EFF updates...

It’s been quite sometime since I’ve been around on the blog but this is not to say that we’ve not been active :). We’ve been working with a few schools to expand our current pilot for the next academic year. And when we do that I’ll have lots to say.

And oh, EFF Virtual Classroom has been shortlisted for the HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters Association) awards 2009. We will be presenting on the 7th march 2009 at HICC complex (Novotel). Apart from the stage presentation, we will also show case the Virtual Classroom technology to a distinguished line of product industry leaders, academicians and entrepreneurs. This is a wonderful opportunity for us and we are really excited.

And I hope I’ll have some great news to share :)

Reading to learn English faster and better

Students keep asking me how they can improve their English. I give them tips now and then but I thought writing about my experience could help them.

For me, reading was by far the most enjoyable and easiest way to perfect my English. Sure, as I began, it took maybe 10 days to finish a 100 pages book, but that’s just the way to go about. I‘ve probably read a few thousand books over the years, but the take off wasn’t easy. Our school did not have a library, you see. So unfortunately, unlike children in good schools where learning English came by default, I had my own little struggles as I manoeuvred to keep that undying zest to speak English going. My initial reading started with the comics—Tinkle was a hot favourite. I even had access to Tintin thanks to my friend’s brother who happened to be a fan. I read these first for entertainment but I also had a secret agenda—to improve my English--as I was told very often that reading was an assured way to get you to speak good English.

I upgraded to reading Reader’s Digest, but avoided the long stories. I would start with the “Humour in Uniform” and the little snippets here and there. The moment I started reading the long stories, I also began to take notes. I would write down all the phrases I thought I could use with my teachers and those few friends who spoke English. It sure did make me feel good that I was into real reading.

My first real novel was Jeffery Archer’s A Quiver Full of Arrows I barely understood any of the stories but it’s on record and it’ll go down in history as my first real book. As I went on reading, I also began to notice that my letter writings became more interesting. I took to writing answers on my own instead of mugging up the teacher’s notes during exams. I started participating in debates and essay writing competitions--in fact, all those literary activities in school that required the use of speaking and writing in English.

It was a conscious effort although the fact that I enjoyed what I did came as a bonus. If you still haven’t tried reading, start with the comics and the newspapers. Each morning as you wake up, get hold of the English newspaper. Start with the section that interests you the most. Skip words that make no sense to you. Get the hang of reading first, then you can start looking up the dictionary. Make it a habit-- keep reading and keep talking. Annoy people if you must--soon you’ll impress them. Being able to speak English will make you feel good about yourself and will definitely help you to get better in life.

EFF's pilot

We are deploying EFF Virtual Classroom in Kothaguda Government High School, Madhapur, Hyderabad as part of our pilot.

Holidays :(

Schools are on holiday for two more days: Yesterday was Guru Nanak's birthday and today is Children's Day. There has been too many holidays this year! Thanks to the teachers strike, schools were closed for a week last month. Arrrgh! we need a change in the system.

National Awards for Teachers

The National Award for Teachers (India) was instituted in the year 1958 to recognize meritorious teachers and award them the highest national recognition. Every year on the 5^th of September, the day we celebrate as Teachers’ Day, around 366 teachers are conferred with the honor, Rs. 25,000 cash award and a silver medal by the President of India.  

This year the award was given to 374 teachers but nowhere have I found the names of these meritorious individuals. I can’t think of any reasons why the names should not be published. In fact, I feel it should be national front page news—something everybody gets to read the first thing in the morning on the 5^th of September. Why not? When we can glorify our movie stars, sportsmen, TV actors, singers etc, why can’t we make a grand affair of the best men and women who make a real difference in our lives? 

on broadband connectivity...

If only "news" could come true and promises are kept to be made.

Government has already given directives to provide Internet connectivity in schools under Nagpur division... read the story here

Middle schools in Ponducherry will also get to use Internet if the plan of the Directorate of School Education comes true. It'll do good to around 70,000 students.  Story

The biggest news is Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Mr. Thiru A. Raju, announcing to make Internet a reality in ALL schools in India by 2012!  just 3 years away from now.  Story

Teachers' strike--schools hit hard.

Teachers working in government schools in Andhra Pradesh have been on strike for more than a week now! The only outcome being-- the classes are discontinued in over 40,000 schools. And this is why we have not been able to visit some of the schools we had short listed for our Virtual Classroom.

That apart, the strike is such an unfortunate thing to happen for school children as if the holidays round the year aren’t enough! I was told that most teachers cannot finish their syllabus usually for whatever reasons, and this academic year with a very low number of working days and the strike still on, are we in for a grim pass percentage? And I say percentage because that’s the way we measure our students’ progress and their performance.  I hope JACTO (Joint Action Committee of Teachers’ Organizations) and the Government will come to a consensus soon.

EFF updates...

Since this blog is one of our channels to stay in touch with people, I have another quick round of updates on what Education For Free has been up to:

For the past few weeks, our engineers were working on improving the video quality, and the whiteboard. The video quality works much better now. We will soon have a much friendlier ‘pen’ too to write on the whiteboard. Thanks to the Dusserah vacation, no classes were interrupted.

We were also testing the equipment, especially the microphones—to see which ones work best in a regular classroom. Ravi Shankar, one of the registered members of EFF, helped us immensely with figuring out the acoustics and the right equipment for our classrooms. He is a senior sound engineer with Ramoji Film City and his expertise in this field has helped us understand how the whole sound system works.  He has been extremely helpful, and has consistently gone out of his way, whether to help us solve some nagging audio-related issues, or to just stop by and say hello. We are now using the new set of microphones he recommended, and it works great. A big thanks to Ravi from all of us here.

We are also running around, meeting different organizations for more schools. And phew! by next week we will have 2 more schools with Virtual Classroom. I will sure be writing about this.

EFF as young as it seems, participated in the National Seminar for Education organized by Byyraju Foundation on the 21^st October.  Sridhar presented a paper on “A technological approach to educational problems”. 17 other organizations participated in the seminar and collaborated on the issues with the present education system and ways to solve them. It is encouraging and challenging at the same time as we take our steps further, becoming more mature with each experience. And we are thankful to all the individuals and organizations that support and motivate us to do our bit --for our country.

Have the brightest Diwali Ever! :) 

A portal for Teachers of India

Teachers in India now have a website to be called their own. This is not school specific but a website for all teachers to collaborate, contribute and learn. Launched in August by the National Knowledge Commission in collaboration with a few non profit organizations, the site offers, for phase one, a section where articles, lessons plans, or any materials could be contributed which gets uploaded to the website accessible for other teachers to use. At present, the website can be read in five languages: Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. In future versions, we are told, there is much more coming up. Here’s a list of what functions the website will perform in the coming day:

    This Portal will offer resources related to:

1. Education Perspectives (Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Economics)

2. Classroom Practice (Principles of Pedagogy, Pedagogy of Language, Science, Mathematics, History, Geography, Political Science, Economics, EVS, Art, Music, Dance, Sports) including manuals, activities, modules, tools, etc.

3. Subject Content (Language, Science, Mathematics, History, Geography, Political Science, Economics, EVS, Art, Music, Dance, Sports)

4. Stories, Songs, Games that teachers can use in class

5. Reading Resources (including links to other websites/portals/on line library

6. Research Information

7. Specific Case Studies

 The following will also be available:

1. Information on organizations/Individuals/Resources (district-wise)

2. Career Information (government recruitment details and opportunities available in organizations and institutions)

3. Teacher education courses – both short term and long term

4. Workshops and Conferences

5. In-service training programs

6. News/information/articles on relevant current events

7. Awards (honors)

8. Calendar of events

I quite appreciate the effort. However, to make this functional and accessible to all teachers, it is necessary to also publicize the effort well, to make teachers aware of the ways in which it can help them. Needless to say, Internet in schools is essential too. But if the launch is planned carefully and implemented successfully, the cooperation and participation from the teachers, and above all their enthusiasm will no doubt sustain this effort effectively.

 

Virtual classrooms for UPTU

The UP Technical University will be starting online classes soon. This initiative is to overcome the teachers shortage problem they have been facing for sometime now. The university is facing a shortage of over 2,000 teaching staff. Its a project funded by the union ministry of information technology. Read the story here

"For conducting online interactive classrooms, we are setting up a virtual classroom hub at our Noida campus"

According to officials, the upcoming hub will beam teaching programmes to nearly 12 institutes that would have direct access.

The institutes will then extend the online facility to at least 25 colleges located in their vicinity.