UNESCO Office in Windhoek 38-44 Stein Street, Klein Windhoek, P.O. Box 24519, Windhoek, Namibia
Mobile Learning in Education for Sustainable Development for Out-of -Youth in Omusati region progresses
The Mobile Learning Project in Education for Sustainable Development and Micro-Gardening for Out-of-School Youth which was launched in June 2015 at Sakeus Iihuhwa Primary School in the Omusati Region (Namibia) has shown that In- formation and Communication Technology can contribute positively to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), literacy and skills development.
The 10-week project in which the UNESCO Windhoek is collaborating with the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service; the Omusati Regional Council Directorate of Education; and Technology Academy Trust was reviewed from 16 -18 July 2015 after four weeks of engaging the out-of-school youth in learning using cutting-edge ICTs.
The review was meant to improve current and future programmes. The observations made helped the team to improve the youths’ experience with ICTs in ESD. Loopholes and shortfalls in the project and the system being used were ad- dressed successfully.
The youth participated in a survey and provided answers to questions that were set in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the system being used in the project. The questions were answered on an offline platform accessed from a Unix-like server using the low-specification tablets being used in the ESD and micro-gardening courses.
The data was processed immediately by the sys- tem and an initial analysis of the results projected for all the participants to see them and discuss what it meant for everyone involved in the project (stakeholder/partners and the beneficiaries).
A new component was added to address the problem of limited interaction, discussion and collaboration between trainers and the youth. The de- signed system is not Internet-based and it is practically impossible to interact with the participants while the facilitator is far away from the class- room. A tele-teaching system (telephone connected to a loudspeaker system) which allows the facilitators to call the supervisors and the youth and give them a lecture or ask questions related to the topics of the particular week was introduced and tested with the participants interacting with a caller.
Tele-teaching is a teaching and learning method used in distance learning to leverage discussion, collaboration even assessment in the form of oral tests (formative and/or summative) for effective learning. It breaks the lonely feeling that distance students may get while far away from the facilitator.
This system will allow constant interaction between the participants in Omusati and the facilitators in Windhoek despite the geographical distance. Tele-teaching was hailed as yet another way of leveraging ICTs for the advancement of ESD and quality education for all.
In order to evaluate the progress among the youth in learning about ESD and micro-gardening, a short test was administered for the participants to showcase their understanding of the subjects and the results were impressive.
Recommendations from the supervisors and the beneficiaries of the project were heard and deliberated on and this allowed room for new ideas that will improve the outcomes of the project when it comes to an end in August 2015.
To address difficulties in the understanding of some of the concepts, the project systems developer, Mr Maurice Nkusi gave a short lecture on ESD where critical, creative and reflective thinking were used as skills for effective implementation of sustainable development.
The links between the three pillars of ESD namely, economic growth, environmental protection, and social equality were dis- cussed and the participants gave examples on how problems in any one of the pillars can affect the other two.
UNESCO’s approach to the subject was also shared with the participants and they were able to understand that it was fundamentally important for them to take into consideration the three pillars in everything they do for them to be responsible citizens who contribute meaningfully to the sustainable development of their communities.
The Systems Developer used the opportunity to maintain the system in use and assess different services offered by the server and the net- work in place. Additional learning materials for primary level were added on the server for learners for use during normal classroom activities.
