August 2012
I never cease to be amazed at the power of the Internet and how it can be such an invaluable aid to educators. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection and there is no end to what you can do as a teacher. Tim Berners-Lee from Britain is known to be the inventor of the World Wide Web, and he longed for it to be free. This is mostly happening in terms of education where educators are sharing their expertise so readily. The month of August has been Connected Educator month, and this term so aptly describes what the Internet is bringing about in education – connecting us to others. Never before has it been so possible to share with others and get ideas from others about every aspect of teaching. For example, the Internet allows me to easily connect with you and easily bring you constantly updated worksheets and useful resources for teaching.
One of the ways this connection is happening is through the use of webinars. A webinar is a talk given on line by someone with knowledge in that field by means of a webinar programme such as Adobe Connect, Microsoft Lync, and Go to Meeting among others. Interested educators tune in and listen right from the comfort of their own homes. They can also participate by means of a chat box where questions are posed and answered, and additional ideas can be suggested. You can read more about Connected Educator month and also view their feast of amazing free webinars that they have lined up until the end of August http://connectededucators.org/cem./ . Bringing the use of webinars to a local level, I have noticed that here is South Africa; SchoolNet presents a weekly webinar programme for educators. This programme can be viewed on their excellent blog: http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/.
Please may I take this opportunity of thanking you very much for your support for e-classroom. I felt honoured recently to be one of the four women highlighted on the Lead SA newsletter as women ‘who are making a difference to education in our country’. Let’s work together in making that difference.
In closing, our CAPS worksheets for Life Skills for term 4 have been uploaded onto the e-classroom website. Please make use of them and share the free content with fellow workers.
Chat soon
Natalie