New technologies: An opportunity for Zimbabwe


Lazarus Sauti

New technologies represent an opportunity for Zimbabwe. In the country, one child in two does not finish schooling due to different challenges.

Accordingly, if the child cannot go to school, then the school must go to the child and this is possible thanks to new technologies, among other things.

The arrival of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), albeit at a slower pace, is revolutionising the lives of many people across the country. Information technology (IT) expert, Frank Muzenda says the world has changed and school kids are embracing technology the same way as adults who have graduated from telephones and computers to cell-phones and i-pads, which makes it necessary to use e-learning solutions to enhance learning.

Muzenda says: “Technology has taken over and it is a digital world. Children are no longer excited by just listening to the teachers.”

Therefore, to effectively benefit from new technologies, the government should embrace ICTs for education by establishing information centres where teachers and students can download audio programmes from educational channel and broadcasts them on local radio.

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) online quotes Aditya Hansen, who works for an Indian based software company, Design Mate which designs 3D visual learning solutions, saying, “A virtual classroom named Eureka works well for both the teacher and the students for a better understanding of the subject being discussed in class.”

This means that the government should invest heavily in visual aids such as three dimensional (3D) motion pictures. Gone are the days when an afternoon physics lesson was a series of complicated diagrams as students can actually see the four stroke engine operating in 3D mode.

“All that is required for this virtual classroom technology is a computer, a projector and a pair of glasses,” added Hansen.

Successes in embracing new technologies can be hampered due to a number of drawbacks such as lack of availability of information and ICTs, prohibitive costs of and access to computers, and connectivity problems due to Zimbabwe’s underdeveloped telecommunication infrastructures.

This means government should invest heavily in the ICT sector. The private sector should also support government efforts to embrace new technologies for the benefit of the education sector in the country.

However, for new technologies to take a positive root, government and stakeholders in the education, science and technologies sector should make frantic efforts to reduce the “digital divide”, so that many people can have access to the technology.

Because of this, finding a sensible way of combining new technologies with the challenge of universal literacy should be the key mandate of stakeholders in the education as well as technology sector.

Cheikh Modibo Diarra, Chairman of Microsoft for the Africa and Middle East Region concurs:

“We know that computers are an extraordinary educational tool and we want our children to learn, but many schools do not have the means to afford sophisticated laboratories.

“So simulated laboratories need to be created; if we manage to produce a computer model for something then a child can view it, experiment with it, touch it and learn, but also understand, concepts.

“We have to use these technologies so that they have a multiplying effect, so that all of this knowledge becomes interconnected. We are no longer Renaissance men, who learned a little about everything.”

New technologies today are tools that can connect people and help them to find out more about things.

In many fields, and particularly the sciences, information technology needs to be exploited to the full by using educational concepts.

Consequently, the country needs to find the connections between several disciplines. Leaders should believe that it is technology that will enable people to gain deeper understanding of those concepts.

Diarra notes: “We must exploit technology to link together all the knowledge that we have in different disciplines. Learning will then become a pleasure, because it will take less effort.”

Zimbabwe still faces a certain number of major challenges, particularly in the area of education, infrastructure and access to technology. These challenges can be met if the country embraces new technologies.

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