Pic: Edex Live
Pic: Edex Live

TSIC launches novel Teaching Innovation Portal exclusively for Telangana teachers

The Teaching Innovation Portal has been set up in collaboration with the Education Department's Grassroots Innovation Augmented Network 

The Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) was set up in 2017 under the State Innovation Policy with a three-fold mandate — to promote the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the state, to promote innovation in government departments and organisations and, lastly, to build a culture of innovation from the school stage. The TSIC has now come up with a first-of-its-kind Teaching Innovation Portal in collaboration with the Education Department's Grassroots Innovation Augmented Network (GIAN). This is slated to be a unique platform to appreciate and highlight teachers for their innovative, creative and out-of-the box teaching techniques. 

So, are all teachers from schools across the country included? What is the portal's next step? EdexLive speaks to Senior Innovation Fellow at Telangana State Innovation Cell, Samyuktha Ekkirala, to find out all the details.

"TSIC aims on what can be done by collaborating and by experimenting which allows kids to have more," explains Samyuktha. Sharing her experience, she says, "During COVID-19 times, teachers made sure that learning never stopped and this personally intrigued me. As teachers are the major stakeholders for education, sharing their innovative teaching methods on a big portal will inspire teachers in other regions to experiment the same." Hence, she believes that this platform will stand as the best place, serving to great understanding, experimenting and creative learning. 

Talking about the portal's launch, Samyuktha says, "it is not too fancy as it is simple and less intimidating to the teachers present there." She adds, "The District Education Officer (DEO), District Science Officer (DSO), teachers and all other officials were excited as it is the first of its innovative cells and they are curious to see how it's going to turn out," talking about their feedback on the initiative. 

What is the need for an innovation portal for teachers though, we wonder. And pat comes a reply from Samyuktha, "The need has always been there but no one talked about it." Recollecting her school days, she expresses how her schooling experience would have been better if the teaching patterns were 'simulating'. She cites the example of the London or Finland education system and says, "When you hear about them, you can't help but wonder why you couldn't experience that here."

"The idea is to see the beautiful mix of public and private institutions. But, as a pilot, we are only looking at public institutions like mandal parishads," she says. Talking about the languages portal has to offer, she says that it is available in English and Telugu and maybe six months down the line, Urdu may be included following the education department's decision.

Now that the innovation program has been launched, what's next? "A series of capacity building workshops and other workshops are going to be organised after a large orientation," says Samyuktha. These workshops make teachers aware of utilising 'innovation' as a tool of learning and teaching, other than viewing it from a science perspective. "The goal is to demystify parameters associated with innovation," she says, adding that, "These workshops are going to be held from the second week of May." 

The innovation portal will enable teachers to add more teaching techniques to their quiver. Allowing teachers to have hands-on experience with resources like sticks or clay models enables the portal to feature a cross-sharing platform for other teachers at various locations, says Samyuktha. "We cater to those teachers who contribute to making 'Ideathons', who share similar focus areas, think, explore and idealise different innovative teaching techniques."

The senior innovation fellow at TSIC insists there are many teachers from Telangana who were awarded by the National Innovation Foundation-India (NIF) for being innovative in teaching. Considering different journeys of teachers, she says that the portal also aims to bring their journeys into the limelight by organising workshops. 

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