By Luqmon Balogun, Lagos
A foundation, Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Alumni Association of Nigeria (HHHFAAN) has trained about 50 public senior secondary school teachers on how to harness the opportunities of Artificial intelligence in transforming classroom learning.
The Association organised the 2-day workshop in collaboration with the US Consolate Lagos and Lagos State Ministry of Education.
The workshop focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and innovative teaching methods.
Speaking at the training, the General Secretary, Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Alumni Association of Nigeria, Mr Iyke Chukwu said that the essence of the workshop is to improve their skills set on how to better use technology to improve learning conditions.
“What we are trying to do is to empower these teachers with skills related to the use of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Innovative teaching and learning so that they can go back to their school and improve the quality of teaching and learning in their respective schools. Educational landscape is changing, technology is virtually taking over every aspect of human endeavours, so why not bring tech into education as well, if it is helping other sectors”
“For teachers to be at par with what is happening globally, they need this capacity building so that they can be exposed to potentials of what technology can help them achieve in their respective classrooms.” he said
Chukwu maintained that the workshop is a train the trainer initiative and it will have a multiplier effect because participants are expected to cascade the knowledge gathered and share among other colleagues.
The General Secretary who is optimistic that the training will scale up the learning outcomes of the students and further raise the standard of education in Lagos state, said that it is a one-off program that will have a long lasting impact as the participating teachers are expected to serve as digital transformation ambassadors in their respective schools.
“We are hoping to do like an analysis, they will give us that analysis, before this training, students performance indices and after the training, it’s impact on the students. We have already created a WhatsApp group and we are going to keep monitoring and engaging in online training, so if any of them have issues, they can chat us up on WhatsApp group and we will do the training for them.” he added.
Leveraging AI
One of the trainers, Mr Olalekan Adeeko said the training was designed to expose the teachers in Lagos to how they can leverage Artificial intelligence tools in the classrooms.
He said “There are lots of things that they do in the classroom, like note making, marking and they are expected to teach individual students the best way they live to be taught and it is a difficult task to do alone. With AI, educators can leverage these tools to enrich their lesson plan, create instructional materials and can use in it class to differentiate between the students based on their capabilities.
We want the teachers and students not only to learn the tools but to learn how to use them responsibly in the class to promote academic integrity.”
Impactful Project
A participant and a Chemistry teacher at Matori Senior Grammar School, Omotayo Olamilekan described the training as timely, innovative and impactful.
According to him “Use of internet of things, how to implement multimedia in our teaching and learning, because we need to prepare ourselves for the students of tomorrow, because teaching has gone beyond the way it used to be and if we are not prepared we will be left behind. The current generation of students at the moment know more than the teachers and we must be on our feet.”
Proper Evaluation
Another participant, Mrs Fakunmoju Kikelomo appreciated the organisers for this initiative, stressing that the training will ease the burden of teaching and proper evaluation can be done and assessment can be carried out within a short period of time.
Jide Johnson.