The Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB)’s eLearn orientation project has successfully completed 200 sessions across the province to promote the use of free online content including textbooks, videos, and audio clips.
Sessions have also been held with teaching staff at various institutes managed by the Directorate of Staff Development (DSD).The latest session was held at the Government College for Elementary Teachers, Kot Lakhpat. The session was attended by 43 teachers who are being promoted from basic pay scale (BPS) grade 16 to grade 17.
The participants took a keen interest in the session and termed it a step in the right direction. They said that such sessions would enable teachers to modernise their teaching methods. The participants were also provided with digital content reviewed in the session on external hard drives so that they could share it on their own.
The eLearn project is an open digital repository of textbooks published by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB). These ebooks are augmented with over 10,000 videos, animations, simulations, interactive assessments, and audio clips. Many public and private schools are using this digital repository.
The idea that technology can revolutionise education is not new. However, the Internet, coupled with mobile, more affordable end-user gadgetry now lends itself as an enormously powerful digital medium to enhance teaching and learning across the globe. Advances in information technology have enabled the “personalisation” of the learning experience by providing access to learning and assessment resources – anywhere, anytime.
The eLearn project aims to facilitate and encourage the use of educational technologies by providing digitized content, relevant supplementary resources, and online assessment tools for students and educators. As a first step, digitised versions of science subject text books for 9th and 10th grades are being made available online – along with links to a sea of supplementary material available over the web. In the future, the same content may also be pre-loaded into laptops or tablets, or made available in the form of CDs. The introduction of online self-assessment features as well as centralised courses/content management tools for public schools is also planned.
“We encourage our visitors, private sector entities, and international agencies to explore, contribute, and collaborate with us in this regard. Please visit eLearn frequently, and send us suggestions, feedback, links to resources, and possible support via your organisation’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives,” officials said.
