Online tutorials to add to learning experience

The Jamaican education system is about to get a technological boost this academic year through a partnership with Digicel and Cyber School Technology Solutions (CSTS).

Students and teachers of mathematics and the sciences at the CSEC level will have access to course material through online tutorials developed by CSTS. These tutorial solutions, based on the partnership, will be accessible for the first time via a tablet at a low cost to subscribers.

One of the first schools to embark on the initiative on a large scale, Hampton School, recently received the first batch of 800 tablets complete with the telecommunication company's lightning-fast 4G mobile data plan at significantly discounted rates.

Speaking at the launch of the partnership at Hampton High last Thursday, Conrod Hanson, CEO of CSTS, said he was expecting great things from the partnership.

"The e-learning solutions that will be available to students and teachers will be accessible 24/7 via tablets to be provided by Digicel. This means students and teachers can work and study anytime and anywhere they want," he said.

Hanson added that before Digicel came on board, the solutions were exclusively offered through agreement with schools and accessible only on a personal computer. But now, any student or teacher anywhere in Jamaica can have access to the solutions via their tablets.

The e-learning programme, developed by CSTS, uses a blended approach to imparting knowledge which is a combination of the physical classroom and the virtual classroom. This allows the students to control the time, place, path, and/or pace at which the lesson is taught. Hampton is the first beneficiary of the partnership.