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My name is Martine Koopman, I am sector developer for ICT in Education for the International Institute for Communication and Development, IICD a Dutch NGOI work also as country manager for our program in Ghana. I see there that more and more schools have a computer lab at their school, but I also see too many times that it is not used or even locked because teachers and headmasters don’t know how to use it. And if they use it, they use it to teach children basic ICT skills. Useful, but it is not enough to improve the learning outcomes of children!

My presentation today will focus on how ICT in the classroom could really work to provide the children the education they need in this 21st century. Learning for children with ICT can work if teachers have the ability and skills to integrate ICT in their classroom. Simply placing hardware in schools will NOT improve the quality of teaching and learning. The work Of IICD has demonstrated that for ICT to achieve higher quality of learning, the teachers are key to achieve results.In this presentation I will show you how IICD is doing that in practice.

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This is what we achieved in 2013

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Digital skills building: Training in basic ICT skills and ICT-assisted learning familiarizes teachers with the different types and uses of digital materials. By the end of this step, teachers are ICT literate and familiar with ways of integrating simple ICT tools into usual classroom routines. They are able to apply their newly acquired skills immediately and can train their students in digital skills.

Content creation and adaptation: Teachers are trained in content creation of relevant materials for their class. Involving teachers in the process of content creation and implementation ensures that teachers feel ownership of the developed materials. By the end of this step, teachers are able to judge, create and adapt materials for their classrooms and students.

Train-to-teach: Teachers start delivering lessons in the classroom with basic ICT enabled methods. In addition, ICTs (like video and other multimedia tools) can be used for peer-to-peer learning to improve pedagogical methods, where teachers observe their own and other teachers’ teaching styles. By the end of this step teachers are able to confidently use ICT tools in the classroom to deliver classes in an interactive and engaging way that integrates technology, pedagogy and content knowledge.

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Good example: Uganda ICT for English classed. English teachers have been trained to prepare, create and deliver English in line with curriculum using ICT (short multi media lessons with active learning question for the students). Results: higher marks, more students enjoy English and motivated teachers. To improve: connectivity to share lessons and experiences between teachers to create a digital community of practice

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CREATE: While much emphasis is often placed at the technology tools, tools have no meaning without educational content. There is a huge need for relevant, contextualized and up-to-date educational materials in developing countries. Digital materials have many advantages: they can be quickly and easily reproduced, shared and distributed. It is easy to work with several people on the same materials and they can be adapted to keep them up to date or make them relevant in different contexts. Finally, if the subject matter and tools allow, content can be made interactive using multimedia components or game elements. Another way to make sure educational resources available is collecting relevant materials and sharing them with others through eLibraries. These resources can be made available offline, which is a great solution for rural schools. None of this, however, makes for improved teaching and learning if the materials themselves are not of good quality. This is the reason IICD invests in training teachers to develop their own materials, making sure what they develop really enables students to learn. This means that teachers should be able to address content, pedagogy and presentation. In recent years, many (free) educational resources became available, making it important that teachers also are capable of evaluating existing materials along the same standards. Context specific content is especially valuable in remote locations or indigenous communities, where students have difficulties linking their reality to curricula and materials developed in the cities

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– ICT here is a great way to create inclusive learning materials for bilingual education.

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EQUIP: In terms of technology, our ICT solutions always use a locally-relevant combination of information- and communication tools. Depending on the local circumstances, a tool that works brilliantly in one location, may fail to deliver elsewhere. Tools can be aimed at individual learning, like (Android) tablets, simple mobile or smartphones, Laptops (including netbooks and OLPC) and a computer lab (in most cases we opt for an low-energy solution like thin clients). Tools can also be used for learning in a group, as is the case with using projectors and (low-cost) interactive whiteboards. Video equipment is used for train-to-teach. In rural areas, energy and connectivity solutions may be needed to support schools that are off-grid or that lack conventional access to connectivity. Solutions used here are solar panels for energy and mobile internet modems for connectivity. Offline schools can also benefit from a Network Attached Storage (NAS) , which allows them to store and use educational resources.

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ENABLE: In order to enable the environment for any integration of ICT in the classroom we focus on: ICT for School Management and Administration improves the decision making at schools. By keeping better track of grades, enrolment numbers and finances, schools can focus on important areas and spend less time on repetitive tasks. This saves time for teachers, which they can now spend teaching. School Management and Administration consists of training as well as equipping the school with desktops of laptops and ICT for School management software. ICT training of PTAs, SMCs and school/government administrators to create awareness is an intrinsic part of any ICT-in-classroom introduction. Having parents, community members and other stakeholders on board, making sure they support investments in time and other resources, is essential. Ideally, ICT training goes beyond awareness raising and takes along interested stakeholders in basic digital skills: School Management Committees trained in basic ICT are better able to keep track of the school resources once a school has introduced ICT for School Management and Administration and parents that are kept abreast with their children’s grades via mobile phones are likely to be more involved with the school. ICT maintenance and support for schools, making sure they are able to fix smaller and larger issues is key to sustaining the ICTs in schools, yet this is often overlooked.

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IICD usually aims at cascading levels of support: at the school level, interested teachers or community members can provide first-line support, while local NGOs are trained to be able to combat more complicated issues. For even more complicated issues, schools are connected to local technical service providers. Peer-to-peer support is put in place to make sure that technical people on all levels exchange and maintain their knowledge. IICD supports policy and strategy development in ICT for Education at the national, regional and organizational levels. Our experiences in grassroots education projects feed into our inputs to policy development. We connect local experts and ICT champions with higher-level policy developers, stimulating policies that are based on local expertise. This approach creates a win- win situation: government gains access to on-the-ground expertise and lessons and project partners find recognition for their efforts and perhaps access to additional funding.IICD has supported the Governments of Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Malawi, Tanzania, Surinam and Zambia with the development of an ICT in education policy or strategy Developing a national ICT policy for Education (IICD, 2013)

Example: In Ghana the local Tech Support Group customizes an open source school management system together with Ghana Education Unit and 5 implementing partners for 21 school.

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ICT 4 Children can improve their learning outcomes and prepare them for a better future, but to achieve that many other factors needs to be addressed in integrated approach

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