Student receives award for outstanding practice in Education Technology
Sydney Mutelo, a postgraduate student in the School of Education, has been selected as this year’s recipient for the Outstanding Practice by a Student in Education Technology award. This is a result of his successful implementation of an e-learning system at a primary school.
The award, administered by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology’s (AECT) International Division, recognises the significant contributions made by international students towards promoting educational uses of technology. AECT is an academic and professional association that focuses on enhancing learning and teaching. The international organisation is a premier body for those actively involved in the design of instruction systematic approaches to learning.
Mutelo is the first Namibian to receive this award. “When I found out I was chosen for this award I was elated yet surprised. I wasn’t expecting to win an award for merely trying to implement new methods of teaching for the benefit of my learners,” remarked a thrilled Mutelo. He further added that he was prompted to implement conventional teaching methods due to the pandemic’s effect on schools. “During Namibia’s initial lockdown, I experienced the pandemic’s negative effect on our education sector, and as an Educational Technology Master’s student I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing”.
As a result, Mutelo worked tirelessly to implement an e-learning system at People Primary School, a state school located at Hans Uirab Street in Katutura, Windhoek. This was not without its fair share of challenges. His major challenge was transitioning the school courses he taught to remote mode along with helping his fellow colleagues do the same.
“Implementing e-learning during a pandemic such as COVID-19 came with many challenges – a lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources at the school and technological devices among learners as well as interacting with colleagues at a time when our COVID-19 infection rate was at its peak, were but a few of these challenges,” he disclosed.
Despite these obstacles, Mutelo showed his tenacity by being a first responder to his school’s emergency response teaching. Emergency response/remote teaching (ERT) is a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances.
“Through this experience, I realised that every school needs leadership in ICT – a person that can coordinate the ICT integration activities. More importantly, we all learned the simple lesson teachers around the world learned: no one solution works for all students,” reflected Mutelo.
Mutelo will receive the award during the 2021 AECT Convention, scheduled for November 2-6, 2021. There will be an international dinner, both virtually and face-to-face, to recognise and celebrate this year’s award recipients.
