Schools throw their gates open post COVID-19 and students wobble in dressed in space suits with a pressure helmet, neck ring, pressure gloves, LITMG boot, food port, water connector and pencil pockets. If you think this is exaggerated, the new uniform may resemble the PPE to cover the whole body.
Face recognition technology will have to be installed. There will be no need to carry lunch and snacks boxes; instead they will consume foods like fruits, nuts, candies, cookies and juices in disposable packages. Another sigh of relief is: no more books, just the tablets.
Primary teachers are lightened of their non-pedagogical burdens and no complaints of “Teacher! He is pinching/pushing/beating me/has taken my pencil/torn my page/stoln my lunch box....”
New models
But the critical shift required is an engaging architecture of a novel teaching-learning process: content delivered in small bites with plenty of video, audio material and infographics, PPTs with voiceovers, interactive voices of teachers and students, and VR and ARs.
The pandemic has exposed learners to multiple modes of teaching-learning. Unlike the regimented teacher-led classes, learners navigate on their own matching their cognitive potential and passion when absolutely ready. The structured quizzes interspersed with texts are indicators of their learning level.
Realisation dawned that learning could be personalised, outcome oriented and a happy experience. Educators are convinced that this is not a passing fad; the demand for relevance and personalisation will only increase in the years to come.
A shake-up for teachers
Back in their classes, no longer can teachers settle into their old methods: read out, dictate notes, solve problems on the boards, lecture, and let students do it all. The learners will demand innovative practices rooted to their demands and aspirations. Sure, this will rattle the teaching community habituated to doling out information monotonously.
Well, there are no set pedagogical formulas to succeed. The ‘new normal’ classes should encompass multiplicity and a felt need to bring the outside world into the classroom. They should replicate reality; and channelise it to shape a safe life for the post-millennials.
Learners acknowledge that learning is their responsibility and not just confined to the physical space of a school and books. Setting aside the pandemic, the educational landscape has witnessed new avatars in the last couple of decades — distance education, home schooling, online learning, MOOCs from the renowned universities with transferable credits, multi-disciplinary courses and for specific purposes — but, disappointingly, the brick-and-mortar institutions kept these influences out. However, students will fashion metamorphoses for better learning ecosystem.
Teachers are compelled to embrace classroom-based research to evolve practical approaches, methods, strategies and techniques for different levels, different environments and different sets of students. No longer can they be content with the same notes, teaching the same subjects with the same methods; their sameness has to pave way for variety. As an educationist remarked, “If computers can replace teachers, so be it.”
The writer is the National Secretary, ELTAI, and former Professor and Head, Department of English, Anna University, Chennai.
