Real Educators give innovative teaching – This can be well understood from an incident which happened in a school in America. They faced a unique problem. A number of young girls there were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints. Every evening, the sweeper would remove them and the next day, the girls would put them back. So, finally Principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the sweeper. To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the sweeper to show the girls how much effort was required. He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror! Aerial/Generic view Literacy in India – In India, one-third of our population -- old, young and adults -- are illiterate. Some 150-200 million are illiterates between 15-50 years. So, Illiteracy is an obvious major social concern. Growing at 1.3 percent per annum roughly, literacy is creeping in too slowly to make a difference to India's efficiency. The traditional method of institutions offering learning has not been able to achieve objective due to lack of funds and infrastructure. Technology aided learning tools and virtual schools could greatly help us. Need for innovation in urban India – Teaching students is not what it used to be! In the good old days children come to schools for inspiration, information and friends. Students would sit still, while teachers broadcasted and instilled information they wanted to teach. Today, students come for similar reasons but with higher expectations, greater desire to seek knowledge. They come from high-technology homes, fashionable hair-styles, designer clothes, driving on high-tech car, they walk in the corridor with ear phones attached to MP3 players, not to forget the video /mms enabled cell phones. These students have desperately seeking challenge, knowledge, interaction and inspiration. In many cases, students are better prepared and more informed than many teachers are. Good teachers know that they can no longer bluff their way through lessons. Ability to teach and educate such children is one of the most challenging aspects for our society. Technology based Innovation tools could makes teaching more relevant, meaningful and inspirational. |
Education is blend of emotional, spiritual, physical interaction in the process of learning and gaining knowledge. Innovation in teaching methodologies as well as taking help from technology based learning systems or technologically aided teaching tools would only help educators express their knowledge and wisdom better to the students. Computer Software can help make work-flow within an institution transparent, systematic and highly efficient. Similarly Audio/Video presentations, Computer based learning Systems, Internet based discussion forums and message boards could also offer valuable assistance and expedite the learning process and information sharing. However this student-technology interaction can not in anyway replace out the important rule teacher-student relationship. Guru as respectfully called in India, have a great impact on lives of children. This can well be understood by an incident Mrs. Sharma, one of our family friends narrated to me. This incident happened with her, while she was standing in the queue of reservation counter in railway platform. She is an old lady with weak legs and is suffering from blood pressure and heart problems. She accidentally noticed a young man with four children and a pregnant wife. He was wearing earrings, gold chains and was talking on cell phone. She thought he must be some spoiled arrogant business man. She tried to let him go ahead of me, “You can go first," She said. “No, you go first," he insisted. She repeated, “No, you have more people with you". With a sweeping gesture man replied,“ We should respect our elders," and then he indicated the way for her. With a brief smile flickered, Mrs. Sharma asked “Who taught you your good manners?" He replied, “You did Mrs. Sharma, in sixth grade." Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” “If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though, awakens your own expectations.” |
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