Follow up workshop with DIET Faculty in Bangalore and Mysore divisions - October 2013

“Communities of Practice for Teacher Educators” workshops being organised by IT for Change
with support from DSERT and CEMCA for teacher educators from DIETs and CTEs in in Karnataka

IT for Change has been working with teacher educators from CTE (Colleges of Teacher Education) and DIETs in Karnataka over the last year. Workshops have been organised with support from CEMCA for faculty from DIETs and CTEs in the state, in which participants were introduced to the use of computers for supporting their academic responsibilities. The workshops focused on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for professional development, building basic computer literacy skills, introduction to the use of subject-based educational tools and the creation of COP platform for teacher educators and its features including access to resources, participation in mailing groups and discussion forums. Educational tools such as Geogebra, Audacity, PhET and Record My Desktop were demonstrated. Participants practised accessing the Internet for information and their own learning as well as to connect and communicate with each other through emails and email forums. For some of the participants, it was exposure for the first time to ICTs and they focused more on learning the basics of using computers and Internet.

A follow-up round of workshops for the same teacher educators is being planned over October – December. In the follow-up workshop, participants will learn more about Open Educational Resources (OER). They will learn about accessing resources available on-line as OER and practise the OER principles of re-use, revise, re-mix and redistribute on the Karnataka Open Educational Resources (KOER) platform. The resources will pertain to topics covered in the text books revised this academic year, pertaining to classes VI and IX as well as components of school leadership and management. Apart from tapping the digital learning resources available, participants will also continue their practise of ICTs for connecting to one another for continuous peer learning and support. as well as for networking to build communities of learning. The community of teacher educators will continue to interact through emails and through the wiki platform. The basic need / priority to provide resource support to teachers in classes VI and IX support them in transaction and assessment is expected to provide a strong rationale for this community of teacher educators to grow.

CEMCA has been a key actor in promoting the awareness about OER and its relevance and benefits to Indian teacher educators, especially the role of OER in creating a high quality resource rich learning environment for teachers and students. CEMCA also sees 'Communities of Learning' as an cutting-edge model for connecting teacher educators to one another for peer support and mentoring.

The workshops are scheduled as follows:
Participants from DIETs and CTEs in From – To Venue
Bangalore and Mysore division 21-25 October Bangalore Rural DIET
Belgaum division 11-15 November Dharwad DIET

For more information about the workshop and handouts/resources, visit http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Teacher_Education_Eve...