The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Helping B.Ed. teachers bridge a divide

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 16, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Helping B.Ed. teachers bridge a divide

Sangeetha Unnithan

NEW SKILLS: Women teacher educators at an IT training programme in Thiruvananthapuram.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Schools in Kerala may have made strides in IT- and ICT-enabled education with the initiatives of the IT@School project of the State government. However, IT (information technology) has been an elusive realm for B.Ed. students.

To bridge this divide, the Department of Education of the University of Kerala, the Kerala State IT Mission and the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) conducted a week-long IT training programme for women teacher educators here recently.

Twenty-five lecturers and research scholars from various B.Ed. colleges under the university participated. They were given basic training in using the Internet and educational software.

“Although IT@School has initiated a number of programmes for promoting IT education in schools, IT knowledge among educators is still very low. We found that even though the B.Ed. curriculum did have an IT component, most students relied on DTP [desktop publishing] centres and other private institutions to do their IT projects. That is why we decided to approach the IT Mission to equip educators in IT applications,” said A. Theresa Susan, Reader and Head of the Department of Education.

Ms. Susan said the training programme was the first step towards a more detailed and long-term ICT (information and communication technology) training programme for B.Ed. students. Resource persons from SPACE developed the curriculum for the programme and led the training.

Internet browsing and search, storing and retrieving information, sharing information through online discussion forums and applications of various study tools and education software were the main components of the curriculum. At the end of the programme, the participants were given CDs of the software and study tools, all based on free software.

“As of now, the IT@School project mainly conducts special classes for teachers taking IT classes. But ICT tools can be applied for teaching almost all subjects, including languages and science. If teachers are properly equipped in making use of these applications right from the B.Ed. college level, it can be very helpful when they finally teach in schools,” said SPACE assistant coordinator Vimal Joseph.

As almost all government and aided schools in the State have been provided with computers, laptops and projectors, the teachers could make proper use of this infrastructure, he said.

“Until this training programme, most of us were not much aware of the possibilities and scope of free software, especially as study tools,” said Susmitha K.S., a lecturer at Iqbal Training College.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section