Field Trip

I was visiting Sambalpur and Bargarh district sometime back and made it a point to visit some of the schools located in the rural pockets of both the districts. Although as part of the trip we had to negotiate some very difficult terrain but the enthusiasm and motivation to effectively use technology in day to day teaching learning by both the teachers and students made me forget all the hardships. Personally it has been a very satisfying experience for me in that all my hard work and that of my team members in working out a new model is finally showing results at ground zero - the schools. Teachers are upbeat and enthusiastic about the training and kudos to my trainers for that. The monitoring experts are doing an excellent job in hand holding and mentoring especially after an intense training, when teachers require this the most to sustain their motivation levels and prevent them from backsliding given the difficulties at the school level, in terms of workload, infrastructure etc. Studies world over have shown that however good the training unless backed up by effective mentoring, leads to a total washout,in due course of time. Centralized training has really proved to be effective as evidenced by the output at the school level. Teachers are designing excellent teaching aids using technology and this combined with lesson plan and micro-plan is proving to be very effective when combined with collaborative projects, as part of which teachers and students come together to learn through various activities which are planned. Teachers play the role of a facilitator and the students interact amongst themselves and with the teachers in constructing their knowledge related to different hard spots. Groups of students even make a presentation with PowerPoint or otherwise at the end and it was interesting to see the students of some of the rural schools in Bargarh and Sambalpur, breaking their cultural conditioning and finally coming out of their shells to interact and have fun while they learn. I noticed this time and again in most of the schools that I have been visiting spread over all the six districts where we are currently operational at the moment. Collaboration as a teaching strategy is finally working. My interactions with the teachers have shown that teachers still need to understand the fine print that technology integration in teaching learning is a pedagogic decision and get this firmly embedded in their DNA.