6506/CNRJ Trendsetters

Group Innovation Project JT CARIBNETT

By CNRJ Trendsetters:

Christian Prentice Nigel Palmer Rebecca Samuel Musgrave Jane Pierre

A Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements of EDID 6506 Issues, Trends, Innovations and Research in Instructional Design, Instructional Technology and Distance Education Trimester III, 2013-2014

Email:

christian.prentice@my.open.uwi.edu
nigel.palmer@my.open.uwi.edu rebecca.samuelmusgrave@my.open.uwi.edu jane.pierre@my.open.uwi.edu

University: eTutor: Course Coordinator

University of the West Indies Open Campus Camille Dickson-Deane Camille Dickson-Deane

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Table of Contents Topics Page

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction to Innovation ..

3. Supporting evidence for Innovation

4. Innovation mock-up and explanation .

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5. Training and Development Program ..

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6. Feedback from audience .

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7. References ...

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Executive Summary
JT CaribNett Caribbean Networking Education and Teacher Training is a website that provides a repository of lesson plans which incorporate the use of ICT that caters to the Caribbean Curriculum. It is a collaborative project between two schools in Jamaica and Trinidad which provides peer mentoring/tutoring for the members of staff and helps to create an interactive learning environment for their students.

Based on research, it was shown that teachers within the Caribbean have been offered courses in ICT that focus on the technical aspect rather than the pedagogical practices required to integrate ICT into the curriculum. In addition, teachers were uncertain of how to replace other traditional teaching practices without affecting the curriculum coverage. As a result, CaribNett was created.

This innovation will allow teachers to collaborate with their colleagues, regardless of geographical location, in sharing experiences to solve problems, in developing their subject curriculum and identifying innovative teaching methodologies. It will enable teachers to save time and to increase productivity in such activities as: Preparing and updating daily lessons plans Making hard copy visualizations and handouts for classes. Preparing individualised educational plans for slower students and students with disabilities or with special problems

The aim is not just to create the website but to also provide support for its use. Therefore, training will be given to teachers to ensure optimal use of this innovation. This training

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involves, knowledge of current ICT issues, learning and ICT, ethics and copyright, evaluating digital resources and management of ICT tools. This will ensure that teachers: Demonstrate competent use of common ICT tools such as word processors, presentation packages, spreadsheets, and the internet and communication technologies. Employ a range of ICT tools in the planning and implementation of teaching and learning activities Identify and explain the significant issues related to the implementation of ICT in learning environments Demonstrate competence in the use of the online Database

The mock-up of the website can be seen at cnrjtrendsetters.weebly.com. The final website is free thus can be used by anyone. Participating schools will be mandated to follow the rules outlined in the terms and agreement of the website for uploading/downloading content. School Based/Cluster based ICT teams will also be formed. They will be asked to assist in teaching the use of ICT tools. E.g. Wikispaces, Articulate etc. The website will enable networking among schools similar to a LinkedIn request. These maintenance/ support measures will ensure longevity of the website.

There are a few challenges that this innovation may incur such as: Time constraints Startup Costs Groups not uploading

These are minor concerns as the more teachers that are trained the easier lesson development becomes. Also the partnering schools can be responsible for the initial costs and further

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funding can be sourced from private institutions and government agencies. If teachers do not adhere to the terms and conditions, they may be fined, suspended or debarred from the website.

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Introduction to Innovation
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a basic way of life within all areas of society. The educational sector, in order to be current must be able to function effectively within this environment. In order accomplish this; educators need to be trained in its use and application as well as to have a resource from which to draw from and to collaborate with fellow practitioners. CNRJ Trendsetters recognize this need and has sought to establish JT-CaribNett. JT- CARIBNETT was developed from PRONETT - Professionally Networking Education and Teacher Training, created in 2001, an international networked community of shared professional practice. The idea of JT-CARIBNETT, like PRONETT, is to provide an international networked community of shared professional practice, which supports teaching practice placement. Its key objective is to develop a regional and cross national learning community of pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators, supported by web-based resources, to collaborate and to construct shared understandings of teaching and learning in a networked environment. It was designed to establish an Internet portal site that will professionally service and provide access to lesson and curriculum databases, which incorporate on ICT methodology. JT CARIBNETT was developed out of a need to build confidence among teachers in the use or incorporation of ICT in their lessons, helping them to develop their pedagogical practices when using ICT. The objectives are to focus on the Caribbean Curriculum, to provide a repository for lesson plans, which will already have technology integrated in their procedures, to provide peer mentoring/tutoring and to create a collaborative learning environment. The Innovation would allow teachers to collaborate with other colleagues, regardless of geographical location, in sharing experiences to solve problems, in developing their subject

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curriculum and identifying innovative teaching methodologies. It would also provide a broader international context for approaching problems as well as providing a more sensitive response to local needs.

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Supporting Evidence for Innovation

Embracing Change

Information Communication Technology (ICT) has become one of the basic building blocks of modern society, and as such it has become a necessity for countries whether developed or developing, as in the case of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica to have access to the best educational facilities necessary to prepare young people to take their role in modern society and contribute to a knowledge nation.

Benefits resulting from integrating ICT into the education system are vast and varied and include: 1. Enabling teachers to make learning more effective and appeal to more senses in a multimedia context and more connections in a hypermedia context. 2. Enabling teachers to maintain: Grade books Compile a data bank of exam questions Do online inspection and correction of students work on their computers Keep student records with fast retrieval and easy access to data

Effective integration of technology is achieved when students are able to select technology tools to help them obtain information in a timely manner, analyse and synthesize the information, and present it professionally.

Reports have shown that despite the incorporation of ICT in schools, changes in curricula and ICT Teacher training; ICT use throughout the Caribbean has not lived up to its full potential of producing teachers who are sufficiently ICT literate enough to assist their young learners to become ICT proficient and subsequently, schools are not using available ICT tools in the
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way they could and should. The use of technology by itself is unable to produce a positive and transformative effect on the education system of both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. JTCaribNett was born out of a need to address the above challenges teachers experience in integrating ICT in their classrooms.

JTCaribNett aims at providing a predictable, effective and efficient system for planning and integration of ICT in classrooms. JTCaribNett overall objectives are to: Provide lessons that reflect national and cultural traditions of both countries. As there has always been a challenge in our students learning which could be described in terms of a disconnect between the Caribbean world as students know it and the world that exists outside the Caribbean, and their experiences in school. Provide assistance to teachers in appreciating and using ICT Technologies in their schools. Make collaboration between teachers and their peers within Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and globally. Provide a knowledge pool of quality lesson plans from which teachers could draw. Ensure effective and efficient use of ICT Technologies Enabling teachers to save time and to increase productivity in such activities as: Preparing and updating daily lessons plans Making hard copy visualisations and hand-outs for classes. Preparing individualised educational plans for slower students and students with disabilities or with special problems. In totality and practice, JTCaribNett is not an isolated tool but one that embraces both formal and informal measures to increase Caribbean ICT effectiveness and efficiency and by extension the continuous development of knowledge and skills of individual teachers.
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Innovation Mock-up and Explanation

JT CaribNett is a database driven website that will provide teacher-reviewed resources for use by teachers. This means the website will grab information from a database (the web page is connected to the database by programming languages such as php or

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) and inserts that information into the web page each time it is loaded. For the purpose of the project a mock-up was used to depict how teachers may access the various lesson plans from the site (may be seen at http://cnrjtrendsetters.weebly.com/untitled.html).

In manufacturing or design, a mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. In the context of this project, the mock-up will be a scale of the final website. The primary reason for using a mock-up is the cost constraint. The extra costs go into the development of the

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database, and the associated programming of the various technical features. An example may be an online social website that has a membership database and custom features. A database driven website such as this, with advanced features, may fall into the US$7,500 - US$12,000 price range. JT CaribNett also incorporates features of social media, such as live chat or live support. With the use of server side programming language such as php, a simple log-in page was created that will integrate live chat/support. Subscribers are able to ask/answer questions in real time. Since JT CaribNett is a community of subscribers, individuals will post/respond in a designated forum slated for giving assistance. The forum has its own set of rules/guidelines that subscribers will have to follow and oversight will be given by a JT CaribNett moderator.

Terms and Conditions Since JT CaribNett offers advice/service to a number of subscribers, we have decided to add a terms and conditions page. This will firstly inform the subscriber of the rules that govern downloading and use of lesson plans and other content (indicating that they should be tailored to your students needs). Secondly, it will absolve CNRJ of responsibility if anyone mistakenly uses the information for the wrong purposes, or wants to hold us liable for damages they have incurred by using your website or its information.

All subscribers are mandated to follow the terms and conditions outlined on the website for uploading/downloading content, primarily the ratio of downloads to uploads (for every two documents downloaded, one file should be uploaded). If a subscriber does not adhere to the

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rules the webmaster will inform the subscriber, bar him/her or the school from logging in, or charge a fee (in that order if there is still non-compliance). Teachers would not be expected however, to learn or manoeuvre the website by trial and error. To ensure the site is expansively utilised Training (discussed next) will be given to teachers to assist with this process.

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Training and Development Programme Integrating ICT into the Curriculum

The Training programme has been designed within the context that teachers prior learning experiences are in classrooms that adopt traditional instructional practices. This is in contrast to a constructivist pedagogical belief whereby teaching is viewed as a more facilitative approach of guiding and learners in the construction of knowledge. The designing of the workshop also takes into consideration the varying levels of ICT competencies by conducting a pre-workshop assessment. Development Process The process employed in the development of the workshop is as follows: Needs analysis, Goals identification, Learner analysis, Content selection, Evaluation and Revision.

Course Development Process Persons Steps Activity Responsible Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Needs Analysis Goals Identification Learner Analysis Content Selection Evaluation and Revision Christian Rebecca Jane Entire Team Nigel 2 weeks 1 week 1 week 2 months 1 month Report Paper Paper Textbook Report Duration Output

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Figure 1: The flow of the course development

Step 1: Needs Analysis

Step 2: Goal Identification

Step 3: Learner Analysis

Step 4: Content Selection

Step 5: Evaluation and Revision

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Workshop Outline

Title: ICT In Education Comments Type - Compulsory for all teachers within the designated group Target Audience - The target audience is the 60 staff members of two
Government Primary Schools within the Diego Martin area of Trinidad and Tobago and St. Ann of Jamaica. The schools have a similar structure that, comprise Principal, Vice Principal, Heads of Department and teachers whose ages range from 23 to 59 years. Some members of staff are trained teachers having either a Teachers Diploma or Bachelor of Education or Bachelor of Science degree. Teachers at both schools value collaborative teaching, thus, regular meetings are held to plan course work and schemes of work at the different levels. They participate in several professional workshops during the year e.g. Differentiated Learning, Emotional Intelligences. Every member was mandated by the Ministry of Education to undergo basic computer training. Though the teachers can navigate through programmes such as Microsoft office, their computer skills are limited. Many use the computer lab to do reinforcement exercises and research but do not incorporate same in the delivery of the curriculum.

Workshop Learning Objectives: Demonstrate competent use of common ICT tools such as word processors, presentation packages, spreadsheets, the internet and communication technologies. Demonstrate competence in the use of the online database Employ a range of ICT tools in the planning and implementation of teaching and learning activities
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Identify and explain the significant issues related to the implementation of ICT in learning environments

Resources: Reading Materials:

He.K.1997. Computer Based Education. Beijing, higher Education Press. Geisert, P.G, and Futrell, M.K. 1995. Teachers, computers and curriculum: Microcomputer in the classroom. Boston: Allyn and Bacon

Manuals:
Zhao, J and Mu, S. 2007. Learning Guide

Learning Environments:
Students would be required to register on Blackboard

Learning Media:
Digital projection, computer, internet access

Workshop topics
Current ICT Issues

Learning Activities

Instructional Strategies Lecture

Delivery Mode Face to face and online videos and resources Face to Face and online sharing

Lecture

Learning and ICT

School based Activity, Discussion

Hands on, Coaching and Mentoring

Ethics and Copyright

Lecture

Lecture

Face to face and online videos and resources Face to face and online videos and resources

Design Principles

School based Activities

Hands On

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Evaluating Digital School based Activities Resources

Hands on, Problem and Case based learning

Face to face and online videos and resources

Management of
ICT Tools

School based Activities, Lecture

Lecture and Observation

Face to face and online videos and resources

Course Assessment
Research on ICT Issues School Based Project

Description
Presentation

Weight (Percentage) 20% 50%

ICT based project-Software

and Hardware Competency, management of project, structure and design

Workshop topics and Instructional Strategies

The workshop incorporates face to face and online activities allowing participants to be exposed to the blended approach and to feel comfortable in its usage. The activities include school based project, scaffolding, reflection tasks and mentoring and coaching. In addition, activities, templates, and other resources would be stored to be used as a reference for future teaching points for new teachers as well as a refresher for present teachers in the programme. All strategies used are designed to support teachers as they embark upon a more constructivist approach of using ICT in teaching and learning.

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Peer Mentoring and Coaching In order to draw upon the skills and abilities amongst participants, those with higher-order level ICT skills are to work alongside others with lesser levels as a peer mentoring exercise, particularly in the School based project. Peer to peer learning can increase the learning strategies of the facilitators. Facilitators would also take on a coaching role especially in the projects.

Implementation of ICT in the curriculum

As a means of linking theory to practice, participants will be required to design a practical school based activity, an authentic learning opportunity (Situated Cognition). The main objective is for teachers to incorporate ICT s into their curriculum areas. Teachers will be asked to select two lessons out of their curriculum areas, and use ICT to enhance learning. This project will be twofold; contributing to the learning of both teachers and students in the schools. Facilitators would provide guidance, monitoring, and motivation.

Assignment School Based Project -50%

As one of the requirements for successful completion, the participant must demonstrate competence in the use of the both the required hardware and software in the delivery of two lessons to students in an area identified on the teaching curriculum. The participant is required to use the online resource to complete their project.

Learning Criteria:
Knowledge applied to the project Management of the project Use of ICT to enhance learning

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Software Competency

This project is to be completed on an individual basis. Examples of assignment would be demonstrated during the workshop.

Requirements:
A plan should be presented on how ICT would be used to enhance learning. The project should also evaluate the learning of students and a final report should include ones findings . The project should demonstrate competencies in the various software and hardware used in the workshop.

School Based Project Rubric Criteria Report Introduction and description of project Learning Outcomes School Based Project Not yet Competent-2 Competent-3 Highly Competent-1

Some sections Most areas included All areas included required greater appropriate detail appropriate detail detail Limited or inappropriate use of ICT Descriptive rather than analytical Appropriate use of varying ICT technologies Analytical selfevaluation noting successes and areas for improvement Extensive and appropriate use of ICT

Degree of engagement with ICT

Analytical and showed professional knowledge

Evaluation reflection

and

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Challenges:
The environment must be conducive for the new approach, including the readiness for teachers to implement the new approach. The process may be viewed as a more time consuming process than the traditional approach. Learners must also be made ready to explore the new approach providing guidance into a more self-directed approach.

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Feedback from Audience

JTCaribNett was introduced to the two Government Schools located in Jamaica and Trinidad. Members of staff of the both schools attended a half-day workshop (limited time given because of end of term commitments) to test the viability of this service. The lessons on JTCaribNett that were shown supported the existing curriculum of both schools.

The aim of the workshop was to demonstrate how ICT can be integrated into the existing curriculum. First, teachers were shown the website from which they can obtain lessons plans. These lessons plans employed the use of computers, internet and for schools that lack computer labs, the use of video. Secondly, teachers were shown how to develop lessons which incorporate the use of such tools as wiki space, articulate etc.

The initial responses from the teachers were that this was a fantastic innovation Teachers expressed the view that their workload could be significantly reduced because they would no longer have to prepare the current high number of weekly lessons. With this website teachers would now have to modify existing material based on the diagnostic testing of their students. Additionally, teachers, especially those who lack confidence employing ICT in the classroom, were delighted with the fact that the lessons showed a step by step procedure of the integration of the ICT tools. They believed this integration catered to the differentiated classrooms which exist throughout the Caribbean. Many students can be left to work independently while the teacher can work with the slower learners.

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Moreover, the members of staff welcomed the training and support this initiative provides. The IT team that would be formed on each staff along with the collaborative efforts between them assured teachers that any difficulties that arise will be dealt with quickly.

Although most of the staff saw the advantages of this innovation, some had concerns. They saw this as a time consuming process, citing that many members as they are unfamiliar with the ICT tools and would take considerable time to complete a lesson which will take away contact hours from the students. The Team CNRJ Trendsetters - countered this argument by highlighting the support aspect. It was pointed out that this support will serve to ensure that teachers do not attempt this process on their own until they attain a level of competence which will in turn ensure that the process will be completed in a reasonable time.

Another area of concern was the maintenance of the site. Participants wanted to know how we can ensure that teachers would continuously update the site. It was explained that a technical team would be set up to monitor the site. Teachers accepting the terms and conditions of the site must understand that in order to download a lesson, another lesson need to be uploaded. This will ensure longevity of the site.

The cost of building a website is also a problem that cant be ignored. Initial costs can be covered by the two partnership schools. As the project expands funding can be sought from respective Governments or private institutions.

JT Caribnett though faced with few challenges can be used to benefit the education system in the Caribbean. It focuses on the Caribbean curriculum, provides a repository for lesson plans which have ICT already integrated and also creates an interactive learning environment.

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References: Gaible, E. (2009). Survey of ICT and Education in the Caribbean. Volume 1: Regional Trends and Analysis, retrieved from, http://www.infodev.org/infodevfiles/resource/InfodevDocuments_441.pdf

Ilomki, L. (2008). The effects of ICT on school: Teachers and students perspectives. Retrieved from: http://itec.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?p_l_id=10307&folderId=17990&name=DLF E-1550.pdf

The UNESCO (2005) study Information and Communication Technologies in schools: a handbook for teachers or how ICT Can Create New, Open Learning Environments

Vrasidas,C., Pattis, I., Panaou, P., Antonaki, M., Aravi, C., Avraamidou, L., Theodoridou, K. (2010). Teacher use of ICT: Challenges and opportunities. Retrieved from: https://www.google.com.jm/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDYQ FjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lancaster.ac.uk%2Ffss%2Forganisations%2Fnetlc%2Fpa st%2Fnlc2010%2Fabstracts%2FPDFs%2FVrasidas.pdf&ei=QS1QUribMIXm9gTMxYHIBg &usg=AFQjCNFj6XWrQPbrNo5sNf-CTr3MPr6R1w

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