The Online History Classroom is popularising and strengthening teaching of the South African history curriculum. Clearly, the integration of web-based learning components adds value to traditional education – both in terms of its development and improvement. The web and particularly web2.0 technologies are providing significant new functionality in transmitting information to students and teachers and providing forums for exchange. It is revolutionising some areas of study through increased opportunities for learning and alternative formats for information.

South African History Online (SAHO) is a non-partisan history and heritage project. Founded in 1999 and registered in June 2000 as a non-profit section 21 organisation, it aims to address the biased way in which the history and cultural heritage of South Africans was represented in our educational and cultural institutions.

One of our flagship projects is the online history classroom; it consists of a number of inter-related projects aimed at popularising and strengthening teaching of the history curriculum. This project was initiated in partnership with the Department of Education.

The Online History Classroom allows learners and educators to download the entire history curriculum that covers material from grade 4 to grade 12. The initial focus of the classroom was on curriculum content, however, since web 2.0 trends began to surface we begun modifying the classroom in various ways.

Web2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis and blogs. SAHO’s online history classroom has tried to keep up with this trend through the development of contribution pages, Q&A forums, and wiki style inter-linking between lessons and various features and biographies on our website, which provide teachers and learners with additional classroom material.

There should not be any doubt that the integration of web-based learning components with online projects like SAHO’s adds value to traditional education – both in terms of its development and improvement. The web and particularly web2.0 technologies are providing significant new functionality in transmitting information to students and teachers and providing forums for exchange. It is revolutionising some areas of study through increased opportunities for learning and alternative formats for information.

For example the most obvious benefits of this particular online classroom would be that curriculum and resource materials are accessible 24/7 for free!  Another benefit to using web-based communication tools and curriculum posts is that all students and teachers are given a reinforced sense of equality. Each user is able to access and benefit from the same material and each individual has the same opportunity to “speak up” by posting messages without typical distractions such as seating arrangements, volume of student voices, shyness and gender and race biases. For educators a benefit is that individual teaching techniques can be shared and improved on and curriculum content can be explored and properly understood.

In creating online learning environments and assessing impact one cannot ignore that the majority of South Africans and Africans at large, do not have access to the internet. We have produced a CD for those schools with computers but no internet access, but the CD lacks the interactive and collaborative nature of the World Wide Web.

According to the International telecommunication Union in 2006, Africa had an estimated 44 million Internet users or 3.8 percent of the world’s 1.1 billion internet users. But the share of Africa’s internet users is higher than its share of main (fixed) telephone lines and broadband subscriptions, due to the popularity of public access points or cyber cafés. This is particularly true for rural areas and villages, where connectivity goals are more difficult to meet. Efforts to transform this telecommunications environment in South Africa have not been helped by prohibitively high internet tariffs caused by the ongoing Telkom monopoly and the government’s failure to act decisively in this regard. In addition limited computer literacy also provides challenges.

Access to broadband services is critical to South Africa’s long-term development and prosperity and perhaps it is up to organisations like SANGONET and SAHO to respond to the challenge of both stimulating and growing South Africa’s formal economy and telecommunication environment, while at the same time responding to vast historical socio-economic backlogs.

Thanks to a competitive market and privatisation of mobile phone services and infrastructures, just over 1 in every 2 South African’s owns a mobile phone, perhaps we need that kind of market for the Internet in South Africa.

For more information on the project, click here. 

– Joni Light leads the History Classroom project and is a web designer at South African History Online.

– Picture courtesy of Real World Software Development