The quote of Swamy Vivekananda emphasises that “Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man” But in our education system, information is stuffed into young fresh minds day in and day out, not letting the best brains among them to think.
Dr R Valli
Professor and HOD - Information Technology
Adhiparasakthi Engineering College
All life transitions are challenging. The changeover from school environment to college atmosphere is quite exciting and challenging. The debut to college makes them experience new routines, new responsibilities, new positions, new relationships and novel ways of thinking about themselves.
Expectations on higher secondary students when entering into graduation Students should be competent. She/he should communicate effectively in comprehending, speaking, reading and writing. They should posses the ability to think logically and critically, to recognize patterns and to apply mathematical concepts to day-to-day situations. They should have an urge to understand the impact of technology on the future and gain skills to utilize new resources. It is necessary for a student to develop competence in co-curricular areas to face the real world scenario confidently.
"Education is the manifestation of the perfection alreadyin man" - Swamy Vivekananda
Students should posses self-learning ability i.e., the ability to set goals and solve unfamiliar and challenging tasks independently. Keeping the mind open to new experiences and need to have confidence in their ability to integrate these new discoveries into their own cultural backgrounds and value sets are essential. Students should be able to discern what is right, good and true; and should be able to act on the results of a discernment process.
Students should possess the ability to get organised and be capable of prioritising tasks. Prioritization is the essential skill that a students need to make the best use of their own efforts. It also creates calmness and space in their life so that they can focus their energy and attention on the things that really matter. Good prioritization helps a person to move towards a successful conclusion. Without prioritization they will struggle around, and drown in competing demands. To acquire the capability of balancing the academics, hobby, kith and kin, relaxation, sports etc., are essential. They should be taught to be faithful in fulfilling the responsibilities in hand.
Students should understand the benefits of self-discipline, which creates a sense of order and efficiency in their lives. Students who exercise self-discipline:
- Complete their assignments in time
- Stay on tasks
- Wait to be called on
- Work towards personal and community goals
- Make Diligent effort
- Ignore peer pressure
- Choose productive activities rather than destructive ones
- Control their temperament
Students should be creative. Creativity is all about seeing what everybody else has not seen, and thinking what nobody has thought. Students need not be Einstein or Edison to come up with novel ideas; all one needs is to eradicate the mental block, to unlock the creativity within them.
Students should have a right attitude. When a person’s attitude is positive, it is conductive to growth and progress. Optimistic people are happier, healthier and more successful than those with a negative outlook on life. A positive attitude has a very strong influence on the mentality and motivation necessary for setting a right goal to achieve.
Aspects of Education
A number of promising approaches are available to support students’ preparation for the educational and workplace demands of the new economy. To maximize the effectiveness of these approaches, special attention should be paid to the three aspects of education: the institution, faculty, and the student.
E-learning also has a very key role to play as a powerful tool to provide standardized quality and equality of access. ELearning must be used as an effort multiplier for providing access.
Finally, in enhancing the accessibility of learning solutions, development of interfaces for other cognitive faculties which would also help physically challenged learners is extremely important.
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A number of promising approaches are available to support students’ preparation for the educational and workplace demands of the new economy. To maximize the effectiveness of these approaches, special attention should be paid to the three aspects of education: the institution, faculty, and the student.
Institution
With the advent of globalization and opening up of Indian economy to the world outside, competition has become stiff. Technology is changing very rapidly and development is scaling new heights at a very high speed. What was new yesterday and applied is becoming old today and obsolete tomorrow. Special efforts are needed to augment the training and instructional infrastructure to meet the challenges of these emerging circumstances. Educational institutions need to shoulder with the government in preparing the students to cope with the emerging technologies. Science camps can be organized in institutions which essentially nourish the curiosity of Science in children; help them to think out of the box and attract the students towards science and technology. These sorts of camps can instill scientific propel in the youth population of our country and would give them a flavour of bliss ingrained in creativity. Educating the students about the courses available in the fields of Science, Maths, Engineering etc., and what these professionals do on a daily basis are indispensable to ensure the seriousness of what the students should focus on, and personally relate to them and how they can use them to change the world they live in.
Ahead of the affirmative role played by present students, former students or alumni of an institution could also fulfill an immeasurably optimistic role in higher education transformation. The capability of alumni to build skills, knowledge sharing network and their potential for actualizing lifelong learning could make a significant distinction in the way an institution is perceived by prospective and accessible internal and external stakeholders. Hence it is necessary for institutions to create and preserve good relationship with its alumni by including them in decision-making, network-building and development processes towards the whole advancement of that institution.
Faculty
The proliferation of technology has led to the increased availability and accessibility of computers in schools. Most students now have access to computers and the Internet in their classrooms, and a best part of teachers report using these advancements for instructional purposes. Though the schools have abundant computers, they fail to use them in the finest ways to augment learning. A great pact depends on the levels of planning, structure, preparation, and evaluation of the potential impact that technology will have on teaching, learning, and achievement. A faculty must stay up to date with the developments in their subject area, new resources, methods etc., therefore, it has become essential that the teachers should develop an aptitude for lifelong learning and have an exposure to advancements in their field through Faculty Development Programmes. Experts believe that increasing capacity depends on enhancing the technology skills of teachers and administrators. Apart from the subject content, teachers should also know their students, their behavioral patterns, and their learning styles and so on and also the strategies to instruct them to achieve the objectives set in the curriculum.
The following are some of the steps to be taken
- Providing teachers with well-designed and established curricula
- Providing training in advance through continuing education courses
- Encouraging teachers to work together to align curricula with standards, create lesson plans, and discuss ways to make classroom activities more engaging.
- Providing pre-service and in-service training that prepares teachers for the real-life resource constraints
A good student grows up to be a good citizen and thus, good citizens form a society which is graft-less, politically balanced, economically standard and that stands on moral grounds. The students are the prospective heirs of a nation and should be well equipped with sound moral, political and economical vision. They are the pillars on which beautiful edifices will be built. Our future prosperity and welfare of the nation depends upon the kind of education we impart to our young generation and what use they make of it. For a country like India, adoption of an appropriate innovation strategy is needed to foster high economic growth and building-up of infrastructure at an affordable cost. Therefore, the government has to give stress on higher education particularly in the field of Science & Technology with more emphasis on research and development.