Digital Champions in Harbour View

Excerpt from the Jamaica Observer column published Monday, April 17, 2023

By Jean Lowrie-Chin

It was the week after Champs when our Digicel Foundation Team visited the Harbour View Primary School to open a fourth smart room to equip the children for this digital age. Yes, we were thrilled by the extraordinary performances at Champs, but we must also cheer them on to excel at technology and so be able to stay one step ahead of artificial intelligence (AI).

Digicel Foundation Chair, Jean Lowrie-Chin (second right, standing), interacts with students at the Harbour View Primary School during the opening of a smart room at the institution on Tuesday (April 4). The state-of-the-art facility was provided by the Foundation. Also sharing the moment are (from left, background) Acting Regional Director, Region 1, Ministry of Education and Youth, Dasmine Kennedy; Digicel Foundation Board Member, Heather Moyston and the school’s vice principal, Lavern Morgan. (Photo: JIS)

At the event, Dasmine Kennedy, Region One director at the Ministry of Education and Youth noted, “The impact on learning tends to be greater once the technology is incorporated in their learning paradigm … students’ learning actually increased with the use of modern equipment, technology, and tools. Students are able to maintain focus much longer on the teaching/learning activities and most of all the engagement and interactivity process tend to increase.”

“Studies have shown that teaching and learning, when aided by technology, allows for easy, convenient, and effective transfer of knowledge,” she shared. “In essence, the mind tends to work faster when assisted with the use of modern technology.”

Additionally, let us include the A for arts to STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and call it STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics). Chat GPT can write a speech for you, but can it capture the beauty of those children at Harbour View Primary, their eyes shining with expectation? Can it capture the graciousness of the teachers and my colleagues at the Ministry of Education? As I did in my address, would it be able to draw a parallel between the Champs stadium and the digital stadium, where we want our children to flourish? Let us keep our love for the arts, even as we promote STEM. Then the genius of Claude McKay, Marcus Garvey, Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett and Bob Marley will inspire their critical thinking for personal mastery in this brave new world.