Teachers have been taught how to better instruct students in Information Technology.{{more}}

This was done as the Teachers’ Credit Union Bookshop and Macmillan Caribbean in collaboration with the Ministry of Education held a workshop at on Wednesday, March 23, 2011. The workshop took place at the Methodist Church hall and featured guest facilitator Howard Campbell.

Giving brief remarks at the opening ceremony, manager of the Teachers’ Co-operative Credit Union Julian Jack stated that the workshop was aimed at making teachers perform better in the classroom. Jack added that the information will be presented to the teachers in such a way as to make it useful for classroom instruction.

Jack also thanked the Ministry of Education for partnering with the Teachers Credit Union. He added that the credit union wanted to help in the process of the one laptop per child initiative of the government. He added that the teachers’ participation in the workshop will not only make them better teachers, but make the children in the classroom better students.

Also speaking at the workshop, Senior Education Officer in the Ministry of Education Carlton Hall stated that the Ministry of Education welcomes the initiative by the credit union. Hall stated that it is the goal of the Ministry to have all teachers computer literate, not just those in the information technology area but in all subject areas. Hall mentioned the need for the ministry to keep up with the global trends and said that the education of teachers in technology can assist in this effort.

Howard Campbell, during his presentation on “Technology rich resources: What they are and how to obtain them”, demonstrated to the teachers the impact of technology on students. Campbell outlined that students are living in a digital world and are taught in analogue classrooms. He stated that teachers must be creative in their use of technology in the classroom.

He further explained that students in today’s classrooms are ‘digital natives’, meaning the students were born after the introduction of digital technology and better relate to technology. Campbell told teachers that they should be aware of the presence of digital natives and involve technology in their classrooms.

Other sessions of the workshop included Technology-aided lesson Delivery and Using Interactive Resources for Reinforcement and Assessment.(OS)