FOLLOWING their introduction of new smart boards in one of their grade 6 classrooms last year, Norkem Primary school has gone fully digital with all the classrooms using the smart boards.
Every classroom in the school has now been fitted with an interactive smart board, interactive whiteboard that uses a digital touch-screen (for example scrolling and right mouse-click) in the same way as a normal computer.
All class lessons are taught from the board, and teachers are able to write or draw on the touch-screen boards as well as navigate through the system.
“We are so excited to learn that Norkem Primary, according to Oxford University Press (the biggest distributors of textbooks in the country) is the first school in the whole of South Africa to go completely digital, including using digital textbooks,” John Clark, the school’s principal, shared with EXPRESS.
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Over and above this, the grades 4-7 learners purchased new tablets in September last year, which they use to download the class lessons as well as all their textbooks.
The tablets are also connected to the smart boards in class, which enables the learners to have on their tablets the lesson the teacher is giving on the board at the same time.
“Kids in the new age generally grow up with all this technology and find it easy to use, and as such, our learners have easily adapted to this method of schooling,” Clark explained.
Both teachers and learners are finding this new method of instruction advantageous in the classroom as it gives greater flexibility and time during class. It also makes learning that much more fun for the kids.
“There is also increased teacher support for learners, because we find we as educators have more time to interact individually with students during class, because the time it took to wait for learners to copy the work from the board has been completely cut, giving us more time for one-on-one attention during class,” Caleb Rorich, grade six maths teacher, who is also in charge of ICT at the school, expressed.
Norkem Primary would like to invite all schools in Kempton Park on May 17 when the school will have an ‘open day’, during which principals, IT representatives or other staff members will be welcome to visit the school and see how the new project is operated.
Schools can come through anytime between 8.30am and 12pm, where they can share ideas between the schools.
