eMalahleni teachers made it to the Global List of Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts

Nomusa Keninda- Mpumalanga ICT CLUB Founder and a Senior Education Specialist for Mpumalanga Department of Education, Vanessa Talane- Teacher at Witbank High School and Miss Sadtu -Willy Mathaila Region in eMalahleni, Bheki Mbatha-Teacher at Zacheaus Malaza Secondary School, eMalahleni and Oupa Molopo, teacher from Phanagela Secondary, KwaMhlanga made it to the Global Official published list of Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts 2019-2020.

Vanessa Talane & Nomusa Keninda 

Each year, Microsoft selects Innovative Educator Experts to be part of this exclusive global community paving the way for their peers to share ideas, try new approaches, and learn from each other. They have been chosen as an MIE Expert because they are self-driven, passionate about their work, have true collaborative spirit, and strive to inspire students with outside-the-box thinking on technology in education. We appreciate their resourcefulness and entrepreneurial spirit. 

Nomusa Keninda has attended the Education Exchange E2 in Paris in April this year as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Fellow. She is a founder of the Mpumalanga ICT CLUB and initiated number of projects in the club including the DigiGirlz Coding Clubs Events. She motivates young girls to develop a Positive Personal Branding and stay in STEM education. She is introducing these girls in Computer Science basics called Coding and robotics skills during DigiGirlz events.

Vanessa Talane is becoming an inspiration to her colleagues at Witbank High School, she is a coordinator of the ICT activities in the school. Very influential in assisting teachers to get digital skills. The school is now having standing meetings on ICT integration. She and her colleagues attended the SchoolnetSA Digital Conference during school holidays in June this year.
Mr. Bheki Mbatha, visionary teacher at Zacheaus Malaza. He has several projects such as eLibrary that he has established for learners to access e-content. He has recently established an online training on how to use simple devices and tools to integrateaICT in curriculum hosted in his YouTube channel called Qheqheshwani. Last year, Bheki received a District National Teaching Award for enhancing his classroom teaching with technology.

Mr Oupa Moloto, very enthusiastic teacher from Phanagela Secondary School, hails from a small rural village of KwaMhlanga called Vlaklaagter. He inspired teachers to use the power of Microsoft Excel to record learners progress. He has been a part of Delta ICT project of SchoolnetSA.
These teachers may be joining the E2 2020 that will be taking place in Sydney, Australia next year if they work hard and become selected to join global teachers to share their expertise in the classroom.

eMalahleni teachers exposed to 4IR in Education

Witbank High School and DM Motsaosele Secondary School teachers were exposed to the 4th Industrial Revolution in Education at the SchoolnetSA Digital Learning Conference  hosted in the North West Province at Lebone II Royal Bafokeng Institute on the 26-28 June 2019.

During the panel discussion hosted on the first day of the conference where Nomusa Keninda- Mpumalanga ICT Club Founder and the e- Learning Specialist for the Mpumalanga Department of Education answered questions from the floor of whether the 4IR is still coming or is already here for teachers to prepare or to adapt into it. "We are already in the 4th Industrial Revolution and as teachers we need to learn faster to introduce our learners in preparation for their jobs that never existed in our era" she replied.

These teachers were exposed to different kinds of ICT skills that can help them enhance their classrooms lessons. Virtual Reality, Minecraft Education, OneNote,  Skype in the classroom, Coding and Robotics topped the lists of skills acquired from the conference.  

Since I attended the Microsoft Education Exchange Global Summit in Paris recently in April, I took teachers step by step on how they can become Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts to join the Global Summit next year in Sydney, Australia.  Keninda said.

MICROSOFT INNOVATIVE EDUCATOR EXPERTS IN MPUMALANGA MADE IT TO THE GLOBAL LIST

Vanessa Talane and Nomusa Keninda 

Nomusa Keninda- Mpumalanga ICT CLUB Founder and a Senior Education Specialist for Mpumalanga Department of Education, Vanessa Talane- Teacher at Witbank High School and Miss Sadtu -Willy Mathaila Region in eMalahleni, Bheki Mbatha-Teacher at Zacheaus Malaza Secondary School, eMalahleni and Oupa Molopo, teacher from Phanagela Secondary, KwaMhlanga made it to the Global Official published list of Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts 2019-2020.

Nomusa Keninda has recently attended the Education Exchange E2 in Paris as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Fellow. She is a founder of the Mpumalanga ICT CLUB and initiated number of projects in the club including the DigiGirlz Coding Clubs Events. She motivates young girls to develop a Positive Personal Branding and stay in STEM education. She is introducing girls in coding and robotics skills during DigiGirlz events.

Vanessa Talane is becoming an inspiration to her colleagues at Witbank High School, she is a coordinator of the ICT activities in the school. Very influential in assisting teachers to get digital skills. The school is now having standing meetings on the integration of ICT in curriculum. An ICT policy is now in place to guide the school in this journey.

Mr. Bheki Mbatha, visionary teacher at Zacheaus Malaza. He has several projects such as eLibrary that he has established with grade 11 learners for learners to access e-content. He has recently established an online training on simple devices and tools teachers can use to integrate ict in curriculum hosted in his YouTube channel called Qheqheshwani.

Mr Oupa Moloto, very enthusiastic teacher from Phanagela Secondary School, hails from a small rural village of KwaMhlanga called Vlaklaagter. He inspired teachers to use the power of Microsoft Excel to record learners progress. He has been a part of Delta ICT project of SchoolnetSA.

These teachers may be joining the E2 2020 that will be taking place in Sydney, Australia next year if they work hard and become selected to join the other global teachers to share their expertise in the classroom.

Microsoft Forms and OneNote becomes popular in Emalahleni

Powerful two days workshops hosted by Witbank High School and HTS Witbank in eMalahleni on the 28 and 29 May 2019 helped teachers and principals to gain new computer skills. Microsoft Forms and Microsoft OneNote became popular to teachers.

Ronelle Klinck 

Recently, I visited Vuma Primary School principal, after Eskom and the Executive Mayor Cllr. Lina Malatjie of eMalahleni Local Municipality handed over laptops and a smart interactive board to the school. Mr. JS Masemola, the principal of the school was overwhelmed about the power of OneNote and his new outlook email. " look mem", refering to me whilst showing me pictures of the handover event in his laptop and smartphone onedrive storage. "I can now delete all the pictures in my camera, they are here now" said Masemola with confidence.

Ronelle Klinck & Nomusa
Keninda at OR Tambo Academy 

The Principal was among the participants who attended the workshop at HTS Witbank conducted by me and Ronelle Klinck from Microsoft.  24 Principals were trained on how to use their onedrive cloud storage and Microsoft OneNote to manage their administrative files.

"All my important documents are now in here and I don't regret the loss of my two external drive.  If I knew I can use Onedrive for my files" related the Principal with a smile. He started to train three of his SMT members in the school so that they can assist in training the staff.

I will make some similar visits to all the schools that attended the workshops to enjoy the feedback and also arranged further training sessions with teachers.

Thank you Ronelle Klinck for supporting Mpumalanga ICT Club.

ICT Club Celebrates Five Years

This story was published by Middelburg Observer local Newspaper in Steve Tshwete Municipality.

Mpumalanga ICT Club turned 5 years old.

Wow! time flies real fast, more faster than the blink of our eyes. That is happening with the Mpumalanga ICT Club existence since 2014.

"I can't believe the club has turned 5 years old" said Ms. Keninda Nomusa, founder of the Mpumalanga ICT Club.

The club was first launched in 2014 at Edward Matyeka Primary School with only about 66 teachers at that time. Teachers attended their first Online training using Google Apps for Education and was then called Google Education Group Emalahleni "GEGeMalahleni"

We started spreading and touched even Siyabuswa as GEGSiyabuswa. Afterwards, the club added various initiatives such as Intel She will connect, Africa Code Week- Coding, Digigirlz and CreativITy workshops with learners and teachers.

The club hosted many training workshops to empower teachers, learners in schools with ICT skills including Coding. We pride ourselves with such a contribution to our communities.

We love to say Bravo! To all our participants and supporters. We owe Schoolnet South Africa and SAASTEC Organisations for the wisdom and inspiration that made us grow to this level.  Our partnerships and collaboration with you and others were awesome and encouraging indeed.

The club presented its work in a number of international and national platforms including Paris France recently, Africa Play Summit in Pretoria and in the 365EduEvents  Dubai based organization led by the late Mr  Mark Duncan  in Durban and Caoe Town last year. We continue to launch our prominent Digigirlz event initiative in various platforms including the International Girls in ICT hosted by Nkangala TVET College in collaboration with the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services.


We take this opportunity to thank Ms. Nomusa Keninda, Founder and Ntombizodwa Gininda for keeping the fire burning in the club by ensuring that the club is on the international arena and locally as well.