Dr Jaipal Singh
Almost entire world is in the grip of COVID 19. World Health Organization issued some guidelines and directions to strictly adhere. Prime Minister Shri Narindera Bhai Damodhar Dass Modi in his quickest action issued the advisories, imposed Janta Curfew followed by Series of Lockdown to defeat the ill effect of dreaded virus Corona whose vaccine is under trial by most of the advanced countries of the world including India but yet no concrete results till date.
Corona is flaring up day by day with increase in numbers on every new day and had engulfed many precious lives in its clutches. Looking at the present scenario, it is advisable to stay home, stay safe and stay blessed. But sad part of this dilemma is that it is adversely affecting the career of hundreds of millions of students by deviating them from their main stream focus, thereby severely attacking directly on their class room studies, concentration and potential.
Students are the true future generation of every nation. Their optimum energy is needed to be utilized in right direction at present juncture, especially in our country, for their well being too. Their all spheres of activities both physical and mental(class room activities) are on halt during these days. They are the worst sufferers. Everything can be revived sooner or later but precious time of student once lost cannot be revived. This will ultimately affect the development of the individual and slower the rate of recovery of the nation, in many spheres, after COVID 19, if it is not attended wisely at this point of time.
At present, it is not feasible to continue with the traditional class room teachings, due to wide spread of Corona Virus, in our country too. Most important aspect is to defeat deadly pandemic corona virus ( COVID 19). This great challenge can be squeezed and eliminated from our country with great dedication and responsibility. It is the real time to ascertain unity in diversity and sense of belongingness of being debited to the nation. Thank God, People of the nation are doing all well in this direction and are religiously following the instructions being imposed by Government from time to time to fight and eradicate COVID 19 at its earliest from our country.
Looking at the above scenario, alternative methods of teaching for the students is the demand of the hour. Online teaching programme is a latest as well as modern tool of teaching learning process. By using it, WHO directions and guidelines can be strictly adhered which otherwise is not plausible within the institute due to presence of innumerable students.
To the best of my understanding, e Learning / Online teaching learning programme is the right time to encourage / implement in true letter and spirit so that virtual class room teaching learning process may be made effective as well as supportive life line for the students of all classes under discussion as nothing else seems to be the most appropriate option, other than this, in the present scenario.
At its initial stage, it will pose certain threats and challenges to students. But over a small period of time, with all technical knowhow, both by the students and teachers, it seems to work more effectively and efficiently. For all this, change of attitude of the stakeholder, practicality of teacher and technological literacy for both students and teachers is urgently needed at their back end.
Training part to strengthen technical knowhow / skill of teachers in imparting knowledge to students through online classes using techno tools is the most challenging task. So, at first instance, this challenging task is needed to tackle sincerely at our end.
For this, a minimum of three day training programme is suggested which is sufficient for teachers of today to get familiarize with the use of modern tools which are to be used in online teaching classes. This will result in better delivery of lectures to the students by the teachers besides their proper monitoring and evaluation during online classes. A well acquainted teacher with all the modern techno tools will be great asset in the ongoing dilemma of forced shifting of class room teaching to online teaching – the only suitable and appropriate alternative in this regime of uncontrolled – COVID 19.
Without monitoring and evaluating mechanism, better delivery of lectures will not yield fruitful results as most of the students will take online classes casually. For this, mindset of students is also needed to refurbished for online classes. Their voluntarily acceptance and strong zeal to welcome online teaching programme will make it a gigantic success. Only then, our mission of imparting desired knowledge to the students through virtual class room teaching will be thought to be fulfilled. It will also lead to successful completion of their online courses with a positive vibe which otherwise a student may quit mid way.
Simultaneously I would like to highlight the practical difficulties of this instant change over i.e. shifting from class room teaching to online teaching which has to take place in a shortest span of time during this lock down period or extended lockdown periods in the larger interest of stakeholders.
* India is a country of village and villagers having at the most one mobile phone which is hypothetic. Out of it, only 30% may have android phones which I feel is an exaggerated data and further needs to be verified on ground. It means there are innumerable students who do not have their own mobile phones/android phones and have to totally rely on family phone. Even a single family phone may not serve the purpose of more than one child in a family for under going online classes. Might possible, the sole bread earner have lost his job and He/She too had a financial implications of purchasing new android phone or even finding it difficult to recharge the existing one. For children of such parents, we need to think moving one step a head.
* Secondly, we must admit our present system of education is such that most of the students rely mostly on class room teachings, library books and on e-content/material too. For e-content material, most of the student of city join e-libraries and cyber café too which are being run by many people mostly in cities for their better yield and due to innumerable reasons like less voltage fluctuation, proper electricity, scheduled electric cuts in the area or no electricity cuts i.e 24×7 hour electricity supply as in industrial areas, good quality of internet signal….etc.. Such a facility can never be possible for students of villages due to scheduled as well as unscheduled electricity cuts, delayed approach in replacing old and faulty telephone lines, for internet connections, of which I am also a great sufferer. A good internet facility is also a dream on and around the border areas due to security reasons. This disparity needs to be checked otherwise it may become the cause of migration from village to city. This will further add to the miseries of the villagers and effect their living style besides imbalancing the population density of the regions of the country.
* Thirdly, as we know internet has its own benefits and shortcomings. Its improper/misuse may distract the study of normal student from achieving its goals. Not only this, its excessive use may affect the nervous system besides eye sight. This may gave birth to many undesirable ailments. It will reduce the physical activity of the students as students will prefer to play games on computers during their leisure time. Surely, it will weaken the immunity system as well as defensive mechanism of the individual and nation as a whole.
* Definitely components under discussions are eye opener. They are needed to be discussed with the ministry of High and Higher Education for imparting equal opportunities to all the students irrespective of caste, colour, creed and gender. It includes transgender too. Besides this, a proper check is required to plug various sites so as to prevent innocent students from their ill effects.
* Finally, for all those students who have better over all merit in his/her all round development or economically weaker students or otherwise to all, government may devise a system to provide laptops, desktops, android phones of latest configurations on which apps like Zoom Cloud meeting app, Google class room, whatsapp…..etc. may run uninterruptedly. This initiative if done with sincere efforts will bring boom in education, research and public sector. If possible, it must be kept as a part of new education policy too.
* Repair, renovation and upgradation of telephone lines in the entire country may be done in a shortest possible time on war foot.
* Internet companies must come forward to provide quality signal strength and free internet access to students both within and outside the institution (Schools, colleges and universities ) for teaching learning content only.
* Virtual labs for science students in collaboration with other agencies/ educational institutes/IIT’s/private companies of India and abroad may be set up so as to provide an opportunity to the students to perform experiments using internet and visual aids without having physical equipments at their end.
* Though this is not a permanent solution but definitely it will mitigate the urgent demand of the stakeholders to some extent for uninterrupted transmission of practical knowledge under the impact of pandemic COVID 19.
* Doing so, students can access virtual instruments via a computer network and carry out real experiments directly by using a standard Web Browser.
* The virtual lab programs may also present a unique opportunity to boost the quality of education , deepen understanding, provide easier experimental set up, efficient result recordings, modifications, where ever required, and also provide the necessary practical skills to young minds through cost effective outreach and distance learning activities.
* Finally, I would like to say that all stake holders and educational institutions may be well equipped with the modern technology and latest equipments for starting and gearing up e-learning initiative so as to bring education at the door steps of learners who are studying in various schools, degree colleges and universities too.
In gist online teaching for all categories of students will be a new and timely initiative if taken right now, in true letter and spirit, as it is the need of the hour.
(The author is Associate Professor of
Physics Government Degree College, R S Pura)
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
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