{"id":1717,"date":"2011-02-15T09:30:36","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T13:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/?p=1717"},"modified":"2012-09-27T10:39:04","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:39:04","slug":"ict-teacher-training-is-possible-and-affordable-on-a-national-scale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/teacher-training\/ict-teacher-training-is-possible-and-affordable-on-a-national-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"ICT Teacher Training is Possible and Affordable on a National Scale"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

In 2003, I was commissioned to provide information and communication technology (ICT) literacy training to all 90,000 public school teachers in Jordan through World Links<\/a>. The UNDP and the government of Jordan estimated that we would reach 20,000 teachers by 2006.<\/p>\n

Using a well studied training model, I was able to achieve gradual training from 3,000 teachers during Phase I to 16,000 teachers simultaneously, in Phase V, while anchoring sustainability and scalability. By 2003, more than 30,000 teachers were reached and by 2006, almost all teachers attained a full International Computer Drivers License (all 7 modules) certification. <\/p>\n

The point I would like to raise here, in favour of Wayan\u2019s debate, is that: YES<\/b> it is possible to train all the teachers on ICT and thereby reach every student in a country with technology.<\/p>\n

World Links showed that exposure of its alumni (students) to and the educational use of ICTs affected future youth opportunities in terms of employment, career choices and global awareness. 2006 World Links assessment of 10 countries<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I once walked into a Badia (Desert area) school, in Jordan, and was so impressed seeing tenth grade girls who designed their own portal and discussion forums, using free online resources. This has been the result of training teachers on how to effectively utilize ICT in the classroom, with upper order skills. <\/p>\n

However, the aggregate results on a wider scale were astounding as we managed to create more than 200,000 online content, or supplemental e-material in native languages by training close to 8,000 teachers and their subsequent students.<\/p>\n

Teacher Training is Key<\/b><\/p>\n

I no longer run World Links global operations, but under my new global non-profit initiative, I realized the importance of the training content and the need to go for entrepreneurial skills, in order to promote job creation, rather than job-demand driven skills, since, there are not enough jobs and working opportunities, as it is now in many countries. <\/p>\n

Changing the behavior of the teachers to become facilitators rather than instructors, and render interactive students rather than mere recipients, is not an easy task, and needs specialized techniques and methodologies over a period of time. An interesting observation of mine was that developed countries share many of these weaknesses that developing countries are going through. I also noticed how many richer countries fall victims to vendors, and go for absolute technologies. <\/p>\n

My vision is to go for outsourcing and free and available resources, and make them more accessible to others. The training is not on how to accumulate the ICT know how, as much as it is the training on the freedom of the mind to search, solve problems, be creative and work on all competencies and skills.<\/p>\n

Many think that ICT is the total answer, but it’s not. It is a powerful tool, nonetheless, if not harnessed and used properly, it will not render positive results. ICT comes as an integrated powerful tool and resource, within a larger classroom based strategies and lesson plans, supporting student centric solutions, interactivity, and projects based learning. Even a very specialized teacher in any subject matter, will not be able to run a modernized classroom properly, and change the classroom dynamics, if not well trained. <\/p>\n

Teacher Training is Affordable<\/b><\/p>\n

I have been developing a cost effective model, that can be scaled up, using Jordanian tariffs as an example, targeting a cost of 1 USD \/ student in a 1,000 teachers, 40 Master Trainers, 2 Core Trainers, model that reaches 200,000 students over 2 years. I tested my new model in two countries since Jordan and I am about to start in Morocco. <\/p>\n

In July 2010, I presented in front of 31 European countries, in Rome, a scalable model capable of reaching 100 million teachers in the MENA region, over 5 years. The logistics part, allows one project manager to manage 20 programs in 20 countries at the same time with enhanced quality and sustainability. <\/p>\n

However, realizing that in developing countries, twice as much youth are outside educational systems, I designed similar models for vocational training and non-formal education, or community based programs. However, the model is most cost effective in schools, as teachers who are trained continue to pass on their skills and competencies for generations of students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. In 2003, I was commissioned to provide information and communication technology (ICT) literacy training to all 90,000 public school teachers in Jordan through World Links. The UNDP and the government of Jordan estimated that we would reach 20,000 teachers by 2006. Using a well studied training model, I was able to achieve gradual training […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[309],"tags":[765,766,768,27,767,764,455,763,1525,769,499],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1717"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2736,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1717\/revisions\/2736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}