SocialMaharaj Technology, Travel, Food et al
Related Articles
The wooden benches, the black board and a simple table at the center was a classroom looked few years ago. The tallest person always got to sit at the last bench and the shorter ones always in the front. The biggest punishment for talking in class would be to sit next to a girl. Classrooms were full of life. In fact these classroom were where we spent almost out entire day. I miss every part of the classroom, be it writing the PAT (Present, Absent, Total) on the top corner of the board to being punished and made to sit next to a girl. Years passed, teachers changed, books became bulky, benches became bigger but the classroom remained the same. Over the past few years technology emerged and people became smart. A young child no more played with a real GI-JOE but with a virtual one on his iPad. When children get smart, schools have to get smarter. Here I’ll talk about the impact on Technology on classrooms and how it transformed this 20×20 room into world-class learning room.
When technology pitched in Education, the first and foremost concept we now saw was the ‘Smart Class‘. These ‘Smart Class’ were generally fitted with whiteboards along with a projector. Teachers were given training on these smart devices to ensure that they were comfortable with these. This was definitely a great concept, because text books used to get monotonous at times. Also many concepts weren’t clear just by reading it from a text-book and that’s where the ‘Smart Class’ pitched in. With projectors and other tools hooked up, students were now able to see videos and other interactive content that had a great impact on their understanding ability.
For me, one of the first ‘Smart Class’ concept that I came across was in Ahmedabad. While in school a company approached the school for a demo. The demo was about the ‘Water Cycle’, the content was so interesting with animation that it was very easily understood by all. And all of us knew, this ‘Smart Class’ was there to stay. As time passed, the classes became smarter and smarter with more and more tools being equipped in classrooms. I remember while I was in boarding school, they were piloting a ‘Smart board‘ concept where in a smart board was connected a laptop which project stuff on the screen. The best part was the teacher was able to interact with the digital content on the laptop through the ‘Smart Board’ so that was pretty cool.
Today, when everything has become wire-free, the traditional classrooms cease to exist. With the internet boom the ‘Cloud‘ the nouveau classrooms are no more the 20 x 20 rooms, they have broken the boundaries and have gone online. Your classmates are no more from you mohalla or city, they are from different parts of the world. They speak different languages and have different cultures. With virtual classrooms, you can study from the comfort of your homes. It does has its pros and cons which currently is out of scope of this post. One of the best ways to experience a virtual classroom is to enroll in a MOOC course. Read my previous post on MOOC to gain more insight on it. MOOCs are one of the best ways to enhance your skill-set alongside learning something new. You have great faculties from some of the best institutes teaching you. These virtual classrooms are creating a good impact on the learning process.
So you have seen how technology has had a positive impact on Education. How it has transformed our traditional classrooms to cloud classrooms. Studying was fun then and it is fun now. There are no benches, no blackboards, no bulky books, all you have is a laptop/tablet/smart phone. Cloud Classrooms are fun and interactive. I’ve attended quite a few MOOC courses and my experience was amazing, highly recommended. Have you taken up any MOOC course ? Do share with us !
This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
