IF YOU’RE READY for the latest hi-tech teaching technology that may put an end to blackboards, chalk and dusters, visit the Learning Cape Fair (2-4 September at the Oliver Tambo Centre in Khayelitsha) to see a demonstration of the new Smart Board – and apply for a grant to help your school have one of its own…

This touch-sensitive whiteboard is connected to a computer, where learners can interact with educational software by touching the screen in response to programmes. Educator and learner can ‘write’ on the screen with a finger and the writing can be converted to text.

The Learning Cape Fair, part of the Learning Cape Festival (12 August to 10 September), is a learning and networking space for educators, trainers, skills development facilitators and practitioners to share ideas, methods and support to help the Western Cape develop its potential as a growing economy. Events include skills-transfer workshops, cultural events, topical debates and demonstrations of new learning techniques.

With the Smart Board, one such new training method, educators are able to digitally record lessons written on the Board; it is also possible to email the lesson or share it on an internet website, once the information is saved.

Pieter Labuschagne, Managing Director of Edit Microsystems (an education software developer and distributor), says that the Smart Board would be particularly beneficial to disadvantaged schools that could not afford to establish a computer lab. "Everyone in the class can learn how to use a computer and various programmes through the Smart Board’s interactive display.’

Edit Microsystems is assisting in the management of 100 applications for EDU-Grant, which assist in the purchase of the Smart Board, installation, training, accessories and a projector. The applications are approved by the Canadian grant funders, Smarter Kids Foundation, which works through the South African based company Omega Digital Technologies.

The grants are available until the end of September.

For further details about the Learning Fair, please visit www.learningcape.org, or contact African Equations on 021 462 6229 / 021 461 5735.