Lesotho Training Report s1

Report to Northern Cape Department of Education

on Microsoft Partners in Learning Training

conducted between January 2012 and July 2014

Contents Contents...... 1

1 Partners in Learning training sponsored by Vodacom Foundation...... 2

1.1 Microsoft Partners in Learning - ICT Skills for Teachers - Training of Trainers...... 3

1.2 Microsoft Partners in Learning – HelpDesk Course – Training of Trainers...... 4

1.3 Partners in Learning - ICT Leadership for Education Managers...... 5

1.4 Partners in Learning – Innovation Workshop...... 6

Conclusion and Recommendations...... 6

SchoolNet SA – Microsoft Training conducted in Northern Cape – 2011 - 2014 Page 1 Introduction

Since 2005, Microsoft has offered a range of Partners in Learning courses and events to teachers and schools in the Northern Cape. Having seen the value of the Partners in Learning courseware, the Northern Cape Department of Education requested additional capacity building from Microsoft. The Vodacom Foundation supports an ICT Resource Centre situated in Siyanda and Microsoft is a key strategic partners in this initiative. SchoolNet SA has built capacity at this centre for staff to run the Microsoft Partners in Learning ICT Skills for Teachers course which is now being offered to teachers in the district around the centre. A HelpDesk course, Innovation Workshop and ICT Leadership for Education Managers course are additional Partners in Learning training sessions that have taken place at this centre.

This report covers the Microsoft Partners in Learning training sessions and events coordinated by SchoolNet SA that have taken place in the Northern Cape between 2011 and 2014. For reports on initiatives in this province prior to this date, please consult the reports archived on the SchoolNet SA website – reports page.

1 Partners in Learning training sponsored by Vodacom Foundation Since 2010, SchoolNet SA has been offering master training and support to centre management teams at the nine provincial ICT Resource Centres supported by the Vodacom Foundation situated in the proof-of-concept districts in each province in South Africa. Microsoft is a key strategic partner of this initiative, contributing its Partners in Learning Courseware, assisting with capacity building, and offering its Office 365 services to the centres. The Vodacom Foundation supported ICT Resource centres have each received the following Microsoft Partners in Learning courses:  Microsoft Partners in Learning - ICT Skills for Teachers - Training of Trainers  Microsoft Partners in Learning – HelpDesk Course – Training of Trainers  Microsoft Partners in Learning – Innovation Workshop  Microsoft Partners in Learning ICT Leadership for Education Managers (for school managers at schools surrounding the centres)

The Siyanda ICT Resource Centre in the Northern Cape is one of the true success stories of this project. No technical challenges have been reported and an average of 40 visitors a day visit the centre to make use of the internet facilities. Centre Manager Bennett Johannesen and his team have set goals for the centre including that all educators in the district should be computer literate and able to integrate ICT in their teaching. All schools in the surrounding area must be introduced to ICT and have it implemented. It is hoped that eventually communities in the area should be able to connect to the internet even if they are at home.

A range of training sessions and district events take place at the centre and it is pleasing to see that under the guidance of centre manager Bennett Johannesen that a number of Microsoft Partners in Learning courses are included in the offering. To date 135 teachers have benefited from the ICT Skills for Teachers course and a further 19 attended the HelpDesk course.

SchoolNet SA – Microsoft Training conducted in Northern Cape – 2011 - 2014 Page 2 1.1 Microsoft Partners in Learning - ICT Skills for Teachers - Training of Trainers The ICT Skills for Teachers course empowers participants of all computer abilities to be able to produce documents and artefacts that they will find useful in their work as teachers. The training of trainers’ course is aimed at participants who have excellent computer skills and who now wish to train others. After first experiencing the course as participants, the training of trainers sessions focus on the training methodology and approach of the course so that facilitators are able to use the cognitive apprenticeship model when running this course.

This course took place at the Siyanda ICT Resource Centre from 14 – 18 November 2011 in the centre which was under construction at the time of training. The participants made use of laptops that had their power banks firmly mounted in the safe cart. The result of this was that they could only use the laptops for a set number of hours before they ran out of power and therefore had to be conservative about their use.

There were thirteen 13 participants in this training made up of practicing educators, computer lab technical assistants, school administrative clerks and subject advisors. Bennett Johannesen who has been a Microsoft Partners in Learning trainer for many years conducted the initial training with the group was also present and was able to share valuable inputs in terms of what the participants went through during the initial training. Following the training of trainers session conducted by Microsoft’s Victor Ngobeni, The following six new trainers were approved:

 Rachel Karin Esterhuizen:  Johanna W Bok  Frederick Mouton  Nadine Dodds  Russia Bees  Sebastian H. Feris

The trainers concluded that the group was very nice to work with and that the “training environment was very flexible and conducive for personalized learning”.

1.2 Microsoft Partners in Learning – HelpDesk Course – Training of Trainers Whilst the HelpDesk course is typically run for computer-literate teachers and students who have limited technical computer skills, the training of trainers’ session is aimed at adults with advanced technical computer skills (equivalent to an A+ qualification). In the training of trainers’ course, participants work through the courseware and the master trainer also discusses the suggested training approach. Because of the advanced level of prior technical skills that are required to be a trainer for this course, only a small percentage of those who attend the training of trainers’ session are likely to be appointed as trainers. Despite this, it is still worth centre staff attending the course as

SchoolNet SA – Microsoft Training conducted in Northern Cape – 2011 - 2014 Page 3 it will improve their own technical skills and put them in a better position to promote this course to schools in the area when it is being run at the centres.

The HelpDesk training of trainers for the Siyanda ICT Resource Centre took place on 24 – 28 October 2011. There were 21 participants from the Siyanda District at this training including 12 educators, 3 ICT technicians, 1 Vodacom Resource Centre Manager, 1 EMIS Coordinator, 1 IQMS manager who joined the group on the third day, 1 Computer Trainer from Oasis Skills Development, 1 Admin Clerk from the same development centre and one out-of-school youth who could not attend on the fourth and the fifth day because he was preparing for exams.

Training took place at the brand new Vodacom ICT Resource Centre that had never before hosted a training session. The trainer was given a computer room plus a big room to conduct this training. Unfortunately the whiteboard had yet to be mounted – but a mobile whiteboard was quickly organized in order for training to commence on time. The master trainer noted that the Vodacom Resource Center staff members were very efficient in making sure that everything that was needed for the training was made available.

This was also the first time that the HelpDesk course had been run in the Northern Cape and in discussions with the participants the master trainer realized that there is a definite need for HelpDesk training in this province where there are often vast distances between schools and where officials need to service schools spread across vast areas. For example, the three technicians who were present indicate that they service 100 schools in a 300km radius – with no dedicated transport to get to the schools. This reality shows just how important it is for schools to develop their own technical support teams so that they are less reliant on external technical support.

It was disappointing that none of the participants indicated an interest in becoming HelpDesk trainers. The master trainer surmised that a possible reason for this was lack of confidence in their own abilities to present the course, especially if they were comparing themselves to the master trainer who has run this course many times. Still, most participants did indicate that they would be willing to train others back at their schools. The following participant comments show that the group benefitted greatly from the session:

“I enjoyed the course because it was well planned. The training helped me understand more about computers. The training really helped us to have a better understanding of the way computers work. Because of the training I can put up a helpdesk at my school to help the people understand how computers work. Lastly this course has really helped me a lot and I would recommend that this course be made available to everyone in SA.”

“The level of my computer skills has improved a lot. The trainer showed us, through his presentation, that he has passion for his work, and he is very well skilled. The dismantling of the computer was the most interesting part because I have never done that before, because I was afraid it would not start up. Suggestion, in

SchoolNet SA – Microsoft Training conducted in Northern Cape – 2011 - 2014 Page 4 the future, make sure that the network on the group computers work properly. It is a bit frustrating when you have to do something practical and it is not working. I would recommend Themba as a trainer in anything, because he goes to the level of everyone, even those who have never touched the computer before. Great work, much appreciated!!”

“The course can be recommended for all CAT and IT teachers. The trainer was hands on, and very clear in his explanations. We were free to ask questions and was answered in an understandable way. I can now understand and maybe do a little of the work the technicians come and do at schools. Troubleshooting will now be much easier. We were treated with the necessary respect and understanding. Thank you Themba!!”

1.3 Partners in Learning - ICT Leadership for Education Managers ICT Leadership for Education Managers training was run at the Siyanda ICT Resource Centre from 24 – 26 September 2013. The purpose of this programme is to introduce education managers in schools and regional offices to some key aspects of ICT leadership. The course is structured in 3 modules -what education managers can do with ICT; What teachers and learners do with ICT; and How schools manage ICT. The course is designed to introduce ideas about ICT leadership in order to gain a better understanding of ICT in the school.

Part of capacity building at the Vodacom supported ICT Resource Centres has been showing participants how to access materials and resources through the Microsoft Educators Network. Using the skills developed in these capacity building sessions the staff of this resource centre have been able to direct teachers in the district to the wealth of online resources available. Over three Saturdays in July 2013, a series of workshops for nine educators from Vorstereiland Primary School and Curriescamp Primary School were held to help these schools to make innovative use of the various ICT tools that they have at their disposal. The teachers had a range of computer skills and at first they were apprehensive about the training but the training team calmed them down with examples of how learners from the neighborhood teach themselves to use computers at the centre.

The third Saturday involved participants registering on Partners in learning portal and exploring the free resource available. Participants downloaded and installed AutoCollage, which is one of the free tools on the portal, and then used the creative commons search facilities to find photos related to a theme that they could turn into a collage. This activity drew on one of the sessions presented by Baldev Singh at the SchoolNet conference held in Bloemfontein in 2013. After completing this task, participants registered on Skype and started communication with each other. One the educator made contact with a relative at home and experienced video calling for the first time. This was the highlight of the day.

1.4 Partners in Learning Innovation Workshop Microsoft Innovation Workshops are run in order to provide insights and practical strategies to teachers wishing to become innovative educators by enhancing their lessons using technology. The workshops expose teachers to a range of tools that they can use, and they give examples of how

SchoolNet SA – Microsoft Training conducted in Northern Cape – 2011 - 2014 Page 5 other teachers have used these tools in their lessons. The courseware used in the Innovation Workshops was completely revised for the 2013 workshops, sponsored by Microsoft.

An Innovation Workshop was held at the Siyanda ICT Resource Centre on 20 April 2012 and was attended by 10 people. Whilst the facilitator of this session noted that the venue was excellent, half of the attendees lacked the basic ICT skills required for the training and had no or very little prior exposure to internet. The facilitator reported that whilst the group were excited and eager to learn the prospect of any of the teachers in this group developing a suitable learning activity is unlikely despite Centre Manager Bennett Johannesen offering to assist with uploading projects. The teachers in this group enjoyed the social media session and the Learning Event Generator session. All participants created twitter accounts and are following @schoolnetsa and @MicrosoftPIL. The trainees were not responsive during the discussions on 21st Century Learning Dimensions and the facilitator felt that the workshop would be improved if participants came to the training with a lesson plan/idea.

Conclusion and Recommendations The Northern Cape has the potential to demonstrate what can be achieved through the combined efforts of Microsoft Partners in Learning; the Northern Cape Department of Education; SchoolNet SA; and additional corporate sponsors such as the Vodacom Foundation. It is hoped that through the Department of Education’s commitment to providing training that more teachers in this province will have the opportunity of completing SACE accredited Microsoft Partners in Learning training. We have yet to have a finalist in the Microsoft in Education Forum hailing from the Northern Cape however through programmes and facilities such as the Siyanda ICT Resource Centre, which is so well run by the committed centre manager Bennett Johannesen, we believe it is only a matter of time before we see teachers from this province producing exemplary learning activities and sharing these with other teachers.

Megan Rademeyer Programmes Manager SchoolNet SA – July 2014

SchoolNet SA – Microsoft Training conducted in Northern Cape – 2011 - 2014 Page 6