Electronic and digital educational tools, including interactive whiteboards and student-response systems, are empowering teachers to spend significantly more time preparing lessons, work on identified difficult topics and help students who struggle.

Various high-quality, colourful images, and dynamic, interactive educational resources engage learners more effectively than monochromatic lecturing does, says educational tool manufacturing company Sangari South Africa MD Bez Sangari.

A rich media environment stimulates and engages more of the senses of learners, enabling them to internalise information quicker and retain it for longer.

Real-time feedback and interaction systems, including in-class quizzes, enable teachers to assess whether learners have grasped concepts before progressing to subsequent sections, as well as which learners require more assistance or more stimulation.

“The value of immediate and clear feedback about the effectiveness of a lesson means that teachers can more easily identify which parts of the curriculum should be revised or practised. “The schools using our interactive classroom system, consisting of an interactive whiteboard and processor unit, have reported improved results of between 20% and 50%,” says Sangari.

A central part of Sangari’s strategy is that technology must be easy to use and implement, and also be affordable.

“The focus is never on the technology, but rather on how this empowers teachers to teach more effectively and improves their capabilities and the transfer of knowledge,” he notes.

Rich media content provides learners with a wealth of information sources. Teachers can access these resources to review and keep abreast of developments and subjects in their respective fields. Schools can also implement continuous development assessments to determine teacher strengths and weaknesses.

Tertiary Institutions

Sangari produces electronic, digital and physical educational tools and equipment for use from grades 4 to 12 and by tertiary institutions.

It also manufactures and distributes physics, chemistry and biology practical and tutorial kits – including the batteries, resistors, capacitors, microscopes and chemicals – for use in school science classrooms. The company also provides solar-powered energy packs for schools that do not have electricity.

“Our historical focus areas are engineering skills, and technical, science and mathematics training, but a rich media environment provides significant benefits for all subjects. For example, a business economics class can use sporting events to educate learners about retail, distribution or advertising economics and principles, or English students can experience on video Shakespeare’s plays as they were intended.”

Meanwhile, an increasing part of the company’s scope of work is the implementation and monitoring of corporate social responsibility (CSR) education initiatives by large companies and banks, Sangari says.

“CSR initiatives are increasingly closely monitored to determine their efficacy and return-on- investment benefits for the intended community. “Our real-time interaction and assessment systems provide companies with verified and highly detailed information to provide proof of the impacts of the CSR projects.”