Using ICT for teacher professional development in Namibia

46622 WORKING PAPER NO. 1 Namibia appears well ahead of its African counterparts in terms of its use of ICT in instruction and teacher education, its level of ICT infrastructure, and its commitment to ICT for teacher and student learning. While conclusions about successes in this area premature, Namibia's story to date offers useful lessons for other African nations. Using ICT for Teacher Professional Development in Namibia February 2006 WORKING PAPER NO. 1, 2006 About infoDev's working papers series: These short papers represent work commissioned by infoDev that has not been through infoDev's peer review and formal publication processes. infoDev makes such reports available as informal 'working papers' to share information or ideas about a given topic, in case doing so may be of any interest or utility to practitioners working in related fields. 1  WORKING PAPER NO. 1, 2006 Using ICT for Teacher Professional Development in Namibia Published in February, 2006 Prepared by Mary Burns, at the Education Development Center (EDC). This publication was edited by Michael Trucano (infoDev). 2  Contents Building a Vision: Using ICT to Create a Knowledge Society in Namibia....................................4 Creating the Foundation for ICT in Namibia's Schools..................................................................4 ICT and Learner Centered Instruction: Teacher Professional Development Initiatives .................7 Results of ICT for TPD Efforts within Teachers Colleges..............................................................9 Bumps on the Road to the Knowledge Society.............................................................................10 Recommendations for improving ICT for TPD ............................................................................13 3  Building a Vision: Using ICT to Create a Knowledge Society in Namibia For Namibia the goal of ICT in education and teacher professional development is nothing short of transformative-- vaulting this desert nation into a desert tiger by helping teachers and students attain the "21st century skills" of creativity and problem solving. But can Namibia use ICT to transform teaching and learning into the type of knowledge society envisioned in its national blueprint, Namibia Vision 2030? The country appears well ahead of its African counterparts in terms of its use of ICT in instruction and teacher education; its level of ICT infrastructure, and its commitment to ICT for teacher and student learning. Yet Namibia also faces obstacles that could delay or detour the development of the knowledge society it desires. While there have been several ongoing ICT projects for teacher professional development since 2000, many have been small scale and short lived. Namibia launched its official ICT in Education Policy in June 2005. This policy plan represents an attempt to create a formal vision and framework for ICT in education and teacher professional development. In many ways, Namibia is just embarking upon this path of using ICT for teacher professional development and conclusions about its successes are premature. Nonetheless, Namibia offers useful lessons for African nations wishing to follow a similar path. This report examines Namibia's ICT for TPD efforts thus far. It first describes the elements with which the foundation for ICT in education has been built in Namibia. It then looks at some of the ways in which ICT has been used for teacher professional development in the present and recent past. And it concludes with an analysis of obstacles and challenges for the successful establishment of ICT in teacher professional development in Namibia. Creating the Foundation for ICT in Namibia's Schools Namibia is far ahead of other African nations in terms of its ICT efforts, according to Joris Komen, director of SchoolNet Namibia. The following factors have been key to attaining this leading position and for establishing the foundation for ICT in Namibian education: