San Anton seniors to use ICT in all subjects

The two 12-year-olds at San Anton School were understandably nervous before making a presentation on their English project to a reporter from The Times.

This was no ordinary presentation, but Paul Torpiano and Max Ebejer had no reason at all to be apprehensive - they talked their way through the PowerPoint presentation, projected onto a large screen from their computer, as if they had being doing it for years.

It was a live book review of J.R. Tolkien`s Lord of the Rings, involving an illustrated, interactive guided tour of the plot, Middle Earth and the creatures inhabiting it. I doomed the earth to extinction several times by picking the wrong path, but it all contributed towards an engaging experience.

Paul and Max nodded their heads in unison when asked if doing the project by computer, instead of using a more traditional approach, had made them more enthusiastic about it. "We much preferred doing it this way to doing a chart," they said.

Students in English teacher Mireille Falzon`s class were free to choose their own mode of presentation, but practically all used the computer or some other form of technology such as video.

"They enjoyed it so much," said Ms Falzon. "Most of them normally dislike reading but not for this project. And two of the students who would ordinarily present a behaviour problem just sat down in the library and typed away quietly."

Besides PowerPoint, what skills did the two boys have to learn in order to put the presentation together, I asked them. "We needed to be able to use word processing, search the internet, download files, transfer them to PowerPoint, scan pictures, use a CD writer..."

It is factors like the use of multiple skills, as well as the enthusiasm generated through the creative expression involved, that is spurring San Anton secondary school to change its approach to ICT from treating it as an isolated subject to using it as a teaching tool in other subjects.

"For me this English project earned an A+," enthused Silvio Camilleri, the senior school`s ICT and computer studies coordinator.

So next year, instead of having ICT lessons as such, Mr Camilleri is planning to totally integrate the ICT syllabus across the curriculum, with ICT teachers on call to teach the skills necessary for projects such as the one so ably handled by Paul and Max.

"During ICT lessons we started to observe that although the students were browsing the internet, sending e-mail, using office and publishing applications and so on, they were getting a bit bored," said Mr Camilleri.

What they were doing, he continued, was somewhat up in the air. They needed to apply it creatively to something concrete - just like they had done in the English project and were already doing successfully in mathematics.

At early and middle schools, this is already taking place, as ICT coordinator Angele Calleja explained. Once a week pupils are given lessons in IT skills but the computer is also used as a tool in teaching and learning within the different subjects. Pupils are started on computers from as early as three with touch screens and special software.

As in an increasing number of schools around Malta, the computer has become an essential fixture in all of San Anton`s classrooms.