Final Reflection on the Commonwealth Certificate for Teachers' ICT Integration CCTI

Final Reflection

On

 The Commonwealth Certificate for Teaches’ ICT Integration (CCTI)

2012-2015

I begin my final reflections by expressing gratitude to the Ministry of Education for affording me the opportunity to pursue training in ICT integration with The Commonwealth of Learning COL.
I wish also at this time to thank all my online tutors Gerald, Brenda, and Debs and our assessor Kevin. The feedback you provided were timely and in many instances very helpful. You have all been quite understanding and accommodating at times when I was unable to meet my deadlines for one reason or another and I appreciate it very much. It has been a learning experience and a pleasure working with you all.

May of this year would have marked three years since I begun studying with COL. During that time I would have been exposed to a number of new and innovative ways of approaching teaching with ICT. For the first time I learned about ‘flipping the classroom’. This was in module (8) Managing Teaching and learning with ICT which was quite challenging like the Project Approach to Learning with ICT.  I particularly like the Flipped classroom because it allows teachers to engage in differentiated instruction, catering to students’ varied learning styles. The Project Approach to learning with ICT in particular WebQuests was also very well received by.  

As intimated earlier, I would have been exposed to a number of productivity tools and how best to use them in the delivery of my lesson. Additionally I would have gained a better understanding of how to evaluate online resources. The course also provided me with the requisite tools to develop and implement an ICT integration programme at my school. It also forced us because of the way it was designed, to be original in the completion of assignments. There could not have been any textbook answers as such because the assignments focused on finding solutions to or addressing concerns at the school level. In this regard the programme was quite unique.

In my opinion the programme was quite protracted and the workload tedious for a certificate course. On a few occasions the instructions were ambiguous and as a result, posed difficulty in my interpretation of what was required. I also encountered difficulty in navigating my way through the readings for some of the modules. The Project Approaches to Learning with ICT was exceptionally challenging for me. This may have come about because by this time I had become mentally fatigued and demotivated. However, this module could not have come at a more opportune time. The readings and activities provided greater insight into project writing and opportunities to practice various aspects of project writing. Am sure that many teachers  found this module very useful as projects have become a permanent feature on the curriculum and now form part of the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment.

I can recall very early in the programme being told by one of the e tutors that students were not required to cite the work of others because what we were doing wasn’t scholarly. Nor were we required to create  bibliographies. This was of great concern to my fellow colleagues as well. Nevertheless I was not daunted by this and was able to persevere to the end. One of the questions that still plague me is whether or not the work done would be recognized by the University of the West Indies or any other college.

The wealth of information gathered over the duration of the programme made it worth the while. However, I would love to see COL streamline the programme. In addition something should be done to enhance the presentation of information making it easier to find your way around. I also would like to see a system set up where students can check their grades online and be able to chart their progress.

I conclude as I begun by expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all those who would have assisted me in one way or the other to complete programme. May God richly bless you all.