The Progressive School Vol 01 Issue 04

opinion
Smart School – A myth or reality?
Aditi Basu Roy
Ex-Principal, Sardar Patel School, Noida
We have all been talking about the merits of smart schools and
how schools should work towards making their schools smart. But
is it really happening so?
Smart schools enabled with advanced
ICT, classrooms decor with curtains
or blinds, smart interactive boards,
lovely multimedia projectors and intelligent
computers are must for modern urban
education, especially in high-end private
school sector. It is a gimmick used for school
marketing. Many schools have display
boards announcing their Smart classrooms
at a conspicuous position outside the
school which is a tall tale in most of the
cases. Except for very few schools, mostly
affiliated with foreign boards, smart class
is a co-curricular activity carried out
inefficiently once a week or may be once
a month so that the school can charge an
amount from students under that head.
There is usually a LMS (Learning
Management System) provider who
gives everything: the projector, the smart
board, computer, unauthentic content and
Smart educator: need of the day!
Vandana Saxena
Principal, Tribune Model School, Chandigarh
It is rightly said that a picture speaks more than a thousand words; with the use of a smart board the teaching
learning experience can easily touch the amazing world of visuals and innovation can be experienced as real.
But, technology is only a tool; we need smart educators to make our schools really ‘smart.’
A
smart class has become a value
addition in schools for marketing.
Used colloquially, the term ‘Smart’
is to attract parents to ‘Smart Schools’
where all classrooms are equipped with a
white board and a projector promising the
magic of learning with technology and to
justify the higher fee structure or a steep
fee hike.
The hidden agenda unknown to many is
that this gadget just like any other can only
be ‘Smart’ if used by a ‘Smart Educator’:
the one who has sound knowledge of the
subject, is trained in skills for effective use
animation, frequent technical troubles
and occasional headaches. If you Google
“Smart Class”, you may find hundreds of
companies offering it and self-proclaiming
to be the best in the market.
In Indian schools, teachers find it
daunting to juggle among the textbook,
students’ engagement, homework,
assessment, management’s expectations
and parents’ expectations. Smart class is
an added bugbear. Most of the teachers are
not ICT trained at all or are semi- trained
to carry out smart classes productively;
there is no freedom of delivery of lessons
or selecting different pedagogical styles;
the teacher is confined by the LMS.
Middle-end schools, low-end schools and
government aided schools cannot afford the
smart class due to the high cost involved!
There is no doubt that our respectable
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji’s dream
of technology and has a passion to transact
knowledge to the 21st century learner in
an engaging and a meaningful way. It is
rightly said that a picture speaks more than
a thousand words; with the use of a smart
board the teaching learning experience can
easily touch the amazing world of visuals
and innovation can be experienced as real.
While on the one hand, we work to
create a strong foundation through the
traditional and conventional methods,
but on the other hand, the modern and
scientific methods have to be blended in,
but with an awareness of the purpose of
the use just as an aid or tool. For example,
we understand that search engines are for
seeding, spreading and sharing knowledge
for those who seek. For that, the seeker has
to know his/her mind. Though with the
beginning of the new era, the millennial
needs to be empowered with the use
Aditi Basu Roy
to make a smart India has increased the
involvement of technologies in school
education also. But, as of now, smart
school is only a reality if teachers are
smart enough to learn and blend different
pedagogical styles both technological and
conventional to maximize the learning
outcome of students; for rest smart school
is still a myth.
Aditi Basu Roy, Ex-Principal, Sardar
Patel School, Noida, has worked with S.
Chand group in “e-class”, a World Bank
project for Uttarakhand government schools
as a pedagogy and subject matter expert in
e-learning.
Vandana Saxena
of technology for a multidimensional
teaching-learning experience, the
foundation of learning comes from
tradition. Remember, technology is only
a tool, not the visionary.
Vandana Saxena is Principal at Tribune
Model School, Chandigarh.
jul-AUG-SEP 2017
THE PROGRESSIVE SCHOOL
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