Project Post-Mortem: Introduction of Technology use for instructional Purpose In Physical Science (High School)

Technological innovations have the capability to momentously change the perspective of scientific investigation, the way they are done even in high schools and can possibly enhance the teaching and learning of science to a larger extent. In the past decades, an overhead projector brought excitement when it was introduced into classrooms, which was then replaced by the introduction of computers. The use of technology in the classroom in Africa has become a moment of excitement. This evolution of instructional technology in education became a testament but more is still being desired to bring more life even to learning and teaching of physical science. 

 It was that time when I was still in South Africa, working as a teacher and also as a member of the steering committee for the physical science cluster, that a need arose. The need was to introduce the use of technology for an instructional purpose in the teaching and learning of physical science at the school district level. The issue was to equip teachers with knowledge and skills on how they can use it for instructional purposes. The project aimed to start by teaching the importance and advantages of using technology in the classroom for instructional purposes and then equip the teachers with technical skills for using the technology. One thing African countries have worked hard on is to improve children's access to basic education, but the quality of education remains a significant issue. The use of technology in the education system could possibly be one of the solutions desired. 

 When this project began every person who was part of the team selected was excited. In actual fact at the beginning of the project, everybody had hopes that it was going to be a successful project. All the efforts of the team members were aimed at completing this project with the best possible results. This made me realize that no one wants to embark on a project they know is not going to work. As a team, we knew that we had to put ourselves together through all five phases of the project. These phases were 

 

*Project concept and innovation 

 *Project Definition and Planning 

 *Project Execution 

 *Project Performance and Control 

*Project closure 

With all the resources that we had; the project initiation phase was not a challenge. We gathered all that we needed for the phase since It Is critical to successful project development and implementation. This was mainly because it was that time when the project team aimed at taking initial steps in creating a solid foundation in all the following phases and activities of the Project. Our major flow was on the planning of the project. 

 When the planning of the project was done, we thought we had it all sorted and figure out. In our planning, we managed to establish the project requirements and all possible costs and schedules. We were even able to establish a list of deliverables and their delivery dates. All the resource plans were set up, we also obtained approval from the management and proceeded to the next phase. It was in the phase of executing the project when we realized that in our planning, out of pressure and excitement to commence with the project we had created problems for the project. The two problems that we did not foresee in our planning were that we were setting unrealistic expectations and unrealistic due dates. Since the project was being funded by the department of education, who was also our employer as teachers, everyone in the team grew the desire to please the stakeholders, this overshadowed even the negotiations, which included a thorough estimation of the available resources and setting realistic expectations. 

 It would have been a great idea for us to have negotiated on reducing the scope of the project. From this project, I learned that although unrealistic deadlines and expectations are practically a fact of life with most IT projects, proper planning can alleviate project failure.