English Workshops in Kingston Mandeville and MoBay

English Teachers request equal time

Teachers of English in secondary schools have indicated their readiness to use the technology resources available to improve the skills of their students in line with the mandate of the e-Learning jamaica Project.

Many teachers were unaware of the courseware and equipment already placed in the schools, and have committed to ensure maximum utilisation, once the administrative and scheduling issues are sorted out.

Problems included storage of the materials without any examination of contents, and failure to distribute to the department.

Participants recognised the culture gap between the current state of typical Jamaican adolescent students and a product designed for global second language learners. The product Longmam English Interactive is supplied by Longman Pearson through Book Merchant, one of its Jamaican partners. Teachers were taken through their paces by technology integration specialist Howard Campbell at three locations across Jamaica May 19 to 21, 2009.

Video lessons on Cable TV

ROAD TRIP two

Dorothy Thompson, Implementation Officer at e-Learning Jamaica assisting a teacher at the Biology workshop at Ocho Rios on February 18, 2009.




























A reunion of Biology teachers at the workshop. All are graduates of the College of Agriculture, Science and Education.





Candid feedback from a Biology teacher.

ROAD TRIP

Biology materials introduction workshops were held in Kingston and Mandeville on February 16 and 17, 2009. Josie Adams-White of Nelson Thornes led the workshops. The teachers at both locations were keen on getting their hands on the resources in their classrooms.

Mrs Lemonious of Christiana High was most eloquent in the evaluation of the event in Mandeville. She thought the resources were "just great". Dorothy Thompson, Implementation Officer of e-Learning Jamaica, told the participants that the company will pull out all the stops to make them succeed. Sharon Lee, Sheldon Drygren and the rest of the team provided all the support to mobilise resources for the two days.

Josie had a practical lesson in Jamaican Geography and rally driving as she traversed the route from Mandeville to Ocho Rios through Kendal, Shooters Hill, Walderston, Spaldings, Aenon Town, Borobidge, Cave Valley, Alexandria, Browns Town, Runaway Bay and survived.

The week started off with a Chemistry materials workshop in Kingston for pilot schools. Based on evaluation after use by teachers, the decision will be taken to roll out to all schools.

BREAKTHROUGH

There is a fresh stream of consciousness about the use of information appliances in instruction. So our universities may be providing audio lectures on demand to IPOD or other mp3 users. What about video?
The video showing below is now available on my mp4 player. So quite soon, via CD, DVD, broadband or media player, learners will be able to revise or even find out some new information.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR 2009

JBTE Foundation (UWI) signing contracts for development of English, Biology and Chemistry resources,

Item writers for English at a workshop

Item writers at a briefing session




Nelson Thornes Caribbean Area Manager, Thomas Cane in discussion with St Andrew High teachers





Pilot school Maths teachers at the materials introduction workshop held by Carlong

Tim Daines of Nelson Thornes leading the Biology material introduction workshop


Students and teachers in the Jamaican secondary school system have been waiting patiently for the provision of assets made available under the e-Learning Project. As at December 2008, approximately 60 institutions have been have received the server, desktop and laptop computers that were allocated. All institutions have received presentation and video equipment.

In a recent informal phone survey, school leaders were able to confirm the state of the hardware acquisition but few could provide information on the status of materials, resources or software usage.




What resources have been provided


ITEMS


Biology, Chemistry, English, Mathematics, IT test questions have been delivered to all schools on CDs.

An online facility is available to allow access to items as soon as they are posted.

School IDs and passwords have been created.


INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

The materials delivered for each subject include Teachers Guides, Student resources/text and electronic resources structured by learning objective, with video, animations and presentations or interactive sequences.

The materials have been supplied by Longman/Pearson/Carlong and Nelson Thornes, two of the leading global suppliers of text and electronic learning resources for secondary level.

The intention is for teachers to select resources and to use them in lessons as they see fit. The skills developed here are planning and choosing resources. The feedback from teachers as to whether materials are useful, is important. Some of the decisions to be taken by teachers include the location of instruction: in a lab environment or in a classrooom ; with teaching observing or teacher presiding; with one computer or thirty.

VIDEOS

Videos are available for broadcast in English, Biology and IT.

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