Using digital content projected on a white screen for the class is becoming ubiquitous in most educational institutes now. Typically in K12 schools the multimedia content bundled with the projector and PC is the classroom is supplied by one of the private companies which supply so called “Smart” or “Interactive” content in various subjects for all classes typically from class 5th to class 12th. Subject teachers just “Play” the multimedia content in the classroom.
While ready-made content for higher-education/undergrad level courses is available from some vendors it has not picked up as much as K12. The practice in colleges and universities is that the content is prepared by the faculty member in form a Power-point presentation or PPT as it is popularly called.
Benefits: Using Power-point based digital content does provide several benefits to students as well as teachers.
In various research and surveys conducted in this area, it has been observed that students access the content provided by their teachers in the exam preparation period as one of the most important sources of study material.
Challenges in adapting the usage of digital content in classroom.
The investment required in hardware for using digital content is very simple: laptops for all faculty members and projectors in all classrooms. Considering that the cost of hardware is continuously coming down, this is not the biggest challenge for most educational institutes.
The bigger challenge is the change management on how to encourage faculty members to start using the technology and leave the good old practice of writing on the board. While one would think that younger faculty members would be naturally comfortable with using power point and other tools to create content in comparison to older faculty members. The reality is not so straight forward. Several young faculty members who has just completed their PhD may be as averse to using technology as their older counterparts.
Reasons cited by faculty for not using digital content can vary from technical to behavioral to just whimsical. Mostly these can be:
The solution for making faculty members comfortable with Power point is a slow and continuous training where they feel excited about the technology and don’t feel intimidated by the complexities of technology. Also it is important that they get recognition for creativity and using their own content. The initiative should be driven by senior management involvement so that the overall attempt to get everybody into using technology is a combination of push and pull effect to get best results.
While ready-made content for higher-education/undergrad level courses is available from some vendors it has not picked up as much as K12. The practice in colleges and universities is that the content is prepared by the faculty member in form a Power-point presentation or PPT as it is popularly called.
Benefits: Using Power-point based digital content does provide several benefits to students as well as teachers.
- Teachers don’t have to write too much on blackboard, as most of the content is pre-written in PPT. It makes the class delivery more efficient where more topics can be covered in given number of lecture hours.
- Teachers can reuse the PPT across sessions, and enhance the PPT on a regular basis.
- Teachers can also merge multimedia objects taken from internet like images, videos etc. this makes the content a lot more effective where students can actually visualize the content for more effective learning.
- If PPT is made available to students then students can focus on understanding the content and listening to the faculty instead of just focusing on copying the content written on blackboard on to their notebooks.
In various research and surveys conducted in this area, it has been observed that students access the content provided by their teachers in the exam preparation period as one of the most important sources of study material.
Challenges in adapting the usage of digital content in classroom.
The investment required in hardware for using digital content is very simple: laptops for all faculty members and projectors in all classrooms. Considering that the cost of hardware is continuously coming down, this is not the biggest challenge for most educational institutes.
The bigger challenge is the change management on how to encourage faculty members to start using the technology and leave the good old practice of writing on the board. While one would think that younger faculty members would be naturally comfortable with using power point and other tools to create content in comparison to older faculty members. The reality is not so straight forward. Several young faculty members who has just completed their PhD may be as averse to using technology as their older counterparts.
Reasons cited by faculty for not using digital content can vary from technical to behavioral to just whimsical. Mostly these can be:
- If I share my content/PPT with students they can send to other college students? I will lose my content power.
- Some other teacher will copy and start using my content.
- Oh even the best institutes like IITs, use the blackboard. We don’t need to start using too much of technology.
- I don’t know how to create and use Power-point.
The solution for making faculty members comfortable with Power point is a slow and continuous training where they feel excited about the technology and don’t feel intimidated by the complexities of technology. Also it is important that they get recognition for creativity and using their own content. The initiative should be driven by senior management involvement so that the overall attempt to get everybody into using technology is a combination of push and pull effect to get best results.
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