The Ministry of Education 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 Program.
The Google Certified Educator program offers educators mastery in using Google products and tools that support strong classroom experiences and student outcomes. This program is intended to reach teachers who may not have had training opportunities and to support educators in this era of digital learning and virtual classrooms.
“Supporting, enabling and empowering teachers is important in this digital landscape where teachers are required to lead, collaborate and embed change in their schools. It is through this change that we can ensure that Malaysian students are digitally competent to cope with the new norms of schooling and employment in the 21st century,” said Puan Maznah Binti Abu Bakar, the Director of Educational Technology and Resources Division, Ministry of Education at a virtual event hosted by Google Malaysia today called “Guru Pemangkin Transformasi Pendidikan”.
The event saw a diversity of perspectives shared by Derosita Chok Mung Na, officer at the Kuching District Education Office; Muhammad Nuaim bin Bahron, teacher at SK Sg Penipah, Mukah; Nur Aimi binti Ramli, teacher at SMK Nabawan and Shahrun Niza binti Sofian, teacher at SMK Tinggi Klang who are Google for Education certified in a panel discussion moderated by Alina Amir, co-founder of Arus Academy.
Derosita who is also a Google Certified Trainer, shared how the certification program has helped boost her confidence as a trainer to guide other teachers and even her fellow colleagues into familiarising themselves with Google related apps.
“Before undergoing the certification program, my work mostly revolved around training the educators that are within my district which is in Kuching. However, this newfound confidence that I have received has pushed me to go beyond, expanding my circle of trainees and now our training has gone nationwide,” Derosita added.
Diving down into the benefits of becoming a Google Certified Educator, Nur Aimi shared how she is now more flexible in her approach towards virtual lessons. She added that the exposure to various other resources available in the platform has provided an opportunity for her to complement and expand the interactiveness of the virtual lessons.
“One of the highlights of preparing a virtual classroom is the ability to craft personalised and suitable materials according to the students’ needs and level of proficiency. Unlike the conventional classroom approach, teachers now can expand teaching materials beyond the standard textbooks to elevate the students’ learning experience,” Nur Aimi added.
Speaking on student engagements in a virtual setting, Shahrun Niza illustrated how constant communication with her students is crucial and this is achieved through 1-1 sessions organised on the Google Calendar. She said that this helps her keep progress of the students’ development, at the same time enabling her to identify areas of improvement in her lessons.
“My exposure to the Google Classroom in DELIMa has allowed me to continue my responsibility as a teacher in a simple, yet effective manner. As many educators are still adapting to this transition, the tools featured in the platform which are easy to learn and use will enable teachers to easily carry out the basics of an education in a virtual classroom,” Shahrun added.
Apart from its usefulness to educators and students, Muhammad Nuaim shared that his learnings can be applied to other aspects too, such as assisting school administrative works and even educating fellow parents. He has also received requests from teachers of other schools to assist and guide their digital efforts as well.
“As a teacher in charge of the school’s HIPPO International English Language Olympiad team, I’m glad my learning has enabled me to maintain consistency in training my students and also to report their progress to the school principal during the pandemic. Furthermore, I’m thrilled that other teachers have caught wind of my effort here and this motivates me to further assist those that are beyond my school as well,” Nuaim added.
Teachers who are interested in applying for the Google for Education certification program can visit https://bit.ly/googledcp using their ‘moe-dl.edu.my’ ID for more details.