Solapur teacher trains 2.5 k across Maharashtra in online teaching

Through his social media pages, the primary school teacher is trying to teach how to use a simple mobile phone to shoot videos, make small presentations and present academic content more effectively to make it interesting for students

As thousands of government schools struggle to keep up with the demand for online learning in the lockdown, a Solapur based teacher is offering a solution to the problem.

Rajkiran Chavan, a 36-year old teacher who teaches at an aided school in Solapur (HT)

Rajkiran Chavan, a 36-year old teacher who teaches at an aided school in Solapur is training nearly 2,500 teachers from across the state to equip them with the basic skills required for online teaching.

Through his social media pages, the primary school teacher is trying to teach how to use a simple mobile phone to shoot videos, make small presentations and present academic content more effectively to make it interesting for students. “I had conducted sessions with teachers even in the past but the current situation was alarming because suddenly all learning had to stop because students from low income families barely have any access to high end technology. Even in places where they do have phones, teachers are not equipped to teach online thus becoming a big hurdle in online learning. The idea was to ensure that teachers are not just trained but develop interest in online teaching learning,” he added.

Chavan said that while most teachers can shoot videos, that does not mean online learning. “Training to understand the technology is not enough to be a good online teacher. For that, one needs to understand as to how to present the topic in question using multiple techniques and mediums so that it doesn’t become boring. For instance, instead of showing a simple PPT on video, teachers can make an animated PPT which interests young students,” he added.

Meanwhile several teachers from civic schools in the city are now using social messaging applications to conduct group videos to teach their students over the last few days. “It is the easiest thing to do considering most of us don’t have the necessary training to use more sophisticated applications. We have created a database of students and call them for a half an hour class when possible to finish where we left before the lockdown,” said Aneesha Palite, a teacher from a civic school in Kandivali.