Knowing your audience
In one of the latest projects I managed, we conducted an interesting experiment with school children to understand their pattern of learning. We had formed an opinion about the generic pedegogical values and the methodologies followed in most of the schools. We found that the way children learn to use technology is not similar to how they would learn other subjects.
Okay, at least in India, we would see children sit through classes, listening to lectures and reading book to learn their basal subjects. Now the paradigm shifts when you introduce technology as a subject.
These days technology is not the same as it was, a decade back. When I say technology, I mean IT. I'm looking back to my good old days when I was a student and learnt Cobol, Basic, and dBase, on Dos. Things were different. There were more focus on learning to code. There were none called "Power Users" who can operate a computer with some 'basic' knowledge on its operations. I would have spent hours in a classroom, learning to develop logic and pseudocodes and converting them into syntax.
Thats not the way people learn technology these days. The face of technology has changed. GUI has become the way of life and user-friendliness is the mantra of every software!
GUI tools cannot be taught in a classrooms, in the same chalk-n-talk methodology. There is a shift in paradigm now. Everything is visual and nothing is required to be remembered verbatim (even the syntax!) Well thats the background of the experiment we conducted in a school.
We took some sample chapters to teach Paint and basics of computers to children of middle school grades. Wow! what did we see? Children were more keen on learning from the pictures (screen shots) than from the steps of explanation given in the book!
Children are quick learners. They learn most of the things by doing than just be listening or reading. I wish this is understood clearly by people responsible in shaping the educational system in India. We need a change in educational methodologies in schools. We need clear goals set for children with focus more on application of knowledge than just accumulation of wasteful theories.
Okay, at least in India, we would see children sit through classes, listening to lectures and reading book to learn their basal subjects. Now the paradigm shifts when you introduce technology as a subject.
These days technology is not the same as it was, a decade back. When I say technology, I mean IT. I'm looking back to my good old days when I was a student and learnt Cobol, Basic, and dBase, on Dos. Things were different. There were more focus on learning to code. There were none called "Power Users" who can operate a computer with some 'basic' knowledge on its operations. I would have spent hours in a classroom, learning to develop logic and pseudocodes and converting them into syntax.
Thats not the way people learn technology these days. The face of technology has changed. GUI has become the way of life and user-friendliness is the mantra of every software!
GUI tools cannot be taught in a classrooms, in the same chalk-n-talk methodology. There is a shift in paradigm now. Everything is visual and nothing is required to be remembered verbatim (even the syntax!) Well thats the background of the experiment we conducted in a school.
We took some sample chapters to teach Paint and basics of computers to children of middle school grades. Wow! what did we see? Children were more keen on learning from the pictures (screen shots) than from the steps of explanation given in the book!
Children are quick learners. They learn most of the things by doing than just be listening or reading. I wish this is understood clearly by people responsible in shaping the educational system in India. We need a change in educational methodologies in schools. We need clear goals set for children with focus more on application of knowledge than just accumulation of wasteful theories.
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