While some problems in our current education system like providing the best of infrastructure, facilities for all-round development are manageable, some others like making learning itself less mundane and more personalized with individual attention is more often than not a herculean task. Personalized, adaptive learning is the current focus of academicians, the world over and it was also the focus of the workshop organized by Funtoot today. Every child is different in his\her learning speed and ability; butto every student irrespective of his\her capability, interest, IQ and attention span – we teach the same thing using exact same examples, same questionsin the same time frame, leading to learning deficit in children.
Panellists who included Mr. S M Salim (Deputy Commissioner, KVS), Mrs Sumathi Ravichander (Education Consultant), Mr. Murali Mukund (Chairman Jubilee Hills Public Schools), Mr. Janajit Ray (Principal, DRS), Mr. R S Khatri (Principal, Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet) and Mr. Rajeev Pathak (Founder and CEO, Funtoot) discussed as to how we can overcome this deficit and make every child reach his\her maximum potential.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Salim, said teaching should not be the priority, we have to create an environment of learning for a kid to have a meaningful learning experience. He said teacher can never be replaced by technology or teaching tools, they can only compliment the teacher; teacher is the only means to accomplish personalised learning, he emphasised. Mr Salim said, Government has been restricting itself to funding education in the country, instead it should also come out with an action plan, particularly with reference to teacher training, capacity building of teachers etc. Mr Janajit Ray said, the education today is dominated by exam oriented and adult centred teaching and not towards learning. Gurukul system which develops personality, skills, aptitude and attitude is appropriate to accomplish personalised learning, he added. Mr. R S Khatrin said, we are more interested in teaching and not making the student learn, he strongly advocated adoption of ‘Flip class’ concept, where a student comes prepared on the subject and discusses the same in the class, he said 80% students showed remarkable improvement in their studies through Flip class. Mr. Murali Mukund said, in India we emphasise on structured learning, therefore the minds of students are not oriented towards research. Mrs Sumathi wanted the students to be the focus and center of learning.
Rajeev Pathak, Founder and CEO, Funtoot said, “It is exhilarating to see the leading academicians in the country talking about the need of personalized learning in schools. For us, it has been a satisfying experience to see thousands of kids benefiting through deep personalized learning being imparted through Funtoot across many cities, towns and villages in India. Funtoot adapts to each student and enables learning in a way only one-on-one teaching can.”
About eDreams Edusoft : Funtoot (eDreams Edusoft Pvt. Ltd.) is a Bangalore based education technology company. Established in 2010, it is a team of highly experienced individuals. Funtoot is driven by innovations across technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, NLP and Speech processing. eDreams Edusoft were the winner of Bloomberg Pitch Award 2011-12; they were finalist at Marico Innovation Award 2012, and the flagship product Funtoot was also selected by Nasscom Social Innovation Foundation among the top 3 finalists for 2013. Currently company has presence across 20 cities and towns of India. Funtoot, observes, assesses, diagnoses, interacts, encourages and teaches each student based on individual characteristics. eDreams Edusoft aims at improving life of every student globally through student-centric disruptive technology innovations. The company has introduced this technology in hybrid cloud computing model and it can be used in schools and homes.
