Designing and implementing an ICT4RED initiative

Abstract

The purpose of this book is to provide an overview of the design and implementation of an Information and Communication Technology for rural education development initiative in a resource constrained environment. This intervention is coined the Information Communication and Technology for Rural Education Development (ICT4RED) initiative, which is a large-scale pilot (spanning a period of 3 years) that tested the use of tablets in 26 deep rural schools in the Nciba Circuit of the Cofimvaba school district in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The macro-economic perspective of the area is characterised by few economic opportunities, a high unemployment rate, low incomes, a shrinking population of economically active people and a growing number of school-going youth. This area is regarded as a resource constrained environment. A resource constrained environment, for the purpose of this book, is best described by Anderson, Anderson, Boriello and Kolko (2012) as an environment where there is low-income communities and low bandwidth. These environments provide unique constraints (e.g. cultures) where people are unfamiliar with, or afraid of, technology and/or environments where power and network connectivity are scarce and expensive. The pilot included 3 senior secondary schools (Grades 10 to 12) and 23 junior secondary and senior primary schools (Grades R to 9) (Van Rensburg & Du Buisson, 2012). The challenge was to identify and introduce appropriate technology (devices and other supporting ICT infrastructure) in ways that would improve the teaching and learning engagement, support sustainability beyond the initiative and ensure true integration into existing education processes, whilst managing very real logistical and infrastructure problems.