Junglebyte Teach Nurtures Independent Learners at Temasek Junior College

As pre-university learners that are readying themselves for the greater challenges lying ahead, Junior College students are highly independent in their learning. This group of young learners prefers having more freedom in their learning, but at the same time still requires guidance and directions from their teachers. Teachers need to strike a balance between promoting self-reliance and creating a nurturing environment. With the implementation of Junglebyte Teach, the teachers at Temasek Junior College have found a solution to this unique challenge.

The software makes it easy for teachers to discreetly maintain a watchful eye over the class and be ready to step in anytime. Students remain on task even with the amount of freedom they have.

Using Teach, Temasek Junior College teachers give high-quality screen broadcasts to every student in the computer room. Afterward, students are allowed to work out their solutions on their own.

Without having to walk around the room and hover over any student computer, teachers are able to supervise student activity in a non-intrusive manner. Teach’s screen monitoring feature allows teachers to be everywhere at once.

Teachers have the option of viewing multiple student screens at one go, or zooming any particular student desktop into full screen. By leaving students to do work on their own, they are encouraged to do further self-exploration and be self-sufficient in their learning. At the same time, the teachers may still step in anytime to guide students when needed.

Some students are embarrassed to seek help from their teachers. Using Teach’s Help Requests feature, Temasek Junior College students are able to send questions and help requests to their teachers privately without disrupting the class. Teachers see these messages on their screen instantly and attend to the students right away.

With screen sharing being supported in Teach, the teacher may even take remote control of the student computer to render assistance. This way, students get a clear view of the teacher’s demonstrations from the comfort of his own terminal.

Independent learning also increases the challenge of keeping students on task. The amount of freedom that every student is allowed makes it imperative to have certain controls in place to minimise distractions and keep students off non-instructional material.

Two very important limiting functions of Teach – Internet Lock and Application Lock serve the purpose of restricting student access to the Internet, instant messengers and other software applications. Teachers can block off Internet access and applications for certain students or the entire class. Both locking and unlocking is as easy as a single click. Websites and applications that are useful towards the lesson can still be allowed.

Students benefit from having the freedom to do work on their own. Not only do they take ownership of their learning, it also fosters good problem-solving skills. Teach offers teachers a way to allow students their space but at the same time supervise them in a discreet manner.