Blessing Khumalo—Primary Curriculum user from Uelzen Primary School
Please tell us about yourself so that readers can get to know you.
My name is Blessing Khumalo, Sports Co-ordinator at Uelzen Primary, I was given a job cause our computer skills teacher was retiring. I’m dedicated to what I do and I enjoy every minute of it!!
What inspires you?
What I do, inspires me. It’s an absolute privilege to do what I do on a daily basis, making a difference and inspiring my learners to always do their utmost best.
What qualification and/or experience do you have with regard to computers?
I don’t have a specific qualification for computers but I find the curriculum friendly enough to teach my students the basics.
What do you think the current educational trends are with respect to computer training?
I think they highly underrated and what I mean by that is hardly anyone says I’m going to learn about computers, even though we leave in an information age, where most things are done a computer. I really stress that to my learners that everyone needs to be able to use a computer not just for gaming but work as well. One of the biggest problems in our country is that there is still a lot of people who don’t have access to one.
Why are you using the CS4A curriculum?
I don’t know how the school came about to using it but what I’ve found is, it’s a pretty good program for my learners to develop their skills.
How do you feel about the CS4A curriculum?
It’s definitely one of the better ones, I’ve seen. Easy to use, and most of my learners seem to grasp what the program is trying to teach.
What do you enjoy most about using the CS4A curriculum?
It makes it easier to illustrate the concept you trying to get across to the learners.
What do the learners enjoy most about using the CS4A curriculum?
My foundation phase really enjoy the pictures and mazes and my senior phase are pretty competent with a computer, so they rush through the exercises just to play games
What part of the CS4A curriculum doesn’t work for you or the learners?
Sometimes the exercises are way too simple and the idea u trying to teach is understood immediately, and yes that’s the aim but you end doing more 4 or exercises per lesson.
How much time would you say is taken up for preparation and or admin for these lessons?
10-15min
Is the curriculum easy to understand; are there any difficult parts?
It’s very simple in most cases, really easy to understand but here and there but really enjoyable.
Have you printed any of the learners’ work or examples to put up in the class room?
No we don’t.
The CS4A curriculum is under continual development. What would you change/add to the CS4A curriculum?
Do you feel that there should be a version of the CS4A curriculum in another language? If so, which language?
Your clientele base should be able to indicate that, English is fine because it’s being taught in most schools
Do you think that using the CS4A curriculum will improve computer literacy? Why?
I have no doubt about it will, some of my learners don’t have access to computers at home, so they wouldn’t have been able to use one of if it wasn’t for your program.
Would you recommend the CS4A curriculum?
Yes I would it really helps improve the learners computer skills.
Do you have any other comments or advice for colleagues?
They probably more experienced then myself, but we can always learn from each other. I always try to find the simplest way to explain a concept!! So keep it as simple as possible.
