Anguilla has caught up with many countries around the world using digital interactive whiteboards which are revolutionizing teaching in the classrooms.

Governor presents Promethean system to Mr. Rogers

Four of the boards are now been in Anguilla: two financed by the British Government through the Governor’s Office and another two funded by the Anguilla Government through the Ministry of Education. Each of the boards costs some US$6,000. The basic system comprises a 78-inch screen attached to a multi-media projector and a computer, along with peripheral devices such as hand-held “activslates” and “activotes” giving teachers and students the ability to communicate with the whiteboard from any area of the classroom.

A pen-like mouse is used to operate the system called “Promethean Learning”. The technology enables teachers to prepare digital lessons quickly and with greater ease. It helps them create, customise and integrate text, web, video and audio content so that they can more easily capture the attention of students and accommodate different learning styles.

Facilitator, Manley Wisdom (left), teachers and other officials

At a ceremony on Monday, August 27, at the Community College Development Unit, Governor Andrew George handed over the two whiteboards he purchased to Minister of Education, Evans Rogers. He said the British Government’s contribution through his office was approximately US$12,000. He described it as an important contribution to enable educators and students in Anguilla to keep up with the latest technological development in the classroom. He congratulated the Education Department for making the proposal to his office and offered his best wishes in the use of the equipment.

Mr. Rogers noted that young people were keenly interested in computer operations and that the Promethean Learning System was therefore an excellent method in teaching them in the classroom. “We will continue to move forward in terms of this technological advancement in Anguilla and we are looking to the Governor and to the private sector for assistance and, of course, Government will play its part in making sure that these interactive whiteboards are in every classroom throughout Anguilla,” he said. “We are small but are no less than any of the developing countries. As a result we will keep pace with them.”

Head of the Community College Development Unit, Dawn Reid, who chaired the ceremony, said that in January this year she and Mr. Rogers attended a World Ministers’ Seminar on Technology in Education in the United Kingdom which was entitled “Moving Young Minds, 2007.”

The main focus was on emerging technologies and the highlighting of examples of good practice in the use of technology in education. She stressed that the intention of the Anguillian delegation was to find new ways to stimulate and motivate students in the teaching and learning process. It was out of that seminar and the decision in Anguilla that the four Promethean Learning Systems were obtained as a beginning of a larger project in the schools.

She said that an immediate four-day training of trainers’ course in the use of the interactive boards had been arranged. The teachers and officers being trained would be responsible for training other education personal in the technology. The first two days of training were conducted at the College Development Unit and the second session was held at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School for teachers there.

Dr. Mary Markowsky, of ETC International Inc., representative of the Promethean Company, told the gathering that over 2.5 million students in 70 countries were benefiting from the digital learning system. She was delighted that Anguilla was now on par with the various countries including such Caribbean territories as Jamaica and Puerto Rico (where the New Jersey-based company is incorporated), the Turks &Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas and Barbados.

She was accompanied by a Jamaican teacher, Manley Wisdom, who spoke briefly about the technology and then undertook some demonstrations before commencing the training of teachers and officers. “What you are looking at is the heart of the system or the “activboard”, he told them. “We are also going to spend some time looking at “activstudio” which is the software we use for lesson development and the “activotes” which are assessment devices where I can just ask a question and the students can respond wirelessly and the system can instantly tell me who got the answer right or wrong,” he explained.

He said the system re-defined teaching and he showed various capabilities which the system can produce. “The resource library is really where the heart of our software is,” he went on. “Teachers spend a lot of time trying to find diagrams, pictures and other images to back up what they are doing in the classroom. Those days are behind us.” The resource library provides us with thousands of images, backgrounds, sounds, pre-designed lessons and other facilities which you can use to suit your classroom. It is the ultimate classroom system and the more we go into it we will begin to realise that it really re-defines the way that we teach.

“This is a tool which any teacher can take in any subject area and utilise the power of the software to benefit the delivery of their lessons.”

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