(L-R) Mr Anjan Das, Executive Director, CII; Mr Venkatesh Valluri, Chairman, CII National Committee on Technology; Dr Arbinda Mitra, Adviser & Head, International (Bilateral) Cooperation Department of Science & Technology
A galaxy of speakers from India and the US came together to discuss the various ways through which technology could be used to improve pedagogy and make learning more student centric, during Tech-Tonic sessions for kindergarten – class XII (K-12) which were held on the opening day of the two-day India-US Technology Summit, being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Department of Science and Technology in Delhi NCR.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Vijay Thadani, Chair, CII National Committee on School Education said that the 21stCentury was all set to witness a unique convergence of technology and education, which was earlier a remote possibility. Technology was now being used to support, supplement and reinvent the existing teaching experience. Shedding light on the changing dynamics of the education sector, he said that students had become the decision makers and commanded what they would like to learn or unlearn. This had led to the need for revisiting the existing teaching practices. While technology had penetrated into the Indian classrooms, it was important for educators to be able to use the new-age tools in an emphatic manner. Empowering them was a must to revolutionise the present education system, he added.
Shedding light on the CII initiatives in this direction, he briefly talked about an on-going CII program designed to train the Teacher Educators to ensure that technology was not being introduced for technology sake but was also being brought into practice to benefit the students at large, across levels.
Ms. Eve Psalti, Director, Partners in Learning, Microsoft USA talked about the various opportunities and challenges being faced by the students, policy makers and educationists at the school education level.
She said that though education is at the forefront of the economic growth across the globe and has generated a lot of interest and investment, youth unemployment continues to be on a rise and one of the key areas of concern. Given the transformation of the very concept of education in India through practices like e-learning and increased dependence on digital content, there is a need to design customized programs and adjust the teaching and learning practices to suit the student needs.
Mr. Amit Kaushik, Practice Head, Education and Skills Development, IPE Global Private Limited focussed his thoughts on the government schools and suggested that the authorities must revisit the existing regulatory environment and design customised solutions to support the needs of students in the urban and rural areas to attain higher levels of excellence coupled with innovation.
Prof. Steve Molyneux, Professor, Global Education Centre for Doctoral Studies; Faculty, Lamar University, Texas, USA and Chief Executive Leadership, Tablet Academy, UK, suggested that educators shouldered the responsibility of generating, feeding and supporting not only the future of individual economies but that of the world. It was, therefore, very important for the present day educators to learn new pedagogies to get the best out of technology in the classroom.
Dr.Vijayan K., Assistant Professor, ESD, NCERT, shared key findings from a recent survey conducted by NCERT, titled National Achievement Survey. He suggested that practices like e-textbooks, e-self assessments for classroom assignments to evaluate day-to-day homework and using technology to enhance the quality of teaching could help revolutionise education at the school education level.
Mr. Ajith Basu, Chief Program Executive, Agastya International Foundation highlighted certain innovative technology-driven best practices like mobile labs and mobile e-rooms, which were being used by the Foundation to support education at the grassroot level.
The panel discussion was followed by a hands-on session on Class Room of the Future – Flipped Learning conducted by Prof. Steve Molyneux. He started session with an interesting quiz, which highlighted how disruption in technology challenged the existing practices and made way for more advanced and innovative methodologies.
He also shared some key trends shaping the present-day education system like availability of multiple mobile platforms used to access content in diverse formats. He also talked about the emergence of cloud classrooms as an important tool bridging the gap between students across geographies.
Ms. Mansi Kirloskar of Educate India also joined Prof. Steve and shared the importance of community involvement for designing an inclusive academic system.
The session, which witnessed participation of an enthusiastic audience from industry and academia, concluded over an engaging dialogue with attendees sharing their thoughts and best practices.
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