CAPACITY BUILDING FOR EDUCATORS ON E-LEARNING & USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

Saturday,19TH SEPTEMBER, 2020 was an important day in the history of education in Nigeria. It was the day that SchoolRun Academy held the first online training event for educators. Over 98 teachers registered and over 50 joined in from all over the country.
The moderator Mr TORERA AKIN-ALABI’, calm mien was a plus and an ice breaker as it sets the tone for the business of the day.
The training main
RESOURCE PERSON was Mr SEUN AKINOLA while the
FACILITATOR was the CEO of SchoolRun Academy herself: Dr. Bisi Akin-Alabi.

SchoolRun Academy showed a penchant for time keeping by starting promptly at exactly 11a.m, with an opening remarks by the moderator of the programme who gave a brief explanation of what SR is all about as the one stop shop for all knowledge seekers.

There couldn’t have been any better Topic than the topic of the day as the
Introduction taken by The Resource person gave a concise overview of what online teaching and learning is.
He explained E-learning as an electronic medium for learning and mentioned some of the various components such as the computer system, mobile telephone and other portable devices, relevant softwares that must be installed on the devices mentioned earlier to enhance learning. The prerequisite skills needed for online learning is basic computing skills such as: Microsoft office (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Ms Excel).
The Resource person went on to give scenarios using PowerPoint as an educator to make a lesson plan and went on to list the other platforms for E-learning such as podcasting, audio-visual, video lesson etc.
The main facilitator, Dr. Bisi Akin-Alabi started her presentation by breaking down the basics of E-learning to the Educators. With the use of appropriate images she explained the main elements of e-learning as a pile of 5 main components

1. the hardware being at the bottom of the pile,
2. The Operating system sits on top of the hardware and controls the functions of the computer system which houses the next component,
3. The LMS ( learning management System), this is responsible and allows information sharing between 4 the E-learning community that is the educators and the learners
4. The courses are arranged in a section of the LMS
5. The Internet facilitates the communication between the entire elearning components.

Moreover, the facilitator did a good job of describing a correlation of the past and previous trends of e-learning. She explained that e-learning was an industry in 2013, and now in 2020 E-learning is regarded as the industry for learning.
She gave the features of e-learning as being

1. cost effective,
2. good for global audience, and easy to update from any location at any given period of time. These makes E-learning an attractive option for learning in today’s world where crisis distance learning must be considered as part of the education plan in schools.
   She gave different definitions of Elearning. One as the use of technology and services to deliver a curriculum and ultimately, to facilitate learning. Makes learning easily accessible, convenient and without boundaries, improves retention rates, effective in training others, allows for practice through action, as such she concluded that in every stage E-learning positively impacts teaching and learning excellence. It powerfully co-ordinates effective teaching and learning, it is independent, versatile, self paced, convenient and sustainable. Hence, it should not be seen as a cost but an investment.
3. However for e-learning to be implemented there are certain requirements that must be considered at the cultural level. The environmemt must be designed to accept learning as an important activity for all in the school community.
   A major paradigm shift is needed from seeing learning as the sort of thing which is received passively but a thing which all must actively seek and engage in learning
4. Dr Bisi Akin-Alabi also explained various safety precautionary measures to be adhered to by the Educators as regards school reopening. She used appropriate infographics showing some children maintaining social distancing. She also discussed the remote training programme. SchoolRun Academy is delivering for Teachers in Ipara as an example of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) that SchoolRun has designed in responding to the challenges of teaching and learning posed by the current pandemic.
5. The efficiency of technology to enhance E-learning was emphasised throughout the zoom session.
   During the interactive session, educators from different schools were given the opportunity to express themselves and make contributions to the discussion,.one of such said that some of her colleagues from Loyola College were unable to join the Zoom session due to poor internet connectivity. The facilitator explained that connectivity is a major factor in engaging e-learning.

The closing remarks was led by the moderator and the programme ended at exactly 1p.m after a demonstration of the just launched
SchoolRun Academy Learning Hub was conducted by Dr Bc Akin-Alabi to show the features and manipilation of a good elearning application.

Please click to watch the video: https://youtu.be/diw3QvSAORU

For more details on how to engage SchoolRun Academy to support your teachers to manipulate elearning tools send an email to: info@schoolrun.com.ng or customerservice@schoolrun.com.ng

Written by:
Seun Akinola
Human Value Optimisation Lead

Schoolrun.com.ng

All rights reserved. This material and any other digital content on this platform may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, written or distributed in full or in part, without written permission from SchoolRun Academy