By Frederick Philander
WINDHOEK
Unesco and Namcol yesterday hosted an international workshop to review the impact of the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in education in Namibia.
The workshop will end on Thursday.
According to a press statement from the local Unesco office, the ICTs in Education project in Namibia, launched in October 2004, aims at developing web-based content in mathematics and physical science as additional support to Namcol learners and learners in other schools.
“This initiative serves to support the institution in its endeavours to use and integrate information and communication technologies (ICTs) in programme design, development and delivery.
“The digital lessons developed under this project have already been tested with Namcol tutors and learners as well as teachers and learners in the formal system,” the statement said.
The global ICT project started in 2002, linking project sites in Africa (Namibia), Latin America (Ecuador) and Asia (Kazakhstan, Mongolia).
“Depending on local circumstances, different open and distance learning (ODL) approaches are used at secondary school level in the countries involved in the projects.
“The aim of the workshop is thus to review the initiative in Namibia, Kazakhstan and Ecuador and test the outcomes of different open and distance learning (ODL) approaches and systems at secondary school level around the world, in order to identify the most sustainable ODL modes for each region.”
The project is an operational intervention at the country level.
“At this stage it is impossible to conclude on a single common ‘interoperable’ ODL system for all sites due to the different network architecture, language, managerial structure, data formats and standards historically available at each site.
“However, the similarities identified, and the information exchange network established, allows for in-depth research into the ‘features’ of a universal ODL platform,” it concluded.