Day Three in Dominica ... Technical Difficulties

The morning of Moodling was postponed due to technical difficulties; the Dominica State College's website is down. This hampered the plan to create quizzes and investigate the different ways to deliver material. Instead, two of the lecturers and I compared learning management systems. They use Orbund, more of a student information system. I showed them how the set up in Orbund compared to the set up in Moodle (with gradebook). This investigation led to another discussion about assessments, the value of knowledge and the extent one reflects the other.

Another lecturer, she tells me she is semi-retired, is eager to learn new ways to deliver her material. This experienced educator has traveled the world learning about education, a true life-long learner. Although she expressed concerns about not having the technology available when she needed it, and some reluctance to be dependent on technology, she was certainly interested in supplementing her lectures. Since she was another one who had recently adopted presenting with PowerPoint, we started with the various enhancements available in the software. From the discussion of embedding videos, we went on a mission to find YouTube videos for her. This in turn led to a mini-lesson on search techniques. The material was packed up and sent to her in an email (another address captured!)

Teachers at the Dominica State College are either in-service (already working as teachers and taking courses part-time) or pre-service (just out of secondary school). Until recently, secondary students could start teaching right out of high school at the age of 16 or 17. Even with the new system, teachers can be as young as 18 or 19 years old!

Tomorrow I am going along on an observation of a in-service teacher. I will be learning even more about the Dominican education system!