International Journal of Education and Development using ICT

International Journal of Education and Development using ICT > Vol. 3, No. 3 (2007)

Introducing educational computer programmes through evaluation: A case in South African disadvantaged schools

Johnnie W. F. Muwanga-Zake, University of New England, Australia

Abstract
I report on benefits from teacher-participant evaluation and mode of introducing educational computer programmes (ECPs) in disadvantaged schools in South Africa. 26 teachers from 23 schools participated in evaluating a biology computer game designed to motivate and ease conceptual understanding. The evaluation comprised teachers training, which simultaneously provided a platform for introducing the ECP into the schools. The paper recommends that an evaluation of ECPs that includes the value system of end-users (through social dialogue); curriculum issues (learning theories in the ECP and those the education authorities recommend, as well as ECP-curriculum integration); the concepts which the ECP presents; and the compatibility of the ECP with school computers, can provide useful methods of introducing ECPs into curricula of disadvantaged schools.

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