School principals and teachers from around SHEFA, SANMA, MALAMPA and TAFEA Provinces have successfully completed this year’s Principal ICT Conference (PITcon) held in Port Vila.
‘Resilient and Responsive Education System’ was the theme for the week-long event organised by Malapoa College in collaboration with ViewPX.
For the ICT team in Vanuatu, COVID-19 pandemic is a blessing in disguise, which enabled Malapoa College as one of the major schools in Port Vila to make use of their ICT tools and skills.
With assistance from ViewPX, other schools in Port Vila and the TAFEA team, schools were able to shift from the normal traditional face-face classroom to an online platform via Moodle.
The concept of traditional education has changed radically within the last couple of years. Being physically present in a classroom is not the only learning option anymore — not with the rise of the internet and new technologies, at least.
Nowadays, you have access to a quality education whenever and wherever you want, as long as you have access to a computer.
PITcon 2020 allows participants to discover how to create an AWS account, creating an AWS instance Installing and configuring Moodle as well as Moodle Maintenance AWS Backup and Restore.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 175 fully featured services from data centers globally.
One of the main facilitators, Dr Dominik Maximilián Ramík, from Czech Republic based on Tanna as an IT teacher at the Lowanatom College, shared expertise on how to set up a Proxy Server- Caching Internet content and Kolibri offline content.
Participants were trained to set up security measures for their networks and how to monitor internet users, specifically students, which will avoid them from surfing inappropriate sites on the net.
KOLIBRI on the other hand, is specially designed to provide offline access to accurate and openly licensed educational content library.
It will benefit schools from remote areas with very limited access to internet services.
Other presentations came from major ICT companies and organizations in such as TRBR, OGCIO, MoET IT, Pacific Networks, Pacific IT Solutions, Interchange, Vodafone, E-learning and Quality Assurance, E-learning AUF, E-learning NUV, E- Learning USP, Smart Sisters and Oxfam.
Participants were fortunate to receive not only critical knowledge, information and skills in ICT for their schools but will also be awarded with a certificate of participation.
The next PITcon is expected to be hosted in SANMA or TAFEA.
Photo supplied Caption: Participants of the Principal ICT Conference