The re-launched education portal, Thutong, is exceeding the Department of Education's expectations, with up to 3 000 subscribers to date.
The portal, developed by Niel Butcher and Associates, is a free and open resource for teachers, students and parents, and provides educational content from newsletters to wikis.
Trudi van Wyk, national director of curriculum innovation, says the department is surprised by the reception to the new portal. "When we re-launched it, we thought it would take a few months for us to get to the point that we are at today.
"The Thutong education portal had over 3 000 subscribers registered from 1 April 2008," says Joy Rosario, the education department's deputy director of curriculum innovation and e-learning.
Van Wyk explains that the portal now works on Web 2.0 technology and combines newsletters, notice boards, Web blogs and wikis, among other tools, to create a fully interactive service.
"When we first launched the portal in 2005, we were only working on providing content, yet now we are fully interactive."
Rosario explains that the initiative is based on making the local educational portal available for the teachers by the teachers, and the department has created the platform for the creation and sharing of home-grown educational resources.
Earlier media reports state the portal has four platforms: mainly curriculum, teacher developments, educational management and administration. Rosario says there are 45 curriculum spaces and seven non-curriculum spaces. Among the most viewed spaces are the FET Exam Centre, Math and Inclusive Education.
Van Wyk encourages teachers to upload content that will inspire innovation in the classroom.
"This is an opportunity for us to pool our rich indigenous capital," says Rosario.
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Education portal re-launched
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