By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
A premier Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre in the North East , the Professor Iya Abubakar Community Resource Centre Bauchi has conducted a One Day Teachers International Conference in Bauchi.
The Director of the Centre, Jibrin Hussein Kawure in a welcome address said the conference was aimed at improving the use of technology tools by teachers and instructors with a, view to aiding the learning process in the North East sub region.
Kawure said the capacity building conference was organised in collaboration with a private ICT entity known as Coreline and targeted teachers from primary to tertiary institutions of the North East.
With the theme of the conference tagged,, “‘Digital Innovative Education and Tools in the 21st Century”, the Director said, “Participants will be exposed to more opportunities and leverage on technology innovation to provide quality education and also mitigate challenges of using these technology tools as teaching aids”.
While urging participants to avail themselves the services of the Resource Centre, Kawure said that the conference is the first edition in a series of trainings designed for different category of professionals in all segments of human endeavour.
Declaring the conference opened, secretary to Bauchi State Government (SSG), Barrister Kashim Ibrahim applauded the Centre and their partners for their foresight in organising conference which he described as “innovative”.
The SSG said that Bauchi State Government is particularly interested in any program or activity that can add value to quality of education in the State.
Represented by Barrister Muhammad Ishaq, the SSG enjoined the participants to pay keen attention and participate actively during presentations and plenaries.
Also, in a goodwill message, Bauchi State Head of Service (HoS) Alhaji Yahuza Adamu Haruna said that the Conference is not timely but long overdue because of challenges associated with digital technology.
Represented by a permanent secretary in the office, Barrister Mohammed Sani Umar, the HoS expressed his optimism that the conference will proffer practical solutions that the participants can take away with, to apply in their respective schools.
Our correspondent reports that some of the hands-on innovative tools presented to participants includes: Microsoft Technologies for Classroom, Microsoft Educator Account, One notebook for Classroom and Teams for Classroom. Other Microsoft education technologies presented were Empatico, Flipgrid, Wakelet et al, with resource persons drawn from the Academia, the Centre and Coreline partners.
The centre also ceased the opportunity during the conference and honoured some identified individuals for their support to the centre. Those honoured with an award of excellence were the SSG, HoS, State Accountant General and Auditor General. Others were the Chairman of the State Revenue Services and Director General of the Bauchi ICT centre.
A participant, Abdulwahab Salihu, from Gombe state who spoke with our correspondent said that incorporating and using Information, Computer Technology (ICT) has become imperative in the learning process.
He said that the world has become a global village, hence the need for schools to employ technological tools that would meet up. With the new global trends in education.