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Schools receive nearly 1 Million rand in prizes and incentives

On Friday 31 September, Alexei du Bois, a teacher at Rondebosch Boys’ Preparatory School received a brand new Kia Rio 1.4 worth R165,000 in what became the culmination of the EvaluNet GetAhead “Win A Car” Competition. EvaluNet, a Cape Town-based educational software developer, ran an exciting competition with 101 schools across the country earlier this [...]

Education department welcomes Metcalfe’s report

Written by Nthambeleni Gabara The Department of Education has welcomed the report compiled by Professor Mary Metcalf into the delivery of textbooks to Limpopo schools. It says that the report adequately captures the complexities of the Section 100 (1)(b) intervention in that province and the difficulties experience by national government in terms of the provision [...]

Cell-phones in classrooms: Convince me

I am not oblivious to the technological advancements that are available to be used in classrooms, in fact I have been to a very inspiring and interesting EdTechConf (Education Technology Conference), but am still not convinced that it is currently implementable in ALL classrooms in South Africa. I find that teachers and administrators who so vigorously promote ICT for the classroom, generally come from rich schools who can afford to install interactive-whiteboards and data-video projectors in every classroom, who have up-to-date computer labs, where teachers have all been given laptops by the school, where iPads are available for learners to use, and where learners all have the latest cell-phones and have their own computers and internet access at home. So, what about those of us who teach in the poorer schools?

Facebook for pre-teens?

“I don’t think this is such a good idea. I think that 13′s and above are having a hard enough time around some of the pressures of Facebook,” argues, MIT Psychologist, Sherry Turkle, and author of Alone Together. Facebook is reportedly mulling a decision to permit children under 13-years-old to join. Mark Zuckerberg, himself, has broached the subject, “my philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age.”

Google Apps for Education: The Next Step in Classroom Learning

Used by more than 16 million teachers and students, Google Apps for Education appear to be the current standard technology used for instruction and learning. Private and public schools cite successful case studies on the applications’ website that range from elementary schools and secondary schools to colleges and universities on a worldwide basis. Administrators adore it for freeing up their IT departments to do more than troubleshoot, teachers love its flexibility of use and students appreciate not having one more piece of old-fashioned paper to retain without loss.