Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
School of Information Technology
Department of Informatics
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The Siyabuswa Education Improvement and Development Trust (SEIDET) and the Department of Informatics have had a long relationship in terms of research and community development projects that are related to a socio-technical view of information technology. In May 2008, the Department of Informatics published a book on the work done at Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga, over nearly 20 years. With this book, Community-driven projects: reflections on a success story: a case study of science education and information technology in South Africa, the co-author, Dr Jackie Phahlamohlaka, a subject of the late King Mayisha III of the Ndzundza Ndebele people in Mpumalanga and systems modelling expert at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), illustrates that tradition and science do mix. Abject poverty and illiteracy in Siyabuswa set the scene for the establishment of a community-based project aimed at bridging education imbalances, while promoting science, physics, mathematics and information and communication technology in the poverty-stricken area. A thought-provoking challenge by King Mayisha III to Phahlamohlaka led to the establishment of SEIDET and the history of this project is recounted in this book. King Mayisha III had challenged Phahlamohlaka to improve the conditions in the village after returning from Canada where he had completed his master's degree in the early 1990s. The successes of the project became the catalyst for the book. The book was launched under the theme: A walk for a book, and Dr Phahlamohlaka, other researchers, the local community and local government officials joined in the walk as part of the launch of the book. To date, SEIDET has been the subject of four PhDs at the University of Pretoria: three from the Department of Informatics (including one from the current head of the department, Prof Carina de Villiers) and one from the Department of Physics (supervised by Prof Max Braun). Three master's degrees have also resulted from dissertations covering SEIDET. In addition, between 15 and 20 medical practitioners from the area went through the SEIDET Saturday supplementary tuition programme and completed their training at UP. Nearly all of them are practising in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Through collaborative research involving the departments of Information Technology, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Curriculum Studies at UP, the role of telecommunications as an enabling factor in the development of a required network infrastructure for distance teacher education support was established. The research focused on establishing a self-sustainable computer laboratory at the SEIDET community centre in order to explore computer-supported cooperative learning (CSCL). In addition, a distance teacher education support model was designed and implemented using interactive information technology and television communication to enable the facilitation of distance teacher education support for in-service teachers. SEIDET has become an information and knowledge hub for the people of KwaNdebele, while its success continues to attract research interest from scientists and engineers from all corners of the world. It has become part of an ongoing research project and the talk-of-the-town for many communities, including the information systems research community. SEIDET is a 'living laboratory' where ideas are tried and tested out
Contact person: Prof C de Villiers.
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