Developing Literacy through Information and Communications Technology - a Jamaican School's Project

Kay Xuereb
School of Education, University of the West Indies

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     Last modified: July 17, 2006
     Presentation date: 11/02/2006 11:45 AM in ST Windsor A
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Abstract
This research developed from one Jamaican school’s desire to make more use of computers in teaching and learning. A literacy project was planned which provided teachers with computer skills, training in the pedagogy of Information and Communications Technology and provided computer-based learning for students.

Investigator observations of teachers from two grades in a primary and junior high school were conducted. This was followed by a KAP study using a structured self-administered questionnaire and a focus group interview. These were used to inform project development.

A computer software package was selected which enabled the students to create their own stories in pictures and words and then print them in book form. The software was obtained as a donation from a private company in England.

Large class sizes and a limited number of working computers meant that classes had to be divided into three groups, each group attending a forty-five minute session per week. These sessions were a combination of demonstration lessons given by the ICT specialist teacher and lessons given by the class teacher supported by the specialist teacher.

The intervention took place between January and July 2006.