Department of Education Nelson Mandela Bay District

Department of Education Nelson Mandela Bay District: Port Elizabeth

Impact of COVD-19 pandemic in my context:

My name is Ntoza Hlangani, I live in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape Province.

I work as an e-Learning Facilitator for the Eastern Cape Department of Education in the Nelson Mandela Bay District.

My duties include to:

•   support curriculum implementation through e-Teaching and e-Learning. Ø
•   train and support teachers on ICT integration in teaching and learning.
• develop and distribute e-content to teachers and learners.
•   monitor, support, and sustain ICT solutions in schools.
•   develop and maintain a database of ICT solutions in schools for teaching and learning.
•   monitor, evaluate and report on the use of ICT solutions in school

 Impact of COVID-19 to education in my context.:

COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education. The Government closed schools abruptly to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The country on lockdown. This COVID-19 pandemic became a big push towards e-Learning. Remote learning just got real, in the absence of traditional face to face teaching. Quick options to use educational technology to minimize the effect of the coronavirus on teaching and learning, streaming lessons to learners’ mobile devices. Mobile phones were prohibited in our schools but during the COVID-19 pandemic the school is inside the phone.

 

The education system realized that it definitely has to remodel the schooling system in the province to proceed with education anywhere, anytime, anyhow.  Learning using digital platforms.

The gaps became glary, as the Eastern Cape is a largely rural province with poor ICT infrastructure and network coverage, especially in the far former homeland. As a result, not everybody benefited from the virtual lessons that are broadcasted on TV,  and Radio.

 

In remodeling the education system, it is now time to realize that face to face and online teaching and learning should be implemented at the same time in our schools. The gaps must be closed. Schools must have a fair share of resources. Teachers also should be capacitated in using online teaching and learning tools so that in times like this, teaching and learning do not come to a standstill, but learners learn anywhere anytime.

Reflection and Proposal Presentation

Proposal Presentation

Analyzing blog activity to establish the extent to which it is an authentic learning activity.

Using the 9-elements of authentic learning (see Herrington et al. 2010:44-45) to analyze blogging activity

(https://apps4lockdown.blogspot.com) and establish the extent to which it is an authentic learning activity.

Authenticity in learning design is described by (Herrington et al.2010), as central to creating learning opportunities for students from which they can benefit and upon which they can draw once they leave formal learning behind. Learning that allows conversation and interaction

Authentic Learning: Learning through applying knowledge in real-life contexts and situations. Learning that is authentic is real and learners have meaning. It allows conversation and interaction.

9 Elements of Authentic Learning                                                                           Authenticity

1.Provide authentic contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be used in real life   Authentic Context: A physical or virtual environment that reflects the way the knowledge will be used in real life. A learning environment where the learning environment reflects the way knowledge will be useful in real life.    (Herrington, et al. 2010).	Yes: The Apps that are posted by students in the blog are meant for educators, parents, and learners, to be used to help with online teaching and learning during the lockdown in SA, which is the reality we are facing South Africa at the present moment as a society.
2.Provide authentic tasks and activities. The e-Learning course needs to provide ill-defined activities which have real-world relevance, and which present a single complex task to be completed over a sustained period of time, rather than a series of shorter disconnected examples. (Bransford, Vye, Kinzer, & Risko, 1990; Brown et al., 1989b; Reeves & Reeves, 1997; Lebow & Wager, 1994).    Teachers should provide such tasks to enable students to interact with the learning environment and to practice newly acquired skills.	Yes: The creation of the blog over a sustained period of time where we also acquired new skills of how to create a blog of our own and post on a blog.  The Apps posted on the blog for online teaching and learning during lockdown are an authentic task and are going to be used by parents over time. The lecturer gave us tasks, that are well designed, not straight forward tasks at all, tasks that made us think carefully.
3. Provide access to expert performance and modeling of the process. (Collin et al., 1989), assets that performance and the modeling of processes have its original apprenticeship system of learning, where students and craftspeople learned new skills under the guidance of an expert (Collins et, 1989).	Yes: We learned from our lecturer who is an expert, who showed us step by step of how to create a blog.  He guided us throughout the learning process. He also referred us to a variety of reading materials, he does not rely on a single expert view.
4.Provide multiple roles and perspectives:  A learning environment cannot be called authentic if it relies on a single point of view such as the teacher’s alone, or a textbook. (Herrington et al, 2007)	Yes: Roles played by the teacher/lecturer showing us how to create a blog and how it works, together with the role played by students to post Apps on the blog spot, parents and educators accessing the Apps from the blog sport and play the role of being teachers to their children at home, represent multiple roles.  Our lecturer allowed us to source knowledge from a variety of sources, e.g. reading material, videos, and the web and we also learned a lot from him and from each other.
5.Support collaborative construction of knowledge. Collaboration and the opportunity to collaboratively construct knowledge are seen as important elements of an authentic e-learning model. However, simply placing students in groups will not necessarily result in collaboration, but students must also work on a common task with an appropriate incentive structure, that is, rewards based on the performance of the group. (Hooper, 1992).	Yes: The students worked collaboratively when posting the Apps to the blog post. That means a collaborative creation of knowledge. Students worked together and they had one educational goal; online teaching and learning. The context of the blog is also set on lockdown, therefore together the students and the lecturer are trying to find a solution to the problem. This also allowed students to learn from each other, as there were some Apps, some of us were not familiar with and heard about them for the first time.
6.Promote reflection to enable abstractions to be formed. In order to provide opportunities for students to reflect on their learnings, the e-learning course needs to provide an authentic context and task. It also needs to provide non-linear organization to enable students to readily return to any element of the site if desired, and the opportunity for learners to compare themselves with experts and other learners in varying stages of accomplishment. (Herrington et al, pg. 28, 2010)	Yes: The context is authentic COVID-19 and lockdown. The task is authentic, access to Apps for parents and teachers for online teaching and learning during the lockdown. Students could go back to the blog post at any time. With access to each other’s blog URLs and having looked at the lecture’s blog, this allowed comparison of each other’s work, i.e. Each other’s blog posts and the lecture’s blog. Students were allowed to reflect on what they had learned during all the sessions.
7.Promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be explicit. In order to produce an e-learning course capable of providing opportunities for articulation, the tasks need to incorporate inherent, as opposed to constructed, opportunities to articulate, collaborative groups to enable articulation, and the public presentation of argument to enable defense of a position. (Herrington et al, pg. 30, 2010).	Yes: Students are allowed to present their work and share their presentation with the whole class so others can critic the presentations to explain unclear or vague information.
8.Provide coaching and scaffolding by the teacher at critical times. A scaffolding and coaching role for teachers means assisting, not by giving answers or information, but by helping them at the metacognitive level – such as by asking for further questions. (Herrington, 2010) The foundation for the notion of scaffolding, according to Herrington, (2010), lies in Vygotsky’s (1978), ‘zone of proximal of proximal development’ described as ‘the distance between the actual development level as determined through problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers.	Yes: The lecturer always gives clear instructions when giving a task to students. The lecturer acts as a coach and also a facilitator. The lecturer does this very well at all times even provides notes to explain anything that is not clear e.g. notes on how to create a blog. The lecturer assisted us with constructing knowledge that was translated into creating individual blogs, taking us to proximal development, and making learning real. He gave us a lot of support in the form of reading materials, videos, and peer learning.
9.Provide an authentic assessment of learning within the tasks An authentic assessment examines the student’s ability to apply knowledge in performing a task that is exactly what is existing in real life e.g. planning a trip. (https://www.slideshare.net/pamelacamillebreton/assessment-techniques). In order to provide an integrated and authentic assessment of student learning, the e-learning course needs to provide the opportunity for students to be effective performers with acquired knowledge, and to craft polished, performances or products in collaboration with others. (Herrington et al.pg.35, 2010). It also requires the assessment to be seamlessly integrated with the activity and to provide appropriate criteria for scoring varied products. (Herrington et al.pg.35, 2010).	Yes: The tasks the lecturer gave us are real, set in a real setting, lockdown, and COVID -19. Assessment is practical, providing the Apps for online learning for parents and teachers. We also produced products like creating our own blogs and PowerPoint Presentations. The assessment was integrated smoothly from one part to the next without gaps.

Applying the Eight - Step Model (Mwanza, 2002) to the Blogging activity and a list of generated research questions

PowerPoint Presentation of the following:

• Applying the eight-step Model (Mwanza,2002) to the blogging activity.

• The Activity System Triangle 9Engestrom, 1987).

• Generated Research questions.

Below is the Link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1O4pj4xUEAiXOgy8R65m8dt7srlYDQ1Ab/edit#slide=id.p1

Discussion on Lim's (2002) socio-cultural view

In my context, this is how Lim’s Garden Metaphor can be explained

Society at Large:  

The society is currently facing unprecedented challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Everybody is under lockdown, every person confined to his or her place of residence. A person may only leave their place of residence to perform an essential or permitted service, buy permitted goods or obtain services that are allowed to operate.

Gatherings are banned, enabling the practicing social distancing. Churches closed; weddings are banned.

People are frustrated and are stressed out by being confined to houses and having nothing to do. Parents would have preferred that their children be at school because they have to exercise discipline themselves now and help them themselves to continue studying at home. Some families are even complaining about the shortage of food for kids at home as they were getting food from school.

Education System:  

COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the education system. Governments have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ministry has also talked about suspending June and September holidays and a recovery plan to be put in place. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational communities across to adapt to a new way of remote learning and teaching in order to keep up with the 2020 school year, as there is no face to face teaching anymore. The Department of Education is trying, by all means, to make some interventions like offering online lessons through a virtual classroom, for grade 12 learners in my Province. Other grades are catered for in TV and radio lesson broadcast; but not everybody is benefiting from this intervention as some learners do not have the tools to access these classes. Some rural areas do not have electricity, and also the signal is very bad. This is a wakeup call to the authorities in education to implement both face to face and online teaching and learning at the same time and not treat them separately, and also resource learning institutions equally and try and close the gaps. COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequalities in our society.

School Level:

Schools are temporarily closed, parents at home have to play the role of being educators to their children, getting advice from educators and online learning platforms to carry on with the curriculum. Teaching and learning moving to online homeschooling.

In this regard also not, every parent can do this, because of their level of education and some cannot afford the devices and data costs. Schools have to come up with curriculum recovery plans to catch up the lost time. The closure of schools not only interrupts teaching for learners but assessment and exams have to postponed due to lockdown.

Course of study:

Parents, teachers, and learners are using online learning platforms to access their curriculum and learn whilst at home, the parents help their kids with the online learning process. Learners are accessing the curriculum through virtual classes, TV Broadcasts, and radio lessons.

Activity system: All the elements in the activity triangle are working together towards an educational objective, which is use of online learning tools for online teaching and learning.