Six government school teachers from Tamil Nadu have been selected for the National ICT Awards given by the Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT, New Delhi, for the years 2018 and 2019.
The awards are given annually as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Education, to motivate teachers to use ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in school education and in their classrooms in a big way.
For the year 2018, S. Ganesh, Manohar Subramanian, and K.B. Dhayananth are among the 25 awardees selected from across the country. For 2019, Senthil Selvan, Thangaraja Mahadevan and R. Elavarasan are among the 24 awardees.
Mr. Ganesh, Panchayat Union Middle School, Kilarium in Koradacherry block, Tiruvarur, said he had integrated the ICT model of teaching in the class and had made around 1,000 videos for learning. A middle school teacher for the last 17 years, he dedicated the award to students trained by him to take part in various competitions in the district.
A teacher at the Panchayat Union Primary School at Vellianai, Karur, Mr. Manohar was selected for introducing QR code identity cards for students, which they could scan to find out about the assignments and activities from the school. “The system enabled teachers to upload audio and video classes so that students could follow classes regularly from their homes during the pandemic. Most students also utilised the facility well to upload their assignments and creative works,” he said.
Mr. Dhayananth, an English teacher from the Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Udumalpet, Tiruppur, said he was involved in creating videos for English for Classes 6 to 10 as part of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and had used these videos to teach students.
“We made students interact via Skype with children from other countries using simple sentences to help them gain confidence in spoken English,” he said.
A maths teacher from the Government Higher Secondary School Mangudi in Sivaganga district, Mr. Senthil Selvan said the recognition would go a long way for other teachers and hoped to share the benefits of ICT.
Having used digital tools for teaching students from 2016, Mr. Elavarasan, a teacher at the Panchayat Union Middle School, Vedapatti, Salem, said he had facilitated his students to connect with teachers and students from other countries through video calls.
“Such interactions improved the confidence of students and improved their knowledge of different countries and their culture. Students were also inspired seeing the discipline of students in countries like Japan,” he said.
Mr. Thangaraja from the Panchayat Union Middle School, Parapatti, Salem, learnt animation out of his personal interest and used it to create animation video lessons for students. He has created over 120 videos for the DIKSHA portal.
Puducherry teacher
K. Revathi, a teacher of the Government Primary School in Pillayarkuppam in Puducherry, was also selected for the award and said that she adopted a proactive approach by switching to innovative teaching methods to improve the learning experience of students in primary classes.
“I made puppets and toys and converted them into stop animation videos incorporating all the subject matter from the curriculum. This provided an opportunity for a multi-model method of teaching and an immersive learning experience for the children,” she said.
(With inputs from Madurai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Puducherry bureaus)
