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MS honours tech-savvy teachersby Staff writer, April 4, 2:07 pm
Microsoft’s Mteto Nyati with the winners of the Microsoft Partners in Learning awards.
Four teachers from across the country have been selected to represent SA at the annual Microsoft Partners in Learning awards regional finals, in Morocco, in July. The announcement was made at an event in Durban.
The awards aim to stimulate the use of technology in schools, enhance teaching and learning, and give teachers an opportunity to share their ideas andprojects with their peers, both locally and internationally.
Out of 19 finalists, the teachers who took top honours were: Caroline Adelaar, from St Mary’s School, in Johannesburg; Maxwell Funo, from Mkhanyiseli Primary, in Cape Town; Gaye Pieterse, from Durban Girl’s High; and Charli Wiggill, from Eden College, in KwaZulu-Natal.
Winning projects encouraged learners to tell stories with digital mediums, find solutions to rehabilitate local polluted areas, collect data on how trees grow, and create educational toys and games for the blind.
Eden College’s Braille Memory Game/Toys for the Blind and St Mary’s School’s Trees4Africa projects collaborated with other schools to widen the reach of their project results. The projects were placed first and second, respectively, in the ‘extending learning beyond the classroom’ category. St Mary’s School also received first place in the ‘cutting edge use of Microsoft technology for learning’ category. Funo said he was delighted with the results delivered by his pollution impact project, Our Community, Our Pride. He explained that the project started when it was noted that an increasing number of learners at Mkhanyiseli Primary started developing infected wounds from playing in polluted areas. Funo says children are now able to make a real difference to the safety of their communities because their suggestions on how to tackle pollution are escalated to local municipalities and the City of Cape Town. This project took first place in the ‘collaboration’ and ‘innovation in challenging context’ categories.
Microsoft SA MD Mteto Nyati said a Microsoft-commissioned Innovative Teaching and Learning Research (ITL) study in 2011 showed that innovative teaching practices will flourish when supportive conditions are in place such as peer support, the sharing of ideas and a common vision among teachers to offer relevant, innovative and learner-centric teaching methods.
Nyati says the quality of entries demonstrates that the slightest change in how teachers use the technology tools they already have, such as laptops or cellphones, can impact the way they teach and how students learn.
The winners received prizes ranging from laptops to interactive whiteboards. All finalists received subscriptions to Encyclopaedia Britannica.
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