Leading IT in education advocate and service provider, CoZa Cares Foundation, has revealed the list of the 2015 ISPA SuperTeacher Competition finalists. This competition, acknowledged as the foremost ICT in education competition for South African teachers, has been held annually since 2001.
This year, the competition was conducted online, with participants uploading their projects to a site where their entries could be scored remotely by a panel of ICT in education experts.
In the running for the three accolades to be presented during the annual iWeek Internet industry gathering are educators Christopher Filander, Henriette Van Wyk, John Aphane, Mabore Lekalakala, Matthew Hains, Mokgethoa Ramonya, Mokhudu Machaba, Peter Lekolwane, Sebenzile Mathe and Tinny Molepo. These teachers hail from around the country.
CoZa Cares Foundation CEO Fiona Wallace comments: “Fully-capacitated teachers equipped with the latest IT knowledge are powerful agents of change to transform education and support learners in the transition to participation in a global knowledge-based society. So much more can be done with the right technology tools in 2015. Our finalists have more than demonstrated their exceptional use of technology in their classrooms, schools and communities. They are an inspiration to the national teaching community.”
The iWeek conference and exhibition takes place from 7 to 11 September 2015 at Spier in Stellenbosch and will see the naming of this year’s ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year. This annual industry event is co-hosted by the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) and the ZA Central Registry (ZACR).
Last year, the ISPA SuperTeacher Awards introduced two additional categories: ISPA ChampTeacher (for previous winners) and ISPA TechTeacher (for teachers at private and well-resourced schools). The three award recipients will be teachers who have best demonstrated how ICT can be used to benefit teaching and learning in South Africa.
All 10 shortlisted finalists submitted projects centred on ICT in education and their evaluation was overseen by CoZa Cares Foundation, the manager of the ISPA SuperTeacher of the Year competition. A special adjudication panel representing the Department of Basic Education, other leading NGOs in the sector and ISPA have selected the three winners of this prestigious competition, whose names will be revealed at the awards evening at iWeek on Thursday 10 September.
Each year ISPA funds some of the ICT training for teachers from under-resourced South African schools. Since the inception of the programme, training has been provided to more than 4 000 teachers thanks to continued support from ISPA’s members.
CoZa Cares Foundation’s other work includes digital content curation and delivery, particularly Open Education Resources (OERs), via their pioneering Nolwazi OER repository; teacher professional development via their ICT in Education capacity-building arm and monitoring and evaluation via their innovative mobile auditing tools.
