Referring to the current education system of India, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad Director Uday B Desai on Monday said that it is time to introduce changes in the education system and expressed the need of launching latest technologies in the education system.
Addressing the discussion on ‘Modernization in Education’ at the principals’ seminar, organized by the Times of India in association with learning app Byju’s, he said, “We tend to wait for other countries to implement before adopting new technologies in India, especially in the field of higher education. There is a certain apprehension in implementing technologies as we tend to check if it is worth the investment.”
He also expressed the concern to start taking risks in the field, “Some technological advancements can lead to something, some may not, but it is always worth a try.”
“Get parts of drones and ask a group of students to assemble. They will learn about system design, software, flight dynamics, and controllers. This will be more interesting than playing video games. Thus, the use of technology can make a huge difference,” he said.
He expressed the concern that the old technology being utilized nowadays will not be effective for students later, “Kids are more aware of modern-day technologies compared to their teachers. Hence, the onus on teachers is more nowadays than it was a few years back in terms of incorporating technology in schools and higher education,” said Desai.
He also stressed that the teachers teaching nowadays are not equally aware as that of students.
“While it is a little embarrassing, it is a fact that a few kids will be smarter than teachers,” he said. “It is a very complicated thing to handle, but again technology has forced a lot of value change in terms of what teachers have to teach and we need to keep abreast and well-conversed with new technologies.”