Bending technology to hone economic skills

The workshop on 'Use of Technology for Teaching and Learning of Economics' received excellent response and some good coverage in newspapers. I have pasted below an article that appeared in Yuva today.

Bending technology to hone economic skills
SACHIN NIMKAR, MUMBAI
IN today’s world of cut- throat competition, technological innovations like the internet, blog and multimedia have made the process of teaching and learning more interactive. But despite this, alarge number of educational institutions and teachers continue using the conventional chalk and black board. An encouraging initiative in this direction has been taken by two voluntary organisations in the city — the Forum of Free Enterprise (FFE) and the Economics Club (EC). The two organisations have come together to organise aseries of workshops to familiarise economic teachers with the use of technology in classroom. The first workshop was held at KJSomaiya College of Arts and Commerce, Vidyavihar recently. Over 50 teachers from various colleges took part in the workshop. During the workshop, online interactive sessions were held and the teachers were educated about Internet resources for teaching and research. They were also taught how to develop blogs and make effective presentations using PowerPoint. The NGO plans to conduct several more workshops for teachers in the future. Professor Shashi Panikar, coordinator, EC said, “The aim of this workshop is to use of technology in teaching and learning of economics for college teachers in Mumbai. We want to reach out to as many teachers as possible so that quality of education can be improved.” The participating teachers are obviously excited. “Iwasn’t aware that such technologies can be used to teach as well. Iwill now try make a PowerPoint presentation and use other tools like blogs while teaching my students,” averred Professor Sunita Nagpurkar, VES Vivekanand Education Society College, Chembur. “We feel empowered after the workshop. I think every teacher should attend this workshop for their future growth,” said Medha Tapiawala, professor, Guru Nanak College. sachin@ mailyuva. com