Technology in the Classroom by Louis Ramdhanie

The St. Mary’s College Past Students’ Union has embarked on a project to assist the teachers at the College with improving the delivery of coursework to the students. Students today are easily distracted and bored with the stereotypical “chalk and talk” method of teaching. It is hoped that by providing teachers with the necessary multimedia tools, students will be more interested in the work and absorb the material being taught.

To accomplish this, the PSU will be donating seventeen (17) mini-laptops together with multimedia projectors and portable pull down-screens to the College. This comes as a welcome relief to some teachers who have to cope with sharing the limited resources currently available. Currently there are only two laptops and multimedia projectors that are available to staff for use in the classroom. With approximately seventy-five (75) members of staff, you can see how difficult a task this can be.

Having the additional equipment will make it possible to deliver multimedia content in virtually any classroom around the school thereby eliminating the need to wait for the availability of the Audio Visual Room or Computer Lab.

The College has a small wireless network covering the Big Yard and surrounding classrooms. Since the start of this year, work has been done to improve this service for staff so that content from the internet can be brought to the classroom without the need to use the Computer Lab or Audio Visual Room. Again, thanks to the PSU we have this facility since they are the ones paying for our high speed internet access. Work on the wireless network is expected to be completed during the summer vacation and with the new multimedia equipment courtesy of the PSU arriving about the same time, the new academic year seems promising for both staff and students.