Recently I have meet few youth group which includes final year engineering and graduation students and few final years’ Intermediate students. All of them were worried about one major issue that is of incompletion of syllabus due to lack of regular classes because of Telangana agitation for separate statehood. This is not just the problem of college students but also with school children especially the 10th class students who have board exams. This is creating a problem for them in preparing for competitive exams like GRE, GMAT, IIT, AIEEE, MBBS and also applying for foreign university and in preparing for campus interviews.
I am not here discussing whether the agitation is right or wrong but I am thinking how we can have regular or at least few classes even when the colleges are closed due to agitation.
There is one answer to this problem i.e. “TECHNOLOGY”. We just need one computer with a speaker, web cam and an internet connection. Professor of the college can take classes in his house or behind the close doors of colleges.
1. He/she can deliver the lecture live, where all the students in their respective homes/cyber cafes can listen to class and interaction can take place and if a student has a doubt he can clarify it online.
2. He/she can record the lecture and post it on You Tube. Here the student can clarify his doubt by writing comments and later it can be clarified.
3. Online classes cost nothing extra for college/school management as there are many service providers who provide it free of cost.
4. It is certainly affordable for students as well. They just have to pay 10-15rs for an hour in the cyber cafe. In fact majority of them will be having internet in their home.
It is all up to the school/college leader to take this kind of decision and think creatively on how better we can use the technology. It is no point in starting a technology college when we don’t know how the technology can be used for better learning of the students.
