7 months ago
3
The autumnal sunlight, filtering done the model curtain, woke maine up from my midday nap that I person got utilized to successful my post-retirement days. Suddenly, my attraction got riveted to the scroll connected the TV astir the University Grants Commission taking a relook astatine the integer learning ecosystem to adjacent the disconnect betwixt acquisition and employment. That acceptable maine reasoning connected a mislaid paradise, the classrooms which discovered, nurtured, and nourished the teacher successful maine for adjacent to 50 years. Having taught English connection and lit to aggregate generations crossed Kerala, I thought it was worthwhile to research and rediscover the ecstasies and anxieties associated with those days. Besides, it mightiness not beryllium retired of spot to bespeak connected the shifting scenes of the schoolroom dynamics, astatine a clip erstwhile artificial quality is each acceptable to revamp the teaching and learning process, and robots are getting acceptable to regenerate teachers.
Fifty years is simply a agelong period, agelong capable for a tectonic displacement successful immoderate sphere of quality activity. I started disconnected dealing with a procreation that was yet to spot television. They mightiness not person adjacent heard of Internet, smartphone oregon artificial intelligence. The boys and girls, chiefly from agrarian and semi-urban areas, were by and ample elemental and untouched by the surfeit of worldly comforts. They were accepted and had learnt from adversity.
For them, accusation exertion meant the people medium, radio, telephone, and telegraph. They came to assemblage connected foot, by bus, oregon connected bicycles. Having done schooling successful the Malayalam medium, astir of them struggled to talk successful English oregon travel lectures successful the language. Convent acquisition was not communal successful those days. It was a procreation haunted by the spectre of Wren and Martin, the celebrated authors of High School English Grammar and Composition. Obsession with grammar adversely affected their spoken English. However, their written English turned retired to beryllium better, which mightiness person stood them successful bully stead successful competitory examinations. Their pronunciation and accent often revealed the power of the parent tongue. But they were diligent, hard-working, and brimming with enthusiasm. They work and wrote avidly and made afloat usage of the library. Evidently, they had a consciousness of intent and knew good that their aboriginal depended connected their world performance.
Resuming teaching aft a fewer years, I recovered myself look to look with the alleged Gen Z. That they were netizens and tech-savvy was not capable to unnerve me, though I took pains to marque myself little anachronistic. Armed with laptops, tablets, and smartphones, they looked similar the quintessential integer natives. I was each admiration for their new-fangled ways, fantabulous connection skills, deft handling of physics gadgets, and devil-may-care attitude. They had exorcised the ghosts of Wren and Martin. But what shocked maine was their reluctance to research the library, the lifeline for the earlier generations. Even postgraduate students were nary different. They claimed to person everything they needed successful the laptop. Their conception of books and speechmaking was shaped by technology, which mightiness beryllium instrumental successful moulding their quality and outlook to a sizeable extent. There was nary accepted texts; lone PDFs successful the class. Stanley Fish, the American theorist, would person rephrased his question, “Is determination a substance successful the class”, arsenic “Is determination a PDF successful the class?” The enticing rustle of insubstantial and the seductive aroma of books were mislaid connected them. I wondered however a not-so-smart teacher similar maine could past successful a “smart classroom”. Eventually, I had to bring retired the full repertoire of my persuasive skills to person my students that lit did not lend itself to beryllium taught with the assistance of acquisition gadgets. I inactive uncertainty if lit tin beryllium taught astatine all.
Let imaginativeness flourish
But what is alarming is the breathtaking velocity astatine which caller forms of exertion alteration the acquisition landscape. AI and robotic devices are each acceptable to regenerate teachers. We thin to repetition T.S. Eliot’s questions, “Where is the contented we person mislaid successful knowledge? Where is the cognition we person mislaid successful information?” Technology is simply a double-edged sword. It enriches and astatine the aforesaid time, dehumanises quality experience. It is precocious clip we thought astir what was mislaid successful the classroom. We request to recalibrate and reimagine the acquisition process without estranging it from intuition, penetration and creativity. Let the integer gyration not precipitate the demise of imagination, and fto america not hide that teachers, if they privation to past successful the classroom, would person to marque themselves unsocial and bash what nary robot tin mimic.
drcg.pillai@gmail.com
