Did you know that baby rhinos are born without knee-caps? And if you didn’t, you’re sure to wonder – do they grow in later?
Interesting titbits like this can be found on Telkom’s new educational website e*telpals, launched last month.
The site, in its own words, is a ‘ultra cool and exciting website for young South Africans. More than just a website, e*telpal is a virtual space where South African youth from all over the country can make digital friends, chat online and in so doing create their very own digital personalities”.
e*telpal aims to help youths become part of the growing digital community, an aim which ties in with this year’s theme for information and communication technologies: ‘Empowering people across the digital divide”.
It builds on a similar project launched in 1997 by Telkom called telpal (telephonic pen-pals) that recognises the prominent role telecommunications can play both in education and in uniting different communities across vast distances.
The site is targeted at school children between the ages 12-19 with Internet facilities. It is fun and is easy to use. There are big cheerful icons that unroll themselves when a cursor hovers over them (because of these kinds of features the site needs the Flash plug-in – which can be downloaded for free from http://www.macromedia.com and there are all sorts of nooks and crannies where information is hidden away.
There’s a story about the most accurate clocks in the world and another about how the telephone works. Both are interesting and should appeal to enquiring young minds.
There is another area where pupils can chat between 2pm and 5pm. All that is needed upon registering are basic details such as name, age, school and interests. Those sharing the same tastes and interests are automatically grouped and can then chat. This area is going to have to be closely monitored for obvious reasons, but Telkom isn’t taking any chances and is covering itself. Here’s an excerpt from their disclaimer: ‘If you get hurt in any way or anybody you know gets hurt in any way while you are using one of our chat rooms or bulletin boards, it will not be our fault.”
There is also a teachers’ arena – where educators can discuss their experiences with their colleagues. Every fortnight, two 30-minute activities designed for teachers to use in the classroom will be posted in the teacher-to-teacher section.
Subjects that the site intends focusing on for the rest of this year include inventions, outer space, drugs and their effects, music and wonders of the world. Teachers can download and print these out and use them to complement their lessons.
Inexcusably, some areas of the site have not yet been populated with content. The bulletin boards and library are empty. Why launch a half-empty website?
So, the site is up on the Web, but e*telpals will learners and teachers visit it?
A question remains: site certainly has potential and could become a bustling centre – but only if it is kept up to date with fresh content and ideas.