Merryl Ford

Building an Mlearning Research Framework through Design Science Research

The purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation of how Design Science research has been applied in order to develop a mobile learning framework for the ICT4RED project which is currently in progress in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. This is regarded as a complex project and the development of a research framework is essential in order to replicate elsewhere in developing environments with similarities and to scale at a national level. The unique process of developing this ICT4RED mobile learning framework indicates the importance of 12 components which are either regarded as enablers or as drivers for implementation. It is evident that monitoring and evaluation as well as teacher professional development are key to the success of the project and this is also evident from the development of the framework thus far.

An implementation readiness framework for education systems: Integrating ICT into teaching and learning

Sometimes ICT for education projects fail because the system itself is not ready for change. Traditional e-readiness tools employed in technology rollouts at schools focus on the readiness of the schools themselves, without looking at the full value chain. The implementation readiness tool was developed based on learning from ICT4RED and other ICT implementations in schools. It builds on the ICT4RED 12 Component Implementation Model and takes a systems-based approach to ensuring readiness throughout the system — looking at donor, participant and target systems to identify particular aspects that need to be measured and made provision for in ICT for Education (and ICT for Development) interventions.

Systemic levers for change towards sustainable institutionalisation of ICT in schools

Many ICT4E projects fail once the implementation team withdraws. Although there are multiple reasons for this, the problem often lies with integration of the project into the day-to-day institutional arrangements of the education system. This puts pressure on the school environment, since schools are unable to sustain the change introduced without support from their formal support systems. Although the ICT for Rural Education Development (ICT4RED) initiative was successful in integrating technology into rural schools, this success did not translate into the district and provincial levels of the educational system, since the challenges experienced in these systems were under-estimated. On completion of the initiative, a task was undertaken to retrospectively assess the factors that are critical to the integration of provincial ICT4E initiatives across provincial structures, and across different hierarchical levels of the education system. The key systemic levers for change, as well as critical issues for integration at each level, were identified. These could form the basis for the development of an integrated strategy for the introduction of changes that an e-Education system at structural, process, operational, managerial and policy levels.

An Exploration of the Integration Challenges Inherent in the Adoption of ICT in an Education System.

The high failure rate of development interventions is well known. An approach to sustainable interventions is defined, based on a systems perspective that focuses on the ability of a system to integrate an intervention. The design of an intervention requires an understanding of the current state of the system from the perspective of being able to realise the intended benefit. This is called the readiness of the system, and is constituted by the level of maturity of the essential elements and the nature of the interrelationships that are required to realise and sustain the benefits. Interventions can be designed to match the current readiness of the system and to define the system changes toward the desired end state. These principles were developed during the implementation of an ICT for Rural Education (ICT4RED) project in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The practical implications for project design, execution and handover to the education system are illustrated.