A Teacher Tablet Toolkit to meet the challenges posed by 21st century rural teaching and learning environments

This article draws upon the experiences gained in participating in an Information and Communication Technology for Rural Education (ICT4RED) initiative, as part of a larger Technology for Rural Education project (TECH4RED) in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The aim of this paper is to describe the conceptualisation, design and application of an innovative teacher professional development course for rural teachers, enabling them to use tablets to support teaching and learning in their classrooms. The course, as outcome, is presented as a Teacher Tablet Toolkit, designed to meet the challenges inherent to the 21st century rural technology enhanced teaching and learning environment. The paper documents and motivates design decisions, derived from literature and adapted through three iterations of a Design Science Research Process, to be incorporated in the ICT4RED Teacher Professional Development Course. The resulting course aims to equip participating teachers with a toolkit consisting of technology hardware, pragmatic pedagogical and technology knowledge and skills, and practice based experience. The significance of game design elements such as simulation and fun, technology in need rather than in case, adequate scaffolding and a clear learning path with interim learning goals are noted.


Introduction
Teacher professional development (TPD) aimed at technology-enhanced rural teaching environment in a developing context has been identified as a specific challenge (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012;Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007).Amid narratives documenting recommendations toward improving or changing teacher practice, there are very few examples that are specifically designed to enrich the rural teachers classroom practice in general, and more specifically, through the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
The aim of this paper is to describe the conceptualisation, design and application of a TPD course designed for rural teachers and to highlight the design decisions taken towards relevant teacher knowledge and proficiency so as to enable classroom practise to portray a 21st century technology enhanced classroom engagement in rural classrooms.The course, as outcome, is presented in the form of a Teacher Tablet Toolkit designed to meet the challenges posed by 21st century technology-enhanced rural teaching and learning environments.The main research question that guided this research is: how can a Teacher Professional Development intervention guide the development of a Teacher Tablet Toolkit to address the challenges of the 21st century rural technology enhanced teaching and learning environment?This study, undertaken in a rural South African context as part of a larger project, addresses a concern raised in literature about the availability, quality and rigour of TPD programmes in general, and specifically those aimed at teachers in rural resource constrained settings (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007).The study envisages contributing to a broader understanding of TPD designed for rural resource constrained teachers.In addition, it aims to pragmatically facilitate educators' endeavours to integrate technology into their classroom practice within their challenging working environment.The study further highlights some very positive initial results, and offers a demonstrated innovative artefact, and methodology, for practitioners working in the field to adapt and use.

Methodology
Design Science research methodology (DSRM) was applied to develop the TPD course.In DSRM one can develop ways of understanding and working with socio-technical systems, and to question existing structures and processes (Pirkkalainen, 2015).Due to the iterative nature of the DSR process, an artifact, as a solution, is emergent, and opportunities exist for it to evolve.The Design Science Research Process (DSRP) applied in this research is consistent with prior literature (Hevner, 2007;Hevner, March, Park & Ram, 2004;March & Storey, 2008) and include the following six steps: problem identification and motivation, objectives for a solution, design and development, evaluation and communication.The TPD course was developed as an artifact by applying the DSRM process of Peffers, Tuunanen, Rothenberger and Chatterjee (2007), and it evolved as it was evaluated and improved through three iterations or phases (viewed as case studies) in the ICT4RED initiative.Gregor and Hevner (2013) indicate that evidence should be provided that the artifact is useful.A rigorous monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the TPD course was done to track impact, indicate usefulness and improve the artifact.A variety of data sources were applied to improve the TPD course and included observations, interviews (both one-on-one and focus groups), audio-visual material (photographs, text-and video recordings), anecdotal stories, feedback from the M&E questionnaires, ethnographic reports, Twitter and WhatsApp feeds and from the implementation of the various components in each phase.Participants were purposively sampled and their feedback was analysed using a hermeneutic analysis.According to Gadamer (1998:169) hermeneutic analysis is "logically a circular argument in so far as the whole, in terms of which parts…" or otherwise put "we must understand the whole in terms of the detail and the detail in terms of the whole".The principle of the hermeneutic circle and multiple interpretations requires the researcher to understand and examine situations in parts, and as a whole, and to assign explanations to them.

Developing the Teacher Tablet Toolkit
The understanding of the meaning of toolkit used in this study is adapted from Corcoran (2003) to include a repertoire of technology hardware, pragmatic pedagogical and technological knowledge strategies and practices that can be mixed, matched and modified to address a range of classroom issues.
There are two distinct, interrelated areas of concern.Firstly, the contents of the toolkit and secondly, the process followed to equip the teachers with the toolkit through TPD; the resulting artefact being the ICT4RED TPD course.
An appropriate meta-analysis of literature, focusing on the use and integration of ICT into the teaching and learning engagement, and the TPD activities that support this, was done to identify relevant commonalities regarding obstacles, strategies and best practice.The aim of the inquiry was to harvest experience, based on best practice, and to incorporate these experiences into the content and TPD process.The relevant findings from literature were grouped into themes, which were then regarded as elements, and these are outlined in the table below with relevant references to the literature.New literature was incorporated until a point of saturation was reached.These elements, which were identified from literature, became the foundation on which the design decisions were made, and are presented in Table 1 with the relevant literature reference.The elements are discussed in the rest of the paper in more detail, based on the development of the ICT4RED TPD course.The design decisions are statements that mitigate or speak to the elements identified from literature.
From Table 1 above, the following implications and resulting design decisions were made.The design decisions are related to the Teacher Tablet Toolkit and are directed towards meeting the challenges posed by 21st century rural learning environments and the ICT4RED TPD as an implementation process.These findings are interpreted as design decisions.

Classroom practice
From the literature, TPD has been decisively established as a critical component to changing classroom practice as well as integrating technology into the classroom.This being said, there is an acknowledgement that teachers struggle to apply the learning gained in TPD courses into teaching practice (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007).One of the reasons offered is that the level at which TPD is pitched is often too theoretical, and teachers fail to translate the theory into practical skills and strategies (Wang & Gu, 2014).Making sense, coping and using new ICTs call for a different set of teacher knowledge and skills than that which is currently operating in schools (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006).
The knowledge and skills needed by teachers, in order to facilitate a classroom change towards technology enhanced 21st century learning engagement, are derived from the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model (Koehler & Mishra, 2008, 2009;Mishra & Koehler, 2006).Fishman, Marx, Best and Tal (2003:645) remark that the professional development of teachers should fundamentally be about teacher learning.They view this as the changes in knowledge, beliefs and attitudes of teachers that would then lead to the acquisition of new skills, new concepts and new processes related to teaching practice.Teacher professional knowledge is considered as knowledge of TPACK (Grossman, 1990;Magnusson, Krajcik & Borko, 1999;Mishra & Koehler, 2006;Shulman, 1986).

Wang and Gu (2014)
Teacher professional knowledge is tacit, personal and situated.
Wang and Gu (2014) Student-orientated pedagogical approaches have a direct positive influence on the innovative use of ICT.Drent and Meelissen (2008), Peralta andCosta (2007), Woodrow (1992) Teacher Attitude Teacher's positive attitude about the adoption and integration of ICT is significant to the successful integration.Bobrowsky, Marx and Fishman (2001), Buabeng-Andoh (2012), Hew and Brush (2007), Keengwe, Onchwari and Wachira (2008), Loughran and Gunstone (1997) Teacher Experience Teachers tend to teach the way they have been taught.Fullan (2007), Guzman and Nussbaum (2009) Teachers need to have successful experiences in technology integration that can change their perceptions and classroom practices.Bate, Bevan and Robert (2004), Fullan (2007), Mumtaz (2000), Yeung, Taylor, Hui, Lam-Chiang and Low (2012) Teachers adopt technology easier if they see value to their teaching.If technology makes a lesson more fun, interesting, easier, more diverse and/or more enjoyable.Carney (1998), Cox, MJ, Preston andCox, K (1999), Mumtaz (2000) Initial and immediate success with technology by teachers is advisable.

Youngman and Harrison (1998)
Teacher Support Long-term collegial support helps to translate integration of ICT.
Vrasidas (2015) Teachers are more likely to adopt technology if it is readily available to them.Personal ownership and exclusive use over an extended period.Carney (1998), Cox et al. (1999), Mumtaz (2000); Youngman and Harrison (1998) More complex technology has a greater chance of leading to abandonment.Aldunate and Nussbaum (2013) Portability of the equipment is advisable so that it can move between the home and the workplace.

Youngman and Harrison (1998) TPD Process
Mandating change is not necessary successful.Rather, it prepares teachers to improve their competencies in ways that they can appreciate the value of technology.TPD approaches need to be revisited towards cultivating positive attitudes towards technology integration.

Yeung et al. (2012)
Presence of early adopters and innovators impact positively on the likelihood of adoption by other teachers.

Aldunate and Nussbaum (2013)
Longer-term interventions have a higher incidence of innovative adoption.Fishman, Best, Marx and Tal (2001), Lawless and Pellegrino (2007), Wilson and Berne (1999) Table 2 ICT4RED pragmatic TPACK framework for the Teacher Tablet Toolkit adopted for this study (adapted from Botha (2014) TPACK framework Teacher Tablet Toolkit adaption Operationalised as Technology knowledge: technology knowledge (TK) includes the knowledge and skills to adapt and use relevant technology (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).
Appropriate technology knowledge related to an Android™ Tablet and its use to support the teaching and 21st Century learning engagement.
Technology skills related to the tablet.Full lists of the skills that the toolkit consists of are outlined in the ICT4RED TPD Course (Botha & Verster, 2014).Content knowledge: "Content knowledge (CK) is knowledge about the actual subject matter that is to be learned or taught" (Mishra & Koehler, 2006:1026).
Content related towards being, participating, teaching and learning in a digital world.Teachers are considered the subject domain experts.The toolkit enhances their knowledge of skills and strategies to facilitate a 21st century learning environment.
These were imparted as practical skills and extend to include: collaborative group work strategies; assessment strategies (self-assessment, peer assessment and group assessment); time management in class, learner centered learning environments; and debating.Full lists of the strategies that the toolkit consists of are outlined in the ICT4RED TPD Course (Botha & Verster, 2014).Pedagogical knowledge: "pedagogical knowledge (PK) is deep knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning and how it encompasses, among other things, overall educational purposes, values, and aims" (Mishra & Koehler, 2006:1026).
The pedagogical knowledge that was incorporated limited to teaching strategies that would successfully outline the integration of technology into a 21st century learning environment.The choice of strategies was done on its robustness and replicability.Knowledge on own practice was encouraged through reflection on practice towards reflective practitioners.
Teaching strategies that are appropriate for use with Tablets towards emergent learner centered practices in the teaching and learning engagement.There were 10 strategies that met the criteria (Botha & Verster, 2014).Reflective practices were incorporated.
Technological content knowledge: "Technological content knowledge (TCK) is knowledge about the manner in which technology and content are reciprocally related" (Mishra & Koehler, 2006:1028).
Technological content knowledge (TCK) extended to include the use of tablet technology to facilitate the attainment of a 21st century learning engagement over 10 iterations.
Teachers as co-creators construct their own meaning and demonstrate proficiency related to technology skills and content of relevant skills to facilitate a 21st century learning environment.The teachers integrate their own knowledge of the requirements of the curriculum and use their own technology.Pedagogical content knowledge: "This knowledge includes knowing what teaching approaches fit the content (Mishra & Koehler, 2006:1027)".
Pedagogical content knowledge extended to include the use of the teaching strategies and skills to facilitate the attainment of a 21st century learning engagement over 10 iterations.
Teachers as co-creators construct their own meaning and demonstrate proficiency related to relevant skills and teaching strategies to facilitate a 21st century learning environment.The teachers integrate their own knowledge of the context, their learners and the requirements of the curriculum.Technological pedagogical knowledge: "Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) is knowledge of the existence, components, and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in teaching and learning settings" (Mishra & Koehler, 2006:1028).
Technological pedagogical knowledge extended to include the use of the teaching strategies by integrating technology to facilitate the attainment of a 21st century learning engagement over 10 iterations.
Teachers as co-creators construct their own meaning and demonstrate proficiency related to relevant technology skills and teaching strategies to facilitate a 21st century learning environment.The teachers integrate their own knowledge of the context and their learners and use their own technology.Technological pedagogical content knowledge: "TPACK is the basis of good teaching with technology and requires an understanding of the representation of concepts using technologies; pedagogical techniques that use technologies in constructive ways to teach content; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to TPACK extended to include the use of the teaching strategies to facilitate the attainment of a 21st century learning engagement through technology over 10 iterations.
The result of the ICT4RED TPD should enable: pedagogy knowledge as teaching strategies, being facilitated by tablet technology proficiency, and their knowledge of skills and strategies to facilitate a 21st century learning environment.As co-creators, teachers construct meaning and demonstrate proficiency by integrating the above with their own knowledge of the

TPACK framework
Teacher Tablet Toolkit adaption Operationalised as learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face; knowledge of students' prior knowledge and theories of epistemology; and knowledge of how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge" (Mishra & Koehler, 2006:1029).context, and their learners, use their own technology, content of relevant skills to facilitate a 21st century learning environment, and the requirements of the curriculum.
From the ICT4RED pragmatic TPACK framework for the Teacher Tablet Toolkit adopted for this study and outlined in Table 2, the following was adopted design decision:


Each TPD session would be facilitated through a specific learner-centric teaching strategy.For example, the Jigsaw teaching strategy would be introduced through the use of a jigsaw teaching strategy, storytelling as a teaching strategy would be introduced through storytelling etc.


Each TPD session would demonstrate different strategies to facilitate a 21st century learning environment.


Each TPD session would facilitate the attainment of new technology skills.

Teacher attitude
The positive attitude of teachers towards the adoption and integration of technology is significant to its successful integration.As such, this study acknowledged the complex, multidisciplinary nature of the domain and the myriad of aspects that influence the attitude of teachers to adopt and integrate technology.The study further acknowledges and notes the wealth of research that has been done in this field.Pragmatically, however, the engagement of the study could never address all of the richness of findings.Nonetheless, a recurring theme has been the voluntary engagement of the teachers in programmes, TPD activities and workshops (Bobrowsky et al., 2001;Buabeng-Andoh, 2012;Hew & Brush, 2007;Keengwe et al., 2008;Loughran & Gunstone, 1997).


This study adopted a design decision to ascribe to voluntary participation.

Teacher experience
Teachers have been on the receiving end of many hours of workshops in the last couple of years  , 2011).Teachers have thus had a fair idea of the nature of workshops and were reluctant to attend activities that would encroach on their afternoons.As they also often live far from the school, workshops would impact on their transport arrangements as well (Herselman & Botha, 2014).The ICT4RED TPD, however, had to take place in the afternoons.In an effort to mitigate possible workshop fatigue and to integrate other identified success factors for the integration of technology into classroom practice outline in the table, Gamification as a design strategy was selected to provide a more joyful, but focused engagement (Botha, Herselman & Ford, 2014a;Herselman & Botha, 2014).
As of yet, there is limited agreement on a single understanding of gamification.The most commonly used definition is that gamification is the application of game dynamics and mechanics into non-gaming environments, as defined and proposed by Deterding, Dixon, Khaled and Nacke (2011).Deterding et al. (2011) refer to the goal of gamification as making non-gaming products and services more enjoyable and engaging.Glover (2013) highlights the motivational and engagement aspect and Marache-Francisco and Brangier (2014 :205) contend that gamification "is about designing for an experience that drives the user through a journey".During this process, the main service is enhanced (Huotari & Hamari, 2012).This enhancement is co-created by the game designer and the player, as they progress towards a goal.Botha et al. (2014a) make a case for a Gameful Educational User Experience as a goal of Educational Gamification.The game elements for play, as outlined by Costello and Edmonds (2007), derived from a survey of play theories and were adopted in an effort to steer the TPD sessions (in the design for Gameful Educational User Experience) from an individual participant's or user's perspective.These game elements (which include creation, exploration, discovery, difficulty, competition, danger, captivation, sensation, sympathy, simulation, fantasy, camaraderie and subversion) were purposefully incorporated to facilitate the ICT4RED TPD sessions (Botha et al., 2014a).The principles that guide the ICT4RED TPD course were identified and adapted from Stott and Neustaedter (2013) as: freedom to fail, rapid feedback, progression and storytelling.They represent the Gamification design principles, heuristics or lenses used towards the Gameful Educational User Experience (Deterding et al., 2011;Shaffer, 2008).This study adopted a design decision to ascribe to:  (Botha & Verster, 2014).o For the content of relevant skills to facilitate a 21st century learning environment progression (Botha & Verster, 2014).


Storytelling: the narrative is articulated as a learning path that is operationalised through the attainment of 13 compulsory badges that represent the 13 compulsory learning goals of the curriculum.

Teacher support
Collegial, facilitator and course material support help to translate integration of ICT (Al-Awidi & Alghazo, 2012; Malinowsky et al., 2014;Radaelli et al., 2014).This study adopted the following design decision:  New skills are accompanied by paper based How To skill sheets.


Each module contained classroom practice based ideas for different subjects.In addition, there are suggestions for applying the teaching strategy that the module focusses on for when the teacher has only 1 device in the class, for when the teacher has 5 devices and for when the learners each has his/her own device.


Teachers were supported by means of a WhatsApp group.Most teachers already have access to and use WhatsApp.


The schools' proximity to one another creates an opportunity to foster a larger support group.
 Facilitators must preferably be local.Teachers that have graduated from the previous iteration will be used to support and facilitate teachers undergoing the next iteration.

Technology access and hardware
Physical access to and availability of appropriate technology to integrate into classroom practice is essential, as indicated in Table 2 from the literature.
It is advisable that the technology be used in school and at home.In addition, the teacher should know how to integrate said technology in order to reach curriculum objectives.To address these concerns, this study adopted the following design decision:  Technology needs to work for a teacher, in his/her private capacity, before it can work for them in their professional capacity.As such, the teacher have 24/7 access to the device, and should further be encouraged to use it in a personal capacity.


Technology for teachers would be 3G enabled and teachers would be helped to connect their devices to Wi-Fi hotspots.


The ICT4RED initiative would not fund access to the internet through sponsored airtime.


The course would not be dependent on internet access and would provide for an internet like experience, if and when needed, through a local server and Wi-Fi.


Technology should assist the teacher in reaching curriculum objectives.


To lower the barrier of proficiency, technology hardware will be chosen that resembles technology that teachers already own and are therefore familiar with.Tablets running with an Android™ operating system (OS) will be used.


Technology hardware is distributed in use rather than in case.This is operationalised through an "Earn as you Learn" strategy linked to the badges as interim learning goals.Teachers will thus earn the tablets by completing the TPD course and by showing evidence of how they have integrated the pedagogical, technology and content learning from the TPD session into their classroom practice.


It is assumed that 20% of teachers will not want to participate and change their classroom practice.This was based very loosely on the Parento principle and work by Hill, Maucione and Hood (2007).

TPD process
The course is structured as scaffolded sessions and based on the Gradual Release Of Responsibility Instruction Framework (Pearson & Gallagher, 1983).Fisher and Frey (2013) note that this framework was originally developed to aid in reading instruction and that its origins are linked to several theories.They highlight Piaget's (1952) work on cognitive structures, Vygotsky's (1962Vygotsky's ( , 1978) ) deliberations on the zones of proximal development, Bandura's (1965) work on attention, retention, reproduction and motivation and the work on scaffolded instruction by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976).Fisher and Frey (2013: 2) reflect that "[t]aken together, these theories suggest that learn-ing occurs through interactions with others; when these interactions are intentional, specific learning occurs".The idea of a purposeful shift of cognitive load from  the facilitation as a simulation,  to co-creation by the facilitator, badge collectors and teachers,  towards the independent practice and application by the teacher, underpins the TPD process.This gradual release is illustrated in Figure 1.The simulation aims to combine teacher specific knowledge and skills in a practical way to demonstrate their application to teachers.To incorporate this understanding, the study adopted the following design decision/s:

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The value of the strategies and skills will be demonstrated through student-orientated teaching strategies. Teachers will be guided to become co-creators and apply the teaching strategy, technology skills, content skills and strategies in their own classroom.


Facilitators and badge collectors will support the teachers in their co-creation.

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The school, as a system, will benefit from supporting teachers. Opportunities will be created for the development of champions, within the school, through additional challenges (not simulated) and criteria for school advancement by "earning" shared technology hardware will be formulated.


Teachers should also be encouraged to create their own communities of practice amongst themselves.The purposeful facilitation of communities of practice (in which teachers can share best practices and newly created lessons in their subject areas) will be done through the facilitation of sessions at a single venue to afford teachers the opportunity to meet and discuss issues.
The Teacher Tablet Toolkit thus incorporated the teacher professional development course as well as other elements which resulted in specific design decisions.Elements like gamification and rewards informed the TPD course to evolve into a toolkit.This allowed for a new, innovative way to involve and empower teachers to become co-creators of their own environment and to be exposed to technology-enhanced 21st century skills enhancement.

The Innovation of the Teacher Tablet Toolkit
This toolkit is innovative as it presents a practice and peer evaluated course and methodology of how teachers in rural, resource-constrained contexts can be empowered and supported to integrate technology to address 21st century teaching and learning challenges.Technology is not just earned, but teachers become innovative co-creators of con-tent within their own subjects and grades.As the new knowledge, skills and strategies spill over into classroom practice; teachers become facilitators and thus demonstrate and lead learners towards creating and evaluating content and information on tablets to enhance their own learning.
The following presents an outline of how the design decisions were integrated into the Tablet Teacher Toolkit, through the ICT4RED TPD course and methodology, to equip participating teachers with technology hardware, pragmatic pedagogical and technology knowledge and skills and practice based experience.

Teacher Tablet Toolkit
The Teacher Tablet Toolkit, in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century rural technology enhanced rural learning environment, is a repertoire of technology hardware, pragmatic pedagogical teaching strategies, technological skills as mobile skills, and 21st century knowledge (content) and practices, which can be mixed, matched and modified to address a range of classroom issues.i Each module in the curriculum would be about relevant content through a teaching strategy using technology to facilitate the teaching and learning interaction.
Each TPD session is three hours in duration and facilitated in the afternoon at the school.In some cases, when the schools were either too remote or too small (one school only had three teachers), schools were grouped in clusters at a venue chosen by the teachers.The course lasted about one year, in order to accommodate the school calendar.During each phase, a Tablet Fun Day was held.The aim of this day was to afford teachers an opportunity to meet teachers from other schools and to practice some skills which were specifically linked to internet access.
The 21st century learning design of the ICT4RED TPD course was evaluated using the Microsoft Partners in Learning (n.d.) rubrics.These rubrics were developed and tested internationally for the Innovative Teaching and Learning Research project and the evaluation of the ICT4RED TPD Course was done by expert review.Each of the six Microsoft Partners in Learning (n.d.) rubrics represents an important skill, which the teachers need to develop and employ in their own classroom practice.These skills are collaboration, knowledge construction, self-regulation, real-world problemsolving and innovation, and the use of ICT for learning and communication.The rubrics offer a guide to evaluate the 21st century learning design by assigning a number from 1 to 4 (1 being the least and 4 being the most) to each learning activity, according to how strongly it offers opportunities to develop a given skill (Microsoft Partners in Learning, n.d.).The full scope of the underpinning and evaluation is beyond the range of this paper, and only the results of the evaluation are supplied to validate the design.
Each of the 10 modules are linked to at least one badge as a learning outcome.The following  There are 13 compulsory badges and five challenge badges, where the main difference is that the challenge badges are not facilitated.The compulsory badges are ICT4RED badge, jigsaw, storytelling, roleplay, learning stations, Educational content creator, mind-mapping, flipped classroom, game-based learning, filed trips, gallery walk, mobile skills and reflective practitioner.The optional badges are email, Twitter, application evaluation, assessment and blog collaborator.
The course is presented as a learning path where the teacher moves from a commitment (Module 1), to using the tablet for their own personal use (Module 2 and 3), to use for teaching and learning (Module 4 to 7), to use for collaborating and sharing (Module 8 to 10) (Botha, 2014).The learning narrative is presented as a pathway that the teachers follow to graduate and earn their tablet.Each module runs in the same way, illustrated in Figure 2.An electronic copy of your four tasks.This can be either a photo of hand written tasks or a word document.A photo of a Home group and an Expert group doing their tasks.
Figure 2 Course methodology (Botha, 2014) Teachers, and their school, have the opportunity to add to their technology hardware by reaching certain objectives.The technology hardware teachers can earn is listed in Table 5. Technology hardware is linked to badges they need to acquire.
Also linked to the individual progression of the teachers is the hardware the school can earn as well as the criteria needed to qualify.The hardware and criteria are listed in Table 6.(Botha, 2014) 80% of five badges per participant For the school to earn a projector the ideal would be: Each teacher tried a minimum of four new teaching strategies.This is a total of five badges per teacher.We expect the school to have achieved 80 % of this total.For a school with 10 people on the course, it would imply that they can earn a total of 50 badges.Eighty percent of this is 40 badges.
To give the school some incentive, this implies that the total needs to be 80% of five badges per participant.If teachers undertake more badges, they will the total sooner.If not all teachers are undertaking the compulsory badges.This will be achieved much later in the intervention.Doing this helps champions to establish themselves.
Projector 80% of 7 badges per participant For the school to have Mobikits, the ideal would be: Each teacher tried five new strategies, where teachers have started to create digital content by contributing to the Educational Content Creator Badge.This would imply that they have something to share with the learners.They have become contributors.
Mobikit/s (Set of 12 tablets in a charging unit) 80% of nine badges per participant.
For the school to have tablets for learners, the ideal would be: Each teacher tried eight new strategies, the Mobikit is actively being used, and teachers are creating digital content and is integrating the technology into the teaching and learning.

Outcomes
The ICT4RED TPD Course was developed over a period of three years.The 26 schools that completed the outlined course's results are presented below in Table 7.During this time, one teacher went on maternity leave, one teacher was hospitalised, three principals decided not to participate and one teacher passed away.All teachers who opted in, and were able to, completed the course and earned their tablets.A total of 3,998 badges were earned, and 91 teachers completed more than half of the optional badges to earn a merit graduation.All these badges were assessed according to criteria supplied by assessors who were not directly involved in the facilitation process and were verified by an external party for quality control.In addition, all the schools earned their equipment and received tablets for the learners.
The ICT4RED Teacher Professional Development Course was licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-ShareAlike 3.0.and can be downloaded, changed and implemented free of licencing charges from http://www.ict4red.blogspot.com/p/about.html.

Conclusion
The creation of a course like this is not an easy undertaking.It is part science and part craft.The resulting design is by no means a perfect course, but initial results have suggested that it does equip rural teachers with a toolkit consisting of technology hardware, pragmatic pedagogical and technology knowledge and skills, and practice-based experience.The use of tablets has been a catalyst for teachers to use other forms of technology.In addition, the teachers demonstrated sufficient confidence to experiment with the use of software and hardware in their teaching practice.The course is also currently being translated into Afrikaans (for use in the Northern Cape).


The gamification of the course was no easy task, and it took two iterations to arrive at a point where it was not merely 'badges on leader boards'.We use the term gamification rather broadly and acknowledge that it is a contentious term.Initial success is suggested when one regards the completion and participation rate.Technology was applied to support teachers in adapting their method of teaching.Instead of teaching learners with chalk and a blackboard, teachers are now teaching learners in small groups, armed with a tablet and assisting learners in groups to facilitate meaningful engagement with the content.The innovation of the course lies within unique combination of elements and the methodology used, to encourage participation and spill over into classroom practice.TPD remains a costly endeavour, and these costs escalate when remote, rural areas are targeted.The investment that is made in monetary value is significant, but so is the opportunity cost for the teachers involved.As such, careful consideration needs to be made as to how the investment will be evaluated, and what the required short, medium and long-term changes will be.Technology in and of itself will not influence classroom practice and teachers that are not comfortable with the personal use of the technology will be very hesitant to use it in their classrooms.The TPD endeavour needs to bridge the gap between the potential and the teacher's reality in such a way that they are empowered, and remain in control of their classroom practice.
Although the specific application of the ICT4RED TPD course lies within a very contextualised area, there are many elements that could be replicated with due consideration to the nature of the course.As an available artefact, the opportunity is available for practitioners and organisations to adapt it to their own needs.An online connected iteration and success in other environments could be possible areas to investigate as a next step.

Notes
i.
Module outline is attached as Appendix A.

Table 1
Relevant elements from literature table presents the Jigsaw badge, linked to Module 1.The table outlines the instructions, what the expectation is and what to provide as evidence.

Table 3
Evaluation result of the 21st Century Learning Design Rubrics.Implementation of the Microsoft Partners inLearning (n.d.)

Table 4
(Botha & Verster, 2014)rster, 2014)JIGSAW BADGE InstructionsWhat to do What to provide Use the Jigsaw Strategy in your classroom by creating at least four expert tasks for the learners to do, or learn about.At least one of the expert groups must use a mobile device You have created at least four expert tasks for the learners to complete.You have implemented the Jigsaw Strategy with your learners.

Table 6
School Achievement criteria

Table 7
Graduation Results A To use Role Play as a teaching and learning strategy. Identify issues related to the introduction of mobile technology in your school and classroom. Use Role Play to illuminate issues and source solutions. Collaborative group work. Create a school strategy regarding the use of mobile technology. Ensure learner safety in a connected context. Earn the ROLE PLAY and TWITTER BADGE. Explore the use of a mobile device: Use the game based learning strategy in your classroom. Earn the GAME BASED LEARNING  Explain the following issues around Copyright and Licensing: Fair Use, Plagiarism, Licensing, Public domain, Shareware software, Freeware software, Open source, Attribution and Creative Commons licensing. Explore the use of a mobile device: Describe the value of a Field Trip as a teaching strategy. Earn the FIELD TRIP BADGE. Explain different uses of QR codes in educational settings. Plan, facilitate and assess a scavenger hunt. Explore the use of a mobile device:  Decode (read, scan) QR codes. Take photos, make photo collages. Take videos and watch videos. Read geographical (GPS) information. Use the suggested apps.Use a Gallery Walk as a teaching and learning strategy. Plan and facilitate a Gallery Walk. Do the GALLERY WALK BADGE. Explain what digital identities are and evaluate the authenticity of digital profiles. Explain what phishing is and avoid being a victim of phishing.Create a personal digital identity. Evaluate and join online learning communities. Understand online safety and assist learners to be safe online.Explain and give examples of innovative teaching strategies. Discuss these strategies in relation to 21st century learning skills. Create a video or slideshow of your mobile journey. Present a slideshow to your peers demonstrating:  How to use teaching strategies. How you can use your mobile device. Earn your REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER BADGE. Earn your MOBILE SKILLS BADGE. Explore the use of a mobile device:  Access and save documents. Share saved documents using email or Bluetooth or the Wi-Fi server. Create and edit a video or a slideshow presentation. Use the suggested apps.