Teachers in Mysuru too get a lesson

An article published in The New Indian Express on 5th March 2017

For teachers, learning never ends. For a group of teachers in HD Kote, Mysuru, this process of learning is now done on a digital platform- WhatsApp.

The WhatsApp group ‘Vijnana Vedike’ (ViVek) comprises of Science and Maths teachers who post doubts, teaching material and also share ideas on subjects and methods of teaching.

Birth of the group

The group started in 2014 with 20 teachers which has grown to 132 teachers from 96 different schools in HD Kote Taluk, including those school teachers from tribal areas. This initiative gives teachers an opportunity to interact and learn from experiences of others in the fraternity.

The group has helped in creating an ideal atmosphere for teachers to raise doubts on their subjects. This has come handy for several of them, a majority of who work at government schools, who say they skipped portions in the curriculum to avoid facing doubts being raised by students.

Every Sunday, the group discusses a new topic relevant in the curriculum. Members can post their questions on the topic till Thursday. A member of the group is selected as ‘moderator’. He/she consolidates the questions and answers them in detail on Saturdays from 9 pm.

Teachers are encouraged to send audio or video messages if they find texting difficult. Discussions sometimes last till midnight. Topics and doubts are explained with aid of audio clips, sketches, videos, and text messages.

The discussions are archived on Google Drive and updated regularly. Teachers who are not part of the group can also access the archived material. The group now reaches across to 6,000 teachers in the state through various social media platforms.

Over the past three years, teachers from HD Kote who have been transferred to other towns or cities in the state have created similar groups in the region where they are posted.

The brain behind the programme is Praveen Kumar Sayyaparaju, Director of Science Education for Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM). An alumnus of IIT-Chennai, Praveen joined SVYM in 2009 and introduced the concepts of a science lab and science park. He created the WhatsApp group to improve quality of education by bringing together Science and Maths teachers. 

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