CLASSROOM EDUCATION VS ONLINE EDUCATION
"The Covid-19 crisis has changed the world forever – especially education. Classroom education is dead, obsolete and Stone Age. Online education will and should replace classroom education." This is now the consensus opinion of almost all experts and ordinary people.
I know people will call me Stone Age. But based on my 18 years experience as a student and 7 years experience as a faculty, I will say this: The classroom + blackboard + chalk is the most effective method for understanding a subject – especially complex concepts. There is no substitute for mentally wrestling with complex concepts with the help of a faculty who has been doing the same for years – along with other students who are currently doing the same.
If online education is better than classroom education because it is more 'efficient', then why stop there? Why not take this idea one step further – to its logical conclusion? Excellent textbooks are available on every subject. So the most 'efficient' option is to simply buy the textbooks, sit at home and read the textbooks. Where is the need for even an online education? To get a degree? It will be more 'efficient' for universities to only conduct exams and award degrees to those who pass the exams.
Since 1947, we have completely neglected quality and focussed only on quantity in our education. This is the #1 reason for India's under-development today. Now this online education will become another excuse to further dilute quality for the sake of quantity in our education. "We have reached X number of students", "We have trained Y number of candidates", "We have produced Z number of graduates", etc. How well have they understood the subjects? Especially complex concepts? Nobody is bothered about this.
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2 comments:
Not every student interacts with the faculty in *real time* in classrooms. Most go home and revisit the topics taught to learn and relate to what was taught in class. Going online ideally must reduce cost of education because it eliminates the input costs of constructing classrooms. The students can pick the brains of faculty online.
Please also note the wide spread concept of private tuitions. It's a sign of the effectiveness of classroom teaching.
But online doesn't solve the lab sessions.
Not every student interacts with the faculty in *real time* in classrooms.
They don't have to. The interaction is a group/common activity - and so benefits all students.
The students can pick the brains of faculty online.
In theory - yes. But in practice, it doesn't happen.
Please also note the wide spread concept of private tuitions. It's a sign of the effectiveness of classroom teaching.
It is a more a sign of societal + parental pressure.
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