There was a time when all of a sudden one could see malls springing up in each and every part of Gurgaon. The mall culture has taken away a lot from the growing up experiences of children. More and more families prefer to spend their time in malls and have forgotten the gardens, parks, museums and book shops.
And now is a time when schools are springing up in each and every part of Gurgaon. Schools which look like nothing less than five star hotels, schools which look like huge concrete blocks and give the feel of a cold corporate office. Lap tops and tablets have replaced the text books and note books, chalk boards have been replaced by smart boards and schools have moved to being technology centric from child centric. These are the 21st century schools and the people promoting them cannot be differentiated from the guy wearing an orange coloured T Shirt and selling an online grocery store.
One somebody asked me my vision for a 21st century school, my reply was that children were children then and children are children now, they are as curious, as observant and have the same questions. The environment around them has undergone an immense change. What you do with what you learn was as important then and remains as important now. I have nothing against technology but very strongly advocate that it should be for supporting the learning experiences of children and should not be the only way to learn. It is the easiest to research and find everything on the internet, but that is only information and not learning. It also leads to over stimulation and can cause damage to a child's own reasoning, creativity and imagination. Watching a real butterfly in the garden is a more immersive experience for a child than a butterfly on the internet or smart board.
Technology can also dilute learning as the exposure to any topic or content is so much more than what is required or age relevant. A classroom discussion in a teacher's presence establishes a connect with the content and also the teacher. The findings of a recent study were that when a group of children was asked to write on a given topic, most of them failed to think on their own and write beyond a specific number of words. Also there were many spelling and syntax errors. This was because they had been completely depending on technology to think for them and were not used to writing on paper.
What is required is the right balance and integration of technology in the teaching learning.
