Learnthings Africa & MTN
Bushbuckridge
Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
July 2010
Background
MTN, a major cellular network, contracted Learnthings Africa to provide basic computer literacy training to students and teachers at 100 rural schools across South Africa, where MTN provided each school with a fully functional computer lab. Each lab was equipped with around 30 desktop PC's
and an Interactive whiteboard. I had to train teachers on how to integrate technology into their teaching methodologies. I did basic training on MS Word, Encarta and Learnthings content to both teachers and students. I did facilitation at 12 of these schools in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North-West province and the Eastern Cape.
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| Sunset view from my chalet overlooking the lake - Phelwana lodge |
About Learnthings Africa
Learnthings Africa specializes in providing training based on the integration of ICT and digital materials within the teaching and learning environment so that users can meaningfully utilize ICT in education and harness ICT technology to improve, enrich and expand education. Some of the training programs include Computer literacy, Introduction to digital resources, Integrating ICT into teaching and learning, creating digital content, Evaluation of digital resources, the interactive whiteboard.
My Duties included:
- Teaching rural primary and secondary school children and teachers basic computer literacy on Microsoft. (WORD, EXCEL, and POWERPOINT as well as ENCARTA).
- Facilitating Training of teachers regarding the integration of ICT’s into teaching and learning.
- Training e-content developers and teachers how to digitize learning content.
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| The dirt road to Phelwana Game Lodge |
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| The dirt road to Phelwana lodge |
About Mpumalanga
Mpumalanga (Zulu name for "the place where the sun rises") is a province in eastern South Africa, bordering the nations of Swaziland and Mozambique. It embraces the southern half of Kruger National Park, a huge nature reserve with abundant wildlife including big game. The province's iconic Blyde River Canyon, among the world’s largest, is known as a green canyon because of its subtropical foliage (Wikipedia).
I stayed at the Phelwana lodge near Hoedspruit.
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| Phelwana game lodge entrance |
When you drive from the main gate to the actual lodgings it is about a 3 km game drive through the bush where you come across many wild animals.
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| Hippo |
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| Aloe |
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| Giraffe |
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| Sunset view |
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| waterbuck |
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| lake near the lodge |
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| Late afternoon bushveld |
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| Late afternoon bushveld |
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| Sunset view from my chalet over the lake |
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| Wood deck porch of my chalet - from where I took the pics |
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| Sunset view from my chalet over the lake |
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| Chalet exterior wall paintings |
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| Phelwana lodge chalets braai area |
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| My chalet interior |
To reach Khokovela Higher Primary school I drove through the Bushbuckridge rural area.
About Bushbuckridge
Bushbuckridge Local Municipality is an administrative division in the Ehlanzeni District of Mpumalanga province in South Africa. Tobacco, cotton, and vegetables are farmed in the municipality's countryside. It includes part of Kruger National Park, and is the biggest local municipality in Mpumalanga, in terms of land mass and by population (Wikipedia).
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| Bushbuckridge |
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| Rural Supermarket & taxi |
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| Rural house near the school |
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| Goats & ATM |
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| Khokhovela Higher Primary school coat of arms |
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| Khokhovela Higher Primary - Student training in the PC lab |
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| Khokhovela Higher Primary - Student training in the PC lab |
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| Khokhovela Higher Primary - Student training in the PC lab |
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| Khokhovela Higher Primary - Using the Interactive Whiteboard to train |
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| Khokhovela Higher Primary - Group photo of all the teachers after training |
