Caribbean teaching “digital children” in analog classrooms!
This is according to Dr. James Fletcher, St. Lucia’s Minister for Public Service, Sustainable Development, Energy, Science and Technology, who was the key keynote speaker at the opening of the Islands of the World Conference XII on May 29, 2012, here in the Virgin Islands.
The vocal Caribbean minister said measures need to be put in place to ensure children are more connected when they are in school as they tend to spend more time on the internet which can be used as a means of channelling their educational programmes.
“More connected they are in school, they are less likely to be involved in risk taking … we need to ensure our schools are friendly, cool and a place they want to stay and certainly [we] cannot do that from having chalk and talk classrooms. Research shows that they involve in less risk factors when connected,” he said while speaking on the issue of Education, Youth and Society within Small Islands.
According to Dr. Fletcher, the problem with the Caribbean’s education system, is that it treats everyone as though they are the same and not seeing that different solutions are needed to apply to different children.
The St. Lucian minister said if the Caribbean wants to compete with the rest of the world, it has to improve and rank itself among the top nations by educating its people at a higher level.
Children staying longer in school have also shown marked improvements in Gross Domestic Products in countries, the minister quoted the finding from a recent research in the Caribbean.
Chalk board to Smart Board?
One of the latest revolution in classroom learning has been the introduction of the SMART Board which is a brand of interactive whiteboard.
The SMART Board interactive teaching system is a hand-touch screen connected to a personal computer or laptop and a digital projector where teachers can display information from their computers onto a screen. Instead of writing lessons on the board, educators can simply type them into their computers, at school or at home and display them onto the SMART Board.
The technology has been found to make a difference in teaching in classrooms and puts the “wow factor” into learning as students are able to follow what is being taught.
According to a report by the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, a highly ranked research facility, shows that increasing student exposure to SMART Boards has a significant impact on student achievement, especially in math and science; and students taught using a SMART Board had a higher rater of academic progress. For example, sixth grade students (male and female performing at or above grade level) progressed at a rate of 2.5 to five months faster in math than students not using SMART Board technology.
In the Virgin Islands, at least one private school already has the system in its school while others are contemplating setting up the system.
Smart Boards can cost anywhere from $2000 to $5000 or more.
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