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Sunday, April 11, 2010

Empowering Maths Teachers to Use ICTs for Resource Development

The Community Education Computer Society (CECS) is an ICT training NGO which was established in 1985 in Cape Town, South Africa.
CECS received a grant from the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) to implement an ICT Literacy project in 7 Southern African countries. One of the deliverables was the development of an ICT training programme for teachers. After some investigations, CECS decided to develop an ICT training course for high-school mathematics teachers. A training manual was subsequently developed and piloted with 11 high school Mathematics teachers based in Gauteng, South Africa. Parts of the manual is available on our website as well as examples of the exercises, www.cecs.org.za.
The S A Finnish Partnership (SAFIPA) has provided CECS with support to undertake the following activities:

  • Convening a stakeholder workshop in Johannesburg and East London with teachers, organisations, individuals, government officials, funders, etc who are involved in the development of teacher training in general and Mathematics specifically

  • Conducting 2 two-day workshops with Grade 12 Mathematics teachers in Johannesburg and East London.

  • Development of a web application for Grade 12 Mathematics teachers to create and print question papers with its memorandum based on selections made from a question bank.

  • Develop a portal for Mathematics which will host the application and enable teachers to upload questions with answers they have produced.
The training offered by CECS is unique. There is nothing comparable in South Africa. This view was confirmed by reviewing materials on the Department of Education's Thutong portal, reviewing materials from a number of NGOs.
Teachers have to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing materials for class, thus reducing time that could be better spend on lesson planning and delivering. The training course rectify the situation.
The web application will make it easier for Grade 12 Mathematics teachers to create and print question papers. The question papers will be accompanied with the memorandum.  This will be extended to Grade 10 & 11, funding permitted.
Thus, register on the CECS website if you want to:

  • Test the web application

  • Contribute Mathematics content

  • Attend the Mathematics Teacher workshop in Gauteng (Johannesburg) or Eastern Cape (East London). This offer applies to those who reside in Johannesburg or East London.

  • Quality control the questions and answers

  • If you want a copy of the training manual

  • Attend the stakeholder workshop in Gauteng (Johannesburg) or Eastern Cape (East London). This applies to those who reside in Johannesburg or East London.

  • Be kept up to date with developments or you want to participate in the project
We also intend to conduct workshops in other provinces once funding is secured.  This do register in the meantime so that we are aware of you.

CONTACT DETAILS
Arnold Pietersen
Tel: 011-834-3329 
Fax: 011-834-9054
E-mail: info@cecs.org.za
Website: www.cecs.org.za