Teaching trends across classrooms in Bangalore have undergone a sea of changes. Even government schools and colleges in the city have taken to technology realising its importance and adaptability and making difficult scientific concepts and geometrical theorems easier to understand.
One such teacher, Jayashree Hegde, at the Government PU College, Kadugodi, who once struggled with the blackboard for making the pupils understand the intricate details of ethnosphere is now using the computer to make learning easier and interactive. With Social Science being her forte, Jayashree knew the limitations of the blackboard. She was looking at different ways to make her teaching innovative to help her students learn better. This is when she decided to enroll for Project Shiksha, a joint initiative between Microsoft India and Department of Public Instruction. She underwent training for 12 days in order to promote use of computers in classroom teaching. For someone who did not know how to turn on a computer, the introduction to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) came as a boon.
“Now, I use PowerPoint presentations to teach about ethnosphere,” says Hegde. She bagged the Innovative Teachers Leadership Award in November last year for innovation in classroom teaching. She adds, “Children show more interest now, with all the animations and graphics that I use in my presentations. It is different for them now and they are really interested.”
This is the trend that classrooms are witnessing of late not only in the state but across the country. Although masked by the infrastructural issues, technology has gradually become part of classroom learning, directly or indirectly.
With Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s (SSA) Computer Aided Learning, DSERT’s Mahiti Sindhu project, efforts are on to replace the blackboard with the computer.
Alternative method:
Computer Masti (CM) is an interactive game for classrooms, developed by IIT, Mumbai and InOpen Technologies. CM is a solution that includes curriculum for teaching computer science, instruction material in the form of books and applications and services that rides along with it to ensure seamless implementation of computers in learning. In testimony to students’ liking for this alternative learning method, CM has grown in leaps and bounds since its introduction in 2009.
There is an increasing need for open-source technology in education. For instance, Akshara Foundation, which is setting up libraries in government schools in the city, installs computers in them with Edubuntu, an open-source Linux platform for education.
“Open-source software is important for children. The modules available on them are easy to use for children. The best part is that it is free and easily available,” said Arvind Venkatadri,Akshara Foundation. Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC) has also recommended increased use of ICT in school education.
“We have recommended that every teacher be given digital resource book to make teaching interactive. Once teachers start using ICT, students will pick up the model from them,” said Prof M K Sridhar, Member Secretary and Executive Director, KKC.
“Open-source technology is very important. But there is a need for a larger policy for its implementation. But it has to be introduced in office, too,” concludes H B Chandrashekhar, Program Officer, SSA.
