In 2000, SHEF began exploring the realm of educational technology, with an aim of providing a simple, cost-effective, and easily accessible solution to the problem of providing high-quality education to children in remote, underserved and under-resourced areas. After several small but useful attempts in partnership with NIIT and the Government of UP, we began formally in 2005 in partnership with a professor from Princeton University, Randy Wang. Our goal was to use simple video technology to share pedagogical resources and expertise from schools with good teachers to schools that are not so fortunate. This effort began as a video production process, in which lessons taught by model teachers at well-resourced schools were recorded. These videos were then shared with under-resourced classrooms and schools in affordable private schools and government schools in remote rural areas. Because internet access was not available in rural UP at the time, a TV and VCR were installed in remote rural classrooms in order to show DSH videos. We devised a mediation pedagogy, which was then taught to local teachers, in which the teacher would emulate the activities portrayed in the video in order to actively engage the students with the videos. This had the effect of filling any knowledge gaps of the teacher, as well as exposing them to new pedagogies they could then incorporate into their teaching. This method was implemented in eleven schools, and was the beginning of Digital Study Hall.
In 2009, SHEF partnered with Uttar Pradesh’s District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), the government bodies responsible for pre-service and in-service teacher training for public schools, to include DSH videos as part of the training for pre-service students. Using DSH video lessons to support the theory-based training content, professors engaged their students in an analysis of the teaching methods in the videos on all pedagogical parameters, allowing them to integrate theory with practice. By 2012, we trained 3500 DIET faculty in this style of moderation, thereby impacting 14,000 student-teachers across 71 DIETs.
As internet access became more widely available and accessible, DSH opted to share its video repository online as well. In 2011, DSH started its YouTube channel, DSHOnline, in order to facilitate widespread access to its videos free of cost. Over time, it has compiled a digital library of over 2000 video lessons. The lessons follow the Class 1-8 syllabus for a number of educational boards in India, including CBSE, UP Board, and NIOS. A collection of videos of and about critical dialogues has also been compiled for those interested in Critical Feminist Pedagogy.
In 2016, DSH extended this concept to another organization in Rajasthan, BODH, who is the main teacher training partner of the Rajasthan Government. We trained them in the use of video technology in their extensive teacher training programs and this has helped standardize their quality and achieve greater impact.
We continue to expand our content base and our usage. In 2017, DSH became one of the primary contributors on the MHRD’s National Teacher platform called DIKSHA, and the video lessons are being embedded in the UP school books with help of QR code technology. DSH has uploaded 990 videos on the platform and has provided all of our content to the Government of Rajasthan for use in its schools as well.
