UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA) went to Johannesburg, South Africa, 21 to 25 April 2008 to carry out Research on South African Institutions that Use New Technologies for Teacher Training, conducted by Temechegn Engida, Programme Officer.

Objectives of the Research

The overall objective of the research is to produce a case study that will explore and document the experience of South Africa in using new technologies for teacher education by taking into account the following key questions:

1. 1. What were the main objectives of the programme: did it focus on teacher academic knowledge or on teaching skills? Did it pay attention to the teacher as an individual and/or to schools as institutions where teachers work?
2. 2. Why new technologies were considered an appropriate tool to undertake teacher training?
3. 3. What outreach did the programme have and how did this compare with the possible outreach of a "traditional" teacher training programme?
4. 4. What content was considered particularly appropriate to the use of new technologies? With which content were more difficulties experienced?
5. 5. Did the programme work with existing teacher training institutions? If not, why not? If so, how did this collaboration function?
6. 6. Did the programme succeed in improving teacher competence at an individual level? Did it change the way in which schools operate? Did it have an impact on teacher training institutions?
7. 7. What impact did the programme have on teacher training policies in general?

1. • Neil Butcher and Associates (NBA)
2. • South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE)
3. • SchoolNet South Africa (SNSA)
4. • University of Johannesburg (UJ), Faculty of Education, Department of Math, Science, Technology and Computer Studies
5. • Maths Center
6. • Gauteng Department of Education

Workshop of Production of Training Materials in Guinea (31 March-12 April, 2008)

In the framework of its contribution to the implementation of the capacity building projects (CapEFA) in TTISSA countries, IICBA, through the Dakar Node, gave from 31 March to 12 April, 2008, two consecutive workshops on the production of training materials for teachers in Guinea. The work sessions were conducted by Mr. Abdoulaye Barry, Head of IICBA Dakar Node. The first workshop held from 31 March to 5 April, 2008 focused on the readjustment of pre-service training modules. Actually, the system of primary teacher training in Guinea chose the modular teaching. Like other organisations such as World Bank and USAID which support the preparation of some modules, UNESCO, through CapEFA projects supports the preparation of modules in sciences and technology, human sciences and physical education. During the last workshop held in November, 2007, IICBA gave training to the writers of the aforementioned modules and gave their comments on the contents.

The second workshop organised from 7 to 12 April, 2008 dealt with the preparation of activity books for the pre-service training of primary teachers. During the previous stage of the CapEFA project, 1640 teachers under contract received a face-to-face training in mathematics and French. The evaluation conducted at the end of the training showed that significant knowledge acquired but there are still gaps to fill. Thus, the workshop gathered trainers from the 8 regions of the country and national trainers who brought complementary training needs identified with the teachers under contract. From these needs, the workshop should produce activity books for the training of teacher under contract in French and mathematics.

The two workshops are complementing the activities already conducted by the Institute in support to the CapEFA project. In addition to the tutors of the components of the project and to the national Direction of pre and in-service training, IICBA collaborated with teachers of the Institut supérieur des sciences de l’éducation de Guinée – Higher Institute of education sciences of Guinea- and with responsible for the national service of distance training.

The UNESCO, BREDA/IICBA training workshop on syllabus review and modules writing for distance education programmes in Sierra Leone took place 17—26 March 2008 in Freetown, Sierra Leone, conducted by Temechegn Engida, programme officer and Getachew Kelemu, project officer.

The overall project was coordinated by the UNESCO-BREDA in Dakar. UNESCO-IICBA participated as a co-implementing office and provided technical assistance at various levels of the projects.

Objectives of the Training Course

The training is intended to enable module writers, editors and principals of the participating teacher education institutions:

• to write a good quality, learner-friendly modules for distance education programmes;
• to review the existing syllabuses and draft modules based on the principles of instructional design and print-based module writing; and
• to introduce participants to Internet search techniques and the use of e-mails for accessing relevant distance education materials from the web and to communicate among themselves and with their students through the web.

Introduction
The workshop was held from February 18-22, 2008 in Addis Ababa at Addis Ababa University, College of Education Faculty. Participants in the workshop were teachers and educators from all over Ethiopia.

Background
It has been learnt that there is inadequacy, or in some respects absence, of skilled manpower for the efficient use of ICT in education in African schools and teacher education institutions.

In response to this challenge, IICBA has already gained valuable experiences by running short-term as well as Master’s level courses in the use of information and communication technology in education in many African countries. During these training programmes IICBA has also learnt that, in many cases, ICT projects designed by many institutions were focusing on the technology rather than a pedagogy-based ICT use in education.

Korea has placed a great importance on the development of the IT industry and as a result Korea has now become one of the top three IT powers in the world together with the United States and Japan. During a visit by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO to IICBA it was agreed that a pilot project be launched in Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ethiopian Educational Media Agency of the Ministry of Education.