Free Virtual School Chemistry Resources for you

WE have an update from Frederic and Malik two of the international speakers at our SchoolNet Conference in July this year. They run the Virtual School in the UK 

"Dear teacher friends in South Africa,

We hope you are all doing great and, after having talked at length about #OER (Open Educational Resources) at the SchoolNet conference a couple of weeks ago we now want to start sharing with you the work that we are doing ourselves.

Some of you may not know yet what we are trying to achieve with our OER project 'The Virtual School' - we want to create 3600 free videos for secondary education in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Maths, English and ICT literacy within the next 2-3 years. We have already created 300 videos accesible totally free here: http://www.youtube.com/user/virtualschooluk/videos

Currently and during the next two months, with our talented young design team [watch them introduce themselves here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZId1Jmwpz4] we are working on the chemistry curriculum, and we have a growing playlist of videos here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=edit_ok&list=PLW0gavSzhMlReKGMVfUt6YuNQsO0bqSMV. The other subjects will follow thereafter.

We are hoping that you can all share the chemistry playlist, which will be growing by over 150 videos in the next few months, with the teachers at your science department and at the science departments at fellow schools. 

It would also be fantastic if you could give us feedback on these videos, be it via email or with comments under the YouTube videos.

For those of you who want to download the videos for offline use you can use a download tool like Keepvid: http://keepvid.com/ [you can watch a tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35myFjW_axY].

All the very best from London from Malik, myself and our team,

Freddy"

SchoolNet Conference 2013: Resources from the Virtual School

At the recent SchoolNet Conference our two UK International presenters, Frédéric Kastner from The Virtual School in the UK and Malik Wilson, a media professional, gave a couple of presentations on OER (Open Education Resources) that were very popular, and not everyone could get into their sessions. They have kindly created resources for all the teachers who could not attend their session and have sent us the links to pass on. They have created the video tutorial on how to create your own resources. They have also captured the speech in video form and have created an update video on their time in South Africa. They hope that we find these videos useful in creating our own resources for our learners all over South Africa.

Create your own educational videos workshop tutorial:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87SZjsHvqSo&feature=youtu.be
(Look at the description for a step-by-step process with links to where you can download the software.)

The Virtual School South Africa Update:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKgEcJvPWuU

Here is the full 25-minute speech:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKr8DJ0FxE8

Please follow their blog for more information on OER that we'll be updating all of the time.http://thevirtualschool.wordpress.com/

Thank you for forwarding these links to us Frédéric and Malik!

Four resource sites every South African teacher should join

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As the digital age and technology integration with lessons becomes more and more part of our daily lives, teachers look for web resources and new online materials as part of their preparation to help them with their teaching. This is definitely not an easy task for one needs to ‘live’ online in order to be able to keep up with what is available online. So I thought I would mention four very useful resource sites that teachers in South Africa should consider joining.

Microsoft Partners in Learning Network
http://www.pil-network.com/

1. I’ll mention Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Network first since they are having a competition for joining that closes in June. Apart from that this is an incredible resource for teachers with lesson plans, topics, for discussion, opportunities for you to better your digital understanding, tutorials, and opportunities to network with teachers from around the world etc.. Currently they have four million users world wide.
2. Secondly Microsoft has introduced the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert programme this year  – entries close on two dates for South African teachers (3 June if you would like to be considered as a finalist in the South African Global Forum and ponsored to the Bloemfontein SchoolNet Conference, and the 31 July if you missed the first date. For this competition one needs to upload a learning activity to the Partners in Learning Network. Find out more at this URL http://www.pil-network.com/Educators/Expert. Join today!   

SchoolNetSA
http://www.schoolnet.org.za/

SchoolNet SA is considered South Africa’s leading innovator in professional development programmes in ICT integration and school ICT leadership. We are the national agency for two multi-national teacher development programmes, Intel* Teach to the Future and Microsoft* Partners in Learning. Please join us. Joining SchoolNet as a member brings unique opportunities to teachers. Currently we have two Conferences on the horizon

• Schoolnet Conference in Bloemfontein in July 2013
• We are hosting the first Google in Education summit along with Parklands College at Parklands College in September.

Twitter
https://twitter.com/

This is an international resource site but it is mentioned in this list of four because it is something a South African teacher cannot do without. There are thouands of educators from around the world on Twitter who network, chat, share ideas and resources, collaborate and support each other so why not join them!

Vodacom’s Digital Classroom
http://digitalclassroom.co.za/digitalclassroom/

The Vodacom Mobile Education Programme is a nationwide teacher development initiative to improve the quality of instruction in all subjects, with particular emphasis on Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy and Physical Science at Grade 10 to 12 level. The project focuses on ICT Literacy, as well as the effective use and integration of digital content in the classroom. Join today.

Wondering how to join these sites?

I have added a Slideshare below showing how to join these four resource sites and  have listed some of the benefits of joining each one.

Four resource sites for South African educators to join from Schoolnet SA

There are other lovely South African sites that are also full of useful, free resources for teachers and that you don't actually need to join as such. e-classroom comes to mind. Have you seen their lovely free CAPS-aligned downloadable worksheets that can form the written part of a lesson? They are starting to branch out into other languages and I see that many of their worksheets are now translated to Afrikaans. 

Don't delay - join today!

Please visit e-classroom.co.za - a wonderful South African resource site for R-3 teachers

Do take a look at our wonderful ‘proudly South-African” site, http://e-classroom.co.za,  that provides a delightful array of FREE beautifully created worksheets for our South African teachers. This site, e-Classroom,  has reached over 500 000 hits and is the number one “e-classroom” website on Google!

e-Classroom is a portal which provides free support resource material for educators and parents and is aimed at learners in Grades R-3. Their content is very much in line with 21st century learning, and the worksheets are creative and promote motor skills.  These cover the subject matters of Maths, English, Science, Health and Nutrition, Life Skills, Art and Craft. This is all open source and provided to users via their website at no cost.

Do take a look around. You’ll see the Foundation Phase CAPS documents have been posted there, and the worksheets are out of this world! These worksheets could save teachers a LOAD of time…something every teacher needs! I am sure the learners will love using them as not only are they beautifully presented, but they are fun to work with.

One of the new sections that I absolutely LOVE is called ‘Learn to draw’. The learners can practise drawing all sorts of animals using these methods. This is found within the ‘Latest Content’ section where you can browse and see what is on offer that might interest you.

Save our elephants petition 

I noticed this petition form called ‘Save our elephants’ petition on the website on behalf of the IFAW Animal Action Team, encouraging world leaders to uphold and enforce the ban on ivory trade. That’s a good cause to make known to our learners and be involved in right now.

The site owners say “This initiative is open to all primary schools nationally in South Africa and we welcome constructive feedback participation from educators and parents.”  I am sure they would welcome your comments.  Let them know what you think.