Sessions

Advancing 21st Century Skills through Global Collaboration at the iEARN Conference

      

Theode Niyirinda

Gayaza High School

Theode Niyirinda is an iEARN member and educator by profession. He is an ICT enthusiast at Gayaza High School, Uganda. He is a graduate of Bsc. Education (Makerere University,Uganda) and Masters in Educational Statistics and Measurement (Rutgers, State university of New Jersey, USA). He attended eLearning Africa conference Uganda...Read Full Bio

Theode Niyirinda

Theode Niyirinda is an iEARN member and educator by profession. He is an ICT enthusiast at Gayaza High School, Uganda. He is a graduate of Bsc. Education (Makerere University,Uganda) and Masters in Educational Statistics and Measurement (Rutgers, State university of New Jersey, USA). He attended eLearning Africa conference Uganda (2014) as a delegate and presented at eLearning Africa in Ethiopia (2015). He presented at the Digital Education Show Conference in Johannesburg-South Africa, 2015. He loves working with students with a special focus on having them undertake projects that help them learn, understand and share with a wider community with the help of ICTs. During his free time he enjoys playing soccer and watching his favorite team Arsenal play.

      
Session Details

Type: Ignite-Style Talk

Location: Auditorium

Date: Thursday

Time: 12:00-12:30 PM

This session is associated with a UN SDG!

This session relates to the Digital Citizenship iEARN Project!

Session Description

In this session, the facilitator will be sharing about the need to have schools prepare students for a future that is technology dependent. Schools need to prepare students and teachers for a change that is even more rapid than ever before, for jobs that have not yet been created, for societal challenges that we can only imagine of and for technologies that have not been invented. As the world becomes more interdependent, the more it needs great collaborators. Creating an enabling environment for students to achieve this is important. Gayaza High School has been collaborating for some time and iEARN  projects are handy when it comes to this. 21st century students use web 2.0 tools to share texts, pictures, audios and videos; this has built their collaboration, communication, teamwork, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving. 

What will educators learn and be able to do at the end of the session?

In this session, the facilitator intends to:

  • create an awareness among participants about the need to have students use engaging resources that create a culture of innovation
  • promote the need for educators to participate in iEARN projects since students get a different global view as they share with their partners and this creates global awareness among the students and teachers 
  • share about the need to create a generation of learners that are well equipped with 21st century skills 
  • share with participants about the need to engage students in project based learning. This motivates students to pick interest in the ICT supported projects and it has enabled teachers that are interested in advancing technologically practice their skills alongside students.

Additional Session Information

In this session, the facilitator will be sharing about the need to have schools prepare students for a future that is technology dependent. He will pose questions like: "Are today’s schools preparing students to work and live well in a future that will continue to become more and more high tech and even technology dependent?”    

It's important for participants to understand that today’s students are not the students we were yesterday. Thus it is important to understand who they are and what they need from their years in school (needs for their generation). Schools need to prepare students and teachers for a change that is even more rapid than ever before, for jobs that have not yet been created, for societal challenges that we can only imagine of and for technologies that have not been invented. As the world becomes more interdependent, the more it needs great collaborators. Creating an enabling environment for students to achieve this is important. Gayaza High School has been collaborating for some time and iEARN  projects are handy when it comes to this literary. The 21st century students use web 2.0 tools to share texts, pictures, audios and videos; this has built their collaboration,  communication, teamwork, creativity, critical thinking and problem solving. These are skills needed in this 21st century.

Session Resources

Advancing 21st Century Skills through Global Collaboration
These are slides for my Ignite talk slated for Thursday 12 -12: 30 pm in the auditorium