The Malta Independent MITA Feature 3rd March 2016 by MITA

The Malta Independent | Thursday 3 March 2016

Engaging students’ minds with today’s technology Visitors were given the opportunity to see, touch and test the latest and most groundbreaking technologies as with regards to interactive touch screens. Interactive touch screens, which are replacing the current interactive whiteboards, give a more engaging learning experience as they allow multiple students to make use of the device at the same time and interact with it

Stephen Camilleri

he world of technology is an ever-changing and exciting one and is shaping nearly every industry beyond recognition. It has even transformed and brought about a radical rethink of the way education is resourced, taught and consumed. As in previous years, MITA visited the annual BETT Show in London in order to keep abreast of what education innovators are up to and improve digital teaching in Malta. Throughout the four-day event, over 600 education technology companies showcased their products and services to about 36,000 visitors. These products ranged from

using their own personal device. Apart from that, they are more cost effective, require less maintenance and generally have a higher resolution than interactive whiteboards. Malta has made huge investments and has taken some big steps in empowering classrooms with the most recent technology. With Fronter as the virtual learning environment, free online Office365 to all

students and teachers alike and Shibboleth’s single sign-on system, it is up to tomorrow’s generation to make full use of this interactive learning experience and take society to new heights. Stephen Camilleri is an Associate Software Developer within the Programme Management Department at MITA

The Malta Independent ICT Feature MITA Communications and PR Team

virtual learning environments, management information systems, interactive touch screens, 3D printers, alternative learning solutions, cloud services, network and configuration management, curriculum software, STEM products, computer devices and classroom furniture. In this article, I will be pointing out only three of the most recent developments, which were promoted at Bett 2016, but which have not yet been introduced into Malta. One of this year’s highly pro-

moted devices was the BBC micro:bit – a pocked sized personal coding device with motion detection, a built-in compass and Bluetooth technology, which can be customised, controlled and programmed to carry out a series of tasks within seconds. The device was developed as part of BBC’s landmark education initiative, to increase awareness and interest in technology computing and digital creativity and help in developing a new generation of tech pioneers. As

announced during the organised talks at Bett 2016, every child in year 7 in the UK will benefitting from a free micro:bit (an estimated 1 million micro:bits in all), before making it available to the general public. On the other hand, those who have educational games at heart had the chance to get to know more about Microsoft’s new and expanded version of ‘Minecraft’ for the classroom – Minecraft Education Edition, following their acquisition of MinecraftEdu. The latest

developments give educators a better opportunity to foster deeper student engagement and collaboration, help students learn social and problem-solving skills and study a wide variety of subjects including mathematics, foreign languages, social justice and fair trade. A large Bett Fair stand was also dedicated to prove how by building virtual worlds, children are free to learn at their own pace and in ways that are familiar to them.

ITA visited the annual BETT Show in London in order to keep abreast of what education innovators are up to and improve digital teaching in Malta. Throughout the four-day event, over 600 education technology companies showcased their products and services to about 36,000 visitors. During February 2016, the Department of Curriculum Man-

agement within the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education at the Ministry for Education and Employment, has organised a number of halfday workshops entitled ‘Learning with Games: An introduction to Digital Gamebased Learning’. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature

Game-Based Learning an emerging approach to learning G ames, as forms of play, can potentially inform and transform education by creating constructivist learning env ironments based on clear learning outcomes. The use of digital games to support learning, described as digital game-based learning (GBL), is pedagogically underpinned by theories of active, collaborative and experiential learning. Rather than providing a context for repetition and recall, digital games are particularly useful in fostering more complex competencies, by facilitating students in developing and applying higher-order skills like critical analysis and evaluation. This is

essentially achieved through the ability of digital games to resemble optimal learning environments based on just-in-time and on-demand feedback, which amongst others allows students to discover authentic contexts, practice problem-solving skills and collaborate in shared endeavours. GBL approaches offer students an excellent opportunity to build on existing interests, thus extending the sense of engagement and motivation, while being exposed to a multi-modal interactive approach which accommodates for different learning styles. Furthermore, students move from being passive recipients of academic content to

Edinburgh. The Malta IT Agency (MITA) in collaboration with the Department of Curriculum Management (DCM) recently showcased three home-grown digital serious games with secondary school teachers in three parallel workshops. These digital games deal with specific academic content within Biology and/or Integrated Science subjects, History and ICT / Computing. These digital games were developed at the MITA Innovation Hub aimed at teachers to use as learning tools during the delivery of their

active learners in a formative inquiry-based learning approach. Nonetheless, game-based approaches to teaching and learning need to be well planned and appropriately organised by the teacher, in order to produce and sustain a solid transfer of skills and knowledge from games to other domains of knowledge, including academic subjects. This implies that a firm constructive alignment between learning objectives, game activities and assessment strategies has to be effectively achieved. Locally, the concept of digital GBL is being introduced gradually. During February 2016, the Department of Curriculum Man-

agement within the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education at the Ministry for Education and Employment, has organised a number of half-day workshops entitled ‘Learning with Games: An introduction to Digital Game-based Learning’. The workshops held at Gozo College and St Ignatius College, focused on the use of digital games in the teaching/learning process and offered participants an opportunity to trial educational games related to different academic subjects and to discuss ways of integrating such games in everyday teaching practices. Participants were also introduced to the Scientix Project and

explored initiatives related to STEM projects, resource repository, on-line training opportunities and the networking potential provided through face-to-face meetings. They also browsed the Scientix portal to access a range of STEM projects such as Go-Lab. These workshops followed a Scientix webinar held in May 2015, targeting Education Officers, who explored the use of educational games as part of an effective alternative pedagogy. The workshops and the webinar were led by Mr Stephen Bezzina, a Physics teacher and recent graduate from the Master of Science degree in Digital Education programme at the University of

lessons to students. Going forward, MITA is currently in discussions with the DCM for the potential development of a new wave of digital serious games in connection with other academic content. In addition, MITA in collaboration with local and foreign partners is also currently running a GBL project aimed at early school leavers through Erasmus+ funding. The project aims to enrich the educational and skills portfolios of educators by producing a guidebook and toolkit that houses a collection of game-

based scenarios and serious digital games. The toolkit can be used with secondary school students to teach English and Maths. For more information on the Erasmus+ project, MITA’s collaboration with the DCM and information on workshops organised by the DCM please visit: https://mita.gov.mt/gbl Article by MITA Digital Outreach in collaboration with the Department of Curriculum Management (DCM).