Role of Digital Learning Solutions in Education

The challenges South Africa faces with regard to education have been widely publicised. Educator skills, learner discipline and the general quality of teaching and learning are high on the agenda of government and private institutions. Technology can play a significant role in supporting schools that need resources.

Digital media transcend barries of geography and can reach many schools and individuals. This makes them ripe for use as a resource for many schools around the country.  Educators can use online learning aids such as e-books and encyclopaedias to help them with the content they have to teach and to suggest reading lists and exercises to students. Many books are now available on line in various formats, from the more advanced e-book to basic uploads of literature. Schools in the remotest parts of the country now have computers and access to the internet.

Educators can take advantage of this resource as a classroom teaching aid and encourage learners to use it to research their homework. The concept of utilising the internet and other digital media as a teaching resource can be taken further to include the use of digital media as substitute or support system for educators that want to improve their skills. Paper 3 of Grade 12 Mathematics, which covers Euclidian Geometry and Statistics and Probability, was optional in the 2008 examinations. The reason put forward by education officials was that there is a shortage of qualified educators to teach this section of the syllabus. This is understandable as it will take time to train new educators to fill the vacancies. However, digital learning solutions can play a role here.

Available educators could oversee lessons in which video or virtual educators take learners through content that current educators are not qualified to teach. Solutions such as Star Schools’ mystar can be used to fill this gap.“Government contribution to public education remains our single largest investment, because we know that it is the key to reducing poverty and accelerating long-term economic growth,” said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel in his budget speech for 2009. The government has allocated billions more to education going forward. It’s advisable for decision makers to consider making more use of technology and connectivity to advance education output so we can make every rand go further.