The evern evolving nature of ICT requires teachers to participate in life-long studies. However, life-long teacher training opportunities in developing communities of Africa are scarce and require teachers to apportion their own time and funs. Challenges also crop up when ICT is adopted without giving adequate thought to pedagogic value
The ever-evolving nature of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) not only makes it essential for a modern day employee to be equipped with ICT skills, but also continue updating it to keep up with the best and the latest. This makes it important that the ICT supported distance education systems are available for the new age technology driven growth.
Beyond this need, those engaged in training teachers should have sound level of familiarity with ICT, so as to encourage and pass on these skills to future teachers. ICT skills passed on to teachers not only enhance pedagogy, but directly help students become globally competitive workers. However, challenges crop up when institutions move to ICT adoption without giving adequate thought to pedagogic value, amid the existing digital gap that currently makes distance and eLearning for Africa’s developing communities an impossibility.
This article looks at challenges that confront eLearning in Africa, particularly in training institutions offering distance education to teachers. There is also a discussion on some ICT professional development (PD) models.
Problems facing educators in Africa In any developing community, the use of ICT in pedagogy is undermined by the problems of connectivity, access and Policy.
