by Kristin Engel
Cape Town - The inaugural T4 Education Teacher Tech virtual summit will take place on April 17, and more than 20 000 teachers from around the globe will tune in.
The summit recognises the leading role teachers have played in developing digital and educational solutions to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since the beginning of the pandemic an estimated 63 million primary and secondary teachers were affected by restrictions forcing schools to fully or partially close, according to the Unesco Global Education Coalition.
Founder of T4 Education, Vikas Pota, notes that teachers have rapidly gone from a situation where restrictions caused great uncertainty, to now using technology in innovative ways to implement positive educational outcomes.
Teachers started sharing their best practices, promoting greater innovation and creativity through informal collaboration.
“We have seen amazing collaboration among teaching peers in every country, where they have played a leading role in creating the solutions to the unprecedented challenges they have needed to overcome. The results are not only benefiting millions of children and whole communities worldwide, but also the profession.”
The T4 Teacher Tech Summit is designed specifically to provide a platform for teachers to share expertise and experiences using educational technologies from the past year with a global audience.
The event focuses on designing learning for hybrid environments, engaging learners online, how to create good digital content, assessing learning online and ensuring no one is left behind during online learning.
T4 country ambassador and chief of staff at Jakes Gerwel Fellowship, Sihle Ngesi-Magubane, adds that blended learning will soon become a norm in the schooling system. Thus, South Africa needs to be reimagined for digital and remote learning.
“Most of our teachers are not specifically trained in this area and lacked the support to make this transition successfully. Now that we have a little more breathing room, we should be intentional in developing these skills for all teachers in the system,” he said.
“Teaching during a pandemic is not simply about delivering content online, it's about harnessing the potential of digital channels, online technologies and resources to thrive and deliver effective teaching and impactful learning whether in a remote, online or hybrid teaching environment.”
Cape Argus