Social media is changing the way in which learning takes place, according to Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies.
Speaking at this year's ICT in the Classroom Conference, hosted by SchoolsNet and Intel at St John's College this week, Hart singled out Twitter as one of the most powerful tools being used by teachers.
However, while Hart's Top 100 Tools for Learning poll found Twitter to be the favoured education tool for three successive years, last year research by Fuseware found only 55 000 people in SA are active Twitter users (at least one tweet in the recorded month).
This is just over 0.1% of the population, based on the most recent population census by Statistics SA.
ICT in SA classrooms
Peter Henning, director of technology at St John's College, said teachers in SA face a number of ICT challenges.
According to Henning, the high cost of bandwidth is one of the main challenges that schools in SA face. He added that service provider usage caps were low and schools experienced traffic delays when trying to access international sites.
Schools also face service disruptions because telcos do not prioritise the poor and rural areas, said Henning.
Compounding these problems, he added, criminals target schools for their computer labs and cables.
Tech-savvy teachers
Teaching is not about one approach or one solution, but many.
So said John Davitt, an educationist, in his keynote address ahead of the Microsoft Partners in Learning Innovative Teacher Forum Awards. He added that variation in the way lessons are carried out in a class kept pupils interested.
The awards recognised teachers who used technology in innovative ways to improve education.
Ryan Galvin, Wessel Theron, Lyneth Grighton, Natalie Meerholz, Loiuse Clark and Kim Jackson were selected as the overall winners and will represent SA in the Europe, Africa and Middle East leg of the competition.
Galvin, from St Nicholas Diocesan School, Pietermaritzburg, was awarded fifth place. His 'R and J in R and B' encouraged Grade 10 learners to retell Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet using Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker.
His pupils made use of iPods, MP3s and digital cameras, as well as Twitter and YouTube, to make movies.
Theron's (Bishops Diocesan College, Cape Town), 'School of Rock' project was awarded fourth place. For this project, Theron's pupils had to create a music video for an Afrikaans song, matching images to the lyrics of the song. The videos were uploaded on YouTube.
The third place was awarded to Crighton's (Brescia House School, Bryanston, Gauteng) 'DigiGirlz puzzle IT out' project. This project saw Grade 10 pupils discover Alan Paton's 'Cry the Beloved Country' using Web 2.0 collaborative tools. Pupils participated in an online discussion and created a pod-cast.
'E-Waste Away' saw Meerholz (Holy Rosary School, Edenvale, Gauteng) awarded second place. Her project encouraged pupils to tackle e-waste. Pupils created posters to promote awareness and used e-waste to make sculpture. Holy Rosary has set up an e-waste bin to encourage responsible disposal of e-waste.
Louise Clark and Kim Jackson (St Cyprian's School, Cape Town, Western Cape) were awarded first place for their 'Tollbooth Movie Maker' project.
This project saw Grade 4 learners predict the outcome of Norton Juster's 'The Phantom Tollbooth' based on the first chapter. Learners used Windows Movie Maker to narrate their endings.
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