Training Day: 5

Back in Langa, day five of the MELISSA training. The first session at this school was somewhat chaotic, but this one was a mild success. Teachers arrived on time, and were asked to log into the MELISSA Moodle page. This requires some practice, and I urge them to visit the page as often as they can. They had some difficulty, but were more efficient at this than the previous week. I then proceeded to show them some of the resources, including the 'common' server space, where they can access relevant training materials. They then watched a video related to the introduction of ICTs in various settings (ranging from medicine to education). This gave them a good practical overview of some of the key components to the ICT arena.

I proceeded to do a 'Challenges and Opportunities Matrix', where I encouraged educators to list some of the key barriers and benefits of ICTs, both in education and elsewhere. In light of the video material, teachers could now engage more critically with the topic. They raised several interesting points, one of which is that ICT can be rather limiting, and not as overly effective as popularly assumed. I really wanted to drill this point home, and urged them to think about the restrictive factors of technology. Again, teaching should be the central concern, and ICT must be regarded as a tool..not a solution or replacement. From what I could observe, they felt somewhat at ease with this, and agreed that ICTs have to be contextualised within any educational setting. Things to always keep in mind would include resources, skills, and time constraints. Not to mention willingness and sense of professionalism. These are all factors that I would encourage our participants to think about when thinking about (or working on!) their PCs.

And finally, this was also the first time our new PhD student, Patricia, joined the session. I hope it was worth her while, for she will play a key part in the future of Module 2. Until next week!  

Teachers hard at work