Dean Dundas – Notesmaster Director
Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
September 10, 2012 (SKNIS)
Schools in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis have been introduced to the free e-learning website, Notesmaster which reportedly serves as an excellent tool for Caribbean teachers and students.
The Notesmaster website, which is an e-learning initiative in partnership with the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), is said to increase the amount of information on all of the CXC subjects students have access to.
Jason Raymond and Dean Dundas, Project Directors for Notesmaster, spent September 3-7 touring high schools in both St. Kitts and Nevis as well as the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College, teaching the benefits of the web-based tool which features materials from the Caribbean Examination Council.
In his 2012 CXC report , the Minister of Education, Hon. Nigel Carty, explained that there has been a decline in the performance of Math and English.
Project Director of Notesmaster, Dean Dundas, noted that the website will prove to be an excellent tool to address the low performance.
“In partnership with CXC we have created study groups. So for Math and English there are particular groups that students can go to and join where, all the other St. Kitts and Nevis Math students are and where the other CSEC Math students are,” Dundas explained. “So the idea is by bringing everyone together, teachers and students, there is a hub of information students and teachers can access night and day. If they have a question no longer will they have to wait to go into a class [to ask questions]. They can do so in a structured format. Students can even answer questions by students. So there is a collection of ideas that the students can tap into night or day. We hope that there will be an increase in the results because the students now have an area where they can go to find information.”
Mr. Dundas also stated that the sessions have provided students and teachers a basic understanding of what Notesmaster is about. He added that the sessions have been successful due to the positive feedback from both the teachers and students.
He explained why there was a need to create such a website.
“It was originally started in 2008 and was the idea of the other director, Jason Raymond, who was an economic teacher,” he revealed. “Whilst teaching CAPE Economics in Jamaica, he realised that there weren’t many resources that focused on a Caribbean perspective so we regularly referenced European Economic modules. The idea was to create a resource that pulled in all that was Caribbean and present that in a note format using a syllabus template to suit Caribbean students.”
Persons interested in accessing the material can register at www.notesmaster.com.