Experience
The pandemic struck during the winter semester of my management education. It was both shocking and demanding at different levels that sent the education system on its toes, transitioning to an online mode. I was happier that few difficult exams were postponed given my difficult marathon with travelling salesman problems and optimization theory wherein despite his interesting lectures he was allergic to computation and rather insisted preposterous calculation over paper. Somehow, the pandemic was a respite from the gaining work.
Soon, the online classes started. I understood, why, university in-person classes trumps every other mode all time. These classes, albeit helpful in covering enormous content, were largely unsatisfactory. Unsatisfactory in a sense that, these classes undermined my natural curiosity for new concepts and situations. It was harder to grasp different perspectives for intricate topics like “effect of inflation on unemployed” and opine. I spent more time in understanding concepts. Nearly double. Inefficient.
The far-reaching aspect of the in-person classes is the jokes, professors crack.
I remember my economics professor angrily saying, that, I am not here, to crack jokes. I see no demand. It took a few minutes to see what he was saying. We had a good laugh. It is a boring joke, but it worked. These made the classes more interactive. Jokes did not work online. Period. Online mode was audacious enough to enervate every ounce of last zeal from an extremely interesting topic.
Conversation
During such trying times, I realized that the learning is more of a social event combining discussion, jokes, debates, travel & some cricket on top of serious lectures. Absence of all these, made learning akin to adding new columns to a database. I had an interesting conversation with my professor on this. Here is the gist of it.
Me: What do you think about this semester?
Prof: Indifferent.
Me: How do you mean?
Prof: With online, I do not really know how my words are received.
Me: Are you doubting that, we, students are listening you ?
Prof: No. No. It is more about the facial expressions, I get to see during my lecture. I would perceive whether what I have said, is well received. Over time with my 4 decades of experience I am able to understand how the class feels about the lecture and steer accordingly. I, badly missed this during the online transition.
Me: So what do you think about this online delivery system?
Prof: I think lecturing online is a different set of skills. I am of the opinion that online mode should assist campus and not replace it. The other important point is that, teachers across the country(India) should be trained to do this. Trust me, online lecture delivery is a different ball game. Should there be lockdown in the future, we should be ready to use the online mode better.
The professors were on the same boat as students. My courses were mathematically intensive combining finance and data science for management and were framed for a classroom set-up. Sudden transitions required changing the framework to suit better delivery like choosing the right software for lectures, scheduling and nature of examinations.
Conversation 2
They ask questions. They are curious. They ask questions again.
The other interesting conversation I had, was with my mother, who is a kindergarten teacher for over 3 decades. An amazing soul, she told me that offline schooling is hugely important, particularly in kindergarten and elementary education. She felt that the conversations amongst children are quite important for elementary education. She says, they frame opinions like ‘I like blue, but I do not like red’. I love chocolate but not strawberry. They tell stories of how they enjoyed breakfast to me or to their nearby friends. They describe what they observed during their travel from home to school. They do the same when they get back home. They ask questions. They are curious. They ask questions again. They learn lot many things by observing others. This healthy social interaction helps them to understand about space, speed and other basic things that we adults take it for granted. I was quite surprised when my mother mentioned about the activity of running. She told me that, when they play they run around. They understand how to manage the speeds. In fact, they learn from their friends that they can run faster or slower depending how far they have to reach. They understand the distance. They try to remember shapes, stories, colors, foods and more importantly time to describe it to others. They develop friendships and they want to help their friends. These help kids in improving memory, contribute to mental and physical health and help them grow. She felt that she did not get the same reception for her online classes and remarked that kids need to meet other kids.
I realized that in person education is vital. It helps in many ways we scarcely noticed. It helps widen our perspective and substantiate those that we learnt in the course. I strongly believe that online mode should complement the in-person and not replace it.
