Digitising the CPD programme will not only help teachers keep a track of their skills and knowledge, it will benefit students too, says Abhishek Kumar
Teachers shape the future of students. They teach, engage, collaborate and inspire in more than one way. In the words of Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai, “One book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.” Rightly so, the role that a teacher plays in a larger transformation of children is enormous.
However, a teacher’s professional development often goes overlooked. Apart from teaching students, the only learning they receive is the discussion with their peers in the staff room. Though they receive workshops occasionally but they are rarely personalised to meet their demands.
Well, this is precisely where CPD (Continuing Professional Development), comes into the picture. It is a process of tracking and recording the skills, knowledge and experience that a teacher has gained formally and informally. This learning is beyond their initial training within an institution. It keeps the track of what a teacher experiences, learns and also how s/he applies them. Conventionally, it refers to the physical file or folder that contains the information about the development of an educator. Some organisations use this term while referring to a training or development plan, which some argue is not accurate.
Usually, the professional development of a teacher remains in the paper trail. They show their CPD improvement to receive promotions. However, if there has been no progress in terms of skills, there is no enhancement in their student training as well. This in turn means that there is no effective improvement in classroom learning, which needs to change.
A lot of schools have started following it, and now I think it is the time to digitise these programmes. Doing so will not only unleash a teacher’s true potential, it will also benefit the students. Well, thanks to our advances in digital technology, this can be done without much hassle. Today, using video analytics has empowered us to automate regular processes with immaculate precision. Video-analytics-based systems can be deployed within classrooms to reflect on the performance of a teacher. It can analyse everything right from their body language to the overall classroom engagement. It paves the way for live and on-demand, of the class when needed. It also enables the designated mentor to easily add flags, comments and events to a video and assist teachers in searching and navigating the content. Further, it can help teachers identify their shortfalls and work on them.
Such advanced solutions are the need of the hour. It goes without saying that teachers play a critical role in the holistic development of a student. So, their own career progress and skill development have a direct impact on their pupils' learning. Thankfully, we have these tech-driven solutions as the next logical step towards teacher training and continuous development.
(The writer is regional director, ONVU Learning, ONVU Technologies.)
