South African Power Shortage

[Sarah McPherson]

South African Power Shortage

In January I received an e-mail message from Charlene du Toit Teacher Educator in South Africa which said “Everything is fine here. The only thing that’s a big problem here is the fact that our electricity suppliers, Evcom, can’t supply in the great demand of electricity. so we have about 5 hours of electricity in a day and then they cut the power, to help supply the whole of South Africa and to help relieve the strain on Evcom. It’s a problem especially if it’s the whole day long. But we cope, but without any electricity. I wanted to join your project, but our network is so very bad that when I want to chat, there is no reply to the site.”

What ideas do you have for surviving this crisis?

[Saul Brignell]

Not sure I could offer a solution outright without more information.

A few questions might be able to narrow down possible difficulties to overcome.

The first question I guess would be what kind of resources are available? I am guessing that if electricity is limited then finances are probably limited as well so all solutions must be as cheap as possible, or financially supported in some way.

Secondly what kind of resources are available? Is there plenty of light? Wind? I guess a simple generator would require an ongoing financial commitment which may in itself be a problem, so some kind of renewable source might be of most benefit.

Lastly chatting may not be a major problem, if Charlene du Toit can simply get on line and view the forums she can contribute in small bursts and be active when she does have power.

Might not be much of a contribution and certainly no instant solution, anybody else got anything?

[Sarah McPherson]

As a teacher could you see yourself designing a project about the South African dilemma. Don't you think it would make for very interesting research. I always think of South Africa as a fairly well-developed place with the British colonization having provided firm foundation for the economy. I was very surprised to get this message about rationing electricity. It will be interesting to see if we hear from Charlene. You have raised very good questions - wouldn't it be interesting for students to come up with ideas too? Are you working with any students now that could provide us with ideas?

[Saul Brignell]

Unfortunately I am nor in school till well after easter, but I can see that a project like this would be really exciting for a group of older children. It gives plenty of scope as you say for research, and it also can give the children a sense of ownership in a real world situation. I really like the idea of a project based curriculum.

To really get it off the ground I think the communication thing would have to be sorted, in which case a forum such as this is an excellent method. People are not required to be online at the same time, and it does not take long to type a reply if you keep focused on just a few threads and not get lost.

I think the difficulty with South Africa is the very uneven distribution of wealth, for a very long time I think it operated as two nations in one geographical location. Some communities got left behind as nearly always seems to be the case. I would be interested to learn a little more about Charlene's location.

[ShinYi]

How about keeping trying? Make good use of the only 5 hours... PLS don't be disappoint..
Even in Taiwan ..there are still have some problems here....like as: everytime I try to load and change my photo...it's usually fail...and then.. I try again and again.....day after day......^^...don't give up

[Saul Brignell]

I think you are right here. To make good use of the time that you do have is the key, but we then have to think of priorities.

I did not realize that Taiwan has problems with power supplies, I always thought of it as quite industrial, time to visit Wikipedia, and do some research.

[ShinYi]

tks for your reply.
yes, you're right ..Taiwan has No problems with power supplies
I meant power supplies is one problem...however, in our dairy life still have other problems...
Right?

For power supplies in South Africa , i have no comment....
I just shared what i can do...
Thanks

[Pauline Brown]

I was born in a third world country so the concept of power outages is something with which I am very familiar. From my own experience I find that you just have to devise creative ways to plan your activities. I know that you can never really plan for such an outage but I am hoping that there is some kind of advisory on the news so that you know that for the first couple hours of the morning you will not have power. I know that this will be hard but you will also have to plan the activities that you do on the computer to coincide with the time that you do have power. I hope this was helpful.