Group items tagged

In education, it should not be about technology, but rather about how we can expand access to study and how we can improve support to our students in a way that will at least give them a fair opportunity at success.

How can distance learning become more student-centred? Dr Mpine Elizabeth Makoe, University of South Africa (UNISA), has been preoccupied with this question for several years. In a long-term study she conducted, she found that isolated students have a need for informal support that is often neglected in distance education. This has led her to investigate on how MXit, a popular South African instant messaging system, can help to fill the gap and drive collaborative eLearning in an attractive, age-appropriate manner.

Wouldn't you like to be an expert? To intuitively know the right answers? Enter the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition, which shines a light on how we develop and master skills, helping us understand how we progress from novice to expert, including all the steps in between.

"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."

The safety of the self-contained classroom, one separated (by walls and firewalls) from the rest of the world - the world we are supposed to prepare our students for - goes against everything that surrounds young people today and prevents them from learning how to navigate the complex online world

The Internet is a useful and important part of our daily lives. Many can't remember how we handled even the most mundane tasks without online assistance. How did we even survive when we were kids? :-) However, along with the good, there is bad. Children and teens (but not their parents!) are very well versed in using the Internet, including web pages, blogs, uploading and downloading information, music and photos, etc. They are also trusting. This presentation will give an overview of the Internet and the inherent dangers. Learn the realities and dangers of ``virtual communities'' websites your kids frequent like Xanga.com, MySpace.com and FaceBook.com. Learn about the persistence of information on the net and Google hacking. Learn the differences between a wiki, blog, Instant Messaging, text messaging, and chat. Learn the Internet slang, key warning signs, and tips for Parents and Kids. This talk is for anyone who has a child, who knows a child, or who ever was a child!

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

A visual tutorial on how to block chat rooms on mxit

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!)

"This guide avoids some of the obvious things, like using Google Docs for collaborative writing, and instead focuses on some of the lesser-used Google tools options like publishing an online quiz using Google Docs. In all there are 33 pages containing 21 ideas and how to instructions for creating Google Maps placemarks, directions creating and publishing a quiz with Google Docs forms, directions for embedding books into your blog, and visual aids for accessing other Google tools."

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.

Driven by centralised state processes, externally mandated and regulated, the restructuring of teacher education curriculum and institutions in South Africa has radically changed the teacher education landscape. How universities mediate, contest and resist the resulting pressures has differed, according to their historical legacy, their specific trajectories of restructuring, and their leadership dynamics. This monograph traces the micro-level responses of teacher educators at five universities experiencing the impact of the restructuring processes with varying degrees of intensity, and selected as representative of the system as a whole. The analysis reveals distinct patterns of recurriculation, ranging from bureaucratic compliance to creating academic coherence between contrasting legacies. What becomes clear is the need for teacher education academics to grasp the challenges and opportunities to assert their power over shaping curriculum processes that will produce competent, confident teachers.

Social bookmarking how to + Pam's video

Maggie's personal journey of how, where and when to use web 2.0 tools in support of teaching and learning. Basic ICT tutorials for teachers as well.

The practice of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in the education of adults seeks to affirm and accredit the knowledge and skills which they have already attained in the course of their working lives. This monograph explores the implementation of RPL in a programme designed to upgrade tens of thousands of under-qualified teachers and finds a baffling dilemma: how does one value prior learning which one believes to be misguided, outdated, or inappropriate?

The international experience on schooling reform provides a compelling set of ideas about how to get South Africa's struggling schooling system moving in the right direction

What is happening with this initiative. Who have received laptops already. How is this working for you?

Teachmeets are a cool way to be introduced to new tools and how they can be used in the classroom

My post on making things a bit more easy for yourself using social media in your workday to share and store resources

A detailed set of instructions of how to use nimbuzz in the classroom as well as why we should use it!