Last night was our second evening event which we hosted at our office – the Open Innovation Studio in Cape Town. There were a couple of familiar faces from our opening event that joined us, as well as new teachers that had come to find out what it is that Siyavula do, and how they can be inspired to bring technology into the English classroom.

We invited two fantastic people to speak – Jenny Verwoerd and Steve Vosloo. Jenny is an English teacher at Parklands College, and Steve is a Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, whose project is Yoza.

Parklands College has a policy of one MacBook per learner, and Jenny spoke about her initial hesitation and fear of having to learn how to use a MacBook, as well as how to teach with it and use it in her everyday lessons. While this laptop concept is something that is largely unfamiliar to most schools in South Africa, the majority of the teachers present last night could relate to the anxiety surrounding having to adapt to keep up with the changes in technology and using it in the classroom. There were heads nodding in agreement when Jenny spoke about the full schedule that teachers already have, and how they generally don’t like new changes to their timetable and teaching. Trying to keep up with and adapt to teaching with technology is very challenging, but she made a very good point that as teachers, they are facilitating the growth and development of their learners, and preparing them for the job market not only in South Africa, but also abroad. It is important to equip learners with the best possible skills they can, to give them the best chance of success as they go out into the world. This means that teachers have to keep up with these changes, and be as innovative and flexible as they can be.

Jenny spoke about how by using computers in the classroom, the learners feel empowered as it is a “language” that they speak, something that they engage with every day. They arrive for their classes already feeling confident in themselves and their abilities, and take pride in showing their teacher what they can create using such tools. This is true for using computers or cellphones – embracing either technology has a similar effect.  Jenny showed us some of the ways that she has brought technology into her English classroom: having a race to see who could find the definition of a word the quickest – those using their cellphones or those looking it up manually in the dictionary; filming book reviews instead of writing them up the old fashioned way – this allows for individual self expression and creativity, not seen using the traditional method; making a movie using props to explain a poem they had done in class – the list goes on.

Steve’s project – Yoza – is about using your cellphone to read books online. The books are published in chapters each day, and reading each chapter only costs about 8c in cellphone browsing charges. The most reading that teenagers do these days is on their cellphones, be it texting or chatting on MXit. Steve is embracing this with Yoza – why not get them reading books on their cellphone, if that is the medium they are most comfortable using? He has had an amazing response from teenagers, in this book poor but mobile phone rich country of ours (to quote Steve!). Teenagers like reading on their cellphones – we may as well embrace this as cellphones will not be going anywhere. By November 2009, Yoza had 63 000 subscribers on Mxit. Not all of them read the books to the end, but people are taking a huge interest in this concept of reading books on their cellphones. Yoza also has some Shakespeare classics, which have received a great response from readers. For more information on Steve’s findings of this project, please see the link here for a website of reports.

Good conversation took place after the presentations, with some teachers sharing their own teaching experiences and web resources that they have come across. Snacks and wine were enjoyed too, as conversation took place amongst everyone about what had been covered that evening.

We are very happy with the feedback we received from this event, and feel that the tools introduced were well received. Thank you to everyone that attended last night – we trust that you left feeling inspired!

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