The Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) has named its ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year for 2014. The winner of one of South Africa’s leading ICT in education accolades is Limpopo’s Simon Mosiwa Matlebjane (Mountainview Secondary School).
This year’s instalment of the annual ISPA SuperTeacher Awards introduced two additional categories – Sadike Kekana (Toronto Primary School) was recognised as ISPA ChampTeacher 2014 while Warren Sparrow (Rondebosch Boys Prep) was recognised as ISPA TechTeacher 2014. The three teachers best demonstrated how ICTs could be used to benefit teaching and learning.
The three winners were selected from 10 shortlisted finalists who all submitted projects centred on ICT in education. The awards were presented last night at a banquet held during iWeek, the annual Internet industry conference hosted by the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) and ISPA. ISPA’s SuperTeacher of the Year competition is managed by CoZa Cares Foundation, a leading advocate of the use of ICT in education.
Kekana, a Grade 6 and 7 Maths teacher, won the SuperTeacher of the Year Award in 2012. This year’s award was made on the basis of a project she initiated to help teachers at other schools to integrate ICT into their teaching. In the course of this project, she worked with staff at nine schools, one in Gauteng and the rest in Limpopo.
“Many of these schools are very under-resourced, so I concentrated on helping them to use what technology they did have—for example, cell phones,” she says. “With the right sort of training and support, teachers can make huge progress in learning how to use scarce technology resources to improve their teaching.”
Matlebjane is the head of the Maths and Technology Departments at Mountainview, and was nominated for a project that seeks to eliminate the technophobia that holds so many teachers back.
Matlebjane provided his colleagues at the school with training on software packages to enable them to use these productivity tools to produce mark sheets and schedules more quickly. Most importantly, he is developing digital content and materials that use technology to teach Maths more effectively.
Matlebjane is a leading teacher involved in the pilot of Microsoft’s TV White Space initiative in Limpopo, which is using unused TV spectrum to provide Internet access to rural schools.
The third winner, Warren Sparrow, was honoured for HIV Busters, an innovative project that taught Grade 7 pupils to use their cell phones to create videos on the topic of HIV. The best movies may be found on YouTube. “The project taught the kids how to use technology to express their creativity, giving them a voice to talk about an issue that is important to them, and to the community more broadly,” he says.
The three award-winners each receive a tablet and a trophy, as well as the opportunity to present a paper on their projects at a national educational conference during the year.
“Over the years, it’s become clear that the chance to present to their peers is the real prize for these SuperTeachers—it’s a tremendous personal growth experience and a way to link up with like-minded colleagues,” says CoZa Cares Foundation CEO, Fiona Wallace. “These projects show just how useful – and practical – ICT can be in helping to overcome the challenges faced by our educational system.”