MOOC

TEJAS
                                          My motivation- MOOC
My Journey-
                       My journey started from my intrinsic motivation. I always wanted to be the best teacher in my life. The dream came true only because of British council.  I joined British council project through ELIPS. And since then my life and my professional career have changed totally. First I joined ELIPS project , then ELIPS 1, and now I am working on ELIPS 2 which is known as TEJAS (Technology enabled joint action through initiative strategies ). It’s my privilege and honor to work on this project as a SARP (state Academic resource person). I am highly motivated and impressed by British Council resources, trainings and management skills. I have learnt a lot from each of the training. New concepts, new activities, new techniques, new ideas, psychology of students, scientific views of education, critical thinking, reflection, rapport building, professional development etc. these are some aspects that I have learnt. At the same time I improved myself.  I was introduced a term CPD (continuous professional development) by British council.  Otherwise I was unacquainted about it even though I went through many of the trainings, attended seminars, workshops, many courses as well. When I joined ELIPS , at that time I came to know whatever I have done it is called CPD. I am continuing my CPD till date. In Tejas project for the first time I have been acquainted with MOOC. It is a free and easy path towards knowledge. It is very useful, thoughtful and meaningful way of our improvement. It includes everything and it can be done everywhere. It improves our ICT skills as well. It accesses new information. It touches all topics which is ongoing  worldwide. It relates to teachers,professors, students, employees in other field, businessmen, common people too. Let’s know more about MOOC.

What is MOOC ?
The Acronym MOOC stands for-
M- Massive- Wide number of students
O-Open- Open access to everyone
O-Online- Via web/internet, network learning across multiple platforms and services.
C-Courses- various courses offered by different platforms.
               MOOCs are mainly internet based courses which is free of charge and have a huge number of students as it is open for all. MOOCs are virtual interactive teaching platform.Mostly MOOC has specific start and end dates. In MOOCs we have to watch short video lectures which are related to topic. After watching it we learn by ourselves and have to write on comment box. Some time we have to participate in discussions. There is no certification process on MOOC. But if we want certificate we have to upgrade  specific courses. There are many platforms of MOOC.  Some of the MOOCs platforms are UDACITY (Learn,Think,Do.), CANVAS NETWORK, NoVoED, OPEN 2 STUDY,  edX,  coursera, Moodle, Udemy, Versal,  Coursesites by blackboard, Future Learn etc.
          MOOCs were first started in 2008. It was introduced by George Siemens,and Stephen Downs. Firstly it was called ‘connectivism and connective knowledge 2008’or CCK08. It was created as a credit course for the university of Manitoba. MOOCs really took off in 2012. The first MOOC to be very successful was the course ‘artificial intelligence’ by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig from Standford university. In this course more than 160000 people around the world signed up to learn. The first time in history that a course met so many students. Following this success, Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig found the company Udacity. It provides a platform that any university can use to offer MOOCs.


My path to a MOOC-
In my view, CPD is a key word of successful career. It makes tremendous change throughout our professional life. As a lifelong learner , I like to learn each and every new and interesting thing. I am constantly honing my digital and content strategy expertise by attending workshops, reading the books,conferences etc. when I joined MOOC I participated in online discussions.
                 When I first heard of MOOC, I neglected it and didn’t take it seriously. In march , because of a personal problem, I had to take a long leave and was at home for a long time. I got bored in my home. One day I looked at Facebook post of teaching English page. The post was about MOOC and the course was English at the workplace. So only for passing my time I enrolled myself. Since I was taking it very lightly. I didn’t have the desire or any motivation to keep up with the course. Even though I found the course was bit interesting. It was very easy that’s why I finished it. Again I saw new course that is English at the early childhood. This time , my mindset was completely different. I was excited to take advantage of this unique opportunity. I was motivated. I decided to continue my learning by MOOC.
The MOOC learning experience-
I have learned a lot from various courses. I have chosen only those courses which is useful for my professional development. I came to know many of the new concepts was introduced by these courses. I am keeping my online reflective journal through penzu app. It’s an amazing experience for me. I have my own bag of knowledge and information . I would like to share my learning experiences here. Some of the courses which I have finished are-
English for the workplace-
     This course helped me to use language function in the workplace. It is also helpful for those people who are searching job. It developed my English language skills for employability and workplace context. It makes me more professional with the English which I need. It improves my English language performance. I have learnt following things from this course.
How to apply for jobs
How to prepare job interviews
Interview technique
Language of obligation
Rules and regulations at work place
Team building activities
Making suggestions
Elements of working together

English  in early childhood-
This course is about how young children learn English as an additional language. It is for the teachers who want to help their children for their progress. It is useful for those teachers who are teaching English as a second or third language. I have learnt following things from this course.
Early childhood development
Children and their language acquisition
How do children learn best through play way method
The importance of play
Developing language through play
Developing language through interactions
Strategies to enable children to get the most out of a learning experience.
Positive relationships with children
Importance of knowing the child well.
Observations of children
Assessment in the early years
Reflect on ways to communicate effectively with young children.
Identify the ways to support and challenge children and measure their progress
Connection between learning and child’s well-being.

Some of the courses which I have been working on -
Dyslexia and the foreign language-
             It started on 24 th April and still it is going on. This course is useful for the Teachers for improving theoretical insights. It helps dyslexic students learn second languages. In this course we covered following topics till now.
The nature of dyslexia
Learning difficulties associated with dyslexia
The effect of dyslexia on the learning of languages
Inclusion in the language class room
Using technology to assist dyslexic language learning.
Design language teaching tasks
Assess the needs of students with dyslexia

Becoming a better teacher-
This course is useful & helpful for every teacher. It  started on 24th April & now  I am working on 3rd  week . It improves our teaching skills as a teacher. It impacts on our professional development. It develops my reflective skills. It improves our practice in the class rooms. I have learnt from this course following things.
Continuous professional development and their importance
Keeping reflective journal
Ways of doing CPD
Characteristics of successful professional development
Effective Reflection skill
Kolb’s reflective cycle
Peer observation and its value
Different perspectives in observation
Giving effective feedback to learners
  The course is very interesting. I am looking forward to seeing upcoming weeks. I am damn sure it will fulfill my espectations.

Benefits of MOOC to me-
As I said above, MOOC plays vital role for CPD. Otherwise it is quite difficult to learn global subjects and issues. As far as I am concerned , It is beneficial for me  in a following way.
It’s an affordable alternative for me to formal education.
It provides flexible way to learn new skills, pursue lifelong interests and deliver quality of educational experiences.
It develops my reflection skill.
It enhances my ability to think critically., assess information and developed reasoned arguments in the context of the global challenges.
It is helpful to achieve developmental goals.
Learning happens as per my convenience.
For doing MOOC there is no compulsion  of degree, only willingness  to learn.
It improves my lifelong learning skills.
In MOOC Contextualized content are shared which is very useful to upgrade my knowledge.
It improves my pedagogical views and techniques.
There is no restriction of age, or background
  or expertisation need for joining MOOCs.
It is offered freely .
Global participants and their views  are introduced.
It’s a global knowledge sharing  experience.
Most important thing is there is no evaluation.
We can Learn by our pace and convenience.
Freedom to share our views without hesitation.


Challenges of MOOC-
As per my experience some of the expected challenges are-
It demands time and efforts from the participants.
It feels chaotic as participants create their own content.
Digital literacy is necessary to be a part of these courses.
Language of instruction  is one of the biggest challenge of MOOC.
Accessibility and Net surfing  problems.
Stakeholders must be self-motivated, self-regulated, and self committed towards .
As large number of students are there so it is not possible to give  personal attention to everyone.
People are not being computer/internet literate.
 MOOC doesn’t work in poor internet connection.
Language barrier.

              Though there are few challenges but MOOCs have a lot of potential for reinventing the way we learn. I enjoyed these courses.  It will be interesting to do it. So are you ready to log in MOOC ? Let’s try….
Kalpana Bansod,
SARP, Chandrapur.

Reflection on Reflection

Reflection on ‘REFLECTION’

Reflection …first time I heard this word when I was in 7 th std. Do you know what is reflection ? Reflection has different meanings according to the context or subjects. In my context , reflection means serious or critical thinking process about our work. We are familiar about one experience,that  is our image is reflected when we are in front of mirror. Mirror tells us about our personality or look. It  never lies. It  tells about good and bad things as well. It  gives us solutions too. It  makes us  think about ourselves what is looking nice ? and what is not . Then we try to correct  over all lacunas and try to look more beautiful and smart .Isn’t it ? It means we try to improve or fulfill our gaps . It happens only when we reflect. Now think about our day today life. Do we reflect evenonce ?  No. Because  we don’t have that much time. Or some of us don’t know what itis ? Reflection plays vital role in our life. I surely tell you without reflecting we can’t improve ourselves. We  can ‘t achieve our goals. We  can’t get success. So if we want to grow  we have to reflect. It’s a universal truth.Beyond that I would say being a human being we should be able to reflect on our activitieseveryday.We ought to  reflect on what we said and did in a particular situation during or after the event.  It’s a golden opportunity to improve ourselves.So, don’t miss the chance.

What is reflection ?Lets have a look….  

As far as I amconcerned ,reflection is  self evaluation,self observation  of our work. It is a process of looking back on ones work to identify ones areas of improvement and  looking  forward to improving our professional practice. It is  nothing but critical analysis of what we have done . It is a way of understanding  our strengths and weaknesses. Reflection is the process of learning through our own experiences to improve quality of work. It is a type of   trial and error method.Reflection is one of the most important feedback that weshould know how progressive we are in learningprocess .

In a nutshell, reflection means to reflect on our own actions and experiences to evaluate, analyseand refine the ideas for better prospects. Reflection is very much connected to professional development.

Once the lesson or an activity or our work is finished , we must sit s back and think over the whole process. We should think critically about our work. For this we have to  ask the following questions to ourselves.

What did I do?

Did it go well? 

What went well? 

Did it achieve your goal? 

What didn't go well? 

What's the reason behind it?

 What should be done differentlynext time ?

How to implement it ?

Besides , some practical questions we can ask ourselves.

How do we  reflect?

We do something in our daily routine.  Then we think about it. We draw some conclusions about it. And in light of those conclusions, we adapt the changes.After adaption  we do it again to see what happens as a result . And then we think about that new experience, and we draw new conclusions. And perhaps, adapt the changes once more.  This is a process of learning from our experience .

David Kolb, who is an American educational theorist, born in 1939, and living in Ohiodeveloped a cycle of reflection on the basis of above ideas. It is useful for everyone. It consists of four stages. First one is concrete experience for the doing stage. Second stage is reflective observation for the thinking stage. Third is abstract conceptualization for the concluding stage. And fourth stage is active experimentation for the adapting stage. We should remember, this cycle of reflection is  drawn from  real life scenario of experiential learning. In real life mostly we reflect on our decisions , occasional event etc. Same thing applies here. In short , we should think about our work ,then come on to specific conclusion and then adapt. It means , doing-thinking-concluding- adapting – doing again…At last we should retry same thing in a different manner. Then the cycle goes on…

  In my opinion , reflection is a skill of learning. It is a very logical way of learning and improving ourselves. This skill gives us strength to overcome challenges. It builds up our confidence. It helps us to develop critical thinking skill as it covers analyzing,evaluating and creating. It is needful,helpful and useful throughout  life. I have improved my way of teaching and living as well by reflecting myself.

Being a teacher, I have to reflect on my lessons. I have learnt about this concept from British council trainings. It helps me a lot. I am doing online course named ‘Becoming a better teacher’.  From this course I have learnt about reflection deeply. It helps me to get new ideas of teaching while working in Tejas project.  I reflected while doing various activities in this project. As a result, I am able to understand myself and my students better.It encourages active engagement .It makes me realize my role as a teacher. In my view,we should also develop this skill in our students. As a learner they should look back on their activities and assess themselves. It is very effective tool for them to improve themselves by themselves. It gives them bright career and future. Do spread this term to everyone so that everyone gets benefit from it.

Now a days I keep online reflective journal to note down the points. I got an idea from online course. A reflective journal is a learning tool that can help you to keep a record of useful information, ideas,links etc. from our teaching and learning in general. There are so many apps available online to maintain it. It’s a better way to collect important information and data.I strongly suggest to everyone to keep reflective journal if possible and do reflect. For this what should we do?

1.     Download online app for keeping reflective journal or keep anotebook to note down reflective points.

2.     After finishing every activity or lesson ask questions to our self as I mentioned above.

3.     Do think on it. Find solutions to overcome the lacunas.

4.     Make a draft of summarizing points.

5.     Plan new strategy and apply it.

     So friends, let’s try and share your experiences. I ensure you it will give you lots of benefit.

-         Kalpana Bansod

SARP, Chandrapur.

Tejas project

प्रेमाची पर्वणी

"मॅडम तुमी आमाले कवा भेटाले येताजी ? "
"अग लवकरच येणार आहे . "
"तसेच मनता तुमी नेमीच "
" मॅडम आमाला तुमची खूप खूप खूप खूप .......................... आठवण येते. "
"तुमीच आमाले पुना शिकवाले यानं . "
बोर्डा शाळेची जान्हवी , ऋतुजा ,नमो , सुहानी ही चिमुकली पाखरं सकाळी मला फोनवरून बोलत होती .
मी मुलांना विचारलं , "तुम्ही कुणाच्या फोनवरून बोलत आहात ? "
मुलं म्हणाली , " नमोच्या मामाचा फोन हाय . "
मी म्हटलं , " पैसे जास्त लागतील , मी इकडून फोन करते . थांबा "
मुलं म्हणाली , " नाई मॅडम . आम्ही मोबाईलमंदी पैसे भरलोत . "
मी विचारले , " कसे ? "
"आमी सर्वायनी एक -एक रुपये काढलो , अन् रिचार्ज केलो. "
केवळ मला बोलण्यासाठी मुलांची ही कळकळ मला कळवळून सोडणारी होती .लेकरांचा जिव्हाळा बघून मन भरून आलं. आपण आपल्या कामाच्या व्यापात सगळं विसरून जातो . शाळा सुटल्यापासून जिवंत अनुभवापासून मी मृत झाले . प्रशासकीय विभागात काम करतांना तो लेकरांच्या अनुभवविश्वातील तरतरीतपणा , टवटवीतपणा , सभोवताल जाणवतं नाही . काही नवीन शिकायला मिळत नाही . जीवनाचे रंग जवळून जगायला मिळत नाहीत . मी तर सर्व हरवून बसलेय . स्वतःच्या स्वार्थापोटी ... हळूहळू विसरत चाललेय...माझी मलाच ...पण मुलं ... ती कधीच विसरत नाहीत . आपलं वागणं , आपलं बोलणं , आपलं शिकवणं , एवढचं काय आपल्या जीवनातील महत्वाचे दिवसही त्यांना नेमके लक्षात राहतात . त्यासाठीच तर या सोनपर्यांनी मला फोन केला होता .
मला म्हणाल्या , " मैडम ३ एप्रिलले तुमची अनवरसरी आहे नं, आमाले माईत हाय . मनूनच तुमाले बोलवासाठी आमी फोन केला . मागच्या वर्सी आपण खूप मजा केलो नं तशी मजा करून याई वर्सी "
मागील वर्षी आम्ही आमचा लग्नाचा वाढदिवस या चिमुकल्यांसोबत साजरा केला . मुले ते विसरली नाहीत . त्यांना तारीख सुध्दा लक्षात राहिली हे मात्र नवलचं ...
"मी नक्की येणार " मुलांना मी आश्वासन दिले .
ऋतुजा म्हणाली , " मॅडम नक्की नक्की येजा , तुमाले आमची कसम हाय . "
नमो म्हणाली , " मॅडम तुमाले सुहानीची कसम हाय . "
हे ऐकून मी थोडावेळ विचारातच पडले . मुलांना स्वतःच माझ्या वागणूकीवरून ठरवलं असणार की, मी सुहानीवर जास्त प्रेम करते . नाहीतर नमो असे म्हणाली नसती .आपल्या लक्षातही येत नाही पण मुलं आपली प्रत्येक गोष्ट टिपत असतात . मला खरचं अपराध्यासारखं वाटलं . आपण नकळत मुलांवर किती अन्याय करतो ना .... तरीही हे निरागस , निरामय चेहरे आपल्यावर निस्वार्थ प्रेम करतात . एवढी विचारांची खोली कुठून येत असेल बरं त्यांच्याकडे ... आचाराच्या उंचीवरच विचारांची खोली अवलंबून असते , नाही का ?

बालोत्सव

बालकांची रंगपंचमी
   'बालोत्सव'

या कोवळ्या कळ्यामाजी
लपले ज्ञानेश्वर , रविंद्र , शिवाजी
विकसता प्रकटतील समाजी
शेकडो महापुरुष ॥
                      ग्रामगीतेतील या ओळीचा प्रत्यक्ष प्रत्यय काल दि .२० फेब्रुवारी २०१७ रोजी पं.स- गोंडपिंपरी येथील जि.प. प्राथमिक शाळा , चेकव्यंकटपूर या शाळेत आला. अतिशय उत्साहात व जल्लोषात बालोत्सवाचे आयोजन या शाळेत करण्यात आले होते . कदाचित बहुतेकांना   या शाळेचे नाव अपरिचीत असावे . परंतु या शाळेतील शिक्षक मात्र सर्वांना परिचीत आहेत . निखील तांबोळी ... या तंत्रस्नेही शिक्षकाची ही द्वीशिक्षकी शाळा ... शाळेत पटावर दहा विदयार्थी ... असे असतांनाही संकुचित वृत्ती न ठेवता संपूर्ण तालुक्याला सामावून एका उत्कृष्ट दर्जाच्या सोहळ्यास त्यांनी व त्यांचे मुख्याध्यापक आलाम सर यांनी पुर्णत्वास नेले . ही बाब विशेष अभिनंदनीय व अभिवंदनीय आहे .
            या कार्यक्रमाच्या पुर्णत्वाच्या सोहळ्यास अर्थात समारोपीय सत्रात मा. शरदचंद्र पाटील , प्राचार्य DIECPD  व गटशिक्षणाधिकारी, मा . उराडे सर , पं.स- गोंडपिंपरी, तसेच DIECPD येथील इंग्रजी विषयाचे प्रशिक्षक कु.कल्पना बन्सोड व कृतिका बुरघाटे उपस्थित होत्या . ' बालोत्सव ' कार्यक्रमाची वैशिष्टये -
O चेक व्यंकटपूर शाळेतील शिक्षकांनी केंद्रातील सर्व विदयार्थांना व तालुक्यातील प्रत्येक केंद्रातील किमान तीन विदयार्थासाठी ही संधी उपलब्ध करून दिली होती .
O बालोत्सव मुलांसाठी खऱ्या अर्थाने रंगोत्सव ठरला .
O बालोत्सवाच्या सुरुवातीच्या सत्रात मुलांनी शाळेच्या भिंतीवर सुंदर व मोहक चित्र काढून शाळेच्या भिंती जिवंत केल्या .
Oसोबतच काही मुलांनी  कागदावर सुद्धा रेखाटनांची व रंगांची उधळण केली .
O ज्या मुलांना रंगामध्ये रस न०हता त्यांच्यासाठी कथेचे दालन होते . मुलांसाठी काही चिठ्ठया बाऊलमध्ये ठेवण्यात आल्या होत्या . त्यातील कोणत्याही दोन किंवा तीन चिठ्ठया उचलून मुलांनी सुंदर कथा तयार केल्या .
O काही मुलांना कविता करायचे वेड होते . त्यांच्यासाठीही कवितेचे दालन मोकळे होते . मुलांनी एखादी हवी ती चिठ्ठी उचलायची किंवा त्यांना वाटेल त्या विषयावर कविता लिहायची .
O यापैकी कशातच आवड नसणाऱ्यांसाठी सुध्दा सोय होती . कागद आणि कात्री त्यांच्यासाठी मोकळी होती . काही मुलांनी त्याचा वापर करून कागदी मुखवटे तयार केलेत .
Oदिवसभरात मुलांना संपूर्ण स्वातंत्र्य होते . कुठलीही आडकाठी नाही , भिती नाही , धाक नाही , बंधन नाही .
Oसर्व बंधनातून मुक्त होवून मुले सैराट झाली होती . समारोप सुरू झाला तरी काही मुले आपल्याच तंद्रित , आपल्याच कामात व्यस्त होती .एकंदरित मुलांची मज्जाच मज्जा होती .
O विशेष म्हणजे गावकऱ्यांचा सहभाग या कार्यक्रमात प्रखर दिसून आला .
O गावकऱ्यांनी तालूक्यातून आलेल्या सर्व मुलांना जेवन दिले .
O गावातील एका प्रतिष्ठित नागरिक संजय वडस्कर यांनी व शाळेने तालुक्यातील सहभागी सर्व मुलांना चित्रकलेची वही व पेन भेट दिली .
Oकार्यक्रमात गावातील उत्कृष्ट पालकाचा सत्कार मा. शरदचंद्र पाटील यांच्या हस्ते करण्यात आला.
Oकाही मुलांच्या उत्कृष्ट कथा व कवितांचे वाचन झाले .
O सदर कार्यक्रमात श्री. संजय माथनकर यांनी शैक्षणिक विडीओ शिक्षकांपर्यत सहज पोहचावे या हेतूने तयार केलेल्या DVD चे विमोचन करण्यात आले .
O कार्यक्रमाच्या यशस्वीतेसाठी निखील तांबोळी यांची जीवनसंगीनी सौ . शुभांगी तांबोळी यांची मौलाची मदत झाली . त्यामुळे शुभांगीताईचे सुद्धा पाटील सरांच्या हस्ते सस्नेह भेट देवून कौतुक करण्यात आले .
O कार्यक्रमात कल्पना बन्सोड यांनी 'बालशिक्षणातील शास्त्रीयता ' या विषयावर थोडक्यात प्रकाश टाकला .
Oसोबतच कल्पना बन्सोड यांनी दोन हजार रुपये शाळेच्या कामासाठी मदत म्हणून दिले .
O गटशिक्षणाधिकारी मा .उराडे सर यांनी शिक्षकांचे व मुलांचे कौतुक केले तसेच शाळेला एक हजार रूपये देणगी दिली .
O मा . शरदचंद्र पाटील यांनी आपल्या अध्यक्षीय भाषणात स्वानुभवातील काही अनुभव सांगत अतिशय खेळीमेळीच्या वातावरणात , सहज व सोप्या भाषेत सर्वांना शुभसंदेश दिला .
O प्रत्येकाने यातून शिकायला हवे , हा उपक्रम सर्वांनी स्विकारावा असे आवाहन पाटील सरांनी जिल्हयातील सर्व शिक्षकांसाठी केले .
O कार्यक्रम उत्तम व्हावा यासाठी शाळेचे मुख्याध्यापक व तांबोळी दाम्पत्यांनी प्रचंड मेहनत घेतली होती . त्यांच्या कामाचे कौतुक होत असतांना व मुलांचा प्रतिसाद बघतांना ....याचसाठी केला होता अट्टहास .. क्षण हा गोड व्हावा.. असे भाव शाळेतील दोन्ही शिक्षकांच्या चेहऱ्यावर दिसत होते .
                   कार्यक्रमाच्या समारोपाचे सत्र संपले होते परंतु नवीन कार्यक्रमाची चाहूल सोबतच लागली होती. लगेच सहा वाजता या दोन शिक्षकांनी गावकऱ्यांच्या मदतीने , तेथील तरुणाईचा सहभाग घेऊन सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रमाचे आयोजन केले होते . गावातील कलाकार , तरुण , विदयार्थी सर्वांसाठी हा कार्यक्रम खुला होता . बघता बघता बारा वाजले . कार्यक्रम संपला . परंतु नवा दिवस नवी पालवी , नवी आस घेवून मोकळा श्वास घेण्याचा आस्वाद घेऊन आला आणि सहज मनात आले ....
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