Abstract of the Paper

Integration of IT with Conventional Classroom Teaching in Schools

Alok Gaur

Abstract

Popular views of educational technology tend to exaggerate both its promise and its peril. Advocates tout IT and the Internet as instant remedies for dry curriculum and didactic instruction in schools. Alarmists worry that IT will replace teachers and that the World Wide Web will poison the minds of young people. Both extreme positions place too much emphasis on the technology itself. People-especially teachers-shape the impact of computers in schools more than the features of hardware and software. If we want to understand how to improve learning in schools, we need to pay more attention to the interfaces that are specially designed to be used by a teacher seamlessly with his/her wisdom as well as all other conventional teaching aids during a classroom teaching process. This paper attempts to share the thoughts that led to the conceptualization, the processes that evolved to develop and the results that were obtained after implementation of a pioneering and perhaps the first–of–its–kind digital classroom teaching aid called Bhartiyavidya (‘Bhartiya’ meaning from India and ‘Vidya’ meaning Knowledge).

Objectives & Significance

“Bhartiyavidya” is a system that can be used by the teachers for more effective classroom teaching alongwith other conventional teaching methods and tools that include the teacher’s wisdom, teacher’s voice, chalk and blackboard.

The system comprises of Computer Hardware, Hardware-Software Interfaces, Security Devices, Colour Television, Computer-Television Interface, Secure Databases, specifically designed User Interface Software and custom made Multimedia Audio-Visual aids (known as Capsules in ‘Bhartiyavidya’ terminology) based on in-house researched school curriculum based teaching modules. The multimedia content has certain distinct features like expandability, scalability, and absence of voice over and use of minimal amount of text with specified minimum font size. The voice over has been intentionally avoided so that the solution does not become a substitute to the teacher since the solution is meant only for aiding the teacher in effectively communicating the academic subjects to the students. The system allows single button stop and play as well as functionality of Digital Chalk for the teacher to reinforce/ focus on specific areas in a given visual frame. Further the present invention is a multimedia solution that works alongwith the blackboard since the display device for students is a 29’’ colour TV (which works on the principle of light emission) and provides the teacher the flexibility to switch from the blackboard to multimedia content and vice versa any number of times as required during a teaching period even in a well-lit classroom.

As per our experience and observations, “Bhartiyavidya” is unlike other prevailing multimedia digital classroom solutions that work effectively only with a multimedia projector that requires a relatively darker room since such projectors use a screen which works on the principle of reflected light resulting in either a full period of multimedia based teaching with very little flexibility to the teacher to use the blackboard when required or the discomfort of switching on and switching off lights while moving from the backboard to multimedia content and vice versa.

Background

In the year 2000, when as a structured attempt to develop a (in fact any) solution in the IT space was being thought through by a small team of professionals in India it was their hunch that in a developing country school education was a promising area. The fact however was that by the year 2000 as many as over 100 organizations in India itself were directly / indirectly engaged in the business of providing an IT solution or an IT based solution for schools. This led the team to think deeper as to what is it that could still be done that was IT based, that had a direct linkage with school education but most importantly others had not addressed it so far. During the initial series of brainstorms and discussions that ensued, a glaring ‘anomaly of sorts’ was observed in the school education system viz. Computers had entered the school boundary walls in India as early as the 1980s but so far they were being used either in a room called the Computer Laboratory for IT education of the students or as office automation tools for improved administrative and financial functioning of the school viz. Payroll, timetable planning etc. or alongwith a multimedia projector in a room called the AV (Audio Visual) room wherein the students were taken by turn and shown films / presentations by their teachers depending upon the subject /topic for a period of around 40 minutes. The ‘anomaly of sorts’ was that the computer had entered various places of the school infrastructure as detailed above, including the library in some schools (to search the Internet etc.) but it had not thus far entered even a single classroom. This was the beginning of another series of brainstorming sessions and discussions followed by a structured field research across school principals, teachers and students that eventually led the team to the final concept.

The fact that IT has thus far not replaced a surgeon in an operation theatre but only added to the quality of surgery by assisting a surgeon or for that matter the fact that in the form of a synthesizer, IT had again only added to the quality of music being created by a musician and not replaced the musician, led the team to conclude that there must be enough room for IT to add to the quality of what a teacher does / can do in a classroom by assisting and in no way replacing the teacher. This was further reinforced by the belief that especially at school level even though the role of the teacher was changing from that of a an instructor to a facilitator there was always a need to supplement the teacher (read facilitator) with tools and aids that made the whole process of facilitation (read ‘teaching-learning’) in a typical conventional classroom not only effective but also efficient and interesting for both the tutor and the taught.

Concept Framework

The concept of ‘Bhartiyavidya’ revolves around the need to improve the quality of classroom teaching in schools through the use of a digital teaching aid that supplements all other available conventional teaching aids along with the wisdom and the voice of the teacher. The digital content is delivered to the students effectively through a combination of a computer and Colour Television (CTV) keeping in mind the teachers’ need to navigate, share and integrate the digital content with his/her regular teaching.

However, in order to arrive at any pragmatic solution a few aspects pertaining to the pedagogy and methodologies adopted by schoolteachers as well as the fact that computers till the year 2000 were not present in regular classrooms was also to be kept in mind viz. –

a)That the classroom ‘teaching-learning’ process on an average spans a period of around 40 minutes across schools wherein the teacher’s wisdom and voice are the primary teaching tools and everything else starting with the chalk and blackboard to charts and models etc. are a secondary teaching tool.

b)That teaching in a classroom using the blackboard requires the classroom to be well lit (preferably by sunlight, if not then by artificial lights).

c)That the solution should be able to integrate itself with the prevailing classroom ‘teaching-learning’ process and thus act as a ‘supplement to’ rather than a ‘replacement of’ both the teacher as well as all other teaching tools.

d)That the solution should be able to distinctly and decisively add value over and above the prevailing classroom ‘teaching-learning’ process.

e)That the users of the solution would be school teachers and not IT experts.

f)That implementation of the solution at each school would require addressing techno-academic as well as mindset issues amongst decision makers, influencers to the decision makers and the users.

The output of the solution would need to be viewed both by the teacher (while he/she faces the students) as well as by the students. While the teacher could view the output on the monitor of the computer the students needed a display device that would be visible in good daylight (or a well lit room) since it was to be used in conjunction with the blackboard. Considering that a multimedia projector works on the principle of reflecting light from a white screen and thus generally requires a room with low ambient light, it was decided that usage of a multimedia projector and blackboard may not be practical from logistics point of view viz. ‘switching off’ and ‘switching on’ the artificial lights in the classroom or ‘drawing (closing)’ and ‘opening’ the curtains on the windows of the classrooms for daylight to be cut off or brought in depending upon whether the multimedia projector is being used or the blackboard is being used by the teacher. On the other hand a regular colour television if mounted on top or side of the blackboard were to be used for purposes of display of the output for viewing by the students, it would be more appropriate especially since the television works on the principle that it is a source of light in itself and that its output is clearly visible even when the ambient light in the room is high (one may recall that even in households it is recommended that one keeps a few lights on while watching television as opposed to a pitch dark room). Thus the blackboard and good light went together with a colour television rather than a multimedia projector, which also happened to be a costlier device compared to the television. Considering the prevailing sizes of television sets in India and general size of classrooms, it was decided to use a 29” diagonal TV as the display device for students in the classroom.

The output of the computer needed to be synchronized with the input of the television and any synchronizing device such as a PAL converter was found acceptable.

While the solution would be deployed in the classroom, it was felt necessary that subject teachers would have the need to preview the content and do some lesson planning activity with the content prior to their showing the content to the students in the classroom. Accordingly, there was a need for networking the classroom computer to another computer that could be placed in the staffroom (or any room other than the classroom where teachers could access the same during their free periods for purposes of previewing of content and lesson planning). The networking would allow the work done by the teacher in the staffroom to be accessed directly in the classroom.

Content Development Framework

Process for Development of Content - After engaging experienced Domain Knowledge Experts (erstwhile subject teachers) multimedia professionals a well designed and rigorous content development processes as mentioned below was put in place.

Pre-selection of the topics / sub-topics on which content is to be developed – This is done by Domain Knowledge Experts (DKE) as a result of perusing the curriculum and reading through books published by different authors and publishers on the subject for the specified grade/class. The pre-selection criteria includes thinking by the DKE on parameters such as ‘colour’ or ‘movement’ or ‘a three-dimensional perspective’ or a combination of these being necessary as opposed to just desirable while a teacher tries to explain the particular concept / topic to students in a classroom.

Vetting of the topics prior to commencement of actual development activity - This is achieved through a Brainstorming session with a panel of academicians (based in and around Delhi) and technology experts on what in the pre-selected topic is going to add value beyond the blackboard or the laboratory for a subject teacher in the classroom

Preparation of Story Board - For each finalized concept / topic as a result of the above two steps, the concerned DKE resources subject material across different resource centers including the Internet and various libraries and documents his/her thoughts about the concept / topic in a sequence wise manner with a short description of what needs to be shown including attachment of sketches and other visuals as reference material.

Preparation of the Capsule - The Multimedia Team and the concerned DKE then discuss the storyboard frame by frame and work out the nuances and finer details of the content. Thereafter the multimedia personnel develop the capsule as per a checklist of do’s and don’ts that has evolved over the last three years of multimedia content development.

Review and Rework on Capsule - The output of the multimedia team in the form a capsule is then viewed first amongst the multimedia developer and the DKE, thereafter amongst the Head of the Domain Knowledge and Multimedia teams, followed by an external subject specialist prior to it being attached to the Customer school database.

Feedback & Results

After delivery to a school, feedback is obtained from user teachers in a structured manner on the content of Bhartiyavidya, which goes a long way in continually improving the quality of content.

Implementation of Bhartiyavidya across schools has been a learning experience for the entire team. Right from teething troubles during the first few implementations that involved removal of software bugs from the application to training teachers on usage of the solution to more importantly integration of the solution with day to day teaching alongwith the blackboard and chalk.

The results of the above implementations have been captured through structured surveys and perception studies conducted in the user schools both amongst the user teachers as well as the students who were taught using Bhartiyavidya. The findings from a survey covering 83 user teachers and 476 students are given below.

Conclusions

Though it may sound premature to draw any final conclusions as the user base of the solution is just over 300 schools, but based upon the feedback received so far – both from user schools as well as from those schools that have been exposed to the concept but have so far not implemented it due to other investment priorities, it would suffice to say that while there is enough that needs to be and can be done in the area of improving the quality of education – Bhartiyavidya is a small yet concrete step in the right direction towards achieving the same. It may not be the culmination or end point of what and how technology can do to assist a teacher right inside the classroom, but it is certainly a good starting point for the same.