The power of technology as an educational tool was on display at the iLife Competition 2008 awards prize-giving held on Thursday night.
The annual competition, organised by the Core Group, is an opportunity for learners to take ordinary, curriculum-aligned class projects and report back on them in the form of a movie, sound clip or even a video podcast.
The 2008 entries were drawn from various private schools in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, with a total of 79 entries received.
“Students live in an ever-changing environment, and in order for educators to enhance the learning process they need to stimulate learners within the digital medium in which they operate,” said RJ von Spoondank, of the Core Group, which distributes Apple products in Southern Africa.
“The competition allows educators to impart knowledge using the latest in innovative education tools, as is evident in the projects produced by all the entrants.”
The competition was split into two categories; grades one to three and grades four to seven. There was a regional winner and an overall winner for each category.
Each grade group had a regional winner and there was an overall winner in each group as well, with Crawford College Lonehill scooping the prize for grades 4-7 and Highbury Preparatory claiming the gong for grades 1-3.
The regional winners were St John’s Preparatory (Gauteng), Chelsea Preparatory (KZN) and Herschel Girls’ (Western Cape).
Each of the learners in the winning groups received an ipod while the teachers received Apple Macbook computers.
Entries have opened for the 2009 edition of the competition and Van Spoondank is hoping to receive entries from less privileged schools this time around.
“We have found that technology is the great leveller and hopefully more less privileged schools will be able to participate this year as part of our iSchool Africa initiative,” he said.
“iSchool Africa aims to make Apple technology available to poorer schools and hopefully we will see some entries for the competition generated through this initiative.”
Regional winners
Gauteng
St Johns Preparatory for their project ‘Saving Earth’ which looked at conservation.
KZN
Chelsea Preparatory for their project ‘Global Warming’
Western Cape
Herschel Girls’ for their project ‘Animals and their young’ which looked at animal welfare
Grade Winners
Grades 1-3
Highbury Preparatory for ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ – a visual interpretation of the children’s tale
Grades 4-7
Crawford College Lonehill for ‘Sadako Sasaki’ – the story of a girl who sparked a peace movement after the Second World War.