Author: Aanchal Agrawal

Transmedia is “deep media”- stories that are not just entertaining but immersive as well. They take you deeper than an hour-long TV drama or a two-hour movie or a 30-second spot will permit. 

According to Jeff Gómez, (Starlight Runner), “Transmedia narrative is the technique of conveying messages, through systemic and concerted use of multiple media platforms. It is the technique of conveying concepts and themes to a mass audience. The implementation is designed to engage the audience members individually. This is done by validating their involvement and positively reinforcing personal participation in the narrative. The result is long-term engagement, intense loyalty, and a desire to share the experience.”

Transmedia – Definition 

Whenever we talk about Transmedia, its existence beyond the multiple media forms always comes to our mind. Transmedia is usually defined as a narrative or project that combines multiple media forms. Many different types of prints or prose text, graphics, and animation; may be combined in a transmedia project. Work across multiple platforms, like different types of social media platforms, interactive websites or advertising outlets are also included in this.

Traditionally, the term media has been used as a label for mainstream news outlets. More recently, there has been a reclamation of its use from such negative and political connotation. It is now commonly used to refer to the variety of multimodal (and increasingly digital) communication forms.
The plural form of the singular medium– media are simply ‘ways’ of communicating ideas and thoughts. This is a cause and affects of digital literacy which includes letters, novels, magazines, emails, paintings, videos, and infinite other forms that can be considered media. It might also come in classic or modern forms, formal and informal.

According to Frank Rose, (The Art of Immersion),

“What we’re witnessing is the emergence of a new form of narrative that is native to the Internet. Mentioned through many media at once in a nonlinear fashion, these new narratives encourage us not merely to watch but to participate, often engaging us in the same way that games do. This is “deep media”- stories that are not just entertaining but immersive as well. They take you deeper than an hour-long TV drama or a two-hour movie or a 30-second spot will permit.”

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Marshall McLuhan

Without making any claims; any balanced discussion of media has to… has to include Marshall McLuhan.
During his professional prime during a time when televisions were replacing radios and McCarthyism was changing lives. McLuhan was witness to a powerful and important change in culture. McLuhan experienced that the ‘individual man’ was being replaced by ‘tribal man’ through media. In this media was acting as a kind of conscious glue. 

He saw that humankind was coming to define itself involuntarily through media. Before Zuckerberg had his big idea, McLuhan saw media forms as social long as it was through numbing consumption and persistent conditioning. 

Majorly, McLuhan viewed media as powerful contributors to “how we experience the world, interact with each other, and use our physical senses.” 

In today’s times, media is in a radiant state of flux. Frankly, there is so much of it. There are so many forms, so many platforms, and hence, so much consumption. McLuhan says that “media is the message.”

Classic media forms like music, DVDs, and now movies are being surpassed by videogames. This is increasing our interaction with narrative texts and ramifying media consumption.
Now the question arises… what becomes of books? 

Transmedia

It is difficult to imagine a world where the stalwart of narrative structure. The novel is vaporized by YouTube addiction and Beiber fever, anything is possible. And in terms of total sales (at Amazon, anyway) eBooks are now giving ground to physical books. Making the future incredibly complicated.
If an eBook, pdf files, Google Currents, and mashed blog posts, etc. can be displayed in a Kindle …where does one begin, and where is the other end? And what about the video game with the facebook page that pushes notifications to an app that itself is gamified and is automatically shared on your twitter stream?
Interestingly, the overlap is more extraordinary than the difference.
The content can be overwhelmed in itself sometimes through the notions of fluid texts, hypertexts, presiding of quasi-intertextuality. a kind of passing of the guard in terms of pop culture forms comes with this fluidity.

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Defining Characteristics Of Transmedia

The ‘definition’ of transmedia is a narrative, extending beyond multiple media forms. It may or may not be interactive. This makes it possible to have interactive video game portions of a narrative married to prose-rich novellas combined with smart use of specific social media platforms. All of them collaborating strategically, to narrate a compelling story while offering the potential for the innovative use of crowdsourcing and audience engagement. Here are some defining characteristics of Transmedia:

1. Born-digital– The first characteristic is Born- Digital. Transmedia lets the content to be Written first for and specifically to be read and viewed from the screen… being digitalized. 
2. Interactive– Transmedia requires user action to drive the story forward.
3. Multimedia – Transmedia uses text, images, music, sound effects, puzzles and games to illustrate and enhance the narrative.
4. A Novel – Transmedia involves a reading-from-the-screen experience for the “always-on” generation.
5. Episodic – Transmedia lets us experience each a self-contained story, the chapters are both interactive and occur across media channels.

Examples Of Transmedia

There are abundant examples of transmedia in popular modern culture. Many may point to the intersection of prose novels or copyrighted songs in the arcade and video games. While others might suggest devices like the Amazon Kindle reflect the use of transmedia approaches. Another good example of transmedia efforts can be seen in the inclusion or embedding of Facebook or social media content in other applications or websites as well.
Certainly, the deeper analysis of the transmedia phenomena very often includes a reference to Marshall McLuhan, who is a renowned theoretician and philosopher of the 20th century.
As referred above, McLuhan pioneered some of the theory around analyzing both the medium and the message that is transmitted through it. Some of McLuhan’s ideas can be incorporated in the conversations about transmedia, for example, analyzing the combined impact of a message and its surrounding medium.

Transmedia is nothing but what the word parts suggests it might be: a merging of media forms. Here the digital is with the narrative, but with the multiple platforms, it is a part of the narrative. While interaction is promoted through transmedia, it is clear to be noted that they are not videogames, but rather new digital narratives offered in a way that has been inaccessible to classic forms威而鋼 .
Transmedia also provides an opportunity to keep looking for new and innovative ways for businesses or other parties to connect with audiences in a culture that is media-rich.

It has been 101 years today since the legend was born. Nelson Mandela was a lot of things, from a revolutionary to a political leader, philanthropist and what not. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela or popularly known as Nelson

Mandela was born in the Madiba clan in the village of Mvezo, in the Eastern Cape, on 18 July 1918. His father, Nkosi Mphakanyiswa Gadla Mandela, was the principal councilor to the Acting King of the Thembu people, Jongintaba Dalindyebo and his mother’s name was Nonqaphi Nosekeni.

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. ” A quote from ‘Speech from the Dock’ by Nelson Mandela on 20^th April 1964

Nelson Mandela was 12 years old when his father died, and then he became a ward of Jongintaba at the Great Place in Mqhekezweni.

Rolihlahla was given the name Nelson, by his teacher, Miss Mdingane, when he attended primary school in Qunu. This name was given to him as per the custom of giving all school children “Christian” names. 

Mandela dreamed of making his contribution to the freedom struggle of his people from Hearing the elders’ stories of his ancestors’ valor during the wars of resistance. He went on to Healdtown after completing his Junior Certificate at Clarkebury Boarding Institute.  He matriculated in the Wesleyan secondary school of some repute in Healdtown.

At the University College of Fort at the Hare Mandela began his studies for a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was not able to complete this degree though as he was expelled for joining in a student protest.

When Nelson Mandela returned to the Great Place at Mqhekezweni, the king was extremely angry and hence said that if Nelson didn’t return to Fort Hare he would arrange wives for him and his cousin Justice. Instead, they ran away to Johannesburg and reached there in 1941.

In Johannesburg, he worked as a mine security officer. He then met an estate agent named Walter Sisulu who introduced him to Lazer Sidelsky. Nelson then did his articles through a firm of attorneys – Witkin, Eidelman, and Sidelsky.

In 1943 he went back to Fort Hare for his graduation after completing his BA through the University of South Africa. In the meantime, he began studying for an LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand.

He was a poor student and without graduating in 1952 he left the university. After his imprisonment, in 1962, he started studying again through the University of London but didn’t complete this degree either.

Nelson obtained an LLB through the University of South Africa in 1989, while in the last months of his imprisonment. In Cape Town, he graduated in absentia at a ceremony.

Entering Politics

It was around in 1942 that Mandela was increasingly involved in politics. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress. He helped in the formation of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) during this time. In the same year, he married Evelyn Mase, a nurse who was Walter Sisulu’s cousin.

They had four children, two sons named- Madiba Thembekile “Thembi” and Makgatho, and two daughters both called Makaziwe, the first of whom died in infancy. In 1958, he and his wife got divorced. 

Nelson accelerated through the ranks of the ANCYL. It was through the efforts of ANCYL that, in 1949, the ANC adopted a more radical mass-based policy, the Programme of Action. 

He was chosen as the National Volunteer-in-Chief of the Defiance Campaign with Maulvi Cachalia as his deputy, in 1952. This campaign of civil disobedience was against six unjust laws.

This was a joint program between the ANC and the South African Indian Congress. Under the Suppression of Communism Act, Nelson and nineteen others were charged for their part in the campaign and sentenced to nine months of hard labor, and suspended for two years. Overall it was for 27 years that Mandela served in prison.

Mandela was able to practice law after a two-year diploma in law in addition to his BA. In August 1952, Nelson and Oliver Tambo established “Mandela & Tambo”, which was South Africa’s first black law firm.

He was banned for the first time by the end of 1952. He as a restricted person was only permitted to watch in secret because the Freedom Charter was adopted in Kliptown on 26 June 1955.

The Treason Trial

On5^th December 1956, Mandela was arrested in a countrywide police swoop. This led to the 1956 Treason Trial. The police killed 69 unarmed people in a protest in Sharpeville against the pass laws, on 21 March 1960.

This not only led to the banning of the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on 8th April but the country’s first state of emergency as well. During the state of emergency, Mandela and his colleagues in the Treason Trial were among thousands detained.

On 14 June 1958, Nelson married a social worker, named- Winnie Madikizela, during the treason trial. They had two daughters, named- Zenani and Zindziswa. In 1996, the couple divorced.

A few days before the end of the Treason Trial, Nelson traveled to Pietermaritzburg to speak at the All-in Africa Conference.

This conference resolved that Mandela should write to Prime Minister Verwoerd requesting a national convention on a non-racial constitution. This was also to warn that if the Prime Minister would not agree there would be a national strike against South Africa becoming a republic.

After Nelson and his colleagues were acquitted in the Treason Trial, he went underground and began planning a national strike for 29, 30 and 31 March.

Although, the strike was called off early in the face of a massive mobilization of state security. He was asked to lead the armed struggle, in June 1961. He helped to establish Umkhonto weSizwe (Spear of the Nation), which launched on 16^th December 1961 with a series of explosions.

Mandela secretly left South Africa on 11 January 1962, using the adopted name David Motsamayi.

To gain support for the armed struggle he traveled around Africa and visited England. In Morocco and Ethiopia, he received military training and returned to South Africa in July 1962.

He was convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, during which he began serving at the Pretoria Local Prison. He was transferred to Robben Island on 27 May 1963 and returned to Pretoria on 12 June.

Mandela joined 10 others on trial for sabotage on 9^th October 1963. This became to be known as the Rivonia Trial. While facing the death penalty his words to the court at the end of his famous “Speech from the Dock” on 20 April 1964 became eternal:

“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. ”

A quote from ‘Speech from the Dock’ by Nelson Mandela on 20^th April 1964

Mandela along with seven other accused, named- Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni, were convicted, on 11 June 1964.

The next day they were sentenced to life imprisonment. As Goldberg was white, he was sent to Pretoria Prison, while the others went to Robben Island.

In 1968 Mandela’s mother died and in 1969 his eldest son, Thembi. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.

Along with Sisulu, Mhlaba, and Mlangeni, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town on 31^st March 1982. In October, Kathrada joined them. Mandela was held alone, when he returned to the prison in November 1985 after his prostate surgery. He was visited by the Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee in the hospital.

Release From Prison

On 12 August 1988, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in the hospital. After over three months in two hospitals, he was transferred to a house at Victor Verster Prison near Paarl on 7 December 1988. He spent his last 14 months of imprisonment over there.

To end the white minority rule, Mandela immersed himself in official talks. In 1991 he was elected ANC President to replace his ailing friend, Oliver Tambo. In 1993 Mandela and President FW de Klerk jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize. On 27 April 1994, he voted for the first time in his life.

Presidency

Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first democratically elected President, on 10^th May 1994. He married his third wife, Graça Machel, on his 80^th birthday in 1998. After one term as President and being fair to his promise, Mandela stepped down in 1999.

Although he continued to work with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund he set up in 1995. He also established the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

Nelson Mandela never fluctuated in his devotion to democracy, equality, and learning. Regardless of terrible provocation, he never answered racism with racism. His life is an inspiration to all those who are oppressed and deprived, and to all who are opposed to oppression and deprivation.

On 5 December 2013, he died at his home in Johannesburg. 

Achieving tenure is not less like reaching the summit of the Mount Everest for most professors.

Most of you will answer this question as yes. Lets understand what is need of asking such questions about assistant professors even and Im sure everyone of you can correlate to this.

Lately, a lot of emphases has been put up on some adjunct issues. An assumption has been made by all for that associate professors have conferred superhero and that they reside in a fortified ivory tower.

Achieving tenure is not less like reaching the summit of the Mount Everest for most professors.

According to some researches, it has been concluded that as compared to either assistant or full-time professors, the associate professors are some of the unhappiest people in academe. The dissatisfaction is likely begins once the hard work and anxiety of the probationary period are over and tenure is granted. 

An associate professor has a life which is even more overwhelming and isolating. Assistant professors have the guidance of their more experienced peers. They are still relishing the anticipatory euphoria of working toward the ultimate prize of tenure.

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Once tenure is received by them, they lose the guidance. Their workload becomes disproportionately composed of committee work and service at the expense of their own research. Assistant professors are very much insulated by these goals and excused from extraneous tasks because their research is so critical to their tenure prospects.

It is also possible that even though the assistant professors are successful enough to earn tenure, but, like many associate professors, they generally struggle through the long years of mid-career, which can be apparent by exhaustion, doubt, and even depression.

According to the New national data, the associate professors are some of the unhappiest people in academe. Significantly, they are less satisfied with their work than either assistant or full professors.

According to the statistics, there are about 510 professors at 69 colleges and universities by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, at Harvard University.

The unhappiness with the work conditions of the Adjunct professors has also been made well known. Moreover, the focus of the Harvard survey was on faculty members within the tenured and tenure-track ranks.

Here are a few reasons behind, as to Why Associate Professors are so unhappy ??

1. Discontented and Underappreciated

Once the Beginning professors are promoted to associate professor, and as soon as they start making tenure, they go from being one of the rising young stars of the department to being one of the workhorses.

It can also be said that there is bound to be a letdown in the associate-professor years that follow as the run-up to tenure is tend to be very demanding in academe.

According to the respective survey, professors are happier while working toward tenure than they are once they’ve earned it.

It was around 150,000 professors, who are associate professors amongst all tenured and tenure-track faculty.

The service of an associate professor is constantly underappreciated. The discontented behavior towards associate professor is not hot news in town. The gap between expectations and the cold reality of the job comes out to be a major reason for dissatisfaction among the associate professors.

In India, associate professors are not given the deserved respect and appreciation.  Once the students working hard to be professors end up in joining the academe do not find their jobs as special as they imagined in the first place as they land in a tenure-track job in an increasingly competitive academic job market.

The study doesn’t explicitly state that there is a difference in the quantity of work going from an assistant professor on the tenure track to associate professor with tenure.

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It appears that the amount of time and effort devoted to one’s own research and writing decreases which, coupled with the “what now?” crisis contributes to dissatisfaction and, in many cases, depression. 

It would be reasonable to assume that full professors enjoy more freedom to conduct their own research, have greater opportunity to direct their own programs and are more likely to have access to junior professors or graduate students to share their classroom duties.

2. Midcareer Depression

According to an article, ‘I’ve Got Tenure. How Depressing’, written by Kathyrn D. Blanchard,  it is said, “I went into the nonprofit sector because I thought that would be worth something.”

It is also believed that associate professors find themselves unhappy because the academic labor market is very tight. Associate professors spend less time on their own research and writing and more of it on service work. Therefore, the ability of the associate professor to be competitive in the job market and move to another institution is diminished.

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Some associate professors also say that they have accustomed their earlier goals and dreams, and even the expectations of their universities, with the reality of the job and their own sensibilities. Mid-career depression is one of the basic reasons as to why associate professors are unsatisfied and unhappy in their careers.

Obviously, it should be observed that not all associate professors are singing a sad tune.   Investigating the existence of associate professors and not seeking for those who are sufficiently satisfied with their positions, is of no utility.  Doctors tend to intervene when an ailment emerges and not the question of what to do about their healthy patients. 

To be sure, we are much more interested in the aberrations, pathologies, counter-intuition, and exceptions to the rule than that which we take for granted as being as it should be.  Everyone is much more interested in the negative, or even extremely positive, than the neutral.

3. Assistance from Universities

In order to give them guideposts during the associate-professor years, self-help groups are being designed.

The recognition of the pitfalls of the associate-professor years is now being done by a few universities. They have also thought of taking some action for the issue.

Since so much of the job is about directing and serving on committees, workshops are also being started in order to help associate professors develop leadership and managerial skills.

These days the associate professors are mostly feeling exhaustion. It will take years for them to shake off the fatigue and get going again because the run-up to tenure is so stressful.

They constantly become literally depressed. Universities are also creating alternative paths for associate professors to be promoted to full professor, giving scholars credit for directing research centers that get grants.

Universities are now beginning to recognize and address the issues that beset associate professors. They do this by creating alternative paths to full professor, giving credit for directing research centers, creating workshops aimed at developing leadership and managerial skills, and organizing support groups for associate professors to vent and discuss challenges in their research. 

These types of interventions, if they prove helpful, could be applied across professions as surely doctors, lawyers, corporate executives and many other professionals who have spent years toiling away in order to achieve their own version of tenure.

This could potentially make the associate professors happier and more satisfied in their own careers and avoid the purgatory of “now what is next?”

Academics comprise a unique breed of professionals. They are considered as the super high achievers throughout their education and are tend to have equally high expectations of post-graduate, post-tenure track careers that often fail to meet with the reality of academic life. 

It is rather a matter of fact that many find that they are stuck doing mundane tasks which are more administrative than scholarly and, rather than celebrate job security afforded by tenure, they resent the constant presence of colleagues for whom they have less than amorous feelings for. 

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Another indicator is that higher education attracts people who tend to be predisposed to unhappiness or, to put it another way, perfectionism which, by definition, is impossible to attain and therefore disappointment is inevitable.

But yes, let us wait and watch what the future has in stock for the associate professors.

Let me know in comments how you feel about this question and may suggest some solutions.

Also can help us know more problems you are facing in acdemeia and thats unheard.

When done naturally, student learning and assessment go hand in hand.  It becomes a natural part of the teaching and learning cycle when we assess for learning.

A hot topic in education these days is assessment.  Everywhere teachers are concerned that assessing student knowledge has made us overly preoccupied. We should instead refocus on what really matters by flipping the switch. We need to focus on student learning.  This can be achieved when we learn to use the types of assessment as a tool to help our students.

When done naturally, student learning and assessment go hand in hand.  It becomes a natural part of the teaching and learning cycle when we assess for learning.  This allows teachers to use assessments as feedback and guidance for the next steps through the idea of assessing for learning. Assessments can give us a single measurement among a broad profile of what a child knows and can do when used sparingly. We begin to unravel the true learning experience when we put the emphasis on these kinds of assessments.

Education has different types of assessments. There are different purposes during and after the the instruction of all assessment methods. Here are the types of assessment which are important during the development and implementing the teacher’s instruction.

Types of Assessment of Learning

Diagnostic Assessment (as Pre-Assessment)

It is necessary to know for what kind of students you’re creating the instruction before creating the instruction. Your ultimate goal is to get to know the strengths, weaknesses and the skills and knowledge your student possesses before taking the instruction. You can create your instruction based on the data you’ve collected. This assessment is apparently the first type of assessment of learning.

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Formative Assessment

In the first attempt at developing instruction, Formative assessment is used. Here, the goal is to monitor student learning to deliver feedback. In your instruction, it helps in to identify the first gaps. You’ll know what to focus on for further expansion for your instruction based on this feedback. A manner to think about it is to assess a student’s performance during instruction. It generally occurs regularly throughout the instruction process.

Summative Assessment

Another type of assessment of learning is Summative assessment. It is aimed at assessing the extent to which the most important outcomes at the end of the instruction have been reached. But this type of assessment measures more, including, the effectiveness of learning, reactions on the instruction and the benefits on a long-term base. You are able to observe whether and how they use the learned knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This assessment is a way of measures a student’s achievement at the end of instruction.

Confirmative Assessment

the next type of assessment of learning is confirmative assessment. It is still necessary to take the assessment when your instruction has been implemented in your classroom. Your ultimate goal with confirmative assessments is to discover if the instruction is still a success after a year, for instance, and if the way you’re teaching is still on point. You could speak that a confirmative assessment is an extensive form of a summative assessment.

Norm-Referenced Assessment

The fifth type of assessment of learning is Norm-Referenced Assessment. In this assessment student’s performance are compared against an average norm. This could be the average national norm for the subject History, for instance. Another instance is when the average grade of a student is compared against the average grade of the entire school by the teacher. Broadly, it compares a student’s performance against other students. It can also be called as a Group or “Demographic” assessment.

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Criterion-Referenced Assessment

Criterion-Referenced Assessment measures student’s performances against a fixed set of predetermined criteria or standards of learning. At a specific stage of the student’s education, it checks what students are expected to know and will be able to do. Criterion-referenced tests are used in order to evaluate a specific body of knowledge or skill set. It measures the performance of a student against a goal, specific objective, or standard. It is a test to evaluate the curriculum taught in a course.

Interim/Benchmark Assessment

Another type of assessment of learning is the Interim Assessment. At periodic intervals, it evaluates the performance of the student. It is frequently done at the end of a grading period. On end-of-the-year summative assessments, it can predict the performance of the student.

In the learning processAssessment is a critical step. The learning objectives of the course are determined by assessment. These different types of assessment of learning affect many facets of education. These might include student grades, placement, and advancement as well as curriculum, instructional needs, and school funding, etc. the performance of the student is measured and analyzed which helps them improve in the long-run.

Assessment of learning and its types are a key component of learning as they help students learn. It boosts the confidence and motivates the students in a way. It helps the students to learn, gain and grow, with their heads held high.

With continuous technological advancement in the field of education, it is pretty evident that students, as well as educators, would require modern classrooms with the latest educational practices that are a stark contrast from the standard classroom requirements.

Today’s students need a very productive environment to hone their skills in the most effective way possible, be it for their careers or their workplaces. Prime importance is given to students to make them able to develop their thinking-communication-collaboration skills effectively using technological tools that would help them shape up as modern-day workers in this 21st century.

The education training and practices that were carried out in the earlier classes would fall short to meet the eligibility requirements in this fast-paced world. These are no longer of much impact, and newer strategies must be developed in that are opposite to those employed in those traditional classes.

With the onset of education technology, teachers should be more proactive in becoming guides rather than being mere sources of knowledge and information. A teacher is someone portrayed as ideal go-to-person to seek for guidance, learning, and professional development.

Educational technology is a vast field. It can have fundamental issues of learning, teaching, and social organization.

The significant changes that need to be made and are generally associated with modern classrooms from the past centuries are listed below:

1. Proactive Impart Of Lessons:

Today’s students get very actively involved in whatever they do. Be it sports or any other activity. Modern classroom benefits the students in the academic aspect of any student’s life.

Students take part more and more in class discussions, engage in the class interactions, and learn how to work as an individual and more importantly in a group or work on a project or any group activity that tends to bring everyone in the class together requiring for every individual effort. This would help the students to discover their abilities and their talents.

Studies say students learn faster when involved in any activity that requires them to talk, write, read, and reflect.

With more active contribution from the students would make them feel significant in their team’s work, making them more likely to upgrade their knowledge.

2. An Inviting Environment:

As the classes were conducted in prominent Asian countries like India and China, open-air teaching has become a dire necessity for a conventional classroom. That does not mean to go out and to study in a large open filed under the sun.

This statement implies that a modern classroom should be spacious and not too overcrowded. The modern classroom should have basic needful like LCD projectors and interactive whiteboards. A new culture has sprung up in these modern classrooms, that is, to carry your stuff like the tablets and the laptops for a more individualized experience.

And as mentioned before, the use of such technology and innovations stimulates a student’s growth and widen his or her each, making the jobs of the teachers a little easier. Such accessories also help to retain a student’s focus on learning.

3. Adaptive knowledge:

There are a wide variety of students studying ion any modern classroom at a time. It gets a little tad confusing for the teachers to ascertain the abilities of the students, and they get perplexed in understanding on how to make the students under the basic that are taught in the class.

This is where adaptive imparting of knowledge comes in. This approach helps students to grasp the basic of every subject at their own comfortable pace. There are numerous software and educational aids for the adaptive impact of the knowledge and learning that are available at the student’s expense that can be used to enhance the student’s experience.

4. Mechanical Devices:  

In this 21st century, computers, laptops, and tablets have taken over the regular uses of paper and pen, replacing them as everyday needs in an advanced class. Such mediums not only allow the students to access a lot of information at the same time all at once but also do thorough research and surfing to refine their technical skills but also give the teaching faculty to improve and better their teaching materials.

It has become synonymous with the 21st-century people to thoroughly understand how to operate a computer and is an existential need of the hour. Truthfully stating. Use of such electronic aids does help significantly in making teaching a whole experience in a modern classroom. These help in making the interaction more useful and engaging.

5. Completely Centered On Students:

In classrooms like these, students would be playing a significant role because though teachers serve as guides, it is up to them to create the proper environment of learning for the students while the latter can work on and develop newer concepts.

These student-centric classrooms put the interests of the students first before anything else and are more specific on their learning and analyzing abilities and their styles.

6. Instils Discipline And Mutual Respect:

No matter how exciting and interactive a learning environment poses for a student, maintaining a basic decorum becomes a must responsibility for every student. Every class should be organized and planned expertly.

Rules and regulations are followed for one and all. All the required notices are uploaded on the regular bulletin for the students to be on track. Every individual, no matter how are they related to each other in a modern classroom- a student or a teacher should maintain the same amount of respect and courtesy for each other all the time.

Though the role of a teacher changed from that of a center sage who has the limelight to a guide who stay by your side to show you the path, the respect for them should not lessen as they still are the same- their lighthouse in times of a storm.

At the same time, teachers should encourage each and everyone in the class to speak up and upheld their different cultures, values, and opinions. In a disciplined modern classroom, all students should hold the same mutual dignity and respect for all the other fellow mates in the class.

7. Sense Of Duty And Responsibility:

Since students are free to set themselves at their comfortable pace and stimulate the learning, it tends to make them responsible for their actions and deeds, which inadvertently makes them more severe and focused on their education.

What helps the entire class as a whole is that it increases the productivity and encouragement among the students and also, works with their teacher towards a defined and determined academic goal, thus establishing themselves in the long run.

Teachers also can adopt a lot of different ways and strategies that would help the students in enhancing their decision-making skills and versatility.

8. Periodic Assessments From Time To Time:

There is a need to carry our assessment tests from time to time through a wide range of methods, which necessarily not are exams and tests. Tasks relating to doing online research and daily assessments can be utilized in assessing the abilities of the students and also identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Projects, presentations and different kinds of debates and quizzes would also help in the assessments of students on various levels because such activities put the critical thinking to test and enhance the scope for knowledge amongst the competition.

Often, the first goal of an educational technology project to show how it works. The incentives, tools, and mechanisms for sustainability should be considered up front and introduced and tested from day one.

Technological research regarding education always has an ambitious agenda, no matter what.

Sometimes it only targets to increase efficiency or effectiveness at a rapid pace, but often it aims at frequent pedagogical changes. While that can be seen as design research, it also aims to fulfill fundamental aspects of learning, teaching, and social wellbeing organizationally and hence should make use of the complete variety of modern science and life methodology.

If educational technology is only concerned with précised thinking about teaching and informative stuff, then a computing technology has immense contribution to make irrespective of its use in various fields as a means of implementation, for the design of computer-based learning environments. This provides us with an altogether new pathway on improving and implementing general educational objectives.

Start of an era that will be keen for more Artificial Intelligence not only in movies but also use artificial intelligence in education

We all have grown up seeing all those science fiction movies like Artificial Intelligence(2001) which took us to another world of robots, humanoids and everything beyond our imagination and belief.  It really took us to another fantasy world that in general hard to believe.

As time passes of artificial intelligence is becoming indispensable for our lives now. From taking pictures on the camera to automatic email replies we even cant think their extinction now. One such field which applies various artificial intelligence is EDUCATION.

It’s not like you start asking where are humanoids or robots who are teaching in classes? But apart from that vauge imagination artificial intelligence have many other offerings for education improvisation.

So let’s learn all whats and hows of  Artificial Intelligence in Education… and take our Education system to a next level.

What is Artificial Intelligence ??

Artificial Intelligence or AI is a machine or any device that is created to work and act like a human by feeding the required instructions to the computer. This involves three elements Learning, Reasoning, and Self Correction.

Learning involves the acquisition of information and rules for using information and proceeding for the next step. The second element is  Reasoning to use rules to finally reach conclusions that may be approximate or definite. Lastly, Self Correction to autocorrect at its own.

After learning what is AI lets see how artificial intelligence can be used for education..

1. Make Grading Easy And More Effective In Your Classroom

Teachers are doing duties in their respective institutions. Apart from teaching, they should also correct papers, grade the students and take attendance.

Teaching a student consumes more time when the student strength in a classroom is high. Teachers can save this time and prepare for their lecture or clear any sorts of doubts of the students.

Although machines cannot help in correcting essays and long answers, they can be useful to assess the MCQs (Multiple Choice Questions) and other questions that have one-line answers.

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Several scientists are conducting vast research to make the best use of AI in the field of education. In the future, AI can also help in correcting essays also. AI will to reduce the paperwork of teachers and allow them to concentrate on their teaching activity alone.

2. Pay Attention To Each And Every Child By Using AI

Every Student is unique. Teachers in a classroom cannot concentrate and teach students individually. It will take enormous time if the class strength is high.

Students can improve in their studies if they could get individual attention from their teachers, which is a hypothetical thing in a class of 50.

Artificial Intelligence can be a great tool to use for this.

Data of the students’ previous performance are getting stored into the computer; AI will analyze the data and will know about the students’ strength and weakness.

After getting the required input of the student, the customized software responds according to the student’s capacity to learn and grasp knowledge. Individual study material is prepared, based on the student’s mental state and additional clarification is also provided to the students for their betterment.  

Students will be immensely benefited by this teaching method as it teaches the way he likes.

With the improvement of AI, the teaching community will find it easy to clarify the students doubt and cascade their knowledge in a positive manner.

3. Artificial Intelligence A Guide For Teachers

Students sometime will be unable to understand the explanation of a teacher and the teacher might also leave the lecture incomplete, because of which the students could not understand the topic properly.

The teacher might not know the reason when a majority of the students commit the same mistakes for a particular question. AI informs the teacher and helps the teacher to correct the errors in the teaching process and guides them in helping the students.

Online courses use this AI facility which is helping a vast number of students to learn in the right way. The AI keeps on tracking the students’ progress on a regular basis making it easier for the teacher to guide the student so as to improve their knowledge base.

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Teachers can also change the method of teaching with the feedback they get about the students’ progress and help the students by giving a better explanation.

4. Artificial Intelligence As Tutor But Not As Teacher

Many students nowadays are getting educated through online courses and distant education method.

Classes are conducted not only for certificate courses and higher education but also for elementary and high schools too. Because of various constraints many students’ wish to study from their home; AI tutors are a boon to such student community. AI knows everything about a student as it has data about the student’s strengths and weaknesses.

AI can teach the fundamental principles of a subject, but cannot go deep into the subject matter and teach them the high- level course material. Only real teachers with creativity and experience can make the students understand such a subject.

With research and development that is happening in the AI world, the day is not far away when a machine can teach any subject.

5. Feedback Using AI About The Students Progress

In the future, students will be able to learn subjects with customized study material. Teachers will have to focus on improving the fundamentals of a student. AI will monitor a student and prepare study material according to his intelligence and grasping power.

AI will regularly monitor the student’s progress and give feedback to the teachers. These feedbacks and suggestions will help in improving the knowledge base of both students and teachers. Teachers, with the help of data, can take necessary actions for the improvement of a student.

AI can also help students to select subjects that are appropriate for their knowledge. When a student chooses a subject considering his or her strengths and weaknesses, it gives him the confidence to learn and succeed.

Similarly, AI can give suggestion to a student by going through his educational progress in the earlier years. It will surely help the student to pursue a career depending upon his or her learning capacity.

6. Swapping Of Roles Of Artificial Intelligence And Teachers

In future, if we use  Artificial Intelligence to help in Education  in grading, giving suggestions, and feedbacks it will be a great help. AI will be answering questions and teaching basic fundamentals to the students.

A teacher will take up the role of a coordinator. Teachers with the help of AI inputs about the students will assist the struggling students. They will act as a human bridge between the AI machine and Students.

Already this has happened in many schools that are conducting online classes.

7.  Use AI To Boost Confidence In Students

Most of the students fear classrooms. It may be because of the teacher, subject or fear of failing.

Machines will also point out the mistakes, but students feel very embarrassed when a teacher talks about a mistake in a fully packed classroom.  In front of an intelligent machine, students feel less tensed. They feel free to ask their doubts. AI machines help students in gaining knowledge by giving suggestions for improving their skills.

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Outside the classroom whenever a student needs help, AI can provide support by providing additional information the student requires, through computers.

8. Enhancing The Quality Of Education Using AI

Computers possess data of all the future and present students in its vast database. Data so collected is used to choose the best-suited curriculum for the students.

As the courses are designed keeping the students in mind, it will be a learning experience for them.

By using AI, students can easily select their suitable courses and colleges where they want to study. AI is dependent on the performance and intelligence of the students.

Joining the AI suggested college and course will be the best option to succeed in his higher education career for any student.

9. AI To Learn Anything, Anytime, Anywhere

AI has the potential to change the face of education within a short duration of time. With AI there are no boundaries and the World has become smaller.

AI is useful when the strength of teachers is less when compared to the student population. Students can choose whatever subject they want and can learn during the best suitable time to them and from wherever they live. AI will replace some teaching staff. Computers will provide the online education material chosen by the AI, based on the students’ performance data.

Switch to AI and digitally transform the education system

The education field has seen tremendous change with the introduction of AI. Students are feeling confident as they could clear all their doubts with the touch of a button.

AI is still in its nascent stage in this field. A lot of research is getting conducted across the globe on the AI. Research states that there will be a significant impact in the way AI is currently dominating the market.

With the improvement of technology in the current market, AI will be able to cater to the requirements of each and every student. Starting from the fundamentals to the concepts, you will be able to use AI to teach your students easily.

“Our job is to teach and guide the students we have. Not the ones we would like to have. Not those which we used to have. Those we have right now. All of them.” – Dr. Kevin Maxwell

You might have heard this from your fellows who are into teaching profession or have said this – “ Today’s college students are absolutely different from what they use to be a decade ago.”

A change which is standing out cultivating many aspects positives as well as negative. People today, understand the utter importance of education after high school and graduation.

In order to achieve the positive outcomes, it is very necessary to have broader participation of not only the teachers but the students as well. One of the important aspects which are very difficult to achieve is to convert the available knowledge, skills, time, energy, and money into quality learning and education. Teaching according to the old patterns and norms is not going to prove helpful in today’s time as there is a lot of competition everywhere.

According to Dr. Kevin Maxwell,   “Our job is to teach and guide the students we have. Not the ones we would wish to have. Not those we used to have. Those we have right now. All of them.”

We can never choose specific students that we want to teach or the ones which we don’t want to teach. It is certainly not in our hands. An ideal teacher should take all the students together even if they are so different from each other, or even if they do not fit into the teaching patterns. Not all students are born intelligent or possess only good qualities. The present students should be focused on and not compared to the students in the past or the ones which the particular teacher would like to have.

Challenges to Face in the Path

There are lots of challenges and problems in colleges today, well, the sad part is that they are generally ignored and not taken care of. According to one of the essays by Nancy Bunge, it is not only the teachers who get hurt if the students evaluate them but the students as well. Passive and somewhat arrogant students are produced if the undeserved aloofness is encouraged by the heavy reliance on student evaluations. This eventually leads to lowering the quality of the spirit of the class and in the teachings as well for everyone.

According to the teachers and professors, they say that students these days are harder to teach. If the new teaching patterns are no adapted there will be a non-filling gap amongst the teachers and the students. This will affect the performance of the students overall as they might be less interactive in the classroom and also distracted.  At times, it is also observed that there is favoritism in the class amongst the students by the teachers, and yes they do prefer some students over others. It not only hurts the students mentally but also demotivates them for performing better.

Learning and teaching is a two-way path, and yes efforts are needed to be put from both sides. Teachers should be humble even if the students are not getting good grades and on the other hand, students should engage with the teachers more. This will improve mutual understanding and the process of teaching will be much easier and interactive.

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The college students of today’s times are generally considered to be the rebel type. In India, one of the major issues in the education system is that worthy students do not get the opportunity according to their abilities and caliber. Many of the students are either disinterested in studying after graduation or they don’t have the needed funds. Even though, a great population of today’s youth believe in higher education, and are growing with their careers; many of them are also moving out of the country in search of latest and upgraded education, which somewhere lacks in India.

Changes Necessary to Be Made

With the changing times, it is a natural tendency for students to grow fast, many students in any college hold more knowledge than the teachers, and; this aspect is constantly being neglected by our education system including the teachers. The age-old patterns and curriculum are being followed in many of the colleges and universities in India, which is certainly harmful to the students as they ultimately, have to face this fast and competing world. New teaching plans and patterns should be crafted for the betterment of both the teachers and the students.

Quality education is a key requirement of a prospering country, like India as it aims to build sustained growth. But, the current situation of the Indian education system is extremely poor. Even though efforts are being made nationwide to improve the present situation, it is accurate to say that different complications ail different Indian states and the teaching patterns they follow. Some states have an extremely high student-teacher ratio, while others suffer from a poor gross enrollment ratio. All of this entirely depends on the perceptive the teachers hold for their students.

In higher education institutions; the procedure followed to assess student’s needs to change steadily. In many institutes, student assessment is carried out as a single standardized exam at the end of the academic year till today. The basis of this assessment is this one test that the subject knowledge and clarity of concepts in students are judged, and they take forward that mark sheet and certificate to penetrate the job industry. If the features of the current generation-the Millennials are taken into consideration, this assessment procedure is quite ineffective in understanding the true potential, caliber, knowledge retention and its applicability amongst today’s students.

In today’s world, more ways to listen for the voices of students demonstrating on education are needed. More ways to include students in conversations related to the future of teaching and learning patterns in colleges and universities are needed. Certainly, these conversations cannot begin by sending a signal to students that their voices don’t matter.

Conclusively, we as educators have the responsibility to serve our educational system in a way that everyone has a chance to gain, grow, and learn. This has to begin with a sense of respect for the students. Students should be accepted the way they are and not the way we wish or want them to be. Students are human first. And so are their teachers. Students are not robots or analytical data or information.

Leading the way of designing the pedagogical approaches for the students we have, not the students we wish we had is all that is needed.

Responsive, inclusive, flexible, challenging, and benevolent approaches are required to achieve this. Discovery of more creative ways to reinforce teachers and brace them for the work of teaching is required to be done by the educational institutions. It’s a practical exercise, not a theoretical one.