Submitted by Megan Rademeyer
An impressive 160 teachers attended a
Microsoft Educator Community Networking Session held on 22-23 March 2016, in the school holidays,  at the Vodacom
supported ICT Resource Centre in Emalahleni. Mpumalanga teachers in the
area were asked to attend a session on one of the days of their school holidays
to learn more about new trends in education for using technology in the
classroom. The sessions were organised by  Nomusa
Keninda, eLearning Specialist for Mpumalanga Department of
Education and Megan Rademeyer from SchoolNet took teachers on a step
by step tour of the Microsoft Educator Community,
focusing on the newly released Teaching with Technology online
course. Teachers in attendance were also encouraged to sign up to be SchoolNet
SA members– a free program aimed at helping teachers stay in touch
with the latest trends and events in using technology for educational purposes.

It was
exciting to see teachers arrive in their numbers to learn more about how they
can enhance teaching using technology and we trust that teachers left the
session inspired with ideas to try out when they get back to school. Another
networking session is being planned for April, and once again local teachers
will be encouraged to attend to boost their skills for teaching in the ICT
environment.