Empowering Education Through Advanced Learning Tools

Socrative has revolutionized classroom assessments by enabling teachers to connect with students in real-time through interactive exercises, polls, and quizzes. This tool allows for tailored instruction by offering insightful data about student performance in addition to quick feedback.  Having experienced both the traditional and modern teaching approaches, I consider Socrative to be a useful tool for establishing an interesting and participatory classroom environment. It enables teachers to evaluate students’ understanding in real-time, which facilitates course modifications to suit individual needs and prevents any student from falling behind. In my opinion, Socrative is more than a learning tool, it is a chance to close the gap between student understanding and academic results, especially in subjects where technology may enhance the availability of face-to-face instruction.

As a Pacific Islander, I have a strong connection to Khan Academy as an Open Educational Resource (OER) because it offers students, particularly those from remote locations, a crucial resource for high-quality education. With its extensive library of free lessons and videos, Khan Academy offers students who might not have access to face-to-face tutoring or extra learning support a lifeline. I can recall that as an undergraduate student majoring in Economics, I used to refer to Khan Academy videos most of the time to help me understand key economic concepts, mostly the graphing of several economic variables and explaining the relationship through the shifts in graphs. Moreover, for students who might normally find it difficult to afford required textbooks for their courses, OpenStax provides free, peer-reviewed textbooks that are available to anybody.

I firmly think that education is the ability to improve communities and that Open Educational Resources (OERs) are essential to promoting equality and opportunity, particularly for Pacific Island Countries, where access to high-quality education has historically been restricted.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bridging the Digital Divide: Access to Technology in the Pacific Impeding the Education System

Pacific islands are renowned for their breathtaking scenery and lively cultures, but many of these islands struggle to get digital connections. Many Pacific countries still have significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to digital devices and dependable internet connectivity, which restricts their options for education, economic growth, and healthcare. Geographical isolation is a major obstacle for PICs. These islands are widely dispersed across a vast body of ocean, making it costly and challenging to install reliable mobile networks or install infrastructure like internet cables. As a result, many remote areas are left without high-speed internet. Another obstacle is affordability. Even while smartphones and other digital gadgets are now more widely available, many Pacific Islanders still cannot afford them. In addition, internet access might be prohibitively expensive, particularly for people who live in remote or rural areas. Nevertheless, there are opportunities for grow...
Read more

From Data to Disparity: The Math Behind Income Inequality Measures

Talking about economic developments in a country and overlooking income inequality might be a joke. Hence, in my microteaching, I aim to discuss the economic state of a country based on the calculations of income inequality. The challenge is that 15 minutes might be less; however, my plan to cover inequality despite the time constraint is as follows: I will highlight the learning outcomes, then discuss the concepts of inequality. Using relevant graphs (Lorenz curve, Histogram, and Summary Statistics), I will explain the income distribution using real-life examples. To ensure that students learn what I teach, we will do an activity together. I will provide a summary statistics table with relevant data and students will be required to graph the Lorenz curve and calculate the Gini coefficient which will reveal the extent of income inequality. Calculation of the Gini coefficient is a bit tricky, therefore, I will include a link to a YouTube video that will show how the Gini coefficient c...
Read more