COVID 19 is indeed an opportunity to stem the rot - Impact of Lockdown on education Part II

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to cleanse the governance of corruption have not yielded even 000000000.1% results in favour of corruption free governance after six years of his rule. There is a lot of systemic correction that’s necessary before reforms yield results. As such COVID 19 triggered lockdown is Time for bold decisions and investments, reiterates Modi indeed an opportunity to correct the corrupt course of public discourse in a county plagued by what economists call “the Hindu Rate of growth”.

Well in the field of education opening the doors of the internet would certainly increase exposure and augment learning one would assume. But like everything else one does not know unknown territory until one sets foot.

Indian education system emphasises rote learning and dumping a huge amount of education material on the hapless student community without ever exercising students’ creative potential or inherent talent.

Internet TV based e classroom learning has dummed education to Media on Demand. The teachers loved their academic subjects but the system failed to inculcate their love for the subject in the students.

There was hardly ever any scope for students to contribute unless in the highest institutions of education – the IITs and IIMs. We had all the apps and gizmos to welcome people into a virtual world long back if needed. But, this did not happen that way on a large scale- Anywhere- until now.

“The present state of On-line teaching per se has obviously, stemmed more from a state of compulsion and circumstances rather than choice. For, if it were not so, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge and hundreds of others institutions of academic excellence including our own IITs and IIMs, all built with planning, pain, passion, money and love would best be relegated to a nonexistent virtual 3D model & everyone would have gone for complete online teaching long back” opines Ramnath Sakleshpur who regularly teaches High Students and Pre Degree students online learning in Bangalore.  He says there are advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of online teaching are:

1)      A huge cut in travel costs and expenses (both for the staff and the students) and hence less pollution (environmental plus)

2)      Saving of trees (precious environmental advantage) on account of lesser building spaces for education.

3)      Student can have access to the best faculty members which was otherwise impossible to access- being geographically independent.

4)      On recording a live stream, student can go though the video lecture repeatedly to revisit problems (like in Mathematics or other subjects) where he initially felt standing on a shaky ground. No ‘Missed’ classes that way.

5)      Greater access to softcopies of tech materials.

6)      No location limitation to either the student or teacher- if, a stable network connectivity exists. Learn & teach from anywhere!!

7)      There is a bigger reach (audience) for the teacher to spread his message.

8)      Flexibility in timings, both for the student and teacher.

9)      Certain concepts (like 3D geometry, nature of graphs, pictorial representation of a Mathematical problem and its solution) can be best explained through good multimedia visualization tools and an online infrastructure would best enhance those efforts.

10)  Greater potential to interact with luminaries and experts in the field amidst these electronic cross exchanges.

11)  No ugly ragging on campuses

12)  Student can get ahead of the class by having access to a Database of video lectures (if uploaded) and dabble with the question bank in areas he feels he needs to surge ahead.

13)  No time delay in conveying latest advances in the field to the students -as there is no wait time- for the faculty member to physically come to deliver his lecture.

14)  Both, the student and the teacher can have the 'be at home' with an easy feeling.

15)  Online admissions will cleanse the corruption in admissions.  

Disadvantages:

1)                  Student-teacher rapport is diminished or takes a longer time to nurture. Lack of face to face exchanges between the student and the teacher diminishes the students’ intensity or desire to grasp in most cases.

2)                  Student could have a ‘take it easy’ attitude when at home or have poor concentration.

3)                  An unsteady internet connection or poor quality video could create havoc for the session-either during   a normal lecture day or worse still-, during a test or exam time.

4)                  Unlike a physical class- on the spot clarification – of a problem or doubt asked by a student would be missing here, as normally  a separate session to ask such questions is followed generally by most on line teachers.

5)                  Some students needs access to certain Mathematical tools (for specialized symbols and operations) in order to put across doubts to the teacher in a proper format.   Many of such tools don’t come free.

6)                  Students’ body language signals (especially, expressing inability to understand the concepts) gets bypassed by the teacher and the class would be left behind in a state of doubts and confusion till the next session.

7)                  The joy and excitement of going to a school-college and meeting with others will be missed by many.

If internet is used as a medium / tool to widen one’s horizons without relying too much on the medium / internet itself it can be of great value to student community. But this same internet connection will be a liability during exams.

How can teachers invigilate students during exams during Lockdown triggered distance learning? Assuming Social distancing will be the norm if humanity survives to live to tell the tale?

“Already the teacher at and the udemies of the world had signaled a tectonic shift in the way education was being delivered - COVID has rapidly accelerated the online mode of working. With the webcam acting as the recorder and the invigilator, teachers are realising that they can continue teaching, and what’s more, teach perhaps with greater efficiency - automating tasks like checking attendance, evaluating quizzes and recording lessons for replay” says Arun Gopinath, exclusively to Digital Discourse Foundation. Gopinath is a software industry professional, who works in an MNC in Bangalore, India.

The web camera can certainly not mount the same effective vigil especially in places like India where copying in exams is a birthright in certain parts of the country.

“Availability status on Skype marks your attendance” like Gopinath says is a double but double edged sword. There is a difference between learning and education says Prof. Suma singh in her Blog

“Unless the teacher’s camera is hooked to every student’s monitor there is no way a teacher can monitor the students’ attentiveness. Paying attention in class… all students and teachers agree is the key to assimilating knowledge and widening the education horizon” says Ramnath. “Skype availability cannot be taken for granted, if a Degree student is watching you Tube instead of attending the lecture what can we teachers do to penalize the errant student?”

In the field of integrated education to differently abled or special children, distance learning can be futile as well as advantageous. Lip reading and visual aids are critical for hearing impaired children, while personal attention is indispensable for visually challenged students. Thus tailor made optional e learning classes are necessary for differently abled students.

For children with Mental health issues like spasticism, educational exposure has to be accompanied by Physio therapy and other kinds of physical training where tailor made optional e learning classes are necessary. This segment calls for huge investment in terms of trained personnel, and content creation based on specific syllabus. If this can be pulled off, Distance Learning will be one swell achievement during COVID 19 triggered Lockdown for the Modi led Government of India.

Foremost of all an intranet or an education / examination portal is needed to make online learning and teaching effective. A lot more of ironing out cluttered issues is necessary before Distance Learning succeeds in intent and import.

(Concluded)