Institute of Life Long Learning English Workshop, “Creation of e-Materials in English,” 2 May 2014 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL), at the main campus, organized a capacity-building, interactive workshop for the faculty of English in the constituent colleges of the University of Delhi, on 2 May 2014. In response to letters sent out by the Joint Director to principals of all colleges and through personal communication, a total of 33 teachers, both permanent and temporary, came to attend and participate in the workshop. The workshop was held in the Cyber Lab and every participant was given a laptop or a desktop so that they could access the vle site freely. One objective was to acquaint the participants with the volume and variety of material that had already been uploaded—approximately 47 units for the FYUP syllabus and 35 units for the 3-year undergraduate English (Hons.) syllabus. The other was to impress upon them the nature of the work which, unlike print material, is open to a continuous process of expansion and revision whenever necessary. Some of the writers of uploaded units were part of the workshop and shared their experience and contribution. The programme was divided into three parts, beginning with introductory and informative presentations by the Joint Director, Prof. Shormishtha Panja, and Fellows Dr. Shashi Khurana and Ms. Anubha Anushree. Elements of the existing components, value additions, the objectives of the e-learning project, popular internet archives that came under Creative Commons were some of the areas discussed. The exposure helped participants understand and appreciate the range of media resources that may be integrated with e- content produced specifically for users of the internet. Exposure to additional sources like video lectures, performances, panel discussions and dialogues with area experts demonstrated how classroom learning could be enriched. Prof. Panja in her ppt, “Creation of e-Materials in English,” highlighted the way English is spearheading e-content development by creative usage of multimedia in several units, performance-readings, excerpted performance recordings, interviews with eminent scholars etc. She also presented the group with a survey of the different units that have been uploaded over the span of three years, stressing the significance of continual and active engagement with both content and technology to produce quality material. Dr. Shashi Khurana’s presentation briefly outlined the video material that ILLL has been producing in English. Her presentation revisited some remarkable and creative video interactions/performances/panel discussions etc. that have been achieved in the past year with proactive college participation on the part of both teachers and students. Anubha Anushree’s ppt presentation entitled “Developing e-content: Prospects and Challenges” looked at the ways in which technology could be appropriated to further the impact and outreach of e-resources. While briefly encapsulating Creative Commons and its terms of usage, she also directed the audience to the enormous repository of resources available on the web, free of cost. The second part of the programme provided an opportunity for the participants to work in three groups of about ten members each, use the guidelines and free multi media sources, like Creative Commons, YouTube, Wikipedia, Web Gallery of Art etc. to plan a unit of their interest based on the FYUP syllabus. At the end of this activity, each of the three groups made a presentation, one on Dalit writing, another on Gulliver’s Travels and the third on Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Draupadi.” The output was comprehensive and sophisticated, showing that the participants had quickly grasped what was required of authors of e-learning material. The third part of the workshop brought all the participants together over refreshments along with the last part of the ‘business on hand’-- which was to fill up a detailed feed-back form and indicate the unit the participants were enthused to work on, independently or jointly. All the feedback has been uniformly positive with words and phrases like “perfect” “extremely useful” “informative” “cutting-edge” demonstrating the participants’ satisfaction with the workshop. Many said that such workshops should be held more frequently and that they should be day-long affairs. Prof. Shormishtha Panja, Dr. Shashi Khurana, Ms. Anubha Anushree
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 04:26:31 +0000
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