Halls of Learning Jamaica (HOL) has announced that starting this school year, they will be facilitating a variety of online courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, (STEM) to help supplement in-school learning, provide Jamaican students with useful skills and expose them to more opportunities within these fields.
The education services company is utilizing online resources and events from technology giants Amazon and IBM to give students access to global opportunities. “We are leveraging existing learning platforms that teach skill sets beyond our face to face courses and for an older demographic,” said Halls of Learning Founder, Marvin Hall.
The online courses on offer include: Robotics, Computer Science, Coding, Math, Reading, and Typing for primary and secondary level students.
One course, AP Computer Science Principles, for eleventh and twelfth grade students will provide college credits for universities in North America if completed successfully. This course, along with another, Introduction to Computer Science, will also give students access to Amazon Web Services (AWS) Educate. It is the educational arm for Amazon Web Services - a platform which Apps like Netflix run on. And it is usually only accessible from a United States brick and mortar school so it is an especially unique opportunity for Jamaican students to learn cloud computing and similar skills.
Along with the courses, HOL is encouraging participation in several virtual challenges and competitions.
There is the Amazon Challenge, which is free for primary and secondary level students and the IBM Mainframe Challenge, also free for secondary level students 13 years and older. HOL is promoting the IBM Mainframe Challenge, in particular, because it will allow students to earn certificates for “mainframe technology” - a valuable skill to have considering that annually, mainframe computers process $8 trillion in credit card payments and 29 billion ATM transactions.
Hall further explained that exposing students to the IBM Mainframe challenge will help position them to be able to outsource their talents overseas. He said, “If I tell you that every ATM is using some kind of mainframe technology, then that should give you some perspective. This is the technology behind the Internet and a lot of financial transactions. Children are getting the opportunity to develop skills for that technology in a very unique space.”
Additionally, HOL has partnered with Israel-based company, Intelitek on their CoderZ Robotics League, which is an international virtual robotics competition open to primary and secondary students. In teams of 5, students will advance throughout the competition by programming their robots to complete various missions. It is another engaging activity for students to exercise their knowledge and increase their competitive coding skills. Upon registration with HOL, students will have free training and tutorials included within the CoderZ League online portal.
Registration for these online offerings will be open from October 8, 2020 at www.hallsoflearning.com.
And, while some of the subjects are generally believed to be difficult, HOL says that the only thing students need beforehand are a computer, internet access and web browser. The HOL team will be offering instructional support to students as they progress through the courses.
When asked why parents and teachers should register their students for these kinds of supplementary learning opportunities, Hall, a former math and IT educator, said, “It’s important to build the foundation for these skill sets in prep or primary school and when you get to high school, looking to university or the working world, we’re trying to keep our students on par with credentials that are being considered globally.“
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