Education goes digital
In modernising public education and responding to new educational imperatives for quality learning, the province will work towards introducing smart paperless classrooms to ensure that all learners and teachers have progressive access to broadband and innovative learning and teaching tools which will enable learners to meaningfully participate in the economies of the future.
“We are ready to respond to the call made by Congress of South African Students of ‘One Learner One tablet in our lifetime’,” says Phumla Sekhonyane, spokesperson for the Gauteng Department of Education.
She adds that as a starting point, 21 schools have been identified to participate in the pilot programme of classroom of the future.
Five schools have been identified for development as model schools for the integration of technology in teaching and learning. The department will work with private sector partners to model smart classrooms. The new design will promote the use of ICT in the classroom to support the delivery of learning content.
“The department has begun to design model schools of the future with smart classrooms to create and promote interactive learning in class.
“We conducted a province wide ICT audit to identify the nature of resources and intervention required in schools to support the use of ICT to attain effective teaching and learning,” says Sekhonyane.
She says based on these findings and the e-learning strategy, they will develop a fully costed business case to secure the necessary resources for successful rollout.
Currently, the department is working with various public sector and private sector role-players to secure connectivity at the classroom level to support the use of ICT in schools in Gauteng in this five-year term.
“We are on the verge of concluding similar agreements with other municipalities; this will ensure that all learners in the province have access to wealth of information relating to their curriculum needs through the use of ICT.”
The Ekurhuleni metro will map their 400km broadband infrastructure and indicate which schools can have such access.
The Department has conducted orientation training for all staff members on the e-Learning Solution Programme in some of the six schools prioritised for the modelling of the classroom of the future.
Through training, teachers have been encouraged to utilise the GDE e-Learning Portal during the teaching and learning process.
The department has registered learners in the GDE e-Learning portal to enable them to participate actively in the learning process and the acquisition of information.
