“If all we do is digitize
education then technology will not transform - a digitized text book is still a
text book” tweeted Graham Brown-Martin, Founder of Learning Without Frontiers.
Grade 6
Pathways Noida has taken the digitization of the
virtual learning to a real classroom exchange programme through
their Skype session with Old Mills Primary School, Leicestershire U.K ; They
have had four session which have been
very interactive . The school in UK took up India as their project so
they wanted some firsthand information for that. The students here in Pathways
Gr6, were only too excited to comply. We divided the class into groups of four
to five and each group was assigned a topic. The topics varied from ‘Culture of
India ‘to ‘How it is being a child in India.’ Through collaborative group
learning we saw the students bond well with each other; the Skype interaction
has been on for the past two weeks .
The students from Old Mills are
in form 4 and have been very enthusiastically asking questions about India and
the life of the children here.
Our students have been
relentlessly answering all questions and coming up with interesting things for
their newly made “pals”.
What started
with just an introductory round
has now evolved into a friendship wherein the children exchange personal
information like what they like eating , what is their favorite subject,
what do they like about their schools
etc.
So past the formalities, we now
saw the students sing songs for each other during one of the sessions and we are looking forward to exchanging recipes
of the dishes cooked in our homes.
The ongoing sessions are proving
very helpful for the students to build their confidence and also raising their
curiosity about each others’ cultures.
Our students’ enthusiasm has been very
inspiring; Mr. Kevin, the Teacher from Old Mill School and I felt it was a good
learning experience for us also.
Aparajita Ralli
Faculty, Social Science
