Chronicle Editor
Michelle Nyanzira, Chronicle Reporter
MZILIKAZI Primary School in Bulawayo has initiated its own e-learning portal to championing online learning.
The project is being led by School Development Committee (SDC) Chairperson Mr Robert Ndlovu a Bulawayo-based ICT consultant. He is a former Mzilikazi Primary School student.
The growth of e-learning platforms has been steady over the years. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need and usage of online educational platforms.
The pandemic has forced organisations to work from home and schools have no choice but to adopt remote learning under the new normal.
The project is still in the deployment phase where teachers are being taught to upload their content on the website and students will be allowed to register with their teachers.
Mr Ndlovu said there are two types of the system. A digital library which is a computer physically at the school uploaded with educational content. This does not need an internet connection. One has to be physically at the school. Then the second one is where content is kept securely in the cloud on Google Drive and also accessed via the website for registered users.
He said students will need computers for the laboratories at the school to store information locally in the digital library. This way teachers, students and parents can access educational material be it pdf, audio, video locally at the school without visiting the internet.
“Students should have tablets or laptops, this way they can access educational material locally from the school or from the e-learning portal hosted at an ISP or simply in the cloud.”
Mr Ndlovu said the idea of e-learning essentially emanates from the power of ICT to produce content, share it from a single point without having any physical contact between the source and the destination.
He said students will be able to register via their class teachers on the portal and they will open up to online registration once everyone is comfortable with the system.
“Teachers will be uploading their learning materials to their folders by grade and class and this material ranges from images, charts, symbols, documents, audio and video,” said Mr Ndlovu.
He said real-time teaching online is difficult for most students as data costs are prohibitive in Zimbabwe. Teachers are already making good use of the WhatsApp platform to engage students.
Mr Ndlovu said a few interesting issues have emerged in education with this pandemic. Students can no longer share textbooks the way they used to in the past.
He said when schools were opened, classroom capacity was halved in most instances because of social distancing requirements. Students had to go to school on selected days in most schools because of shortage of classrooms and the number of available teachers to provide for full cover was not enough.
Mr Ndlovu said now there is another lockdown and students need to be studying as no one knows how long it might go on.
“For now, during the pilot run, the system will be restricted to our pupils but then once it’s stable and our teaching staff are on top of it, the system will be accessible to students from other schools,” he said. — @michieroxy.
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