We all know how helpful it is to remember something that is taught visually to us rather than the one that is read through pages after pages. Just imagine, how beneficial would it be for students to understand a chapter visually in class. The concept of smart class education is indeed a blessing to the students of the 21st Century. Technology is changing the way life functions and if it’s for the good, then why not go for it!
Smart classes use all interactive modules like videos and presentations and these visually attractive methods of teaching becomes appealing to students who are already struggling with the traditional method of teaching in a classroom. In fact, smart classes are almost like watching movies as sometimes, animated visuals are used to teach a point. This kind of visual is both eye-catching and young students can easily relate with them. This is because the audio-visual senses of students are targeted and it helps the students store the information fast and more effectively. And then, there is the advantage of utilizing much of the time wasted earlier in drawing or preparing diagrams on board. Smart boards have all these information in memory and can be presented during the time of class lectures and thus, the time saved can be used in more important things.
One of the main reasons behind the constant increase in popularity of smart classes is the fact that this kind of education is perfect for all kinds of students. A classroom has students with varied power of understanding and learning, and studying from notes and other materials becomes difficult for some students. But the use of smart classes and modern technology eases the learning process for all students. Moreover, this kind of education in class promotes more interaction between teacher and student with more participation from both sides.
When you take the negative side of this kind of smart education, there are just a few when compared to the myriad advantages it offers to students. Some technical fault that might arise during a class lecture is a common concern among those lobbying against smart technologies in classroom education. Then, there is the costing factor as well that is preventing schools to adopt this technology. With smart education comes the problem of high cost of education.
The possibilities or advantages of smart classrooms are endless. Although adopting such a new concept might be a tough decision for many, but the technology can create a new opening for the education sector. Its indeed a blessing, all you need to do is to give it a try!
The word smart itself here indicates that it has been designed for bright and sharp minds of the young and enthusiastic learners of today. Nowadays, the role of the teacher and the students both have changed.
Teacher now is a facilitator who provides the children scaffolding and the children build up their own building of imagination and creativity. Minds of children are designed in such a way that they have better understanding of new technology. A two or three year old child knows how to operate a smart phone. Their brains are no less than computers with inbuild knowledge of operating the smart features of the upcoming technologies.
Based on this perception, smart classes have been incorporated in the field of education. Smart classes are like power point presentations which enable the learners to grab the concepts easily. They are of great help to teachers in providing comfortable and interesting environment to the students.
Students today are no more passive listeners but they are active participants who demand for an interactive classroom to express their ideas, feelings and emotions freely. The audio-visual depiction of the concepts enables the learners to relate the concepts with their daily lives and also develops better understanding of them.
Not only this, the different features of the smart classes help the teachers in assessing the students there and then with the help of various activities and questions designed appropriately for each concept. It also attracts the learners because of their curiosity of learning through play way method.
Apart from the concepts of the syllabus, it also covers activities for the children to enhance their vocabulary, thinking skills and creativity. But teachers still play an important role in a child’s life because the emotional bond of being a friend, guide or an instructor technology cannot play. The motivation that a teacher provides is very much valuable for the children.
Smart classes are like a helping hand to the teachers for providing activity based learning and make school a better and interactive place of learning.
Project Oriented Learning
A project is an extended, in-depth investigation of a topic, ideally one worthy of the children’s attention and energy. In other words, projects involve children in conducting research on phenomena and events worth learning about in their own environments.
Projects provide contexts in which children can apply a wide variety of social and intellectual skills in, addition to the basic academic skills being learned in the more formal parts of the curriculum. Thus, in this exhibit the efforts of very young children to write and to represent in other ways the data gathered during their investigations can be seen. In addition, projects provide contexts for young children to argue, cooperate, collaborate, share the responsibility of data gathering, check findings and many other research strategies. Projects also provoke children to in-depth probing into the nature of events and objects around them, to learning how things work and how they are made, to finding out who does what and what tools are used, to discovering the sequences in which actions are taken in the events investigated, and to observing and describing the work done by people in their own everyday worlds. Projects can also involve children in close examination of the natural world around them, help them learn what natural world objects consist of, and teach them to observe closely how things grow and change over time.
Projects can be incorporated into the curriculum in any part of the world. Every environment and the people in it are potential sources of new and valuable information for young children. The knowledge gained and the skills applied in investigating their own experiences supports children’s in-born dispositions to learn and investigate what is at hand. Furthermore, knowledge and skills of all kinds are strengthened, not only with instruction, but also through application and use of the kind of skills seen in these examples of project work.
It is useful to keep in mind that young children may come to their school experiences with different kinds and amounts of exposure to books and stories and encouragement to try to read, to counting objects and using pencils, and so forth. However, all children come to school with lively minds marked by a powerful disposition to make the best sense they can of their experiences. Projects provide rich contexts for expressing and strengthening that fundamental disposition. We hope these examples of the work of children and their teachers provoke your interest in learning more about the Project Approach.
To provide support to theoretical studies,school conducts project exhibitions and educational tour time to time to enhance project based learning.
