructure and insufficient financial
resources, Tanzania should think of promoting the use of smart phones in
teaching and learning where education materials can be easily accessed
through affordable internet facility provided by mobile phones service
providers.
In summary, smart mobile phones can make a change in ICT and
pedagogical development when used as education tools with the intention
of building a country with a well-educated and learned society by year
2025 hence poverty reduction.
-------------------
Anne Mlimuka is a long experienced teacher, who is currently
working in education management. She can be reached through:
amlimuka@yahoo.com or +255784670221
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