“One of the biggest struggles that we have experienced at Billimoria is bringing in technology. May be a lot of school leaders will connect to that. Bringing in technology to teachers who have been doing things their own way for the last 15, 20 or 30 years is difficult. It’s difficult for them to keep up. We have to relate. We have to respect it. They want too. It’s not that they are challenging us,” said Aditi Goradia, Managing Director, Billimoria High School, Panchgani.
She was speaking at the inaugural session of 12th School Leadership Summit, Pune, which was held in May 2019. Along with her, other eminent personalities from the education industry also graced the inauguration ceremony.
Further, explaining her context on struggle around making teachers comfortable with technology, she said, “It’s like my classroom suddenly changes into smart board. But I am comfortable with chalk-and-talk method and also my students were doing well in the board exams. But it’s not about the boards anymore or exams, it’s about the world. The world has become such a small place that our kids need encouragement. They need our support and technology is a great way to do it.”
Sharing her experience with teachers at Billimoria, Goradia said, “One thing that I tell my teachers at Billimoria is to take five days of efforts. Five days of efforts to learn something new. Giving it that extra time after eight hours of classroom lectures with some extra effort leads to more learning and makes life easier.”
She also elaborated how the use of technology can make the lives easier and teaching a fun activity. “Technology is making our lives much easier as teaching a lesson from book, then on blackboard, then in smart class, then in AV room and then taking students outside ensure that they retain maximum of it at a faster pace. It also helps students to be inquisitive and ask 10 super challenging questions that even after being a teacher you don’t know how to answer them. However, when you figure out the answers, teaching becomes more fun than before,” she said.
Goradia also expressed her gratitude towards Elets Technomedia for providing a great platform – School Leadership Summit, for collaborating with schools across the country.
“Thank you so much for this platform for us to get together. We are collaborating because we have a common goal – quality education for our children. So be it STEM, technology or school management software, they will really help. We are getting there, there’s still a lot of confusion and there’s lot of challenges on how to on board things, what will work and what will not because everybody’s team is different. We are getting there and it is always going to be great for our children,” she concluded.