Dear Editor,

“I don’t know how to do it, Miss.”

“It’s not working on my tablet, Miss.”

“What should I press, Miss?”

“How do I get that?”

“I’m frustrated.”

These are some of the statements students make daily during online teaching. Not to mention the teachers who were frustrated and burnt out because they had to be explaining and re-explaining what needed to be done. It drained and frustrated both teachers and students. All of this simply because students were not accustomed to using devices for educational purposes.

The simple solution that we have all been avoiding is to incorporate technology even more in our teaching during face-to-face classes. As such, we should allow students to use devices while learning; thus, they learn how to use the devices to garner information as well as how to navigate different platforms and programmes. This is very critical as we are developing 21st-century children.

Technology embraces multitasking. These digital natives could watch something while doing something else or even do two or more tasks at a given time, thus helping them to be more purposeful in the future. Therefore, it is imperative that we give our students access to technology within the education system.

Additionally, there is no doubt that the current students, who are our future, will be a part of what is known as a digital gap if we do not make the changes from now. Most preparatory schools in Jamaica have a computer class in which students learn how to use computers. Why then should most of our primary school students be left behind?

We need to embrace the thought of using technology to teach during face-to-face classes. For instance, this year, when I had face-to-face classes with my sixth graders from Snowdon Primary School, we completed a language arts task using the phones for research in order to complete the writing task. We also used the devices in class to play
Kahoot, which is a fun educational gaming application. Allowing children to see that devices can be used for educational purposes is very important so they, too, can use it to shape the way they think, learn, and experience the world.

It is evident that not all schools have adequate resources for learning with ICT. However, there are educational software that can be used without the internet. As a matter of fact, as teachers we can simply use technology to create our own learning tools to make our classes more exciting and even engaging. We can create engaging
PowerPoint presentations; videos with apps, such as
Kinemaster; or even create various worksheets or games. Not to mention there are many electronic books that we can access with or without the internet. This also allows us to print less worksheets as students will be encouraged to access tools on the device.

The COVID-19 pandemic has widened our vision to the various educational software that can be used. Since the pandemic many students have received devices and schools have also finally received devices that we have been asking for, for a long time. Let’s not wait until the last minute or for another pandemic to see this as important.

As teachers we have to be creative and adapt to the changes; thus, we need to also find innovative ways to allow our students to use technology, as our aim is to make our students top-notch global citizens.

We have to admit that technology is definitely not a fad; it is here to stay and will continue to change. We need to get with the times so that all Jamaican students become smarter digital citizens.

Kristen Chedda

kristenchedda@yahoo.com