leader speak
The Four Kinds of ‘I’ in Classrooms The e-content or animations are helpful in getting attention of the students. It is very important that the content should be very attractive and visually rich
T
he modern student is much more exposed to all kinds of information. He arrives in the classroom armed with knowledge acquired through internet, blogs, social networks, mobiles, TV, etc. Our teachers need to come up with ideas for catering to the needs of such smart students. We need to conduct an evaluation of the assessment techniques that we have in place today. Students prefer to be involved in the teaching process. The system of a teacher lecturing to a group of students is not conducive for the modern age. If we involve the students in the learning process and also in the
process of assessment and evaluation their interest in the teaching will be automatically aroused. In my opinion there are four types of ‘I’ in the classroom, the first ‘I’ is interest, second ‘I’ is the interaction that takes place between teacher and students, the third ‘I’ is involvement, and the fourth ‘I’ is the teacher himself. It is always the teacher who brings all these things into action inside the classroom. And unless a student is involved in the learning process, forget about the alternative assessment strategies even the current assessment strategies will be looking good only on paper.
Rohit V Katira eSense
Education for Jobs Only an active collaboration between the industry and the academia can lead to creation the right kind of educational content
T
here is an interesting case study done at BITS Pilani that seeks to analyse what is being taught in our schools and what is required by the industry. It is indeed the need of the hour to bridge the gap between what is being taught and the skills that the industry actually requires. This is not an easy task to achieve, because the needs of the industry are also constantly changing. Hence the educational content must keep up with the pace of change. A clear understanding of the needs of the industry is required and there also has to be an analysis of what is being taught. This can only be achieved through an active collaboration between the industry representatives and the academia. So this sort of a study is a good
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digitalLEARNING
february / 2012 www.digitallearning.in
way of bridging the gap between the industry and the academic community. Digital education is not just an issue tools, it is not an issue of the technology, it is also has a human side to it. There is now lot of talk about disconnect between technology and the academia. In survey on use of technology done in September 2010, Britain’s Cambridge University has topped. Howard is at second place. Delhi’s IIT is at 218, IIT Bombay is at 285 and IIT Madras is at 281. There is another interesting research done by NASSCOM. The research indicates that only 25 percent of our people are job ready. The other 75 percent lack a lot of skills that are required for being job ready. This is where the disconnect enters in the field of learning. Only an active col-
Sanjeev Sharma Country Head-Business Development, S Chand Harcourt
laboration between the industry and the academia can lead to creation of right kind of educational content.