Dorothea school embraces e-learning

In the heart of Cloetesville is a school with world-class classrooms where innovative staff have taken up the challenge to integrate the school with iLearning and have exceeded expectations.

This according to Michelle Lissoos, director of iStore Education and the iSchoolAfrica Education Trust, who recently visited the Dorothea Special School. Here Lissoos and visitors were shown how Dorothea Special School has incorporated the iPad and the accompanying software into their school day to help all learners, no matter their learning challenges, reach their academic potential.

iSchoolAfrica’s journey with the school started six years ago with a donation of 16 iPads. Since then additional donations, training and assistance has helped the school became the world’s first Apple Distinguished School which caters to learners with special needs.

Lissoos said Dorothea school is a shining example of why iStore Education and iSchoolAfrica was first created in 2009. “Dorothea is the epitome of what we at iSchoolAfrica believe: that every child should have access to the right tools to success. The staff have integrated iLearning into everything they do and it has become a world class school because of it.”

The trust helps mainstream and special schools, including those for deaf, blind and differently abled learners through the iSchoolAfrica Inclusion Programme.

“Taking the first steps was daunting but worth it,” principal Anthea Williams said. “We are in awe of the raw talent we see in our learners, which has shone through thanks to the integration of the iSchoolAfrica programme into curriculum. We are so grateful to the iSchoolAfrica team for all the have done to help Dorothea.”

Now learners with severe intellectual disabilities (SID), profound intellectual disabilities (PID) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use iPads to do mathematics, improve their fine motor skills, make posters and even create animated comic strips.

For therapists like Geraldine Jacobs, the iPads have become another tool with which to provide speech-and-language therapy to non-verbal learners and provide a means for learners to communicate their wants and needs.

In teacher Jasmin Meyer’s Grade 3 ASD class, learners were recently taught about the dangers of pollution and the negative effects it has on both the environment and people.

After creating hand-made posters, the learners had to create digital versions of their work, which included animations. Through the skills learnt in class these children may one day become graphic designers or videomakers, which according to Williams is the ultimate mission of the school.

She said the school’s mission is to help learners intergrate into the society at large.

“Our learners have the potential to be active, contributing members of society who can prosper. It is simply a case of providing them with the right resources to enhance and strengthen that potential so they can successfully integrate into society and the working world.”

The Apple-related skills Dorothea’s staff have acquired haven’t been limited to Dorothea, as its staff work with neighbouring mainstream schools, such as Rietenbosch. “Dorothea SS is driven by its learners’ needs and works with them to prosper,” Williams said. “We’re in the business of creating hope, and with partners such as the iSchoolAfrica Education Trust we will continue to do it.”