Facebook, Orkut, Myspace and more for the youth
I was interacting with a group of students from JECRC and I asked'em if they were all on Facebook. Instantly, there heads nodded in affirmative. They were all using social media and mainly facebook. I quickly asked if they took any kind of crash course to get kick-started into using social media. Needless to mention, they all shook their heads in denial. None of them ever read a book or took some class or needed "to be told" to gt on to Facebook. My call to all the teachers or parents who can't get the students to pick up their books and read- Industrial Age education is passé and we need to learn how "they will learn".
Classroom teaching needs to be revolutionized if we want to meet the future needs of global corporates. In fact, we need to get out of our classrooms and let the youth regain their creative energies and get'em to think. Motivation is the most important factor in learning be it school, higher education or later-life learning. And motivation is not merely good grades in college. Motivation has to be more intrinsic and more real. Rote-learning has given us uncountable graduates that Indian HR companies don't know where to place. One study pointed out that in in another year, we will have more graduates that there have been since the history of mankind! And still unemployment continues to rise.
As I work on developing content for "english learning" at Gita Mittal Career Development Centre in Jaipur, I wonder if I need to redo this classroom-based content? I wonder if I am going against my own learning? Where is the rat race leading to?
Do send me your suggestions & experiences.
In order to make it more effective, classroom teaching method needs to be altered. Knowledge becomes easier to gain if comes through an interesting media. This particular idea is really wonderful and definitely result oriented if executed properly in indian circumstances.
ReplyDeleteApplying some innovative idea is never going against our learning , its just like that we are thinking beyond the conventional system. And change is the law of universe.
All the very best if you have a plan for this.
Dear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. We somehow aren't able to get out of the traditional rote-memory learning or instructor-centric learning. We need to make learning a self-exploratory process whereby the students recognize problems and look for answers on their own. When they need help, they refer books or discuss with their guides.
However, this requires a lot of patience and the hitherto industrial age learning couldn't accommodate it.
With the knowledge age education, we can be hopeful that every child gets the kind of schooling Robert Oppenheimer or Einstein got. Then, India will produce thinkers and inventors, artists and creative talent that the rest of the world can look up to.
Right now, however hard I want, I can't convince anyone around me to sign up for a course that won't have a classroom for a base or formal assessments or some certification to count on!
I can only sell 90 hour English-speaking classes!
Thanks for your comments.