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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.

"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."

"Sweet Search is a search engine that searches only the sites that have been reviewed and approved by a team of librarians, teachers, and research experts. In all there are 35,000 websites that have been reviewed and approved by Sweet Search. In addition to the general search engine, Sweet Search offers five niche search engines. The niche search engines are for Social Studies, Biographies, SweetSites (organized by grade and subject area), School Librarians, and Sweet Search 4 Me (for elementary school students)."

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.

It's no secret that today's wired learners have better technology in their back pockets than they're offered at school. It's also clear that students are much more inclined to engage these devices than take in the sage-on-the-stage teaching models of yesteryear. So why aren't we making use of the technologies our students actually enjoy

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.

Discover ideas for instruction that innovative districts have developed to better leverage the increasing number of laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and smart phones that students carry. This webinar explores the latest findings from Speak Up surveys given to K-12 students, teachers and administrators regarding their views on mobile devices within instruction.

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....????? ;-)

"Our investigations have shown that social software tools support a variety of ways of learning: sharing of resources (eg bookmarks, photographs), collaborative learning, problem-based and inquiry-based learning, reflective learning, and peer-to-peer learning. Students gain transferable skills of team working, online collaboration, negotiation, and communication, individual and group reflection, and managing digital identities."

"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"

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

TeachOut harnesses the experience and expertise of UCT students to provide academic assistance to high school learners in Cape Town's disadvantaged communities. TeachOut is a remarkable opportunity for both the tutored and the tutors and plays an important role in educating the youth of this nation.

"Great presentation about social software in education! With case-study and data form students opinons! "

"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"

Acceptable use kits for schools | Primary and Secondary School Internet and Mobile Acceptable Use Kit | Consent for publication forms | Student images, privacy and copyright | Website currency and quality assurance checklist | Parent/Guardian consent for using a student's work | Copyright frequently asked questions |

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

Digital Literacy version 2 teaches generic ICT skills and concepts, and features screen shots and simulations from Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system to illustrate and provide hands-on examples for students. The original version of Digital Literacy uses screen shots and simulations from Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Microsoft Office 2003.

FREE worksheets, worksheet creators, printables wizard and on-line teaching materials makers with images from Tools for Educators.com. Use these printout generators, game makers, and programs for teachers to make and print teaching resources with pictures or text. They are simple, but beautiful, versatile and powerful. I hope your students (and you) enjoy the resources.

"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? "

South African vice-chancellors warned the government to expect more students to drop out, following the shocking results of pilot national benchmark tests.