Imagine a scenario. No more boring lessons from teachers, some of whom who don’t really want to be there in the first place. learning at your own pace. Pursuing a topic that really interests you by chasing all the resources available right across the world wide web. Then, while it is all still fresh , opening up discussion on it so that what started off as information gathered can easily transform into learnt knowledge and later even wisdom.
This is called the ‘flipped classroom’ concept, that is being used by several top schools in countries like Australia and the UK blurring the line between traditional schooling and the techniques of distance or digital learning. The advantages of the Internet as a personal library of information, focussing on it as the main source of stimulating a youngster’s spirit of enquiry, are yet to be fully tested.
If the idea catches on, there will be challenges to both traditional educational patterns and to distance learning. In traditional schools, teachers would have to change both their lesson plans (if they have them) and their mental approach as to why they are in the classroom in the first place.
They are not going to be information givers, they are going to need to become knowledge stimulators. Their job will be to help the youngster transform the information into learnt knowledge, which will mean they will need to better understand than many of them currently do, the psychological workings of their young charges. Teachers will have to bring forth the knowing from the information which the youngster has imbibed via the Web.
When the flipped classroom concept becomes popular, distance or digital learning providers will also be affected. Most distance learning is at tertiary level, or involving a specialist topic. Youngsters at school brought up to discuss the following day what they learnt via the Web the night before may not take so easily to the solitude of distance learning at university level, sacrificing the personal interface of debate and discussion.
In Italy, one English language provider has found that what is called the blended educational solution — where part of the course is internet delivered and the other part is classroom based — is providing dramatic results. Where it previously took months to get youngsters speaking English to European standards, the blended method takes weeks, especially where the internet-delivered programme is responsive to individual needs and progress.
Distance learning providers will also have to ensure their technology is more adaptive to individual learning styles and paces and may have to work harder to ensure that on-line communities, which are emerging, are also given a chance to physically meet somewhere. The Facebook generation of learners is recognising that their worlds are too often faceless. Blending the two approaches, as the flipped classroom does, could capture their imagination.
The Right to Education Act is imposing heavy burdens on schools and teachers. It is critical for India that it does not fail. The flipped classroom concept gives a radical way out. The Government could unleash an IT infrastructure programme reaching into the poorest parts of India, aiming to give access to on-line learning resources for every child.
It could then build, not traditional schools, but learning hubs, based on the traditional gurukul, where teachers could facilitate dialogue on what has been learnt. Children can attend these sessions for just a few hours every day and teachers could reach out to hundreds more children than what the present system allows.
(The writer is David Boddy, principal partner, ASIS)