ICT tool for educators to embrace change

TEACHERS must be prepared to change and be digitally savvy to engage with their charges, once the plan for students to bring in their devices to school is implemented.

Education Ministry Teacher Education Division director Datuk Mahmud Karim said it was for this reason that the new module which focuses on equipping teachers with the technological skills was launched.

“The new module allows teachers to be more creative when designing their lesson plans so as to keep their students engaged,” he said after launching the Multimedia Interactive Tools for STEM Education on Monday.

It will enhance the learning process and help teachers embrace change, he reiterated.

Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid had said last month that students in the country’s 10,000 schools would be allowed to bring certain mobile devices to class, from early next year. The ministry had mooted a policy to allow primary and secondary school students to bring electronic gadgets to class to help with the learning process, in line with the digital age.

The ministry, he said, had not as yet decided what kind of gadgets would be allowed.

Although targeted at those teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, Mahmud said he hoped all of Malaysia’s 430,000 teachers would make use of the free module which is not compulsory.

The first-of-its-kind tool would enhance the teachers’ ICT skills, he added.

Mahmud said teachers must embrace technology if they wanted to keep their students interested in the classroom.

He added that the module does not only focus on creating educational videos but also showed teachers how to incorporate basic ICT devices and tools into their lesson plans.

Earlier, when reading Education director-general Tan Sri Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof’s speech, Mahmud said the Education Ministry hoped that teachers could spark an interest in STEM subjects by making their lessons more “digital-native friendly” for their charges.

“Using ICT in the classroom is the best alternative for a teacher to improve their teaching efficiency and have a real impact on their students.

“Learning how to use a computer is not enough for teachers to know how to incorporate technology into the teaching and facilitating process,” he said

Mahmud said it was more important for teachers to know how technology could be used to make their subject matter more interesting to their students.

He said the module was in the form of an e-book that could be accessed and downloaded from www.eduwebtv.com.