Ms. Priyanka Mahani (Assistant Professor, ECS) along with Mrs. Dimple Saproo (Associate Professor, ECE) and Mr. Vijender Hooda (Associate Professor, IT) from Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon attended a Microsoft Technology Enriched Instruction Workshop conducted by “Microsoft” at GD Goenka University on 17th November 2014.

The objectives of the workshop were to provide participants broader awareness and understanding of the technologies and digital resources that can positively impact teaching and learning; familiarity and experience with TPACK and 21st Century Learning Design; and hands-on practice with tools to integrate appropriate pedagogy with technological tools.

During the workshop the participants were trained through various activities like building familiarity with key tools, introduction to the workshop challenge,tools for organizing and collaborating, Changing conditions of teaching and learning, 21st Century Learning Design; TPACK (Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge) and TEI TPACK game; Pulling it all together; Going public and evaluating the results; Wrap up and workshop evaluation etc.

The event began with welcome by Mr. Rajiv Arora, Director, Product Marketing, Microsoft followed by an address by Ms Shivani Sahai from Microsoft who introduced contents of the workshop.

Dr. Raj Singh, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, G.D. Goenka University, Gurgaon declared the workshop open. The Keynote Speakers were Dr. Jonathan Cohen, Assistant Professor, Learning Technologies Division, Georgia State University’s College of Education and Dr. Robin Angotti, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Washington. During discussion they emphasized on economic conditions, mature technology and digital students of today.

The next activity talked of the various tools of collaboration like: Yammer, Padlet and OneNote. Padlet – Padlet is an easy-to-use, no-registration-required tool for sharing information and ideas in a whiteboard format. Yammer is for social networking and collaboration. OneNote is significant for sharing and saving the data or study material in One Drive. Through some other relevant activities the participants learnt the role of teacher in the present era. The activities were helpful in understanding of innovative teaching practices; barriers and remedies of teaching in the 21st century.

The workshop was very useful as the participants learnt various innovative approaches for making the classes more interesting and out-put oriented.