Part I: The Concept
India, our great motherland with its rich tradition and a brilliant past, where the epics speak of such weapons as Brahmastra that compare with the latest nuclear weapons, where astronomical heights had been reached literally and otherwise, is at present still trying to come out of the onslaught of repeated foreign invasions that had crippled its economic status. In the process of revival, the only solution appears to lie in the education of its masses who constitute its greatest power.
Natural question is therefore, what type of education in the Indian context?
Swami Vivekananda the great philosopher has a ready answer: "We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on one's own feet. What we need is study independent of foreign control different branches of the knowledge that is our own and with it the English language and western science. We need technical education and all else that will develop industries, so that men instead of seeking for service may earn enough to provide for themselves and save against a rainy day".
Thus, based on such a value system aiming at producing citizens educated to Indian needs a curriculum has been drawn that is multifarious. Now the question, how to effectively implement this curriculum? arises. Once again, to quote Swami Vivekananda: "Education is not the amount of information that is put to your brain and runs riot there undigested all your life. We must have a life building, man making, character making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. If education were identical with information, the libraries will be the greatest sages in the world and encyclopedias the Rishis".
Thus, a concept has to be understood and made a part and parcel of one's being. There are two aspects to this:
Presentation of the concept, and
Reinforcement.
In the context of the former, the following anecdote provides interesting reading:
Professor Richard Philipps Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and winner of the Nobel prize asked for a glass of ice water, not to drink but to experiment. He dipped a piece of rubber in the ice water and took it out after a while. The experiment and the result was there for everybody to see. Because of the cold treatment rubber did not bounce back to its original position to a few seconds. The breathtakingly simple experiment was a demonstration of where the complex machinery of the US space shuttle Challenger went wrong, bursting in mid-air and killing its seven passengers.
The knack of reducing everything to the fundamentals is the most important technique of concept learning.
But this is an art that requires the profoundest understanding of the concept which comes only by experiencing it oneself. Science is not revelation, it is discovery. A child cannot be taught, he has to learn. He has to educate himself. The shift in emphasis from teacher to the taught is therefore inevitable in the presentation of a concept. It is all the more so in the reinforcement aspect of it. A child has to practice himself to become perfect. The teacher is still there. But (S)he fades into the back ground and merges his identity with that of the child. Gone are the days when the teacher came to the class, delivered in a monotone and took off. (S)he has to involve each child and make him experience each concept. Culmination of every set of experiences around a concept is a knowledge construct that undergoes further evolution with newer experiences.
Nor is the number of such children in his/her custody per class less. In a class of at least 40 this is an uphill task for the teacher. The tools that he would require to achieve this also naturally multiply. The sum total of all such tools that help him achieve a systematic treatment of the process of learning to set goals constitutes educational technology. It comprises therefore of both software and hardware.
Effective educational technology lies in how well one can avoid stagnating in the old ineffective methods and tap the latest scientific and technological development to educational purposes.
The evolution of educational process is as varied as the evolution of man himself. With every technological advancement there has been a new dimension. The Gurukulavasa was a paperless society where learning was by successive transmission and saving the knowledge in God’s computer, the human brain. The paper and printing press have revolutionised education to the present form. Once again, the electronic revolution has envisaged new vistas for the field of education. With its sophisticated information storage and communication system a paperless society is anticipated that would cope with the literature and information explosion.
As I climb chronologically from 1995 when this paper was presented in a Principals’conference...
Electronic library with the easiest access to vast material at the end of simple electronic terminals are already in vogue in some parts. The artificial satellites have revolutionised communication system and increased the scope of TV tremendously. There are educational programmes by AIR, TV. Mass media especially newspapers have student columns. Video centres have educational cassettes. Computers could play a very important role in supplementing teachers’ efforts in a class room.
But in 21st century the information explosion is nuclear in magnitude. Information is available at finger ends with the smart phones. The internet is a world-wide web. Videos on the net by individuals and institutions such as NCERT, UGC and other private entrepreneurs both national and international, and educational CDs are abundantly available.
The technology is there on one hand. The educational institutions are there on the other. How much the former is incorporated with the latter Is the question of the hour. Especially in Kendriya Vidyalayas that have ramified to reach the remotest corners of the country how effectively could educational technology be implemented is something that requires serious considerations.
For converting information to knowledge, a student has to process the information by a constructivist approach that could be catalyzed by a “teacherase”, if I can coin an enzyme for teaching. Information has to be imbibed for it to become a part and parcel of one’s being. Absorption and assimilation can alone lead to characterization as envisaged by Swami Vivekanand.
Part II: The Implementation
Some of the Kendriya Vidyalayas are fundamentally lacking in basic infrastructural facilities, full manpower requirement, that sophisticated educational technology is a far cry.
Even under such working conditions with little imaginative and innovative teachers it is perhaps possible to effectively use newspapers, TV in conjunction with class room instruction. For instance, during the total solar eclipse in Bhuj, on 24th October 1995, we could get material from the meteorological section of Jodhpur regarding occurrence and safe watching inside one's home. Material from newspaper was also used. Like professor Richard Philipps Feynmann a simple reflecting mirror with a paper having a 5 mm aperture stuck on it was kept facing the eclipsed sun. A beautiful circle of the sun's image emerged on the wall of the room, the moon gradually creeping its way on its flawless countenance. The naked eyes had no strain and also witnessed the actual eclipse. A paper was superimposed on the wall and the outline-traced at different times and recorded. The various phases were pasted on a chart paper and the effect was wonderful. Combining the TV telecast at the same time whenever the total eclipse at different places was covered, the comparative status of Bhuj eclipse was traced out. This effort has then been photographed and displayed in the Vidyalaya.
It is a common phenomenon in schools of hard stations not to have PGTS for important subjects like physics, chemistry, biology etc. Here were my suggestions in 1995: “Academic programmes can be offered through cable TV. Community antenna Television being in operation in USA since 1950's is one such facility which offers academic courses to its cable subscribers with the help of a participating university. In USA thousands of educational institutions are plugged with CATV system. The two-way CATV is connected to the computer terminal at different places like universities to provide more educational information. In the KV context, suppose the educational institutions are our Kendriya Vidyalayas, the universities important teaching centres where subject teachers are available for all teaching subjects, and the programmes matched with school timetables, perhaps our students wIthout a teacher physically in the class room can still have the benefit of the closest possible arrangement. In the two-way system an immediate feed-back and conversation is possible. Where there are teachers perhaps this would have a supplementary role.”
But now such painstaking efforts are not required. The internet is flooded with tutorials. Atleast there could be clusters of neighbouring schools in which teachers available in one can engage children of all member schools. “Teacherases” could be identified across schools. In Mathematics teaching, the technology can play a significant role. There are certain concepts which are beyond the imagination of the child. Technology can assist in concretising the abstract, in stretching the visual perception. For instance, area of a circle (the first non rectilinear figure) to a class VI student involves concepts of limits that are much above the psychological levels of the child of that age. A teacher in a class room adopts the following technique. The child cuts the circle into equal sectors and arranges them to form an approximate rectangle.
In the above the area using the formula for a rectangle is to ignore the perceptible curves and slants along the dimensions. But ignoring the slant to a VI class mind amounts to cheating. Hence the inevitable is to increase the number of divisions and reduce the slant to the minimum. Even 32 sectors would perceptibly contain the slant and an increased number will be tedious and cumbersome. Suppose computer technology produces sectors to the order of 1600. The child visually witnesses the straightening slant and closes the gap between circle and rectangle. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Several theorems involving loci, symmetry, generalisation of hypotheses where infinity of experiences culminate into the concept can be benefited by such technological aids. Animation videos are very useful. Every mathematics classroom is a laboratory. They should dissemble to experience and assemble to construct knowledge in ascending steps.
Apart from readymade resources, integrated teaching where a subject teacher coopts another such as a computer teacher who can help the children construct simple programmes will make the learning much more meaningful and sustainable.
A librarian is the common factor for the concept of integrated teaching. (S)He has to be an active facilitator in providing learning materials for all subjects. All teachers should hold periodic meetings with the assisting teachers and prepare their lessons.
In language teaching language laboratories are the innovative technological trends. They enable the student to listen to language spoken with reasonable perfection and practice speaking the language themselves. It enables the student to:
Hear the recording clearly
Stop, rewind and replay the tape easily
Select the material freely
Work conveniently and the teacher to
Listen to individual student without disturbing them
Communicate with them without any difficulty
To control the programme without any restriction
Inter departmental co-ordination between physics, SUPW laboratories with the language department would promote inter-disciplinary approach in teaching. The computer usage for instructional purposes must gain greater momentum in all schools. Computers have a dual role to play. There is computer assisted instruction and computer managed instruction.
While computer assisted instruction is directly involved in teaching learning process, the computer managed instruction helps the management in administerinq the innumerable tests to be administered in the process of individualised instruction. The computers also help in administerinq diagnostic tests, and prescribing appropriate steps and recording. Thus, the introduction of technological nuances into an instructional situation can be conceived as an offshoot of reinforcement theories proposed by behavioral psychologists.
Inclusive education is another dimension for holistic imparting of education. If atleast a few identified schools in each area can be equipped with the technological aids for different categories of children and corresponding special teachers separate special schools need not be founded. It would that much make the cost of educating the differently abled children affordable for the parents. Such schools should be either totally or partially government aided.
Some of the technological tools are enumerated. However, there may be several not mentioned here:
Blind or Low Vision Tools
Braillewriter.
Refreshable braille display.
Slate and stylus.
Raised-line paper for writing or graphing.
Signature guide used to position a pen when signing one's name.
Calculator with voice output that speaks what is on the screen
For speech- and hearing-impaired
Assistive Technology Devices FM System - FM systems send the teacher's voice from a wireless microphone directly to a receiver worn by a student with hearing loss. It can be connected to a hearing aid or cochlear implant, or a headset/earbuds.
For autistic students
Interactive whiteboards
Smart phones
Tablets
Text-to-speech software's, and
Digital editing tools.
Last but not the least, managing an educational institution is not easy. The head of the institution is responsible for the quality of education being imparted, the well-being and behavior of the students, the job satisfaction of the teaching and administrative staff and the property, finances and growth of the institution. Besides having to fulfill the numerous government and statutory obligations that apply to educational institutions.
What is required is a comprehensive management information system. Manual operation is time consuming and cumbersome.
Here's what I wrote in 1995: Electronic Trade and Technology Development Corporation Limited (A government of India enterprise) has come up with Management Information System Service (MISS). Two sets of software are to assist teaching staff and the other to administration and management. TTM* is an integrated powerful timetable management software; saves time and manpower, the lib soft is a fully integrated powerful 1ibrary management software. Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan should make this adaptable in schools by providing the appropriate equipments. The teachers are enthusiastic to adopt new techniques but are tremendously handicapped when basic equipments are unavailable. Why speak of functional computers, not even a xerox machine is available in our institutions.
Now there should be thousands of APPs available. When even a street vendor punches a few buttons on his smart phone to run his business, it is indeed sad that technology is not an integral part of our administration in schools.
I would like to highlight a periodic ritual to substantiate my assertion. Whenever our parliament is in session there are questions. All concerned departments will receive these questions to provide information to the concerned ministries. A simple question such as enrollment classification will generate the following urgent communications every time down the levels at odd hours even outside the normal working hours.
Head Quarters
Regional offices
Schools
Individual teacher records
There is no system of automatic updating mechanisms in place. There are thousand excuses for non-implementation. The first and foremost will be untrained teachers. Huge cost is incurred in training programmes but to no avail. In many a school a computer teacher is a clerk doing all such jobs.
Learning on the job is essential for each teacher. They have to make efforts to coordinate with inter-departments with self-learning initiatives. The “Principalase” enzyme should encourage and facilitate by coopting experts from immediate society. The general administration should empower the principals to play such useful roles.
Let us hope that technology does not remain just in the back yard but comes to the forefront and makes teaching and school management a great success.
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