Report of The International Webinar Organised by The Department of B.Ed.

The Department of B.Ed. organised an International Webinar on ‘A Paradigm Shift in Education: Alternative Modes of Teaching and Learning During the Pandemic Phase’ on August 10, 2020.The Webinar was conducted on Google Meet. Faculty members from various educational institutions attended the webinar.

The resource people included Dr. Jacqueline Lewis, Professor, Department of Counselling and Student Personnel, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Dr. Sujata Srivastava, Department of Education, Faculty of Education and Psychology, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara; and Dr. Subir Nag, Fellow Chartered Educator (UNESCO), Principal, Satyapriya Roy College of Education, Kolkata, West Bengal University of Teachers’ Training, Education Planning and Administratio. 128 participants joined the Webinar. It began with a welcome address by the Principal of the college, Sr. Christine Coutinho. The introductory note was delivered by the Head, of the Department of B.Ed. Dr. Debika Guha. This was followed by presentations of the three resource persons.

In her deliberation, ‘Online Instruction: Lessons Learned from Experience’, Dr. Lewis focussed on ‘Learning Justice’ and ‘Emerging Educational Needs During the Pandemic.’ She explained that teaching online is demanding as an understanding of Learning Management System and software is required. She spoke about the nature of the course which can be content-oriented and experiential. She dealt with two aspects - designing of classes and structuring of classes. Educators should prepare the students for the experience, design the programme appropriately, and provide clear learning expectations. She shared various techniques of teaching-learning like lecturette, pre-recorded lectures, live lectures, guest lectures, virtual tours, videos, synchronous and asynchronous online discussion, group activities, quizzes, question-answer, and finally consolidation of the lesson. Dr. Subir Nag in his presentation titled ‘E-Learning Content Development: A Paradigm Shift for New Age Pedagogy’ believed that teaching is an art and explained the term ‘techno-pedagogue’. He observed that according to the NPE 2020, the future need of education is a multidisciplinary approach, students should follow their passion and there needs to be flexibility in options for subjects. Therefore skill orientation for teachers and e-learning content development is essential. This will be more challenging for teacher educators. He explained the various components of a learning design. Expectations should be stated i.e. behavioural objectives should be mentioned. Various strategies of teaching are significant i.e. making teaching-learning joyful through peer discussion, films and various URLs e-content. The lessons should be consolidated towards the end of the class. Revision of the lesson taught is important and finally, assessment or evaluation is needed. He concluded by mentioning one of the major limitations of alternative modes of teaching and learning was lack of eye contact and human contact which demotivates both the educators and learners.

Dr. Sujata Srivastava’s presentation on ‘Teaching–Learning During Pandemic Times: The Way Forward’ focussed on three key areas - firstly the relationship between pedagogy and technology, secondly emphasizing on soft skills and thirdly on the discussion on alternative methodology. Secondly she emphasized on development of soft skills , development of proper communication skills which can be verbal, non-verbal, kinaesthetic, time management etc. Dr. Srivastava explained ‘Para-language’ and tempo, stress, articulation, with limited body language for online mode of education. Humane skills should be developed during pandemic like compassion empathy, patience, etc. Educators need to be more understanding of needs of learners. For the third aspect on alternative methodology, she opined that globally there is a digital divide between the haves and have-nots. She concluded by urging educators to decide on the pedagogy of learning outcomes and the learning tools and making online teaching learning contextual and relevant.

The webinar was thought provoking, informative, analytical and insightful.