ICT in my classroom - a reflection

Good evening
Myself Suryaveer Singh Post Graduate Teacher taking Geography at S. D. Public School, Delhi, India. Before I write on my experiences of being an e teacher I would like to quote a small poem: -
“I am a counselor and psychologist to a problem-filled child,
I am a police officer that controls a child gone wild,
I am a travel agent, who takes a child to distant unseen places,
I am a confidante that wipes a crying child’s tear,
I am a banker, who collects thoughts of a child,
I am a librarian showing adventures that a storybook brings,
I am a custodian of child’s faith,I am a photographer seeing a child grow,
When mother and father are gone for the day, I become both,
I am a politician that must do tricks
I am a news reporter updating on our nation’s current events,
I am a detective solving small mysteries and ending all suspense,
I am a clown and comedian that make the children laugh,
I am a preacher when a child strays from values,
I am proud to be these people because…. “I’m a teacher”
Taken from Stacy Bonino
Geography as a subject
Geography is an observational subject which needs special skills to analyze and decipher information. During my teaching career I have realized that there is a general perception that the students in India lack interest in Social Science subject in general and History in particular. The reasons may be many and debated. The Geography as a subject is quite interesting but due to inability of analyzing and visualizing abstract and far away information, it turns out to be a bit difficult to understand and thus it creates a wide gaps between teaching and learning.
Before The advent of ICT in my classroom
Over the course of last 5 years, before I came to know about the role of ICT in education (that was in March, 2007), I use to spend many late nights in developing lessons summaries and Power Point presentations for the students the next day. And during day time in the school I spent most of my regular periods and zero hour periods in re-explaining the concepts which I delivered in the classroom. During those nights and days I realized that I did not get any time to study or re-learn. I was just spending my energies in re-explaining. Then I tried various teaching-learning methods/techniques of engaging students. Although these activities were beneficial but consumed my classroom time. I ran short of fulfilling my academic plans. I wanted to have some ways where I could reach up to each child individually and help them in developing observational skills.
After the Advent of ICT
But the help came from CII Shiksha programme. It was March, 2007 when we came to know about the e-learning through the first workshop held in our school. Then after we were introduced a new set of online and offline tools through workshops held in different schools of Delhi.Now, after knowing the utilities of open source free tools in education, my perception of teaching and learning has changed. ICT has proven it by helping my students in exploring the wonderful world around them. It has worked well and impacted the learning in the children. I think the days of purely relying on classroom model for teaching-learning are now a thing of the past. Now, the focus is on to have a blended approach to the teaching-learning process.Through it I wanted my students to migrate from passive learners to investigative learners. Give freedom to my students to access multiple sources for information/ knowledge instead of depending on just a single source of information. Install character of ‘doing’ and ‘thinking’ in groups. Maintain student’s attention, their attendance, curiosity and achievements in the activities and at the same time protect students from the web-based abuses.
The Last Academic year
The last academic year was full of happenings and event full. I created wiki pages called exploringgeography for class X students and it’s the place in the web where we collaborate together and learn and relearn the geography concepts. Similarly we have a blog called mygeographylearning for class XII students where we share and research knowledge. Students do investigations and gather multiple information to supplement the class room teaching-learning processes. I have also created many offline study material on eXe where I have used mind maps, flash, animation done on different software, voice using audacity, etc. We are learning and sharing through technologies and it all has given us a fulfilling experience. We are now well connected with the students and the world.
I would like to give thanks to every one who supported me through this year and CII Shiksha in particular and Mr. Narinder Bhatia my guide for empowering me.
What next
I have been a bit low recently (which does not go with me and it's very unlike me) just because one thing is bothering me. There is something missing in the manner it has been integrated. I see not many students have computer at home, forget about the broadband connection. It has been very difficult to convince the parents to allow students to use computers at family friend’s home or cyber cafe. Infrastructure at home and school is something to be looked seriously. Still I have stored many things for this year. First of them is using Google Earth, Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentation, and new offline tools.