As matriculants across SA gear up for their final examinations, free-to-air digital satellite television platform OpenView HD has thrown its weight behind interactive e-learning as its aligns some of its content to provide an additional revision solution for students.
OpenView joins the likes of Google SA - which recently launched its "virtual field trips" - as well as the Western Cape education department's Interactive Telematics Teaching Programme, which have both used ICT to create an interactive learning experience between different locations.
While the satellite service runs a number of educational channels, including MindsetTV, its content will cover curriculum elements which are examinable, in a bid to improve the prospects for around 550 127 full-time matric candidates and 138 533 part-time students.
Mathematics and science will be emphasised in the revision programmes, while the Department of Basic Education notes examinations will begin on 27 October.
JP Bosman, head of ICT teaching and learning at Stellenbosch University, says the use of technology in classrooms can be beneficial if aligned with the support and teacher expertise to use it. "More importantly, if the technology can lead to more transformative and creative approaches to learning and teaching ? especially from a teacher perspective ? it should be welcomed."
Rural schools focus
While the Western Cape's interactive TV project started in a bid to improve the prospects of underperforming schools, OpenView's initial foray was focused on schools in rural areas.
In July, it announced a programme to provide big-screen TV sets and decoders to schools in partnership with the Department of Communications, and chose around 20 schools in the Eastern Cape and Free State as the first participants.
Another interactive platform to emerge recently comes from AlternaTV - a local Internet-based TV channel. The company recently introduced its smartphone app, as well as subscription-free access to its new mathematics tutorial show Mathspod. The pre-recorded content aims to assist matriculants with different aspects of the maths syllabus, while the content becomes available on video-sharing platforms as soon as it is done.
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