CHENNAI: School education system will get outdated if it does not escape its comfort zone and embrace technology, said educationalists speaking at Tamil Nadu School Principals Conference, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry on Friday.
"Teachers should present lessons in a format that students receive the best. Using text and note-books alone won't help, as earlier, learning was lesson-based and now it is research-based," said Shyamala Shekar, a retired principal of PSBB school, adding that students became much more enthusiastic about even math classes when audio-visual elements were included regularly.
"Schools and the education system will endanger itself by not using enough technology. Technology does not discriminate while imparting knowledge. Students these days take online courses offered by top colleges in the world," said Mohammed Razdan, a student from Good Earth School, who represented students in the conference.
Kishore Kumar, the correspondent of St John's CBSE School, said schools no longer train students to be locals, but to be global citizens who are technologically capable. "In order to achieve this, teachers must be technologically related to the students as well," he said.
However, when many teachers at the conference argued that misuse of technology and distraction during class is difficult to avoid, Rajeev Sukumaran, a higher education consultant, said teachers need to be rid of this paranoia. "Students use notebooks in class now. There is no guarantee that students don't misuse the notebook or get distracted by playing on it or passing messages among themselves. Teachers need to get rid of this myth that technology is disruptive in classrooms and engage with them with tools they're comfortable learning from," he said.
Teachers who are not trained in technology, will soon be outdated in schools, said Thangam Meganathan, chairperson of Rajalakshmi Institutions. "Teachers should find time every day to learn things they're not familiar with," he said.
N Gopalaswami, a former Chief Election Commissioner, who was the chief guest, said teachers should ensure that they remain in a learning environment in order to stay awake.