Innovative methods being used by Indian teachers

New Delhi: Games to understand cyber security issues, magic cubes to do the maths, using artificial learning in classrooms and methods of reporting violence in schools, are among the innovative methods used by several school teachers to make effective use of technology in classrooms.

The teachers hailing from various Indian schools, who are being trained as part of the Educator Outreach Programme presented their selected projects at the E2 Education Exchange in Paris last week organised by Microsoft Education.

Vineeta Garg, a teacher at SRDAV Public School here along with her colleague Neeru Mittal has developed a portal "The Safe Spaces" where in they seek participation from students across the globe to come together to research the root cause of violence in schools and propose solutions.

"The idea behind the project is to bring students of classrooms across the world to come together to research and investigate the root causes of violence in schools and propose solutions so as to make every school a safe heaven. "Last year nearly 153 classrooms from around 40 countries participated in this project. This year again we will start with second phase of the project in August," Garg told PTI.

Chandni Agarwal of Maharaja Agrasen Model School, has developed an inclusive classroom, using different technologies and ease of accessability tools. "The prime objective of the activity is to build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all," she said.

Similarly, Preeti Singhal from DPS International School, Gurgaon, has created an online "staff notebook" for collaboration with teachers. "Channels were created on TEAMS software for each section to share resources and collaboration with students. "The students shared the resources for their research and information gathered through various sources and surveys on channels. All assignments were posted and submissions were received on channels," she said.

Pappu Deepti from ML Khanna DAV Public School has developed a game to teach students how to deal with cyber security issues. "Considering the language used by students on social media and their addiction to games, a cyber security game was developed.

This is a multi-level game in which students needed to have a control on the language used. "If they used abusive or flaming language then the player tends to loose life so they learnt lessons while playing like if they ejected a pen drive without following the process they will lose points," she said.

Charu Chhabra, Vice Principal, Kamla Nehru Public School has developed magic cubes using 3D tools.

"The aim of this project was to use augmented reality by using Merge Cube as a teaching aid in the classroom. I chose this tool because it is an interesting way to experience augmented reality. Students hold a hologram which is interactive in physical space. "Personalized content has been designed around the cube.

For example, students hold a cube in the palm, they see a virtual giraffe eating grass in the classroom. It is good for developed curiosity and critical thinking skills. Similar cubes can be used for doing easy mathematics," she said.