E-age teaching: Expert alerts principals on changing campus milieu

KOCHI: Learning should be a proactive process rather than reactive and teachers have to be co-learners in an era where technology has made knowledge possible for children at the fingertips, an expert has said. Mr G. Balasubramanian, former academic director of CBSE and author of several books, said while addressing the inaugural session of the two-day All Kerala CBSE Principals' Conference and Training 2016 here on Saturday that a knowledge society has to focus on learning capacity and competency of the learners.

"The elements that characterize a new generation school include thought leadership, knowledge management, generating enterprise, responding to cultural change, celebration of human capital and responding to technology," Mr Balasubramanian said while debating the topic 'Changing trends in New Gen Schools-The Challenges' at the session. "Thought leadership, among other things, focuses on synergy between the traditional, current and futuristic thought patterns. It also involves managing thought conflicts in different generations," he said.

"Knowledge management focuses on knowledge processing tools and techniques and also on knowledge re-engineering while enterprise generation means developing curiosity, facilitating innovation and moving away from the 'right answer syndrome'. You have to accept change as a value proposition while preserving heritage, nature and environment," Mr Balasubramanian said.

"Celebration of human capital means identifying and nurturing talents while identifying ethics as the foundation of human resources. Another challenge is to manage the speed of technology while understanding technology as a culture catalyst and also the use, abuse and misuse of technology," he said. Mr Blasubramanian also pointed to the new speed dominated culture, the app based culture, the search engine culture, the cloud-computing culture, the connectivist culture (how many followers have I?) and the proposition where the individual has become an organization. "The teachers and principals have to deal with all these now," he said.

Earlier the conference was declared open by Supreme Court judge Justice Kurien Joseph at a function presided over by K Unnikrishnan, president Confederation of Kerala Sahodaya. Confederation general secretary Francis K A welcomed the gathering. Motivational speaker Mr Vikas Jain addressed a session on 'Emerging New Technologies-Role of Principal' while Mrs Diana Vincent Joseph, director of Fourth Wave Foundation, spoke on 'Inclusive Education-Challenges and Solutions,' in the afternoon.