ALLMAN Town Primary is reporting an increase in student enrolment with the recent introduction of computer classes at the school.

Vinnette Lewis, a resource teacher, said students are now more motivated to participate in lessons, resulting in a 90 per cent increase in enrolment.

According to Lewis, there were 501 students enrolled at the start of the school year, but since the school started using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), the enrolment figure has climbed to 90 per cent. The school has the capacity to accommodate 960 students.

“More persons are now showing interest in the Allman Town Primary School because they have seen changes taking place in the classroom and outside of the classroom,” Kandia-Lee Crooks-Smith, another resource teacher at the school agreed. “Parents from schools outside the area have been expressing interest in sending their children to this school,” she added.

Lewis and Crooks-Smith were speaking at a recent regional conference on Information and Communication Technologies for National Development at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.

In a presentation titled: “A Student-Centred Approach to Teaching Literacy and Numeracy Through Technology,” Lewis told her audience about the changes ICTs has made in the attitudes and participation of students at the school.

She explained that the use of ICTs in the classroom has been complemented by a student-centred teaching method. This approach, she said allowed children to be actively involved in the development of their own learning processes in the areas of language arts, mathematics and other subject areas.

Under the Government’s New Horizon Project in Primary Schools, 72 participating schools were provided with 32 inch colour television sets, computers with keyboards, radio cassette players, video cassette players, calculators, overhead projectors, and in some instances, Alpha Smart keyboard and digital camera.

Lewis told the conference that her school has several pieces of equipment, including six desktop computers, risograph machine, Alpha Smart keyboards, calculators, camcorder, digital camera, laser printer, CD player, lap top computer and overhead projector, all of which are used to add variety to the learning experience.

Lewis said her students were allowed to use the equipment to input, manipulate and output data, while teachers acted as facilitators in the process.

She added that the positive feedback from students since the introduction of ICTs at the school, gave teachers the assurance that their pupils will make positive contributions to their communities and the wider society.

“In keeping with our mission statement, we envision our students playing an active role in not only the development of our school, but also the society and ultimately their world,” she stated.

Crooks-Smith supported her colleague’s presentation by giving practical examples of how students used technology while learning.

She explained, for example, that during literacy clubs, camcorders are used to record the presentations of students who acted out scenes from books they had read. Before they dramatised the pieces, Crooks-Smith said, the students met in groups to discuss the stories and then planned how they would act out their roles.

This, she said, led to a greater level of participation among students who are very diligent in learning their lines since they would be recorded. The clubs’ members were also more motivated to attend meetings due to the enthusiasm generated when they know their performances would be recorded. The camcorder, which is operated by a student, is used to record their presentations.

Their dramatic presentations are then displayed via the television or VHS and students get the opportunity to discuss their performances through these output methods, Crooks-Smith stated.

In literary lessons, students use the Alpha Smart keyboard to type in their projects and presentations, which are then printed by connecting the Alpha Smart keyboard to a computer.

She noted that since the school acquired the ICTs, students who previously performed below average have worked with the technology at their own pace and this has helped to build their confidence and resulted in improved academic performance.