ITE Project: India

Margaret Leahy (School of STEM Education, Innovation & Global Studies) recently spent 10 days in India as a guest of a Tata Trust project; The Integrated approach to Technology in Education (ITE) https://www.tatatrusts.org/section/inside/integrated-approach-technology-in-education-new

While in India, Margaret gave the keynote presentation at ‘LeaP 2019, Learners as Producers of ICT artefacts’ which was held at The India International Centre, New Delhi https://www.tiss.edu/view/5/projects/integrated-approach-to-technology-in-education-ite/leap-2019-learners-as-producers-of-ict-artefacts/. In her keynote, Margaret stressed not only the potential of digital technologies to transform student learning experiences but  also the importance  of teacher professional learning to support teachers as they use technology to prepare students to live and work in the 21st century. 

In the week prior to the Symposium, Margaret visited government model schools, a District Institute for Education and Training (DIET) and an NGO in Assam (North East India). There, she met with staff and students who presented their projects to her and spoke about their work.

Technology in Education (ITE) led by Dr Amina Charania is an initiative of the Tata Trusts. Adopting a largely constructivist pedagogical framework, ITE seeks to provide an opportunity for adolescents in some of the most underprivileged geographies in India to interact, explore and authenticate their learning at school, using technology. The central concepts of the approach assume: student use of technology to create learning artefacts; integration of technology with curriculum; teacher designed instruction and a focus on learning achievement. Since its initiation in 2012, ITE has reached over 29000 children and approximately 1500 government teachers in mostly rural locations in Eastern and Northern India.

Margaret has previously presented on a model of teacher professional learning to the ITE programme team and in 2018 provided input/feedback on the development of a set of evaluation rubrics by the ITE team to measure project impact.