The ICT Skills for Teachers course remains one of SchoolNet SA’s most popular offerings and with the addition of tip-sheets for the latest versions of Microsoft Office, the course has just become even more useful.
Teachers enjoy learning how to use digital tools such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel – but in contexts that are useful and meaningful to them as teachers. For example, instead of learning lots of Excel functionality that they are unlikely to use again after the training, teachers instead chose from education based scenarios such as Create a Simple Marksheet. Whilst working through this scenario, teachers would learn how to change column widths, calculate percentages, and determine a learner’s total for the term, which are skills they will definitely use again in the context of their professional work.
There are 36 different scenarios in the ICT Skills for Teachers course covering beginner, intermediate and advanced skills as well as a variety of tools. At workshops, teachers are encouraged to select scenarios that they will find useful which keeps them motivated and ensures that they create artifacts that they will actually use after training.
We also encourage teachers to try out related scenarios – for example once they have created a simple marksheet they may want to move on to create an interactive marksheet – so that they stretch their existing skills without feeling overwhelmed.
The ICT Skills for Teachers course incorporates ‘just-in-time’ learning which means teachers learn how to do things as they need to do them, not just in case they may require a skill at a later stage. For example, If a teacher already knows how to adjust column widths in Excel, he or she just performs the task on his or her own marksheet. But if someone doesn’t know how to do this, it is easy to access a tip sheet by clicking on the “see how” link. This will then open up annotated, step-by-step instructions.
SchoolNet SA recently updated the tip-sheets for the Microsoft Partners in Learning ICT Skills for Teachers course to show screen-shots and instructions for Office 2016 and O365. This will make it easier for teachers using these versions of Microsoft software to work through the scenarios.
Whilst teachers can work through these scenarios anywhere, anytime, the materials work best when offered as a face-to-face workshop, with teachers working with a facilitator to see how to use the materials, learning from one another and showcasing their work.
Please contact info@schoolnet.org.za if you are interested in arranging a SACE endorsed ICT Skills for Teachers workshop for your schools. We can then send you a quote based on where you are situated and how many teachers require training.
