The experts are part of the company’s Partners in Learning (PiL) programme, under which teachers of government schools will be trained to adopt technology-enabled pedagogy, in rural India. Prachi Rege reports
In order to foster innovative learning in government schools across interior zones of India, Microsoft has selected 30 new Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIE). Helmed under the company’s PiL programme, these education experts are teachers teaching in government schools in various parts of the country. “As half of India’s population is below the age of 25, it is important to make use of technology to expand the potential of every student, educator and school in order to contribute to the country's growth,” says Pratik Mehta, director, Education, Microsoft India.
This year, Anil Sonune from Maharashtra's Jalna district, has been appointed as a MIE. A few years ago, Sonune, bought a laptop with an internet connection. However, he wasn't able to make full use of it, because he didn't have academic software available in Marathi, which is the medium of instruction at his Zilla Parishad Primary School in Jalna. “I could use it only to translate a few stories from English to Marathi, but not for teaching the syllabus in the classroom,” says Sonune, whose students come from families of farmers and farm hands working in the district. “As a result of Microsoft's intervention I am now equipped to teach my students with proper teaching material,” says the assistant teacher who has been associated with the school for the last 15 years.
Mehta suggests that the MIEs are a group of talented educators committed to increasing student productivity and helping them develop the right skills in this mobile and cloud era. The PiL has trained more 7,50,000 government school teachers in IT skills in an effort to enable professional development for educators. This will directly or indirectly impact more than 37.5 million students. “We focus on three areas—Building capacity, growing learning communities, and expanding teaching and learning practices," points out Mehta.
According to Sonune, technology personalises learning and must be part of government run schools which caters to rural students coming from a lower socio-economic background. “For such children customised learning is critical. Besides simplifying the learning process it also helps to gain attention of the students who are mostly within the age group of 6 to 12 years,” he states.
Other states with MIEs
Uttar Pradesh - Awani Singh, Darshana Sinha, Mona Mehra, Pooja Chadha, Saleha and Sona Singh
Tamil Nadu - Aparna Sambamoorthy and Padma Venkatesh
Punjab - Poonam Dogra and Taljit Kaur
Gujarat - Bijal Damani and Lakshmanbhai Kuberbhai Chaudhari
West Bengal - Chandra Prabha Bhatia, Jharna Banerjee, and Pratima Nayak
Assam - Anutosh Deb
Odisha - Ashutosh Karsharma Mishra
Rajasthan - Hari Krishna Arya, Srinivasan Sriram
Haryana - Harminder Kaur Suri
Uttarakhand - Parambir Singh Kathait
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