Online Teaching and Resources

The universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch offer online support material and other services to high school learners and teachers. Click the links below to go to the two websites for more information.

https://www.uctonlinehighschool.com/

https://www.suadvantage.co.za/

DBE Guidelines For Work From Home and Alternative Work Arrangements

DBE has released a document with more information about working from home, alternative work arrangements, remote teaching and learning, online teaching and learning tools, teaching via radio and television, etc. Click here to access this document.

Remember that the Free State Department of Education has three websites that can help with this. Here they are:
Remote Teaching and Learning FOR TEACHERS
Remote Teaching and Learning FOR PARENTS
Remote Teaching and Learning FOR LEARNERS

E-learning from Ligbron Academy of Learning

A broadcast schedule from Ligbron Academy of Technology for grade 11 Physical Sciences and Mathematics content was recently circulated. The lessons will start on Tuesday, 11 August. Click here for the timetable and more information on how to access the material. Click here to read more about Ligbron Academy of Technology.

We thank the staff of Ligbron Academy of Technology for this initiative and service to the learners of South Africa. 

Setting the Scene for South Africa’s Digital Aspiration

Here is some reading about South Africa's digital aspirations. Click here to access the article in pdf format.

Interesting articles: Online teaching, learning and assessment

Online teaching and learning get a lot of attention lately, and academic articles have appeared about the influence of Covid-19 on this.

Use the links below to take you to three interesting articles I have seen recently. Thanks to Sarietjie Musgrave who made me aware of them. 

The links take you to the original articles, and a pdf file of each article is also available.

COVID-19: The steep learning curve for online education by Dragan Gasevic: Director of the Centre for Learning Analytics, Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. (PDF printout)

Online learning: Rethinking teachers’ ‘digital competence’ in light of COVID-19 by Neil Selwyn: Professor, Faculty of Education at Monash University. (PDF printout)

Fourteen Simple Strategies to Reduce Cheating on Online Examinations by Stephanie Smith Budhai: Associate Professor of Education at Neumann University. (PDF printout)

Zoom for online teaching

About five years ago, while doing online teaching using Skype, I have started to play around with Zoom. However, I stopped using Zoom because Skype already had had a screen sharing facility, and I was more experienced and functional with Skype. So, I never bothered to carry on with Zoom and kept on using Skype for online teaching and to talk to people overseas. Since the arrival of WhatsApp, it is obviously my first choice for overseas calling. So, things change a lot and we easily move from one app to another as needed.

Although there are various similar services, Zoom currently gets a lot of attention due to the high demand for online support of learners. I take it for granted that many of my readers are up to date with Zoom, but if some of you have not yet familiarised yourself with Zoom by now, it might be good to do so to keep yourself involved in this technological development. Zoom is a very good platform for online teaching, meetings, one to one conversations, etc., and it is very easy to use!

To get involved with Zoom, head over to https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html where you will find a myriad of details in terms of signing up, support, guidance, demonstrations, tutorials, etc. At the top right, under Resources, you find the page from where you can download the necessary software and apps for your laptops, devices, etc.

A very helpful YouTube channel is dottotech, run by Steve Dotto (with 280 000 subscribers) and he gives professional advice across the technology spectrum. His YouTube channel's address is https://youtube.com/user/dottotech. Lately, he has published various very helpful videos about Zoom. Have a look at his website as well for exciting material. The address is https://dottotech.com!

Apart from dottotech the internet obviously has many other resources to help. Just search for them. So, go and get yourself updated on Zoom.

To conclude, I have seen an article about Zoom security matters on ZDNet. Security should always be kept in mind and here are ten tips from ZDNet to help you with your security while using Zoom. Click here to read the full article; ensure you do. Some of the tips might be handled differently depending on a specific situation, but in general, here they are:

• Password protect your meetings.
• Authenticate users.
• Do not allow others to join before you as the host.
• Lock down your meeting.
• Turn off participant screen sharing.
• Use a randomly-generated id.
• Use waiting rooms.
• Avoid file sharing.
• Remove nuisance attendees.
• Check for updates.

DBE, Siyavula and Sasol Inzalo Online Diagnostic Assessments

DBE, in partnership with Siyavula and the Sasol Inzalo Foundation, has developed an online platform for teacher diagnostic assessments in physical sciences (grades 10 to 12).

We have previously invited Free State teachers to take part in this, but now there is another opportunity to take part. Click here to read the circular from the DG of DBE, Mr H M Mweli, and click here to read the circular from the FSDE.

From these circulars you will see that:

• The assessments are focused on grade 10, 11 and 12 teachers.
• No data is needed for Vodacom and MTN subscribers.
• You can earn SACE professional development points (PDPs).
• The Free State has a target to reach until end of March 2019 and again for the end of March 2020.

What to do now? 

• Siyavula has asked for the contact details of all grade 10 to 12 physical science teachers.
• They will contact you by sms to enrol in the programme.
• Please use this opportunity for self-development as soon as you hear from Siyavula; it might even happen during the holidays. Best wishes and enjoy the experience!