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Report on Computer Teacher Training for Primary Schools

Held on: 13th and 14th of December 2008; 
Venue: IIT Bombay; 
Total Participants: 30
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The participants were from different schools and backgrounds: There
were 2 each from SSRVM Mulund, Borivali and Dharavi. 3 from SSRVM
Ahmedabad, Others were from Kendriya Vidyalaya and NGOs working with
children or under-privileged groups. 4 of them were already teaching
computers in SSRVM. Many were subject teachers with little exposure to
computers. No fees were charged.

The workshop began with questions like “What is the function of a
teacher?”, What would you like to see in children at the end of your
teaching?” which made the participants think about their role as
teachers.

The classroom sessions included topics like: Five aspects of education
and applying them to teaching, the SSRVM methodology, pros and cons of
teaching computers, lesson planning, presenting of computer lessons by
the participants, managing the classroom, health aspects of computers,
etc. In between the sessions, the participants played many different
games and did pranayama to stay fresh during the sessions. 

There were 4 lab sessions, giving the participants a hands-on experience
of activities from the computer masti books. The first day was devoted
to 1st and 2nd std activities, the next day was 3rd and 4th std. It is
important for teachers to do each activity themselves, before asking
children to do it. 

A session of installation of Ubuntu (Linux) on Windows was done, so that
the participants feel confident about doing installation of software on
the computers. Also a programming session using SCRATCH, where they were
given the basic programming concepts like step-wise thinking. 

At the end of the workshop, many of the participants said they were
happy to have got rid of their fear of computers. Some sample feedback
comments are: 
* Lesson plan sharing very interesting and we learned a lot of new things.
* Learning through games. It was student's oriented class rather than teacher oriented.
* Discussing about the qualities of a teacher helped us to correct our mistakes.
* The examples and activities gave us new ideas to improve in our field.
* GCompris, Tuxpaint and other activities will be beneficial for the children.
* More sessions on hands-on activities are required.
														            
** The hospitality and course material expenses of the workshop was supported by Project TICET, IIT Bombay.
	The participants had to bear the cost of their own travel.
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