As one of their assignments, Rhodes Journalism & Media Studies students had to do interviews in the “civic mapping” part of the course. Amber Davies, one of the students, interviewed Lindokuhle Jawa (14, photo) from CM Vellem Higher Primary School. CMV School has adopted the awarenet programme for more than two years. Here are the highlights of the interview:
“The interview highlight the community perspective on the awarenet project, which the students of CM Vellum HPS have been exposed to over the last 2 years, which was significantly positive on the whole.
This student in particular was more proficient in English than some of her classmates and was aware of this, as she said it was “easier” for her to do the assignments given to the glass by Terri Penney, the awarenet coordinator of the VSA.
The student was grateful for the involvement of the journalism students and mentioned the fact that we had helped her learn new words.
Miss Jawa said that using awarenet and going to these lessons helped by giving her and her classmates the opportunity to practice the things they had gone over in English during their normal school classes. She felt that if there was something they were struggling with, particularly in the realm of English, they were able to improve by using the software to look at other peoples work and ask for help from the teacher herself.
Miss Jawa stated that her favorite part about these lessons was the fact that she got to write, as its something she really enjoys. I feel this is very important because while the lessons are useful for educational purpose, it also gives students who wish to be more creative the opportunity to express themselves through blogs.”