Resource Centre Training Model

American India Foundation (AIF) in association with the School and Mass Education Department, Govt. of Orissa, is piloting a integrated Digital Equalizer (DE) "Resource Centre Training Model" in 104 schools in Orissa, spread over 6 districts, for the academic year 2010-2012.

AIF started with the DE Program in Orissa with 10 Secondary Schools in 2004 and has covered 160 schools, as of now as part of the classic model, where teacher training is conducted at the school level, by AIF trainers who also double up as monitoring experts. Each of the trainers typically visited a school once a week which was a mandatory requirement. Student training in each of the school was conducted by a facilitator, who happened to be a school resource. 

The typical problems faced as part of the classic model, was that a lot of training time got wasted and the sequencing of the training modules disturbed, because of the day to day contingencies at the school level such as - leave, exams, other work which are treated as urgent justifying the teachers absence from training, sports, annual functions, holidays and simple lackadaisical attitude on the part of the headmasters and the teachers, which was further compounded by teacher shortage, which has become endemic in nature. Over and above this the District Education Authorities had little understanding of the program due to their absence of knowledge on computer fundamentals and consequently failing to appreciate, the subtle issues surrounding the effective integration of technology in teaching. 

The current "Resource Centre Training Model" addresses these issues through a centralized training of teachers, as part of a carefully planned out module, integrating techno-pedagogy, which will be conducted at selected "Resource-cum-Training Centre's" and an apex level "Resource-cum-Training Centre" set up in SCERT, to train the administrators of the School and Mass Education Department, District Education Functionaries and Teacher Educators. A joint monitoring strategy has been worked out to prevent transmission loss.

The current model thus not only addresses the earlier shortcomings as far as teacher training at the school level is concerned but also builds up the capacity within the system, by training the critical functionaries and teacher educators. This combined with a rigorous monitoring structure from the Department down to the school level, will go a long way in embedding the program within the existing system thereby making it sustainable. 
To read more on the new model try out the link below:
http://rapidshare.com/files/409158662/Resource_Centre_Model.pdf 
Subrat
26th July 2010  

Deploying ICTs in Schools: A framework for identifying and assessing technology options, their benefits, feasibility and total cost of ownership

I was recently going through this report by GeSCI  published in June 2009 and found some of the portions extremely relevant and precisely the reasons/rationale behind the new "DE Resource Centre Training Model" being implemented in Orissa. Time and again we face these problems and seem to deliberately forget them or unable to internalize them (more often than not I feel we seem to suffer from some selective amnesia on this count) and as a result keep on repeating the same old blunders. We seem to be blundering along as far as ICT policies are concerned. I have extracted some of the relevant portions from the report as mentioned below:

ICTs in schools today

Planning and deployment of ICTs in schools today suffers from several major

problems:

• Planning officials, school principals and other decision makers do not emphasize

or in some cases even consider the educational objectives at all. ICTs are

acquired without any due consideration for what purpose they will actually

serve.

• Decision makers often focus purchase decisions on the ICT hardware and

software. There is often no consideration given to acquiring the appropriate

Assessing Technology options for schools

A Report by the Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative

Page 5 of 65

content, training of teachers, support and maintenance, which together form the

“system-wide” approach discussed in detail later in this chapter.

• Budgets only consider the immediate costs and seldom, if ever, consider the

long term costs of purchasing, deploying and maintaining ICTs. For example,

costs for replacements, disposal or even operating costs for refresher training,

maintenance and technical support are often ignored. The sum of all this costs is

called the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

• ICTs are equated with personal computers usually in computer laboratories.

There is no consideration given to other alternative technologies. Even where

there is some awareness, decision makers are still faced with a myriad of

questions and complex decisions on almost a daily basis: adopt laptops or

desktops? Are thin-client computers better than networked desktops? Open

Source or proprietary software? Whether to have the computers networked or

connected to the Internet?

• Even when there are computers available for students, there are few or no

incentives to use the computer in class. Sometimes the equipment has been

installed but it is seldom used outside of specific “ICT classes”. This might be

due to the teachers not being adequately trained or not having enough time to

dedicate to preparing the classes to incorporate the use of these new resources.

Also, school calendaring issues (teacher timetables and exam schedules)

complicate the adequate use of the devices even more.

• Inattention to monitoring and evaluation, that do not allow the benefits being

obtained and the mistakes incurred in when introducing ICTs in schools.

Common Disconnects

The five major issues hindering effective deployment of ICTs in schools today are

1. Lack of focus on educational objectives

2. Considering ICTs a 'solution' for which the problem is not clearly defined.

3. Failure to consider all the elements of the system-wide approach

4. Failure to consider short term as well as long term costs - Total Cost of ownership

5. Failure to consider the human factors related to teachers, headmasters and

    students.

These problems manifest themselves in many ways but the classic and often seen

cases include:

• The computers sent to the school never leave their boxes because school

   personnel are afraid to break them!

• A school equipped with computers does not use the computers because the

   teachers have not been trained. While a few miles away, another school has

   had all their teachers attend an ICT training program but the school lacks any

   computers.

• Computer labs seem to have most of their computers broken all the time.

• The ministry of education draws up plans to equip every school with

   computer labs connected to the Internet and shelves the plan because it is too

   expensive.

The System-wide approach

The effective deployment of ICTs in schools and indeed in any setting is a complex

affair that goes beyond purchasing hardware and software. GeSCI has identified

several key elements that must be considered if the deployment of

ICTs is to have meaningful impact. These components must all co-exist; none is

optional and together form a system. This system should be comprehensive, demand

driven, capable and efficient and well coordinated. To read the entire report try out the link below:

http://www.gesci.org/old/files/docman/TCO-deploying-framework.pdf
Subrat
25th July 2010

Kasauli

As part of my recent visit to Chandigarh I took time off on the 15th of July, with my team members, to visit Kasauli, the picturesque hill station nestled on the foothills of the himalayas. It is located at a distance of about 70 Km from Chandigarh and one needs to take the road to Shimla and with a diversion somewhere midway. The elevation is 6500m above sea level. The route runs through  Pinjore, Kalka and Parwano and the journey after Parwano is breathtaking as one starts the ascent into the hills. We experienced a heavy downpour as we were leaving Chandigarh and were a bit apprehensive as to whether we will be able to enjoy the breathtaking  views on the way up but as luck would have it the weather cleared, and we were able to breath in the crisp air and enjoy the pristine surroundings of Kausauli. We were fortunate to capture a  number of nature shots of cloud covered hills, up the misty road to Kasauli. The journey was throughly refreshing and relaxing. We came back to Chandigarh, a little late because of a traffic jam in Parwano - and of course we didn't mind it.

ILTM Refresher - Chandigarh

A two day ILTM refresher workshop was recently conducted (15th and 16th of July 10) by Ez Vidya, for DE field staff from Orissa and Punjab, in Hotel Park View, Chandigarh. The workshop had the following objectives:

1. Identifying DE Coordinators/Trainers, who have the right mix and potential, to be part of the ILTM resource group.

2. Doubt clearing and facilitation by Ez Vidya experts as far as delivery of the ILTM is concerned.

The methodology adopted was working in groups and presenting topics, rather parts of the topic, alloted to each group, by each of their respective members as internally decided by the members themselves.

This was the first of the three workshops, which will be held for the North and East region, while the ones for the South are being planned shortly. All the three workshops for both the regions will be completed by the 31st of March 2010.  

DE Core Group Meeting - New Delhi

The Second "DE Core Group Meeting" was held in ICSSR Board Room, New Delhi on the 13th and 14th of July 2010. The meeting basically focused on strategic issues related to the rolling out of ILTM, in all the states. A role pay on selected modules was conducted as part of the two day meeting, which proved to be very interesting. Apart from this all strategic implementation issues were shared as part of presentations by each of the state heads as well as one on one discussions with the Director DE.

Dead Shark

Was in Gopalpur a couple of days back and found a dead shark washed ashore. It measured 47 feet from end to end. People from the "Museum of Natural History"  were working overtime to preserve the skeleton to be displayed in the "Museum of Natural History", in Bhubaneshwar.

Sensitization Workshop - Southern Zone

The first zonal level sensitization workshop, as part of the "DE Decentralized Resource Centre Training Model" to be implemented in 104 Secondary and Upper Primary Schools, was held in Dibakar Pattnaik Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (DPIASE) Berahmpur, on the 2nd of July 2010. This was attended by all the respective Headmasters, District Inspectors of Ganjam and Gajapati, District Project Coordinator, SSA, Ganjam, and representatives from the SSA Gajapati office and the Principal and Staff of DPIASE. 

The main objective of the workshop was to sensitize the participants about the new model and the same time making them understand through examples, what effective integration of technology in teaching learning is all about.