Capacity Building of Special Teacher Educators of Odisha on ICT Integration in Teaching Learning for Differently Abled Children
Capacity Building of Special Teacher Educators of Odisha on ICT Integration in Teaching Learning for Differently Abled Children
New Delhi; 02/11/2015: Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), New Delhi in collaboration with Chetana College of Special Education, Bhubaneswar organised a capacity building programme from October 28-30, 2015 for the special teacher educators of Odisha. This is in line with the CEMCA engagements in India for building a strong Communities of Practice (CoP) for ICT integrated teacher education and intended to: build and strengthen teacher educators’ capacities to integrate ICTs into teacher-education, focusing on their professional development; and leveraging the CoP platform create an environment of peer collaboration; and assist teacher educators to develop and use digital libraries/OERs on technology and its use in education. A total of 30 special teacher educators (13 female and 17 male) having specialisation on Mental Retardation, Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment, Clinical Psychology etc. from 12 special teacher education Institutions of Odisha attended and received hands-on training.
The programme was inaugurated by Shri Mahendra Kumar Mallik (IAS), State Project Director, OPEPA, Govt. of Odisha who shared progress of inclusive education in brief such as about 102,485 Children With Special Needs (CWSN) enrolled in schools, 11,520 teachers provided training on Curricular Adaption for CWSN, 500 and 2000 teachers provided 7 days training on Braille and Sign Language each in Odisha. Accepting the utility of ICT in special education and its lack of extensive utilisation by teachers in Odisha, he agreed that OPEPA not yet initiated any training exclusively for special teachers. And he gave commitment with the help of CEMCA we will promote and implement the approach “ICT integrated teaching learning through Community of Practice (CoP)” for our teachers of CWSN. Finally Shri Mallik wished all the participants to successful completion of the Programme. In his remarks Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, CEMCA shared the importance of ICT in education and briefed out about of usefulness of ICT in the field of education and special education. The Guest of Honour of the Programme, Shri Bibhuti Bhusan Pattnaik, Additional Secretary cum Director, Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Govt. of Odisha, stated that the development of educational standard of children with special needs in Odisha is a big challenge in inclusive setup as well as in special setup. ICT integration in education will minimise the challenges some extent. Appreciating initiation of CEMCA and Chetana he further stated that the use of ICT in teaching and learning is helpful for the children with special needs and special teachers.
The workshop was facilitated by Ms. G Mythili, IGNOU and Dr. Manas Ranjan Panigrahi, Programme Officer, CEMCA. The three-day training included Synchronous and Asynchronous Technologies; Online Tools for Teaching Learning; Understanding Open Educational Resources: Role in Teaching and Learning; Creative Commons Licences; Teacher Activities supported by ICT: Curriculum planning, Instructional design, Content delivery, Student Assessment; recent trends in online education; Using Wikis; Preparing teaching content: Using Audio/Podcasts; Using Blogs; Collaborative practices: Google Docs; Student Assessment using ICT, Creating quizzes (Hot Potato). Participants were exposed to theoretical as well as practical application of the different ICT tools through hands-on-experiences.
In the valedictory session, the participants expressed that the contents provided in the training was more helpful for them effectively use of ICT in teaching-learning. Dr. Ajay Mishra, President, Jewels International Chetana, Bhubaneswar, Odisha; Dr. Subha Kanta Mohanty, Deputy Director, RC-IGNOU, Bhubaneswar; and Prof. Narayan Chandra Pati, General Secretary, Jewels International Chetana, Bhubaneswar, Odisha were present in the valedictory session. The report of the workshop was presented by Mr. Binaya Bhusan Mohapatra, Principal, Chetana College of Special Education. Dr. Ajay Mishra stated the necessity of ICT in current scenario with focus to Disability sector and gave thanks to organisers. Prof. Narayan Chandra Pati appreciated the success of the ICT training Programme and assured the participants for further technical assistance and thanked all the participants, resource persons, Chetana College of Special Education and CEMCA for holding the training programme successfully.
