According to
a study, it is found that 25 percent of public school teachers in rural India,
remain absent from their workplace. One of the culprits responsible for this
serious situation is the content taught to the students.
Experts are
of the opinion that the curriculum framed to teach students in India is based
on rote learning. It causes lack of motivation in the learner as well as the
teacher. Hence the mentioned sorry state.
This article
tries to understand how the reliable and accessible free open source in
education can contribute in bringing a desirable change.
What is the Real Issue?
·
Research
in Neuroscience of learning has found that humans have no intrinsic
motivation to learn academic materials.
·
Moreover,
educational psychology mentions that apart from its selection, the
presentation of the content or instructional design also plays a vital
role in serving its educational and instructional objectives.
·
Owing
to these reasons, poorly selected and presented content of learning increase
the challenges and severely affect the teaching learning experiences.
·
Instructional
design is a scientific method of approach to present a content in “an
interesting manner” to a particular audience in order to facilitate the meeting
of certain specific learning objectives in time bound manner.
·
It
is based on the principles of Educational Psychology and Neuroscience and the
technological benefits offered by Information Technology, in dealing with
issues of teaching and learning.
The Solution - Open Source in
Education as a Powerful Aid:
·
It
comprises of materials in the form of powerful software e-books and
reading materials. They are allowed to be downloaded without paying a penny.
·
The
number of such materials is increasing in quality and in quantity as well every
day. Reputed universities are kindly sharing their rich content on the Internet
for one and all and several software professionals are displaying their creativity
by developing powerful e-learning software.
·
These
materials can be accessed from anywhere and anytime in the privacy of our homes
or at work place.
·
These
materials are as effective as the learning products provided by the e-learning
companies bought by shelling out a fairly big sum of money in urban public
schools.
·
The software can
be customized as per the requirements as the codes are available for
modification for the general public.
What are the Potential Effects of
Free Education Content on Rural School Teachers?
·
The
biggest advantage of using the free content provided by the reputed
universities (like Harvard and MIT) is that it is completely reliable.
·
This
helps a teacher to carry out the basic task of teaching without any
apprehensions about the content, enhancing faith in his/her job.
·
The
powerful educational freewares are available on nearly all the aspects of
teaching process, like planning, instructional design and evaluation.
·
They
can be skillfully included and blended with the traditional teaching aids to
provide the best of the learning-experiences to the rural students deprived of
the same.
·
The
element of novelty of this approach definitely can motivate the teachers to not
only return to their work place but also be creative enough in their
profession.
·
The
reading materials based on research findings can enhance the knowledge of the
low-esteemed teachers.
·
The
local educated youths in the villages can be trained in instructional design
and computer maintenance of open source materials.
·
They
can be appointed in the school after completion of their training as
facilitators to the school teachers.
·
In
this way, the school teacher can further explore the ever widening free
educational sources and leave the integration and maintenance of the selected
sources to the trained facilitators.
·
In
this way, the standard of education and employment opportunities in villages
would rise simultaneously seeking each others help.
·
Use
of solar panels and bio-gas plants can be made in order to ensure sustained
supply of electricity to the computer systems and the internet accessories.
·
However,
the government needs to take up adequate steps to make the internet service
providers set up the required infrastructure in the rural areas.
Conclusion: Success of one small-scale
attempt of inclusion of open source educational materials in rural areas, can
later allow the extension of the concept on a larger scale. Support from the
local bodies like Panchayat and natives alike, is always anticipated and
welcomed.
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