I do not know who Mathew is, or even how old he is, but judged by some pictures that he posted he can not be older than twelve. Yet, he is writing about his experiences and sharing interesting information.
Do yourself a favour and visit this site. He uses pictures about the area (I noted one of the Tower of Pisa), includes some video clips and even has an illustrated explanation of how he and his father were making salami.
How can this blog help us? I believe there are three ways:
1 It shows us how easy it is to blog if a child can do it, you can do it!
2 Imagine what the blog does for the creative development and writing ability of Mathew. And then think what it could do for our learners, if they were encouraged to blog likewise.
3 Even if learners do not have blogs of their own, by following a blog of this nature, and interacting with it by means of comments, it would certainly broaden their view of the world and stimulate their communication skills.
What do you think: any possibility of us learning from this example?
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It is a well-documented fact that HIV/AIDS is having a serious impact on the teaching profession in South Africa. An estimated 21% of teachers between the ages of 25 and 34 are living with HIV in this country.
The HIV epidemic poses a risk to education: it prevents teachers from teaching, thwarts the learning process and may even result in malfunctioning schools.
When teachers fall ill, they take increasing periods of time off work. After their death they can be replaced, but while they are living with the disease, and the frequency and length of the periods of absence are increasing, they can not be substituted.
When teachers are not there to teach, classes are left untaught in most cases. Someone may supervise the class perhaps a mother or another community member but no real teaching takes place.
Could technology be used to fill this gap?
Imagine a school that owns a suite of networked computers with appropriate educational software. When the teacher is not available for teaching, another person even if not qualified to teach could take the class into the computer facility so that at least some learning may take place. Many excellent software packages are available that lend themselves to this mode of learning.
Video recordings on a variety of topics are also available. When a teacher is not there to teach, these recordings could be used to provide some form of tuition. With the use of such material and projection facilities, a large group of learners could be taught at the same time.
Electronic tuition is not as good as the real thing, but it is much better than no teaching at all.
Could this work?
Why is ICT not used more often to fill the gap?
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For some time now I have been lamenting the fact that too many ICT facilities in our schools are unused (see the posting with the heading A dog in the manger ). This is an important aspect of sustainability: how can one ensure that technology installed today will still be used for its intended purpose in a years time?
The bad news is that the situation is really bad too many teachers are not making use of available technology.
The good news is that some teachers are performing miracles with their ICT resources.
The amazing news is that this is not just a local problem; it seems as if, around the world, there are barriers that prevent teachers from using ICT resources for teaching and making them available for learning.
Please consider a list of 12 reasons that come from another part of the globe.
How many of these reasons apply in South Africa? Are there any reasons that you could add that are relevant to the local situation?
Once the true barriers are identified, the next step would be for us to develop strategies to remove them.
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On 12 July 2008 Olive Riley passed away at the age of 108.
What makes Olive even more remarkable than her longevity is the fact she was blogging until a few days before she died.
Olive had 73 posts on her blog. She even made her way onto YouTube .
Do you still feel too old to learn to use a computer?
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With the development and global spread of technology the question is raised: is this sustainable? This is a multi-faceted question and includes many aspects of the term "sustainable development". This phrase is used in books and newspapers; are debated on TV and in parliaments and conferences around the world; it is also becoming a popular theme for novels and movies (for example, An Inconvenient Truth ).
The most popular definition of the concept sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
This is a complex dilemma and affects different industries, countries, cultures and interest groups in different ways. How does this issue affect ICT in education?
When the possibility of using technology for teaching and learning is presented to government departments and prospective donors for funding, one of the first questions is: how sustainable would this be? In line with the definition given above, the question is really: if we spend money now, what guarantee is there that the investment will bear fruit in the future? There is a fear that a capital injection now may disappear into a bottomless pit, without benefits later.
This fear is not unfounded: ICT in schools has a sad history of lost opportunities. Technology facilities that are established at great cost often fall into disuse in a short space of time.
The issue of sustainable development as it pertains to ICT in education has very specific angles that one must consider:
Financial sustainability : How does one sustain the current investment financially where would funds come from to repair, replace, maintain and grow the current facility?
Technical sustainability : How could one ensure that the required technical skills are available to ensure that the facility will be kept running?
Operational sustainability : In which ways could one ensure that the facility will continue to be used for its intended purpose in the years ahead?
Ecological sustainability : What impact does the introduction of technology have on the ecology? How can one make sure that it would not impact negatively on the broader environment?
These are issues that merit our urgent attention. Over the next weeks I will post some ideas related to the matter of sustainability; I invite you to share your concerns, suggestions and insights. It is important that, while doing a laudable work of enhancing teaching and learning, we do so in a responsible way.
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