Regional Workshop
on ICT in Education
25 - 29 January 2005
A Regional Workshop on ICT
in Education was held at the Raffles Tradewinds
Hotel, Suva, from 25 - 29 January, 2005.
The main objectives of the workshop were:
- To share the results of the research
titled "Evaluation of the Computer Science
(CS) Curriculum in Fiji Secondary Schools"
conducted under the JICA project.
- To reflect and review the current regional
situation of ICT Education and explore
opportunities to enhance it.
- To establish some systematic approach
at the regional level to ensure that educational
goals are met in the best possible way.
The workshop which was opened by Acting Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Rajesh Chandra included
a total of fifty-five (55) participants who
attended various sessions of the 5-day workshop.
Participants included government representatives
from USP member countries, Regional Organisations,
USP staff, other educational institutions,
and Funding Agencies. Regional participants
were from Tonga (2), Marshall Islands (1),
Kiribati (1), Tuvalu (1), Solomon Islands
(1), Samoa (2), Niue (2) and Nauru (2).
Programme Plan
The programme was divided into 6 main sessions
which included presentations and group discussions.
The whole programme was flexible to allow
changes to be made during sessions upon the
request of participants to the facilitators.
This was found to be very useful as it allowed
greater ownership of the workshop by the participants.
A field trip to Tailevu North College was
also organised to show participants a case
of rural school that had successfully incorporated
ICT education into its school system. Programme
is attached.
Conceptual Framework for Regional
ICT Education
An emerging framework based on the collective
thinking of participants emerged out of the
workshop. Such a regional framework was seen
as a guideline that would keep the region
informed of international standards and changes
in the field of ICT, and at the same coordinate
efforts to develop ICT in the Pacific.
Participants' Evaluation
Participants were asked to complete an evaluation
form on the conference. Overall, participants
agreed that the output matched their experience
at the workshop in terms of:
- Learning more about the standards of
ICT in other Pacific countries;
- Learning how ICT can be implemented
in education in Pacific island countries;
- The importance of ICT development and
finding some solutions to the issues raised.
Some participants stated that preparing the
Action Plans and cooperation of other country
representatives was the most challenging.
Some mentioned filtering through the information
and adapting some ideas to their own country
would be challenging. Some participants were
concerned that implementing the Action Plans
in their country and gaining political support
for this would be the most challenging tasks,
although this was more after the workshop
then during. One person mentioned that remembering
some ICT terms was confusing. |
