Rupesh Kumar Shah,
CEO, InOpen Technologies
Educators are not focussing on the child’s innate capability of learning on his own
Computer Science is considered to be a skill based subject in schools. In 2006, a team of professors from IIT Bombay started a research on the subject of, “How to Teach Computer Science in Schools.” Following the interesting facts that emerged out of the research, we thought of creating a model curriculum around our research.
We talk about tablets and digital education, but what about the actual use of technology? If we look at the current scenario, children at a very young age are exposed to technology. But educators are not using the innate capacity of a child to learn on his own. Instead we tell them to do it and we miss out on telling them how to do it. With the popularity of Internet, there is a lot of content available. Computer Masti started by IIT Bombay has a very sound and constructivist curriculum.
Besides applications, the content focuses on thinking skills, stepwise thinking, and logical reasoning. It helps the child to develop the capacity of clear thinking. It also helps in the execution of day-to-day tasks by using technology in a step wise manner. The content is being used by almost 3 lakh students across 125 schools. The bottom line is that if we focus on building concepts in Computer Science, learning and skills will automatically follow.
