April 2012 - The EduFocal Blog Archive

Archive for April, 2012

15 Apr

General News

BCIC’s Managing Director Peter Levy EduFocal Speech

By admin on April 15 at 5:52pm with No Comments »

Let me start by thanking the EduFocal team for inviting me to make a few remarks today. It’s an exciting occasion and I’m thrilled to be here in any capacity.

I’m going to ask you to indulge me for a minute. In keeping with the educational theme, I’d like to ask you to raise your hands if you have a personal twitter account.

And keep your hand up only if you’ve personally made a post to twitter in the past seven days.

Thanks. The relevance of that question today is that I met Gordon on Twitter. Were it not for that fledgling communication medium, neither I, nor more importantly BCIC’s money, would be present today.

I see that as an illustration of the opportunities that can be thrown up through the use of interactive technology.

What I know about the educational system is what I have gleaned from having three children in school, and also by being married to a lady who I, and her students, consider to be the best school teacher in Jamaica.

But like many, I have pondered on the issues facing us in Jamaica as we struggle to make it possible for our young to deliver on their enormous, if not limitless potential. I have looked at school buildings that are shuttered for a quarter of the year, and thought “There must be a way to extract more value from those resources”, even while admitting that getting more from physical resources is only part of the solution.

And then I came across Gordon and EduFocal, who aren’t just thinking outside the ‘box’ or classroom if you will – instead they are promising to blow it up.

That’s what excites me – the possibilities that arise when new techniques are applied by young, energetic minds, to old, seemingly intractable problems.

And that’s why I’m thrilled to be here on behalf of BCIC to wish Gordon and his team all the success in the world.

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Visit BCIC here

14 Apr

Announcements

Hundreds benefit from EduFocal partnership with Fun4Kidz Sanya Richards Fast Track Program

By admin on April 14 at 11:58pm with No Comments »

The Fun4Kidz Sanya Richards Fast Track program, sponsored by USAID Jamaica, has partnered with EduFocal, the new online interactive learning platform for GSAT and CSEC students, to provide full EduFocal membership to hundreds of students spanning five schools. These schools include Holy Trinity High, Tarrant High, Penwood High, Bridgeport High and Waterford High.

The Sanya Richards Fast Track Program is the brainchild of Sanya Richards Ross, Jamaican American Olympic gold medallist, and Andrew Post of the Fun 4 Kidz Foundation. Since its inception in 2007, the program seeks to combine sports with literacy and numeracy in a dynamic and outstanding initiative enjoyed by youth in Richards Ross’ native island home of Jamaica.

EduFocal’s main objective of changing the way GSAT and CSEC students see learning by presenting it in a fun, interactive environment is a great match for the objectives of the Fast Track program. Launched in March 2012, EduFocal has already received endorsement by the Minister of Education, the Honourable Ronald Thwaites who states that ‘Persons in the education industry are tired of the same conventional, ineffective methods of getting information across to students,’ and believes that ‘EduFocal presents a refreshing method of incorporating learning with play.’

The partnership hopes to foster a fruitful relationship between both entities by endorsing and furthering their objectives and assisting in the educational development of the students of the five benefitting schools.

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EduFocal is an online interactive learning community offers preparatory questions for the GSAT and CSEC programmes, presented in a manner akin to popular role-playing games (RPG). It is focused on using technology to enrich the learning experience outside of the classroom as well as to help ideate and innovate the way we move forward with technology in education.

For further information, please contact us at hello@edufocal.com.