Shuter & Shooter Publishers

is launching the new Top Class Digital Skills textbooks. We sat down with Mauritz Kotze, the author of these new textbooks.

Please tell us a bit about yourself:
I taught digital skills and coding at a primary school – children from as young as Grade R, all the way up to Grade 7. I started to notice that my learners had very little knowledge of digital skills. I asked my colleagues at other schools about their experiences, and discovered that most children were simply given an educational game (or something similar) as their IT lesson.
I saw the potential to enhance learning in this area so I taught children to make the game before they could play it. My motto was born: “We don’t PLAY games, We MAKE games!”
Through making games, children acquire digital skills, solve problems, develop critical thinking skills and enhance specific maths and language skills. Plus, the lessons are developed and designed with Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind.
This was such an exciting venture that, at the end of 2016, I resigned from teaching and began working full time for myself. I started SA SchoolCoding, where I spent my days teaching children digital skills, coding, and robotics.
Why do you believe it is important for children to learn digital skills?
In a world where technology is a part of our everyday lives, digital skills are essential if people want to participate fully in society. Think about all of the so-called ‘digital skills’ that you need to live your life … many of these are not even skills but behaviours, habits and a way to understand the world.
Digital skills also include computational thinking, coding, 21st century skills, innovation and other soft skills.
All sectors of our economy are being, and will be impacted by the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Learners need to be exposed from an early age to digital skills, general computer skills, coding and robotics. These skills will give our learners the tools they need to excel nationally and internationally. These skills have to form part of the school curriculum from as early as Grade R.

Please tell us a bit about yourself:
I taught digital skills and coding at a primary school – children from as young as Grade R, all the way up to Grade 7. I started to notice that my learners had very little knowledge of digital skills. I asked my colleagues at other schools about their experiences, and discovered that most children were simply given an educational game (or something similar) as their IT lesson.
I saw the potential to enhance learning in this area so I taught children to make the game before they could play it. My motto was born: “We don’t PLAY games, We MAKE games!”
Through making games, children acquire digital skills, solve problems, develop critical thinking skills and enhance specific maths and language skills. Plus, the lessons are developed and designed with Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind.
This was such an exciting venture that, at the end of 2016, I resigned from teaching and began working full time for myself. I started SA SchoolCoding, where I spent my days teaching children digital skills, coding, and robotics.
Why do you believe it is important for children to learn digital skills?
In a world where technology is a part of our everyday lives, digital skills are essential if people want to participate fully in society. Think about all of the so-called ‘digital skills’ that you need to live your life … many of these are not even skills but behaviours, habits and a way to understand the world.
Digital skills also include computational thinking, coding, 21st century skills, innovation and other soft skills.
All sectors of our economy are being, and will be impacted by the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Learners need to be exposed from an early age to digital skills, general computer skills, coding and robotics. These skills will give our learners the tools they need to excel nationally and internationally. These skills have to form part of the school curriculum from as early as Grade R.

Please tell us a bit about the new ‘Coding and Robotics’ subject that the Department of Basic Education plans on introducing:
SA SchoolCoding was teaching coding and robotics to Grade 8 and 9 learners at Oude Molen High School, where members from the DBE and WCED visited. After seeing how successful SA SchoolCoding’s Grade 8 and 9 programme was at Oude Molen High School, the DBE invited us to sit in on an advisory panel, and to assist with incorporating coding and robotics into the GET curriculum.
The DBE has quite a few details to iron out, but they have assured us that the current school day will not be lengthened, nor will there be any loss of available teaching time as set out by CAPS. Rather, the proposed digital skills curriculum will enhance what we currently teach.
As part of the announcement that a digital skills curriculum, which incorporates coding and robotics, will be compulsory in GET from Grade R to Grade 9, multiple coding and robotics curricula will be piloted with Grade 1 to 3 learners, in selected schools across the country in 2020.
Since the proposed curriculum is only in draft format, it will be piloted and evaluated before it can be made policy. However, this should not deter schools from implementing digital skills as soon as possible. We cannot leave learners behind. We have a responsibility to help them learn the skills they need to be successful in today’s world (and a future one that we can barely imagine)!
In South Africa, we still have major technological constraints. How do you teach digital skills when you don’t have computers, bandwidth or any of the other digital infrastructure?
One of the key points raised and emphasised by the DBE is that the new proposed curriculum should not discriminate in any form against our learners. Therefore, the proposed curriculum has been developed in such a way that even schools with limited resources can also benefit from it.
The digital skills workbook that I have developed in conjunction with Shuter & Shooter has been designed with this mindset. Schools that have designated computer classes with teachers will be able to use it and excel. However, many activities can be done without a computer, if necessary, so learners will learn the same concept whether or not they are sitting in front of a PC.
Why did you decide to write a digital skills textbook for the South African schools market?
SA SchoolCoding wanted to reach more learners than we are currently able to. We have a responsibility to ensure that learners are better prepared for the 4IR, that they are better prepared to be innovators, designers and developers of new content and technology. We also wanted to help Teachers equip themselves with skills. Using the Teacher’s Guides, they are able to future-proof the learners in their classrooms.
Do teachers need to know how to code to teach using your textbooks?
There is no coding experience required, just a willingness to learn! Teachers can work through the workbooks and Teacher’s Guides to familiarise themselves with the content. We wanted to make it easy for everyone to embark on this exciting digital skills, coding and robotics journey.