The projects of a number of Maltese teachers promoting the use of Information Communication Technology in education are currently on display at the EMBED Fair.
This was opened last Wednesday and will be held until tomorrow at the Excelsior Hotel, in Floriana.
Among these projects are two story books for young children which promoted the use of Microsoft software while developing children’s ideas on healthy eating and personal hygiene. The books, originally created for the Zabbar Primary A School book week, were the winning project in a Microsoft competition for Maltese teachers who use ICT as a teaching aid in class.
The project, created by Marika Vella Montebello, Elaine Camilleri and Charmaine Bartolo, teachers of six- and seven-year-olds at the same school, was exhibited at the seventh edition of the European Innovative Education Forum organised by Microsoft in Berlin, at the end of March.
Inspired by the school’s development plan ‘Promoting Healthy Living’, the first story book is about a snake named Zaqqinu which followed an unhealthy diet. The children thought of ways to improve the snake’s lifestyle, which eventually involved healthy food and exercise. The second book is about a monkey, Pinu, who did not keep itself clean. With the help of Zaqqinu, from the first story, Pinu learnt all about the importance of personal hygiene.
Different types of Software including MS Powerpoint and MS Word were used to create the audiovisual stories. Students learnt to type while using tool bars to change fonts and colours. These were then printed and pasted on the books. The children were also guided to use Tux Paint, to create pictures and drawings; they took photos and videos using digital cameras, which were later produced in two photo stories, and recorded the stories on voice clips which are available online on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki4S0blhhno and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm5K-Cr0WHA&feature=related.
The peripatetic teacher, Ms Tania Formosa, helped create games such as word games and crosswords, using Kid Pix 2 on each story.
The innovative work motivated children to practise the skills learnt with their parents at home and they continued giving feedback to the teachers through the work they conducted at home. These initiatives to engage students in e-learning initiatives were extended to other subjects which form part of the National Minimum Curriculum, including PSD lessons, while PE lessons were introduced in the daily morning assembly sessions.
Moreover, the whole school worked to promote healthy living and self-esteem while instilling in children a love for reading and writing.
The team of teachers plans to take the project a step further and publish the books in Maltese. This project was only possible through the continuous support of the Head of School Alfred Debattista who strongly believes in the topics, the teachers and the potential of technology, they noted.
Fabianne Ruggier, Academic Programme Manager for Microsoft Malta, told The Malta Independent that while participation in the competition was demanding, Microsoft received a good number of submissions, which all were very interesting and valid. The chosen project received very good feedback from participants in the conference, even because the participating students were of pre-school age according to many European countries.