A workshop on digital skills for teachers focused on how best to capture students’ attention in a class.
Teachers said given that the students’ attention span had reduced significantly the way to get them to remain attentive is to use what captures their attention. In such a context, it is necessary to ‘walk their walk’. If students enjoy watching insta reels then the teacher should be equipped with the digital skills to reach out to the students, said Andrew Thangaraj, national coordinator for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
At a gathering of teachers and students at Anna University on Thursday, he said: “I try to do a five-minute reel of what I am going to teach, pull out a wonderful real-life example in my class,” he said, and it had worked as he was able to reach out to 50-60% of his class.
“A teacher has to be ahead of their students to be able to teach them,” said L. Suganthi, Dean of College of Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, who echoed Mr. Thangaraj’s views. University Registrar J. Prakash urged the teachers to equip themselves with digital skills to reach students.
Jagat Bhushan Nadda, director, Consortium for Educational Communication, who launched a two-day workshop on ‘Digital skills for effective teaching through MOOCS’ organised by the CEC and the Educational Multimedia Research Centre, said it was necessary to update oneself with digital skills. The country did not have enough universities and colleges, but online education would help, he explained.
Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Madras S. Gowri also spoke.
