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eCAL ICT IN EDUCATION INNOVATIVE AWARD 2011/2012

INTRODUCTION

The eCAL ICT in Education Innovative Award is an initiative sponsored by the Ministry of Education in partnership with Microsoft, Partners in Learning. This annual Award, inspired by government’s eConnect and Learn (eCAL) programme which implemented the distribution of laptops to Form 1 students, rewards excellence in ICT integration in teaching and learning in schools across the country. It also seeks to encourage and promote best practices, expertise and innovation in teaching and learning of the eight core subject areas of the National Curriculum (NCSE Forms 1-3):

  • Visual and Performing Arts
  • Language Arts 
  • Integrated Science
  • Technology Education 
  • Social Studies 
  • Physical Education 
  • Spanish 
  • Mathematics
Following the guidelines indicated below, participants are required to submit a project and a virtual classroom tour (VCT) on CD/DVD for preliminary evaluation.

The Award will culminate with an Expo and an Awards ceremony.  At the Expo, 24 finalists will present their projects to three judges.  Each participant will make a fifteen minute presentation to each judge. Winners will be selected after this round of judging and will be announced during the Awards Ceremony.

The eCAL ICT in Education Innovative Award constitutes the Trinidad and Tobago leg of an annual worldwide award.  Winners will represent the country at the Microsoft Regional Partners-In-Learning forum in August/September 2012, from which participants will qualify for the worldwide forum.


Head table at eCAL ICT in Education Innovative Award 2011/2012 Launch" and  "Participants at the Launch"

Participants at the Launch

BACKGROUND/RATIONALE

The Ministry of Education (MOE) recognises that the use of ICT is critical to the transformation of the education system and the society in order to meet the universal requirements of an ever-changing global environment.  

This is articulated in the Vision Statement of the Strategic Report, November 2010, which sees the MOE as “a high performing, dynamic and vibrant organisation, responsive to the needs of stakeholders and one which works collaboratively, efficiently and effectively to educate and develop an intelligent, versatile, productive and well-rounded child”.

This Award seeks to provide an opportunity for the enhancement of learning environments that encourage creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making and help develop students capable of finding their place in a technologically driven skills-based economy.

Through this Award the Ministry of Education would like to challenge educators to:

  • develop and demonstrate their creativity and technological skill in the delivery of the curriculum
  • motivate and stimulate their students to be confident, creative and productive users of new technologies, including information and communication technologies 
  • enable the students to appreciate the impact of those technologies on our society. 
The curriculum must maintain its relevance by nurturing effective use of technology through the development and delivery of an ICT-infused and integrated curriculum.  The Ministry of Education is therefore committed to recognising and rewarding the innovative efforts of teachers in the infusion of ICT into the curriculum.

This eCAL ICT in Education Innovative Award provides the opportunity for teachers to create original and culturally sensitive digital lessons based on the national curriculum. In light of the provision of laptops to students over the last two years and the availability of a digital portal as a platform for hosting materials, this project will facilitate the acquisition and uploading of digital lessons for access by all educators and students.

Winning Teachers pose with Terrence Phillip of Microsoft,Minister Gopeesingh and Lisa Hudson-Romano of Blink

2011 Winning Teachers (Annoushka Ishmael; Keith Laban, Yema Jaikaran, Eartha Hunte) pose with Terrence Phillip of Microsoft, Minister Gopeesingh and Lisa Hudson-Romano of Blink

BENEFITS
  • Recognition and reward – to provide an incentive to further the MOE’s aim of ICT infusion in education
  • A pool of instructional materials – to contribute to teaching and learning resources which can be accessed across the education system through the digital portal
  • Certification – to credit authors of all lessons and to upload the instructional material to the MOE’s digital portal
  • Exposure – to share best practices among schools at the district, national and international levels while highlighting the positive elements of our learning community
  • Motivation – to provide an opportunity to stimulate and motivate teachers while supporting their enthusiasm and interest in integrating ICT in teaching and learning.

 

OBJECTIVES

This award will.

  • encourage innovative models for teaching/learning and development of curriculum materials using ICT  

  • focus attention on using ICT by rewarding good practice, expertise and innovation in teaching /learning 

  • encourage the expansion of the use of ICT in teaching/learning within the education system.

 

CATEGORIES

  1. Extending the Learning Beyond the Classroom

  2. Collaboration

  3. Development of Knowledge and Critical Thinking

  4. Innovating in Difficult Contexts

  5. Reducing the Digital Gap by Using Microsoft Technology for Learning


Teachers should address all the categories in their project.

 

PROJECT SUBMISSIONS
  1. Entry Form - Any number of teachers may enter from a school and submit any number of entries.
  2. Virtual Classroom Tours (VCTs)  – This is a description of the project which must be submitted in the template which is available on the MOE website.   (Click here to view VCT Template)   The VCTs include:
  • Subject area
  • Level
  • Objectives
  • Description of project
  • Software
  • Keywords
  • Author
  • Lesson/s
  • Resources, links
  • Assessment
  • Research

3. Final Project

 

ELIGIBILITY

The competition is open to all Forms 1 to 3 teachers in Trinidad and Tobago (public and private schools).


JUDGING CRITERIA

1. Structure of the Project

Question: What are the project’s objectives and results in terms of learning? Is the learning activity a long term process, and one which in turn calls students to plan and evaluate their work throughout time?

Guide: The learning activities give students the opportunity to acquire self-regulating skills (that is, the students are expected to be capable of working under a minimum of supervision, which obliges them to plan their own work and supervise the quality of same).

2. Design of the Learning Environment

Question: How is the learning planned? To what extent does the planning of the learning facilitate the development of the different dimensions of XXI century skills, such as for example the development of knowledge, the use of ICT for learning, problem-solving and innovation, self-regulation, collaboration and specialized communication?

Guide: Examples of planning are described (for example: educational focus, links to the resources used, etc.) that display creativity and innovative learning practices.

3. Evidence of Learning

Question: How does the students’ work exemplify the planning for the learning? To what extent does the students’ work show the level of learning they have achieved relative to the different dimensions of XXI century skills (such as the development of knowledge, the use of the ICT for learning, problem-solving and innovation, self-regulation, collaboration and specialized communication)?

Guide: Many examples of products and results created by the students throughout this project show clear evidence of the learning process that includes the innovative use of ICT.

4. Collaboration

Question: To what extent does the learning activity require students to apply collaboration and negotiation with other people for making conscientious decisions that give form to the content, process or product of their work?

Guide: The learning activities require the students to work with other people, sharing the responsibility by making in-depth decisions for the development of a set of products, a design, or an answer to a complex question. The students can collaborate with their schoolmates in the classroom or with students or adults outside of the classroom.

5. Development of Knowledge and Critical Thinking

Question: To what extent does the learning activity stimulate the students to build and develop their knowledge, and is this knowledge inter-disciplinary?

Guide: The learning activities require the students to go beyond regurgitating what they have learned and manage to develop knowledge through interpretation, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. These learning activities push the students to create or explore the information and ideas that are new to them and to connect the information and ideas of two or more academic disciplines.

6. Extending the Learning Beyond the Classroom

Question: To what extent does the learning activity require problem-solving based on real situations and data obtained outside the classroom? Are the students’ solutions applicable in the real world?

Guide: The learning experience should not be limited to the confines of the classroom, the timeframe implied by conventional classes or the parameters defined for the subjects to be studied. The project should cover real life problems and subjects (that is, real situations containing data from outside the classroom). It should also show the students’ ideas and innovative solutions and their application in the real world and have a significant impact on communities, be they local and/or global.

7. Using ICT for Learning

Question: To what extent do the students use ICTs where the latter support the building of knowledge, collaboration or learning outside the classroom? Does using ICT allow for improvements in the development of knowledge/collaboration/learning beyond what is encouraged in the classroom as such? Have digital tools been used in an imaginative and innovative fashion to support the learning processes?

Guide: The learning activity implies the use of ICT on the part of the students, regardless of whether using ICT helps them or not to build knowledge and collaboration or to learn beyond what is taught in the classroom.

8. The Teacher as Innovating Agent and Driver of Change

Question: Has the teacher significantly changed the learning process by means of the use of ICT in teaching?

Guide: In environments in which innovative teaching is a big challenge, teachers have managed to implement innovative teaching practices and the use of ICT in a significant way to change the way in which students learn.

9. Creativity and Preparing the Presentation

Question: Have the teachers been seen to have spent time on planning and preparing their presentation? Have they made an effort to show, easily and simply, visual evidence of the depth and impact of their project? Have they managed to present their projects in a simple, safe and creative manner?

Guide: It is important for the efforts the teachers have made in preparing their stands and project presentations to be included in the evaluation process. This evaluation is more of a reward for their efforts and dedication to their commitment to teach and transform society.

Click here to view lesson plan ideas
Click here to download Scoring Rubric. 

 

OTHER GENERAL GUIDELINES

  • All submissions must be original and must not violate intellectual property rights. (Click here to view general information on intellectual property)
  • All submissions must reflect teachers’ own work and experiences.  (Click here to view VCT Template)
  • ICT options may include but are not limited to:
  • Desktop publishing software (e.g. Microsoft Publisher, Word)
  • Database software (e.g. Microsoft Access)
  • Spreadsheet software (e.g. (Microsoft Excel)
  • Webpage or website authoring tools (e.g. Microsoft FrontPage, Word or PowerPoint)
  • Movie Maker
  • Photosynth
  • Bing Maps
  • Presentation software (e.g. Microsoft PowerPoint)
  • Instructional Software
  • Graphics software (e.g. Paint)
  • Reference software (e.g. Encyclopaedia)
  • Photography
  • Online collaborative software and communication tools.
  • Projects should reflect the new paradigm of learning:
  • 21st Century skills
  • authentic, real world context 
  • student-centred, constructivist learning 
  • collaborative work 
  • critical thinking 
  • cultural relevance 
  • active, inquiry-based or problem-based learning 
  • multimedia to engage multiple learning styles / multiple intelligences 
  • information exchange 
  • creativity and innovativeness.
  • All submissions must include a CD/DVD clearly labelled with:
  • Name of Teacher
  • Name of School
  • Subject Area
  • Level
  • Topic
  • The judges’ decision is final.

 

TIME LINES

The eCAL ICT in Education Innovative Award 2011/2012 will run from October 27th, 2011 to May 5th, 2012.

  • Deadline date for submission of entry forms is December 16th, 2011 
  • Deadline for VCT submission is March 16th , 2012
  • Deadline date for submission of project is March 29th, 2012 
  • A National Awards Ceremony and Expo featuring the presentations of finalists will be held on May 5th, 2012. 

PRIZES

Winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony

  • All participants will receive a certificate of participation
  • The top 24 participants will be recognised
  • The top three schools will receive trophies
  • The three finalists will receive trophies and will represent Trinidad and Tobago at the Microsoft- sponsored Regional Innovative Education Forum in August/September 2012. 

  

CONDITIONS FOR ACCEPTING THE AWARD

  • A valid passport.  A US visa may also be necessary.
  • The committee reserves the right to select the next best submission in the light of unforeseen circumstances affecting the awardee/s.

HOW TO ENTER

Entry Forms must be downloaded from the MOE’s website and submitted by December 16th, 2011 to the address below or via fax or email.

Click here to download Entry Form.

Attention: Ms. Bebe Ajodha
Director, Instructional Materials Development Unit
RCLRC
Mc Bean
COUVA

Fax: 636-7063
Email: moeictawards@gmail.com
The VCT template should be downloaded from the MOE’s website, completed and submitted by March 16th, 2012 to the address below.
 
Click here to download VCT template.
Attention: Ms. Bebe Ajodha
Director, Instructional Materials Development Unit
RCLRC
Mc Bean
COUVA
The final project is to be submitted on CD/DVD by March 29th, 2012, accompanied by an official Submission Form which is available on MOE’s website. Send to:
 
Click here to download Submission Form.
Attention: Ms. Bebe Ajodha
Director, Instructional Materials Development Unit
RCLRC
Mc Bean
COUVA

No late entry forms will be accepted.


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Ms. Bebe Ajodha
Director, Instructional Materials Development Unit
RCLRC
Mc Bean
COUVA

Fax: 636-7063
Phone: 636-1057 ext. 1022/1021
Email : moeictawards@gmail.com


All entries will become the property of the Ministry of Education and will not be returned.