“मला संपूर्ण प्रशिक्षणात Google Classroom हा घटक आवडला.यामाध्ये कलासरूम तयार करून विद्यार्थ्यांना announcement देने ही संकल्पना खूप आवडली.” said Eknath Gaikwad.
He is a teacher from Z.P.P Dhamangaon, in Maharashtra. This is a remote village school situated 27km away from sub-district headquarter Jamkhed and 90km away from district headquarter Ahmadnagar. Teachers like Eknath Gaikwad found themselves at a complete loss as online education became the only way to reach out to students to continue learning. To address this dire need to ‘Google workspace for education’ tied up with Schoolnet India Limited as its exclusive implementing partner to roll out the training for teachers to help them “Teach from Anywhere” in collaboration with the State governments of Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. It aimed at bringing about a digital transformation in education and support teachers in integrating technology in the classroom. ~61k teachers from 20000 schools across these states were trained through a well-orchestrated strategy of training at a scale in a reasonably short period.
The program aimed to drive a blended learning model to ensure continuity of education in the time of crisis, especially lockdowns. The concept of “Create, Collaborate, and Connect” was introduced to all teachers and staff members. The training had four-pronged objectives. I) To introduce and train all the teachers on Digital Tools for Education. ii) To share the best practices and live examples of implementation of the Google tools. iii) To help teachers to be the online content creator and create the online repository for their subjects and schools and iv) To help teachers to access these Google tools on all the devices like laptops, mobile phones, tablets, etc. This two-day Online training program was developed to inspire and empower all teachers across the country to adopt new technology-based teaching methodologies. Every day, two hours were set for online training. The well-designed training facilitating the use of technology in the classroom proved to be a great support for teachers who carried out the daunting task of continuing education online effectively in the throes of a raging pandemic.
As the situation demanded during the pandemic the teachers were willing to take up the responsibility of online training but were not equipped with the know-how. To address this issue, the PM eVidya initiative was launched to make teachers tech-friendly and be prepared for digital teaching. The steps taken under this initiative included the following:
a. Developing framework in the era of digital education for enhancing learning & assessment within and outside the classroom.
b. Strengthening innovations and digitalization through access to e-learning and content creation and
c. Enabling teacher capacity building for online/ digital education. The above training was conceptualised and implemented under this initiative.
The Training Framework:
The training framework adopted a well worked out protocol under Pre, during and post-training phases. Before the commencement of the training program, teachers were asked to fill a pre-pre-training form and provide the background information of their tech skills, subjects and grades which they were teaching. This informed the approach during the training which was a combination of theoretical and practical sessions on Digital Tools for Education. Following the introduction and demonstration of each tool, teachers were asked to participate in various hands-on activities that gave them ideas for incorporating Google tools into their daily teaching. The hands-on session gave them the confidence to navigate the digital space effectively while conducting classes. After the training program, well-designed assignments were given to the teachers for more practice to gain required proficiencies with the tools with a focus on achieving learning outcomes.
A post-assessment form as shared with teachers in the form of a quiz based on the tools taught during the training as a learning check.
This process resulted in creating meaningful impact for more than 23 Mn+ students who got the benefit of teachers taking them through smooth classes when the world was locked down. During this process 1,85,383 Teacher Login created.
Teachers received certificates for the training also. But the most valuable certificate was their confidence to conduct online classes after this training. Ms Manju Garg, Hindi teacher of Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Sector 3 Rohini, Delhi, expressed her feeling about it in such beautiful expression:
Read the impact report by Boston Consulting Group & Google for Education on this project – http://surl.li/aewoc
By
Ridhima Mehra with inputs from
Sanchita Lal & Manaswini Baral