Day 1

Topics: Introduction - Objectives - Job Description

At 8:50 am, I opened my MS Teams to find 3-4 meeting links. But it wont take long to identify the correct link, the one posted by our trainer Sir Nisar Dahri. After joining, came to know these extra links are causing a lot of trouble for participants. This caused an unnecessary delay in opening session of our training. Our trainer has rightly repeated several times, all the participants have to practice MS Teams. As I have the experience as MS Teams Trainer and had conducted online classes during pandemic, I did not find it too much difficult. But still many new features have been added in Teams since then which are to be practiced now. Our trainer was practicing those tools and this has become a practical aspect of our learning.

The session started with a short tilawat after which Registration form was posted in Assignment tab. The form was opened and filled easily. Trainer then shared a padlet link for introduction purpose. I could not find the link in General Tab and so do others and this caused a slight disturbance among participants, the link was shared again in the chat box from where everyone was able to open it. As I have the experience of using padlet in online classes, I did not find any difficulty in giving my introduction. All participants in no time learn to access and use padlet. Through this we got the chance to know each other. I also got a downloaded pdf copy of padlet wall.

Pre-Test was posted as our next assignment. This time questions were mainly based on pedagogical knowledge and forced me to think hard about my B.Ed contents. As test was in MCQs form, with few guesses I completed the task and was happy to get 24 correct answers out of 30 although I understand the purpose of Pre Test is to measure the learning outcomes of training when the same concepts will be asked in Post Test.

The trainer then displayed objectives of this PITE Training. One by one he discussed briefly about each objective. Going through the objectives, it was realized that although I have recently completed my B.Ed training but such trainings refreshed our knowledge and provide a motivation to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice.

Our trainer then displayed the list of departments and their functions, working in collaboration with Sindh Education and Literacy Department. A sense of pride encircles me as I consider myself to be a part of this hierarchy and got the intimation of working according to the policy guidelines provided by department. Mr Nisar also shared the curriculum for Computer Science developed in 2018. I was surprised how we have never got the chance to access such documents. From general to specific objectives of each and every topic is documented and this will surely help me in developing my lesson plans in future.

Next activity was an interesting one, teaching us yet again to reflect on whatever we are practicing. Sir Dahri though has shared it in assignment form but to make the class more interactive, he shared another padlet link to express the Hopes and Worries related to this training. This time participants felt more comfortable to express their feelings through padlet wall. For me it was worth learning as I can watch other participants' concerns also. This collaborative learning platform proved to be an essential tool for online learning.

The trainer then initiated a discussion over Profession vs Occupation. Participants without raising hands started the conversation, making it uncomfortable to listen. Distortion in sounds make it difficult to participate in the discussion so I felt safer to message my understanding through Chat Box. This issue remained consistent throughout the training discussions but hopefully the issue will be resolved in coming days as participants will get used to MS Teams.

reflective practice approach was used by our trainer by asking 5 questions including Why I chose this profession to what the challenges are and how I can overcome these challenges. This activity could be the best part of whole training but once again participants' lack of practice of Teams makes it less interesting. The overall environment was not effective to think and reflect properly on these questions. I answered 1-2 questions in chat box. These questions might also be more interactive if we used padlet wall or white board instead of open discussion. 

Our last but the most important topic of today's training was Job Description of IT Teachers. Our trainer first discussed difference of Job Description and Job Specifications. In this open discussion, I once again prefer to participate through chat box. Reading through different points in the chat box, the differences were clear in my mind.

After lunch, to enhance our understanding of 'Job Description', we participated in the most interesting activity of whole day. In fact I was anticipating to take part in 'break out room' tool in Teams. Some participants found it difficult to understand and could not join their room. The room I was assigned was Room 4 where our group comprise of 11 participants. At first the same discussion problem arises. Language was also a barrier in the group activity. I indicated twice to my group mates to use Urdu or English for discussion. Sir Dahri acting as facilitator, visited our room and help us to remain focused on our task. One of our group members took the leading role and took the responsibility of creating the PowerPoint slide. We shared various points via chat box. As he was unable to share his PowerPoint, we were not able to see what was designed for presentation. But through our interaction, we have collected quite a few points related to our topic. Discussion over the topic at length make me think about my own practices as teacher, which in some areas kept behind my job description while in some other I have become part of practices which were not expected from me as IT Teacher. I have planned to list down all my practices and will prioritize my tasks according to my job description.

Due to shortage of time, presentations and topic of reflective practices could not be covered and as I was reflecting, I would consider lack of practice of Teams as the main reason of our shortcomings. To improve this problem, I would try to practice Teams and other apps provided by our trainer. I would also try to skim through the main activities and content of tomorrow's session so that unnecessary and useless discussion would be avoided.