It is not easy to find passionate educators!
But today, we are happy to speak to one such educator Mr. Dheeraj Mehrotra who has made his entry in the Limca Book of Records for developing the most number of educational applications. Here’s what he had to share about his journey!
1. Congratulations on your entry in Limca Book of Records! What motivated you to develop educational apps? How did this journey begin?
I was motivated by the special mention of our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, about a Teacher from ALWAR, RAJASTHAN who had made about 60 Mobile Apps, during one of his visits to USA last year. This journey began just after that motivation which I received and I decided to dedicate some of my Apps for the purpose of Education. I wish to promote Quality Literacy for all towards each and every student rather an individual in India.
2. How many and what kind of educational apps have you developed?
It is over an year that I have made over 150 plus mobile applications for topics covering Classroom Management Skills for Teachers to School Management Strategies for School Leaders. Learning Java Programming for School Children, Learning Tips, Quotes for the Day, NLP in Academics, Six Sigma In Education, Computer Science Expertise for Teachers, New Age Teaching Skills, Tutorials for programming in C++, Java and BlueJ as I have been a Computer Teacher by choice over last two decades.
3. What according to you should be the major change in schools in the 21st century?
What is required is a thought among the School Leaders and Teachers today to Make QUALITY learning a habit rather than an occasional occurence for the students. Schools need to monitor learning as a priority for students today are learning by themselves over WWW i.e. Whatever, Whenever and Wherever in totality, giving a surprise element to the teachers who are no longer the sages on the stage but just an operator in particular. Schools need to explore learning via participation of this google generation as Knowledge Curators themselves rather than teaching one on many. It is quite faithful of the thought that We Cannot teach the way were taught for the season has changed and has paved a NEW AGE in particular.
4. What according to you is the biggest obstacle in technology adoption in classrooms?
The biggest obstacle according to me is the LACK OF INTEREST AND FEARFUL ATTITUDE OF THE TEACHERS in incorporating TECH within schools. They are lacking TRAINING and knowledge of Technology and hence are at the back seat with reference to usage of Technology.
What schools need to do is to orient them with New Age ITC expertise and develop their ORM (Online Reputation Management) via encouraging them to develop their CLOUD presence.
As a National Teacher Awardee, I feel that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn, quotes: Alvin Toffler, Writer”, is a true explanation to the today’s scenario of Academics in particular. What we need is a different mindset and be on our toes to promote KAIZEN, the Japanese concept of Quality Improvement both at work and at homes, towards Learning to Learn be as a hobby rather than an occasional occurence.
5. What are your tips to the school teachers for embracing technology in their classrooms and preparing the students for the 21st century?
I would like to recommend every teacher to have a good cloud presence via his own SCRIBD documents, SLIDE SHARE contributions and websites via FREE website creating objects at pace. For me every teacher needs the ONLINE Presence and GOOGLE counts so as to impress the audience of the TECH CANDY generation as mandatory requirements.
6. Which educational tools would you recommend for both teachers and educational leaders?
I would suggest tools by choice of their ease. Certainly the best lots are webs.com for developing free websites, Twitter.com for their tweets, youtube.com for their video uploads, slideshare.com for uploading their presentations, scribd.com for their uploads related to content of any choice to share for downloads by the children. In addition GOOGLE APPS are a good platform for sharing online information sharing and communicating.
7. With your experience in use of technology in education, can you share what works for a school?
What works:
8. Can you share some of the key insights for today’s educators based on your experience of training teachers and school leaders?
An educator today has to have the pace of SELF LEARNING as one of his expertise. A teacher can not teach without learning. The new age educator has to have FREEDOM to LEARN and explore through his students, colleagues and the society. As a matter of fact it is true to the world that the teachers are no longer the sole imparters of knowledge but they need to empower the students to learn at pace and at their leisure through personal learning networks keeping their special traits of talents and interests. The teachers just don’t end up after the class is over but on the jolt for 24 hours around the cyber linkage or social networks further. There is no wall now or the boundary of learning. The innovative educator has to evolve a personal learning network for his or her improvement first. Not only this, it has to reach to the students as well where in there is no boundary of limitation in a big way. It is a way to build ones’ own classroom and one’s own network of learning. The change or the shift here is that we can connect around and share ideas which is not so in the one to many mode of classroom learning.
