Graduating Students in Zambia Use Computers to Plan Their Courses
News
Jun 15 2010, Zambia [ZM], Education
- Source:
- Gaël Hernandez [ghernandez(at)iicd.org]
- Country:
- Zambia [ZM]
- Sector:
- Education
Students that graduated from Zambia’s Copperbelt College of Education last year were all able to use a computer to plan and present their lessons. “To ensure that all students use computers in their daily work, students have to hand in their assignments in typed form.”
The college is an educational facility for young Zambians in the
Copperbelt
region who want to be teachers. IICD supports
the ICT training of teachers and students at the school. Future
teachers are trained in computer skills and have access to a computer
lab. “In order to ensure that all students use computers in their daily
work, all assignments of students have to be handed in in typed form,”
says Lyson Chikunduzi, mathematics lecturer at the college.
This measure resulted in very concrete results. Chikunduzi: “Our
target is that by the time our students reach the final year, they are
able to prepare lessons digitally. The group that graduated last year
was able to reach that target. They presented lessons in PowerPoint to
their peers who could then comment on them.”
Teachers also increased their computer skills. “Our teachers used
to write out their examination papers by hand before delivering them to
a typist for the preparation of papers. But since the college developed
an ICT programme, every lecturer could produce his own
documents.”
The Copperbelt College now plans to reach out to students and
teachers beyond the campus. “We are working on a website that has
been launched as a pilot to see how students can get information when
they are not at the college. We intend to post our learning materials
on the website so students at other teacher colleges in Zambia will
also have access to the materials.”