Our digital journey begins today

"Our digital journey starts today" said Ms. Shirley from Sibukusethu Primary School before clicking the  shutdown tab to turn off her computer.  She was amongst the eight teachers who attended the Microsoft Educator Networking Session on the 3rd October 2016 at Anglo ICT Resource Centre commonly known as Landau.

In fact, these teachers joined the Mpumalanga ICT Club to start their journey of disrupting their classes with technology. They chose a not very difficult path, a Microsoft Microsoft Educator Community platform is an easy as ABC path. "If you are ready I am also ready to host you everyday here" remarked Jabulani Mashia - Microsoft Education Trainer at the Centre. "Together with Sisi Nomusa,  we will be hosting sessions in the afternoons, weekends and during school holidays. The ball is in your court and you must spread the good news" related Jabulani.

The Microsoft Educator Networking Sessions are organised for teachers to share their best digital practice in their classrooms using Microsoft products online and offline. It is an opportunity to learn from other teachers online and face to face.

We took them step by step into the signing up process with the Microsoft Educator Community, they created their Microsoft account, sign up and immediately updated their profiles. For the first time they came across an online training. We took them through the organised courses for teachers and landed in The Teaching With Technology Basics.
"We should be doing this planning before delivering a lesson in the classroom" said Khosi.  Shirley agreed with excitement when she was reading a lesson plan of a language teacher, who use a poem with pictures and a video clip of a storm  to teach a language lesson.

These teachers also became members of the Vodacom Digital Classroom. It was an exciting moment when they navigated through the portal to see all the resources in these two portals. We couldn't waste time, we couldn't spoi the moment of becoming one family in a What's app group chat. The good news spread by as the teachers came from widespread schools in the district. Some from Steve Tshwete Municipality and eMakhazeni.