Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Trending
  • In the words of Nelson Mandela, “To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity”
  • Flooding at the James Kleynhans Water Treatment Works
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Second Place: Jeannie Wallace McKeown
  • Avbob 2023 Poetry Competition Winner: Sithembele Isaac Xhegwana
  • Residents of Extensions Nine, 10, Transit Camp, Phumlani and Enkanini voice discontent!
  • Makhanda Creatives Speak Out
  • Running towards a drug and alcohol-free Makhanda
  • What’s On 23 – 30 March
Facebook Twitter Instagram
Grocott's Mail
  • NEWS
    • Courts & Crime
    • Features
    • Politics
    • People
    • Health & Well-being
  • SPORT
    • News
    • Results
    • Sports Diary
    • Club Contacts
    • Columns
    • Sport Galleries
    • Sport Videos
  • OPINION
    • Election Connection
    • Makana Voices
    • Deur ‘n Gekleurde Bril
    • Newtown… Old Eyes
    • Incisive View
    • Your Say
  • ARTSLIFE
    • Cue
    • Makana Sharp!
    • Visual Art
    • Literature
    • Food & Fun
    • Festivals
    • Community Arts
    • Going Places
  • OUR TOWN
    • What’s on
    • Spiritual
    • Emergency & Well-being
    • Safety
    • Civic
    • Municipality
    • Weather
    • Properties
      • Grahamstown Properties
    • Your Town, Our Town
  • OUTSIDE
    • Enviro News
    • Gardening
    • Farming
    • Science
    • Conservation
    • Motoring
    • Pets/Animals
  • ECONOMIX
    • Business News
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Personal Finance
  • EDUCATION
    • Education NEWS
    • Education OUR TOWN
    • Education INFO
  • Covid-19
  • EDITORIAL
Grocott's Mail
You are at:Home»Uncategorized»Combining fun, fitness and computer literacy
Uncategorized

Combining fun, fitness and computer literacy

Grocott's MailBy Grocott's MailNovember 30, 2011No Comments3 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Most social networking sites are associated with gossiping and posting more or less funny wall comments to your friends' pages. This may be true for Facebook, but it's not the case with AwareNet, an online educational social network exclusively for school children and their teachers. AwareNet is facilitated by local NPO, the Village Scribe Association, and aims to improve pupils' literacy and numeracy skills, as well as teach practical life skills.

AwareNet actually motivates users to start their own collaborative projects, and to inspire them the VSA integrates useful and exciting content into AwareNet. An example of the kind of project that the network runs is the recently established running and fitness course, that also integrates lessons in computer literacy.

Most social networking sites are associated with gossiping and posting more or less funny wall comments to your friends' pages. This may be true for Facebook, but it's not the case with AwareNet, an online educational social network exclusively for school children and their teachers. AwareNet is facilitated by local NPO, the Village Scribe Association, and aims to improve pupils' literacy and numeracy skills, as well as teach practical life skills.

AwareNet actually motivates users to start their own collaborative projects, and to inspire them the VSA integrates useful and exciting content into AwareNet. An example of the kind of project that the network runs is the recently established running and fitness course, that also integrates lessons in computer literacy.

Pupils meet regularly to train either physically, or work in the computer lab of their school. They use the school premises to run and complete fitness training, as well as use the internet to write their own blogs and discuss health issues online. Their ultimate goal is to complete a 5km fun run in the first quarter of 2012. Their progress is documented in a collaborative project on AwareNet, along with helpful information from their experienced trainer Terri-Lynn Penney.

Anna Wertlen, chairperson of the VSA, is very excited about the fitness project: “We are lucky that we got Terri-Lynn on board the VSA. She is an excellent motivator. The learners have so much fun, they ask for more AwareNet sessions all the time. We never had a community co-ordinator who managed to meet the same group of learners four times a week – all voluntarily!”

Penney also knew how to get the Grahamstown community involved. She collected excellent second-hand running shoes from private donors so that every runner could use proper equipment during training. These shoes will be donated after completion of the fun run. The Oak Cottage Quick Spar also donates food for the training sessions.

Penney said that in the beginning the first group of pupils – all girls from Nombulelo Secondary School – only managed to run for five minutes. Three weeks later they could already run for 25 minutes, with the strongest runner completing 4.5km in 25 minutes. One of the girls, Sinesipho Gule said she joined the running and fitness course to be “fit and strong,” and added that the sessions are definitely helping her. Another pupil, Lindokuhle Mzongwana said that she wanted to lose weight and that she enjoyed running. “This is the first chance I've had to run and I love the opportunity Terri-Lynn gave to us,” she said.

At the beginning of next year more schools will join the fitness project so that interschool competitions, and an exchange of experiences, can take place on AwareNet. Anyone interested in joining can contact the VSA on info@villagescribe.org.

Previous ArticleBlow the whistle, Sheriff urges pupils
Next Article Kuyasa cricketers excel at Tri-Nations tournament
Grocott's Mail

Comments are closed.

Tweets by Grocotts
Newsletter



Listen

The Rhodes University Community Engagement Division has launched Engagement in Action, a new podcast which aims to bring to life some of the many ways in which the University interacts with communities around it. Check it out below.

Humans of Makhanda

Humans of Makhanda

Weather    |     About     |     Advertise     |     Subscribe     |     Contact     |     Support Grocott’s Mail

© 2023 Maintained by School of Journalism & Media Studies.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.