Designing a Contextualized Programming Course in a Tanzanian University

Tumaini University has been developing the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education since the mid-90s. Their first systematic ICT development project called Internet Project Strategic Plan (IPSP) focused on obtaining infrastructure for accessing information; instilling ICT skills into staff and students, and installing and servicing computers to support learning activities. With this in mind, we developed the CATI model (contextualize, apply, transfer, import) to support sustainable ICT development projects on the basis of our evaluation of the IPSP project and our previous experiences in contextualized ICT education. During the past few years we have focused our efforts on contextualizing ICT education. One of the outcomes of this initiative was a contextualized Introduction to Programming course (2004-2005). In this paper, we analyze the course design and implementation by using the CATI model. We found that the basic elements and ideas of the contextualization in terms of learning materials, practical project components, and exercises were concentrated on the application level. The course has created promising spin-offs in local Tanzanian communities. The main weaknesses of implementation are that practical elements such as teaching on the campus are still dependent on the presence of Western teachers