TTC Workshop

Teacher training for teaching computers in primary school was conducted on the 13th and 14 of December 2008. Most of the participants were teachers who teach the primary school . The rest were those who were interested in teaching computers. Some of them had very little exposure to computers.

Day 1

The workshop started at 9 am sharp. Most participants came on time.The first session dealt with questions like the qualities required for a teacher and their functions. The participants came up with different answers.

  1. Impart knowledge
  2. Remove doubts
  3. Answer the questions of children
  4. Give new ideas
  5. Build confidence
  6. Motivate
  7. Improve their abilities
  8. Discover talents
  9. Instill discipline
  10. Develop Personality
  11. All round development

What you would like to see in your children at the end of your teaching ?

  1. Ability to understand
  2. Clear concepts
  3. No fear to ask questions
  4. Ability to focus
  5. Apply knowledge
  6. Confidence
  7. Sincerity
  8. Modesty
  9. Joy in learning
  10. Creativity
  11. Imagination
  12. Curiosity

All the above qualities are already present in them. The role of a teacher is to facilitate them, he/she is only a facilitator.

9.45 am: Groups were formed and some time given to go around and meet people. Unlike us, children doesn't need a session for formal introduction. Group leaders were chosen through a game.

Next the session dealt with a question

As a parent, what are the qualities you would like to see in your child's teacher?

  1. Knowledgeable
  2. Interest in teaching
  3. Disciplined
  4. Loving
  5. Talented
  6. Well mannered
  7. Friendly
  8. Playful
  9. Motivating
  10. Always available to answer queries
  11. Efficient and impartial
  12. Makes subject interesting
  13. Accurate, Punctual
  14. Creative, Patient
  15. Positive attitude
  16. Impartial

Teacher should first stress on concepts then only on the skills involved.

The SSRVM teaching methodology involves basically 5 aspects of education

Concepts: Example: CPU does the work in a computer

Information : It looks like a rectangular box, with wires connected to it.

Attitude: Inculcate curiosity

Imagination: Discoveries, inventions come with this

Freedom: To explore

How teach so that all the above aspects are addressed?

This can be done through :

-- activities

--show models, field visits

--involve children

-- ask questions

--do experiments

-- examples

The SSRVM teaching methodology is based on Patanjali yoga sutras

“Pratyakshaanumanagama pramanati”

1)Pratyaksa Direct experience

2)AnumamInference

3)AagamaInformation fron authentic sources

4)Pramaniti Right knowledge

Each participant were asked to pick a topic which they like and think how they will teach it in a class. Discuss it with others in the group and get others feedback. Then the group has to select the best topic and one had to present it infront.

.....Break for tea....

11.15 am: In the next session, the participants were asked to tell 10 ways of using a pen? Once you give it a name, our mind stops thinking. We have to ask questions to help creativity grow.

This exercise was done to make the participants aware of the fact that Labelling inhibits learning.

After all these activities the participants were ready to think about the question: Should computers be taught in primary school ? One reason good enough for us is: Children need the basic knowledge. They are exposed to computers everywhere - so teach them the correct way of using the same.

Now what are the topics to be covered?

Press the button, open files, select

Parts of computers

Mouse clicks

Software/ hardware

How to use computers

Word

Dos and Don'ts, Posture

Paint software

Stepwise thinking

Educational games

Keyboard

Preesntation, internet

Tool bar

In the next session, Ms. Malati Baru talked about “ How computer Masti, the book was started?

Then followed the Hand's on session. The participants had a feel of Gcompris/ Tuxpaint and Child's play.

In Gcompris participants were asked to find games for enhancing mouse control, memory, etc. To compare Child's play and Gcompris

Where all both these games can be used to teach concepts?

------Break for lunch-----

The post lunch session continued with hands on.

3.00 pm: The next session started with a talk by Mrs. Vijayalakshmi on Installation of Ubuntu on windows; assisted by Ms. Swati. Most of the participants had tried their hands on installing softwares from CD ot the Internet.

The concept of operating system(OS) was explained with an example of a bicycle. Bicycle has pedals/ chains/ handle etc when all put together it functions. Like that we have different parts of computer, software etc-- these are held together by an OS then the system works.We are familiar with mainly two types of OS namely, Windows and Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu).

Installation of Ubuntu on windows was shows as most of the schools have windows systems. Minimum we need 10 GB free space. While the insatallation was going on the participants were made aware of the fact how costly it becomes when we use proprietary software. After the installation a demo of installing applications on Ubuntu using the synaptic package manager was given.

---Break for Tea---

Post tea session was handled by Prof. Sridhar, which started with Nadi Shodan- a technique for stress relaxation and increasing concentration. All were asked to think 'What do we need before entering the class?”

Calmness/ Focus : For these Nadi Shodan is helpful

Throughly prepared for the class: Keep Lesson plan ready

The session gave guideline on how to prepare a lesson plan. The main things needed are the : Topic, Aim, Teaching aids needed/ given and the following table

Content / Teacher's questions / Expected answers
Perception
Concepts:
Information : Memory
Imagination:
Values / What question the teacher is going to ask ? / Possible answers of the students.

Another thing noted was that it is not necessary to be rigid on the lesson plan. As most of the participants were teachers they were having their own method of preparing lesson plans.

Topic of parts of a computer was taken as an example.

Aim : To get the children understand that a computer has various parts.

Teaching aids: Computers/ models/ pictures

Content / Teacher's questions / Expected answers
Perception / Have you seen earlier/ How does it look like? / Seen in malls/ Papa uses it, but looks different/ why in a library?
Concepts / Names of the parts/ identify the parts/
Information / This is a CPU. It can be in rectangular shape.
Memory / Use story/ poem/ comparison
Imagination / Ask open ended questions

All the participants were given lessons from Computer Masti Textbook (Class 1/ 2/ 3). For beter lesson plans the participants were made to sit in the respective groups and then allowed to discuss the possible lesson plans. They were asked to prepare the lesson plan and present it the next day.

The first day session ended with a closing prayer.

Day 2

9.00 am: Session started off with a quick recap of the topics and activities covered on Day 1. Stress was laid on the 5 aspects of education which is based on Patanjali's yoga sutras.

The participants presented their lesson plans and the other participants gave feedback. All were asked to keep in mind the ABC of feedback: Appreciate Before Criticise.

From the lesson plans of the participants it was obivous that all had spent time and had sincerely tried to make the lesson plan.

----Break for tea---

The next session was presented by Ms. Vijayalakshmi on stepwise thinking and basic programming concepts. She used a simple exercise of picking a pen from the table to make them understand the concept of step wise thinking. Then all the participats gave the step wise instructions to make a person walk in a square.

This followed by a demo on SCRATCH by Ms. Usha. She used the same acivity of walking in a square to write a program. Then everybody proceeded to the lab for another hands on on SCRATCH.

Break for Lunch

After lunch the participants again practiced activties like SCRATCH, Gcompris and Child's play. Participants not familiar with text editor were given aworksheet on Text Editor.

Some participants even installed a new application using the synaptic package manager.

3.30 pm: All proceeded to the classroom. To make them more fresh and attentive, they were asked to practice some exercises. All were divided into groups of two and asked to teach each other exercises which will help us stay healthy.

This was followed by a Cap Making session.
The participants were asked will they be able to do the cap making after a month or two. This was asked to stress the fact that the concepts learnt in this workshop are easy to while skills need regular practice.

-----Tea Break-----

Post tea a short film on ' Teaching computers in SSRVM school' was shown, followed by a game “What if...... ” Each person writes a question on a piece of paper, like 'What if people
could fly?', What if animals speak?'. Circulate the papers around and make sure that the all get some other person's question to answer.. Each person writes the answer to the question on the
paper currently with them. Go through the group in a chain, by reading the question from the
first person, answer from the next person, then question, answer from next, so on till the end.

Like this game we should also remember this in the class each child have different perspectives to the same problem. So give them the freedom to express themselves.”

4:15 pm: In this session all the participants were given the participation certificates, Computer Masti books and Cds for installing the necessary softwares. They were also asked to share their experience and feedback about the workshop.

Most of the participants were thankful to the organisers for conducting such a workshop. Some of the participants said that they have now got rid of the fear of computers.

Here are some feedback comments got from the participants:

Lesson plan sharing very interesting and we learned a lot of new things.

Learning through games. It was student's oriented class rather than teacher oriented.

Discussing about the qualities of a teacher helped us to correct our mistakes.

Through the examples discussed and games we played gave us new ideas and help us to improve in our field.

GCompris, Tuxpaint and other activities will be beneficial for the children.

More time on hands on activities are required.

Then Prof. Sridar thanked all the participants and appreciated them for coming on a weekend. The workshop ended by a small prayer to thank all our teachers and the almighty.