Fifteen schools in Mpumalanga will soon benefit from an e-learning initiative, which will enable the learning institutions to share maths and science lessons.
The project is a partnership between the Ligbron Academy of Technology, in Ermelo, and the Mpumalanga Department of Education. The participating schools will connect wirelessly to conferencing software to share their lessons with the Ligbron academy, which has 920 pupils.
The e-learning initiative will see the connection of Smart interactive whiteboards, each with an LCD screen, and a digital camera connected to the computer showing the image of teachers from linked schools.
The project, which was announced in 2008, planned to connect a further 17 schools by March 2010, but this has been reduced to 15. Pilot sites were already set up during 2008 in three disadvantaged schools within the Mpumalanga area: Camden Combined School, Umzimvelo Combined School, and Ermelo Combined School.
Spokesman for the Mpumalanga education department Jasper Zwane says the 15 schools would be introduced before the end of the 2009/10 financial year.
“The project has proven most successful in bridging the urban-rural digital divide and a positive attitude has been created. Being able to share quality teaching among the geographically dispersed classrooms has had a marked improvement in the quality of lesson content and teaching methodology,” notes Frans Kalp, technology teacher and project manager.
Kalp adds that teachers would be trained in computer literacy, teaching them how to use the interactive whiteboards and educational software.
While declining to give an exact budget for the project, Zwane notes funding for the project is through a public participation process where the department matches, on a rand to rand basis, contributions from the private sector. He adds that the fund is under the management of the Mpumalanga Education Development Fund.
Department co-ordinator for the Ligbron e-Learning Project, Dr Harduza Martiz, says rural pupils would greatly benefit from the project.
“An added advantage for the rural schools is that pupils can ask questions of more than one teacher. This enriches their learning experience.”
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