You might have observed that in
all my blogs I have always given priority to innovation in education methods.
The simple reason for that is we are moving into a revolutionary phase where
things will become outdated quite quickly. Hence, there is always a need for something
new and exciting to make students interested in the subjects. More so; in case
of theory subjects like English where students do not find it interesting to
read the whole bunch of chapters to get the story. The tedious job of an online
tutor is not only to depict the information in the English chapters through
interesting means but also deliver knowledge to the students in such a manner
that they want to study the chapters again and again. Now this is a challenge
especially for young children in Std. I to VIII. As the age of a child
increases the curiosity factor decreases. Hence, this is the period when
children want to learn something different. So the tried and tested methods of
teaching will never work for these children.
I know if you are a tutor
yourself, you are wondering and saying to yourself I have been a teacher all my
life and now you come up with your own thesis claiming the online teaching mechanism
has flaws? You are right my friend. Although you have been teaching since a
long time things change and people change. The same teaching mechanism cannot
be used for the current generation as they are quite smart and know everything
about the new technology. They like to experiment a bit since early childhood
and learn through their own experiences. From what I have learned so far I can
say very bluntly that we have never learned the art of understanding the minds
of a child. The only thing we are interested is in making our future generation
a bunch of crammers who go to college get their degrees but at the end of the
day when you ask them basic questions that are relevant in the practical world
they are clueless. We do not want our future generation to be book-wormers we
want them to learn through practical experiences. More so by making them
experience the same things that they learn in theory.
One way of doing that is through
animation-based e-learning. Now I know
this idea looks ridiculous but believe me if you are a child aged 8 years of
age you will love to see the Tom and Jerry series on cartoon network or Duck
tales series which used to telecast earlier. Now the only reason I am giving
these examples is because every story in English language in primary education has
a moral behind it. If we try to depict it in an interesting manner in similar
lines to these cartoon series it will make students see the animations again
and again. This way; online tutors do not have to spend
much time on making students understand the topics. Moreover, students can
revise the chapters by going through the animated series of chapters again and
again thereby reducing the burden on parents. Students will study without any
force and will literary ask for more and more chapters in the digitalized/animated
format. The quizzes can then be taken after a specific interval to gauge the
success of this concept. I feel that this can work and will prove to be a major
hit in future. Children as it is are not happy with books.
Practically speaking, I see so
many toddlers carrying loads of books in their schoolbags. It is so ridiculous but
their own weight is far less than the weights of the books. Isn’t it our duty
to see that the children are not overburdened with studies? This is the age
which we as mature adults remember now and share our experiences with our peers
and friends saying those were the happy days without any pressure. Now, if your
own child is burdened with the kind of education which is being provided will
you be happy with it? Moreover, I have also seen parents sending their children
to private tutors which increase the burden on children tremendously. Because
now they have do over-time by completing the class work, homework and the
tuition work. Is n’t it a sin to burden a child with so much of pressure? Can’t
we creatively think about an education system which is free from books and
provides practical exposure to children so that they can become future
managers, leaders and so on?
Story-boards are also interesting
concepts wherein you make children learn about the subjects through stories in
the form of sequential animated images. But if we make it even better by
providing them with animated cartoon characters to depict the chapters it will
be a great hit amongst children. Even the parents would love it. Online tutoring will improve because now
you will have to increase the creativity quotient and think out-of-the-box to
resolve the concerns of the children differently than the traditional ways of
communication. But that is something which I will be discussing in my next
blog. For now I will sign off with a statement which has made me think about
this concept quite seriously:
“OUR FUTURE GENERATION IS SERIOUSLY FACING THE FLAK RIGHT NOW IN TERMS OF LACK OF INNOVATIVE EDUCATION TECHNIQUES. HENCE, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO THINK OUT-OF-THE-BOX TECHNIQUES TO INCREASE THE BENCHMARK OF ONLINE EDUCATION AROUND THE GLOBE.”
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