As we all know IT has changed the way we do business with the banks or the way we operate in the Capital Market. It has also changed the way people buy and sell goods- Air and Railway Tickets, etc. It has, however, not made much difference where it should have made the maximum difference and where it has tremendous potential to make a difference for the better. I would not have realized it had I not visited a university college recently. I found the good old ‘chalk and talk’ still at work there.
The good old Pareto’s Law operates in the Universities and Colleges also. Only about 20% of the teachers are good and impart ‘Knowledge’. The less said about the rest the better. However, there is a physical constraint of space restricts the number of people who can attend conventional lectures. IT can remove this constraint by creating virtual class rooms with practically unlimited space and thereby allowing a much larger number of students to interact with the professors – online, off-line, Audio, Video etc. etc.
IT can help the colleges to get out of the islands like existence in which they currently live. The ‘net’ can increase the reach and impact of the good professors. A good professor in one college can, besides teaching students on the net, reach a large number of lecturers in other colleges and help them. The net could also be used to conduct tuitions for school children and classes for working people. Informal enquiries with friends and colleagues reveal that there is a sizeable market for this.
However, while the technology can offer solutions, I am not sure if the teachers in our universities and colleges are ready for induction of IT into their domain as yet. If inducted, IT can completely change their way education is imparted and the nature of teachers’ job- a few will conduct lectures and the rest will conduct tutorials and help the students with the problems.
We will need considerable amount of ‘Change Management’ skills for giving shape to this dream. But talking about the ‘Psychology, Organization Politics and Science of Change Management’, a subject by itself, will require more space and time and will be taken it up later.
The good old Pareto’s Law operates in the Universities and Colleges also. Only about 20% of the teachers are good and impart ‘Knowledge’. The less said about the rest the better. However, there is a physical constraint of space restricts the number of people who can attend conventional lectures. IT can remove this constraint by creating virtual class rooms with practically unlimited space and thereby allowing a much larger number of students to interact with the professors – online, off-line, Audio, Video etc. etc.
IT can help the colleges to get out of the islands like existence in which they currently live. The ‘net’ can increase the reach and impact of the good professors. A good professor in one college can, besides teaching students on the net, reach a large number of lecturers in other colleges and help them. The net could also be used to conduct tuitions for school children and classes for working people. Informal enquiries with friends and colleagues reveal that there is a sizeable market for this.
However, while the technology can offer solutions, I am not sure if the teachers in our universities and colleges are ready for induction of IT into their domain as yet. If inducted, IT can completely change their way education is imparted and the nature of teachers’ job- a few will conduct lectures and the rest will conduct tutorials and help the students with the problems.
We will need considerable amount of ‘Change Management’ skills for giving shape to this dream. But talking about the ‘Psychology, Organization Politics and Science of Change Management’, a subject by itself, will require more space and time and will be taken it up later.
(written in 2002)
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