The Digital Turn: Empowering the Caribbean’s Teachers

The Covid-19 pandemic forced teachers to implement blended and distance learning modalities, often without sufficient guidance, training or resources. Improving teachers’ digital competences is key to the teaching profession, to design quality distance learning as well as to their own professional development. 

In Latin America and the Caribbean, UNESCO and Blackboard Academy, through funding and coordination by way of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the University of the West Indies, Caribbean Center of Educational Planning (UWI-CCEP), respectively, have joint efforts to improve teacher training in digital skills  in the Caribbean the project is based on a train-the-trainer model with resources to a self-sustained professional development program.

The webinar The Digital Turn: Empowering the Caribbean’s Teachers will feature key elements of the project in the Caribbean to draw lessons from the regional experience and highlight the need and unpack the complexities of teacher training on the pedagogical use of ICTs. That experience will work as a starting point to connect the challenges of teacher training on ICTs at a global level, referencing the different needs and strategies implemented on ICTs.

Objectives:

• Showcase key lessons and opportunities from the train-the-trainers project in the Caribbean.
• Highlight the need and complexities of teacher training on the pedagogical use of ICTs drawing lessons from different experiences and the train-the-trainers project in the Caribbean.
• Explain the UNESCO ICT competency framework; exploring the 6 areas to be addressed and its different levels by emphasizing the relevance of developing ICT skills on teachers throughout their career.
• Showcase the mapping of ICT competencies offered to teachers by teacher training course elaborated by the teacher development section at UNESCO HQ.
• Share experience on teacher training on ICTs in the different countries in the Caribbean and with regional organizations such as CARICOM, Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and explore the possible synergies with other strategies on a global level (for example from the Global Teacher Campus).
• Share experiences with Abuja office as a similar teacher training project with Blackboard is being developed.

REGISTER HERE.

Provisional agenda:

Credit of the photo used for the visual: UNESCO Kingston