In July 2014, the UN General Assembly Open Working Group (OWG) proposed a document containing 17 goals to be put forward for the General Assembly’s approval in September 2015. This document set the ground for the new SDGs and the global development agenda spanning from 2015-2030.Amongst these goals features
Sustainable development goal N° 4- which states: "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all,"
By inclusive quality education we mean that all children, regardless of physical, intellectual, social, emotional or linguistic abilities, learn and participate equally and effectively, in safety and free from gender bias.It is considering the above fact that my i decided to ameliorate my language teaching technics.
I count myself among the lucky teachers who happen to teach in a semi rural area around the outskirts of the capital city of Cameroon.We have though limited and not constant, access to some better electricity and internet facilities,compared to teachers in the subborbs,that enable us have functional android phones and laptops that could be used as illustrations in our classrooms.
Technology is a powerful tool that can support and transform education in many ways, from making it easier for teachers to create instructional materials to enabling new ways for our learners to learn and work together.Despite the disparity in the educational technology gap among learners worldwide, and this due to obvious socio-economic and cultural reasons,it is essential that as much as possibke, we teachers expose our learners to basic digital skills and ICT.
Starting this in our lower classes makes our learners better versed with adequate competitive digital tools for the future.
The bitter truth(inability to access these tools) kept aside, striving to do our best in difficult circumstances inspire us in ways we will not imagine.
The aim of this article is not to add to the already famous gospel of teacher resilience,but to encourage teachers to view educational technology as a force to rekon with.If we admonish that fact,then we will not be doing justice to our learners by excluding them from tech savy initiatives in the classroom.
HOW I USE TECH SAVY INITIATIVES IN MY CLASSROOM
Before the pandemic,I had very little impression about the impact technology could have in the learning process.Exposing my older learners to Whatsapp teaching and learning made me gather a lot about that.I have been in this for two years now and I think it is good for learners to see, touch, manipulate tech tools at lower classes at least once a week.
Although in my own case this year I did introduced technology to my learners at a very late stage in the school year,I think with the little experience i now have learners need to be exposed to tech savy initiatives atleast once a week.
When I introduced the ICT lesson for the first time, my learners were not very excited about the drawings on the board.Not until we reached the practical sesssions where they were divided into groups,and given a task to do on either a computer or mobile phone for a given period of time.The fatest group gained some points.As the weeks went by, the tasks grew from simple to complex and the points allocated too.If this tradtion is kept,before the younger learners in level 1 and 2 reach level 7 they will be versed with many digital skills even if they do not access or are not exposed to phones at home.You might simply have a five minutes tech task for them on your device every time you come to class.Or better still give that privilledge to the most active students in the day's lesson.That may be another way of encouraging them to work all round
WORK AND PARTNER WITH US
The problem with what we copy 'elsewhere' is that the technology strategies or solutions are imported and imposed on us who live in more challenging environments. When they don't work, or where they are too costly to be tested, experts are fast to conclude that ICT use in educattion in our context is irrelevant.
That said,rather than rush into conclusion about things we do not master why not engage into researching our environment and realities in order to adapt strategies that suit our practices in the use of ICTs in education in low resource, poor, rural and isolated communities like ours.That might be useful to help guide the planning and implementation of educational technology initiatives in our environments. I am happy to work with other experts on this.