Ipad in Education - Transoranje School for the Deaf #iPadLearningZA

Following on the inspiring story and challenge by Abdul Chohan, "What would you do if you were not afraid?"on Friday, we were shown this video as one of the iPad in Education projects in South Africa that is transforming Education.

The Transoranje School for the Deaf, located on the outskirts of Pretoria, is home to 200 deaf and hard-of-hearing pre-primary to high school students.

The children are developmentally behind their peers because of a lack of language exposure.

Photo: Core Group

The iDeaf Project on the iPad originated out of a necessity to better equip the deaf students with the critical reading and language skills needed to accelerate their learning to desired levels.  The developers set out to combine a variety of visual and language elements because their learning are centred around visual methods.

Picsterbooks developed a series of locally relevant and interactive story books in both English and Afrikaans that would teach deaf students to read using South African Sign Language. The books are not only engaging but also enables a level of in-depth understanding that has surpassed previous learning methods.
It has transformed the way the school teaches students to read and communicate effectively.

The iDeaf app overview

"The storybook apps were designed locally to meet the needs of deaf students who use South African Sign Language.

• There are 6 storybooks which include folk tales such as 3 Little Pigs, Goldilocks and The Gingerbread Man, as well as uniquely created stories which are based on the local curriculum such as The Clever Plan and The Big Carrot.
• All the storybooks are based on the objectives of the South African curriculum and contain beautifully illustrated stories designed in a standardised format.
• The storybooks can be read in English or Afrikaans and contain various visual elements: simplified text and syntax, picture animations, highlighted words, finger spelling and SASL (South African Sign Language) interpretations and video.
• The highlighted words in the app are words that deaf children commonly struggle with. When selecting these words they are explained in 4 formats: text, an animation or an image, SASL and finger spelling (deaf ABC). By combining the learning elements into 1 place, the student is able to move through the book and develop a range of skills in an easy to understand format.
• The books also contain an audio element for only partially deaf children so that they can also hear the book read aloud, while reading the text and learning the sign.
• The storybooks were created using the Demibooks Composer app only available on iPad."

"We are working with children who are naturally language users with their hands 

and this was just an extension of their own language."

                                          Karen Hart, App Developer and Digital Publisher

I love the fact that the students AND teachers have already found new ways to use their iPads in their learning at the school, not only for reading and language skills!

The story of a little girl named Caitlin

Photo courtesy of Sherene Hustler of Inner Eye Photography

When you become a parent, you become even more aware of how precious a child is. And it touches you even more when you hear about children suffering, or hurting. This is the story of Caitlin, a 5-year old girl. She is also the daughter of Dries’s cousin, Michelle.

She was born prematurely with her twin sister at 30 weeks. There were complications such as stopping to breathe, struggling with reflux, and she contracted the Rotavirus at 7 months. At nine months Michelle’s niggling suspicions were confirmed that something was very wrong when she demanded answers. Up until then the paediatrician told her not to worry. Caitlin had undetected brain bleeding since birth which led to the fact that her entire motor section in her brain was gone.

The prognosis was very bad: acute cerebral palsy! Caitlin would only live until 15 years of age!

Michelle has not given up hope. To the contrary: she has been researching Caitlin’s condition and she has tried to get her the extra special care she needs. It is very difficult because she is single parent. Their hope is now focused on Neuro-endoscopic Autologous Stem Cell Implantation, which Caitlin has already been approved for at the X-Cell Centre in Germany. Michelle needs R300 000 for the trip and the medical procedures.

She is now bringing the plight of Catlin to everybody’s attention. The story of Caitlin has been published in People Magazine of this week.

Michelle has also started a Facebook fan page for Caitlin, called The Little Train who Can: Caitlin’s story so far. You can find more information about Caitlin and her condition on the page.

We are so blessed when we have healthy children. We believe that this little girl will also outlive her prognosis.

Miracles do happen every day, don’t they?

The reality is definitely stranger than dreams

You sometimes find yourself in a situation where you think: This can’t be real! But it is!
Last Thursday I was in a course where they had to explain the Occupational Health and Safety Act of South Africa to us. Apparently the law requires companies to inform the workers about their rights as well as making them aware of safety issues in the workplace.
Our course presenter was an older man who looks like he has spent his whole career in security, with his curly grey hair, his purple shirt and a short tie.
He introduced himself very politely to each of us, and tried to remember our names by using it again. But he struggled to pronounce the African names, because he only addressed the white workshop participants by their names again. He addressed the rest of the African course participants (which were in the majority) as “Mister” and “Misses.” (Although he had asked for their names as well).

He asked the course participants to read passages from the law, as well as from the course notes, but as soon as they started to read, he interjected by reading as well or saying something about the content.

He initiated a role-play with one of the participants:
Boss (presenter): Knock on door.
Worker (course participant): Come in.
Boss: Will you please drive a fork-lift for me?
Worker: No, I don’t have a license.
Boss: Please, I will give you R500. Do it for me?
Worker: Okay, I will! (And it is explained that he proceeds to drive into another worker – with consequences to the company and the boss.) (Very, very lame…)

The best was when he explained that workers are not able to do their work without their hands or eyes. My blind colleague immediately reacted by saying: “I am going to go home now!”
The presenter flushed bright red, and said that he wasn’t thinking.
My colleague was laughing, but you could see that the presenter felt very bad about his faux’ pas.
A very strange four hours, indeed!