A very hazy morn as I gulped my morning tea and incidentally glanced through the gujarati newspaper Sandesh. Delightfully surprized, I came through this article on Nilam Doctor. Know this guy? Well, he has been the Internet Whizz since years - He launched the first gujarati newspaper online with original sambhaav ttf fonts and the first Internet guy coz of whom gujarati readers were lucky to read sambhaav newspapers on the web. Than came sandesh followed by akila daily, divya bhasker and so goes the history of gujju newspapers and blogs.
He's been my 'Net Guru' - Yeah,the person who gave me the first lessons of training on how to make a web page with FP! Rest is a history as I shuffled along with many websites and mastering skills through cyber patrolling at msn homepages. Well, this guy I knew had a vision somewhere and I always fell at a loss that IT field did not favor people who really knew the tricks of the trade. I experienced different phases of his career as he moved from sambhaav and finally, I was happy that he had become a Software Consultant engaged in Educational CDs.
Today, when I read this article, I feel the educators need to understand the web themselves - It is a sad say, compu teachers still teach the logo and are not aware of online websites like epals.com where they can get into exchange programs on various projects with teachers and students round the world! Neither Principals nor teachers have the net facilities to explore and if they have, there hardly is a progress seen as to the welfare of children. Well, I did teach a student from Hongkong online preparing her for the English & GRE course but teaching a single student sounds like a conversation on a yahoo msgr and emailing lessons. This idea sounds a novel with audio-video facilities these days and yeah, I admit, there are ample opportunities for teachers coz I am a witness with the kidsfreesouls.com worksheets. These kidsfreesouls free worksheets and projects are actually used in foreign classrooms and I get tremendous feedback from teachers, parents and children and even they approach with their counseling questions.
Let's hope, the efforts of Nilam Doctor and his team may provide out-sourcing teaching opportunities but at the same time, it is the need of the hour to remember that teachers do require to sharpen their skills - Teaching is not the job of every Tom, Dick and Harry! We see Tuition classes flourishing in town and oops..the virtual classroom may leave our own students stranded!!!! God bless the young souls.....
- ilaxi
