Educators learn role of technology in teaching at USP

Educators at The University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Laucala Campus converged at the Teacher Education Resource Centre (TEREC) for a second workshop in this series, ”Learning resources and role of technology at USP” last week.

The Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) has been conducting a series of workshops since October 2016 in “Learning and Teaching,” with a focus on technology integrated pedagogical practices.

Dr. Akanisi Kedrayate, Dean FALE has encouraged continuous up skilling of all staff of the Faculty in the use of technology, in particular academic staff so that they be well equipped with IT skills and use innovative and integrated  pedagogies in their teaching deliveries.

“We have extended TEREC to have a section on video shooting, recording and editing to be used by both staff and students. We have also appointed someone to be responsible for this section and to assist staff and students in making their own video as a teaching tool and also for research,” Dr Kedrayate stated.

Workshop coordinator Dr Shikha Raturi said the workshops are a combination of sharing good practices and hands-on session to enhance academic staff’s pedagogical practices and assist with their professional development in learning and teaching.

“The workshop began with an introduction to the concept of “open” in education, philosophy of Open Educational resources and its importance and it coincides with the first day of Open Education Week,” she noted.

Open Education Week, which is celebrated from 27-31 March annually is a celebration of the global Open Education Movement, whose goal is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide.

The aim of the workshop was to discuss the scope of using and creating Open Educational resources in learning and teaching and demonstrate the role of technologies in learning and teaching at USP; and

According to Dr Raturi, these workshops also serve as a means to demonstrate the use of SMART classroom in learning and teaching.

Participants were also given hands on experience with clickers (student response unit) in a quiz prior to the session. The importance of interactive e-books was highlighted by a demonstration of e-books developed by Mr. Setareki Raiyawa.

FALE academics Dr Lavinia Tiko, Dr Fiona Willans shared their learning and teaching practices using technologies.

“It is becoming exceedingly important that learning resources provided to students are accessible and we all need to be aware of the facilities at USP’s Disability Resource Centre including assistive technologies.” Dr Raturi added.

“It is becoming exceedingly important that learning resources provided to students are accessible and we all need to be aware of the facilities at USP’s Disability Resource Centre including assistive technologies.” Dr Raturi added.

The DRC officer Ms. Monika Koroi-Robinson talked about the work carried out by DRC and its facilities while Mr. Goru Arvind’s made a presentation on how learning is being made accessible thru assistive technologies (such as JAWS, Non-Visual Desktop Access, Read & Write Gold) at USP.



Photo: Workshop coordinator Dr Shikha Raturi stresses a point at the workshop.
Source:
Press Release