Digital age widens gap between teachers, students in classrooms

Teachers facing challenges in garnering students attention

Chennai:

As innovation in technology is bringing in a rapid change across the globe, educationalists are now facing the new challenge to create 21^st century learning environment for classrooms where the students have low attention span, are tech savvy and have high exposure to information.

As academicians from various schools discussed ways to find a solution during a conference organized by EZ Vidya, India’s leading research company focusing on delivering quality and holistic education in schools, here on Saturday, an expert suggested the need to transform the schools in five distinct areas.

“There is a substantial consensus among educationalists that transformation needs to happen in five broad areas which are student thinking, classroom dynamics, learning ambience, technology integration and teacher empowerment to effectively address these challenges,” says founder and chief executive officer of EZ Vidya Chitra Ravi, who has unveiled Chrysalis, a pioneering product that brings 21^st century education in over 700 schools across India.

She says research has showed that 81 per cent of school heads expressed that rote learning was the biggest reason for lowering the standard of students passing out of schools and developing high order thinking skills in students is the need of the hour.

Interestingly, there is a huge gap between the teachers and children born in the digital age where children are hooked to gadgets most of their waking time. As such the biggest challenge the teacher faces is to gain the attention of the student during the 40-minute session. “There is a need to break the monotony in the classroom,” says Chitra.

She says today’s careers and lifestyle demand different and diverse skills from individuals and it is imperative for schools to create learning environment to meet these needs. The focus should be to make students think instead of learning from textbooks.

The conference also has subject corners at the venue to domonstrate how contemporary pedagogy can be made fun for students while effectively enhancing learning outcomes.