Résumés
Abstract
In low-income countries, the use of technology to enhance teacher continuous professional development (TCPD) activities has been increasing significantly. However, most technology initiatives related to TCPD require the installation of complex information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure in schools or availability of reliable Internet connectivity. While installation of ICT infrastructure is costly, the cost of the Internet is unaffordable to most teachers in low-income countries. This study explored the feasibility of deploying Raspberry Pi computers and tablets as micro-servers to facilitate school-based TCPD activities via a learning management system (LMS) without Internet connectivity. Teachers in eight schools in Dar es Salaam and Lindi accessed a TCPD sample module with Raspberry Pi and tablets providing hotspotting and treated as offline local servers hosting a LMS. After the trial, data was collected through focus group discussion, observation, and LMS logs involving 69 teachers. The findings showed that both Raspberry Pi and tablets could be used as micro-servers to provide access to learning resources in offline environments, but Raspberry Pi fared more favorably. Raspberry Pi was easy to set up and connected more devices than did the tablet. However, Raspberry Pi required careful handling as it is a delicate device. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in terms of the performance and cost of the two micro-servers. This study provided further evidence that both Raspberry Pi and tablets could be cost-effective approaches to deliver TCPD activities without installing complex ICT infrastructure or in areas with limited Internet connectivity.
Keywords:
- teacher continuous professional development,
- TCPD,
- Raspberry Pi,
- Internet-limited environment,
- learning management system
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Cloutier, M. F., Paradis, C., & Weaver, V. M. (2014). Design and Analysis of a 32-bit Embedded High-Performance Cluster Optimized for Energy and Performance. 2014 Hardware-Software Co-Design for High Performance Computing, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1109/Co-HPC.2014.7
- Dachi, H. (2018). Reflecting on five decades of teacher professional development in Tanzania: The missing dimensions. Papers in Education and Development, 36, 185–214.
- Dhuny, R., Peer, A. A. I., Mohamudally, N. A., & Nissanke, N. (2022). Performance evaluation of a portable single-board computer as a 3-tiered LAMP stack under 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. Array, 15, 100196. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ARRAY.2022.100196
- El Alami, M., Benamar, N., Younis, M., & Shahin, A. A. (2017). A framework for hotspot support using Wi-Fi direct based device-to-device links. 2017 13th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC), 552–557. https://doi.org/10.1109/IWCMC.2017.7986345
- Ginting, B., Sawaluddin, S., Zarlis, M., & Sihombing, P. (2020). Raspberry-Pi as portable Web server e-learning Moodle for student learning and assignment. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference of Science Education in Industrial Revolution 4.0, ICONSEIR, (pp. 3–8). https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.17-12-2019.2296003
- Hennessy, S., D’Angelo, S., McIntyre, N., Koomar, S., Kreimeia, A., Cao, L., Brugha, M., & Zubairi, A. (2022). Technology use for teacher professional development in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review. Computers and Education Open, 3, 100080. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.CAEO.2022.100080
- Ibarra, M. J., Huaraca, C., Soto, W., & Palomino, C. (2017). MLMS: Mini learning management system for schools without Internet connection. 12th Latin American Conference on Learning Objects and Technologies, LACLO 2017, (pp. 1–7). https://doi.org/10.1109/LACLO.2017.8120932
- Kim, Y., Erekson, J., Bunten, B. A., & Hinchey, P. (2014). Toward sustainable educational changes through school-based professional development on ELL assessment for new teachers. Theory into Practice, 53(3), 228–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2014.916966
- Komba, S., & Mwakabenga, R. (2019). Teacher professional development in Tanzania: Challenges and opportunities. In Hülya Şenol (Ed.), Educational leadership. IntechOpen. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90564
- Kotze, J., Taylor, S., & Fleisch, B. (2018). Moving towards cost-effective delivery models of teacher coaching: Evidence from field experiments in South Africa. RISE Conference, (pp. 1–27). https://riseprogramme.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/Kotze.pdf
- McAleavy, T., Hall-Chen, A., Horrocks, S., & Riggall, A. (2018). Technology-supported professional development for teachers: Lessons from developing countries. In Education Development Trust. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED593386
- Ncube, B. N., Owolawi, P. A., & Mapayi, T. (2020). Adaptive virtual learning system using Raspberry-PI. Proceedings of 2020 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Computing and Data Communication Systems, (pp. 1–5). https://doi.org/10.1109/icABCD49160.2020.9183844
- Ndassimba, N. G., Ndassimba, E., Kossingou, G. M., & Ouya, S. (2021, February 7). Digital elementary school solution with moodlebox in a conflict zone: The case of the Central African Republic. 2021 23rd International Conference on Advanced Communication Technology (ICACT). http://dx.doi.org/10.23919/icact51234.2021.9370681
- Ngom, B., Guillermet, H., & Niang, I. (2012). Enhancing Moodle for offline learning in a degraded connectivity environment. 2012 International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems, (pp. 858–863). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMCS.2012.6320168
- Patel, S. S., Bhat, S. B., M S, T., B V, V., & A, N. (2018, June 12). Remote Tutor –A Novel Interactive Collaborative Teaching Method for E-learning an application of Raspberry Pi. NCICCNDA. http://dx.doi.org/10.21467/proceedings.1.5
- Popova, A., Evans, D. K., Breeding, M. E., & Arancibia, V. (2022). Teacher professional development around the world: The gap between evidence and practice. World Bank Research Observer, 37(1), 107–136. https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkab006