Technology at ThinkZone
Technology has benefited each and every sector be it health or livelihood, agriculture or textile, or even education. The COVID-19 crisis has also shown us how much technology is important to us and the various ways it is changing lives. Technology has improved our lives significantly and has made it easier and convenient.
Education and Technology have prospered quite simultaneously. Davis Warlick said that “We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world”. But there is no doubt that technology can not replace a teacher, but in the hands of a teacher, it can make a classroom more fun and connected with the world. Believing in a similar philosophy, ThinkZone made use of technology to reach children from under-resourced communities. On this, one question pops up, ‘How do they get access to this technology?’. Let us discuss this.
ThinkZone works towards improving the educational outcomes of children from under-resourced communities using a ‘tech-plus-touch’ model and activity-based methodology. We do this by enabling community educators, Anganwadi workers, and school teachers to deliver quality early-grade education programs via data-driven mobile and voice/SMS based technology, low-cost learning resources, and class management tools.
Currently, ThinkZone has been providing quality education to more than 10000 children through various programs run by more than 400 educators. These programs are the Quality Learning Initiative in Anganwadi and School, T.I.M.E. Fellowship, LEAP, School Readiness Program, and Home-Based Learning Program. Let’s discuss how technology is integrated into each of these programs.
Teaching content: We believe that a classroom should be interactive and student-centric and that is a fundamental approach for all of our programs. For that to happen we encourage educators to follow the activity-based teaching methodology. We have provided our educators with the ThinkZone Mobile Application which contains interactive activities, plays, songs, and videos. Teachers go through an activity plan before going to class which contains a list of these resources required to teach a topic. The mobile application is designed in a way that it provides an easy flow for educators to move from topic to topic according to the levels set for children.
Training and Workshops: An integral part of all the programs is the training provided to the educators regularly. On a monthly basis, educators go through a mixture of online and online workshops which are conducted to support them in the implementation of the program, aid in technology, and help them learn new skills. This is followed by a training module on the mobile application that they have to visit on a regular basis. These skill development modules are to help them in their lives like 21st-century skills, entrepreneurship skills, etc.
Classroom Management: Educators have a list of things that they have to do in a classroom which helps in managing the education process. From simple things like attendance to assessments, the ThinkZone App helps educators in maintaining all of this very easily. Our programs provide education to children according to their learning levels i.e. not just according to which class they are in but according to how much they know. The mobile application helps provide educators a system where they can track the progress of children through these various assessments.
Offline Technology: Our programs help children in under-resourced communities get access to quality education through technology. However, the most common hurdle is access to the internet in rural areas. To overcome the hurdle, our mobile application provided to educators has offline features i.e. the teaching and learning content can be downloaded once and used later.
Through these various uses of technology, ThinkZone is providing support to educators while also providing them with the means to teach and learn effectively. ThinkZone’s Founder and CEO Binayak’s words would give you an overall idea of what technology means to the organization –
“One should know where and how to use technology which can make education accessible for not only one person or one organization, but everyone”
We are celebrating #TechAtThinkZone and as a part of it, we are sharing a lot of videos and images on social media explaining out tech. If you want to know more follow us on social media or watch these videos –
