2.3 Workshops & Facilitation approach (participative, hands-on, discussions, computer + hands-on, group work)
CLIx believes that learning best occurs when a constructivist methodology is employed. Thus, the training to follow this strategy. The teachers are exposed to student's modules in a model replicating what they would be using with their students. Hence, there is a lot of hands-on learning at the computer terminal. The pedagogical theory is interwoven in the discussions on the pedagogical designs and technological affordances of CLIx modules and other ICT tools. The teachers are asked to engage through a focus on task completion. To ensure that the teachers realize the importance of their training there is a reflective discussion that is participant-led on the pedagogy of the CLIx modules, its uses in their educational practice and the methods to be employed. The teachers demonstrate their learning and creativity by presenting to their batch their lesson plans and implementation strategies.
Thus the training is highly participative with both hands-on and digital activities given time. The teachers learn in pairs at each terminal to simulate the classroom lab experience. The role of the trainer is akin to the facilitator that the teacher would have to be in the classroom. The teachers are encouraged to explore the CLIx modules and tools and create their own artifacts and lesson plans in small groups and then present their lesson plans or such to the larger group. In order to ensure that the teachers understand the pedagogy of such a constructivist approach whole group discussions also take place.
It is advisable to club i2c (Introduction to CLIx using Digital Literacy tools) training with subject training (2/3+3 days) to ensure that the teachers can consistently connect the tools to their subject and thereby teachers are able to construct the use of the i2C tools with their subject teaching and get a feel of integrating ICT into their teaching-learning before diving into the subject & ICT based CLIx modules that are exemplars. The exemplar CLIx modules expose teachers to interactive and pedagogically effective ways of leveraging technology for their specific subject teaching and learning.
Online Engagement
RTICT Courses
Online courses are gaining popularity as they can reach out to a large number of participants at the same time and provide opportunities for collaborative learning. They also provide continuous onsite support and learning opportunities to the teachers throughout the school year. Reflective Teaching with ICT (RTICT) is a post-graduate certificate program that offers blended and online courses aimed at enhancing the teaching practice of in-service teachers and practitioners. The RTICT program is offered on the TISSx platform.
During the training, the role of the facilitator is to introduce the TISSx platform to the participants and help them register, if they are interested in taking up the course. The facilitators should then enroll them in the respective course. During the training, it should be ensured that the participants are given enough time to navigate the platform and explore the modalities of TISSx.
Webinars
The Online Learning Environment requires constant engagement with the course learners as the learners and the facilitators have less or no face to face interactions. It can be done in various ways like having a discussion forum in the courses (RTICT courses have a discussion forum for its course learners), digital communities of practice, which will be discussed in detail in the next section and webinars. Webinars are live online seminars, wherein the course facilitator can connect with the course learners synchronously to deliver course content or solve doubts/queries. In this way, you can reach out to many learners at the same time and also record the webinars which can be shared later with the learners who were not able to attend the same.
Zoom is a free forum useful for connecting up to 100 people, replete with audio, video, chat, screen sharing, and recording features. The only disadvantage is that the time limit per call is restricted to 40 minutes. Though, this may help focus the discussion as well.
Skype allows only up to 10 users at a time. WhatsApp audio and video group calls have increasingly gained popularity. Google Hangouts is still used by many for group calls, though it is getting phased out.
It would be worthwhile to maintain a YouTube channel dedicated to holding video recordings of these calls for wider dissemination of knowledge construction, if the channel is made public, and to allow asynchronous interactions within the group if the YouTube channel is made private.