ONE of the unique features of the Manx Telecomputer Bus is the way on-site in-service training (INSET) can be offered to teachers at the end of a school day.
A large number of teachers have benefited from these voluntary sessions, which have helped to make sure work undertaken during the day on board the bus by the children, can be carried on by the teachers once the bus has gone.
Control work with FLOWOL is one good example of this. Our picture (ABOVE) shows the staff of Peel Clothworkers during one of the after school sessions. In the picture (front left) is Clothworkers former Head Teacher, Mike Berry, who negotiated the maximum number of visits by the bus to his school during the year! Well done Mr Berry!
Several formal full-day INSET sessions have been organised during the year. In October there were full day courses for Primary and later Secondary Newly Qualified Teachers, using the bus parked outside Ballacottier School. Additional full day sessions are planned for next year, including some specially designed for the Island’s Nursery teachers.
As the ISDN lines have come on stream, the bus has also been used to introduce teachers to on line services such as the world wide web and e-mail.
These sessions are to intensify in the coming year, to make sure the teachers and children can get the very best from the investment which has been made in new internet capable machines and associated cabling.
