DE Review meeting held in SSA office on 18th Feb 2013

DE Review meeting was held in SSA office, on the 18^th of Feb 2013. The meeting was chaired by the State Project Director. Additional Director Planning SSA, Assistant Director MIS SSA, Operations Director DE, AIFT participated in the meeting. A status update on the DE Program was provided by the AIFT team. Expansion plan along with a concrete road map were also discussed as part of the meeting. 

Core Group meeting held in Delhi for 2012-13

The final core group meeting for the academic year 2012- 13 was held in Delhi from 13^th through 15^th Feb 2013. The meeting basically focused on key learning, for the year 2012-13 along with planning and budgeting for the coming academic year. Dr. Hemant Paul, Country director AIF and M.A.Ravi Kumar, CEO, AIF attended the meeting. 

6th Resource Group team workshop at RNIASE, Cuttack

The 6^th Resource Group Team Workshop has been held at RNIASE, Cuttack on the 6^th Feb 2013. The meeting was chaired by the Principal, RNIASE and was presided by the Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa. The one day orientation program was conducted on the topic: “Motion of Earth” meant for Grade 6^th as far as School curriculum is concerned. A total of ten teachers from the selected DE Schools of Cuttack Dist thronged to the Zonal resource center where in they were taken through the presentation based on latest developments and researches in Cognitive Science domain “How we Learn”. Technology integration is a pedagogic decision and is completely at the discretion of a teacher as to when and where they can either complement or supplement it along with their curriculum rather than supplanting it which otherwise does not yield to better learning output. The instances sited by Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa, during explanation related to exploratory play and Mindset (Fixed and growth) captivated everyone’s attention and encouraged to implement and follow the process at filed level to achieve significant improvement in academic ground in students. The objectives of DE program was explained to the participants for building capacity in teachers in order to bring revolutionary change in making learning joyful and fun. The choices and tools that teachers are now equipped with after completing 18 days of training were emphasised. Even if in case of the teachers having teaching experience more than a decade, came forward with many riddles during the presentation and demonstration of the power point on the same topic as was designed in collaboration between Trainer and MEs. The meeting was concluded around 4.30 pm by asking every participant to accept the Teacher subject forum to post their questions and answers, to take the discussion to next level.   

8th Resource group team workshop at DPIASE, Berhampur

The 8^th Resource group team workshop was held on the 1^st Feb 2013 at DPIASE, Berhampur. The Dist Education officer had given his kind consent to grace the occasion on the said date however due to unavoidable circumstances the meeting was chaired by Prof (Dr). Maheswar Panda the Principal, DPIASE. The meeting was planned to be carried on the topic named “Latitude and Longitude” with a total strength of 7 teachers from the selected DE schools across Ganjam and Gajapati Dist. The meeting kicked off at 10.30 am. The initial round of discussion was based on “Rotation and Revolution of Earth” that was organized in the previous Resource group team workshop, following that the participants were taken through the presentation “How We Learn” as directed by the Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa. The latest research and developments included in the presentation pertaining to cognitive Science was appreciated by the participants as it would add value to class room teaching process while enabling the constructivism learning theory said the participants. The resource members participated in the activities designed and came forward in demonstrating the concepts that needs to be internalised in the topic using the choices available to address the hard spots. Nevertheless it was urged to share questions and answers based out of the same topic through the Teacher subject forum that has already been created using Google groups for the resource members of GEOGRAPHY while implementing the same in their class room practices and was complied by everyone before we winded up the meeting with vote of thanks. 

Policy Innovation team on their first visit to Orissa

The Policy Innovations team from Hyderabad was on visit to Orissa from 15th Jan through 17th Jan 2013. The notion was to conduct a study at pilot level on the effectiveness and impact of DE program at selected schools since its inception back in June 2011 through centralized Model. The team comprising of two members named as Naveen Mandva and Palaash went out on  visit to three DE schools in Cuttack on 15th Jan, where they interacted with the HM and the teachers regarding development in their teaching style as far as technology integration is concerned along with pedagogic component that has been mapped along with their curriculum. They wanted to identify the critical parameters that’s being practised to drive exercises like Lesson plans, TLMs, Student training and projects. In addition to that they interacted with students of different grades  and observed the presentations done by students on the projects they had prepared in group. The second day of their visit was at RNIASE, Cuttack. They provided couple of questions to the teachers who were present, regarding the benefit and challenges in DE training, that was followed by a meeting organised in the same premises and was chaired by the Operations Director, AIFT, Orissa. During the last day they paid a visit to Ghatipari High School and Gurunthi Nodal UPS from Ganjam Dist. They were quite happy with the overwhelming response from both the schools during their overall interaction. Now that the student training part has taken center stage, hence going forward the same indicator has to be strengthened for  bringing effectiveness in DE program while impacting lives, said the Policy Innovation team. 

Inter state visit of Karnataka DE team to Orissa from 7th through 10th Jan 2013

The Karnataka DE team, comprising of 3 members were on a inter state visit to Orissa from 7th through 10th Jan 2013. The objective of the visit was to observe the current DE model in Orissa, its implementation and the way the program has impacted lives of school children across the selected DE schools in rural and urban sectors. During their first day of visit, a meeting was arranged in Bhubaneswar Office in the presence of DE team members of Orissa, presided by Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, AIFT, Orissa. The meeting focused on importance, implementation processes and the ways to followup and track output at school levels while palnning out assessments in between in the centralized DE model. The members from Karnataka team shared about their DE model, since its inception, including the achievements at filed level so far.

 

           During the second day, they paid a visit to RNIASE, Cuttack and Beleswar Nodal UPS, Cuttack as part of their visit. They had a chance to interact with the School teachers who are part of DE training program in the particular batch during that phase. Various questions were posed by the team regarding progress in school level as far as student learning is concerned and student's contribution and participation. The basic pedagocic components being practised during class room transactions, lab transactions and while performing collaborative projects, added much importance to the appropriate way of integrating technology, said the team while observing a couple of lab transactions and a classroom transaction. During their third day of visit to the Khan nagar high School, Cuttack, the team had an interaction with the School teachers, in the presence of HM as part of focus group discussion. The positive impact of DE program through various tools including EDUKIT was demonstrated by the Students and was much appreciated. The second half of the day was crucial in discussing about the EDUBURNTU software package thats being used in almost all the Schools in Karnataka. Resources including videos and animations on different subjects were shown and explained by the team before they left for Karnataka in the end of the day. 

Interstate visit of Punjab DE team to Orissa on 3rd week Nov'2012

A DE team comprising of 6 members from Punjab were on a interstate visit to Orissa from 22nd Nov 2012 through 24th Nov 2012. The objective of the visit was to acknowledge the various aspects of technology integration in Punjab since its inception there, while understanding the centralized DE  model and its nuances that has been impacting lives in Orissa so far, in a combination of 104 schools that includes 52 Upper primary and 52 Secondary Schools. The team made it to the Ravenshaw Girl's School, Cuttack on 22nd Nov 2012, where they spared a few minutes interacting with the HM and the Teachers who are part of DE program regarding their views in implementing, imparting student training, and the initiatives they have been taking at present to sustain the CAL program post intervention. Also they had a chance to observe a classroom transaction as well as a lab transaction in the same school during their stay for near about two and half hours. During the second half of the day they made it to the Kunja bihari Jew High School, Cuttack and observed a classroom transaction. Efforts are being made to bring about the 21st century skills among children by practicing through pedagogic activity based methods and approaches that has been adopted by teachers which is inevitably need of the hour. Said the members from Punjab. The next day the team visited couple of schools in Ganjam Dist. Three of the team members made it to the Ex-Board UPS in Aska and the other group called on to the Gurunthi Nodal UPS, where in they interacted with children regarding their view and how far their level of understanding has gone up as far as their curriculum is concerned. The team was  excited indeed at the response they saw as students came forward in explaining about the projects they had performed in groups. During the last day of their visit, a meeting was organized at AIFT, BBSR office along with the team members of Orissa. The discussion happened to be quite meaningful as the Operations Director, Orissa focused on crucial aspects of  DE program that needs thorough attention while implementing and conducting an Impact evaluation assessment which is about to kick off in near future.