The topic was presented by the author at a Seminar on Education by IIM Kashipur at Habitat Center in March 2013.

1. Tapping Technology for Transformation of Education
-Veerendra K Jaitly
Abstract:
(During last thirty years, technology has played a great role in the way education has been
imparted from teacher to the students. The first wave of revolution started with the advent
of the computers in schools and colleges when we had a plethora of educational programs
like CBT, CAT etc and a lot of varieties of graphics and animation packages. They made our
understanding of the difficult concepts much easier.
The second revolution came with the advances in the communication sector which
dismantled the boundaries of colleges, universities and even the nations. The shortage of
good quality of teachers across the globe can be met only through the use of technology. The
internet has made it possible that students sitting in a remote town of Uttrakhand like
Kashipur can attend a lecture of a renowned professor from IIM Ahmedabad or Harvard
University in USA and similarly a highly sought after Professor at IIM Kashipur can deliver a
lecture on a topic of his speciality to the students of all the IIMs and even hundreds of other
management colleges across the globe.
We got to tap this technological revolution and use its power and potential for spreading
education at all levels starting from the primary schools to the college level and even
thereafter for educating the masses. That will really be a paradigm shift in the way we have
always imparted education and shall increase the pace of our efforts by many times in
eradicating illiteracy from our country.)
Before we start talking about the way Technology can transform Education, I would like to
make one thing very clear that technology is no substitute for an inspiring and a great
teacher. The impact a great teachers creates on the minds of his pupils remains indelible
throughout the life of students. Even now my head automatically bows in reverence
whenever I remember my school teacher Sh Basakha Ram ji from Jammu and Prof MN
Faruqui from IIT Kharagpur. No technology can create that miracle what a devoted,
dedicated teacher can do.
Technology has played a great role during different periods of history in different ways.
There was a time of Gurukuls when students used to stay at the Ashrams of their Gurus. And
all the teachings was either oral or practical. All the knowledge was passed on to the future
generations through the power of listening with concentration and remembering. Even the
vast knowledge of four Vedas was passed on from one generation to the other in the same
way. And then came the art of expression through script writing. Blackboards, chalk and
slates were used for writing and then the sleek wooden planks were used. Then came the
printing technology which gave birth to books and notebooks etc.

2. During last thirty years, technology has played a great role in the way education has been
imparted from teacher to the students. The first wave of revolution started with the advent
of the computers in schools and colleges when we had a plethora of educational programs
like CBT, CAT etc and a lot of varieties of graphics and animation packages. They made our
understanding of the difficult concepts much easier. People started using these packages
even in the absence of the teacher. Distance education got a big boost with the help of
these self learning Computer based training packages.
The second revolution came with the advances in the communication sector which
dismantled the boundaries of colleges, universities and even the nations. The ultimate
happened with the marriage of the Computer Technology and Communication Technology.
That gave birth to Networks starting with LAN, MAN, WAN and then the Internet. The power
of internet is beautifully explained by Matcalfe’s Law: The number of interactions that takes
place between two nodes is just two, but when the third node is added, the number of
interactions increases to: not 3, not 4 but 3(3-1)=6. Thus a network with ‘n’ nodes will have
‘n(n-1)’ interactions. That is what explains the power of internet.
Metcalfe’s Law
Node 1
Node 2
Node 3
N*(N-1)=3*2= 6 Potential Information Interaction
If that is the power of networks, there is no reason, the field of education should remain
behind. We got to embrace what I call ‘Net Centric Education’ with full knowledge,
conviction and know how. The shortage of good quality of teachers across the globe can be
met only through the use of technology. The internet has made it possible that students
sitting in a remote town of Uttrakhand like Kashipur can attend a lecture of a renowned
professor from IIM Ahmedabad or Harvard University in USA and similarly a highly sought
after Professor at IIM Kashipur can deliver a lecture on a topic of his speciality to the
students of all the IIMs and even hundreds of other management colleges across the globe.
Even in the class room, the teacher of today is expected to make full use of technology to
impart the best possible education to his/her students.
The teachers today face a great challenge, as they are handling the kids who belong to the
internet age, called the ‘Net Gen’. They were born with the web all around them. They have

3. grown up with mobiles in their hands. They figure out the operation of any gadget with a
few clicks here and there. They use the web extensively for any info about schools, colleges,
careers, jobs etc. They book their movie tickets online. Instant messaging and e-mail is their
main mode of communication. They are always connected with their friends on Facebook.
Their mobile becomes obsolete in just one year. You will find them on their mobile/tablet
and laptop simultaneously. They may be chatting with a friend and simultaneously doing
their homework and even watching a serial on the TV and then they mange a phone call too
in between. Multi-tasking is in their blood.
The ‘Net Gen’ believes more in Google than their Guru. The smart ones even go through
Google before a new topic comes up in the class and even test the knowledge of their
teachers. The ‘Net Gen’ has all the information available to them with the click of a mouse.
Under these circumstances, the teachers must have in-depth knowledge of their subjects
that they teach. Teachers should be tech savvy and should have the capability of using all
the modern gadgets used in and out of the class room. Google is the ocean of knowledge for
the teachers too. In fact, the teachers can send e-mails to their students with relevant links
for a particular topic and ask them to come prepared for discussion in the class. There needs
to be less of teaching and more of learning in the higher classes. Teachers should be able to
provide authentic, matured and timely guidance to their students whenever they get stuck
anywhere.
The learning environment has undergone tremendous changes during last few years. More
and more class rooms are getting equipped with intelligent terminals or personal laptops.
The blackboard got replaced with a white board and then an intelligent board with an
LCD/LED projector. Learning is no more limited to the class room, library or the lab. In fact
students learn more outside the class than in the class these days. Students engage, interact
and discuss with a much larger number of people through ‘Special Interest Groups’ on the
net and the inputs they sometime get may be of superior quality that their own teacher in
the class. The old adage ‘The Teacher is the Final Authority’ is no longer applicable. All the
fast technological changes are highly stimulating for the ‘Net Gen’. The teaching community
has to work hard to cope up with the fast paced ‘Net Gen’ that is always connected through
Wi-Fi campuses or hostels.
Most of the teachers have been forced to use power point presentations even in the level
two and level three colleges in tier 2 towns. But majority of them provide an overdose of
text and text and that two in big paragraphs picked up straight from a book or a website.
The teachers have to make their .ppts more interesting by using graphics and animations.
Here again, there is a word of caution that use animations for explaining a concept or the
working of a component in a machine. By animations, we don’t mean flying or rotating text.
These over animations and over use of colours may be irritating to the eyes. PPTs should
have bulleted points and that too never more than six on a single slide. The purpose of
PowerPoint is to give Power to every Point.

4. Teachers have to make all efforts to mix their lecture with technology, role plays, videos
from YouTube, games, activities etc. A large number of global reputed universities like MIT,
Stanford, IITs, IISc, IGNOU have a lot of excellent material available on the web free of cost.
Teachers can use the best out of them for their classes to make understanding better for the
students. MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) is a great source for a very wide variety of
courses available online. These online courses are a great source for self learning. The
organizations can select their top notch professors to create these courses and deliver them
online through webinars where thousands of students across the globe can attend. And
their recordings can be used again and again umpteen number of times.
Online courses provide total flexibility to the learner. They can do any course, anytime and
anywhere. One can learn from the cosy environment of one’s own house or the hostel. No
travelling involved. One can manage his/her time very effectively. And this concept can also
tackle the problem of shortage of good teachers worldwide. We can also take the help of
retired professors and those in the industry to conduct webinars. IUCEE (Indo US
Collaboration for Engineering Education) is doing a great job in this direction. They engage
highly qualified professors from US to conduct webinars from US for Indian Engineering
colleges. An excellent mentorship program by the alumni of a college can be developed
through the net. The only problem with the online learning is that the learner has to
demonstrate a lot of discipline and self motivation.
The mobile phones have yet to be exploited for delivery of lectures. The college can have a
toll free/paid number and when you dial, there is an IVR system that says ‘Press 1 for
Physics, 2 for History, 3 for Philosophy and so on….’. For the remotest villages of third world
countries where there are no proper schools, some village volunteers can teach the locals
with the help of mobile phones where one can use either the recorded lessons or some
teacher from a town school conducts a class.
A large number of teachers have to spend a lot of time on administrative jobs in our schools,
colleges and even universities. This can be drastically reduced by installing educational
institutes specific ERP systems. A lot of time consuming activities like attendance,
examination time table, class room allocation for teachers, tabulation of results etc. can be
handles by such ERP systems. Every minute of a specialist qualified teacher is very precious
Webinar

5. and it should not go waste on repetitive administrative jobs that can be handled by
technology or by a less qualified clerical staff member. If on an average, the teachers spend
25% of their time on administrative jobs currently and we can reduce this to say by 15% to
just 10% through use of technology, it will result into additional 15% resources available to
us for the teaching job which otherwise was getting wasted in administrative chores. This is
one way of tackling the problem of shortage of teachers partially.
Unfortunately, this profession has failed to attract the best talents. And the situation has
been worsening in the last two decades due to the attraction of fat pay packets in the
corporate world. This trend can be stemmed and education sector can again attract the best
brains provided their salaries get a big jump and more than that we glamorise this
profession in the eyes of the common people. Today the ranking of a male teacher in the
marriage market in India is terribly low. This trend has to change. The society needs good
teachers if the nation has to progress. It is the duty of all the stake holders to work in that
direction.
The corporate world talked about BPR (Business Process Re-engineering) when they wanted
to bring about quantum changes in their existing slow, tedious processes. We need
something similar: Re-engineering of Education, where we should be prepared to take bold
decisions for the benefit of students and teachers both. We got to attract the best brains.
We got to tap this technological revolution and use its power and potential for spreading
education at all levels starting from the primary schools to the college level and even
thereafter for educating the masses. The Time has come when the teachers face the
challenge of embracing the changing technology at a fast pace. We can leap frog and use
technology to reach the remotest villages for imparting education. That will really be a
paradigm shift in the way we have always imparted education and this shall increase the
pace of our efforts by many times in eradicating illiteracy from our country and the other
third world countries which are still devoid of the rays of education. And this technology
only can make our great institutes like the IITs, IIMs, NITs and many more to catch up with
the best institutes of higher learning in the world. Tapping technology to its full potential for
the transformation of education is the Mantra.