From Learner to Facilitator, Geoffrey Shakwa Shows Us the Way... Online
Geoffrey Shakwa
Geoffrey Shakwa
Geoffrey Shakwa was a lecturer at the Caprivi College of Education when he first became involved in online learning. He registered as a student on the Teaching for Understanding using New Technologies course run by Harvard University in the USA and supported by USAID’s iNET project. While he had experience using ICT as a learning tool himself during his M. Ed studies at State University of New York at Buffalo, he had never considered how best to integrate ICT into education. The course provided this new perspective and planted what would become a central theme for much of his work.

Soon after completing the Harvard course, Geoffrey was promoted from Caprivi College to the in-service teacher education officer post at NIED. Having had mainly classroom experience up to that point, he felt he needed more knowledge to better fulfil his role and his Harvard experience inspired him to search online for further learning opportunities. UNESCO came to the rescue and provided a scholarship to follow a certificate course in ‘ICT for Higher Distance Education’, run by UNESCO’s Institute for Information Technology in Education (in conjunction with UNISA).

The Harvard course continued to provide excellent online experience for more NIED participants and Geoffrey helped to facilitate their learning by holding informal workshops and one-to-one support. In summer 2004, Geoffrey decided to make his facilitating skills more formally recognised and participated in Harvard’s online coaches’ course. Later that year he became an apprentice online coach and led a group of international students through their course.

Geoffrey is now a fully-fledged online coach, accredited with certification, and is working with another higher learning institution to offer Namibia’s first-ever online course, “ICT for Open and Distance Learning”. 10 participants from various partner institutions (CES, COLL, NIED, NAMCOL, iNET) have registered for the course, which has been localised under the auspices of NOLNET. The course uses a hybrid approach of e-mail, listserv, CD, and printed material.

What now after achieving so much develop Namibian online learning in 2 short years? Geoffrey is considering how to expand his PhD to focus on how ICT can support meaningful learning in sustainable ways in Namibia. This in addition to the PhD he is already doing to help him in his profession as education administrator. Impressive stuff from a self-confessed student for life!
Namibia - Initiative for Namibian Education Technology (iNET) The Initiative for Namibian Education Technology (iNET) supports the Ministry of Basic Education, Sport and Culture (MBESC) in the establishment of physical, online, and human resources within the Ministry, as well as policy development in relation to ICT, education, and training.