One of the biggest challenges of school education in India is teaching Mathematics. While some students understand, for some, it's tough, which then leads to fear and inhibition. This, in turn, could have an impact on their entire career or further studies as they are apprehensive to get into science-related fields or choose options where they can avoid Math. To solve this issue, IT for Change, an NGO in Bengaluru along with Commonwealth of Learning are offering a four-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled Teaching Mathematics with Technology. The course is set to begin on November 16 and it is free of cost for teachers around the world.
The course will focus on training teachers to use Geogebra, a free and open-source software (FOSS) application that will help them create resources to teach mathematical concepts differently and in an interesting and unconventional manner. Mathematics teachers for Classes 6-10, educators in this subject domain, and teachers of related technical subjects like STEM can join this to learn the software. GeoGebra is an interactive geometry, algebra, statistics and calculus application, intended for learning and teaching Mathematics and science from primary school to university level. It is readily available on multiple platforms.
Director, IT for Change, Gurumurthy Kasinathan, who is also the coordinator for the course, tells us that most teachers are not aware of this software and its benefits. "The way we teach mathematics now is how we taught maybe 20 years ago, students don't really understand every concept. With the software, educators can teach mathematics differently, you can visualise actual problems on the software, understand them better, understand the concept behind an equation, discuss a theorem and more. One can use it to teach most topics including statistics, probability. IT for Change has been conducting workshops with the help of Geogebra for the last 8-9 years. This time we got the opportunity to work with the Commonwealth of Learning and wanted to offer it to teachers across the globe."
He adds that MOOCs are not like full-time classes and teachers can learn at their own pace in the span of four weeks. "We work with government schools and we have seen that children are scared of maths. Through this, their attitude can change towards the subject. The way we teach can have a significant impact on the child's understanding of mathematics. The main aim is to make mathematics less intimidating for school children," he explains.
The Commonwealth of Learning which has collaborated with IT for Change for this MOOC is an intergovernmental organisation of The Commonwealth headquartered in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Set up in 2000, IT for Change is an NGO based in Bengaluru that works towards building a society in which digital technologies contribute to human rights, social justice and equity.
Here's the link to register for the course: https://www.mooc4dev.