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Menukhol John, right, addresses the inauguration of the Diksha at the SCERT, on April 16 in Kohima.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, April 16 (EMN): An information technology-based educational facility has been inaugurated for Nagaland. Celebrations aside, the usual concerns about poor connectivity and bad internet services in the state are in the way of optimum use of the new tool, an official says.
Nagaland’s education establishment has launched an educational tool ‘Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing’ (Diksha), an information technology platform that assists teachers in solving classrooms’ teaching-learning problems.
The facility was launched at the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), on Tuesday in Kohima.
The Diksha was launched on September 5 2017. It is a national digital platform that aims at enabling a dynamic community of teachers where they can access, create and share quality content, in the form of audiovisuals, to improve learning outcomes as well as furthering their professional growth and development.
The platform aspires to complement and support teachers, working toward creating teaching-learning systems that are suitable to the educational needs of the 21st century.
The objective of Diksha is to enhance knowledge-sharing for better teaching learning materials, to encourage teachers for creation and to curate e-contents, help the teachers across the state familiarise with and in the use of technology; networking and sharing learning experiences.
It is an initiative of the ministry of Human Resources and Development, and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), and SCERT.
Nagaland SCERT had developed two textbooks as a pilot project: Grammar and social sciences for class-V, incorporated with a quick response (QR) code. Each page of the texts is printed with QR code and one can access to the page’s information by scanning the QR code on their smart phones.
‘To bring technology in classroom is the new mantra. It is time for the state to move on from talking-chalking method. One needs to harness the benefits of the technology and Diksha is an effort towards that,’ said T Sekhose, director of the SCERT.
The director said that two persons each is being identified from education block resource centres (EBRCs) for ‘training master trainers.’ Because the project has to do directly with technology, even teachers who are technology-savvy—people who can be in a position to contribute—are ‘handpicked.’ The selected teachers will function as master trainers at the district level, he said.
Further, the officer said different committees including those for background preparations, content creators, and technical teams were set up. The content committee will work on creating more and more contents for all the subsequent classes, he assured.
Sekhose highlighted a few challenges. Connectivity is a ‘huge problem’ in the state. ‘Something’ has to be done to bring better connectivity, the officer said. The Diksha application requires internet connectivity to scan the barcode and to download information.
The QR code is imprinted at select chapters including those with difficult concepts, and difficult chapters where additional information is required for students and teachers alike.
‘So, it’s quite a tedious, a very slow and steady task,’ Sekhose said. The work is actually really hard, very heavy, he added.
The principal secretary of School Education, Menukhol John inaugurated the project. John said that the Diksha was introduced as a new training method that would support teachers to create a vibrant mode of teaching and learning environments. He said it will encourage students to be active participants in the learning process.
Pressing on the importance of information, he said the facility will enable students, teachers, and parents to access information when they need. In this way, the app can aid both teachers and parents too, the government servant said.
Parents can teach their children at home by accessing additional information through the app, as would the teacher, John said. He went on to say that the project was developed only a couple of years ago and being introduced in this year’s current academic session.
The classes were started on April 16, John said. As for other subjects and classes, the SCERT is yet to provide a timeline, he added.
Pranshul Jain of the ministry’s Team Diksha gave a presentation on how to use the app. One can scan barcodes with a smart phone and log in.
They can then search online for the contents they require. The Diksha is a tool in the class to teach students, he said. Even at home, students can use ebooks by logging in with the QR codes, he added.
Jain explained that the platform was introduced to empower teachers and to make the classroom more engaging for the students.
‘The textbooks has been introduced not to replace the blackboard or to replace teachers but to assist and aid teachers, parents and students to have a better teaching-learning process, especially for students,’ he said.
Citizens may avail more information at diksha.gov.in or diksha.gov.in/nl.