NGO Planet

Harish and the big boys

Operation Shanti Volunteers — 06:02, Monday, 07 May 2012

Three of our oldest boys, Sreenivas, Harish, and Manikanta, spent the school year at a residential school. They returned to KM in April for a short summer vacation, and during that time volunteered at our neighbors, People for Animals. PFA is a not-for-profit animal shelter that cares for homeless and handicapped animals, and currently houses over 200 dogs, a handful of cats, parrots, four beautiful eagles, a monkey, rabbits, horses and donkeys, and a couple of little piggies.

At PFA, the boys learned how to feed and clean the animals, and also helped the veterinarian with procedures in the operating room. The boys loved their summer internship and everyone at PFA enjoyed their efforts.

Manikanta with a white doggie cooling off on the wet sidewalk.

Harish and Manikanta just returned to school this week, and Sreenivas will also head back in a month. Here's what Harish wrote about his time at PFA:

Although Harish still has a few English grammar rules to learn (!), we have to remember that he has basically been in school for only four years. He started in 1st grade (at the age of 9), skipped to third grade (at the age of 11), then skipped to fifth grade (at the age of 13), and just finished up 9th grade (age 15), in the Kannada language.

Sreenivas and Harish, getting ready to feed the dogs (rice, egg, milk).

Findings from Evaluation of Dell Connected Classrooms

DElight — 01:41, Monday, 30 April 2012

Background

The American India Foundation has been implemented in 15 Dell Connected Classroom (DCC), which is one of the most fascinating ICT set-up for students and teachers. The evaluation of the program was undertaken by EZ Vidya and findings from the report are discussed below.

For evaluation, a total of 12 schools were selected of which, 6 were from Delhi (5 DCC schools & 1 non-DCC school) and 3 schools each ( 2 DCC & 1 non-DCC ) from Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

The evaluation methodology was based on two group control design, as this approach enables one to segregate the influence of intervention on the treatment or experimental group (DCC schools), vis-s-vis non-treatment or the control group (non-DCC schools). The average sample size comprised of approximately 250 students in each of the groups (experimental & control).

Result highlights

The pretest and post test scores of both the groups yielded interesting pattern

a. Performance in competency tests in 3 subjects - English, mathematics & science were based on their syllabus, logical and higher order thinking. The experimental group improved its performance in Science (from baseline to end line). However in English and Mathematics, the scores of both the groups declined at end line.

b. The gender wise analysis of performance indicates that boys performed better in Mathematics and Science whereas girls excelled in English.

c. Teachers and students were also evaluated on various technology parameters and respective scores indicated that the experimental group scores improved in all the technology parameters but one (teacher internet usage).

d. Attendance rates improved significantly in Dell Connected Classroom schools and no improvement was seen in the control group schools.

e. Teachers and school heads observed an increase in student participation and collaboration in the DCC classrooms.

Challenges

Transfer of trained teachers, a very high number of students per class/section, less than 3 months gap between the baseline & end line evaluation aere some of the major challenges encountered during evaluation. To overcome these challenges, the recommendations emphasized the ownership & internalization of the program by schools, more time for practice (both for teachers & students), content-creation for supplementing the existing repository , training of teachers & facilitators.

The results indicate that Dell Connected Classroom has had a positive impact on science competency in students and as compared to the control groups, the Dell Classrooms have shown significant improvement in teacher and students’ general familiarity with technology.The teachers are confident that DCC would help them acquire new teaching skills which they can use in the classrooms. The school heads and the teachers felt that the DCC program was very beneficial, especially to the lower income group students, who otherwise would not have access to computers or technology.

Review - Dell Connected Classrooms in Government School in Delhi

DElight — 23:32, Sunday, 29 April 2012

Deputy Director(Education) with Principals' & teachers

Presentation by students

The Dell connected classrooms were implemented in 5 Government schools in Delhi. various reasons caused the delay in implementation but once labs became functional, in November 2011, teachers were trained on operational aspect. With unwavering support from Government Officials, Principals & teachers, within a matter of three months not only were teachers taking classes in DCC but also encouraged students to take up projects.

On 20^th April 2012, the first review of theses 5 Dell Connected Classrooms was held in Ishani Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya , Saket. Attended by the Principals and teachers of all five schools, the meeting was presided over by the Deputy Director (South), Mrs. Anita Satia.

The project presentation by students and experiences shared by teachers provided insight as to how the program has influenced, both teachers and students, positively. The enthusiasm with which teachers and students participated, elicited support from the Deputy Director who opined that “If children could be further trained during the summer camp, the efficacy of intervention will increase multifold”. The DCC has created a lot of excitement and as per the observation of Mrs. Saroj Gupta, Principal (SKV, Green Park extn) "I have observed that students are very attentive in DCC and have become regular in coming to the school".