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Abstract
This paper is addressed to the international community of educators and educational policy makers who, it is argued, need to commit to joint research and creative action in respect of the challenge of Education for All (EFA). The first section, A Global Challenge for Teacher Development, sets out: the implications for teacher education of the Education For All agenda; the potential of new information and communication technologies (ICT) in addressing this problem; an overview of an applied research project exploring new models of teacher education using ICT in rural and resource challenged environments. In the second section Towards New Models of Professional Development, four categories of teacher professional knowledge from this model are used to interpret and explore the findings of the project and its impact on teacher knowledge and development. The paper concludes that ICT can no longer be viewed as some sort of optional pedagogic strategy available in ever increasing sophistication, as well as quantity, to only a small proportion of the world's teachers. They need to be seen as an essential aspect of teaching's cultural toolkit in the 21st century, affording new and transformative models of development that extend the nature and reach of teacher learning wherever it takes place. Such models must be experienced, shared and evaluated by educators world wide if the global commitment to achievement of the EFA targets is to become a reality.
Notes
1In South Africa, the mobile phone is ubiquitous, mainly due to the large geographical scale, and land-line infrastructure. This means it is a technology all teachers are familiar with, and most have access to, if not personally, via a friend or colleague. SMS messages provide a low-cost, easy access, national and international communication. In these contexts, SMS seems to be served by a robust infrastructure.
2 In the project, laptops were made available only to teachers in South Africa, via corporate sponsorship.
3 In the project, desktops were available to Egyptian teachers, as part of the standard ministry specification for media labs.
4****With the particular hand-helds used in the study.
1. An annex to this article appears on pages 331–340 of this issue.
3. An active partnership between the Open University, UK and the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, has been ongoing for more than a decade (see www.open.ac.uk/deep/iau).
4. The global south encompasses the following countries: Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific.
5. In Phase 2 the project reach is being upscaled to 72 schools (countrywide in Egypt); new countries (e.g. Tanzania and Bangladesh) will run pilot projects. More research is being carried out specifically on hand-held use (see www.open.ac.uk/deep/projects) and video conferencing (see www.open.ac.uk/deep/projects).
6. The term ‘information and communication technology’ (ICT) encompasses a full range of technologies – from traditional, widely used devices such as radio, telephone or TV to more sophisticated tools like computers or the internet (Weigel & Waldburger, Citation2004, p. 19).
7. During the project's scoping phase the DEEP team had observed with keen interest the widespread use of mobile phones in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape – and how important this mode of technology was to those living in isolated settings. Some teachers reported they walked many miles each week to the nearest source of electricity in order to charge these devices.
8. In Egypt participating teachers made use wherever possible of existing technologies in their schools; in addition, they were each provided with hand-held computers and an all-in-one printer/scanner/photocopier.
