Shadow Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 29:
The three-day video translation workshop aiming to make digital educational content available to the students of Jammu and Kashmir in local languages concluded in the conference hall of the SCERT’s divisional office at Bemina here.
Some half a dozen educational and IT experts translated at least 10 videos which would be presented before the NCERT and Team Dikhsha, Ministry of Education, Government of India for quality assessment. This will set into motion the process of translating some 1800 videos produced by TicTacLearn—an initiative supported by Central Square Foundation (CSF) and Google.org.
TicTacLearn has created one of the largest open-source repositories of high-quality curriculum aligned digital learning resources comprising some 12,000 videos available free of cost for everyone.
Director SCERT, J&K, Prof Veena Pandita, said that the workshop will allow the participants to spend more time practicing new skills.
The workshop will allow the participants the time to reflect, both individually and with others, to learn a brand new skill set needed for efficient translation of the content, she said, adding that whatever is available is either not of good quality or is unaffordable to our students.
Prof Pandita said SCERT, would translate high quality, animated, pedagogically sound, curriculum aligned (NCERT) Maths and Science content in three languages viz. Urdu, Kashmiri and Dogri.
The videos, once translated, will be hosted on Dikhsha portal where from they will be accessible to a student after scanning a QR Code energized in their textbooks.
Quoting a survey conducted by a software company, State Coordinator Nishtha on Dikhsha, Peerzada Bashir Ahmad, said that 93 percent of teachers believe that the use of educational videos improves the learning experience.
The use of videos in teaching and learning serves to not only benefit students, but also teachers, their affiliated institutions, and the entire school system, Ahmad said. It also serves to break down barriers, such as student and campus location, which were once unassailable, he added.
A technical expert with the Dikhsha, Riyaz Ahmad Reshi, said the students belonging to Grades 1-5 would benefit from the digital content to be made available in the languages they know and understand better.
Pertinently, the newly launched education policy NEP 2020 prioritizes universal foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) in primary school and beyond by 2027.
The availability of digital content in local languages will aid the basic learning, namely reading, writing, and arithmetic at the foundational level, Reshi said.
For school teachers, the digital content would facilitate the teaching-learning process in a more congenial way. The use of short video clips allows for more efficient processing and memory recall, said Javed Hassan Sofi, who works as an IT expert with Diksha.
According to Sajjad Akbar Rather, State IT expert with Dikhsha, the visual and auditory nature of videos, especially based on attractive animation, appeals to students and allows them to process information in a way that’s natural to them.
For Anjali Om Raina, a teacher educator, the workshop was a personal learning experience. The workshop has, to a great extent, done away with my regimental approach to the classroom, she said. Blended learning is something every teacher must get himself/herself acquainted with, she added.
Suhail Farooq, Program Coordinator and Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, Assistant Program Coordinator thanked the participants for making the workshop a success.
