Education Ministry Hosts Technology Conference Next Week

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture will be hosting its ‘Eduvision Conference and Exposition 2003’ at the Wyndham Rose Hall hotel in Montego Bay from November 4 to 7.
The conference, which is being held under the theme ‘Enhancing Teaching and Learning Through Partnership and Technology Innovation,’ enjoys support from the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Institute of Education. Funding is being provided through the Primary Education Support Project (PESP).
Philbert Dhyll, Assistant Chief Education Officer, told JIS News that the event was aimed at “providing an opportunity for teachers and technology professionals worldwide to share knowledge, skills and experiences to enhance educational practices through modern innovations and strategies.” Targeted are educators, including student teachers, who will be introduced to cutting edge innovations that are being used worldwide to enhance learning. “We live in a technologically advanced age and it has now become mundane to be using chalk and talk as methods of presentations of lessons to students. The conference is about how we use the technology that students themselves are interested in to enhance the learning process,” Mr. Dhyll stated. He argued further, that the use of technology in the teaching curriculum could positively affect the attitudes and behaviours that children demonstrate in the classroom.
The four-day conference opens on Tuesday, November 4 with UWI Vice Chancellor, Professor Rex Nettleford, giving the keynote presentation.
More than 40 presentations will be made over the course of the event, with resource persons from the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Caribbean countries such as Turks and Caicos Islands, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Cayman Islands and Cuba.
Among topics to be explored are: ‘Technology in Early Education’, ‘The One-Computer Classroom’, ‘Using Power Point to Create Interactive Classroom Materials’ and “Information Technology and Occupational Studies.”
At the end of the conference, it is hoped that a lobby group will be formed, that will push for the provision of more technology tools in the nation’s classrooms.