{"id":561,"date":"2019-09-28T09:51:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T09:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/annual-reports.itforchange.net\/Annual-Report\/?page_id=561"},"modified":"2019-09-30T16:59:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T16:59:32","slug":"2018-19-education","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/annual-reports.itforchange.net\/Annual-Report\/2018-19-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Overview<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Directors’ Note<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Our Team<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

Thematic Areas<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 1. <\/span>Data and the Digital Economy<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 2.\u00a0<\/span>Digital Rights and Democracy<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 3. Prakriye<\/em> Field Centre<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 4.\u00a0ICTs and Education<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

\u00a0 5.\u00a0Gender Justice in the Digital Society<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>

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ICTs and Education<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The focus of IT for Change\u2019s work in education continues to be on demonstrating and maturing models of technology integration that strengthen teacher agency and school autonomy in public education systems. In 2018-19, we continued to work on making classroom processes more democratic and participatory, towards building teacher networks and collaborative resource repositories. We also made efforts through our work to inform education policy and discourse.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/i> The workshop to develop audio language resources was excellent and very useful to create authentic materials. It will help make our classes more meaningful and motivate our students.<\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Dr. Satyam Ganna<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Participant, CELT program of Regional Institute of English, South India<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Overview<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

The promise of digital technologies has been the empowerment of the peripheries. In the context of education, this would mean empowering teachers. Using ICT freely for enhancing content and pedagogical knowledge, creating and sharing open educational resources, and supporting constructive classroom engagement would support teacher professional development and strengthen teacher agency. ICT can support local collaborations among teachers and bring them together to engage on theory and practice. A free and open learning environment also requires the use of free and open digital technologies.<\/span><\/p>

However, the default trajectories of ICT in education has not been in this direction. There is huge pressure from those who see \u2018Ed-tech\u2019 as a big business, to make schools, teachers and students consumers of their products through provisioning of proprietary applications, content and models. For many bureaucrats, \u2018making the teacher work\u2019 is the solution to quality education, with digital technologies being seen as potent tools for supplying content and monitoring performance.<\/span><\/p>

Many of the ICT projects see the tablet as the default ICT device for teachers and students, along with pre-packaged content. CCTVs in classrooms, on-line data collection directly from schools to state and national databases for monitoring of teacher and students is becoming more common. The role of local institutions is limited to the collection of data, but its use for supporting local decision-making and community participation is not a part of the design. The use of ICT thus increases centralization of authority and power and further dis-empowers schools and teachers. A second danger of data collection is the emergence of big data models, which use algorithms for supporting personalized learning. This process further hollows out the role of the school and the teacher and, as discussed in our paper, Making AI Work for Education, threatens to move us further away from the promise of education as a tool for social transformation.<\/span><\/p>

The recently released draft National Education Policy includes progressive language focusing on teacher empowerment. It stresses the need for public ownership of technologies, and alerts that digital technologies as disruptive technologies can have beneficial and harmful implications.<\/span><\/p>

At IT for Change, we have always taken a critical perspective that there is usually a trade-off in the use of digital technologies. This needs to be thought through carefully before piloting programs. Further, learnings from pilots need to be analyzed and carefully understood before scaling programs across larger geographies. The basis for analyses always has to be the educational aim that we are trying to move towards, or the educational challenges that we are seeking to address with the technology.<\/span> Our work this year has continued to rest on this cornerstone principle.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

Teacher professional development \u2013 Subject Teacher Forum<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

The IT for Change team designed and conducted a training for Mathematics teachers<\/a> to develop them as State Resource Persons (SRPs) as part of the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan<\/em> (SMSA) teacher training program of the Government of Rajasthan. These 60 SRPs conducted a similar program for over 500 teachers across 13 districts. IT for Change conducted these trainings using the Hindi (Devanagari) interfaces for Geogebra and Free Plane software tools respectively. IT for Change had earlier contributed to developing these interfaces.<\/span><\/p>

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Age no barrier to learning digital technologies-Mathematics teachers from Sriganganagar district in the SRP workshop in Jaipur<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Telangana Subject Teacher Forum<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

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Ramesh Bandari receiving National ICT Award<\/figcaption><\/figure>

In Telangana, IT for Change designed and conducted a workshop<\/a> to train resource persons for the State Technology Support Group, to provide technical support to teachers in schools. The aim of the program is to build institutional sustainability in ICT use. Ramesh Bandari, one of the Mathematics resource persons in this program received the National ICT Award for 2018-19 from the Ministry of Human Resource Development for his efforts.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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<\/i> I gained a lot from the training conducted by IT for Change. I developed many mathematical concepts using Geogebra, LibreOffice, Turtle Art, Free Plane tools etc., and recorded 14 digital lessons, which were telecast through MANA TV of the State Institute of Educational Technology. These digital lessons and resources also helped me win the national best teacher award.<\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Ramesh Bandari<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Trainings and workshops<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

Over the year, the IT for Change team has designed, organized and conducted several workshops for the education community, including for students, student teachers, teachers and administrators. These included sessions aimed at:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>