Interview with Sirhajwan Idek, Winner of the 2019 ISTE Literacy Network Literacy Innovation Award

The ISTE Literacy Network is pleased to announce that this year’s Literacy Innovation Award has been granted to Mr. Sirhajwan Idek, a teacher at the Keningau Vocational College in Sabah State (Island of Borneo) in the nation of Malaysia.  

Below, our winner’s responses to questions posed by Literacy Network Co-Chair, Mark Gura:

“I always remind myself that integrating technology into our classroom is not    about introducing something new to our students, but rather making use of what we are already familiar with or what we will have to get used to in the future.”

                                                                                   Sirhajwan Idek                       

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M G: Congratulations on receiving the award, Sirhajwhan, I’m impressed at how our network reflects the international dimension of the digitally extended community of colleagues across the world.

S I: Thank you for the opportunity, I am so excited about this and I really appreciate what you guys are doing. This means a lot to me :)

M G: Tell us about yourself and your teaching practice.

S. I. I teach at Keningau Vocational College, it is a rural vocational school located in the interior region of Sabah, a Malaysian state located on the island of Borneo. The school currently has over 800 students of 16 to 19-year-old.

Our school is considered a non-mainstream school since it is an institution that offers various vocational programs like construction technology, automotive technology, early childhood education, culinary art and cosmetology. Hence, our mission is to develop students’ skills and capabilities in specific areas while giving them the opportunities to also learn academic subjects taught in mainstream schools with the exception of the national high stake tests.

I am an English language teacher and I also teach three to four different subjects related to English language; including Business English and Communication English.

M G: How has your teaching grown and developed as you’ve accrued experience? How have your understandings changed and grown?

S. I. When I first started teaching, I felt a bit frustrated as the students did not meet my initial expectation on them. But I gradually realized that they were creative, skillful and passionate learners and they needed the right approaches and platforms to show their true interests and talents. So I decided to assist and support them in venturing into innovation and entrepreneurship and used it as a platform for them to put their English language skills into practice as they needed to explain and pitch their ideas. As I slowly became invested in this area, I volunteered to lead the research and innovation unit of my school so I could help more students and teachers develop their ideas and find the right platforms to demonstrate them in the real world.

M G: The award was given in view of your project; please describe it.

S I: My project is called “See & Say” which is a technology-supported teaching and learning approach that is based on visual literacy.

It occurred to me how important visuals are in language learning after reading an article published by ISTE entitled “Visual Literacy” taken from Media Literacy in the K- 12 Classroom. That piece explained how 3 R’s are no longer enough, as learners need to be visually literate in order to be able to communicate, solve problems, and learn effectively in the world oversaturated with visuals.

We are familiar with the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Literacy is often seen as the skills to read and write. However, as people become more exposed to social media, emoji, memes, videos, photos and symbols, as a result of the increasing usage of mobile devices and internet, it is essential to acknowledge the need to teach learners on how to read and write visual information effectively which can be considered as the fifth language skill. Thus, I decided to explore the role of visuals in helping my students interpret and utilize graphics properly to enhance their language and thinking skills.

NOTE: Here’s a link to the article (actually a book chapter) that is referred to above - [PDF
] Visual literacy – ISTE - https://id.iste.org/docs/excerpts/MEDLIT-excerpt.pdf

MEDIA LITERACY in the K–12 Classroom. 41. We are a visually illiterate ... Visual literacy has been defined as the “ability to understand, interpret and evaluate .... that 83% of American teens take pictures with their cell phones (Lenhart, Ling,.

M G: How do you see schools changing and the role technology plays in that change?

S I: With the constantly changing job market, convincing students that their school education is still relevant and practical might be getting harder to do. Schools need to be able to continuously adapt to the current world. They need to link their teaching practice, curriculum and materials with the real world and provide students platforms to pursue their passion and develop their potential individually.

Since our school is located in the rural area, getting adequate resources such as stable internet connection and computers can be quite difficult which usually demotivates many teachers from utilizing technology in their class. Thus, one of the most plausible ways of integrating technology into their teaching practice is by selecting the most efficient and user-friendly web tools that allow students to collaborate and communicate properly in meeting the lesson objectives. In addition, equipping students with skills on how to search, evaluate and analyze online information enables them to utilize the resources that they have access to either at home, library or public places and become independent and proactive learners.

I always remind myself that integrating technology into our classroom is not about introducing something new to our students but rather making use of what we are already familiar with or what we will have to get used to in the future.