Technology use policy coming soon

Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Ronald Jones says his Ministry is working hard to ensure there is a technology use policy in schools across the island by the start of the upcoming school year in September.

 

Delivering the lunchtime lecture at the Democratic Labour Party’s headquarters yesterday, the Education Minister said that while the intention was to have such a policy in place last September, after listening to the stakeholders, he decided to a “do a bit of refinement to the document” and he is hoping now to have it in place in a few months’ time. He spoke of the plans as he said the policy will be reviewed by the Cabinet before it can be approved and implemented. This policy, Jones added, is intended to reduce and or eliminate any conflict surrounding the use of technology, including cellphones within the teaching environment.

 

“What happens now is that there is a little too much conflict because of the current policy… We need to remove these distractions – teach adequate use policy within the schools, so that the child knows I have my phone but I can’t take it out and lean back and scoogle and Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all like that, but that your phone can also be used for your homework,” he said.

 

Contending that there is a place for technology in the nation’s primary and secondary schools, he said that cellphones and tablets, thought now to be distractions, can also be useful learning aids.

 

“Hopefully we will deploy across the school system, with the assistance of a friendly government, thousands of tablets, laptops and standalone computers… as we continue to replenish under the Edutech process, technology in the schools. This year we will be spending $2 million to retool those schools. As you know students use the technology for doing EDPM [Electronic Document Preparation and Management] or Computer Science in the schools,” he noted.

 

The Education Minister made the comments as he spoke of the wealth of excellent educational material available on the internet, which students can utilise.

 

“So when the teachers come, the teachers’ material becomes supplementary material because they are ahead, because they’ve been using the technology. They can go to Khan Academy, they can do to Coursera, they could use all of the available learning sites to enhance their learning,” Jones added. (JRT)