The empowerment provides the training opportunities and support needed in digital learning and virtual classroom

by NURUL SUHAIDI / pic by BERNAMA

THE Education Ministry (MoE) and Google Malaysia are teaming up to train up to 5,000 public school teachers to become Google-certified educators, as part of the Delima Certification Programme.

The programme offers educators Google products and tools that would support strong classroom experiences and student outcomes.

It is intended to empower teachers with training opportunities and to support them in the new era of digital learning and virtual classrooms.

MoE educational technology and resources division director Maznah Abu Bakar said building teachers’ digital competency is critical to ensure students’ ability to cope with new ways of learning in this digital landscape.

“Therefore, teachers at the forefront are expected to be digitally equipped to embed the changes and digital framework in schools,” she said at a virtual event hosted by Google Malaysia yesterday called “Guru Pemangkin Transformasi Pendidikan”.

Kuching district education office officer Derosita Chok Mung Na; SK Sg Penipah, Mukah teacher Muhammad Nuaim Bahron; SMK Nabawan teacher Nur Aimi Ramli; and SMK Tinggi Klang teacher Shahrun Niza Sofian were among the Google-certified panels who shared their perspectives at the event.

Chok said the certification programme boosted her confidence as a trainer, allowing her to help other teachers and her co-workers become more comfortable with Google products.

“The confidence has pushed me to go beyond, expanding my circle of trainees and now our training has gone nationwide.

“Before undergoing the certification programme, my work mostly revolved around training the educators in Kuching,” she said.

Additionally, Nur Aimi said the Google Certified Educator programme was cost-effective and enabled more flexibility in her approach to virtual teaching.

“In preparing a virtual classroom, I can craft personalised and suitable materials according to the students’ needs and level of proficiency,” she said, adding that having access to the platform’s resources has allowed her to supplement and increase the interactivity of the virtual lessons.

“It is critical for us to equip the students in terms of preparation in resources beyond the regular textbooks to improve their learning experience,” she added.

Speaking on student engagements in a virtual setting, Shahrun Niza said Google Calendar has helped improve one-on-one communications through organised sessions with her students.

She said students have improved their independent studying while she can monitor student progress and identify areas to improve in her lessons.

She added that Google tools can serve as a convenient one-stop centre for educators who are still adjusting to this change.

Apart from being beneficial to teachers and students, Muhammad Nuaim said his knowledge have extended to other areas as well, such as assisting with administrative tasks at schools and training parents.

“Instructors from other schools have also shown interest and asked me to help them with their digital learning initiatives,” he said.

This has sparked the spirit to study among students, parents, and schools, resulting in an improved digital competency in schooling standards.