Apple a day

The South African College of Music  [http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/sacm] at the University of Cape Town, have been at the forefront of using computer and related technology in their music studies. Although much of these have been done predominantly in the Windows platform, the desire was there to engage with Macintosh. Alistair Andrews and Paul Sedras head their technology  section.

These two lecturers just completed a beautiful Apple laboratory during September of 2008. This dovetails very well with the initiatives of the Western Cape Education Department. The college offers courses to their current students. The possibility of a future course for in-service educators is being considered in collaboration with the Khanya Project.

4 Apples

KHANYA is fast approaching the installation of the first 4 apple labs.

1. Grove Primary – The infrastructure has been completed. We are waiting on the balance of the ordered equipment.
2. South Peninsula High –  The worktops needed a little alteration. All network and electrical cabling wil be completed by 7 November 2008
3. Settlers High school - The infrastructure should be finished by 6 November 2008.
4. Schoonspruit High School-The infrastructure is complete. We are waiting on the delivery of the equipment

Using the iPadtoo?

Using the iPad in a reading project at Bernadino Heights Secondary sparked the interest of other schools. The 16 students selected for the reading club were exposed to reading and writing skills every Monday afternoon.

They can review a setwork book, send emails and effortless search the Web for and extrapolate information and was exposed to blogging.

The shift in procurement procedures by WCED delayed the purchase of the 12 iPads for the school. The school population eagerly awaits the approval of the funding which will allow these devices to be introduced to the Language classes but also to different learning fields that are offered by the school.

The Arts and Culture Focus School in Wynberg wants to leapfrog this exciting project.
The principal, Mr. Daniel Jones plans to create a multi media centre and include the latest Apple technology. Learners will be able to listen to music, view educational movies and harvest information from the Web using Mac mini computers. His iPad section will allow educators to ‘rent’ these devices and use them in their classes on a daily basis.

Across curricular groups will be able to have group discussions in a section of the room.
The iAfrica movie club of learners at the school will also have their blue corner.

The use of the iPad will have a pertinent presence in the Music, Dance, Visual Art and Graphic Design and Drama classes….. and the lives of all who learn … You iPad too?

iPad meets the Reading Club

15 Bernadino Heights learners attended the first Reader’s Club meeting on Monday 30 April 2011.
The Khanya District coordinator and the Language educators supported this historic event in Room 95.

Two learners who wish to pursue a career in journalism joined the group of Grades 8-11 members of the newly formed Reading club. We shared a schedule of activities to guide us through the term.

The Khanya Project programme manager, Kobus van Wyk, will meet the group and share Blogging tips with them. This is the official start of the iPad Pilot Reading Club. We will select a Chair next week.

Curriculum Touch iPod in Moorreesburg

TODAY: 25 may 2011 at 14h30, The iPod Touch pilot project in the West coast Education District gained momentum at a special planning session in Moorreesburg. I met with, from left to right : Gail Ahrends [Khanya District coordinator] , Louisa Engelbert [Curriculum Advisor] , Aletta Beatrix [Principal and Multigrade educator at Skilpadvlei, Carolien van Jaarsveld [Multigrade educator at Koranrug Primary School and Rika Vitti [Curriculum Advisor].

Although the iPod will be introduced to the grades 1-3 learners in the Multigrade class, the Grade 3 learner group will be the Primary focus for the Pilot Project. After introducing all present to the different technologies of Apple Gail steered the discussion in the direction of Learning in the classroom using the mobile device.

The Curriculum advisory colleagues excitedly identified a number of areas where the device can be an excellent learning tool. They pointed to the drill and practice benefits of personal learning within reading and Numeracy.

Sanity dictated that we narrow the activities down to the areas where the learners struggled with during the systemic evaluation. Less is more was a guiding principle.

The educators will identify certain activities that will embrace their scheduled planning for next term. They will share these with their respective curriculum support structures who in turn will brief the Khanya development team. We will then design or source activities that aid the consolidation and enhance the learning experiences that were taught in the class.

Collectively we agreed to and are excited to start next term. By that time the hardware and applications will be at the school. All stakeholders will have enjoyed the look and feel of the technologies. Truly I can say: :Curriculum Touched the iPod in Moorreesburg.

iPad stimulates reading in School

TODAY, 24 May 20011, the Language Educators of Bernadino Heights Secondary School committed themselves to testing the iPad2 device in a reading Pilot project. 3 Educators, [S. Cupido, M. Rhoda and A. Jefftha] volunteered to champion the project and spearhead the initiative.

We decided to select the following learners for a special reading club:

1. 4 learners per grade which comprises of 2 per language [Afrikaans and English]
2. We will Focus on Grades 8-11
3. Several learners expressed interest in Journalism for future studies. These will also be considered
4. These learners will be introduced to the Project on Monday 30 May 2011.

A series of workshops and training sessions will be conducted on Monday afternoons. Book reviews, Blogging, Interviews and Reporting are some of the areas that will be covered initially. An online magazine is considered to be a long term goal.

All the Language educators will be involved. Eventually the iPad will be introduced into the reading lessons as part of group activities. This is real pioneer work for all of us and we welcome your suggestions and comments.

i and the Pad2

A full demonstration of the iPad2 elicited ooh’s and ah’s from the staff of Bernadino Heights Secondary School.
Alan Goldberg, Educational Director of Digicape and his assistant Meagon Arendse demonstrated the virtues of this device at 14h22 on Thursday 5 May 2011. Thus was born the Pilot project for testing this device. Geoff Figaji, Curriculum Head of District North, agreed with my suggestion and acknowledged the support of his LitNum coordinator.

The school started a reading strategy 4 years ago with their grade 8 and 9 learners. The goal was to develop an improved reading student for FET. Additionally all learners are taught 20 new words every week and write a spelling test on Fridays. The school receives a quota of the daily newspaper. Every Friday a learner is identified to read an article to the entire school via the intercom system.

Khanya wants to support the drive to read by using the iPad. My suggestion is that we start a reading club in the school. Learners from across the grades audition to be taken up in this club. 2 learners from every grade will be selected. They will be tasked to read all the Setwork books in all languages. Their book reviews, as blogs or epub documents, will be posted on the school server/website. All language educators will encourage their learners to read the reviews and comment on the blogs. The technology will be set up to allow learners to download the reviews on their mobile phones.

The club will then broaden their reading [newspapers, tutorials, magazines and assignments across the curriculum spectrum, etc] under the guidance of the project champions and continue to post their reviews. They will also engage in other forms of reading and continually to develop a reading resource in the school.

The different language educators will be trained to use the iPad in their reading lessons. All of the above is to enthuse and engender a reading culture within the school. The District curriculum staff will support and monitor the project. They will be responsible to track the development of the reading culture.

The Pilot project starts during June 2011.

The Apple Khart

Dear Friends

Please allow me to render a status report with a short history. The Khanya Apple Pilot Project started 2 years ago and had the strategic goal to compare Apple technology in schools with other known technology platforms. The comparison would look at 3 Outcomes:
1. The Total Cost of Ownership
2. To what extent can Literacy and Numeracy in Primary Schools be improved by making the curriculum delivery and learning more exciting and creative.
3. Can learners be honed in the Music and Graphic Design Special learning fields to be either job ready when they leave grade 12 or have higher levels of skills and knowledge to enter tertiary studies.

To achieve the above we selected a number of Primary Schools and engaged the Arts and Culture Focus schools. The 3 Primary Schools received an X Serve [Apple server] and Mac books for Grade 4 learners to travel for 3 years along with the class to Grade 6. This start was successful but led us to develop a different approach and the establishing of the AIAB [Apple in a Box] model.

The Design classes received 5 iMacs and Adobe software and the Music classes received 5 iMacs and Sibelius and Cubase software along with Midi keyboards and related hardware.

To date all educators and learners have been orientated and trained in Apple technology. The high schools educators received the appropriate software training relevant to the subject character. The Curriculum planners and advisers were part of the processes to date and all have similar hardware. They undertook to drive the curriculum processes henceforth.

The Primary schools recently met to discuss the integration process and decided to each do a photo book as a project for assessment for this term. The GET adviser has been invited to participate in this process as part of a sustainability handover session.

We are also establishing a maintenance and support Service level Agreement for theses schools. This will be effected during this school term.

All of the above structures and processes must be handed over to the Department officials to maintain and develop when the Khanya Project grinds to a halt at the end of March 2012. I refer you to the blog post of the Khanya programme manager, Kobus van Wyk. http://www.e4africa.co.za/?p=3577 with the caption : ‘Interview with Ms Penny Vinjevold….”

WE are now at the threshold of researching the value of Apple technology in education. An iPod Touch pilot and iPad pilot is under way to determine the additional value of mobile technology too.

[inter]grate the Apples

TODAY : 14 April 2011 the educators of the 6 Khanya Apple Primary schools gathered to discuss how to integrate the technology into the learning processes of the grade 4 classes.

York Road Primary hosted the workshop attended by educators from Amstelhof, Cypress, Starling, Alicedale and Turfhall Primary Schools. The Grove Primary and Paarl Boys Primary Schools’ educators did not attend.

Ntsiki [Khanya facilitator] discussed the proposed project for the term. The proposal included an activity for each week of the term. The activities are linked to learning outcomes and assessment standards. The grade 4 learners will produce a Photobook related to the learning during the term. These will be screened at a session later in the term.

An IcanAnimate competition is planned in partnership with Digicape Claremont.

iPod Touch the Westcoast

2011: 14 February. Today we started the Pilot project with the new iPod Touch device. The Multigrade Primary school can be found on the road from Malmesbury to Hopefield.

The 41 learners of 2 classes [Grade 1,2,3 and Grade 4,5,6] at Holvlei Primary School enthusiastically gather around any vehicle that stops in a cloud of dust on their reddish clay playground.

This is where Khanya will research the impact this mobile technology can have on learning. Yes to enhance learning by means of the new iPod Touch will be our aim with the 7 Grade 3 learners

The Manager of Circuit 2 looking after amongst others Multigrade Institutions, Sanet van Niekerk, and her curriculum advisor assigned to these schools are very excited about these prospects. They will direct us through the pedagogy and processes in teaching and learning Literacy and Numeracy in a class of 11 Grade ONE, 5 Grade TWO and 7 Grade THREE learners.

We will research how to manage the deployment and employment of different technologies within the classroom.
All learners, the principal and the other lady educator will be trained and guided to effectively engage the iPod technology across the entire school with special focus on Grade 3.

To do this we will:

1. Do a baseline test
2. Create exercises and content to dovetail with the educator planning
3. Set monitoring tools in place over a 3 months period and
4. Allow an assessment task to measure the impact we made to learning of Languages and Mathematics.
5. Start the Integration from 1 April 2011.

Learners will have the fine opportunity to take the device home and along with their parents complete ‘homework’ exercises. This will recreate the Learning partnership between Parent, Learner and School.

Dr. Pierre Boonzaaier [Curriculum Head] supports this initiative wholeheartedly. Mr. Joseph Rhodes, the Khanya Facilitator will support the school under the watchful eye of Me. Gail Ahrends, the Khanya District coordinator of the Westcoast region.

The learners had a brief encounter with the iPod. Their eyes and smiles fanned our excitement even more.

Koranrug Primary school will be included in this initiative. This school has the same learner spread.

All learners come from the neighboring farms. Chas Ahrends: cahrends@telkomsa.net : 0837044766

ANIMAZING Khanya Session

At 08h26 on 13 December 2010 we ‘appletised’ the Khanya staff. After the Programme leader, Kobus van Wyk, addressed the facilitator staff complement we introduced them to Apple technology.

Alan Goldberg, Education Director of Project 3 and Digi Cape and his two assistants, Saskia and Paul set up a number of i-macs and Mac Books in Studio 1 of the training venue in Kuilsriver, Cape Town.

Alan introduced us to the iLife Suite and then started the iCanAnimate workshop. We viewed an animation video how ‘Earl saves the World’ compiled by learners in the UK.
The discussion by their educators afterwards helped us to see the value of group work using iCanAnimate.

The different District teams then were guided to put together a storyboard around the theme: Global warming. Project 3 provided pictures, coloring pencils and a pair of scissors for each team. Soon the room was abuzz with collaboration, discussion, planning, strategic orientation and technical poise.

After 90 minutes the Khanya staff understood that Apple technology lends itself to a wealth of innovative and creative excitement.
Some teams wanted to export to iMovie to add narration, text and other features.

A special offer to purchase rounded off this adventurous session that introduced the 3-day workshop of the Khanya Project District teams.

Sincere appreciation is again expressed to Alan and his staff for the preparation, presentation and support.

Your views re: the session and Apple in general will stimulate our thinking even further in the use of this technology platform in education.

KHANYA Staff to be Appletised

Alan Goldberg and his assistants from PROJECT 3 will conduct another iCanAnimate workshop on 13 December 2010. This time the Khanya staff will be divided into groups and enjoy an animation session. This will double as an awareness session of The APPLE Pilot Project.