Inspiration
Teacher Digitalises Study Content in Local Language For Grade 1 & 2
Shivraj Sanmani, a teacher from Karnataka, is being appreciated widely for his efforts to digitalise his primary classroom’s content in Kannad for his students
Shivraj Sanmani, a 32-year-old teacher from Sedam in Karnataka, is one of the many one-teacher school educators in the state. He teaches around 13 children of the Lambani tribe in a two-room school. Recently, his efforts for his students were appreciated by fellow educators in the Ed-tech field.
Shivraj is digitalising the Nali Kali content for his class 1 & 2 students and hence, making it easier for them to learn Kannad, their local language. He says, "The Nali Kali content that has been digitalised not only help kids read Kannada words and sentences but they can write without too many mistakes."
These kids belong to a tribe (Lambani) that lives in various pockets of North Karnataka. Talking about them, Shivraj says, "The children belonging to Lambani families either speak their mother tongue or Telugu because places like Kalaburgi and Raichur share a border with Andhra Pradesh. Hence it was getting difficult for me to teach even the basic names of animals, fruits and vegetables in Kannada. Every time, I'd download pictures from the internet, showed it to them and taught them the names in Kannada. However, the kids ended up forgetting it. That's when I thought of digitalising the content so that the kids can learn by watching and listening."
Shivraj is no IT expert, he had to strive a lot to make these videos. He used to initially download pictures and names in Kannad (text) and speak them out for his students in the video. Earlier he would upload the videos on YouTube but he realised that YT had too many advertisements and they were not helping his students.
He then moved to the Unacademy app. He explains, "The app is so sensitive that the place in which we record a video must be absolutely silent. A little noise in our surroundings will also get recorded along with the audio. Hence, I used to travel to the outskirts of the city and record in a silent place. Sometimes, I would record when everybody slept. Those days, I did not feel it was too much of work. Now, when I look back at those days, I feel happy that I worked hard to make learning easy for kids."
His videos are entertaining and extremely educational to not just his students but other kids too, even adults who are looking to learn Kannad. He explains, "The duration of each video depends on the content available for that particular chapter. While some videos are 8 minutes long, others run up to 15 minutes. Even if a child spends 10 months watching these videos, then they can easily read a Kannada book or a novel. These videos are useful for probationary government officials who have to learn and write Kannada compulsorily. Some people have commented that the videos helped them a lot in gaining a basic knowledge of Kannada."
Shivraj’s efforts are proving useful for his students who are learning to read and write without mistakes. Digitalisation of education is the way forward and teachers like Shivraj are helping India realise this mission.
Source: Edexlive