A delegation from Columbus School for Girls in Ohio, USA, will be on the island next week to introduce students at one primary school to the use of XO Touch laptop tablet computers in the classroom.
The group will on Friday, May 20, visit two classrooms at St. Alban’s Primary School in St. James and provide instructions on the features and capabilities of the system; as well as explain how to use the systems in the creation, design and execution of a class project. The training gets under way at 9:00 a.m.
The project is an initiative of the National Council on Science & Technology (NCST) and the Columbus School for Girls, and its main objective is to demonstrate how Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) can be integrated into the classroom to improve student efficiency and productivity.
Director of the NCST, Charles Cyrus; and Principal of St. Alban’s Primary, Wendine Prince, will welcome the visiting delegation. Later in the afternoon, a local group of trainers will work with the Columbus School for Girls to acquire proficiency in the use of the system so that they, in turn, can provide further training to others at the primary school level.
The XO Touch laptop is specially designed for children; it is a small, robust and attractive piece of technology which is Wi-Fi enabled and allows for collaboration among and between students in the classroom.
Thirty-five of these systems have been provided to the project by the Columbus School for Girls. On the group’s departure, the XO Touch laptops will remain in Barbados at the disposal of the NCST to be used as a resource for continual training of local primary school students.
