Twenty-one-year-old Samuels who lives in Portmore, St. Catherine, has observed during the past five years the difficulty teachers of IT have, teaching certain concepts of programming. So, worried that the students could fail their CXC exams and that the teachers themselves would continue to lose confidence, Mr. Samuels decided to take matters in his own hands and help out at schools where the problems were strongest.

"Teachers and students alike are experiencing difficulties because of lack of resources and insufficient access to training materials such as multi-media programmes, data projectors, text books and proper Internet access," points out Samuels.

"What would amend the problem are a series of on-going professional workshops with all the necessary resources valued by participants and also an exchange of ideas between teachers and students in an environment away from the regular classroom."

Asked why the change of environment was so important he explained that in preparing pupils for the IT market, confining them to a classroom gave them a false impression of what the real world would be expecting of them.

"Conditioning students to a workshop scenario is good practice which will facilitate smooth transition from mere students to authentic and diversified roles in the field of IT in their academic and career pursuits, when they would be expected to hone their knowledge and skills into creating innovations and tackle problems."

TRIAL WORKSHOP

Samuels was first made aware of the problem in March of last year, by Donovan Isaacs, principal of The Institute of Higher Learning, when after identifying similar problems among his teachers and pupils, commissioned him to run a trial workshop at his school.

He took on the challenge but never thought of it as being a long-term venture. Seventy-four students from nine secondary schools in Kingston and St. Catherine and four teachers participated and whetted Samuel's appetite to the extent that he shelved personal plans to concentrate on helping those in need.

"The workshops became a change from the 'chalk and talk' routine of the classroom to an interactive forum with better resources and more developed materials which were more user friendly. Students were more stimulated to learn because they became more confident in trying to unravel challenges when the resources gave them a better grasp of the subject and so when this happened they wanted to be left on their own."

The success of that workshop manifested itself in the 2003 CSEC IT results when from the teachers' reports Samuels learnt that of the 74 students that sat the exam, more than 90 per cent got between A and B in the theory aspect of programming. Only three students got an average grade of C.

Against the background of his track record, a sophomore workshop was in great demand by teachers and students from all walks of life. Several other teachers from schools in the Corporate Area and in St. Catherine admitted that they had reservations about teaching programming. The second workshop addressed more technical areas of programming. Among those who participated were nine deaf students from Alister-Mair/Gilby School for the Deaf and two adult interpreters directed by Samuels who himself has sign language skills.

The workshop was moved to Wilmot's Academy on Seaward Drive in February this year and is structured on a five session all-day workshop on Sundays. Students were charged $1,100 for all five sessions and teachers attended for free. However, those students who could not afford fees were introduced to longer payment periods against an assessment of their socio-economic background.

FULL FORCE

"The entire Kingston Technical High School IT class of about 38 students and two of their teachers requested and attended the workshop. In addition, the IT teacher from Bridgeport High School and the majority of her class came out in full force. In all the workshop has over 133 students and 18 teachers, two of whom act as co-presenters," explained Samuels.

"Teachers are coming to strengthen their confidence and to go back to their classrooms to help their students and themselves excel in programming. It's amazing how these teachers, some of whom are married with children, give up their Sundays to come out and not only learn but to give moral support to their students."

Samuels is the third of four children for Errol and Delores Samuels, a senior police officer and retired entrepreneur respectively.

In 2001 he graduated from the University of Technology (UTech) with a BSc honours degree in Administrative Management and plans to begin his MSC in Computer-based Management Information Systems at the University of the West Indies (UWI) later this year.

When he is not conducting workshops on programming Samuels works as a classroom teacher at Norman Manley High School, as a consultant trainer, and as an interpreter for the deaf at the Lister-Mair/Gilby School for the hearing impaired.

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040330/news/news1.html