Volunteering with Pratham

Throughout the 21^st century, technology has been greatly advanced due to innovation and design.  From the development of laptops to mobile phones to smart watches, these groundbreaking discoveries have helped to revolutionize society from a global aspect.  Despite these advancements, many people in other areas across the world lack basic computer skills.  Due to my strong desire to teach in my ancestral country, I aspired to help children in India gain a better understanding of modern-day technology.

Upon researching various community programs to make a meaningful contribution in India, I came across Pratham, a volunteer-driven institution that helps students who have not had the opportunity to study in proper academic settings.  Pratham’s mission statement is “every child in school and learning well – drives our focus to make an impact on the lives of India’s children and extends from our leadership to our team in the field”.  After learning about the impact of various programs that Pratham has to offer, I decided to collaborate with Pratham to help children obtain basic skills in computer software applications.  Through my involvement with Pratham, I taught students basic computer skills, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Internet browsing, and functions such as Facebook and Email, to thirty students between ages 8-12 in New Delhi.

Before I began teaching, I wanted the students to become comfortable with me as an instructor, and therefore my initial goal was to break the language barrier that existed between us.  Initially, it was difficult for the students to understand me due to my English accent.  I began the first day by reading a short novel to the class and asked the students basic questions after each page.  At the end of the novel, I compiled a list of vocabulary words and reviewed the definitions with the students.  By the end of the class, all of the students had written these words in simple sentences and presented their sentences to the classroom.  Through this activity, the students not only became comfortable with my accent but also realized that asking questions in the classroom is important from a learning standpoint.  This activity helped the students view me as more than just a ‘teacher’ and helped to build a bond with me and each other in order to promote learning in a group setting.  In addition, I was moved by the students’ enthusiasm and desire to learn, which gave me confidence to begin my teaching program. 

The next day I began with my lesson plan; however, I was unsure of how to project my lesson plan effectively as I am usually accustomed to using a projector.  Therefore, I had to use my laptop as a visual, which was difficult as fifteen students were looking off one a 13-inch laptop screen.  Much to my surprise, the students were quite focused and displayed great enthusiasm despite the lack of equipment available. 

Typically, I would teach students for the first 30-40 minutes of class using my laptop.  Next, I would write down everything we went over on the board, and allow students to come up one by one and perform the functions on my laptop in front of the class. 

After each student practiced individually with my guidance, I would have the class work in groups to complete a small project using the institution’s computers.  During this time, I would go around and answer any questions that the students may have.  After this, we would reconvene as a group and conduct a final review.  The students would summarize and detail every function that they learned that day without any notes.  The student presentations were truly inspirational because the students were able to grasp the knowledge presented to them in such a short amount of time.  Although these students may not have had the opportunity to learn computers previously or available resources, they were able to enjoy a proper learning curriculum.

I started by teaching basic functions of Microsoft Word.  We covered operations such as bold, underline, color change, highlight, italics, essay writing, indent, center/position, insert photos, bullet points, strikethrough, spacing, change font, text effects and topography, borders, page number, header, table, watermark, format painter, spell check, and printing and saving a document.  I taught these functions during the first two classes.  To ensure that each student was able to understand the key concepts, I appointed several students who were comfortable with my accent as translators to facilitate the learning session and help me in translating instructions to the rest of the class. 

As I walked into the classroom following Christmas break, the students’ excitement was at its peak.  They could not wait to continue learning computer basics.  We began this class by discussing what everyone had done over break.  They were especially interested in learning about the Christmas celebrations and traditions in America.  Furthermore, I felt that many of the students would have forgotten what they learned last week, therefore, I decided to conduct a review session.  However, to my surprise, all of the students had retained the knowledge from the previous week.  It was very satisfying to know that the students were not only able to grasp the knowledge, but were also to retain this.  This gave me confidence that these students would continue to expand their skills even after the completion of my two-week session. 

After completing Microsoft Word, we focused on learning internet functionality. Upon teaching the class how to browse the internet, I showed the students various websites including: weather.com, amazon.com, and youtube.com.  The students were especially excited to visit youtube.com, as we even started singing along to Bollywood songs.  Additionally, I demonstrated how to create an email and Facebook account to connect with me after I return home.  After class, several students friended me on Facebook.  Furthermore, I showed the class pictures of my school, family, and friends, and was able to connect with these students at a personal level. 

The students realized how much information is available on the Internet and the benefits of being on the “information highway”.  Though this class was highly successful, I believe it could have been more informative if not for the lack of resources.  Since there was only one computer with internet, no student was able to practice on their own, unless they had Wi-Fi and a computer at home.  In fact, the next day, a student named Manish approached me and indicated that he had seen my Facebook and school on the Internet.  It was uplifting knowing that students were able to learn despite the lack of resources.

The students were very interested in American culture and often asked me questions regarding the differences between America and India.  In fact, one student pointed out the diversity in my social group.  This was a very interactive and entertaining lesson that allowed me to show that although I live in America, I am not that much different from these students.  Like a typical student in the US, these students at Pratham had a drive to succeed and a desire to study further.  Going forward, I am hopeful that my course will provide a basic understanding of computers and the confidence to continue to learn in an academic institution and further their education in junior high school.

                The next few lessons focused on Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel.  Though it may seem ambitious to cover two applications in a short time, the enthusiasm and drive displayed by these students made it possible.  Since many of the students had never seen or heard of PowerPoint before, I thought it would be best to first present a completed PowerPoint presentation and explain its significance.  Then, I reviewed the steps that are required to create a basic presentation and highlight the different features that PowerPoint has to offer.  We covered functions such as title, author, bold, italics, underline, change font and size, slide design, new slide, insert picture, transitions, animations, and slideshow mode.  To ensure that they understood PowerPoint, we created a PowerPoint presentation about Pratham as a class.  After this exercise was completed, the students practiced Microsoft PowerPoint in groups.  For the students, PowerPoint came easy, as many of the functions are similar to those of Word.  After this session, we reconvened and completed a final review of PowerPoint. 

Following the Microsoft PowerPoint lessons, I started to teach Microsoft Excel.  To create basic graphs, we collected data on the number of brothers and sisters that each student had.  I thought that this would be a fun and effective way to make this lesson more interactive and help explain the various features of Excel.  After covering charts and graphs, I taught the students how to analyze graphs, which was initially challenging for the class.  Lastly, I taught the students how to perform advanced features such as pivot tables and lookup functions.

Although I intended to come to India to primarily teach students basic skills in various computer software applications, I also learned a lot about my life and myself in general.  For instance, these students taught me that life is not simply about purchasing the latest smart phone and MacBook Pro.  Though this may seem cliché, this sentiment remains true.  When I asked the class what they enjoyed about Christmas break, they replied, “Spending time with family”.  They did not mention “presents” or an “exotic vacation”.  In fact, many of the students purchased their parents and siblings gifts and did not receive anything in return except for the satisfaction in seeing their family’s happiness.  In addition, I learned how much I take for granted, in living in America and attending an affluent private high school.  A student of mine, named Muskan (pictured left), lives in a village and therefore has received minimal education.  In fact, she only came to Pratham to attend my computer classes.  At the beginning of the session, she was very quiet and hesitant with me.  However, after one week, she became a top student in the class and even assisted other students because she was determined to learn and succeed. 

In retrospect, I am thankful to Pratham for providing me the opportunity to teach basic computer applications to students in India.  I am satisfied in knowing that the students were able to grasp the key concepts presented to them in the two-week session.  As a class, we were able to overcome a substantial language barrier and had a great experience together.  The students had a strong desire to learn and displayed great enthusiasm throughout the session; it did not matter that there was no projector or a shortage of computers.  Thinking back to the first day of class, I could feel a sense of hesitation between the students and me due to both the language barrier and cultural differences.  However, after two weeks, this feeling dissipated, as we became much closer.  In fact, on the last day of class, we were listening to both Indian and American music together.  In addition, I was moved by the appreciation that the students had for me.  I received many thank-you cards and hugs.  In fact, as I started driving away for the last time, a group of students stopped my car and asked to add me on Snapchat.

This experience afforded to me has not only allowed me to become closer to India, but also allowed me to grow as an individual.  The two-week program was a very rewarding experience for me from both a personal and an instructional standpoint and I look forward to re-connecting with my students through social media once I return home.