MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Teachers embracing tech

By

In a collaborative partnership with teacher unions, Tangible Africa has trained over 600 teachers across South Africa in coding skills to implement in the classroom. The cohort of teachers, who were trained between June and September, are now known as Master Trainers and in turn, will train around 16 000 other teachers in offline coding.

Leva Foundation Operations Manager Jackson Tshabalala said 500 South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), 40 National Teachers’ Union (NATU) and 60 Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU) teachers were trained across all nine provinces in less than three months.

“This was a great collaboration between Tangible Africa and the teachers unions. The most rewarding part of the training was demystifying coding to some of the teachers who reported feelings of anxiety, fear and nervousness before the training; but afterwards felt encouraged, ready and excited to start coding at their schools,” said Tshabalala.

The training offered by 12 young facilitators from Tangible Africa, an engagement project of Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation, empowered the teachers to teach coding concepts without computers – by using limited resources including a smartphone and coding App games (downloadable as TANKS, RANGERS and BOATS).

“This was also an empowering experience for our facilitators, who are mostly graduates from the University. They were able to share their technical skillset in a workshop setting, and for some of our facilitators it was their first time on a plane. The training allowed our facilitators to build up their capacity to offer future Unplugged Coding workshops to other organisations,” said Tshabalala.

Economies of scale and skill

SADTU Vice-President of Education, Faseega Solomon, said the project by Tangible Africa suited the Teacher Union Collaboration training earmarked for the year since it was themed ‘Skills for a changing world’. The annual training is a partnership between the major unions in the country and the Department of Basic Education. “What stood out from all the other service providers was that these coding concepts could be taught in schools without the necessary infrastructure and gadgets.

Teachers will be able to develop skills needed for the 21 st century, like problem-solving and collaboration, to empower learners irrespective of the resources they have available at their schools,” said Solomon.

She commended the Tangible Africa facilitators for being well-trained and presenting the training in a fun and interactive manner. Many of the Master Trainer teachers are now already implementing the training in their classrooms and receiving requests from other schools for further training, and Solomon believes the training will not stop at the earmarked 16 000 teachers but will reach even more schools to have a multiplying impact.

NATU Director Prof Sitwala Imenda said by using the Master Trainer teachers to capacitate other teachers, it also removes the fear they have about these concepts: “When they see their colleagues handling the Coding and Robotics content, they are motivated. Furthermore, by using this cascading approach, instead of using private entities, we also achieve economies of both scale and skill.”

He continued to say that the skills taught will assist both learners and teachers not only in the technological world in which we live today, but also in the future: “By exposing educators of NATU to these concepts and principles we seek to create a critical mass of teacher champions to imbue learners with skills for the future,” said Imenda.

Koos van der Walt, who coordinated the training of 60 SAOU teachers in the Central region, agreed that the coding concepts could be taught in both high resource and low resource schools.

“I haven’t seen teachers enjoy themselves this much during training in a long a time. They were eager to take the concepts back to the classroom and were extremely positive about the training,” said Van der Walt.

Teachers embracing tech

Teachers who received the training were orientated to Coding and Robotics as a subject and encouraged to understand the thinking processes required from learners.

“Some of these things we are already doing in the classroom, like problem-solving, logic and movement. The training helps to demystify what coding is, and how easy it is to implement in the classroom,” said Hudson Park Primary Technology Integrator and ICT Teacher, Kelly Bush.

Bush, from East London, has developed lesson plans based on both the TANKS and BOATS Apps that formed part of the recent training. This work has earned her a provincial nomination for the National Teachers Awards, taking place later this month.

“The lesson plans link with concepts learners are familiar with in the South African environment. Items we use in the lessons are readily available like egg boxes, chairs or shoes, so that even under-resourced schools can follow the lessons,” said Bush. Another teacher, Mary Ann Chetty from Astra Primary School in Chatsworth, who participated in the SADTU Master Training said she was already introducing coding concepts into her classroom and planning to offer extra-curricular games to children at her school in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

“I have a much better understanding of what we can do at our school with Coding and Robotics. The fact that the games are unplugged, helps so much for a school like ours,” said Chetty.

Go On – Share the Gqeberha Love!

Views Since 15 July 2022: 51

Gqeberha’s Latest News and Events can be accessed on MyGqeberha.com.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profileMy Flickr profileMy Pinterest profile

Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.