This week the Open University and the British Council
jointly run an event in Delhi looking at the role of technology in teachers
professional development, highlighting the work of the British Council, The
Open University and the TESS-India project. Rob Lynes (Director of the British
Council India) opened the event to a packed auditorium, followed by a
background on the Open University and its part in educational technology from
Edith Prak (Director of Development, The Open University).
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| Rob Lynes opening Digital Teachers event in Delhi |
Tom Power (Senior Lecturer at the Open University and
Director of English in Action programme) provided a thought provoking
presentation on the 'opportunities, challenges and evidence for improving the
quality of teaching and learning through educational technology, in
International Development contexts'. Highlighting a number of interesting
projects that had made significant impact in this area including English in
Action http://www.eiabd.com/ using mobile technology to deliver video based
materials via Micro SD card and the TESS-India project
http://www.TESS-India.edu.in that has developed flexible OER (Open Educational
Resources) that can be accessed in multiple formats across digital devices as
well as an OER based MOOC on 'Enhancing Teacher Education through OER'
https://www.edx.org/course/enhancing-teacher-education-through-oer-oecx-tess101x-0
. Over all Tom highlighted the need to provide the conditions by which teachers
can be enabled to engage and realise the benefits of educational technology but
the challenge is in finding appropriate ways to create these enabling
conditions.
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| British Council team launching ICT across South Asia report |
The launch of the British Council report into recent
research on the access teachers across South Asia have to ICT followed,
“This report highlights the findings from a study into
English language teachers’ attitudes and preferences for using technology for
professional development in South Asia.”
(British Council, publications website)
You can download the report here http://www.britishcouncil.in/continuing-professional-development
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| Tom Power chairing panel discussion |
Tom Power finished the event by chairing a panel discussion
on the opportunities, challenges and evidence in the use of technology for
teachers professional development. The panel members were Ms Preet Verma – COO
Tech Mahindra Foundation, Chris Cavey – Open Learning Manager, British Council
UK, Rashmi Menon – Research Manager, Central Square Foundation and Dr Atanu
Bhattacharya – Chairperson, Centre for English Studies, Central University of
Gujarat. The event was recorded so I will post a link once it is available,
there was also a tag to follow the event #digitalteachers with a storify
following it available here https://storify.com/Tim10101/digital-teachers-event. The main themes that were coming out from the
discussion were along the lines of technology cannot be used in isolation, that
quality resources are vital and developing appropriate pedagogies that look at bridging
the gap between theory and practice are key.
