Learners, teachers and parents who are interested in using technology to assist in their learning and teaching should take special note of the happenings in late 2010 and early 2011. I have been involved in technology and education for a number of years but I have never been as excited as I am now, over a real, viable, affordable, world class, current, technological solution for our education woes in South Africa. Read on …
Have you heard of Sal Khan, a senior hedge fund analyst who has become a teacher? Almost single handed he is revolutionising education in the USA through his approach to teaching. He has uploaded more than 2 200 videos onto YouTube, focusing mainly on Mathematics, but also on other subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology and more. His channel is the most popular education channel on YouTube – more popular than MIT. Scores of people have testified what a difference he has made in their lives. After Sal Khan’s speech at TED in March 2011, Bill Gates said “Ladies and gentleman I think you’ve just seen a glimpse of the future of education.”
In 2010 Khan received R15 million from Google in recognition for the impact the Khan Academy has made on education in the world. He has used this money to implement his concept of teaching by combining it with state of the art programming to create a free online education platform. At any given time there is an average of 3 000 people active on his site, www.khanacademy.org. When you visit the site, you quickly find out why. The platform and the resources are improving and expanding on an almost daily basis.
Good news for us in South Africa, where bandwidth is expensive, slow and unavailable to many, is that (as from 2 March 2011) there is also an offline version available for download (approx. 50MB). This is an almost exact copy of the online platform and can be installed on single computers or network servers. The video playlists can also be downloaded to create a complete educational package. These resources may be copied and spread freely under a Creative Commons license.
Imagine what an impact this could have on education in South Africa. Download it, try it out and spread the word! The future of education is now.
Microsoft OneNote is truly a killer app for both teachers and students alike. It is a relatively new application and is, as far as I know, one of a kind. Its closest relative is the word processor. However, once you start using OneNote, word processing applications take on the appearance of an overweight dinosaur. I am a promoter of free OpenSource software but this is one instance where there is no pretender to the throne. I unashamedly endorse this Microsoft product.
Virtualisation (the Americans spell it Virtualization) is one of the most exciting recent developments
opening up many opportunities in the server field. Often good innovations are out of reach of most people.
Not so with virtualisation. There is strong competition in this field. VMware, one of the front runners in this field, has made some of its products freely available to retain its market share. Do not for a moment entertain the thought that because it
is free it is somehow second grade software - not in the least. They are the market leaders but they are not the only players. Microsoft has included free virtualisation in Microsoft Server 2008 and there are a number of other vendors as well.
Accredited Suppliers for Teacher Laptop Initiative
Written by Administrator
Monday, 25 January 2010
(From www.elrc.org.za the website of the Educator Labour Relations Council)
The Teacher Laptop Initiative, spearheaded by the Department of Basic Education (DoBE), addresses South Africa’s need for a quality education system and forms part of the cohesive plan by the DoE and other stakeholders in education to improve the overall quality of education by making resources available to learners and educators in the public education sector.
It is soon back to school for educators. Educators make an early start this year on 11 January 2010. Learners from all schools (coastal and inland) start on 13 January.
Here are two versions of the 2010 school calendar:
The Teacher Laptop Initiative is due to be rolled out in practice, although theoretically speaking it was supposed to have been launched in July 2009. This will probably only start happening in the new financial year which begins in April 2010.
Learners, teachers and parents who are interested in using technology to assist in their learning and teaching should take special note of the happenings in late 2010 and early 2011. I have been involved in technology and education for a number of years but I have never been as excited as I am now, over a real, viable, affordable, world class, current, technological solution for our education woes in South Africa. Read on …