This document discusses using information and communication technologies (ICT) in education in Sudan. It begins with an outline of the session topics, including definitions of technology and important ICT terms. It then discusses why ICT is not widely used in Sudan, providing facts about limited Internet access. The document reviews reasons for using ICT in education, including international standards and examples of successful projects like Hole in the Wall and One Laptop Per Child. It concludes with challenges to teaching English in Sudan like large class sizes and limited instruction time.

1. Why not use ICT in Sudan
Dr. Hala Salih Mohammed Nur
English Language Institute/University of Khartoum
ICT for English: Challenges and Opportunities for Adapting ICT in Education
1-3 April 2013
orgainzed by ESL Centre
at
Sudan Open University

2. I am not an expert in technology but
just simply an English language
teacher who loves and uses
technology

3. Session Outline
• What is technology?
• Definition of ‘technology’
• Internet timeline
• Shift Happens
• Important Terms
• Why not use ICT in Sudan?
• Facts about Internet in Sudan
• Why use ICT in education
• Standards
• Examples of international projects
• Examples use of technology in the classroom

4. What is technology?
• The branch of knowledge that deals with the
creation and use of technical means and their
interrelation with life, society, and the
environment, drawing upon such subjects as
industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and
pure science.
• The total knowledge and skills available to any
human society for industry, art, science, etc
(Taken from dictionary.com)

5. Internet timeline 1
• 1957 USSR launches Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. In response, the
U.S. forms ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) within the DOD
(Department of Defense). The main goal of the project was to establish a
military research network that would be resistant to enemy attack.
• 1960s The Proposal of the Packet Switching Network emerges. Packet
switching is the concept of breaking down data into packets, which are
transmitted across the network. If one of the packets gets lost along the
way, another packet can be sent.
• 1971 Ray Tomlinson invents email program that allows users to send
messages across a network.
• 1976 The Queen of England sends her first email.
• 1982 First definition of “Internet” as a connected set of networks is used
when TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol) is
established.

6. Internet timeline 2
• 1984 Domain Name System (DNS) is introduced allowing users to type
host names (e.g. www.mpl.org) rather than memorizing numerical
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (e.g. 204.62.131.129).
• 1988 Internet Relay Chat is developed allowing users to chat in real time.
• 1992 Veronica, a gopher-space search tool, is released by University of
Nevada; World Bank goes online; and the expression “Surfing the
Internet” is coined.
• 1993 MOSAIC, the first WWW browser is released (Marc Andressen and
NCSA), the White House goes online (http://www.whitehouse.gov), and
an email account is created for the President of the United States
(president@whitehouse.gov).
• 1994 Yahoo, an Internet Search Tool, is developed by two Ph.D.
candidates from Stanford University and Pizza Hut customers can place
an order online.

7. Internet timeline 3
• 1995 RealAudio technology is released, dial-up systems begin to provide
Internet access for home use (e.g. America Online, CompuServe, and
Prodigy), and Netscape goes Public.
• 1998 The US Postal Service begins to offer users the ability to purchase,
download, and print stamps from the Web.
• 2005 YouTube.com is launched.
• 2006 There are an estimated 92 million Web sites online, with well over
7 billion indexable pages.
• 2007 Search engine giant Google surpasses Microsoft as "the most
valuable global brand," and also is the most visited Web site.
• As of September, 69% of the U.S. population (234 million) use the
Internet. Worldwide, there are 1,244,449,601 users.
[http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline].

8. Shift Happens

9. Important terms 1
Digital immigrants / Digital natives

10. Important terms 2
Digital divide
Scholar Howard Besser contends that the digital divide
is more than just a gap between those who have access
to technology and those who don’t. This issue
encompasses aspects such as:
Information literacy
Appropriateness of content
Access to content
Ability to apply critical thinking to technology or not
Those who speak English or not
Those who create digital content or merely consume it

11. Important terms 3
Digital literacy /Digital safety
• Digital literacy researchers explore a wide variety
of topics, including how people find, use,
summarize, evaluate, create, and communicate
information while using digital technologies.
• Digital safety is learning to protect personal
identity information, creating strong passwords,
and being cautious when downloading programs
and files. This is crucial to the safety and security
of the digital devices students use, as well as the
information those devices store.

12. What’s all the fuss about computers?
• Calvin: If I had a computer, I ‘am sure I’d get
better grades on my book reports.
• Dad: But still you have to read the books and
tell the computer what you want to say,…
• Calvin: Man, what’s all the fuss about
computers?? (Watterson, 1995)

13. Why not use ICT in Sudan

14. Facts about Internet in Sudan
• Sudan represents by far the fastest growing fixed
telephony market not only in Africa but
worldwide. Telecommunications investment has
skyrocketed from only US$500,000 in 1994 to
over US$100 million per year. Enormous further
potential exists since the country’s total
teledensity is still one of the lowest in the world
at less than 3%.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm#sd

15. Facts 2
Internet Usage and Population Growth
Year Users Population %
2000 30,000 36,841,500 0.1 %
2003 300,000 35,035,677 0.9 %
2009 4,200,000 34,206,710 9.3 %
6,499,275 Internet users on June 30, 2012, 19.0% of the population, per IWS.
34,206,710 population
http://www.internetworldstats.com/africa.htm#sd

16. Facts 3
• Adrian Hon (the Founder and Chief Creative at Six to Start, an
online games company; he originally trained as a
neuroscientist at Cambridge and Oxford) Telegraph 30 April
2013.
• “Last week, I received an email about a problem my company
was having with our online shop. I happened to be out of the
office, so I pulled out my laptop, plugged in a 3G mobile
broadband dongle, and went online to try and fix it –
something countless workers and commuters do every day.
The difference was that I was standing in a field near Atbara in
North Sudan, while villagers were making mud bricks a few
meters away.”

17. Why use ICT in education?

18. Standards 1
what needs to be done
• Develop a national policy for the pedagogical integration of ICT.
• Develop a national policy for teacher training in the pedagogical
integration of ICT.
• Provide ongoing training for school staff.
• Develop technopedagogical resource banks for different education levels.
• Set up incentive plans for teachers and students to use ICT.
• Set up spaces for collaborative dialogue (e.g., forums, annual conferences)
on the pedagogical integration of ICT.
• Identify the academic competencies to which ICT can be applied for
teaching and learning.
• Establish public–private partnerships
• http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/developing-ict-skills-in-african-
teachers

19. Standards 2
The ICT-enhanced teacher standards for Africa released by UNESCO-IICBA,
which are an attempt to help contextualize the broader UNESCO
framework and standards based on specific needs and contexts
expressed by education policymakers from across Africa, are organized
around six broad 'standards' or domains meant to help develop related
skills in teachers as they:
(i) Engage in Instructional Design Processes
(ii) Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning, Innovation and Creativity
(iii) Create and Manage Effective Learning Environments
(iv) Engage in Assessment and Communication of Student Learning
(v) Engage in Professional Development and Model Ethical
Responsibilities
(vi) Understand Subject Matter for Use in Teaching
http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/developing-ict-skills-in-african-teachers

20. Examples of International projects 1
Hole in the Wall
• Dr. Sugata Mitra, Chief Scientist at NIIT, is credited with the
discovery of Hole-in-the-Wall. On 26th January 2008, Dr. Mitra's
team carved a "hole in the wall" that separated the NIIT premises
from the adjoining slum in Kalkaji, New Delhi. Through this hole, a
freely accessible computer was put up for use. This computer
proved to be an instant hit among the slum dwellers, especially the
children. With no prior experience, the children learnt to use the
computer on their own. This prompted Dr. Mitra to propose the
following hypothesis:
The acquisition of basic computing skills by any set of children can
be achieved through incidental learning provided the learners are
given access to a suitable computing facility, with entertaining and
motivating content and some minimal (human) guidance.
.

21. Examples of International projects 2
One Laptop Per Child project

22. Examples of International projects 2
One Laptop Per Child project
Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero
instruction
Speaks to how we consistently underestimate young
people and how we over emphasize the barriers that
culture may play. In the end, it's about access and
opportunity. ​And perhaps about how education is
ultimately about teaching oneself what is necessary
and relevant rather than standards created
somewhere outside of that.

23. International Examples 2
• OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte at MIT Technology Review's
said in EmTech conference :
"We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction,
no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within
four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off
switch. He'd never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within
five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two
weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And
within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our
organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they
figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android.“
• http://www.dvice.com/archives/2012/10/ethiopian-kids.php

24. Challenges facing the teaching of
English language
• Super large classes (100-300)
• Limited time allocated to English language
classes (2 hours/15 weeks)
• Mixed-ability classes.
• No use of English outside the classroom.
• Great need for a more proficient graduates in
the work market.(B)

25. Examples from our classrooms
Using videos in the classroom
• Started in the department of English Language at the
AUR in 2010.
• Target group: Second year students at the Faculty of
Agriculture.
• The total number of students was 300
• They were studying “English for Agriculture”

26. Examples from our classrooms
Using yahoo groups and wikis in the classroom
• Started in the department of English Language at
the AUR in 2011
• Target group: Second year students at the Faculty
of Science .
• The total number of students was 250
• They were studying “English for Biology ”

27. Locations where Students Access the
Internet

28. Students’ Attitude Towards the Use of
ICT in Education
Nur, Hala (2009)

29. Advantages of Blended Learning
• It can accommodate a range of learning styles.
• It involves interaction between the learner and
instructor.
• It can facilitate extensive learner to learner
interactions
• It can increase the pace of learning because it's on
demand learning - and enables the training of
larger numbers of people in shorter periods of time
than is possible with classroom training.
• It can make learning more relevant by allowing for
learning in context.

30. Khan Octagonal Framework

31. Examples form our classrooms 2
Project - based learning
• Started in the department of English Language at
the AUR in 2012.
• Target group: First year students at the Faculty of
Architecture.
• The total number of students was 80
• They were studying “English for Agriculture”

32. Using the tools
Learning Management System
Moodle
Students’ Blogs

33. Our New Sudan Project

34. Characteristics of PBL
• Builds on previous work;
• Integrates speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills;
• Incorporates collaborative team work, problem solving, negotiating
and other interpersonal skills;
• Requires learners to engage in independent work;
• Challenges learners to use English in new and different contexts
outside the class;
• Involves learners in choosing the focus of the project and in the
planning process;
• Engages learners in acquiring new information that is important to
them;
• Leads to clear outcomes; and
• Incorporates self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and teacher
evaluation.

35. Teams of students working
on the project

36. Class wiki

37. http://mysudan.pbworks.com/w/page/47458783/FrontPage

38. Observed Results
*Increase in students motivation.
*Use of target language outside
classroom.
*Use of target language in meaningful
activities.
*Students take responsibility of their
own learning.
*Improved language proficiency

39. “Give a student a language course, and you teach the
student for a semester. Teach a student to become an
autonomous technology-assisted language learner,
and you teach the student for a lifetime.” (Gary Cziko,
2005)