VUSSC/Trinidad and Tobago Boot Camp/Day 4 summary

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Morning Session
Welcome and Introductions Despite Thursday 7th June being a Public Holiday, it did not dampen the mood regarding work to be done on the Life Skills Boot camp!!!. The sessions were therefore held at the Hilton Trinidad in the Flamingo Room. Ava welcomed all the participants and introduced the programme for the day. She extended a special welcome to Andrew Moore, Education Specialist in Multimedia, Johannesburg and Karen Rosemin, the Director of Distance Education, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education our main facilitators for the morning. She introduced Kathy Dunlop, Researcher from Simon Fraser University to the group. She will be with us during the coming days and will be carrying out an evaluation with the aim of providing a better understanding of the processes involved of this COL VUSSC initiative. Kathy will be consulting with participants on an individual level. Session 1: Multimedia session Facilitated by Andrew Moore Andrew transported us to the world of possibilities of elearning and multimedia in Education. His presentation addressed the following: definition of e-learning and  multimedia and  their advantages; considerations of media and technology choice in relation to educational goals; logistical and financial issues and constraints; examples of various materials developed; stages of production of the learning material (analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation); the project staff required depending on what is required and who is available, processes for writing a storyboard in relation to curriculum requirements Session 2 Karen Rosemin presented a role- play being developed for use as an interactive tool in the teaching of Life Skills. Her representation of an authentic situation and characters based on a Trinadadian context paved the way for our energies to be channelled into creating an innovative multimedia process to achieving educational aims. Time was not on our side. The results would have been interesting. Who knows what would become of D DON?!!! Group task In the Life Skills development groups, participants identified possible areas for multimedia treatment. It is expected that each group will integrate this work in the different units of their respective modules. Session 3: Guidelines for Peer Review of Units. Kaveena presented the guidelines to ensure that the teams knew exactly what had to be done. This included: reviewing teams and feedback expected. We are to put our review of the work of the development team in the discussion forum in wikieducator. We are to be positive first, comment on coverage according to the COL word format and to what extent the objectives are consistent with the content, activities and assessment in the unit. All the participants were informed that the presentations of the above facilitators will be available on the wikieducator website.

Afternoon Session
Official Luncheon An unforgettable ride introducing the tropical splendour of St. Joseph, the first capital of Trinidad was a prelude to an official luncheon held at Ortanila Great House. It was hosted by Senator the Honourable Hazel Manning Minister of Education and Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Mr Mustapha Abdul- Hamid. The Ministers for Education welcomed all participants and stepped back in time to present the inception, growth and fruition of the VUSSC initiative in relation to the importance, experience and developments of Life Skills education for Trinidad and Tobago. The Life Skills course development currently being held is a collaborative effort of the Commonwealth of Learning under the direction of Sir John Daniel and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. All participants were individually welcomed and presented with gifts from Honourable Minister Hazel Manning and Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid. Afterwards, Ava transported everybody to Samoa through a very touching invocation before the meal. A delightful and sumptuous lunch was enjoyed by all and ended with a musical note by a charismatic entertainer, calypsonian Abebele. A vote of thanks on behalf of all the participants was then made by Kaveena.

This is a real Boot Camp. We worked at the hotel,busy peer reviewing the work of other group in the evening. Aaron O’Neal worked very hard and ensured that every team leader could get access to the internet thus enabling them to work in their respective group at the hotel.