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Session 2793

Taking First World Technology to Rural Schools Brandon Ian Reed University of Cape Town

1. Introduction One of the core technologies that determines a country’s ability to compete in the international arena is that of manufacturing and having the ability to use advanced automation tools to ensure that ones products have the highest quality to price value. In order for South Africa to compete internationally and succeed in an increasingly demanding trading arena, it is imperative that the technological awareness and ability of its population is increased. This can only be achieved by exposing and exciting its students to core technologies during their formative years.

There are very few schools in South Africa that have access to these sorts of facilities yet there is an inherent expectation that when school leavers enter the market place that they are competent in these areas. The South African Government identified Technology as one of the eight basic learning areas in its plan for their new curriculum framework, Curriculum 2005 [1, 2]. However, in an environment of ever shrinking resources, schools are struggling to successfully accomplish this when the cost of introducing this technology is often more than their annual budget.

It is often the tertiary educational institutions that have made the significant capital investment in these facilities and they are generally situated in well-developed urban areas. Unfortunately, it is in the historically disadvantaged rural areas where there is the greatest direct need for the students to be exposed to this technology.

This paper will describe the authors work in implementing video conferencing using standard low bandwidth analogue telephone (POTS) lines to bring the advanced technology that is available in the University of Cape Town’s Department of Mechanical Engineering into the classroom in a way that fosters a feeling of hands on experience of the equipment being used by the students.

2. Effective Use Of Distance Learning For Technology Education in a Rural Environment In South Africa, students in rural areas have little or no access to technologies taken in most part for granted by those living in the urban areas of our country. Under these circumstances, the students are often apprehensive when exposed to sophisticated technologies. It is essential that they are not only excited by what they see in the technology, but also feel that they are empowered by what they do through hands on use of the technology under review even if it is only in a virtual environment. Allsop [3] has proposed the mnemonic PRIME (Problem – Research – Ideas – Make – Evaluate) to assist these students in the uptake and understanding of the technological processes.

There is an urgent need for interaction between well-equipped tertiary institutions and schools where these institutions can share the technology that they already have, with the schools. There are two ways to accomplish this. The first is to take the students to the institutions that have the equipment, give them a talk on the technology involved and then

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Reed, B. I. (2000, June), Taking First World Technology To Rural Schools Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8737