Technology and online education in the times of Corona

 Technology and online education in the times of Corona

There are lots of discussions on online education.

What exactly is my perspective?

1) I am all l for innovations in teaching and learning. Online education transformed the world and process of reading and learning.

2) Earlier when I was in college and universities, I used to run to the library to refer to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Whenever I heard a new thing or word, my only option was to read the Encyclopedia. I began reading it from degree days as it was available in a seminary library near my home. Every saturday, I used read Encyclopedia for six hours and made copious notes on several things. My exposure to both Indian and European philosophy began with Encyclopedia Britannica

Now I don't have to. I am almost sure my son or daughter did not refer to hardbound volumes of Encyclopedia. None of the millennials do. They don't have to. Because it is available online. Accessible to anyone. Wikipedia is a great breakthrough.

Online web research became a standard for research. Google became a part of life as much as the social media.

3) There are already MOOC(Massive Open Online Courses ). And these days you can study anything and every thing online. Many courses are there without any fees. My good friend

Keshav Mohan

, a great teacher and practitioner of education, has been making excellent use of MOOC.

So the point is online learning and teaching are already a reality and there are so many technology platforms available

4) So I am all for all kinds of technology innovations in learning and teaching. I use smartphone to read, write, exchange and express. A smart phone now became an extension of the biotechnology of human beings. It revolurionzed our life.

Every thing is available on finger tips. A lockdown without a smartphone would have been totally different . People can literally access anything online: food, clothes, books, to sex. Technology also created surveillance capitalism.

5) Having said all these, I am skeptical of world where human interaction or society is driven only by technology. Technology is always a supplementary options for me.

Touching leaves, smelling a flower, holding a hand, hugging a person or making love with a real person or taking to real people or listening to real people can never be done by watching all these on you tube.

Human being are by definition social animals. It is the other human being make me a human. One can never live or love or talk alone, with the best of technology in the world.

6) Hence while Universities or other institutions of learning can experiment online learning as a viable option, it can never ever be a substitute for real university or human to human learning.

Because anyone who lived on a university or institutions campus know that we learn more outside the class room teaching or learning or examination. It is not the syllabus or classrooms or even degrees that taught me more. I learned more outside the class rooms. I learned more from outside the syllabus and text books.

It is not the university class rooms that transformed me. It is the university human ecosystem of learning and living that transformed me. Learned more from teachers never formally taught me. Learned more from students than teachers. Fell in love on the campus. It was the most beautiful life one ever experienced. Every university is a unique experience.

I learned and taught universities in India and internationally. And it is real human ecosystem in a university that always excited and still excites me. Because I love people and I remain a people person.

So online education or virtual world should never be a substitute for real world.

Technology can be a supplementary support to life and living and not a substitute to both.

7)In the post corona system, many schools, colleges and universities are make a shift to online education. It is here we need to consider all pros and cons.

The obvious issue is that of inclusion. In a country where there are already multiple froms of exclusion, an exclusive online education can further exacerbate the existing exclusion and marginalization.

In theory, public education and system are accessible to all sections of the society. But in practice, those who are economically and socially excluded can neither access nor afford higher and professional education in India.

Realities of India : Whose India?

8).In a country where there is less than eight percent of population on salaried employment in government or private sector, more than sevety percent of people are struggled to live less than few dollars equivalent a day. And corona lockdown made the vast majority of people more poor and vulnerable, with economic uncertainties, looming large in their struggles for sustainable livelihood.

In such a society, digital inequalities are a function of other existing inequalities and exclusions.

If we use Gandhiji 's talisman, the question is how the online education is going to change the learning of the last student in the school, college or university.

Those middle class and upper middle class who constitute less than five percent of population may be so excited with online education. Many in the very same class will be dismissive about the issues of digital exclusion and equalities. Many will say ' poor will always be with you ' let the bandwagon move on.

Let the dogs bark, the caravans of technology and online education must go on.

9) But for those who consider education as a means of social emancipation, inclusion and enlightenment of every individual, issues of digital exclusion and inequalities are crucial. Hence any planning of such online education initiatives must consider whether it will exclude more people or include more people

India is neither Europe nor America. India is not Singapore, neither China. India has the largest number of poor, excluded and marginalized people in the world.

The upper middle class can always say India is the home for software revolution. India is shining etc. And be dismissive about the poor

Realities of the upper middle class, with multiple phones or laptop or tabs, are not the realities of vast majority of Indians who access a phone on EMI or deeply worried about the livelihood issues in the the uncertain times of corona pandemic.

10) Covid exposed the deeper inequalities in india. Millions of migrant workers walking on the street in search of semblance of safety also exposed the callousness of those in power and cynical dismissive attitude of the upper middle class.

When the ' new normal ' and trendy next thing is online education, the policy makers must think twice about Gandhiji Talisman.

" Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny?'

JS Adoor

74James Varghese, Sunil JI and 72 others

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