Use ICT for teaching and learning

Teachers have been urged to take advantage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance teaching and learning in schools.

Dr Harry Barton Essel, a Lecturer at the Department of General Art Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said they should use this for research to upgrade their skills and personal development.

He was speaking at a two-day ICT training workshop organized by the Department for 50 Visual Art Teachers selected from senior high schools in the Ashanti Region.

Participants at the workshop were exposed to the use of “Edmodo”, (a-teaching and learning software on the internet), online assignments, online marking and making the results available to parents through the internet.

They were also taught how to explore the opportunity offered by the social media – Facebook, Twitter, Skype and others to impart knowledge to students connected to them.

Dr Essel said as the government works hard to do away with the chalk in the classroom, there is the need for teachers to become abreast of the use of ICT.

He appealed to the private sector to support in providing the needed ICT infrastructure in schools.

Dr Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, Dean, Faculty of Art, said teachers could not afford to be left behind by globalization and needed to be computer literate.

Additionally, he said, they must be creative and innovative to make teaching and learning lively and enjoyable to their students.

Dr Opoku-Amankwa counseled students to reject the downside of the social media and go along with only the high points.

Nana Afia Poku-Asare, the Head of the Department, asked the participants to put to good use the knowledge acquired.