Facing the know-all generation
Dr. Dheeraj Mehrotra
“Ma’am, please tell us something new! This is already in the book,” such a statement may be anticipated from a student during any subject-related interactions in today’s classrooms. To the surprise of many, ‘Walls’ and ‘Friend Requests’ have now become more popular than ‘HELLO’ or Hi’.
Are we on the same page? The choice is ours to intercept the juncture with regard to making the best of job operations, delivering the best with pride and honor, and above all, meeting the requisite for schools to flourish. Quality education is reflected through the involvement of quality infrastructure at the learning arena.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing improvement and paradigm shift in the education sector, with education being characterized by technology-enabled instructions, collaborative learning, multidisciplinary problem solving, and critical thinking skills, e-learning offers a wide variety of ICT-enabled classroom solutions to ensure smart learning.
Teachers need to harness teaching requirements to the best of their abilities. They need to capitalize on some SMART teaching options available to them in the classroom in order to make learning interesting for students. Such teaching tools offer a visionary methodology to educate each and every student, with specialization in the art of scalability involving people, processes, and technology. The focus should be on building innovative capabilities and performance at the institutional level periodically.
No wonder, we have DIGITALLY ORIENTED CLASSROOMS now almost in every school but does it make learning worthwhile? 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. The teacher should not only have an EMAIL ID and expertise in MS OFFICE but should also have a WEBSITE, BLOG, and more, apart from being SOCIALLY NETWORKED 24×7.
However, at the same time, it is indispensable for teachers to remember that computer or software cannot teach a student concepts. Computers; therefore, should always be considered a supplement to more concrete learning activities like completing puzzles, building with Lego and blocks, reading books, creating art projects and playing on the playground.
The use of technology not only makes the entire process of learning interesting but more impactful as well. Unfortunately, the education sector is always considered a slow adopter of technology. I do recall the circular No. 57, dated 01.09.2010, by the Central Board of Secondary Education to all the heads of institutions affiliated to the board, which mentioned that the 21st century is characterized with the emergence of a knowledge-based society wherein Information and Communication Technology plays a pivotal role. The convergence of computer, communication and content technologies, known as ICT, has attracted the attention of academia, business, government, and communities to use it for innovating profitable propositions.
ICT has permeated every walk of life, impacting all the fields and enabling social networking. Year by year, it is getting simpler to use devices, such as desktop palm top, iPod, iPad etc. The truth of the matter is that students are closer to technology than we are, especially with the availability of handheld devices or ubiquitous technology, their comprehension of these resources is exponentially, which you will discover only as you get close to them.
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