MELISSA - Measuring E-Learning Impact in primary Schools in South African disadvantaged areas



Head of project at USI: Lorenzo Cantoni
Starting date: 1 Novembre 2008
Duration: 60 months
Website: projectmelissa.blogspot.com


Topic areas:
  • S281 Computer-assisted education

Faculty involved:
  • Facoltà di scienze della comunicazione

Collaborators:
Institutes involved:
Other partners involved:
University of Cape Town, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Funding Sources:
  • Segreteria di Stato per l´Educazione e la Ricerca

MELISSA (Measuring E-Learning Impact in primary Schools in South African disadvantaged areas) joint research project will study the impact of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) training on primary school teachers in the Western Cape province. Under the MELISSA project 120 primary school teachers based in disadvantaged schools will be trained to understand ICTs, and how to incorporate ICTs in their teaching in wise and sustainable manner. MELISSA research is designed as an experiment involving both an experimental group as well as a control group. Both groups will be assessed through questionnaires and interviews, in order to measure their: - Computer Self-Efficacy - Teacher Self-Efficacy - Locus of Control - Social Meaning of ICTs yielding an integrated set of impact measures which can be eventually applied in order to design better ICTs training experiences, policy guidelines and evaluation activities, and to better allocate available resources.


Publications:
  • Bytheway A., Chigona A., Chigona W., Dumas C., Fanni F., Mooketsi B., Rega I., Sadek O. (2010). Integrating ICTs into the classroom: Assisting teachers in disadvantaged primary schools. eSkill Conference (2010).
  • Rega I., Cantoni L. (2010). The MELISSA Curriculum for Teachers: Developing an Integrated Methodology to Assess Impact. Proceedings of eLearning Africa 2010, the Fifth International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training (Lusaka, Zambia, 26-28 May 2010), CD-ROM.