THE DIGITAL AGE CLASSROOM

IT Management : The Age of Digital Classrooms !

Classrooms seem to have come of age today. Air-conditioned, comfortable seating, laptop connections, white boards and smart boards, mikes and loudspeakers; a far cry from the ancient gurukuls, classes held under trees, students using slates and chalks where the teacher resembled an ogre with a stick.  We are now part of a cultural revolution that has ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and the Dark Years of rote-learning and bookish knowledge have passed into oblivion.

Since time immemorial, man has proved his intellectual superiority over other creatures as he is the only one bestowed with a special gift – a thinking mind and a brain – which he has put to the best use. Man has progressed by leaps and bounds in every field but in case of Science and Technology he has taken great strides. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the brain child of modern man who has used all the aspects of technology. ICT has reached its zenith where new inventions are coming up almost every waking hour. It has become a pivotal part of every household. It has become an integral part of teaching and education in schools, colleges and universities as well. A learning revolution has taken place to do away with the ills of conventional education. Indolent teachers, rote-learning, bias in assessments, teachers not qualified enough – all are now replaced by technology. Paperwork taking up time and energy can now be accomplished meticulously within a couple of hours. Application of knowledge and interpretation of the student substitutes hours of hard work wrongly channelized into mugging up and memorizing facts and figures.

There are many branches to today’s Digital Age Classroom. Firstly, with the widely accessible and available internet, e-learning and e-teaching has become omnipresent. Students don’t need to travel across the world anymore. Any section of information can be acquired sitting at home, on one click. One can appear for entrance tests, examinations or even complete graduation online itself. Distance learning has also become popular among students.

Another aspect of the Digital Age Classroom is the variety of software coming up in the market daily. Software like

ü  Computer Aided Learning (CAL),

ü  Computer Aided Instruction (CAI),

ü   Computer Based Learning (CBL),

ü  Computer Based Training (CBT),

ü  Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)  and

ü  Computer Aided Assessment (CAA)

support learning technology substantially. CAI and CBT serve the function of replacing a teacher in an old-fashioned classroom and the computer becomes the primary method of delivering subject knowledge. The student undergoes a test which determines his calibre and accordingly a custom- made curriculum is designed for each individual. The teacher’s capacity to deliver truly adaptive instructions is significantly amplified. It reaches students with clear and present needs, including students whose skill deficiencies may not be readily identified. That day is not far when robots will replace teachers in the classroom. CAL and CBL equally help in the classroom but they do not replace teachers. The computer is only a medium through which knowledge is delivered. It is an integrated approach to teaching where learning technology is only a part of the entire approach. It includes numerous ICT devices like the computer, interactive whiteboards, multimedia projectors etc. CMC is fundamentally interaction among the teachers and students via e-mails or instant messaging. CAA is used to test the students and the progress they are making. The candidates’ scripts are scanned into a computer and then the examiners log on to the system and mark the scripts on screen.

Other common software that can be used to aid education is spreadsheet packages to store marks and grades, database packages to maintain records of students, presentation software to make multimedia presentations including images and animations and word processors to generate official letters. All the aforementioned software makes the classroom more interesting and interactive and does away with the traditional black-and-white print.

Yet another aspect is the hardware involved. The most significant being the computer on which the software can run and all the other devices are dependent upon. Each student has a personal computer – a laptop or a desktop – and a teacher has one for herself as well. With the help of a network connecting all computers, files and folders can be shared and access can be restricted to particular folders. A modem, access point and a mobile station help connect to the internet. This facilitates the use of World Wide Web to look up for more information related to a particular topic being taught in class. Students can also increase their array of information for research and projects by looking up on the internet. Podcasts can be downloaded and listened to by the students. Blogging enables pupils to have an area that they can log on to and write what they want; as well as developing ICT skills, it improves student literacy and it is an excellent vehicle for creative and report writing. Online tutorials can be used to help students develop their skills in various topics. 

Printers can be used to print documents like students’ report cards or letters to be sent to parents or also to print projects.  Tracker balls, joysticks, head-pointers, touch-screens, purpose-built or concept keyboards are all hardware that can be utilized to cater to disabled students. OCRs, OMRs and scanners can be used to enter examination papers to be assessed on screen or by the computer itself. Microphones and speakers are useful for a large classroom where the teacher can explain on a microphone which is audible in every corner of the room. Interactive whiteboards which are used by teachers instead of the more conventional whiteboards allow the use of images, video, sound and hyperlinks to enhance subject knowledge.   The teacher’s lectures earlier were like water off a duck’s back for a pocket of students but now visual images combined with the teacher’s explanation works wonders for the weaker students as well. Interactive lessons engage and inspire the students to work more efficiently. 

The ‘future learning space’ or learning plaza is similar to the picture below where a teacher or instructor would be explaining with the help of the interactive smart boards and each student has his own desktop. All children have undergone formative assessment and accordingly are asked questions at the start and end of the class. All the computers are connected in a system and are monitored by the teacher, who then helps the pupil with any further guidance

Technology is like a catalyst for teaching and learning in the classroom. It has helped in building up the student-teacher rapport and it has proved to be a boon to both students and teachers alike. With so many rapid developments, it is a fast-growing market and institutions are investing more and more in education and technology. Did you know that the US government spends half a trillion dollars every year only on ICT in education? And this is only the public sector; imagine what it would sum up to along with the private schools. The ICT Age is definitely here to stay…..

Contributed by:

Ruchi Mehta

PGDM - EBIZ

2013-2015

WE School, Mumbai.