IMBO Magazine Nov. 2014 | Page 73

T oday learners pack their ipads into a pocket sized bag for the “back to school” experience; and cringe in class when they realise that the charger is still plugged in at home. Welcome to the new school! A true digital experience that would’ve been hard to fathom 12 years ago – a time when the idea of pupils using gadgets in the classroom would’ve made a good joke. But today, schools are looking to exclusively divert to digital methods of teaching and interaction. Yael Marx, an educator at St Mary’s all girl school in Johannesburg, explains how the ipad can be utilised for extremely beneficial purposes, “St Mary’s has moved their whole library system into a digital library where learners can download a book onto their tablet.” She also adds that programmes such as Limu can be added to submit assignments and how the same programme can be linked to plagiarism sites to monitor work. According to an IschoolAfrica study, 120 primary and secondary schools in South Africa use ipads. There’s growth in the usage of digital instruments in schools, with more than 4000 devices reaching students and teachers in rural developments and townships. So it comes as no surprise that a school like St Mary’s has a goal for a paperless system by 2015. They have already purchased 60 ipads to incorporate a floating library. Today, it allows teachers to use software such as ActivInspire to load images, videos, graphs, maps and illustrations for collaborative teaching methods in the classroom. Yael Marx gives an example on how she uses the software in conjunction with her smartboard, “ActivInspire allows the teacher to present a learner-based lesson to the class whereby the learner can lead. The teacher prepares the lesson in advance and guides the lesson in the correct direction – instead of becoming the instructor of the lesson.” Although Marx would recommend the use of technology as a way to encourage interaction in her classroom, she stresses that a medium should be found in order to keep the traditional culture of interaction.Her main concern is that her students will lose the skill of writing and one can’t help but meditate on that thought. Is total exclusion of traditional methods a good idea? As Paulo Coelho eloquently puts it, “Do not confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter with the symbol itself”. The learning process does not lie in the technology but in the essence of a valuable lesson and I fear this new school era - will miss this golden rule. Whatever the perspective may be, IMBO can definitely agree on one thing: Children are the best investments a country can make. By Lebogang Morake Although Smartboards are not a new concept to teaching methods, over the years they have undergone much digital enhancement. 73 IMBO/ ISSUE 31/ '14