Welcome to the Learning Gains through Play Project

School Net South Africa has had the privilege to be funded over the last three years by the D G Murray Trust in South Africa to study the benefits to learning through the use of play and innovative technologies (Xbox Kinect and android tablets) for learners in grades R and 1 in ten schools in two provinces in South Africa; in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

The D G Murray Trust has determined that the greatest impact can be made in the early primary years and that the focus of this project should be on play. Hence the selection of Kinect games and Android Apps.

Workshops are provided throughout the initiative, for Senior Management Teams in Change Leadership as well as in professional development for all Grade R and 1 teachers in all 10 schools. Face-to-face support in classrooms is included, as well as on-going online support.

Government officials responsible for learning in the district in their respective provinces are invited to all workshops. Leadership workshops aim to alert management teams to the new possibilities afforded by innovative teaching and learning techniques, as well as giving an oversight of the project and being effective information sharing sessions.

The evaluation of the learning gains will follow a developmental approach where the project is tracked and documented and where the evaluators work closely with the project team to interpret and adapt as the project progresses.

The evaluation will therefore continuously be influenced by implementation. Baseline data for literacies, as well as cognitive and motor coordination will be compared with data for successive years subsequent to the use of innovative technologies across the curriculum.

July 2014