By Elizabeth Osayande

The Executive Director of Grace Schools, Mrs Olatokunbo Edun  has stated that being certified by Hewlett-Packard ,HP Innovation & Digital Education Academy (IDEA) school was a call to develop more of the potential and capabilities of teachers.

According to her: ” The school is poised to develop the potential and capabilities of it’s teachers. HP- IDEA is part of the strategic vision to provide qualitative learning and academic excellence.” She said.

 IDEA (Innovation & Digital Education Academy) platform marks a school’s commitment to transforming their digital pedagogies to flourish in the 21st century and keep themselves agile and inventive.      

The involvement of the school in the programme helped in promoting:  the development of effective teacher-leaders ; embedding and scaling effective teaching skills ; supporting teachers’ and students’ innovation and entrepreneurship through: developing a cadre of effective online and blended learning teachers.

Other areas are: Improving the quality and relevance of in-service teacher training ;  supporting the growth of teacher-generated content ; improving workforce; and strengthening public-private partnerships.

Meanwhile, out of 130  Grace Schools educators are HP IDEA Associates and 8 Educators are HP IDEA Fellows. They included : Ayodele Adetayo, Taiwo Olubanke, Tunde Ayeni, and Kayode Omoleye; others include Esther Arigidi, Jude Ashiedu, Israel Olukale and Abayomi Adebanjo.

The Fellows  were able to leverage the existing digital tools in the school to develop effective, scalable practices focused on teaching and learning in hybrid or blended learning models while adapting Collaborative domain of High Leverage Teaching Practices (HLTP) as major area of research

The Schools’ Certification and Decoration came as a result of the involvement of eight staff that went through a year-long Fellow Innovation & Digital Education Academy (IDEA) Programme, organized by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in collaboration with ITEL.

At the graduation ceremony that had in attendance dignitaries from HP top management team, Mirai Partners (an education innovation consultancy), Ministry of Education personnel, Educators and Education Leaders from Middle East and Africa, a Grace Schools Staff, Mr. Ayodele Adetayo was the Facilitator and Spokesman for Nigerian Private Schools.

Due to the rigorous and intensive projects, conferences and innovation sessions, only a handful of schools were able to complete the program in Nigeria and The United Arab Emirate.

Vanguard News Nigeria