Chandigarh, January 29
A seminar on ‘English Language Training’,
where resources on the Internet were explored, concluded with the launch
of a website, Indiamagic.com, created by participants here today. The
10-day seminar was organised by the British Council and Hornby Trust India
in the Sector 26 Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Management.
“The website is a joint effort of the participants under the guidance
of resource persons Ms Meera Balchandran and Mr Graeme Reid,” said Ms
Ruchi Dahiya of St Kabir School, a participant. The website includes
modules to teach poetry and prose.
“When we came here, we did not even know how to surf the Internet,”
said Ms Harpreet of the Sector 45 St Stephen’s, “but now, we are confident
of handling the computer and exploring the IT resources for the benefit of
our students.”
Ms Monika Chopra, Ms Tajwinder and Ms Bharti, teachers in three
government schools of the city, say, “Earlier, we did not even know how to
use a mouse, but now, we have learnt it.” They say, “The seminar taught us
that it did not require a computer to teach students well.”
Regarding the relevance of the course in India, a resource person, Mr
Graeme Reid, a Barcelona-based media designer who runs an online language
school, streamadelica.com, said, the course had been designed considering
that most government schools did not have computers in classrooms.
Students could use it even without the aid of computer.
“The seminar was aimed at teaching teachers the technicalities of the
IT,” said Mr Reid. “The first few days were spent in creating hunger for
learning computers, after which, participants were given “the food” that
they digested in the last few days of the seminar,” he said.
Mr Sushant Banerjee, Manager of the British Council Library, who gave
away certificates to participants, said the seminar was only the beginning
of a big learning process and the British Council would continue to hold
such seminars. Mr D.S. Saroya, chief guest at the concluding session,
stressed the need for incorporating the IT in teaching modules.
