Day 3 of Faculty Development Programme at KIIT School of Mass Communication
Resource Persons Emphasise on Inclusiveness and Learner-Centred Pedagogy
The third day of the Faculty Development Programme at KIIT School of Mass Communication was made fruitful by eminent speakers, Prof Sunil Kanta Behera, Prof. Manisha Pathak-Shelat and Prof. Sundeep R. Muppidi on 23rd June 2021.
In the 9th session of the FDP, Prof. Sunil Kanta Behera, Professor, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Tezpur University, Assam delivered a talk on ‘20thcentury teaching to 21stcentury learning: The pedagogical implications of face-to-face, digital, social and mobile media’. Mentioning the concept of education and its objectives, Prof. Behera elaborated the importance of education in a society and how it is related to individual identity. By showing a model, he explained how the practice of teaching learning is changing from learner to teacher. Nowadays, students derive learning from a collaborative system. Further, he focused more importance on the tutoring system and adopting multi-dimensional mentorship.
In the second session, Prof. Manisha Pathak-Shelat, Professor, Communications, Digital Platforms and Strategies, and Chair, Centre for Development Management and Communication (CDMC), MICA, Ahmadabad spoke on a very pertinent topic – Digital Inclusion: Why and How? She explained that the journey to digital inclusion starts at access but is not fulfilled without digital literacy and digital participation. She explained that digital literacy was a whole gamut of awareness about privacy, security, collaboration, connection, appropriate behavior, algorithms. Digital participation also depends on various issues like culture and language which can make participation difficult. She added, “Universities can play a very crucial role in encouraging such values of inclusion and diversity.” Prof. Mohammad Sahid Ullah from University of Chittagong joined the session and shared his observation regarding digital inclusion in Bangladesh.
The last session of the third day was by Prof. Sundeep R. Muppidi, Special Assistant, Provost for Strategic Initiatives and Professor of Communication, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Hartford, West Hartford, USA. Prof Muppidi spoke on “A conversation about active learning and learner-centered pedagogical approaches to Media and Journalism Education”.
These sessions were attended by academicians and researchers from various universities across the country like Birla Global University, Utkal University, Vivekanand College of University of Calcutta, SMIT, Berhampur, Central University of Odisha, Chandigarh University. Dr Bidu Bhusan Dash, Course Coordinator of the School welcomed the resource persons. Faculty members – Ms. Ruby Nanda, Dr. Anurag Sahu and Mr. Souptik Garai moderated the sessions and extended vote of thanks after each session.