Uwitube to increase regional proficiency

Creator and Senior Lecturer, Department
of Computer Science, Mathematics
and Physics, Dr. Janak Sodha.

Uwitube is the brainchild of Senior Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, Dr. Janak Sodha, and he believes that it is the one-stop shop for students taking CXC Mathematics across the region.

He believes that uwitube is a win-win project. A site with videos only of the highest quality and resource material at the fingertips of all students throughout the region, so that they can practise and learn via repetition at their own pace. Uwitube will revolutionise how Mathematics is seen, taught and learned.

Director of External Relations at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill campus, Dr. Anthony Fisher, said: “The idea of sharing across the Internet is quite important.”

Some of the benefits of implementing uwitube are better grades, more prepared and equipped students entering the university, and hence more proficient graduates entering the world of work.

To date, there are about 20 teachers involved from almost 18 secondary schools in Barbados with the goal being to attain at least 60 teachers from across the islands.

Dr. Sodha said, “See uwitube as an umbrella. The umbrella starts here in Barbados, but it opens to the region,” as more and more teachers come on board.

Initially, the videos will be screened and uploaded by Dr. Sodha, so that the standard and quality of material remains high. However, in the future, in addition to having uploads by teachers of various Caribbean nationalities, the site set-up will look more like YouTube and teachers will be able to upload videos themselves. The aim is to have videos in different accents, so that students can easily relate to the teachers and understand the concepts. Also, with the goal of maintaining high standards, the videos will be screened by a panel of selected persons once expansion occurs.

Currently with the use of six iPads, the 20 teachers from various schools on the grid will each upload 20 videos addressing 20 topics on the CXC Mathematics syllabus, so that students will have access
to some 400 videos to help them revise and get immediate feedback. Eventually, the goal is to not only increase the wealth of material, but to diversify the video content and offer other CXC and CAPE subjects as well.

Barbados’ Minister of Education and Human Resources Development, Ronald Jones, pledged his support, saying that the Ministry will try to make more iPads available to accelerate the project.

He said, “I like what I’m seeing. This will make it possible for students to learn better, improving the quality of excellence and education.”

Then in closing, he implored the teachers and creative team saying, “I hope you will be able to get the videos up quickly. Your students need them.” (KG)