Enabling multiple learning experiences

Travel back in time to Harappa and Mohenjo Daro. Weigh yourself on different planets. Figure out how heating and cooling metals adds or reduces energy. These are a few learning experiences that latter-day information and communication technology (ICT) offers school students. ICT enables students to connect with a world of resources, experts and curious peers. Now teachers don™t have to present complex drawings in class; they can represent instructive visualisations using interactive digital tools to lead students beyond textbooks and classrooms with a click of the mouse.

However, ICT as used in the great majority of schools tends to focus on delivering textbook content through the use of multimedia. The traditional lecture method and multimedia delivery share the same assumption ” that education is just a transfer of information and that it either flows from the teacher to students or from the Smart board to students. The student remains an ˜object™ obliged to assimilate information and answer test questions.

There™s nothing new in this pedagogy, except that students now are taught concepts using audio-visual aids. ˜Chalk-n-talk™ has been replaced by ˜observe and listen™ with a few multiple-choice quizzes and virtual labs thrown in. But is this new age education? If the aim of education is to equip students to set goals for themselves (rather than pursuing given goals), this approach to education is regressive. Therefore, before schools enrich their classrooms with ICT solutions, they need to be clear about the purpose of education and what constitutes learning in the 21st century.

Contemporary informed academic opinion is unanimous that education must equip students with the tools for critical thinking and analysis, and capability to solve complex problems and create innovations. It must encourage them to question what is being taught and examine what constitutes truth. It must provide students with the ability to become sensitive to gender, social and cultural differences, and speak up against injustice and bigotry.

As for learning, it™s not about the ability to retain and reproduce what is taught. Students need to develop the curiosity and motivation to acquire new knowledge and insights. And it™s the responsibility of teachers to encourage curiosity rather than kill it by distancing academics from everyday problems and issues. Students also need to be able to reflect on what they learn, develop their cognitive abilities to be able to interpret information and apply it.

Life is a cauldron of multiple experiences. So, why should we insist on just one or two ways of teaching and learning? The objective of the multiple learning experiences (MLEx) model which mixes traditional teaching and learning with ICT, is to make the teaching-learning process more holistic, experiential and inquiry-oriented.

This model has been developed on the premise that learning has multiple dimensions ” comprehension, application, critical thinking, creativity, peer interaction and communication. The teaching-learning process should also include multisensory experiences to enable students to learn across different modalities, and appreciate that multisensory activities need to be designed to promote every dimension of learning. The intention behind developing this framework is to assist teachers to resist inherited pedagogies, build the natural curiosity of children, and convert classrooms into participatory learning environments.

There™s no shortage of studies which prove the human brain operates optimally in multisensory environments. Therefore, each classroom lesson should incorporate multisensory activities well-aligned with the subject matter. In every lesson, students should have opportunities to engage in hands-on activities, discuss, solve problems and use technology. Moreover, teachers need to ensure these activities are designed to help students in the process of mastering subjects to also develop research orientation, interpersonal and communication skills.

However, while intelligent adoption of ICT and MLEx pedagogies can greatly improve learning outcomes, it™s important that technology is used as a teaching and learning aid; it shouldn™t diminish the significant role of teachers in their classrooms.

Therefore if you use multimedia demonstrations, keep them short bearing in mind the short attention span of students and their ability to retain only a limited amount of information at a time. Moreover, please note ICT is not just about the use of animation. Virtual labs, digital games, and interactive simulations are essential components of ICT-enabled education with students enthusiastically interacting with technology.

Children are natural learners. They learn through experiences, tinkering, observation and questioning. Technology alone can do precious little if it is introduced without regard to the way children learn and make sense of their environment. Therefore as teachers, we need to adopt pedagogies which integrate technology with proven teaching-learning practices. We also need to provide scaffolding and space for students to learn on their own. Finally, we should not introduce technology because it œhas to be introduced,  but because it has the potential to improve learning outcomes.

(Anil Mammen is the head, learning design and social impact at Tata ClassEdge)