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Goosen E

Media Alert: Free high-speed internet at all Western Cape schools by end-2016 | Western... - 1 views

www.westerncape.gov.za/...-western-cape-schools-end-2016

media alert free internet western schools cape government technology CAT PAT digital resources

shared by Goosen E on 25 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • 8 September 2015
  • Premier Helen Zille formally launched the Western Cape’s eLearning “Game-Changer” at the province’s Legislature building in Cape Town today (8 September 2015).
  • will provide free high-speed internet access to all Western Cape schools by the end of 2016, to support teaching and learning.
  • ...29 more annotations...
  • for improving access to quality education in all communities.
  • vision is to use eLearning to improve literacy and numeracy, and to ensure that our learners are better prepared for the 21st century.
  • two key parts.
  • free high-speed broadband access.
  • first
  • second
  • give learners and teachers instant access to the very best digital materials for teaching and learning.
  • ePortal
  • Western Cape Government (WCG) is investing R3.8 billion over the next 10 years to bring high-speed broadband to all residents of the Western Cape.
  • And schools are our first priority. Over the next decade, R2 billion of the total investment will be on connectivity at schools.
  • broadband system will provide a Wide Area Network (WAN).
  • total of 581km of fibre optic cable will have been laid by the end of 2016,
  • alongside the existing 1251km Neotel cable network
  • backbone
  • connects all schools and other sites across the province.
  • Western Cape Education Department is also installing Local Area Networks (LANs) in schools, district offices and head offices to connect classrooms, teachers and learners to the broader admin system.
  • Work started in September last year, and the first schools were connected to the WAN in April this year
  • 31 August 2015, service providers have completed connectivity at 275 schools
  • end of 2016, all schools in the province will have free, high-speed internet access.
  • “smart classrooms”
  • including interactive whiteboards, laptops, projectors and other devices to support teaching and learning.
  • addition
  • will be able to use their own devices,
  • 3 350 smart classrooms were established in schools in 2014/15. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) also refreshed 249 computer laboratories in the same year.
  • The WCED has provided 26 000 ICT training opportunities to date, to support teaching and learning.
  • the new eLearning Portal has gone live, and is accessible at www.wcedeportal.co.za.
  • Our new broadband system and the digital revolution are making it much easier to respond to the individual needs of learners, teachers, parents, school managers and governors.
  • individuals can easily access the ePortal from any location
  • content available on the ePortal will be entirely demand-driven, with content suppliers competing to provide the best digital resources.
Goosen E

SA schools falling off the e-learning deep end | Fin24 - 2 views

www.fin24.com/...e-e-learning-deep-end-20160609

shared by Goosen E on 25 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • 2016-06-09
  • Few schools in South Africa have the ability to roll out effective e-learning programmes because of a lack of understanding of these platforms, says an industry insider
  • many South Africans schools, and the authorities that govern them, are misinformed as to what e-learning actually is,” Ian Light, chief executive of Eiffel Corp, told Fin24.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Eiffel Corp is an e-learning specialist and Light said that the lack of local understanding of the process makes it difficult to define the exact number of schools that have effective programmes in place.
  • some of the biggest barriers to schools having a successful e-learning ecosystem is the lack of a well-planned teaching and learning strategy that incorporates technology, a lack of funding to invest in online platforms to administer and deliver e-learning content as well as the complementary subsidising of network data and connectivity infrastructure at places of learning,” said Light.
  • In Gauteng, Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi has spear-headed the provincial e-learning programme in which the paperless education system is expected to cost around R17bn.However, the programme has had challenges with a number of devices stolen.
  • More than 100 smart boards have been stolen in our schools since the installation in July 2015 of the ICT programme in the Grade 12 classrooms in 377 schools
  • But a critical component is the training of teachers to manage the delivery of the curriculum through technology tools.
  • it should be clear that the training (perhaps we should call it up-skilling) of teachers is a massive task
  • expensive and a labour intensive
  • But unless it is done in tandem with the roll-out of technology devices in schools, there will be minimal return on the technology investment," Kobus van Wyk recently told Fin24.
  • Van Wyk is the chief executive of the Associated Distributors of Educational Supplies in Southern Africa and managed the Khanya Project for a decade.
  • “South Africa needs strong, committed national leadership and complementary government policy to foster innovation and direct efforts to encourage teacher skills growth in this area,” said Light.
  • Poll that revealed more than half of school children said they knew more than their teachers about the use of tablets and computers for learning.
  • for e-learning to be effective and assist with bridging the divide for all learners, it needs effective planning that integrates with sound, measurable academic practices, cheap and reliable data connectivity as well as committed, long term funding from government,” said Light.
Goosen E

BYOD Needs to be BYOT - Classroom of the Future - 2 views

classroomofthefuture.org/byod-needs-to-be-byot

BOYD

shared by Goosen E on 02 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • This approach to technology in the classroom is seen as a great alternative to school-bought devices being issued the same way textbooks are issued
  • The benefits of BYOD go far beyond cost reduction. It provides students and teachers with a great degree of choice in what devices they use.
  • BYOD should actually be called BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Dr. Emil Ahangarzadeh, Director of California’s Technical Statewide Education Technology Services
  • It’s about setting up a framework, rules, and a common purpose.
  • the need to abide by the law
  • is about finding the appropriate balance between allowing teachers and students enough choice over what technology they may use and the necessary level of control the administrators need apply
  • “According to analysts Bill Rust and Jan-Martin Lowendahl of Gartner, the best way for education technology leaders to allay the risk of pandemonium within a BYOT program is to offer their stakeholders a sustainable and viable level of choice.”
  • more than just having everyone connected to the internet at school. It’s about incorporating technology into the curriculum and equipping our students with the technological skills needed to succeed in the future
  • A major issue for most schools is bandwidth.
  • Many schools have limited internet and wi-fi capabilities.
  • Adding scores of devices to an already burdened system may take some networks over the edge.
  • This is an important variable for schools to consider before they start a BYOT program
  • what the goal of their BYOT will be.
  • Will the BYOT program focus on supporting teacher and administrator need? Will it focus on the needs of students? Or will be all inclusive.
  • no “one size fits all” solution
  • Each school will have to take several factors into consideration before it implements a BYOT program.
Goosen E

E-learning hard for SA to implement, but necessary: iLIVE - Times LIVE - 1 views

www.timeslive.co.za/...-implement-but-necessary-iLIVE

shared by Goosen E on 25 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • Most South African learners in rural and township areas do not have access to the Internet.
  • they will be entering a world where proficiency with digital technology is a fundamental necessity. 
  • when these learners leave school,
  • ...31 more annotations...
  • because of the myriad obstacles to widespread digital access in South Africa, some educators and experts in the technological field argue that e-learning is not viable for us. They believe that bridging the digital divide is too big a challenge.
  • in developed countries
  • technology allows them to engage more deeply with the subject matter, while – crucially, in today’s technology driven world – also allowing them to become comfortable with using digital technology.
  • Implementing e-learning programmes in South Africa is difficult.
  • that implemented properly, e-learning can assist in both equipping learners to enter a digital world, and alleviating what many see as a crisis in our education system.
  • proper implementation” lies in using educational technologies that span the online and offline worlds.
  • solutions
  • using educational technologies that span the online and offline worlds
  • Via Afrika
  • developing digital learning tools that require only limited Internet connectivity to work, and can be used both online and offline.
  • LivingPages app for Grade 10, 11 and 12 textbooks
  • interact with their textbooks using a smartphone or tablet
  • it enhances the printed page with extra digital content
  • can be streamed directly through the smartphone.
  • video
  • graphics
  • audio
  • Another
  • example
  • the Via Afrika eBook series for Grades 4–12.
  • e-textbooks can be read in the MobiReader app
  • allows for learners to engage with digital enhancements such as videos, slide shows and audio offline
  • Government is also making inroads into overcoming barriers to e-learning
  • Gauteng
  • its intention to introduce e-learning to the province’s schools, and distribute 88 000 tablets to schools that need them.
  • 2014-03-05
  • broadband technology is also becoming increasingly accessible
  • Too often underprivileged learners who gain entry into tertiary institutions find themselves poorly equipped to work with the technology needed to succeed in these institutions.
  • If given the opportunity to engage with digital technologies from a young age, learners won’t have to face such challenges later on.
  • will only increase as cheaper smartphones and internet access become available.
  • creative educational solutions
Goosen E

3 Key Challenges Of Implementing eLearning In Africa - eLearning Industry - 2 views

elearningindustry.com/plementing-elearning-in-africa

shared by Goosen E on 25 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • 30 October 2015
  • eLearning has the potential to play a pivotal role in the transformation of the delivery of quality education across the continent.
  • has to shift from one that is highly dependent on physical infrastructure such as schools and colleges, physical learning materials, and in class education delivery to one that makes extensive use of interactive education technology.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Africa has the highest growth rates in eLearning in the world for four out of the five self paced eLearning products and services, including packaged content, custom content development services, cloud-based authoring tools, learning platform services, installed authoring tools, and installed learning platforms.
  • there are three central challenges that continue to exist which hinder effective implementation of eLearning in Africa.
  • Internet Access / Connectivity.
  • Availability Of Locally Developed Content And Curriculum Online.
  • Training And Professional Development.
  • South Africa’s peak connection speed was measured at 16.8 Mbps in the first quarter of 2015, giving it a world ranking of 112th.
  • A large proportion of the educational software produced in the world market is in English.
  • where English language proficiency is not very high, especially outside urban areas, this represents a serious barrier to eLearning. There are significant challenges in terms of language patterns and local language usage (especially in serving the youngest populations), and as such there is a need for locally developed content.
  • Teachers on the continent have been brought up in education systems with limited technology and they find it difficult to utilize technology to engage and support learning.
  • A huge challenge is to develop and implement training and professional development for teachers so they may embrace teaching with technology and understand the benefits of teaching with technology as a way to advance the academic outcomes of students
  • In South Africa, Microsoft has trained over 31,000 teachers and school leaders on ICT integration with the aim of enhancing teaching and learning and having an impact on nearly 4 million learners. Over 800 trainers from the South African Department of Education have been trained to roll out, scale and sustain the Microsoft Partners In Learning program.
  • The goal of delivering a high quality education to every child in Africa remains unfulfilled, but technology presents an opportunity for this to be a reality
  • Africa is an emerging market for eLearning, however the continent continues to lag behind developed economies in the effective implementation of eLearning. What are the key challenges that have to be taken into account when implementing eLearning in Africa and what strategies are being applied to overcome these challenges?
Goosen E

Project Isizwe | Company Profile | Business Review Africa - 0 views

www.africanbusinessreview.co.za/...South-Africa-through-free-WiFi

CAT PAT research digital divide resources

shared by Goosen E on 07 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • Super Admin - Aug 23, 2016
  • Deloitte research has shown that productivity in developing countries could be enhanced by as much as 25 percent with the expansion of WiFi access.
  • 75 percent of citizens can’t easily or affordably get online
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • Project Isizwe, a not-for-profit organisation based in the city of Tshwane, is currently working with government bodies across South Africa to bring free public WiFi to the country. 
  • “We all understand the value of Internet connectivity,” Zahir Khan, the CEO of Project Isizwe, explains, “especially in terms of educational benefits, improved healthcare services, better opportunities for economic development — and, of course, social cohesion. From that perspective it’s critical to connect the country sooner rather than later.”
  • In 2013, a bid to connect every citizen was launched across the city of Tshwane. To date, it is Project Isizwe’s largest deployment effort, with 850 Free Internet Zones (FIZs) installed in the local area and almost two million unique users accessing the web since November of 2013. By 2018, Tshwane will have WiFi within walking distance of every citizen. 
  • installation of 213 Internet access points outside of schools in Tshwane.
  • This ensures that every learner, educator and community member in and around the schools is connected”.
  • Rural environments in South Africa also stand to benefit from the efforts of Project Isizwe,
  • these locations is admittedly more of a challenge
  • remote regions, state revenue is limited, thus it is more difficult to get these communities online.
  • “Funding has been the biggest barrier for expansion across the entire country,” Khan says.
  • Project Isizwe’s not-for-profit status
  • the project operates exclusively under cost-recovery: it doesn’t charge users for its service and the large-scale financial benefits of WiFi access for South Africa will not be immediately evident.
  • Research by the World Bank has shown that a 10 percent increase in what is called ‘broadband penetration’, the amount of the Internet access market that has been captured by high-speed broadband, will result in a 1.3 percent increase in a country’s GDP. 
  • access to an affordable mobile device
  • was also a barrier to Internet access in South Africa
  • cost of these items has fallen
  • Project Isizwe has deployed in rural environments, places as remote as the mountain village of Tshedza in Limpopo province
  • are finding creative ways to reach out into their newly-connected world.
  • Khan cites the story of Martin Nyokolodi, a young man in Tshwane who has launched his own Internet radio station, among his favourites. Not only does Nyokolodi utilise the City’s ‘TshWi-Fi’ service to broadcast his programme, he also takes Skype calls from listeners and maintains the station’s social media presence on the network.
  • Restaurant owners in proximity to a WiFi hotspot have been setting up shelters within signal range so that customers can access the web
  • these makeshift ‘Internet cafes’ have increased restaurant profits by as much as 80 percent
  • Internet has helped to streamline the process of care and diagnosis in South Africa’s clinics and medical facilities.
  • In its National Development Plan 2030, the government of South Africa states that it wants universally available Internet across the country in 14 years’ time. 
  • “The public hotspots become a place to bridge the digital divide, where regardless of personal circumstance or background, everyone has access to the same Internet,” Khan says.  
Goosen E

The Future of Education: BYOD in the Classroom | WIRED - 2 views

www.wired.com/...ducation-byod-in-the-classroom

CAT media education resources PAT technology

shared by Goosen E on 02 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • students bring and use their choice of technologically assistive devices in the classroom
  • No parent I know would argue for unrestricted, unmonitored online access for kids of any age
  • And these concerns are valid
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • Distractions of games and videos Unmonitored social networking leading to bullying or predation Consumption (and creation) of inappropriate content Social status and stigma of devices
  • Personal computing changed the nature of human life forever
  • The impact of these devices on the lives of adults and children of today is amazing but it is only the beginning
  • a wave of innovation in digital assistive devices
  • devices like Google Glass
  • people are never without their smartphone and rarely out of range of a network connection.
  • human condition is radically improved by the immediacy of information and social interconnectedness that these devices enable
  • smartphone has become a seamless compliment to my human brain. With my brain and my smartphone on, I am more powerful
  • addictive
  • We are all more powerful beings armed with our devices
  • Whose responsibility is it to teach responsible use?
  • important to teach children how to use their other technology “brains” as it is to teach them to use their physical brains
  • So how are teachers and administrators to cope with the risks of unfettered online access with the responsibility to teach students how to leverage this irreplaceable technology?
  • Seek tools to manage content
  • Put policy and technology in place
  • Surround the access points with security
  • Leverage the speed of these new technologies to discover and participate in experiments with pioneering institutions in the digital world.
  • how are parents to cope with the risks of unfettered online access at school
  • supporting your local school in their efforts with BYOD and technology initiatives
  • Associating technology with learning in the minds of our children
  • These are not JUST tools for playing games.
  • both physical books and ebooks
  • read to your children
  • sources of interaction like ebooks
  • devices can be used for knowledge consumption and knowledge contribution
  • Show them how you manage your work life and home life with the help of your own devices
  • etiquette for email and SMS in the same way that you discuss the polite ways to interact personally
Amy Mocke

Dislexic like me - 0 views

www.dyslexiclikeme.org/...laptops-word

shared by Amy Mocke on 14 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Amy Mocke on 14 Feb 13
     
    We have a large amount of dislexic learners in our school, this is very relevant to us.
Goosen E

Author Mark Bauerlein Says Tools of the Digital Age Distract Young People From Reading ... - 5 views

journalism.about.com/...ople-From-Reading-The-News.htm

shared by Goosen E on 04 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • people age 18-34 are consistently less knowledgeable about current events than their elders.
  • The survey found that the knowledge gap was widest on foreign affairs.
  • Bauerlein says young people are in the thrall of Facebook, texting and other digital distractions that keep them from learning about anything more meaningful than, say, who went with whom to the school dance.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • "What do 15-year-olds care about? They care about what all the other 15-year-olds are doing," Bauerlein says. "Anything that puts them in touch with one another they're going to use."
  • he says the digital age has changed something fundamental about the family structure, and the result is that young people are less closely under the guidance of adults than ever before.
  • Left unchecked, these developments could result in a new age dark of ignorance, Bauerlein warns, or as a blurb for his book puts it, "Sacrificing our future to the least curious and intellectual generation in national history."
  • "I give speeches to 18-year-old boys who don't read the paper and I say, 'You're in college and just met the girl of your dreams. She takes you home to meet her parents. Over the dinner table her father says something about Ronald Reagan, and you don't know who he was. Guess what? You just went down in their estimation and probably in your girlfriend's estimation as well. Is that what you want?'"
  • Bauerlein tells students that "reading the paper gives you more breadth of knowledge.
Goosen E

IN OUR EVERYDAY LIFE: Why must we read ? | Le Mauricien - 3 views

www.lemauricien.com/...ay-life-why-must-we-read%C2%A0

read why must I

shared by Goosen E on 10 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • it is material to underscore the role that a good book can play in the training and the development of an individual. I have tried to enumerate some of the reasons, there may be more, behind an intelligent and purposeful reading : 1)     Reading drives away our ignorance to make room for knowledge. 2)     Reading helps us build up a fuller personality. 3)     Reading makes us a complete citizen. 4)     Reading helps us to think and feel more fully. 5)     Reading helps us to visit many places and meet celebrities at second hand. 6)     Reading helps to build up our vocabulary for comprehension and expression. 7)     Reading is a stepping stone to writing. Writing means reading. Qui dit écriture, dit lecture. We must read to write. 8)     Reading provides us with a skeleton key with which we can open many doors. 9)     Reading is sine qua non to succeed at school. It is an integral part of the learning process. A reading child is an asset in class while an unreading one is a liability. 10)     Reading spares us from becoming a pawn on the chessboard of witty and intelligent persons. It is not easy to fool a man of wide reading. 11)     Reading broadens our minds with the pleasures of great literature. It opens new windows on the world. 12)     Reading helps us outgrow our opinions and ideas, and learn other people's points of view. 13)     Reading brings us far into the past, keeps us abreast with the present and prepares us for the future. 14)     Reading is the basis of a child's education and the enhancement of man. 15)     Reading helps to relieve the tedium of everyday life and kill the time.
  • “A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit.”
  • John Milton said
Goosen E

Good Work Foundation | 5 Great Learning Apps for Rural South Africa - 1 views

www.goodworkfoundation.org/ng-apps-for-rural-south-africa

CAT PAT research apps education

shared by Goosen E on 07 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • 5 Great Learning Apps for Rural South Africa Back
  • Apple claims that 80,000 of its apps are catergorised as “education.”
  • in July 2014 there were over three million apps available
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • one of the digital facilitator’s most important tasks is “app aggregation” – and that depends on age, academic level, language ability, etc.
  • Below are five apps that our digital facilitators used in 2014 at Hazyview Digital Learning Centre’s (HDLC) Open Learning Academy in rural South Africa for grade four learners.
  • The focus
  • is to “have as much fun as possible” but coming in a close second: dramatically improve English reading and comprehension, and basic mathematics numeracy
  • easiest for beginners to use, and the most useful in terms of content for our group of learners.
  • Scrabble (Electronic Arts)
  • Word Search (MichelAnge Workshop)
  • Math BINGO (Iuyen sg)
  • Sentence Builder Lite (BareBoneApps.com)
  • Open Learning Academies are built to empower rural people from a young age. The academies aim to deliver English literacy, math’s literacy, digital literacy, and life skills to school-aged learners.
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