Experts in education technology highlighted the role of technology in making education and learning accessible to the children who are deprived of regular means of education due to various reasons while speaking at the Excellence in Education conclave organised by The Hindu in the city on Wednesday.
Moderated by STEP (Standardised Test of English Proficiency) business head Pundi Sriram, the panel discussion on ‘Use of technology in supporting English skills development’ saw presentation of successful tech-based initiatives by Sujatha Sahu, founder-director of 17000 ft Foundation, Chandra Viswanathan, founder-director of English Learning Foundation and Nitin Kashyap, product manager (Bolo) at Google India.
Stating that just a book would not be enough for children who are new to English to learn it, Ms. Chandra Viswanathan said it was possible with technology to teach in an engaging way and without any intimidation.
“It is important to remove the fear, seriousness and the necessity to be correct always. If we keep correcting them, they choose to stay silent. Mistakes should be allowed to build confidence before skills are imparted. Secondly, different formats are needed to approach children when teaching English. In case of children who were never exposed to the language, the role of technology comes in where listening to English content like movies, comics could be useful,” she said.
An impresssive case
Ms. Sujata Sahu presented the impressive case of how her organisation’s initiative of DigiLabs transformed education in Ladakh where English is the only medium of instruction and availability of electricity is a rarity.
She said solar-powered DigiLabs with content and devices for children to learn subjects in innovative and easy methods has improved enrollment in government schools and at the same time the enrolment in private schools came down.
Google initiative
Speaking about Google India’s new yet successful initiative Google Bolo app Mr. Nitin said that the application was able to help lakhs of children who could not read or write, learn them using just mobile phones.
The conclave was powered by STEP and co-sponsored by BYJU’s and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited.