Today I was attending an International Seminar organised by Indian association of Teacher Education and Commonwealth of learning on the topic ” E-Learning in Teacher Education” at my alma mater Central Institute of Education, University of Delhi. Now even though the topic seems relevant, but the content of the papers presented there was anywhere but close to the theme per se.

Rather than focussing on the strategies to incorporate ICT in teacher education, the presenters lost focus and started the debate on its need. The whole talk about application of technology in education has no meaning if we are still questioning its very existence and importance. I think its high time we get out of the debate of whether to have or not have technology incorporation in education in India. We have come way ahead of that menial debate. Its time to focus on its application and the ways we can make the best out of the opportunities available rather than to sit and scrutanise whether its beneficial or not.

Continue reading →

Lately I have been involved in a project of training of teachers working with underprivileged children. Each training workshop lasts for 2 days and usually has teachers coming in for training from 1-2 NGOs of NCR.

Today was one such training workshop involving around 31 teachers from one NGO only. They had in their written confirmation sent a list of 56 teachers, which was shortened yesterday to 45 and eventually only 31 arrived. And we were not informed about any of these changes at all ! I wont start cribbing about the waste of resources ( food etc.) as there is more to gulp.

The training schedule was 11.00 am- 3.00 pm. The participants reported to our institute at 11.45 am, despite the reporting time being 10.45 am.So what, they were just an hour late ! I shouldnt even start off about the height of our displeasure because of their attitude. The icing on the cake was that one of them was even carrying a todder in arm for the training.
Continue reading →