2020-21

Being the Pandemic year, the year 2020-2021 was one of its kind leaving the Institute with absolutely no clue about what was to be done to continue engaging teacher trainees in learning. However, the Faculty put their minds together to conduct various workshops for updating their knowledge of using technology for teaching. These were conducted by those faculty members who already knew how to use them. This was a unique venture as they shared their expertise with their colleagues without reserve and encouraged them to use what they learnt to meet the needs of their students. The following topics were taken up at the workshops 

• Introduction to Google Classroom
• Use of Google Classroom as a Learning Management System
• Use of Google Classroom for conducting quizzes 
• Generation of e-certificates with an add-on certify’em.
• Introduction to Video Conferencing Platforms
• Use of Google Meet, Zoom, Jitsi, and Cisco Webex for teaching learning
• Introduction to Screencast 
• Use of Screencast as an instructional tool
• Introduction to Basics of Excel
• Working with basic functions in Excel
• Student Record Management (Basic) using Excel
• Self-publish a book with ISBN
• Self-publish an e-book

The FDP was an enriching experience for all the participants. It was an orientation towards digital teaching learning process.

When the faculty began to use online platforms many of the members had teething problems and those who were adept at it graciously came to their aid as and when necessary. The systems administrator also came to the aid of the faculty by providing the necessary internet facilities which were required. All in all, it was a cooperative effort where those who were good helped those who needed to learn. The workshops conducted gave a hands-on experience to the faculty members. Doubts were clarified immediately and personal attention was given to each member. Many workshops were conducted over a period of one week to help the faculty to gear up for online teaching.

A workshop on Google Classroom and G-meet was conducted. The faculty learnt how to construct their own virtual classrooms for the different courses they taught. They learnt how to post assignments and projects and other materials on their google classroom. They were also taught how to use the google drive to upload materials required by the students for learning. How to generate links for G-meets was explained. How to construct a google form was explained and also how to generate certificates for the participants of webinars.

The uses of online platforms such as Zoom and Webex were explained with supporting demonstrations, as a result of which many of the faculty members conducted lectures using them or participated in webinars by downloading the apps required.

Another hands-on workshop was conducted on the use of Excel for teaching and record keeping. Many short-cuts were demonstrated which were useful for faculty members. This was followed by a workshop on how to publish your own e-book.

An enrichment lecture series was conducted for trainees of both years by faculty members and other resource persons. The topics discussed were as follows:

Digital Etiquette

Value Education-A Key to Being Human. How to inculcate values among the students and youth was highlighted through various strategies such as games, posters, stories, songs, video clips, cartoons, use of worksheets, and role plays. How to lead a happy life was highlighted through the ABC of values. A series of school-based activities that could be conducted with school students during internship for promotion of values were also discussed during this session.

The trainees also contributed their mite in helping teachers to go digital. A 2-day National Mathematics Webinar on, ‘Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning Mathematics’ was held on Google meet platform by the S.Y. B.Ed. Project group of Mathematics Pedagogy Unit of the institute. Demonstrations on how to use the available tools for teaching and learning Mathematics were conducted. Those demonstrated were Boomcards, IXL Maths, Math is fun, Math.com, MathsBot.com, Kahoot, Quizziz.com, NRICH, cK-12, Math Goodies, Math games, Education.com, MathPlayground and WISC-Online.