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thestatesman.net/news/75199-log-on-to-learn.html Log on to learn RUDRASHIS DATTA · The Statesman · 03 Sep 2014 Our educational system has evolved since the days when the ancient Greeks used the globe as a teaching aid to explain the shape of the earth or the legendary teacher in the Mahabharata used a toy-bird and its eyes to indicate his archer-pupil’s aim in life. Education has become increasing complex largely because of the development of new areas of learning and the need to integrate such areas into our existence. Therefore, the need for aids to teaching remains as critical today as it was in the earliest days of our educational history. This area has become still more critical with the entry of electronic and digital gadgets into the classroom. The blackboard and illustrative diagrams and charts have served as the primary teaching-learning material for generations. Yet the relative advantage of modern teaching aids, many of which are electronic, have pushed our education to the stage of a digital divide that threatens equality of educational opportunities. Commonly termed ‘Information and Communication Technology’, the concept of replacing classical aids with electronic items in learning is driven by the principle that learning takes place better when the senses of sight and sound are engaged in a synchronized manner. While this principle has been broadly accepted as true, sufficient funds are required to use such technology in our classrooms. Our tryst with the Information and Communication Technology in classrooms began a decade back. The Government of India launched the ICT in schools in December 2004 in partnership with state governments, with the Centre bearing 75 per cent of the cost and the states pitching in with 25 per cent. A decade later, we are witnessing a skewed progress across the nation. Only a few states have contributed their share of 25 per cent; most states have failed to earmark funds. The scheme suffers from a pronounced urban bias with most schools in cities cornering the benefits, leaving rural schools outside the list of beneficiaries. Clearly, this is the primary reason why the scheme has failed to bridge the urban-rural divide in terms of availability and use of ICT in schools. Again, institutions which had initially benefited from the allotment of computers and other digital learning aids are now facing the problem of sustaining its advantages. The grants are said to be inadequate to cover the cost of software upgradation and maintenance of hardware. In many schools, computers and other learning peripherals are dumped, neglected and unutilised. The draft National Policy on Information and Communication Technology in School Education published by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2012 takes into account the teething problems faced by the 2004 initiative. The support of all states in the task of implementation is a major determinant of success. The states are expected to bear a part of the huge expenditure that is required for its implementation. While most developed countries boast sustainable financial infrastructure to introduce and maintain appropriate technology in education, the majority of nations ~ covering 80 per cent of school children across the world ~ cannot afford such technology. In order to meet the cost of teaching-learning materials, UNESCO had, in its pioneering publication ‘Low cost educational materials’ recommended in 1980 the need to promote a pedagogic culture of developing low-cost teaching aids which would significantly make up for the disadvantage of the lack of costly digital teaching-learning materials. Such cost-effective materials can be equally efficient in promoting learning if they are devised and constructed in accord with the cognitive and aesthetic demands of the learners. Furthermore, such low-cost aids have little or no carbon footprint, are cost-effective and can be universally made with readily available materials and used by teachers and students alike without any specialized technical training. Though the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is working towards a low-cost technology, its influence is still largely limited to a few schools run by the central government. While resources are a major constraint in the use of technology in our classrooms, another deterrent is the poverty of ideas when it comes to formulating a strategy on the development and use of teaching aids sourced from objects of everyday use. Not only are they cost effective, but because they relate to the lives of the teacher and the taught, they have a greater acceptability and cultural proximity than electronic and digital teaching aids. The National Knowledge Commission was set up to finetune our education to meet the challenges of a globalized world order. Its ‘Report to the Nation on School Education’ in 2008 was vague when it observed that ‘wherever feasible, ICT should be made more accessible to teachers, students and administration for learning, training, research, administration, management, monitoring, etc’. Added to this issue is the need to train educators in the effective use of such teaching materials. The International Institute of Educational Planning, an arm of UNESCO, in its 2004 report titled ‘Adapting technology for school improvement: a Global Perspective’, observed that “retraining teachers to use the new technology is complicated and costly. Even if they had access to the Internet, most teachers in the developing world lack the technical skills, the content background, and the language capacity to effectively utilize the World Wide Web in classroom instruction. Most web-based resource material is in an international language, with the preponderance in English. Notwithstanding language skills, teachers often lack the pedagogic skills to know how to most effectively use this powerful information tool in their classroom.” Clearly, the challenges are two-fold ~ to make the tools available to teachers and to train them to use the tools effectively in the classrooms. Without a viable ICT infrastructure in place, most of the privileged institutions with access to modern teaching aids, are compelled to use such equipment as an appendage, a perfunctory add-on to teaching-learning instead of weaving the resources into the instructional process. This results in wastage of scarce resources and impedes our evolution into a knowledge-rich educational regime. The digital divide in educational opportunities is a vicious cycle. Pupils on the wrong side of the divide would not only be deprived of easier learning opportunities but would fail to contribute effectively to society after they complete their formal education. They would be disadvantaged while competing with those on the greener side of the divide. ICT is both a challenge and an opportunity. As a fulcrum of our transition to a knowledge society, it holds the key to the twin domains of education and employment. Weaving this into the structural fabric of our education still remains a critical area of concern in our efforts to universalize education and promote quality. The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Raiganj B.Ed. College in West Bengal
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 09:02:50 +0000

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