"Last year, we helped schools devise their individual e-learning road maps," says Riaan van der Bergh, Education Technology Manager at FEDSAS. "This year, with Digital Citizenship 2015, we are looking at the practicalities that must be dealt with when schools introduce and implement e-learning so that they will be empowered to do this at a pace that best suits their needs and budgets."
"Access to e-learning will dramatically change the scope and depth of what our children learn, broadening their horizons and brightening their future. All of us want the learners in our families to have the best possible opportunities to realise their potential so we are thrilled to be partnering with FEDSAS in this Digital Citizenship 2015 initiative," says Charlotte Smit, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of Eduloan. "We believe e-learning is an exciting and rewarding new way of studying that will bring results to make parents proud and help our country as a whole grow from strength to strength."
Digital Citizenship 2015 events are already underway in Gauteng and will take place in all nine provinces in the next three months. Each one lasts four hours and can accommodate up to 150 people.
"These events are aimed at principals, deputy principals, the member of the school governing body responsible for IT and finances, and IT champions appointed within schools," explains Van der Bergh. "We've kept the costs low at R250 per person - and if a school wants to send a group of up to five people we've capped the cost at R600 for all of them."
School representatives will be assisted to draft a long-term plan for introducing technology, generally expanding use out from the core of the school office, via multimedia classrooms that utilise technology such as interactive whiteboards, explains Van der Bergh.
Ultimately, learners will work on tablets instead of using textbooks, pen and paper and they will be able to review lesson highlights stored on the school's server to consolidate work done with the teacher in class.
"The Digital Citizen 2015 seminars discuss how to budget for implementing this process because it's an essential development for our nation's learners and future workforce. Other priority content includes practical, step-by-step guidance on coping with the changeover.
"The four focus areas of the seminars are: technology infrastructure; digitising the office; enriching the classroom with devices; and equipping learners with devices."
"For some time, the organisation has run its Edutools programme, empowering tertiary students to equip themselves with essential study tools such as laptops or tablets," says Smit. "Now we've identified the need to expand this offering to include devices required by learners in our schools. We've sourced a range of good-value deals to help parents set up their children for this fascinating new way of learning."
For more information, go to www.fedsas.org.za
