SHOMA EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Background

homa is the main corporate social investment programme of Multichoice Africa. The Foundation has its own Board of Directors which sets the overall policy framework and provides strategic guidance and vision.

Shoma has created a platform for private sector parties to work alongside Government in the development of education, and enables partners to be part of a high impact and relevant corporate social investment project.

Shoma’s partner base includes government, parastatals, the private sector, donor organisations, non-governmental organisation groups and independent institutions.

Mission, Philosophy and Approach

Shoma’s mission is to enhance teacher education and provide greater access to quality education in the lesser-developed parts of the country through the use of digital satellite technology.

Shoma is pursuing its vision by:

• working to empower;
• working consultatively;
• working towards long term, sustainable commitments and involvement; and
• working in partnership.

DISTANCE EDUCATION

With the use of satellite technology, Shoma is able to broadcast educational material to teachers in all corners of the country. Educational material - which contains video, audio and associated data - designed to support the curriculum is broadcast via Siyanda Satellite Services at extremely high speed, weekly.

Shoma operates in all nine provinces, and by the end of its first year of operation, had established 12 centres across the country.

The training facilities used at the training centres consist of a minimum of three rooms in education department or other suitable buildings.

Of the three rooms, the first is equipped with a television monitor, a video server and satellite dish. In this room, a visual presentation of the specific learning theme on Outcomes Based Education is provided. Teachers watch broadcast clips reflecting different South African situations and experiences on Outcomes Based Education concepts, which run approximately 10 minutes long. This approach is supported by experience highlighted in a report by the Federation of American Research Network and Consortium of School Networking (1994), which indicates that the successful training of teachers was in view of their direct hands on experience with relevant examples and real products made by others in education. The broadcast ends with a thought-provoking question that prompts the group into discussion. With this question the aim is to actively engage the recipients and negate passivity amongst them. Curriculum developers of the provincial education Department mediate the group discussions.

The second room is furnished with a Windows NT server and 24 Pentium workstations. Content is downloaded, via satellite, to the servers using a Siyanda satellite receiver card.

The computer material provides digitised video and audio clips, which have been compressed, using MPEG technology. This convergence of computer and television technology confers greater flexibility to the learning process. There are three objectives to the computer based learning programme.

These are:

• To impart computer skills to educators
• To impart specific and specialised knowledge of Outcomes Based Education to educators.

The Lesson Development room is the most important room in the process. It is here that teachers have the opportunity to practice the theory learned in the broadcast and computer rooms. In this room teachers work together to develop their own lesson plans for the following week, based on what they learned during the broadcast and computer based learning.

It is a mediated, facilitated learning process. Integral to the Shoma training methodology is the use of facilitators to mediate the learning process in all three tiers. Facilitators are integral to the programme in view of :

• their experience in classroom teaching;
• an understanding of the use of technologies and its language usage; and
• follow-up support provided to the teacher in the classroom