In what is being showcased as a model for the digital inclusion drive in the country, the IT@School programme of the Department of Education here has imparted training in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to visually-challenged teachers in Kerala.
The five-day programme, which will be declared closed by Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb here on Friday, was totally based on the free software called ORCA. With Thiruvananthapuram as the hub, the training programme was conducted across the State at the IT@School project offices. All the 238 visually-challenged teachers in the State were included in the training programme.
According to executive director of the IT@School Anvar Sadath, the training started with a familiarisation module where the teacher got acquainted with keyboard typing and gradually learnt the basics of operating system, word processing, folder creation, data transfer using CD/pen drive, navigation using shortcut keys, audio and video players, including sound recording, and Internet.
“Integrating ICT in education is our mission and in order to implement a complete ICT-enabled educational system, it was important that differentially-abled teachers are also trained in ICT, which not only boosts their confidence but also has a positive impact in classrooms as well,” Mr. Sadath said.
He said the IT@School, which was widely seen as the ICT arm of the General Education Department, imparted training to two-lakh teachers and about 50 lakh students a year. Besides empowering over 50,000 students in specific ICT training, the project also focused on imparting ICT training to parents and to the public at large.
According to Mr. Sadath, the training for visually-challenged teachers in FOSS platform has multi-dimensional significance. Most of the screen reading software which are currently available in market are priced at an average cost of Rs.40,000 each with stringent restrictions for sharing. The FOSS-based ORCA software not only provides facility for the user to modify the application as per his needs, but also enables him to share the application without any restrictions. This software has been provided by IT@School Project to all schools for the benefit of differentially-abled teachers and students.
“Most of the visually-challenged teachers were using the computers for the first time,” said Rajaneesh, one of the trainer who himself is visually-challenged.
“Despite using computers for the first time, the enthusiasm of these teachers got to a high when they started to prepare the documents using Open Office Writer and also while they learned the CD-DVD burning processes,” he said.
By empowering differentially-abled teachers and students in ICT skills, IT@School Project hopes to facilitate total ICT-enabled education. It is also proposed to conduct specific cluster training for students by making use of these trained teachers. Through this training programme, the project has ensured that when it comes to ICT training, differentially-abled teachers would not be left out in any manner, Mr. Sadath added.
