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Shepherd Chimururi-Youth Interactive Correspondent
In the world of e-learning, back to school means a new term of new digital adventures, exciting audios and visuals, e-assignments and unlimited learning resource materials.
But success in implementation of e-learning programmes is no accident. It requires through preparations, clear vision and objectives, pre checking of equipment, testing of systems and software as well as wise buying of gadgets then hard study.
This weekend is the last phase of back to school preparations. For early birds it has been a hive of activity for students and teachers that do e-learning as they made sure that their computers and other e-learning accessories were in perfect order.
Jabulani Ncube, a second-year science engineering student at NUST ,said he made sure that his personal computer was in good condition and ready to perform at optimum level.
“I upgraded my machine from Windows 10 to Windows 11 which is more friendly to latest browsers. I have also managed to install two anti-viruses with latest updates to avoid being hit like I did last term. The other software that I installed is screen capture. I am sure this will also help me to capture sites that I can’t copy.”
“I am urging parents to support e-learning initiatives by buying enough supplies. Parents must also make sure that their children have e-learning gadgets like laptops, tablets, head phones, flash drives and power packs.
These are now as much important as text and exercise books. The owners must not forget to write the serial numbers of the laptops as well as secure them with a password.
Taking photos and storing them on a different gadget is advisable in the vent of theft and recovery. Should funds allow, putting a tracker is the ultimate answer,” he said.
Mavis Mugudu, a 23-year-old ICT teacher at Blessed Junior School, said her back to school season was preoccupied with making sure that school computers were loaded with age appropriate content beneficial to the learners.
“Of late I had little exciting digital content for the early grades. You see young learners enjoy learning through games, so I managed to source some for them. I also had a lot of planning for e-learning programmes for this term and I have decided to organise a computer skills day. I am just finalising on the logistics and soon I will be engaging the key stakeholders who will contribute to the success of this day.
“Early in the year our school made a decision to showcase pupils’ computer skills to parents so that they understand and appreciate what their children are doing. The big challenge is most of the parents are capable of operating computers. So this event will mirror the activities we have done during the year,” she said.
Antony Bingi (18), a lower sixth pupil at a private college in the Avenues area, had no kind words for schools that fail to do proper back to school e-learning planning.
“Schools must make sure that they confirm with their ICT teachers for their return to avoid the inconveniences of looking for a teacher after schools have opened like what we did early this year.
“We went for a month without an ICT teacher and that deprived us a lot of opportunities to use the new computer lab,” said Bingi.
“Another important thing is ICT teachers must check if computer accessories like mouses, keyboards,cables and wall plugs adapters are working. Toner cartridges and bond paper should also be acquired in advance.
“It demotivates pupils to see teachers look for these resources on the day of the lesson yet the fees would have been paid in advance,” he said.
Over and above all, this back to school is the best time for teachers upskill themselves with computer skills. They must refuse to teach the way they learnt.
Online Reporter