In the year 1980 when I had the fortune of handling a computer – a HCL workhorse level-2 machine with a speed of 256 KB alongside a DM printer – I felt I was accompanying Yuri Gagarin on a trip to moon and had a safe landing! When the computer displayed a few multiplication tables on the screen, I was feeling that I was seeing the Milky way from the moon! - an AHA experience! Today I am like a nursery child looking at the current technologies and singing a nursery rhyme “Ba Ba Black sheep”!
Technology has moved by
leaps and bounds!
When I entered a classroom
to teach the students of computer science of class 11, with just six months of
training on handling a computer and with the knowledge of the BASIC language, I
felt I was alien from a different soil bringing newer mythologies to the Earth!
Today I feel I am an alien living in a different soil! I sit by the side of a
student of Primary class how the newer technologies operate, Thank you my
child!
When I attended the first
International Conference on Computer Aided Learning in Britain and saw the
presentations, I felt that we would take another fifty years to reach their
standards! Today India is an almost World- Guru in technology innovation. if
not within the country, outside – holding the Indian flag!
When I went to Leeds in 1984
to learn about software programing for content development, I thought I was
taking a few strides in the world of computer. Then I learnt, if you can do
something without a computer better do it! Humans need to control technology
and not vice versa!
When I wanted to introduce
C++ language as an official in the Board, I was demoralized by the eminent
professor of a renowned institute of learning when he said, “Students should
come to my class with a clean slate of mind and not with wrong concepts taught
in a school.” Today I feel the students in schools have trying to scale peaks
of excellence using current technologies!” Learning doesn’t stop because
somebody likes it or not!
Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning are making fast headways! The curriculum design for Machine
Learning is as much a hot topic as the curriculum for human learning!
Technology has traveled in
leaps and bounds! To envisage an academic world without intervention of
technology in future classrooms appears unwise!
The advent of Augmented
Realities has added another feather in technological evolution! I think a
meaningful and responsible integration of this technology would transform the
entire paradigm of teaching – learning processes in classrooms.
1. Concept clarification
One
of the major challenges in our classrooms is inadequacy of clarification of
concepts. In many cases, it is dealt quite superficially for two reasons – one,
the inability of the teachers to grasp the concepts adequately and even if they
do, their inability to communicate it adequately. Secondly, the absence of
adequate tools to explain these concepts. Augmented reality could certainly
pave to solve this problem
a. Facilitating a visual complement to explain
the situation
b. Providing a 3 D perspective of the concepts
c. Demystifying the abstractness that engulfs
its meaning
d. An exciting opportunity to look at the
concept from different angles
2. Pedagogical support
The quality of pedagogical support it could
give is immense. Teachers who were struggling to explain the inner architecture
latent in systems, machines, instruments and appliances could give a
presentation that would provide the insight into systems and seeing the
functionalities in action rather than at imaginary levels. A visual of an atomic structure, the function
of an internal combustion machine, the working of a digestive system, the flow
of current in an inverter, the scope of a perspective drawing, the vision of a
moving cyclonic eye and the like – one cannot imagine the millions of
opportunities it can open to make learning both purposeful focused and
entertaining! We can ill afford to lose the opportunities of refreshed and
reinforced learning with such kind of interventions.
3. Empowering Thinking skills
After
all, what is the use of such interventions unless they show some value
addition. Yes! It can have extensive value addition to learning systems.
-
To
examine systems in near real-time situations
-
To
investigate processes from closer and inner perspectives
-
To analyze
their functionalities to seek improvement/modifications
-
To
critically evaluate the concepts and re-engineer them wherever necessary
-
To
acquire adequate conceptual skills to handle them in practical situations
4. Research & innovation
If
I see the structure of a molecule today, my understanding of the component and
its properties is bound to change. It offers more scope for questioning,
research, intervention and engagement. A heart that could be projected on a
table, the neural networks on a laboratory stage that would help to reclaim the
lost memory and the demography of a population in its minuscular model would
help to solve problems yet unforeseen. The scope and quality of research, the
tools of problem solving and crisis management are likely to undergo
fundamental changes.
5. Reforming the value of Higher Education
The
quality of higher education has certainly been under deep stress. Certification
needs have overridden the need for actual and factual learning. Augmented
realities might help repositioning the concept of machine shops workstations,
the understanding and applications of electrical and electronic engineering systems
to the larger section of learners. Studies on meteorology, marine engineering,
bio-technology, interventional medicines can all be reviewed if the newer
technologies are in position to operate.
6. What are the likely paradigm shifts?
-
Shift
from learner centric to learning centric situations
-
Shift
from rote learning to skill based learning
-
Facility
for thought navigation
-
More
effective classrooms enabling reach for visual, auditory and kinesthetic
learners
-
Interactive
and engaged classrooms.
What could be the misgivings?
a. It may be conceived as a technology for
intellectually vibrant – it is not true. It is more important for those who are
mediocre and those who are otherwise distracted. It is bound to improve
cognitive learning.
b. It may be considered as a rich man’s
technology – as such it might be initially a little high priced because of its
volume consumptions, but should soon become a common man’s tool. We have
earlier evidences for universal acceptance of technologies by the communities,
negating cost barriers.
c. It is not curriculum oriented – As such it
must fit into any curriculum, because the objective is to deal with concepts
and not syllabi. Hence a right mix of these visuals can be meaningfully
integrated into classrooms.
d. Can schools do without this technology? –
Of course, yes, Schools can do without any kind of technology. But the emerging
global dynamics indicate the dominance of augmented realityin all fields of
activity immaterial of the disciplines of learning or work.
From Agriculture to Economics, from
hospitality to classical dances, from engineering to medicine, from ecology to
edutainment, the role of augmented reality and other emerging technologies is
going to be invasive. Let us be ready to face this reality!
The sooner we invest, the better – Early
birds will catch the worm!
Techology in classrooms is a must
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