KHANYA MEED Skills Transfer Session 2

MEED Officials enjoyed a Skills Transfer session on Khanya Learner and Teacher support material in Literacy material Alfie and K-ZONE. The activities are available in three languages English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. The activities accommodate diverse levels of learning in a colourful learner friendly environment. Activities are linked to Learning outcomes and Assessment standards. These activities should be link to classroom practise to support learners resourcefully in difficult concepts. Meed GET Adviser's agreed that such activities are extremely valuable to learner development.

Skills Transfer Program Session 1

Eighteen MEED Officials attended the Khanya Skills transfer program that commenced on the 18th of March 2011. The sessions will be available every alternative Friday till the 31st October 2011.

Officials were hands-on all the time navigating the Khanya learning teaching educational support activities, linked to the current NCS curriculum. It was a sessions of excessive brain power and loads of laughter to accomplish activities in GET Maths, FET Maths and Science. This is only the start and already officials find the program very valuable to support our learners indefinitely in resourceful curriculum delivery.

The next sessions will be on the 15 May 2011 and will address the navigation of the Khanya Literacy educational software activities. The sessions will be conducted in three phases, Basic, Intermediate and Advance features of various educational software programs. At the end each Curriculum official should understand how ICT plays an important role with-in educators daily effective lesson planning, empowering and accommodating diverse learners. Most educators at the schools are already implementing resourceful Curriculum delivery, resulting in the improvement of the Lit/Num and Science results.

Thank you to the Khanya facilitators presenting:- FET Maths Faeeza Faroa, GET Maths FP - Siki Notshe, ISP - Sipho Didiza and Steward Blick, Science - Mark Carollisen.

BELLVILLE NORTH PRIMARY – SNA TRAINING

Bellville North Primary is the latest addition to the list of Khanya East schools, who received computer technology. We could see how proud Mr. Gerrit Nel and his staff are of having a state of the art computer lab. During our visit the school had an open day for the Grade 1 learners and their parents. Parents where shown the computer lab where their little ones will be equipped for the future. The integration of ICT with the curriculum was stressed as parents moved through the lab.

Mark Carolissen gave SNA training to Mr. Julian Heesen, working through the different facets of being a School Network Administrator. Virtual server, Backups, registration of users, troubleshooting and networking – Julian could absorb a lot of information and start implementing his newly acquired skills because of his own technical experience.

SNA training is very important as this is for most of our schools first line of defense against technical problems. The SNA is expected to do maintenance and troubleshooting of the network and to give support to educators in the beginning. SNA’s often have to work after school hours in the lab as they still have their normal duties as educators and very seldom are given time for their lab administration.

So here is a big thank you to all the SNA’s (LAN) who is doing a brilliant job and seldom receive a word of appreciation for the hard work behind the scenes.

Spot the difference with Geogebra

Spot the difference between the first and second pictures.

In Picture 1 Faeeza, the maths facilitator, jumps into action when asked about drawing pictures in Word. Quickly she opened Geogebra and drew the graphs the teachers requested. Afterward, she imported them to Word.

In Picture 2 Ms Mnisi, maths educator later followed Faeeza's example and drew the shapes she wanted. This was a good example of the instructor being modeled by the students. The maths HOD, Mr Fass and a Maths literacy educator were impressed with the outcome. These images (graphs and shapes) will now take the place of cutting and pasting (with a pair of scissors and glue). "What about using this with the Interactive Whiteboard?" Mr Fass asked. Not a problem!

Keep up the good work Chris Hani Maths educators!

Big plans for Malibu

It did not take long for Malibu Secondary to use their newly installed lab. Sporting new computers with flat screens, the school is excited about installing new technology so that educators and learners can benefit educationally. Learners were already registered to the Maths software. A group of grade tens visited the lab doing some financial maths problems on their own. Mr Wyngaardt, the Maths and Science teacher kept a watchful eye as the learners worked through the Master Maths material.

Science software must still be installed so that the room is optimally used by mainly Maths and Science learners. It seems as if the school has big, big plans. Other hardware is waiting to be installed so that the school is an example of ICT is used in teaching.

Khanya ICT support photo Album

KHANYA/MEED - presented Electronic Whiteboard Curriculum intergrated sessions to MEED officials.

Kleinvlei Secondary is boasting with a new CAT Lab

The staff of Kleinvlei Secondary took the initiative to look for sponsorships to make their dream come true and could manage to get Standard Bank on board who paint the room, put in some blinds, did the infrastructure and even organize that they could have an air conditioner in the room.
Mr Bezuidenhoudt is very excited about this venture, because now he can teach CAT by using a data projector to show the learners exactly what to do and where to click on their computers.

Mr du Toit, Physical Science and Mathematics educator is using the EIAWB. He mentioned how he enjoys the technology to enhance the curriculum. Every morning it is the responsibility of a learner to connect the equipment in the EIAWB room. What a wonderful way to empower our learners.

Well done to Kleinvlei for their efforts in making a dream come true and to the Mathematics team for using the technology at their school.

Faeeza Farao

Isikhokelo Primary takes part in CAMI Speedtest Challenge Competition

Isikhokelo Primary has taken an initiative to motivate learners in Maths. The school decided to participate in the CAMI Speedtest Challenge Competition which was open to any school to partake. The initiative was spearheaded by Maths educators at the school. Internally, the school started by identifying 10 learners per grade from grade 4 to grade 7. Learners with highest Performance Indicator ( PI) were chosen for semi-finals. The internal competition has yielded good results as two learners were identified to represent the school in the CAMI Speedtest Challenge finals to be held in Garden Route Mall, George on the 08 October 2010. The two learners are Thandokazi Hlwele ( Grade 6) and Odwa Mateyisi ( Grade 7). Ms B. Kwazayo (Maths educator) indicated that this initiative aimed to motivate love of Mathematics in all learners at their school in so much that prizes will be awarded to first three learners who had highest Performance Indicator(PI) among 10 learners initially chosen in each grade.

EIAWB + Data Projector cable issue - 180x

Due to the DAILY attachment operation between a data projector cable and the laptop, things will go wrong and bend ! The "heavy" black data cable also can contribute to the following set of photos. A quick calculation is that in one week the cable get plugged in 5x; in a month 20x times and in a year more than 180x !!! Question is : "Will in last these thin needle poined copper pins ?

Strike! while the iron is hot

Kwamfundo High school took every opportunity to get in as must tutoring and revision as possible. Here grade 11 learners are being put through their paces. "We must get these learners to learn as much as possible. Now!" Ms Gungqisa, maths HOD says. "We must strike while the iron is hot" is her belief. Throwing everything at the learners that she can muster, she feels that ICT can still help the learner to improve their understanding of difficult concepts.


At Zola, the maths software was reinstalled. Mr Matwa did not wait for anybody else and lead by example. He registered his grade 12 mathematical literacy learners and got them to work immediately. From here the maths programme was extended to his classroom where he will teach with it using a data projector. The rest of the mathematics educators will undergo more training to become more effective users of this resources in their classroom.

The GIS educator at Chris Hani is an avid user of ICT in her lessons. Most of the time she uses her Interactive Whitboard. This time she brought he class to the lab to use the GIS software. Opening up maps of South Africa, she got learners to navigate to the relevant information that they required to complete their task on various aspects of the South African socio-economic conditions.

At Malibu, a different type of excitement is evident. Mr Wyngaardt managed to get the Starboard working again. Being a man of persistance, he does not give up easily when something does not work. "I want this thing to work today still. " he told the Life Sciences Educator. While Mr Esbe was taking weaker learners through their paces with the maths software, Mr Wyngaard remarked how the Applets on Electrodynamics and Diffraction will work on this board.

Are we now starting to see a conversion from traditional teaching methods such as chalk-and-talk sage-on-stage to more interactive e-learning experiences? I think so, but it is a very slow process.

ICT - WHAT'S THE POINT?

ICT across the curriculum - is a key aim for all schools. The use of ICT in the classroom is not an optional extra; it SHOULD BE a National Curriculum requirement.

ICT - Information Communication Technology - is the technical term given to the use of computers in education. The 'Communication' part is a fairly recent addition to take account of the connected nature of the Internet.

As teachers, ICT can bring enormous benefits to the class. From an educational aspect, the use of computers brings dynamism to lessons, putting pupils more in control of their learning, permitting independent progress and development. If used effectively, ICT can be an incredible tool for every single subject. From the pupils' aspect, the response can be seen immediately.

Whilst such keenness is a welcome benefit, if pupils are entering a lesson with such a positive attitude the learning potential is already increased. The interactive nature of computers allows pupils to become more involved, permitting effective and active learning

Yet it is vital to see ICT as another tool available for the teacher - it is not the answer for everything. ICT should be used in combination with more traditional teaching techniques. Similarly the chosen ICT activity is also vital - just sitting a child in front of a PC and expecting them to teach themselves is useless.

INTERACTIVITY - effective use of ICT in the classroom makes pupils feel they are in control. Not of the class, but in terms of independent learning. They can see the results of CAMI and KHANYA LTSM immediately in front of them.

SUITABILITY - see ICT as another additional tool available to you - yet an interactive and dynamic tool. With sensible use, the educational benefits are immense.

BACKUP PLAN - always have something just in case things go wrong. A paper based activity that can be given out. Problems are bound to occur if you don't plan.

Brooklands Primary still on the go!

Brooklands Primary school learners are using CAMI Maths SpeedTest to sharpen their Mental skills. This Mental skills activity was followed by basic operations acivity in CAMI Maths ( Keystrokes: 1.3.8.3; 1.4.6.1). The educators and learners of Brooklands Primary have been using the lab to its fullest potential for a number of years now. The Principal ( Mrs H. Links) is very much involved with implementation of curriclum integration in the lab through her diligent ICT committee led by Mr Earl Norman. Educators at this school feel that they are ready to embrace any new technology or software available on the market. They boldly yearn for Electronic InterActive Whiteboard to use it for Literacy and Numeracy consolidation activities.

Interactive Whiteboard is an ideal tool for teaching at schools

Our world is changing, and information and communication technology (ICT) is central
to this change. These advances in ICT have dramatically changed the learning and teaching process, and have expanded new learning opportunities and access to educational resources
beyond those traditionally available.

Researchers have concluded that ICT has become one of the main building blocks worldwide as it permeates the business environment, underpins the success of modern corporations, and provides governments with an efficient infrastructure. ICT is viewed as a tool bringing dramatically changes in organisations and departments. The introduction of ICT to our schools has created new possibilities for learners and educators to engage in new ways of information selection, gathering and teaching.

Educators in Khayelitsha seem to agree with the above statements as they embraced the new technologies at their schools. Educators are showing the variety of activities that can be done using the Interactive Whiteboards. Technology is not there at schools to replace nor threaten educators but it is seen as one of the tools/resources to enhance teaching and learning.