How children search the internet using keyword interfaces

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 26 Feb, 2009

Paper on study how how children search the Internet using keyword interfaces in the home. 

From the abstract: 

Children are among the most frequent users of the Internet, yet searching and browsing the web can present many challenges. Studies over the past two decades on how children search were conducted with finite and pre-determined content found in CD-ROM applications, online digital libraries, and web directories. However, with the current popularity of the open Internet and keyword-based interfaces for searching it, more critical analysis of the challenges children face today is needed. This paper presents the findings of our initial study to understand how children ages 7, 9, and 11 search the Internet using keyword interfaces in the home. Our research has revealed that although today’s children have been exposed to computers for most of their lives, spelling, typing, query formulation, and deciphering results are all still potential barriers to finding the information they need.

Post in Primary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Free Educational Videos for Kids (Beta-site)

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 11 Dec, 2008

WatchKnow, a non-profit, online community has set up a website to collect, create and share free educational videos for kids.   It is now available for beta-testing. 

Recent videos posted include a Wind-Generator Demonstration,  Boiling Stones Generator, a rendition of "That's Mathematics"   to Kindergarten sight words.    Worth exploring!   There were links to other useful sites and lessons plans.  

Post in General, Primary Education, Maths and Science, Teaching Resources, Secondary Education, Early Childhood Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Good web sites for children

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 14 Nov, 2008

Looking for good, trustworthy, commendable web sites for children?  Check out the American Libraries' Association Great Web Sites for Kids.   According to the site, "children" are defined as "persons up to the age of 14 years"

 

 

Post in News Stories, Primary Education, Teaching Resources | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

"Backlog as Free Education Extended"

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 18 Oct, 2008

Report in the Weekender (18 October 2008)

"AS THE African National Congress (ANC) prepares to extend free education to 60% of schools next year, it has emerged that little has been done in the past year to ease infrastructure backlogs at the poorest schools.

After almost 15 years of democracy, and an education department with a budget allocation larger than any other government department, there remain thousands of schools across the country that still do not have sanitation, water, electricity, science laboratories or sports facilities."

Post in General, News Stories, Primary Education, Secondary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Trial Access to OECDSource (especially for Education)

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 18 Sep, 2008
UCT has trial access to SourceOECD, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development's online portal for their online journals, books, reports and statistical databases, until 16 October 2008. There is a link to the database on the Trials web page at
 
 
" SourceOECD is the online portal to all the OECD’s books, periodicals, statistics and databases. It comprises of thematic book collections, periodicals, reference titles, OECD statistical databases and International Energy Agency (IEA) statistical databases – all in full text. An interesting page to visit is the Hot Topics page  to see OECD documents, key reports, multimedia and articles from the world's media on key global issues such as Development and Africa and Agriculture and Biofuels. "
 
Some of the titles  which you have access to in terms of this trial, (fulltext, pdfs) include:-
*   Reviews of National Policies for Education, South Africa  (print copy on order)
*   Trends Shaping Education  2008  (print copy on order)
*   Education at a glance 2008:  OECD Indicators  (print copy on order)
as well as various publications on PISA

Please let Caroline Dean have feedback and recommendations  (caroline.dean at uct.ac.za)
 

Post in Higher Education, Primary Education, Maths and Science, Secondary Education, Adult Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Room 13 opens at Kewtown Primary (Art Education)

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 4 Sep, 2008

Spotted on BizCommunity.com

Room 13  ...  "recently opened at the Kewtown Primary School, Athlone, Cape Town.  Room 13 is literally a room where young children, often attending underprivileged schools with no extra-mural programmes whatsoever, are given the opportunity to express themselves artistically and in a non-academic way"  

Room 13 started out in Scotland at the Caol Primary School when primary school learners wanted an art room of their own.    From there is has developed into an international network.  Four studios are already situated in KwaZulu-Natal, two in Mpumalanga, two in Soweto and the Free State.

Quoting from Room 13's website:

"Room 13 has gained an international reputation for good practice in the field of arts education. This is largely based on the well publicised work of our Primary School studios, where the combination of professional arts practice, philosophy and business management has been regarded as “ground-breaking” and “exceptional.”

 

Post in News Stories, Primary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Invitation to Biblionef Symposium

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 3 Sep, 2008

Biblionef has been donating books to schools and communities for the last 10 years. In celebration of this, a symposium focussing on Childrens' Literacy and Reading Programmes has been arranged for Tuesday 16th September at Goudini Spa in Rawsonville.

Speakers include Gcina Mhlophe, Dianne Case, Snoeks Desmond and our own Carole Bloch from PRAESA (Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa).

RSVP by 8 September 2008 to bibsa at iafrica.com or ring them on 021 5310441

Goudini Spa is offering specially discounted accommodation for those wishing to stay over.

 

Here is the programme:-

9:00-10:00 Arrival, Registration, Tea/Coffee

10:00-10:10 Opening: Herman Bailey (President Biblionef SA)

10:10-10:40 Exploring the impact of access and use of reading resources on South African learner’s achievement in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2006: Lisa Zimmerman (Centre for Evaluation and Assessment, Faculty of Education, University of Pretoria)

10:40-11:10 Creating literate school communities: thoughts and strategies: Dr Carole Bloch

(Coordinator: PRAESA Early Literacy Unit)

11:10-11:30 The holistic development of the child: Reading, Running and wRiting: Anna

Brom (Anna Foundation)

11:30-11:40 Stretch break

11:40-12:10 The Book Box Project: promoting reading and related activities: Jean Place (School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand)

12:10-12:30 Families also need books: Snoeks Desmond (Founder: Family Literacy Project)

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:30 Experiencing Biblionef’s work in other countries

Dominique Pace (Biblionef France)

Aagje van Heekeren (Biblionef The Netherlands)

Marc van Hoey (Biblionef Vlaanderen)

Soearnie Soekirno (Biblionef Suriname)

14:30-14:40 My synergy as a writer with Biblionef Diane Case (Author)

14:40-15:10 My experiences with books in the Home Language Project: Margie Owen-Smith (Home Language Project)

15:10-15:30 Biblionef’s role in establishing Irista Primary School’s Library (Jean Williams Biblionef South Africa) and Archie Jansen (Principlal Irista Primary)

15:30-16:00 Celebrating WORDS – Languages’ ancestors: Gcina Mhlophe

16:00 Closing remarks and invitation to celebrate: Thomas van der Walt (Department

of Information Science, University of South Africa)

……………………………………………………………..

16:00-17:30 Cocktail celebration

Drinks

Finger buffet

Marimba band

Children performing

Post in General, Primary Education, Teaching Resources, Early Childhood Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Right to Free Education free of charge for all (pdf)

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 13 Aug, 2008
UNESCO have just published a report  (in English and French)  The right to primary education free of charge for all (pdf, 1.37 MB).   According to the report, primary schooling is not free in many developing countries. The report examines the role of governments in the debate on the right to a free primary education.

Post in Primary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

2,3 million school books in indigenous languages to nuture reading skills

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 11 Aug, 2008
Spotted on IOL:   "About 2,3-million school books written in indigenous languages will be printed and distributed to schools around the country in 2009, Education Minister Naledi Pandor has said.

The books have been authored by 140 teachers who were honoured by Pandor at the University of Pretoria.

As part of the Ithuba Writing Project in conjunction with the US Agency International Development, the teachers were trained to author supplemental reading materials in ways that are relevant and engaging."

Post in News Stories, Primary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Free Multilingual Educational Spelling Game from CSIR

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 20 Jun, 2008

Spotted on South Africa The Good News:

CSIR has launched a educational spelling game in the 11 official South African languages. The game, called OpenSpell, was created by researcher and linguist, Dr Madelaine Plauché and open source software developer Richard Carlson.

Quoting from the story

"The game consists of a simple interactive computer-based activity that can be set at three levels (easy, medium and hard). Feedback to learners is in the form of fun rewards or penalties.

The second component of the game allows tutors to edit the key board and record sounds. "Anyone can use the software to customise it to a language or dialect," Plauché explains.   " 

Download it from Madwiki.  (It has been released under a Gnu General Public License (GPL)  )

 

Post in Primary Education, Teaching Resources | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

"The Times I am Living In" Email Newspaper

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 16 Apr, 2008

Have you heard about this e-mail newspaper, The Times I Am Living In?  The twice-weekly email newspaper is administered by the SA Press Association (Sapa) and funded by the Open Society Foundation for SA, aims to promote reading, encourage an interest in current affairs and promote general knowledge amongst learners.

IOL carried a story this week. 

Each issue is illustrated by a different school, which receives a draft copy from which to work the day before publication. News is sensitively selected, but editor Duncan Guy says important news issues are nonetheless covered by finding appropriate angles. 

Each issue has World News; Africa News; Environment News; Business News; Sports News and Today in History sections. 

The newspaper is translated into Afrikaans as Die Tyd Waarin Ek Leef and into isiZulu as Izikhathi Engiphila Kuzo.

To subscribe , e-mail education@sapa.org.za

 

 

Post in Primary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Global Literacy Study

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 29 Nov, 2007
South Africa ranked very low on the 2006  Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), conducted by Boston College.  Pirls assessed 215, 000 fourth-grade students' ability to read both literary and informational texts.

Russia topped the 2006 Pirls study, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore and researchers said students' reading ability in those places had improved dramatically since the last study period in 2001.

Post in Primary Education | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Free Copyright Law Workbook for Children

Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 2 Oct, 2007

The World Intellectual Property Organization has a free 72-page workbook  called "Learn from the Past, Create the Future"  designed to be used in school classrooms across the world, aimed at 9 to 14 years olds.

 

 

Post in Primary Education, Teaching Resources | comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

«Previous   1 2