1. Some thoughts on deluge of e-Learning over Traditional methods
Everyone heard that speed of thoughts travel faster than that of light!! (simply
more than 3X10^8 m/s)
If I close my eyes, through the power of imagination of human mind (a developed
one like mine, that is!!) I can just experience anything and transport myself
anywhere – to the farthest corners of the universe.
What can come closest to this, with open eyes for a 10 year old child, whose mind
is still developing the ability of deep sense of imagination?
The answer to this is Virtual Reality.
Gone are the days when I was reading how Mars look like through Black and White
pictures and supporting text written on something cuboidal in shape, we used to
call as Books.
Now my next generation literally travels to Mars in a spacesuit, in a blink of eye
and collect soil samples by their little hands while feeling the atmospheric
pressure.
Interestingly, they do home-work in Class and Class-work at Home.
The lectures and videos are all understood at home via online content over tablets
or iPads through VR devices.

2. And the assignments and so-called home-work is done in the class, where students
form groups and teachers intervene or monitor.
Wish I could unlearn few concepts, go back to 7th
grade and learn about Lifecycle
of a Butterfly, via dedicated Digital Learning Objects based on Game Based
Learning. Egg to Larva to Pupa to Adult. The beautiful animations of varied colors
during growth of a Butterfly on a screen would have surely led to my adrenaline
rush (not exaggerating especially when coming from a girl!!).
Learning Mathematics Addition and Subtraction through Interactive animations of
Angry Birds eggs is just so exciting.
To my utter surprise, there is a strong myth prevalent in many schools in India
that these e-learning ways make the small children little less social. But little do
they know that by following a very balanced approach of virtual class-rooms and
real class-rooms, students learn more in less time while they also mingle with their
friends during group assignments and activities within the four walls of the school
also.
Certainly, the focus and interest of the student is easily enhanced by these
creative and captivating electronic learning methods.
Outright dismissal should be for the traditional method, where school students are
forced to lend their ears to the incessant quacks of monolithic Teachers (pun
intended), scribbling some ASCII characters on black/white boards, for whom
students wish to just click a pause button (Did I just picture myself sitting in my
class, those many years ago? ).