Article,
Managing Challenges to the Integration of Technology into Schools in a Developing Country: A South African Perspective
(0401 2002)NT: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (New Orleans, LA, April 1-5, 2002).; LV: Available online; EM: 2003.
Abstract
This paper examines the current status of technology in schools in developed countries and in developing countries such as South Africa. It identifies strategies used by principals in underresourced schools to cope with increasing demands regarding the integration of technology into the curriculum, proposing management strategies for putting schools in developing countries in the global arena with regard to technology use. While South Africa was the 14th most wired country in the world in 1997, fewer than 1 percent of its schools have Internet access. A survey of 52 school principals examined the number of computers available for administration, teaching, and learning, how those computers were used, and how much training teachers received. Less than half of the schools had computers for administrative purposes, and most had no computers for teaching and learning. Principals considered access to computers by learners very important and were frustrated by being behind the rest of the developing world. Principals reported trying unsuccessfully to establish partnerships with the private sector. The paper recommends that the process of integrating computers into schools in developing countries be managed at all levels (administrator, teacher, student, and teaching/learning). (Contains 36 references.) (SM)
Tags
- africa
- computer
- countries;
- developing
- education;
- educational
- elementary
- foreign
- in
- internet;
- literacy;
- methods;
- nations;
- principals;
- secondary
- south
- teaching
- technology;
- uses
