“My name is Philip Maate. I work for CEMASTEA, the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa. We provide in-service training for Maths and Science teachers, and soon we will expand to other subjects as well. In my physics department, I develop training and teaching materials for the training of teachers and other stakeholders such as District Education Officers, Principals, Quality Assurance officers, etc., even beyond physics. I am also a member of our ICT Committee.
To develop materials and multimedia presentations for the training sessions I make use of ICT. I communicate with the teachers through e-mail and Skype. VVOB has contributed a lot to make our work at the CEMASTEA campus more efficient by connecting the different offices through a digital network. First I needed to go to a cyber café. Now it is much easier to share with colleagues in both nearby offices and in the field. It has improved our efficiency considerably.
We also integrate ICT in our training programmes for teachers. Recently, for example, we trained physics teachers on ‘magnetisation’ using PowerPoint with animation. During the example lesson they said: ‘Wow, we have the basic skills, but we have not been using them.’ So it really was an eye-opener to them. That is when I realised: ‘ICT really helps.’ You need to be shown some examples before you know how to integrate and apply it. Before, teachers were not using their ICT skills for teaching, but after that session they will manage.
We should also start thinking about ways to make use of mobile phones. All teachers have telephones and some are already able to surf the net. How can we provide support materials to teachers and stimulate communication between them? However, we are still at the beginning of this process. Three years from now, we should have moved from being consumers to being creators of ICT.”
Philip Maate is one of the seven Kenyan students involved in the KHLIM postgraduate course on E-learning and Digital Didactics.
