eLearning Innovations to Enhance Education in Karamoja Region of Uganda
Monday, 8 Apr 2019, 11:46
Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Tabitha Naisiko, Wednesday, 30 Oct 2019, 14:43
1. Tracing the Need of eLearning Innovations in Karamoja
According to the UNDP (2015), education provides knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviors that are inputs for human development. The government of Uganda thus established Universal Primary and Secondary Education to enable education for all. However, in the Karamoja, chances towards this goal are minimal due to the nomadic culture of regular movement in search of pasture and cattle grabbing using guns which cause insecurity. This impeded service delivery, making it the poorest region in the country (Brown, Kelly and Mabugu 2017). However, with the disarmament programme, the guns were withdrawn, but boys are withdrawn from schools to rear cows while girls as early as 12 years are forced to marry in order to get cows from bride price. Moreover, without education, it is unlikely that the situation will change at the current rate of enrolment of 33.7% primary and 10% secondary. The government primary school accessibility in 5km is 4.7% while for secondary school is 74.9%. This calls for innovations that promote education. This paper will evaluate the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) Programme with the aim of streamlining it through eLearning innovations to make it functional.
2. Conceptualizing Innovation in eLearning
In the diffusion of innovation, Flichy (2007) gives an understanding of innovation as the use of technology to minimize input and maximize in performing a task. Innovation in education is understood as the use of technology to generate, process, document and disseminate knowledge. This brings us to the broad term educational technology which according to Mangal (2009) include teaching, instructional, behavioral, and instructional design technology. I would add “humanware” to emphasize usages and rules attached.
Mangal (2009) further presents the characteristics of teaching which justify the use of innovation in teaching as presented in the image below.
Based on the image above, it is important to note that now, teaching need to be innovative at design and pedagogical level in order to meet the learning and teaching objectives.
3.0. Evaluating ABEK Through eLearning Innovations
Based on the nomadic realities of Karamoja, in 1998, the ministry of education introduced ABEK as informal open and mobile education to bridge learners to the formal system. This was to counteract the rejection of formal education which would keep the children away from household chores and cattle rearing. As an open education, ABEK removed unnecessary restrictions to learning, including timing, adherence to English language, methods and school uniforms. This was the beginning of innovation in education to allow the Karimojong start formal education. However, the programme failed to deliver and was ignored. Based on the knowledge, skills and literature acquired in H817, this paper hypothetically gives advice to the Ministry of Education in Uganda on how ABEK can be open, innovative and beneficial to fulfil the mission of education. Below are three examples of innovative technologies to promote education in Karamoja.
3.1. Digital Study Hall
Digital Study Hall (DSH) is a Facilitated Video Instruction for primary school education in low resource settings. Anderson (2012) observes that low quality primary schools are substantial obstacles to improving livelihoods of people in developing countries. The specific intervention is Facilitated Video Instruction, where lessons of experienced teachers are shown in rural schools by local teachers. The teachers are instructed to alternate between playing the video and conducting activities with students. The goal is for students to benefit from the expert video materials and personal interaction with a teacher. In the DSH, the content is not limited to cognitive education, it also includes community-based education in areas of primary health care, human rights, gender relations, microfinance and well as social relations.
The DSH is still existing moreover working in almost similar situations like ABEK in Uganda where the learning centres were officially ‘mobile’, with the facilitators following the kraal and, if necessary, willing to stay at the kraal. During the ABEK, many children were enrolled, and later joined the formal system (Krätli 2009). ABEK was also open to community members and was used as a platform for community mobilization, acquisition of skills in literacy and numeracy, agriculture, peace and conflict resolution and well as ecological systems. However, in the Strategic Review of 2009, Krätli does not indicate there whether there was some effort to use innovations by use of advanced technologies like facilitated videos instructions. The ABEK just continued with traditional means of open education and did not do any benchmarking.
DSH approach is ideal in Karamoja because it favours remote areas which are isolated, marginalized with low means of service delivery. Here the Karamoja teachers and community can benefit from knowledge from advanced teachers in urban and well facilitated schools. The communities too can benefit from strategies or success stories from other communities. For instance, a documentary about Yacouba Sawadogu a man who stopped the dessert can help in solving a problem of semi-desert conditions, famine and joblessness that the Karimojong suffer.
3.2. Use of Open Educational Resources for Karamoja
According to Damme (2017) Open educational resources (OER) are digital learning resources offered online (although sometimes in print) freely and openly to teachers, educators, students, and independent learners in order to be used, shared, combined, adapted, and expanded in teaching, learning and research. They include learning content, software tools to develop, use and distribute, and implementation resources such as open licenses. The learning content is educational material of a wide variety, from full courses to smaller units such as diagrams or test questions. It may include text, images, audio, video, simulations, games, portals and the like.
EDUCAUSE (2019) presents a resource website of related to open educational resources (OER) in higher education. The Website with OER resources includes: The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, OpenStax, Free online course materials, MIT Open courseware, The Open course library, OER common, Open education resource foundation, WikiEducator, The World Digital Library and Future Learn.
Damme (2017) ungues that there are many benefits for educators and learners which can arise from creating, sharing and utilising OERs in student education. Besides being cost effective in terms of time and costs, among others are enabling student experience through accessing media-rich materials, promoting digital literacy and promoting visibility of profiles of those that create the OERs. OERs also promote the academic profile of the institutions that provide them and improve their academic ranking. On the side of learners, OER help in changing the role of learners from passive consumers to active producers, fostering peer-to-peer learning, stimulating problem-based learning, enriching learning resources through collaborative practice and Enhancing the social and emotional context of learning. This innovation is ideal for Karamoja because it solves challenges that appear in traditions education system of; lack of library space, library materials, transportation, and time limitation.
3.3. Social Media
According to Faizi and Abdellatif El Afia et al (2013) and (Brown and Adler 2008), social media are categories of interactive technologies which includes a) social network sites like Facebook, Ning, MySpace and Twitter that serve as online communities via which users connect with friends or colleagues and share ideas and resources, b) content sharing and organizing sites like Delicious, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, Dailymotion and RSS readers and c) content creation and editing websites such as Blogger, Google Docs, Wikipedia and WordPress. However, the features and functions of a social media network can overlap, making a tool appropriate for more than one category. In week 4, group C I learnt new technologies of padlets and Thinglink which allow to use several social media concurrently, thus taking care of diversity of choice on a single task. This would be good for education theory by putting into consideration the behaviorism, cognitivism, constructionism and connectivism theories to guide the practice of teaching and learning.
In practice, social media are collaborative platforms, communication channels, tools of engagement, links learners to employers, builds a profile, evaluate character and causes social responsibility through consciousness. Social media too favors the Karimojong character of being mobile, this can be used on mobile devices like phones, laptops, and tablets. In addition, like all parts of Uganda, Karamoja has a pyramid population structure with the majority under the age of 30 and are referred to as the “.com generation”. Thus, they would adopt social media technologies with enthusiasm which is very good for learning.
3. Conclusion.
Based on the above, propose the three innovations of the DSH, Social media and OER in eLearning will empower Karimojong and keep them abreast with international affairs, which is good for learning. This exposure will break the cluster of disadvantages of poverty, illiteracy, vulnerability, and powerlessness. However, this is a learning experience calls for Gibbs’ reflective cycle of evaluating ABEK (Dye (2011, p. 230). The policymakers and implementors of ABEK should benchmark from DSH, OER, and Social media innovations to redesign the approach if it is to be successful.
Dye, V. (2011) ‘Reflection, Reflection, Reflection. I’m thinking all the time, why do I need a theory or model of reflection?’, in McGregor, D. and Cartwright, L. (ed.) Developing Reflective Practice: A guide for beginning teachers. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education (pp. 217-234).
Faizi, R, Abdellatif El Afia etal (2013) Exploring the Potential Benefits of Using Social Media In Education Ijep ‒ Volume 3, Issue 4, October 2013.
Flichy, P, (2007) Understanding Technological Innovation: A Socio-technical Approach, Northampton, Edward Elger Publishing limited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r35WBadI7Ik Krätli, S. (2009) Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja Strategic Review Final report to Save the Children in Uganda, Kampala.
Mangal, S. K. (2009) Essentials of Educational Technology, New Delhi, HPI Learning Private Limited.
McAndrew, Patrick and Farrow, Robert (2013) Open education research: from the practical to the theoretical. In: McGreal, Rory; Kinuthia, Wanjira and Marshall, Stewart eds. Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice. Vancouver, Canada: Commonwealth of Learning and Athabasca University, pp. 65–78.
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2017) Uganda National Household Survey 2016/17, Kampala.
eLearning Innovations to Enhance Education in Karamoja Region of Uganda
1. Tracing the Need of eLearning Innovations in Karamoja
According to the UNDP (2015), education provides knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviors that are inputs for human development. The government of Uganda thus established Universal Primary and Secondary Education to enable education for all. However, in the Karamoja, chances towards this goal are minimal due to the nomadic culture of regular movement in search of pasture and cattle grabbing using guns which cause insecurity. This impeded service delivery, making it the poorest region in the country (Brown, Kelly and Mabugu 2017). However, with the disarmament programme, the guns were withdrawn, but boys are withdrawn from schools to rear cows while girls as early as 12 years are forced to marry in order to get cows from bride price. Moreover, without education, it is unlikely that the situation will change at the current rate of enrolment of 33.7% primary and 10% secondary. The government primary school accessibility in 5km is 4.7% while for secondary school is 74.9%. This calls for innovations that promote education. This paper will evaluate the Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja (ABEK) Programme with the aim of streamlining it through eLearning innovations to make it functional.
2. Conceptualizing Innovation in eLearning
In the diffusion of innovation, Flichy (2007) gives an understanding of innovation as the use of technology to minimize input and maximize in performing a task. Innovation in education is understood as the use of technology to generate, process, document and disseminate knowledge. This brings us to the broad term educational technology which according to Mangal (2009) include teaching, instructional, behavioral, and instructional design technology. I would add “humanware” to emphasize usages and rules attached.
Mangal (2009) further presents the characteristics of teaching which justify the use of innovation in teaching as presented in the image below.
Based on the image above, it is important to note that now, teaching need to be innovative at design and pedagogical level in order to meet the learning and teaching objectives.
3.0. Evaluating ABEK Through eLearning Innovations
Based on the nomadic realities of Karamoja, in 1998, the ministry of education introduced ABEK as informal open and mobile education to bridge learners to the formal system. This was to counteract the rejection of formal education which would keep the children away from household chores and cattle rearing. As an open education, ABEK removed unnecessary restrictions to learning, including timing, adherence to English language, methods and school uniforms. This was the beginning of innovation in education to allow the Karimojong start formal education. However, the programme failed to deliver and was ignored. Based on the knowledge, skills and literature acquired in H817, this paper hypothetically gives advice to the Ministry of Education in Uganda on how ABEK can be open, innovative and beneficial to fulfil the mission of education. Below are three examples of innovative technologies to promote education in Karamoja.
3.1. Digital Study Hall
Digital Study Hall (DSH) is a Facilitated Video Instruction for primary school education in low resource settings. Anderson (2012) observes that low quality primary schools are substantial obstacles to improving livelihoods of people in developing countries. The specific intervention is Facilitated Video Instruction, where lessons of experienced teachers are shown in rural schools by local teachers. The teachers are instructed to alternate between playing the video and conducting activities with students. The goal is for students to benefit from the expert video materials and personal interaction with a teacher. In the DSH, the content is not limited to cognitive education, it also includes community-based education in areas of primary health care, human rights, gender relations, microfinance and well as social relations.
The DSH is still existing moreover working in almost similar situations like ABEK in Uganda where the learning centres were officially ‘mobile’, with the facilitators following the kraal and, if necessary, willing to stay at the kraal. During the ABEK, many children were enrolled, and later joined the formal system (Krätli 2009). ABEK was also open to community members and was used as a platform for community mobilization, acquisition of skills in literacy and numeracy, agriculture, peace and conflict resolution and well as ecological systems. However, in the Strategic Review of 2009, Krätli does not indicate there whether there was some effort to use innovations by use of advanced technologies like facilitated videos instructions. The ABEK just continued with traditional means of open education and did not do any benchmarking.
DSH approach is ideal in Karamoja because it favours remote areas which are isolated, marginalized with low means of service delivery. Here the Karamoja teachers and community can benefit from knowledge from advanced teachers in urban and well facilitated schools. The communities too can benefit from strategies or success stories from other communities. For instance, a documentary about Yacouba Sawadogu a man who stopped the dessert can help in solving a problem of semi-desert conditions, famine and joblessness that the Karimojong suffer.
3.2. Use of Open Educational Resources for Karamoja
According to Damme (2017) Open educational resources (OER) are digital learning resources offered online (although sometimes in print) freely and openly to teachers, educators, students, and independent learners in order to be used, shared, combined, adapted, and expanded in teaching, learning and research. They include learning content, software tools to develop, use and distribute, and implementation resources such as open licenses. The learning content is educational material of a wide variety, from full courses to smaller units such as diagrams or test questions. It may include text, images, audio, video, simulations, games, portals and the like.
EDUCAUSE (2019) presents a resource website of related to open educational resources (OER) in higher education. The Website with OER resources includes: The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, OpenStax, Free online course materials, MIT Open courseware, The Open course library, OER common, Open education resource foundation, WikiEducator, The World Digital Library and Future Learn.
Damme (2017) ungues that there are many benefits for educators and learners which can arise from creating, sharing and utilising OERs in student education. Besides being cost effective in terms of time and costs, among others are enabling student experience through accessing media-rich materials, promoting digital literacy and promoting visibility of profiles of those that create the OERs. OERs also promote the academic profile of the institutions that provide them and improve their academic ranking. On the side of learners, OER help in changing the role of learners from passive consumers to active producers, fostering peer-to-peer learning, stimulating problem-based learning, enriching learning resources through collaborative practice and Enhancing the social and emotional context of learning. This innovation is ideal for Karamoja because it solves challenges that appear in traditions education system of; lack of library space, library materials, transportation, and time limitation.
3.3. Social Media
According to Faizi and Abdellatif El Afia et al (2013) and (Brown and Adler 2008), social media are categories of interactive technologies which includes a) social network sites like Facebook, Ning, MySpace and Twitter that serve as online communities via which users connect with friends or colleagues and share ideas and resources, b) content sharing and organizing sites like Delicious, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, Dailymotion and RSS readers and c) content creation and editing websites such as Blogger, Google Docs, Wikipedia and WordPress. However, the features and functions of a social media network can overlap, making a tool appropriate for more than one category. In week 4, group C I learnt new technologies of padlets and Thinglink which allow to use several social media concurrently, thus taking care of diversity of choice on a single task. This would be good for education theory by putting into consideration the behaviorism, cognitivism, constructionism and connectivism theories to guide the practice of teaching and learning.
In practice, social media are collaborative platforms, communication channels, tools of engagement, links learners to employers, builds a profile, evaluate character and causes social responsibility through consciousness. Social media too favors the Karimojong character of being mobile, this can be used on mobile devices like phones, laptops, and tablets. In addition, like all parts of Uganda, Karamoja has a pyramid population structure with the majority under the age of 30 and are referred to as the “.com generation”. Thus, they would adopt social media technologies with enthusiasm which is very good for learning.
3. Conclusion.
Based on the above, propose the three innovations of the DSH, Social media and OER in eLearning will empower Karimojong and keep them abreast with international affairs, which is good for learning. This exposure will break the cluster of disadvantages of poverty, illiteracy, vulnerability, and powerlessness. However, this is a learning experience calls for Gibbs’ reflective cycle of evaluating ABEK (Dye (2011, p. 230). The policymakers and implementors of ABEK should benchmark from DSH, OER, and Social media innovations to redesign the approach if it is to be successful.
References:
Arboleda, A.M, Introducing Open Educational Resources Https://Www.Futurelearn.Com/Courses/Blended-Learning-Getting-Started/0/Steps/7860 (Accessed on 24th March 2019).
Brown. V, Kelly, M, and Mabugu, T. (2017) The Education System in Karamoja. HEART High-Quality Technical Assistance for Results): Oxford.
Damme, D.V, (2017) Open Educational Resources: A Catalyst For Innovation In Education Https://Www.Open-Science-Conference.Eu/Wp-Content/Uploads/2016/02/Vandamme_Open-Educational-Resources-A-Catalyst-For-Innovation-In-Education-Berlin-Open-Science-Conference-22-March-2017.Pdf (Accessed On 24th/3/2019)
Dye, V. (2011) ‘Reflection, Reflection, Reflection. I’m thinking all the time, why do I need a theory or model of reflection?’, in McGregor, D. and Cartwright, L. (ed.) Developing Reflective Practice: A guide for beginning teachers. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education (pp. 217-234).
EDUCAUSE (2019) Https://Library.Educause.Edu/Topics/Teaching-And-Learning/Open-Educational-Resources-Oer (Accessed On 24th/3/2019)
Faizi, R, Abdellatif El Afia etal (2013) Exploring the Potential Benefits of Using Social Media In Education Ijep ‒ Volume 3, Issue 4, October 2013.
Flichy, P, (2007) Understanding Technological Innovation: A Socio-technical Approach, Northampton, Edward Elger Publishing limited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r35WBadI7Ik
Krätli, S. (2009) Alternative Basic Education for Karamoja Strategic Review Final report to Save the Children in Uganda, Kampala.
Mangal, S. K. (2009) Essentials of Educational Technology, New Delhi, HPI Learning Private Limited.
McAndrew, Patrick and Farrow, Robert (2013) Open education research: from the practical to the theoretical. In: McGreal, Rory; Kinuthia, Wanjira and Marshall, Stewart eds. Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice. Vancouver, Canada: Commonwealth of Learning and Athabasca University, pp. 65–78.
Uganda Bureau of Statistics (2017) Uganda National Household Survey 2016/17, Kampala.