A while ago, I had visited the Nehru
Planetarium and I was enthralled with it. Yet again. It is amazing how every
visit extends fresh perspectives --- one that you are sure you couldn’t have
missed earlier! I fondly reminisce the visits with my children. Their small
eyes would expand with wonder, especially during the ‘shows’. Why! Even adults gasp
at the spectacular presentation. The audio-visuals are simply outstanding and
take us on a realistic space tour. I would often wonder if there will ever come
a time when we could utilise technology to transform the dreary walls of our
classrooms and liberate students from the verbose texts they need to mug without
being able to experience or understand the concept.
Well, at long last, with the dawn
of the digital age we are surely moving a step towards that direction! Virtual classrooms, virtual field trips are
being increasingly encompassed within the curriculum framework. Virtual learning
as an industry itself is booming and has significantly changed learning outcome
metrics. Now, it isn’t to say that traditional classroom teaching is outdated;
that is required too! Similarly, virtual learning has dawned with its own sets
of benefits and challenges. In the long run though, most academicians believe
without a doubt, that it is set to revolutionise the way quality education is disseminated and accessed by millions of
students across the world, from schools to high schools and colleges.
Imagine sophisticated computer
terminals streaming some of the most engaging and curated lessons, demarcated
to suit every learner profile, mapped to suitable learning outcomes! A student
could choose his course session and set the pace as he would like to! Likewise
virtual field trips, which could take you inside volcanoes, or on the
International Space Station or visit Anne Frank’s home or go to Antartica, are
a reality now with an increasing number of American schools weaving this into
the curriculum. In India, we have a long way of course, to really integrate
technology into our curriculum for challenges in terms of resources, training
and curriculum integration. However, many leading private schools have embarked
on this journey, even if they remain a handful.
The benefits are enormous for
students – sessions are more interactive, flexibly suited to learner profiles, enables
more eclectic options for choosing electives, integrates children with learning
or physical disabilities enabling inclusion and challenges learners through a
medium they are instinctively inclined to use. Our biggest challenge though will
be to integrate the public education system and with it the thousands of
government schools, which will stand to benefit magnanimously in terms of
quality education being disseminated, cost effectively. However, we need
governments to realise the importance of investing in the vision from the
primary level, along with the will and intent to committing to it.
Quality education continues to be
an elusive, aspirational term since Independence for over 90% schools and the
millions of students that study in the country. Virtual classrooms give us that
ideal platform to get all the students on a single page, giving them the reigns
to proceed through the session at a pace comfortable to them. Yes, there will
be challenges in terms of curriculum rehaul, developing the new-role
of session facilitators vs. teachers, resources in setting up infrastructure and
training, calibration of learning outcomes and alignment of vision with
curriculum dissemination. However the benefits make it worth wading through some
initial choppiness for our children, who will take to this like fish to water;
it’s the mindset change among the education community, parents and the
government that needs a paradigm shift.
