How to get started on educatorslog.in?

You have just logged in using the invitation you were sent or through the Sign in box on the top right of the educatorslog.in main page, and been directed to the CONNECT area of the site. So, what next? read more

What can I expect to find at educatorslog.in?

educatorslog.in is an online forum, designed as a community forum (or blog), which is driven by the contributions of those interested in education in India. In other words, the content on educatorslog.in comprises of contributions made by the visitors to the site. People visiting the site may contribute to the content by describing a classroom experience, posing a question to the community, sharing a resource that may be useful to other teachers in India or an opinion or commentary on the significant issue of Indian education, or even commenting on other users' contributions.

Although the site does not place any explicit restrictions on what users may contribute, the underlying themes must stay within the broad umbrella of education in India. In other words, educatorslog.in is intended to be the first and largest online forum aimed to bring together voices of those who are involved in education in India, be it a school teacher, a rural district education officer, a policymaker at NCERT, a college principal, a head of department of a university, or simply, a parent.

What is an elog?

A blog post/entry on the educatorslog.in is called an elog (pronounced "e-log").

What is Connect @ educatorslog.in and how can I use this space?

The main space here is for reading, writing and commenting on elogs.

CONNECT is your space to express your views/suggestions/questions/opinions on any and every issue related to education in our country. Through doing this you will also be able to connect with others involved in and concerned about the field of education in India – teachers, administrators, school heads, policymakers, and parents. In the true spirit of a community, this is where you can ask for and provide help, advice and information to others working towards educating millions of children, youth and adults in India.

elogs may be categorized by themes and may even be tagged. Please be sure to choose the “Reviews” theme (along with any others that apply) when you are reviewing an educational product or service in your elog, and the "Conferences/Seminars" theme to post any information on an upcoming conference or seminar or event for educators.

Can I post a review of an educational product that I have used?

Certainly! Educators are encouraged to share their experiences of educational products and services that they may have used or seen or read or experienced. You may review-
* Books
* Text books
* Software
* Toys & Games
* Educational programs/courses
* Schools

What is Share @ educatorslog.in and what can I do in this space?

Let us make teaching a less isolated activity than it is for most teachers! Think of how you can help other teachers or be helped by other teachers in your country.

If you’ve come across or used a resource that you think will be helpful to other teachers and educators in India, share it with your educatorslog.in community. This could be a link to a website, an article, a magazine, a lesson plan that you may have found or authored yourself, an audio or video or other media file, a book or even information about an individual or organization working in the education space in India who could help. On the flip side, if you’re planning a lesson or a unit or topic, look for resources here posted by other teachers here.

By virtue of being posted by other teachers in India, these resources are likely to be more useful to your teaching practice than those posted by teachers from other countries on the hundreds of other websites maintained by teachers and educators around the world.

Do keep in mind to categorize (by subject and grade) and tag (with keywords) the resources you submit to aid better organization, browsing and searching.

Help each other as a true community of practitioners!

What is Grow @ educatorslog.in?

educatorslog.in would also like to showcase truly inspiring teachers, schools, school leaders, organizations and their work. In a profession with few overt rewards, let us members of the educatorslog.in community recognize good work and best practices, and share it among others in our country. If you are proud of some lesson/unit you have taught or an article you have written about your work, we would like to encourage you to submit it to us. The next educatorslog.in spotlight may deservedly be on you, your school or your organization!

Professional growth and development is essential for every profession, and teaching is certainly no exception!

In addition to traditional (pre-service) teacher education B.Ed. programs, new programs, online and otherwise, are being offered to help in-service teachers improve their teaching practice and grow as professionals. Newer pre-service programs are also being offered today to better prepare teachers for the challenges of teaching in the 21st century. Find out about such opportunities at educatorslog.in.

Institutions and organizations may contact the team at educatorslog.in with the relevant information about their programs so that we can add the information to this section of this community portal. Help us serve the educator community in India and its growth.

What is educatorslog.in intended to achieve?

In one word – COMMUNITY. Teaching is largely an isolated activity, and educatorslog.in would like to help change that for educators in India. There are good teaching practices being followed in pockets around the country, but how does a teacher share his exemplary work or find out about what others are doing? There are individuals with sound ideas about education in our country – do they all have a space to voice them?

Educatorslog.in is intended to provide a universal platform to aid the process of bringing together those involved in education in India. Thus far, no agency or entity has attempted to bring the voices of Indian educators in one open forum. Every Indian educator or parent will be free to air thoughts, comments, opinions and experiences for everyone and anyone to see and react to.

In true spirit of community, educatorslog.in also provides a means of sharing of resources that are contextually relevant to teachers and teaching in India.

How will indian educators/parents like me benefit from educatorslog.in?

How does belonging to a community benefit someone? Consider the following scenarios-

• You are a teacher who would like to deliver exciting lessons that promote good learning as well, but you would like ideas on how to do it. Browse for resources contributed by other teachers here at educatorlog.in.
• You have written an article on your experiences as a teacher, but do not know where to get it published (in the absence of good, non-academic magazines on education in India). Put it up here as an eLog or submit it to be showcased in “Teacher/School Spotlight”
• You are a school principal trying to find volunteers for a school for urban poor that you are running. Post your request here.
• You are a new teacher of environmental studies for Std. 11 and would like to see if any teacher has submitted any resources on the topic for that grade. Search for it here in the educatorslog.in resource repository.
• You are a parent troubled by the amount of homework your child is getting. Share your thoughts here and connect with other parents and teachers who can offer some ideas or suggestions.
• You are a policymaker and would like to solicit the opinion of the educator community in India about an educational policy that you would like to table for review or revision. Do it here on the one common forum that brings together all educators in India.
• You are board member of a school that is in the process of expanding, and would like to weigh the pros and cons of various Boards Exams that you could offer in your school. Solicit ideas and opinions of other school leaders here.
• You are a district education officer who is unhappy with the nature of training in the DIETs. Voice your opinion here and see if there are others who share your view. Perhaps your collective voice here will influence higher authorities in your state to listen up.
• You are a teacher who would like to be trained on how to use computers and technology in your teaching. You’d like to find out about professional development programs in your city or online that you can sign up for. Browse through the in-service teacher education programs listed in Grow @ educatorslog.in.
• You are a corporate working in the field of education in India and would like to announce an event that you are organizing to launch your new product. Post your announcement here.

What is the difference between the 3 portions of this portal?

The actions in CONNECT, SHARE & GROW differ based on the big ideas that drive them. CONNECT is essentially the free-format community blog. The main actions here are-
- Reading and commenting on elogs
- Submitting new elogs
- Creating or joining existing communities or “groups”

SHARE is essentially the resource repository. The main actions here are-
- Browsing and searching for existing resources
- Submitting new resources
- Submitting work/articles/stories to be showcased

GROW is an informational section of the site with information on and links to various opportunities for Indian teachers for professional growth and education/training.

What are some examples of elogs?

An eLog could be just about anything that you’d like to voice or air as long as it is in the realm of education in India. For example,

- You could be a teacher writing about your teaching – a narrative of a classroom experience or an issue you’d like to throw open for discussion or a question you’d like to ask of your peers-at-large in India.
- You feel a poem in the ICSE syllabus is inappropriate for 15 year-olds. Post your opinion here, and perhaps you’ll find enough strength in voices of others who share your opinion to influence the Board to review the syllabus.
- A parent with a child caught up in the tuition racket could write to seek advice.
- A policymaker could use the power of a collective open vote to help make policy decisions that affect millions of Indian children’s lives.
- India Today writes a cover story in the state of education in India. What is your reaction to it as an educator?
- You come across an article that you feel like sharing with other teacher/educators. Post you link here at educatorslog.in and share it with other teachers in India.
- You’d like to share your view on the use of technology in teaching – for connecting students with teachers or groups of teachers. Educatorslog.in gives you the space to do this.

What are some examples of resources I could share or find at educatorslog.in?

You may share any resource that in your opinion could be of use to other teachers or anyone involved in the field of education in India. The emphasis is on sharing resources that are contextually relevant to schools in India and hence useful to a teacher in India (which excludes resources such as a link to workshop being held in a museum in California for schools in that area or a lesson plan authored by a teacher in Australia which cannot be used in the Indian classroom setting). For example, it could be -

- A teaching tip in narrative form
- A link to a web site that is useful for teaching a certain specific topic or is a general website with useful teaching resources
- A web link to a blog or article that, in your view, may be beneficial for teachers
- A file that contains a lesson plan or an activity that can be used by other teachers
- An image file that is a good teaching resource
- An audio/video/animation (flash) file which can be used in the classroom for teaching
- A tutorial to learn a new software tool that teachers could use.
- Information about an organization or an individual conducting workshops or special programs for schools/children
- A link to a publishing house website that is producing a magazine that is aimed at teachers or children or schools
- Information about an educational software that you have tried successfully in your classroom

Appropriate tagging of resources with relevant keywords would aid easy browsing and searching.

What are the different ways to be part of the educatorslog.in community?

You may contribute to Educatorslog.in in a myriad of ways:

• You may pose a simple query to the entire Educatorslog.in community, or you may post a commentary on something you have an opinion about, or you may offer advice or cautionary information to the community so that they benefit from some specific experience or knowledge that you may have on some topic, or you may share an information/article on something relevant, or you may post a review of an educational product or service that you have purchased or you may announce an event relevant to Indian teachers or educators.
• You may also respond to queries, comments or opinions offered by other Indian educators/parents on this forum.
• You may form groups around education topics of your interest. These groups may be open or moderated.
• You may create a closed group for your school community that will keep conversations and discussions private to the members of the community.
• You may simply wander around the web site and read what millions of Indians have to say
• You may share resources related to education & teaching with other educators and parents in India
• You may browse for resources that exist in the educatorslog.in repository courtesy other educators who have shared them here.

Really, there are no restrictions other than the conscious need to stick to the issue of education in India and to keep this forum free of profanity and abuse.

Do i have to write something in order to use educatorslog.in, or can i merely search for and read what others have contributed?

You do not have to contribute to educatorslog.in in order to use it. You are welcome to simply browse the contributions of others and/or search for resources that may be relevant to you. We provide several rich features that would allow you to easily find what millions of other educators have shared on a particular topic or issue or anything else of interest to you. Alternatively, you may also pose a question or request for specific information from the rest of the Educatorslog.in community on any subject of interest to you.

What does it cost me to use educatorslog.in and its facilities?

It costs you nothing – educatorslog.in and all its features and facilities are completely free.

How does educatorslog.in display information?

The educatorslog.in Connect & Share home pages list all the postings and contributions of users in reverse-chronological order (i.e. most recent first. Additionally, any user may easily filter what you view by selecting a theme that is relevant to you.

Can I conceal my identity on educatorslog.in?

Sure, you can. In general, we encourage everyone to feel free to use his or her true identity on Educatorslog.in, since the big idea is to create a community of educators in India. This will also increase the credibility of the Educatorslog.in community as a whole with time. However, for some reason, should you wish to 'cloak' yourself for one or more or all contributions we will certainly not stand in the way. Our priority is to facilitate the open and credible expression of educator opinions and experiences.

However, if a user posts any sensitive and incriminating contribution, then our independent moderators would insist on verifying the contents and identity of the contributor.

Can I edit an elog after I have submitted it?

Yes, you can edit an elog after the fact. If you are logged in, then clicking on any post - elog or resource or question - that you have submitted should show up with 2 tabs - view and edit. Clicking on the edit tab, takes you to the same form you used to submit the post. You can then edit the title or text or tags or other preferences, and re-submit.

A word of caution here -- If other members of the educatorslog.in community have already read and commented on, or provided answers for, your post, then please respect the dialogue and refrain from making changes that would make their responses or answers lose context. In such a case, may we suggest that you post a comment to your elog and provide a clarification that can serve as an edited version of your original post.