The aim of this sector is to explore and exploit the potential of ICT, to enhance the quality of teaching and learning experiences and practices for students and teachers and prepare them for a future in which new technology is ever changing. The ICT Secondary Sector Unit also provides ICT teachers and schools with the necessary ICT tools, resources, expertise, information, advice and support to make delivery of ICT in Education more effective. The Secondary Sector Support Staff consists of two heads of department and four support teachers and is headed by Mr Charles Galea, Education Officer Computer Studies. The unit supports the ninty six ICT teachers (96) and over 18,000 students in Forms 1 to Form 5 in Junior Lyceum School, Area Secondary Schools and Boys' and Girls' Schools. Under this section there are 23 schools with a computer lab technicians. This section works closely with MITTS Ltd personnel for the deployment and maintenance of computers in the secondary schools amounting to over 1400 computers in 92 school laboratories. The Secondary Sector Unit initiatives include the designing, updating, implementation and support of ICT Syllabi to meet new requirements in the technological and educational spheres. ECDL has been included in the ICT Syllabus and the staff at the secondary sector has helped in its implementation, monitoring and testing. In-service training courses in ICT are regularly held for teachers in July and September. Teachers are given support also through the Collaborative ICTSec Website, which includes curricular information, teaching resources, Half Yearly and Annual past papers, teaching and examinations schedules, pedagogical approaches. |
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SSr |
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The development and testing of the automated testing system (SSR) prototyped by a team of support teachers was implemented successfully in Form 5's on a national level in all secondary schools as part of their annual ICT examination. It brought a change on the students' final ICT assessment. Instead of the traditional pen and paper test, they attempted practical tasks on the computer itself. This system tracked the student's performance while using the actual application. Results were collected automatically into a password protected database on the school server and then collected remotely into one database at the ICT Centre. |
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This system eliminated hours of corrections , standardized the assessment of practical skills, by-passed the manual method of collecting, recording andtranscription of results, and provided immediate feedback at the end of every test. Performance in each test item was analyzed on a national level . Further investigations of performance in every school/type of school/gender may be accomplished. The SSr system was nominated for the NICTAA awards. Click on logo for more details
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Support to teachers ICT teachers in schools are given constant support by the support staff. The ICT Secondary Collaborative Website is being consolidated further this year with ICT resources and pedagogical support. It also provides a platform for communication between the ICT Support Staff and teachers in schools. Work on restructuring the website on the ASP model to include a database is at an advanced stage – this will make access to resources for teachers and students easy and effective, is currently being done. All ICT teachers are now provided with a Pen Drive to help them in their daily computer laboratory lesson delivery. Support for hardware and software problems was also given whenever required. To give better technical support at school level, all computer laboratory technicians are attending a Technicians A+ course at MCAST. Two annual in-service courses are held for ICT teachers. Teachers are kept informed of developments not only through school visits but regularly through emails.
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ICT Across the Curriculum The secondary support unit strongly believes in the use of ICT across the curriculum so full support was given to twenty school which included ICT across the Curriculum in their School Development Plans. The use of ICT by other school subjects can be further strengthened by the PIL initiative for which a five year plan has been drawn up in conjunction with MIIIT.
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Other commitments:
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