Connected classrooms
By Dr. Dheeraj Mehrotra
Teaching in schools should deliver ‘Ideas worth spreading like a virus’; however, with inspiration instead of sneezing! For teachers to be on the same page with their students in the class, they should go to their students’ wavelength, instead of expecting the opposite.
Quality education is reflected through the implementation of quality infrastructure in the learning area. Parents are; therefore, advised to make an informed choice about their kids’ schools, given the fact that schools, these days, are mushrooming around the country much like any other service industry. They should have a round around the school and the classes before taking any final decision.
On the very grounds of improvement planning and a paradigm shift in education, lie technology-enabled instructions, collaborative learning, multidisciplinary problem solving, and critical thinking skills. E-learning, a household name for the today’s students, offers a wide range of ICT-enabled classroom solutions for smart learning! However, it is important to mention here that technology-integrated classrooms ought to be considered a supplement to many other concrete learning activities, including completing puzzles, building with Lego and blocks, reading books, creating art projects, and so on.
A class is only connected when CHILDREN ARE PREPARED TO LEARN. And they learn when they LIKE the subject and they would like the subject only when they LIKE THEIR TEACHER. Therefore, TEACHERS need to harness their skills to the best of their abilities. They need to leverage some SMART teaching tools available in the classroom in order to make learning interesting for students.
The present situation calls for a visionary methodology to educate every child of the country, with specialization in the art of scalability involving people, processes, and technology. No wonder, we have DIGITALLY ORIENTED CLASSROOMS now in every school. However, do they serve the purpose? I doubt to my experience. It is the mindset of teachers and educators that needs to be functioned well. A teacher ought to be a TRAINER/ LEARNER/ ALL ROUNDER, with his/ her presence in the CYBER SPACE mandatory. In addition to having an EMAIL ID, expertise in MS OFFICE, a WEBSITE, BLOG, WiKi, and more, teachers are nowadays enamored with YouTube, TED, and WatchKnowLearn or for sure any Ready Recknoner Web Content of interest with quality and cream.
Various researchers and scholars have defined the need of quality education; however, no one has ever highlighted the need of ‘we the teachers today to be interesting and informed’. With the march of time, teachers would be the only a ‘uninterested’ identity in the class, if we are not enriching children in order to make them forget their Facebook Walls and the SMSes, which will otherwise make their mind fertile of interest.
The use of technology not only makes the entire process of learning interesting but more impactful and interactive as well. The education sector has unfortunately held a reputation of being a laggard as far as the adoption of technology goes. I do recall the circular No. 57, dt. 01.09.2010 by the Central Board of Secondary Education to all the heads of institutions affiliated to the board, which mentioned, “the 21st century is characterized with the emergence of knowledge-based society wherein Information and Communication Technology plays a pivotal role.”
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