When will schools re-open in Zambia - in a month's time? Two months? Three months?
Yesterday I received a phone call from a Distance Learning student who desired to make a payment of tution fees and wanted to know "when the college may re-open". The phone call confirmed my fear that the impact of COVID-19 on Zambia's education system is yet to dawn on many people's minds. If the trouble, which has led to the closure of schools in our country, goes by the same spelling as the one which has crippled economies of the First World - with complete lockdowns and thousands of deaths - then what our learning institutions have done in preparation for the worst-case scenario is close to nothing, if actually not nothing!
Today, I read this on Straightimes about Singapore, a first world nation with excellent educational infrastructure and systems:
SINGAPORE - Students in all schools and institutes of higher learning will shift to full home-based learning from next Wednesday (April 8), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Friday. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will work with schools to implement this, Mr Lee said in a speech announcing new measures to curtail the spread of Covid-19. The measures will last at least until May 4.
Two things caught my attention in the above news report: the swiftness to act before a problem attacks and the availability of senior leaders to quickly provide policy to guide the implementation of the solution. It is important to be aware that a solution that is made to operate in a policy vacuum will soon become a problem itself.
Some three decades ago Professor James Moor, a pioneer of Computer Ethics, had noted that a typical problem in Computer Ethics involves a policy vacuum of how computer technology should be used and remarked that often either no policies for conduct exist or existing policies seem inadequate (Moor, 1985). Although many developed countries have made strides towards implementing comprehensive policies to guide e-learning, institutions in Third World countries, where e-learning is still a relatively new phenomenon, are yet to catch up on this.
It's high time senior managers of colleges and universities in Zambia wake up and begin to quickly draw up plans on how they can implement e-learning systems, and more importantly, establish e-learning policies to guide the paradigm shift.
Some three decades ago Professor James Moor, a pioneer of Computer Ethics, had noted that a typical problem in Computer Ethics involves a policy vacuum of how computer technology should be used and remarked that often either no policies for conduct exist or existing policies seem inadequate (Moor, 1985). Although many developed countries have made strides towards implementing comprehensive policies to guide e-learning, institutions in Third World countries, where e-learning is still a relatively new phenomenon, are yet to catch up on this.
It's high time senior managers of colleges and universities in Zambia wake up and begin to quickly draw up plans on how they can implement e-learning systems, and more importantly, establish e-learning policies to guide the paradigm shift.
I should emphasise here that whilst some colleges (especially private ones) have quickly acted to implement learning management systems, there is still a high-risk of implementing e-learning systems which operate in a policy-vacuum. It is important to note that an e-learning system can only be as effective as its policy. By "policy" I don't mean an archaic document that has to go through the red-tape of approvals which may take a year or two before implementation but yet will remain unkown by stakeholders after implementation. An e-learning policy should be simple, and easy to understand and remember. As a matter of fact, one way to know if a college has a policy or not is to randomly ask any lecturer at the institution about any line in the policy they remember. If on average lecturers or teachers can hardly recall a single line from the document then that college actually has no e-learning policy!
A policy should be the heart or spirit that guides all online training activies. In my next blog-post I will discuss 'e-learning policy' and provide examples. I will also provide a simple template which you can use for your college if you dont yet have one!
In concluding may I remind you that these are desperate times requiring urgent action. The biggest blessing in all this is that e-learning systems have now become so easy to set-up and different free options now exist - you can use Moodle, Google Classroom, etc. If you dont yet have a Learning Management System kindly go through my workshop series on how to set up your LMS in eight-simple steps here.
References
Moor, J.H. (1985). What is Computer Ethics? Metaphilosophy. 16/4: 266-75
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