week 7 Review of eLearning in the School System

Interactive Classrooms Initiative in South Africa Expands

http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news124b.php

Interactive products such as the white board are proving to be beneficial to communities because a large number of students can have access to the internet and more technologically advanced forms such as CD-ROMs, but this is costly and will not be available or most schools in South Africa. Although South Africa is one of the most developed countries in Africa it still faces some economic difficulties especially in rural schools in stalling in these white boards will have a lot problems, with most rural schools running without electricity let alone internet this will prove to be very expensive for small schools to implement these technological devices in classrooms and therefore it will take a long time for them to move from the black board to the white board. Another problem that could be faced is training the teachers to use such technology.

However with the limitations out weighing the positives there is a great progress being made such as the expansion of the radio network in the North eastern borders of South Africa to link up five schools in the area.

Beyers says the original Ulwazi Project was established as a virtual classroom, but this is now expanding to become more of a community communications resource.
“By providing the technology, we can not only empower the learners but also the communities in which their families live. Rural clinics and business hubs can be connected to the network to assist with e-health and entrepreneurial services. There are many opportunities for social and community initiatives to use the technology installed at these schoolsIf the interactive whiteboards had not opened up a whole new world of interconnectivity and applications, the Ulwazi Project wouldn’t have made the progress it has.”