The importance of teams and building relationships
In the visit to SMK Matang today, and in the visits last week, the importance of the team approach, and the need to allow time to build relationships has become very clear. The facilitation team of 4 today worked in pairs as we discussed teachers??? plans in a meeting that last 4 hours. The discussions flowed around issues associated with ICT in secondary schools, teaching and learning approaches, ways to increase student access to ICT, and our own experiences and anecdotes. The Facilitation team brings a great combination of expertise in the areas of pedagogy, local learning and teaching strategies, and ICT activities that enhance learning and increase student engagement. The success of the lengthy session is apparent in reading today???s blog entries by Norlizah and Jenny.
A challenge for us will be finding ways to maintain the momentum we have gained today, and I think that the ???Mentor teachers discussing the ICT challenges??? forum can play an important role in doing this, but we need teacher participation. As Norlizah pointed out today, the most effective way of getting teachers writing online is to sit beside them and assist them with their early efforts, so we will need to split into 2 groups and increase the number of times we visit each school I think.
