Saturday 25 July 2015

Going Beyond Textbooks

In my previous article (Textbooks – a key link in traditional teaching methodology), I shared my views on the critical role that Textbooks played in establishing connect among the Teachers, Students and Parents. The shift from "Textbook" teaching for academic education came with the introduction of Computers in schools. This led to the shift in the teaching methodology from Textbook/ Reference Books mode to Textbook ++ mode.

This period also coincided with the time when post liberalization the economy had opened, there was a new job market of computer graduates shaping up, Schools and Teachers getting exposed to the new teaching methodologies adopted globally/ international boards. Parents became demanding and there was competition among schools to devise/ adopt new teaching methodologies. There were concerted efforts put in by schools and teachers in particular to adopt new teaching methods that go beyond the textbooks.

Access to computers in schools provided teachers with a new channel to deliver content to students. However, the onus of developing the right content remained with the teacher who had to put in additional time to build their content repositories. Teachers made effective use of computer + printer infrastructure in school to prepare and share information on subjects and practice worksheets with the students. Remember, computers were still expensive not in everyone’s home then. So, the worksheets actually had to be printed by teachers and sent physically with the students to home.

This first phase of technology led transition from textbook to beyond textbook was useful for the students. They could now get additional resources prepared by their Teachers on topics of their interest and practice assignments to further improvise their understanding of the concepts. 

Teachers were, however, the key driver of content delivery during this phase, as it was the teacher who had put in all the extra hours to develop, structure and share the right content with the students. 
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Edventz (www.edventz.com) is a new age Educational Solutions provider started by software engineers with 40+ years of experience in designing software solutions. We have recently launched our first service www.edventz.com, which provides the platform to School and Teachers/ Private Tutors to organize and deliver school content (worksheets, activity reminders and circulars) to the Parents on time.
Do visit our blog at www.edventz.blogspot.in

Tuesday 21 July 2015

Textbooks – a key link in traditional teaching methodology

I was doing some research work to analyse the Content Delivery mechanisms among School, Teachers, Parents and Students. These are the key stakeholders in the Education ecosystem and effective communication among them is very critical. There are some interesting observations which I am putting across through a few articles to get your views.

Let me start with the traditional method of teaching, which many of us went through during our schooling. There was no internet, mobiles and digital classroom solutions then. The curriculum was designed by the boards (CBSE or ICSE or State Education Boards) and delivered to students in classroom by Teachers through Textbooks or Notebooks.

I believe the traditional form of teaching developed an effective content delivery mechanism from Teachers to Students and Parents through Textbooks. Textbooks were the common link among the stakeholders in the ecosystem, which all of them used to refer. Teachers will teach Students from the Textbooks, Students will carry these Textbooks to homes and Parents will refer the Textbooks to revise the subjects. The practice exercises were either limited to Textbook exercises or additional exercises made by teachers and sent through notebooks. This mechanism ensured that the communication gap among the Teacher, Students and Parents is limited and all of them were in sync on the content that needs to be consumed.

While the introduction of new technologies has significantly enhanced the content quality and content customization, I believe that the traditional Textbook driven mechanism effectively linked the efforts of the Teachers, Students and Parents.

Edventz (www.edventz.com) is a new age Educational Solutions provider started by software engineers with 40+ years of experience in designing software solutions. We have recently launched our first service www.edventz.com, which provides the platform to School and Teachers/ Private Tutors to organize and deliver school content (worksheets, activity reminders and circulars) to the Parents on time. 

Do visit our blog at www.edventz.blogspot.in