DIET Dharwad

Capacity Building workshop on Public Software in Education for DIET Dharwad Samartha Project 15th to 17th November 2011

An introductory capacity building workshop on Public Software in Education was held at the DIET Dharwad from 15th to 17th November 2011. The participants for this workshop were the DIET faculty and teacher educators from neighbouring colleges. The aim was to introduce the possibilities of the digital world to the participants and train them on basic use of computers, emailing and using the Internet. This workshop was held as part of the Samartha project.

Click below to view

a) the agenda

b) the handouts - ICT training, Openoffice, Web related and Educational tools

c) the workshop report

The workshop began with an overview of ICTs and the digital world. Participants were introduced to Linux and the Ubuntu Operating System. Educational tools in Maths, Science and Language were demonstrated as well as some useful websites. Tux Typing (an application to practise keyboard typing) was shown for participants to practise their typing on. The participants were then trained on basic use of Open Office writer and kannada set up and typing. Email ids were created for participants who did not have one.

The next day began with an introduction to Public Software, its philosophy and the need for using it in the public education system. This was followed by a session on advanced Open office writer, where participants were taught how to create a table, insert header, footer, page number as well as how to create documents in collaboration using the track change function. On the final day of the workshop, the participants focussed on learning about the Internet and how to use it. Concepts such as web browser, search engine, email, address bar, search bar etc. was introduced. Participants learnt how to send email, send email with an attachment, add a signature, and send an email in kannada. They also learnt how to search for a web page, use google search, save a web page, download a picture etc. Participants also used this time to familiarise themselves with the Ubuntu interface, create folders and save files. A google group dietdharwad@googlegroups.com was created for the faculty to share information in a easy manner.

An Ubuntu Certification workshop was conducted for the student-teachers as well. As part of it, student-teachers watched videos on Ubuntu and practised using it as well. A post-test was conducted on the last day to assess these student-teachers. The certification for this will be given by IIT Mumbai. The DIET lecturers also took this pre-test and will give their post-test on 15th December, 2011.