A Social Partnership Model to promote Educators’ Development in Mauritius through Formal and Informal Capacity-building Initiatives

Authors

  • Mohammad Issack Santally University of Mauritius
  • Dorothy Cooshna-Naik University of Mauritius
  • Noel Conruyt University of Reunion Island
  • Caroline Koa Wing Microsoft Indian Ocean and French Pacific

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v2i1.23

Keywords:

Teacher Education, Education Technology, ICT for Development, Community Service

Abstract

The organization Helping Our People has been setup in 2011 by a team of education professionals working at the Virtual Centre for Innovative Technologies (VCILT) at the University of Mauritius. In 2009, the VCILT embarked on the SIDECAP project, funded by the EU-ACP in a consortium regrouping the Open University of the UK, the University of the West Indies, the University of the South Pacific and the University of the Highlands and Islands. The work of the VCILT in the context of the SIDECAP project was essentially focused on the repurposing of Open Educational Resources to fit in the local Mauritian Context. At the same time, the VCILT received an internal grant to work on the development of interactive learning materials using the integration of text-to-speech technology in instructionally designed PowerPoint presentations. In this paper we report how the research activities of the two projects led to a series of development and applications in the real-world context for the continuous professional development of educators, the establishment of a social entity, an NGO called Helping Our People, a partnership with Microsoft Indian Ocean and French Pacific under the Partners in Learning Program and the Youth Empowerment Program to alleviate the suffering of those living in vulnerable conditions in the country.

Author Biographies

Mohammad Issack Santally, University of Mauritius

Senior Lecturer in Education Technology and Officer-in-Charge of the Virtual Centre for Innovative Learning Technologies.

Dorothy Cooshna-Naik, University of Mauritius

Lecturer, Visual Communication

Noel Conruyt, University of Reunion Island

Noel Conruyt is a Professor of Information Technology at the University of Reunion Island.

Caroline Koa Wing, Microsoft Indian Ocean and French Pacific

Partners in Learning Program Manager

References

Bahadur, G. K., & Oogarah, D. 2013. Interactive whiteboard for primary schools in Mauritius: An effective tool or just another trend? International Journal of Education and Development using ICT. 9(1).

[Online] http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=1559 [Accessed 6th August 2013]

Brandon, B. (2005). Exploring the definition of rapid e-learning. [Online] http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/4/rapid_elearning_whitepaper_3-2-05.pdf, [accessed 19th April 2012]

Cooshna-Naik, D., Gunness, S., Nowbuth, M., & Baguant-Moonshiram, Y. 2012. Fostering an e-learning culture amongst Mauritian Educators. Proceedings of the Conference on Internationalization of Tertiary Education in Mauritius. Tertiary Education Commission, Mauritius.

Conruyt, N. 2013. E-co-innovation for making e-services: Living Labs as a human-centered digital ecosystem for education with ICT", 7th IEEE International Conference on Digital Ecosystems and Technologies, DEST 2013, July 24-26, Menlo Park, California, USA, 2013

Defimedia 2013a. Aides sociales – Le seuil de pauvreté pourrait passer de Rs 6 200 à Rs 7 500. [Online]

http://www.defimedia.info/defi-quotidien/dq-actualites/item/35415-aides-sociales-le-seuil-de-pauvrete-pourrait-passer-de-rs-6-200-a-rs-7-500.html [accessed 2nd August 2013]

Defimedia 2013b. Pauvreté - La guerre des chiffres. [Online]

http://www.defimedia.info/defi-quotidien/dq-actualites/item/35049-pauvrete-la-guerre-des-chiffres.html

[Accessed 2nd August 2013]

Defimedia 2013c. Bulletin d’information d'ENL – Rama Sithanen sur la Corporate Social Responsibility: « L’effort est dilué » [Online]

http://www.defimedia.info/defi-quotidien/dq-economie/item/35488-bulletin-d-information-d-enl-rama-sithanen-sur-la-corporate-social-responsibility-l-effort-est-dilue.html

[Accessed 2nd August 2013]

Government Portal 2013. Mauritius Gears up for Phase II of Sankoré Project. [Online] http://www.gov.mu/English/News/Pages/Mauritius-Gears-up-for-Phase-II-of-Sankoré-Project--.aspx

[Accessed 6th August 2013]

Hannafin, M., & Land, S. 1997. The foundations and assumptions of technology-enhanced student centered learning environments. elearning Reviews, Vol. 25, pp. 167–202

Mahadeo, S. K., & Gurrib, M. 2008. Priority Education Zones in Mauritius. Prospects. 38 (2). 227-235. Springer

Moon, B. 2010. Time for Radical Change in Teacher Education. Connections. Commonwealth of Learning.

[Online] http://www.col.org/news/Connections/2010feb/Pages/fairComment.aspx

[Accessed 6th August 2013]

OECD. 2010. Finland: Slow and Steady Reform for Consistently High Results. In Strong Performers and Successful Reformers in Education: Lessons from PISA for the United States. OECD. 2010 [Online] http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/46581035.pdf [Accessed 6th October 2013]

Paquette, G. 2003. Instructional Engineering for Network-based Learning. San Francisco: Pfeiffer/Wiley

Santally, M. 2011. OERs in Context: A Case-Study of Innovation and Sustainability of educational practices at the University of Mauritius. European Journal of Open, Distance and Online Learning. [Online] http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2011/Santally_Mohammed_Issack.htm [Accessed 3rd August 2013]

Santally, M., Raverdy, J. 2006. The master’s program in computer-mediated computer communications: A comparative study of two cohorts of students. Educational Technology Research and Development. 54(3). 312-326

Santally, M. 2012. Training of in-service educators through online activity-based learning. International Journal of Technologies in Learning. 19(2).

Santally, M., & Senteni, A. 2004. A cognitive approach to evaluating web-based distance learning environments. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. 2(1). 41-53

Schneider, D. 2003. Conception and implementation of rich pedagogical scenarios through collaborative portal sites: clear focus and fuzzy edges. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Open & Online Learning, ICOOL 2003, Mauritius.

Whitehead, J. 2012. Educational Research for Social Change with Living Educational Theories, Educational Research for Social Change, 1(1), 5-21

Published

2015-03-20

How to Cite

Santally, M. I., Cooshna-Naik, D., Conruyt, N., & Koa Wing, C. (2015). A Social Partnership Model to promote Educators’ Development in Mauritius through Formal and Informal Capacity-building Initiatives. Journal of Learning for Development, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v2i1.23

Issue

Section

Research Articles
Received 2013-10-20
Accepted 2014-10-04
Published 2015-03-20