Internet makes learning more engaging, says expert

INCORPORATING Info-Communication (ICT) and new media in classrooms is about engaging students in a more creative learning and teaching process, said an ICT specialist from SEAMEO VOCTECH Regional Centre.

"We can be connected to the students 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even after class hours through social media or Internet messaging (IM),"said Education ICT Manager Benjamin Quito (pictured) following the launch of the "Integrating ICT and New Media in Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century" training programme.

"It will not just be limited to learning from 7 in the morning to 4pm, by incorporating ICT learning, students can go back to their homes, access through the websites (prepared by the teachers) and prepare for their material before class discussions."

Social media platforms will enable the "shy" students to ask questions they couldn't ask in classrooms.

He said that the course was designed for teachers and that they would be using software and tools which are "open sourced", which means the software would be free to download.

The 23 participants consisted of Brunei educators and ASEAN delegates will also be taught how to use graphics and videos and following that, Quito said that all they learned will be packaged into a Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) of learning.

"This is an actual software where you can upload your learning management system or e-Learning," he said.

How it will be incorporated into classrooms is that most teachers have interactive white boards in their schools, for example, and teachers will be able to design their own simulation, he explained.

"For example, in primary schools, as a teacher, you are able to create or design a cartoon and record your voice through the cartoon and explain to the students topics such as 'What is Earth? What is the solar system'," he said.

He said that this SCORM of learning can also be used to include any of the teacher's learning material.

"The idea is for the teacher to teach their own forces and this training will ... enhance their teaching and learning," he said.

Realising the possibility of constraints in ICT facilities in certain schools, Quito said that the training also caters to "low-end ICT schools and high-end ICT schools".

Low end ICT schools refers to those that have one computer in each class or have only one computer laboratory as well as students who don't have Internet connection at home, he said.

"The software that we will introduce will run on CD format. I think at this time everyone at home should have their own DVD player that they could use to run the CD."

If they do not possess one, he said that they would have to resort back to "home student training", where every work is printed and students do their own exercises at home and discuss their work the following day.

Asked how the programme differs from other ICT programmes held in the Sultanate, he said: "The difference is that we incorporate regional ICT practices. Everyone will bring the best practice from their school and then we will share it, fuse it into one package and everybody benefits from it."

The training also involved a change management workshop to help change the mindset of teachers in their attitudes towards learning ICT. Hana Roslan

The Brunei Times