Waiting for the participants to settle down, Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) programme alumnus, Rajesh Goswami smiled as he took the stage to conduct the workshop he had tirelessly worked for over the past few weeks. Goswami is of the view that education without technology is like a pen without an ink, and so he took it upon himself to organize a training for the teachers in Hyderabad that addressed this gap in education.
The three-day professional development training workshop, designed exclusively for teachers on the promotion of education through technology, was successfully held at a local school in Hyderabad with more than thirty participants hailing from Hyderabad and its outskirts.
In an attempt to establish technology as a tool to promote and upgrade the conventional teaching methodologies, thirty participants attended several training sessions on topics ranging from blogging, online teaching resources and courses, presentation and the use of ICT in learning processes under the mentorship of seasoned IT professionals and trainers.
The workshop was made possible through a joint collaboration between the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX) and the Directorate of School Education, Hyderabad.
The workshop sessions focused on facilitating the teachers to expand beyond linear, text-based learning and to engage students in a learning that is future oriented and interactive. To discuss the traditional teaching and learning technologies in Pakistan, the workshop brought together teachers under one roof to pen down the ways to reform education that has a real-time impact on students; and to introduce new technologies that are inexpensive, easy-to-use and improve learning for both the students and teachers.
As one trainee, Pashmeen Solangi, excitedly shared, “Getting introduced to creative and innovative modes of learning is different from what we are used to. This workshop has helped me understand how technology can redefine the concept of learning. I am now going to start giving presentations to my students and ensure they also report in the form of a presentation.”
Speaking on the occasion, Goswami, further stated the objective of the workshop was to connect schools and enable them to utilise online pages, e-mails and blogs so that educational resources could be shared.
At the end of the training workshop, the award distribution ceremony was held to acknowledge the efforts put together by the trainees, trainers and organizers to revolutionize the teaching and learning methodologies in Pakistan. The chief guest of the ceremony was Safia Ameer Arbab who serves as the District Education Officer in Hyderabad. Speaking at the ceremony Ms. Arbab stressed on the importance of utilising technological modern teaching methods.
The workshop turned out to be a unique learning experience for teachers where some created their first-ever e-mail account while others registered for their first online course. They were quite keen to share the knowledge gained from this training with their colleagues and students. As the Head Mistress of Govt Girls Primary School Central Jail, Larbia Hoor, says, “I will share lessons learned from this training with my colleagues and students. I will make attendees sheets for the students daily, get myself enrolled for an online course and motivate other teachers to do the same.”
The trainees left with a lot of information and knowledge that shall surely reflect in the learning’s of students in the future.
