What the students at De Rust Futura Academy said…

Student comments

Here are a few comments made by the students

“I like using the Smartphone as it gives us a more comfortable understanding of how to use other types of technology”

 

 

“I found the Smartphone interesting and feel it can help us learn more about English”

“It’s like a mini computer that you don’t have to go to the computer room to use it.”

 

 

“Using the dictionary on the phone makes me want to look up words I don’t know.”

“I like the phones as they are fun and interesting”

 

 

“It’s a simple way of finding out new things.”

“Using the Smartphone makes reading more interesting as you can easily find notes you’ve made on the book (using the e-book reader) .”

Day 5: The Global Mobile Learning Conference

Friday came round very quickly and the focus for today was on the Global Mobile Learning Conference.

Day 4: My favourite lesson 'Atletiek'

Well I was wide awake after 1hr of Athletiek (athletics) this morning that started at 8am....

There were 35-40 children from primary to grade 12 on the field taking part in different activities. Most Fridays there is an athletic meet for the primary students and most Saturday’s a meet for the 14+. Last week one of the primary school boys competed in the 14+ and came 2nd in the 100m - brilliant!

The lesson started with the opwarm (warm up) and was followed by

• 100m
• 200m
• 400m
• Gewigstoot (Shot putt)
• Diskus (Discus) &
• Verspring (Long Jump)

I took a couple of Flip camera's out on the field and moved around the field, filming little clips of each group. I then showed and spoke to the teacher's why, here's a few;

• You can get the students to film & analyse their fellow students actions to show them how to improve their movements/performance. 
• Enables the student who's doing the movement to review and evaluate their own personal progress in athletics.
• Make the lesson more fun/engaging - it's great when you're the person throwing the shot/discus, running to see how far you can jump but if you're the last in a group of 15 :(
• On the phones there's a stop watch, get them to time sprints/laps

The teacher's will now try m-learning on the field – result

The rest of the day was spent in lesson's working with what was introduced to them. Tomorrow is feedback time.

Once school was out, teacher Pam February very kindly took me to Hermanus, a beautiful town & known to be the 'Whale watching capital of the world' . We walked around the, now very touristy town, and saw some amazing views with the mountains as a back drop to the beach.

Day 3: It's back to the classroom for me!

The last time I stepped into a lesson was a few (cough) years ago. Today lessons started at 8am and finished at 2.20pm - and these lessons flew by. We just got into the swing and drrrrring time to go to the next 1!
So here's how part of my day looked. Each lesson was 30minutes long approx.

De Rust Futura video clips

Video clips so far....

Check out news from across the seas about the project

Few of sites for you to look at, they can also be found under the links section.

De Rust Futura Acadamy website
Learning Acadamy Worldwide
m-Ubuntu

Day 2: Teachers and learners get to play with the gadgets!

Goeie naand!

Oh boy early start but such a quick finish. Geoff and I had a mad but really successful day introducing the devices to the teachers and learners at De Rust Furtura.

Day 1 at De Rust Futura Acadamy

Wow, what a journey from Cape Town. As you leave the fab city bowl, you start to see lots of informal dwellings - quite an eyeopener. But the closer you get to Grabouw the views start to change to breathtaking scentic views.

So to the school..it's situated on a wine farm! The school is 52yrs old and was orignally a small church school with 2 classrooms and now they have loads.
We met Wandred the Head teacher, Andrew and Pam - two teachers who are very enthusiatic about the ways devices can help their teaching.

Later on I'll post the video clips from Grade 8 using flip cameras from today - these guys were amazing.