Blogging and South Africa

Throughout the South African experience the best days were spent teaching! On he Tuesday we had to address the whole school - 900 Afrikaans speaking students and staff!

I am about to use blogs to allow learners in two countries to communicate. The plan is to get a small group of students in my school and our partner school to pose questions for the others to answer. At first we are going to use Year 7 and 8 pupils in order to increase the sustainability of the project - allowing the selected students to 'grow up' with the project. Small groups have been selected so that there are no issues of capacity. The partner school does not have the access to technology that we are lucky to enjoy - 5 computers compared to being able to get whole classes on the machines!

The first questions will focus on the physical geography immediately around the two schools - which are very different! It is then hoped that this will widen to include many other issues.

Other students in my school will benefit from the partnership as a SoW will be written. I hope that readers will keep follow these developments and I would love to hear from people who have developed successful links with international schools: how have these links been made sustainable?

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David Rogers

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