DE Review cum refresher residential workshop held in Gopalpur

A three day  review cum refresher workshop was held in Swosti palm resorts, Gopalpur from 23.03.13 through 25.03.13. The basic focus of the workshop was to design the implementation plan for future expansion of the DE program from 2013 on wads. Every body had a chance to learn the fundamental nuances of different kinds of Mindset while editing videos using software like Adobe premier element, Windows movie maker, Adobe photo shop etc. A fourteen members from the DE team participated in the meeting.

Meeting organised with the Director, TE & SCERT to brief on DE Program

A meeting was organised to brief the Govt functionaries on DE Program in SCERT, on 20.03.2013. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, Director,TE & SCERT, Odisha and presided by Sri Subrat Sarkar, Ops Director, DE Odisha, AIF. The meeting basically focused on the significance of the DE program and its impact since its inception in 2004 and concluded with the future expansion road map across the six districts of Odisha, for the academic year 2013-14 on wards.  Dr. Dibakar Sarangi, SR. Lecture, Mrs Bijaya Patra, Dy.Director, Mrs Salila Sethi, Dy. Director, academics and the members of AIF participated in the meeting.

The MHRD team visits Odisha for Inspection

A six member team from MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources Development) was on an inspection trip to SCERT, Odisha from 11.03.13 through 16.03.13 . A JRM (Joint review mission), chaired by Dr Harekrushna Sahu, Principal, RNIASE, Cuttack was held during the visit of the delegates on 12.03.13. As part of the meeting the delegates were briefed about the DE program and its objectives including the achievements as far as positively impacting student learning is concerned while empowering teachers with additional tools and resources with the help of technology integration. 

Impact Evaluation of DE Program by Policy Innovations team

An Impact evaluation on DE program has successfully been carried out by the Policy innovations team across the three Districts, during their second visit to Odisha, from 21^st Feb 2013 through 23^rd Feb 2013. The assessment was done between six schools spread over the three Districts such as Cuttack, Ganjam and Bargarh comprising of three DE Schools or Treatment schools and three non-DE schools or Control schools.

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.