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I really have to smile at this article. I have been begging teachers to take note and "get with the programme", but instead they responded with a call to ban cellphones. Hallooo! It is not going to stop the cheating and as the report state it does not just include cellphones, it includes the internet as well. Shall we also just ban the internet too? I can understand that the students do not view it as cheating, they feel that they are actually being innovative (if not creative) and it is their teachers problem if they are not bringing technology into the equation. I think we should think about the way we assess.... I need to go blog about this.....;-)

I really have to smile at this article. I have been begging teachers to take note and "get with the programme", but instead they responded with a call to ban cellphones. Hallooo! It is not going to stop the cheating and as the report state it does not just include cellphones, it includes the internet as well. Shall we also just ban the internet too? I can understand that the students do not view it as cheating, they feel that they are actually being innovative (if not creative) and it is their teachers problem if they are not bringing technology into the equation. I think we should think about the way we assess.... I need to go blog about this.....or maybe I should just go and plagarise someones post- which will be more fun....????? ;-)

"iTALC is a use- and powerful didactical tool for teachers. It lets you view and control other computers in your network in several ways. It supports Linux and Windows 2000/XP and it even can be used transparently in mixed environments!"

Internationally and locally, there is growing emphasis on the importance of effective school management and leadership in contributing to good student achievement outcomes. 'Instructional leadership' has become a key concept in the research literature, reflecting an attempt to better understand the relationship between school leadership, curriculum and instructional matters, and student achievement. Managing to Learn is the first study of its kind in South Africa, considering these issues. The research reported in this monograph provides an extensive review of the literature around the management of curriculum and instruction, a framework and methodology for the research, and the empirical findings from the study. Through a series of regression analyses, the study presents those management factors identified across a wide range of schools as most crucial to improved performance of students. It brings greater clarity to the somewhat undifferentiated view of school management currently, and a sharper focus on its importance in relation to how students learn.

What is it how does it work and how to set it up

Numeric is interested in finding ways to increase access to and usability of Khan Academy in South Africa. If you've never heard of Khan Academy, it is an outstanding online learning tool primarily targeted at school level mathematics. You can read more here, or check out their website directly at www.khanacademy.org. But we're not only talking about accessibility and usability, we're putting our money where our mouth is and taking it into the field ourselves! Numeric is piloting Khan Academy in township and rural areas in the Eastern and Western Cape, translating the videos into Xhosa, and providing useful tools for teachers and learners to make this resource more user friendly.

You can't swing a stick in social media without hitting something on Facebook. Same goes for education. You can't talk about how technology is revolutionizing education without mentioning Facebook. It's a simple service to figure out but what about once you become a regular user? If you're a teacher, you would be well served by spending 3 minutes to read through this must-have guide. (We timed it out and it's a bit under 3 minutes. It's almost summertime, you can spare it for us!)

TeachITza - resource website for IT educators and learners in South Africa. The focus of this website is on general resources and programming as done using Borland Delphi. Any comments or suggestions on improving the site are more than welcome.

"I often joke that the really good students do well "despite my teaching"… While I am not dead serious when saying it, there is a certain amount of discomfort in me when saying it. This begs the question whether our education system produce winners? "

"The Committee commenced its public hearings into the challenges in access to and delivery of quality education in South Africa. This would lead to a report being tabled by the Committee to assist the Department in its planning around education issues. "

"Our current technological trajectory promises unfathomable, roller-coaster innovation with no braking system. While the ride is exciting, it moves so quickly that we typically don't have time to think about the possible unintended consequences that might accompany it. The result is that we find ourselves unable to effectively respond to hot-button issues like cyberbullying and sexting because they seem to come out of nowhere."

Plak is 100% free of charge. It is a Google Maps Web application for South Africans to locate places of interest (Hopefully it'll also become a useful resource for tourists planing trips to South Africa). It also allows those who are logged in, to place Plaks on the map of South Africa.

Gadget-crazy pupils have a new learning tool - the cellphone. It has become more than a device to communicate with; it has been turned into a learning hub, with maths problems and literature now being made available on the social networking platform MXit.

"The Low Achievement Trap is an empirical study of student mathematics learning in Grade 6 classrooms that is unique in its focus on two school systems shaped by different political histories on either side of the Botswana-South Africa border. The study provides a detailed examination of the capacity of teachers - how they teach, how much they teach, and what they teach. Because of this wealth of detail, The Low Achievement Trap gives us much greater insight than previous research into why students seem to be making larger gains in the classrooms of South Eastern Botswana than in those of North West Province, South Africa. Rather than identifying a single major factor to explain this difference, the study finds that a composite of inter-related variables revolving around teachers' mathematics knowledge and their capacity to teach mathematics are crucial to improving education in both regions. The message is a hopeful one: good teachers can make a difference in student learning."

"We have just completed our course on writing and now we are waiting for stories suitable for Grade 3 students around Africa to read to be submitted from teachers around the country who have completed the course. WE hope that many of them will get their classes to write as well all in time for the launch of the African Storybook Project website in July. If you would like to contribute a story, please consider it"

Thandulwazi derives from the isiZulu, meaning "the love of learning". The Thandulwazi Maths and Science Academy, is an education programme run by the St Stithians Foundation. It was established in 2006 out of the need for effective action in addressing the critical issues pertaining to the teaching of Maths and Science in schools in and around Gauteng

Information and communication technologies have enabled the desegregation of the three core components (or clusters) in teaching and learning in higher education : content (access to and apprenticeship to disciplinary knowledge, content creation) ;interaction (between peers, between students and academic experts through pedagogy, feedback and engagement) ; and accreditation (summative evaluation and certification).   Not only are these now all digitally mediated, they are also increasingly open in various permutations, through for example open content and MOOCs (massive open online courses which provide free access to whole courses for anyone with online access). This session will describe current trends and focus on the questions and implications for UCT with its twin imperatives of global prestige and benchmarking, and local development and redress imperatives

The Department of Basic Education briefed Members on its Second Quarterly Performance Report from 1 July 2011 to 30 September 2011; on the progress on delivery of infrastructure development for technical schools; and on the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign.

"The OpenEducationDisc focuses solely on meeting educational needs of students of all ages. Software has been chosen to address specific IT needs across a wide range of subject areas. The contents of the disc therefore differ from the OpenDisc and are listed"

It does not include any reference to social networks or the use of web 2.0 tools and has been developed for use in Khanya schools.

a good powerpoint summarising the main point of 2st century learning and libraries role in accommodating it