WorldView is a lifeline for a teacher, like the Nile for Egypt: a conversation with Hovhannes Harutyunyan, a teacher and graduate of the Mentorship Scholarship Program

For Hovhannes Harutyunyan, true wealth lies not in money but in human resources. With this conviction, he pursued his riches by choosing pedagogy as his profession. He sees the school as the most fertile ground for fostering public good, a place where a vast human resource is at hand to shape the future. Today, Hovhannes teaches Armenian and World History at Dilijan Central School—a choice he made with purpose and intent.

Hovhannes Harutyunyan explains, “Tumanyan says that history is a shining lantern that every nation should have in its hands to walk its path without getting lost. Indeed, history, the knowledge of the past, is the light of our future. History is one of those rare things through which you get to know your homeland, and without knowing it, you cannot love it.”

The young professional began his teaching career in 2016. He has been teaching at the school for nine years, but at the same time, he never stops learning. He participates in all the courses and training that will help make his lessons more effective and keep the student engaged. Hovhannes admits that it rarely happens that the time and resources spent on seminars are justified. But the last training exceeded all his expectations. Hovhannes Harutyunyan is one of the 53 teachers who completed the six-month “WorldView Mentorship Scholarship” teacher capacity building program, arming themselves with dozens of methods, for which they also received a scholarship. The teacher confesses that this one was different both in content and effectiveness.

“Before the course, I was already familiar with and using several teaching methods. However, since completing the program in September, I have rarely relied on my old approaches. Seda Kocharyan, our instructor, introduced us to so many effective new methods that I simply haven’t had the time—or the need—to go back to the old ones. I frequently use OPVCL (Origin, Purpose, Content, Value, Limitation), worksheets, and the NAMI method (Novelty, Application, Memory, Impact). The Hook technique and the collaboration method have also been incredibly valuable. These strategies are indispensable for a teacher. When I notice a student becoming disengaged with one approach, I immediately switch to another. Their energy is revived—and in turn, so is mine,” says Hovhannes Harutyunyan.

Hovhannes doesn’t like to express his gratitude publicly, but this training program of the “Visual Armenia” Foundation is an exception. He is grateful for every moment. He studied for six months, and not a single day was wasted. His cooperation with the Foundation started back in 2021.

Before working at the Dilijan Central School, Hovhannes was in Artsakh with the “Teach for Armenia” program. He wanted to get to know that part of his homeland from the inside, living and working right there. After the 2020 war, however, he was forced to return and continue his work already in Dilijan. At that time, the “Visual Armenia” Foundation was just launching its WorldView educational platform. Hovhannes Harutyunyan was one of the first teachers to get acquainted with the program in its prototype phase. He was also among the first to use it in schools.

“It was in April-May 2021. Very few people knew about the platform, we were only using it with a few teachers. What you had to spend time on at home, prepare with slides and show to students in the classroom, was already at hand in WorldView. This saves the teacher’s time,” says Harutyunyan, “To achieve success, it is not enough to work only in the classroom, you also need to work at home, prepare visual materials. WorldView multiplies the possibilities. You take one source, WorldView adds a few more, the choice increases.”

The variety of maps and source materials, the abundance of images and colors on the platform are a guarantee of an interesting journey through history and time, in which students participate with pleasure. Hovhannes says that of all the tools, they like the ruler the most: they measure the distance and time between historical and current settlements, draw possible routes.

Hovhannes Harutyunyan explains, “The children love WorldView so much that before I even enter the classroom, they already turn on the smart screen and wait for me with WorldView open. It happens that they get ahead of me and have already studied the topic in advance, they say, ‘Mr. Hovhannes, have you seen, there is something like this in WorldView, have you seen, this is how it is etc.’ The good thing is that the materials are not exhausted, the platform is constantly updated, enriched, and the children don’t have time to get bored.”

The teacher is confident that for today’s students, a book alone is not enough to provide a quality and meaningful education; they are interested in the screen. That is why the introduction of WorldView to the school was one of the most anticipated. The student learns without leaving his comfort zone: “In any case, today it is difficult to tear them away from the screen. Therefore, it is a management issue what you fill that screen with. I try to intervene and include more WorldView there. That way you become a trendsetter, so that in their pleasant environment they study educational topics instead of TikTok materials. WorldView saves from boring and monotonous lessons. It is a lifeline for a teacher, like the Nile for Egypt.”