EDUCBLOG

No, not the meal from one of the well-known fastfood chicken emporium!    "Streetwise" is the name of a new South African device that helps bridge the digital device, connecting underprivileged schools to online information.       How?  Using GPRS, instead of broadband.     According to The Content Company,  the devices have been designed to operate under the worst of conditions.  

According to the article on SAGoodNews,   150 Streetwise units have been distributed to five schools across South Africa. Since March last year, close to 30 000 Wikipedia and South African Encyclopedia articles were downloaded.    And content is constantly added to the Streetwise server.

Teacher.org.za|Connecting to make a difference  is an online platform where key stakeholders in the Education Arena can connect, collaborate, and participate to make a discernable difference to the future of our children. [from the website]

The publisher of the site, Argo, is asking teachers to share their ideas, tips and advice on how to better support teaching and learning in our schools.  

 Here's a great reading campaign from Scholastic publishers that our educators can use: 

 "Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. is a global literacy campaign launched as part of Scholastic's 90th anniversary celebration that underscores the importance of reading to better prepare children who will need strong literacy skills to survive and succeed in the 21st century. Scholastic is asking EVERYONE, our partners, publishers, educators, business leaders, nonprofits, parents, caregivers and students - to work together to bring reading and deeper understanding to all children around the globe. The Reading Bill of Rights, the foundation of the campaign, includes eight 'beliefs' that affirm every child's right to read and what that means in the 21st century... from access to books and great stories to the ability to analyze, interpret and understand information in the digital agee"

There is also an opportunity to be part of a live webcast featuring singer, Taylor Swift, on Wednesday 27th October. 

Looking for an online encyclopedia in Afrikaans for your learners?   Also available on CD-Rom, is Dugeot se Mielestronk.  Despite the layout and bright colour scheme of the site,  it is a very useful resource.    And probably one of the few available in Afrikaans.   

Here's a link to the article on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

University World News reports

"With its basic education system in a shambles, the South African government is rolling out easy-to-read workbooks to the poorest schools. But it may be wasting millions of Rand - more rigorous research is needed to test the efficacy of such books before they are handed out to children, according to a new study by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand and JET Education Services. The study has infuriated the book project leaders.

The research, carried out between January and June this year, found that while a particular set of workbooks for Grade 6 mathematics was effective, it worked no better than an approved textbook currently used in South African primary schools."

A World Football Reading passport will be offered to children by newspapers worldwide during this World Cup.   The passport is an educational tool that uses sports, and notably football, to encourage young people to read and learn about journalism; sports; geography; language; and character. Though it gets young readers into the newspaper through the sports section, it encourages them to go into the rest of the newspaper to seek out related editorial content, through a series of exercises that can be used in schools or at home.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN) have made the materials available at www.wan-ifra.org/youngreader . 

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress (USA) has set up a webpage to encourage reading with the slogan "Explore New Worlds.  Read".     The site contains book-related info, interviews with authors, suggested reading lists and more.   Teaching resources can be found on the Educators and Parents link. 

CALL FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS

STRENGTHENING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENT

All teachers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Higher Education experts, parents and members of the public:

This is a call for you to participate in a public comment process to refine and strengthen the implementation of the curriculum

The Department of Basic Education invites you to share your experiences on implementation challenges associated with the NCS in public schools. This process is intended to obtain first-hand information on the pressure points and to find solutions that will improve the efficiency of curriculum delivery in the classroom.

Your comments should be captured in writing and be specific to the phase of the schooling system (Foundation, Intermediate, Senior or FET Phase). You must also indicate your relationship with the NCS e.g. parent, learner, teacher, researcher, etc.

More information on the process and the format of the submissions can be obtained from the home page under What’s New? of the educational portal Thutong at www.thutong.doe.gov.za.

Submit your written submissions to the Department of Basic Education in one of the following ways:

·        By delivering it by hand to: Attention Ms N Tom, Department of Basic Education, Sol Plaatje House, 123 Schoeman Street, Pretoria, 0001

·        By posting it to: Attention Ms N Tom, Department of Basic Education, Private Bag X895, Pretoria, 0001.

·        By faxing it to: 012 3289828 Attention Ms N Tom

·        By sending an e-mail to: NCS.comments@doe.gov.za

·        Complete and submit an online questionnaire on Thutong

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!

Spotted on iLibrarian.

Online University Reviews lists its top 100 Most Inspiring and Innovative blogs for Educators.

Categories include  General Teaching Blogs, Speciality Subject Blogs, Podcasts and Video Blogs for Teachers.  

Spotted on Resourceshelf

Latest issue of Teaching with Primary Sources Newsletter (from the Library of Congress) focuses on the theme of technology integration, exploring how teachers can use technology to bring primary sources into their classrooms to enhance learning. Previous issues on the themes of literacy integration, promoting critical thinking and differentiated instruction are also available in both html and pdf versions through the newsletter’s archive.

Spotted on iLibrarian

Quoting:-

From the Guardian  

Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in Primary School.

Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.

However, the draft plans will require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.

The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow  schools greater flexibility in what they teach.

It emphasises traditional areas of learning - including phonics, the chronology of history and mental arithmetic - but includes more modern media and web-based skills as well as a greater focus on environmental education.

The plans have been drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, the former Ofsted chief who was appointed by ministers to overhaul the primary school curriculum, and are due to be published next month.

The papers seen by the Guardian are draft plans for the detailed content of each of six core "learning areas" that Rose is proposing should replace the current 13 standalone subject areas.

 The proposals would require

• Children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.

• Children to be able to place historical events within a chronology. "By the end of the primary phase, children should have gained an overview which enables them to place the periods, events and changes they have studied within a chronological framework, and to understand some of the links between them." Every child would learn two key periods of British history but it would be up to the school to decide which ones. Schools would still be able to opt to teach Victorian history or the second world war, but they would not be required to. The move is designed to prevent duplication with the secondary curriculum, which covers the second world war extensively.

• Less emphasis on the use of calculators than in the current curriculum.

• An understanding of physical development, health and wellbeing programme, which would address what Rose calls "deep societal concerns" about children's health, diet and physical activity, as well as their relationships with family and friends. They will be taught about peer pressure, how to deal with bullying and how to negotiate in their relationships.

The six core areas are: understanding English, communication and languages, mathematical understanding, scientific and technological understanding, human, social and environmental understanding, understanding physical health and wellbeing, and understanding arts and design.

Full story, and comments here  

Spotted on several alerts including BuaNews Online, Newstoday and AllAfrica.com,  is the news that the Presidency has a new website aimed at children between the ages of 7 and 13, aiming to " educate young minds about government and encourage them to use the internet" (AllAfrica.com). The link to the official statement from the Presidency is here. 

Minister in the Presidency Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said that it was government's intention to continuously improve on the website so that in the future it can include critical information such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of children

Check out the website. 

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.