ICT 4 Champions

This blog will no longer be maintained

2009-03-23T15:38:00.002+02:00

As I was using this blog to try out all the blogging platforms, I will no longer be posting here. For all my new posts, tutorials and bookmarks regarding ICT in education, please visit www.school2.co.za

School2.0

2008-03-11T10:27:00.002+02:00

In my effort to find the perfect blogging tool to capture all my learnings on web 2.0, I have settled on Edublogs, for a number of reasons...

Firstly it is totally dedicated to learning and teaching
It provides a facility whereby you can create dedicated pages. This is a nice feature if you want to create content that has to stay as learning objects.
It has tons of widget features and quite a lot of different themes

Cons:

It can be realy slow at times

You will find my School2.0 blog here

Video and maths literacy

2007-10-17T10:39:00.000+02:00

Maths literacy absolutely lends itself to using all the wonderful free web 2 tools that are available. How about using a cellphone to create a videocast of what your learners are doing in the classroom. Or better still, let them create their own videos of what they are doing. They can create mini tutorials and for peer assesment, they can draw up a set of criteria and the class can critique the video (content) according to specific brainstormed criteria. Here is a little sample from a classroom.....

New paradigms

2007-10-09T15:08:00.000+02:00

I am currently attending the K12 online conference. It is a free conference, conducted entirely online. Just the idea of listening to, and chatting to, and sharing with other teachers right across the globe, without moving my backside off my couch, or spending a load of money to get to a conference....is just such a thrill!

It deals with the new world that is facing education today...

"For decades, education has been an easy institution to define. It consisted of a set of accepted literacy skills, a definable body of knowledge, and the pedagogies for teaching those skills to willing students who were arranged in straight rows. Today, for the first time in decades (in generations of teachers), we are facing the challenge of changing our notions about teaching and learning to adapt to a rapidly changing world. We are struggling to rethink what it is to be educated, to reinvent the classroom, and redefine what it is to be a teacher and a student. There is much that has changed, and for much of it, we have responded to by attempting to ignore, filter, or to block it out." (http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=144)

Here in South Africa we are currently at the beginning of the line (or is it the back of the line) as far as equipping our learners for the challenges that their future may hold. Boundaries are disappearing globally and Web 2.0 and mobile phones (think Facebook, Mxit and Twitter) are creating communities that connects people and learning experiences and networks....and our learners have to be part of that if they want to "cut it" in their future employment world. In our country we are faced with a digital divide not only between the "have" and the "have-not's", but also between connected learners and their teachers who are using antiquated old world teaching methodologies to "impart" knowledge on their learners who are now used to collaboratively "mine" and share knowledge within a social networking system that we are blissfully unaware of or even worse.... ignoring.....or even worse still.....condemming.

I am writing this blog entry as I am listening to David Warlick keynote address that I have downloaded. It is great as I can stop the playback to collect my thoughts and find synergies for my experiences. I have even used a great new little tool to take "snapshots" (Mp3mymp3) of his talk that have special resonance for me. He said that "the problem is when they [our learners] enter our classrooms, we chop those tentacles off ...[meaning their social online, cell networking identities].. because we want our children to be the students we want to teach, rather than teaching the children that they are and this is an insult to our children" he also pointed out how information has changed and calls for a new kind of literacy for our children...So instead of just being passive consumers of what we have to "teach" them and then subsequently memorising and absorbing that information, they now must also know how to find, evaluate and use information as well as interpret that information. This requires a whole new set of literacy skills. Are we equipping our learners for that???

I spoke to an old colleague of mine last night who is a maths teacher and she assured me that I do not have a clue what a war zone classrooms are nowadays. When I asked her if she has implemented the new OBE principles in her classroom, she remarked that if she were to do "group work" she would have chaos in her class...which made me think...maybe we have the wrong group work paradigm in place. Maybe group work should be for the learners to get together in their favourite online social networking space to achieve whatever goal we set for them...just maybe they would jump to that....

So I did a little experiment on my son today. Instead of nagging him to do his daily geometry rider, by printing it out, giving it to him, asking him after a while if he has done it...reminding him to do it...reminding him again (as what would normally happen) I just added it to a little Facebook application called Homework apps and send him an invite to do it (a feature build into the application) He had it done within 10 minutes and instead of scanning his answer and posting it back to me, he chose to "talk me through his answer" using Skype. Amazing. So, the point is, if we use the tools that constitutes their world, then maybe we will reach them effortlessly, instead of fighting the good old fight in the classrooms....??

Easymaths New site: Relaunch

2007-08-22T12:00:00.000+02:00

The new, database driven community maths site, Easymaths, has finally been published at http://www.easymaths.co.za/ in its first cut format. Which means that you will be able to see it "grow" and help with the development and troubleshoot process. The site is portal site where you can upload and download maths rescources as well as engage in a maths community of your choice, where you can share experiences and knowledge, learn how to incorporate computers into your maths/maths lit classes and generally "chill out" in a mathematical way. As this is a community site that has been developed with volunteer energy, we have decided to make everybody part of this process. This will mean that you, as the user, will have insight into how it is structured and will be able to make sure that the site works for you. The Department of Education has made it possible for the site to be incorporated into the national Thutong portal, which means that it will run on the powerful databases of the portal. But we will also be able to keep our independance and structure the site the way we want it...which is cool :-)But we need your help!!!As this is a community website, we need the input and the assistance of the community as a whole to maintain the site and make it a better resource for everybody. Volunteering your time will be invaluable to us! The following assistance is needed:

Editing of pages: Even if you edit 1 page for content accuracy and language it will make our site more accurate for everybody.
We need volunteers to help with ongoing tagging of material according to learning outcomes and assessment standards.
We need volunteers to add resources to our databases
We need administrative assistance for general office responsibilities like phoning teachers and schools and a help desk.
We need teachers to volunteer their time on a rotation basis to assist with learner queries.
............

To become part of this development process, please go to our development area, where we have created a blog where you can keep track of our progress and report problems that you are experiencing.

Please Share!!

To make this site a truely community based resource....we need lots of resources!! You can share anything relating to mathematics and mathematics teaching, from jokes to more serious stuff, events, lessonplans, test and exams.... You need to have registered with either the Thutong site or the Easymaths site before you will be able to make use of the upload facility:

Register with Easymaths (Your Thutong username and password will work for Easymaths as well)
Upload a resource

YouTube as an educational tool: New Math

2007-07-25T20:32:00.001+02:00

I am thinking of using Youtube (www.YouTube.com) as a tool for teaching and learning. So before I grab my video camera, or point my cellphone video at anything, never mind anything educational, let us first look at what others have been coming up with…. So, of course, the first thing is to search for videos on my favourite educational topics.

Mathematics. I am impressed, quite a few offerings here and quite amusing too. They will make great ice breakers at workshops or in the classroom. For instance, the video snippet, New Math, by Tom Lehre (performed by RonfarZ3) explains that New Math is all about understanding what you doing rather than getting the right answer…. So feel free to watch the video and share your understanding of New Math….

Lost knowledge

2007-07-15T09:08:00.000+02:00

I am currently busy updating my Easymaths community to be in line with the new curriculum, as it is going to be re-launched soon in its new improved database driven format (courtesy of the DoE). I was testing some of the outside links to local content when I stumbled across a black hole...I had to hang on with all my might not to be sucked in and disappear forever.....

Okay, maybe a bit melodramatic, but that is exactly how I felt. Over the years I have been keeping track of local knowledge making its way onto the internet. And here I am specifically referring to content and resources for maths teachers and learners. Now as we all know, there are not a lot of local content available for free use in our country, the reasons of which I am only too fully aware. Spending time to create local content is not only time consuming but also costly. And I for one had to on various occasions leave my "hobby" of content creation and caring for my Easymaths community website, to do a "day job" to pay the bills.

But what I don't understand is stunning resources disappearing from the local radar for no apparent reason? One such an example is the Learning channel. They provide support material for their learning broadcasts on SABC TV. The friendly faces of their broadcast educators have entertained and taught us for years. Now here is the snag. Over the years they have made really good resources available for consumption from their website. But with regular intervals, the resources are removed to be replaced with other content, sometimes not as great as the previous versions. So what happened to the old resources? I know that we are now implementing our new curriculum, but that does not mean that we have to throw away all the "old stuff". As a matter of fact, it provides us with an opportunity to make a transition. How can we transform the old into the new...(for example) Are we saying that the old knowledge is no longer relevant at all? Or should it be relegated to the black hole of lost knowledge?

So before I get sucked away into a far off obscure galaxy of irrelevancy, let me make a simple plea to all content providers. Please provide a space for “outdated /past resources” in a “retirement estate of knowledge” (or archive), where it can be accessible to collectors of knowledge, lifelong learners and internet wonderers like me. Please.

More Mxit bad press

2007-06-27T08:40:00.000+02:00

I am trying to keep tabs on the Mxit debate and have just read this article: "MXit to launch educational drive" It is good to see that Mxit is countering by addressing the aspect of educating children and their parents. I, for one, agree that it is all about education....

Mobi - world first for mobile maths education

2007-06-15T12:53:00.000+02:00

News release:

South African technology and training company IT School Innovation has launched a unique educational tool for mobile devices, MOBI™, which allows users to chat, listen to the latest music hits and learn mathematics – turning mobile phones into edutainment devices.

“Although the underlying technology provides the foundation for rolling-out mobile education programmes on just about any topic to any location for any organisation or community – the initial focus is on mobile mathematics (MOBI Maths) for grades 10 to 12, specifically tailored for the South African mathematics curriculum, says IT School Innovation’s CEO, Lieb Liebenberg.

“To our knowledge this is the first time anyone has launched a mobile edutainment application of this scope,” Liebenberg continues. “It’s not surprising this kind of technology and associated application would be developed in South Africa - where the use of mobile handsets is widespread and bandwidth adequate and affordable in comparison to fixed line options,” he says. “Almost everyone has a handset in South Africa – and the opportunities for education are immense,” he continues.

Looking specifically at the education side, MOBI currently offers both mathematics education in the form of a five section structured educational approach and secure private chat rooms for learners to communicate with their friends. This is an ideal platform for cooperative learning events, or just socializing. Content preparation for other subjects like Physics and Chemistry is in progress.

MOBI, which has been developed to run on most handsets, can be downloaded and installed for free. Once installed, the application is able to connect to an online server via a mobile wireless protocol such as 3G or GPRS and provides access to MOBI maths, MOBI Chat and MOBI Radio. MOBI maths provides learners with various options to access content, the easiest of which is the ‘Quick find’ option where learners submit a search term and are provided with the available content in one or more of the following modes: “Basics, Theory, Examples” and “Exercises”.

“Although full use of Mobi Math is charged at a nominal monthly fee, access to some sections of Mobi maths content such as ‘Basic Skills’ section is free,” says IT School Innovation’s Marketing Director, Kathy Kendall. “We are acutely aware of the fact that extra tutoring is expensive, so we developed MOBI with affordability in mind,” she says.

For Grade 10-12 learners, the first stage of the application, Mobi Assessor runs the leaner through various mathematics questions in order to determine their proficiency in the subject and to establish their stage in the national curriculum. Once the learner has been assessed the Mobi application can automatically lead the learner to areas of maths where they are weakest – or run them through their whole curriculum for revision. Tutorials take the form of streamed videos and examples aimed at explaining precisely different maths concepts and tutorials for maths skills development.

The “Basic Skills” section is aimed at filling gaps in a learner’s maths knowledge from previous years, and will also prove valuable to Grade 8-9 learners, whereas the “Theory” section focusses on grade-specific background knowledge, complimented by the “Example” section.

The idea behind the “Exercise” section is that learners first try to solve the problems posted there for themselves, before accessing the solutions offered. The “Exercise” section is in essence a preparation for tests and exams and allows learners to evaluate the depth of their knowledge.

Of particular interest to Matric learners will be the “Previous Papers” section, which contains complete solutions – with theoretical background – to the matric papers of 2004, 2005 and 2006.

“Mobi is not designed to replace a teacher and classroom, but rather to enhance classroom learning by providing learners with affordable, anywhere, anytime access to mathematics instruction. It is ideally positioned to assist learners in a homework environment as a tutor to assist in the understanding of maths concepts and as a revision tool during test and exam seasons,” says Kendall.

English and Afrikaans versions of the Mobi application are available for download free of charge at www.mymobi.co.za/download. It can also be accessed from a PC at www.mymobi.co.za.

Contact Information
For more information please contact:

J (Lieb) Liebenberg, CEO
Tel: +27 12 8072045
Cell: +27 82 564 9668

Kathy Kendall, Marketing Director
Tel: +27 12 8072045
Cell: +27 83 388 2210

Email: info@itschools.co.za

Cellphones in Education

2007-06-06T10:59:00.000+02:00

There has been a lot of controversy around the use of cellphones in schools lately. Quite a few local newspapers have printed Patricia De Lille’s call on Government to “urgently implemen(t) legislation that will regulate MXIT and Internet blogging, where members of the public can with impunity slander and defame individuals and organisations they do not like. (See article) There has also been the negative publicity around young people being lured into undesirable situations through the use of technology as was the case of a 16-year old girl being abducted by a 33-year old man she met in a MXit chatroom.(See article) We also have teachers complaining about the disruptive influence of cellphones in the classroom situation with some schools even implementing policy banning cellphones. (See article “Exasperated principals prepare for lock down”). Parents and teachers also feel that cellphones constitutes a safety hazard as far as it can put learners at risk to be mugged.

So by all accounts cellphones can be a really bad thing. Not only does it constitute physical and emotional danger for our learners it can also play a big role in driving teachers insane! So what do we do? Do we create policy banning cellphones? Do we confiscate cellphones at schools? This has proven ineffective as learners are prepared to take the risk. So what do we do?

A fact that we cannot ignore is that our learners love their cellphones. It is part of their identity and their social interaction with the world around them. They can even operate them in their pockets while gazing up at their teachers quite intelligently. So to ban it, “policise” it, confiscate it….is NOT going to help. So why don’t we rather embrace the technology and sneakily use it for……duh bro.. learning and teaching.

Various efforts are currently being innitiated to see if we can do this sneaky thing. At Cornwall Hill College cellphones are being used actively in the classrooms. In a collaborative project with the Maraka Institute, a cellphone interface was developed whereby the learners could access an online encyclopedia (Wikipedia) during classes to assist them in completing assignments. They are also creating their own online wikis using their cellphones as well as videos of what they are learning.

Another project that is very popular is Dr Maths on Mxit. This new support system for high school students uses the popular Mxit system to give one to one maths help. The learner hooks onto Dr Maths on Mxit and can then text questions and receive support that could assist them with problems that they are experiencing. Dr Math has had to call in more help to cope with the demand as learners are quite happy to use their favourite tool to help them with their maths. This just proves to me that we need to catch a wake up and “get with the programme” instead of banishing a possibly very useful learning tool.

Sure, the dangers still remain, but let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Pedophiles and muggers are part of our society whether we want them to be or not. So let us rather educate our children on safety issues across the board and teach them to take responsibility for their online /oncell behaviour. Some help on how to achieve this can be found at http://onlinesafety.org.za A guide for parents on the safe use of Mxit can be found here: http://www.cornwall.co.za/docs/Articles/ParentsGuide2MXit.pdf

So I would like to know about how teachers (our ICT champions) are using cellphones in their classrooms?

ICT champions please step forward!

2007-05-24T12:38:00.000+02:00

I somehow got thrown into the deep end of workshopping, by having to incorporate Web 2 as a platform for teaching and learning in two very different settings. I had to do my yearly workshop for CRAFT on "How NGO's can establish an effective web presence" as well as an impromptu workshop on 'How schools and teachers can use Web 2 as a teaching and learning tool" Even though I have been dabbling with online communities of practice as part of my masters thesis, I had to scramble to do some research on what exactly Web 2 is as well as what tools are available, and then had to package it into a comprehensible learning unit to deliver to the workshop participants. It proved to be an almost impossible task. How do you fit all the tools and philosophies about Web 2 into a one day workshop? You can't. Teachers and NGO members have no time. None at all. So they want all the knowledge and skills transferred in record time via a download (Matrix style) from me to them. Oh Yes...and we all originate from the pre OBE learning era where learning happened passively via osmosis from teacher to the poor empty vessel learners. So I was doomed from the start.

As I am a social constructivist learner, it STRUCK me that this new Web 2 thingie can be a perfect way to learn. My travel through the readings on Blogs, Wiki's, podcasts, feeds etc made me realise that all of these tools holds great promise for teaching and learning and that I can make it part of my workshopping, or as I call it, my advocacy for the use of ICT in education and development. So at each of the workshops I created a support group. My hope is that we will use the groups for keeping contact and for structured and informal learning experiences.

Which brings me to the Champions for ICT issue. In our little country where access to computers, never mind Connectivity, is still a Biggie, we are only just starting to cope with e-mail let alone Wiki's, blogs, feeds and all the other web 2 goodies. So we need champions for ICT to get this ball on the roll. If we look at all the possible uses that Web 2 can provide, the mind boggles....buuuut, people are scared of technology. They are walking around with BLUETEETH not knowing how to use it. So I say...go out there and BITE ME!!!

Anybody can be a ICT champion. I have been inspired by many out there and am now trying to carry the torch forth. The stunning thing about Web 2 is that you do not need to have a great deal of techie knowledge, all that is asked for is a willingness to learn and try and support others in their learning an knowledge quest.

The role of online communities.
What role can online communities play in our country? I have been lurking in many global communities and are astounded at the willingness of people to share their knowledge and expertise with each other. But my experience so far in my own communities is that we are still very shy to share (s2s). Sticking our neck out is practically a NO-NO. Okay, I understand that the technological barriers are real, but if we can see over the brink at what we could gain by sharing and reflecting, surely we will do anything in our power to step over the threshold? So I implore champions for ICT to step forward and help us out.

As I believe in walking the talk I have created 3 communities. (please stop me now...):

Online CoP for mathematical literacy teachers
I created this group in Yahoo and the biggest obstacle for teachers is the registration process. It is currently over a 100 members strong, but I am still struggling to get the teachers to share more that just basic information and resources. ML is a brand new subject with lots of issues (will blog about that later) and when teachers talk to me f2f, i get a sense of their desperation and in some cases excitement. But when I ask them to share their experiences online, they totally bolt. The community can be found at http://www.mathsliteracy.co.za/. It is a members only group as we share exam papers and test for comment. To join you have to have a legit interest in ML (teacher, material developer, government official)

NGO's and their websites
NGO's have been trying to get online for a long time now and are facing many obstacles in doing so. They either get ripped off by greedy web designers that promise them the earth or have their website done by a volunteer that run out of steam and disappear into thin air along with their website. Web 2, I feel, can give them back the POWER to control their online presence and help them to create a community for their cause without having to fork out a cent! The community for NGO's is a members only one so that we can augment our f2f workshop online, but any NGO member can join to learn and share, and it is visible to all. http://groups.google.com/group/web2npo

ICT-4-Champions
This group was developed as part of a workshop at a conference. The idea is to learn how to…web2, in a structured but informal way. So if you are a champion for ICT, prepared to learn, share and support ICT in teaching and learning then go and join at http://groups.google.co.za/group/ict-4-champions/