Online teacher professional development in ICT integration in Tanzania: An experience report

Integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teaching and learning in schools has been hindered by many barriers, including lack of in-service teacher training, teacher beliefs and lack of infrastructure. In the effort to solve the challenge of teacher training in Tanzania, few in-service teachers, based on different parameters, are selected to participate in the face to face ICT training at the specified training centre. Scaling of such teacher training initiatives has been challenging over time. To reach more school teachers, we developed a ten-day online course, run over Moodle. A total of 134 teachers from all the regions of Tanzania registered and participated. Topics were developed based on the preference of the in-service teachers. Online surveys were used to collect qualitative and quantitative data before and after the course. Teachers were active during the duration of the course and many of them applied the skills in their schools by improving their teaching strategies, use of technology tools and sharing experiences with other teachers in their schools.