How laptop computers can help quell student unrest

The campus ruckus:

January 18, 2012, 8:06 pm , Dailymirror.


by R. Chandrasoma

It is said that the Devil has work for idle hands to do. Most undergraduates in our universities have very little interaction with their teachers outside formal lecture-sessions. Indeed, in the humanities, social sciences, commerce and the like, learning is mostly self learning with only basic guidance from teachers. Books are the chief instruments in a process of intellectual maturation that is largely personal and intuitive. We see on Television screens unruly hate-filled mobs milling around – but do we see anybody carrying a book? This gets us to the heart of the problem – unable to read usefully in a formidable foreign tongue and disenchanted with a system that offers them very little in the way of intellectual stimulation, they act like gregarious animals seeking comfort in the passions of the herd. Feelings of persecution and injustice spread like a contagious fever and an outburst of lawlessness follows the ‘acute fever’ of a few ‘agitators’ or ‘leaders’.

While disciplinary measures are unavoidable in such situations, it seems more sensible and practical to address the system-weaknesses that engender such catastrophic failures of the university system. Since effective learning is stymied by an outdated and inefficient lecture-system and by the linguistic and other ‘blockages’ along book-based routes to knowledge-acquisition, means must be found to circumvent these difficulties. Modern technology must come to our aid – and there is, indeed, a device that may turn out to be a panacea for all these ills – the Lap-top Computer. Suppose every undergraduate has basic computer literacy – very easily acquired these days – and a laptop computer that will be his ‘companion’ in the acquisition of knowledge. Given Wi-Fi capabilities in the precincts of the Campus, his computer will put him in touch at any time with extensive data-bases in a main University ‘Server’ (a large interactive Computer Base-Station). University departments will have their addressed web-sites and all educational material will be downloadable from such places in a very short time. Audio-files of all lectures will be freely available online or on portable devices such as USB drives. Interaction with consultants and teachers can be through e-mail or by posting on ‘public’ sites. This is only the beginning – the vast resources of the World Wide Web will be literally at his (or her) fingertips and his (or her) ‘knowledge horizon’ will expand to encompass worlds not dreamt of before. Will this seemingly simple step solve the notorious contumacy of our undergraduate population? I believe it will – because the devil will not have idle hands to exploit.

This demarche is not new – most university students in the developed world have exploited to the full this novel way of efficiently using the expertise available ‘at large’ in ‘open’ sites across the world. Our beleaguered undergraduates have two obstacles in their way – their poor knowledge of English and the high cost of the Laptop machine (about Rs 40,000).. As to the alien language, facility in its use will improve by leaps and bounds with hands on work with the computer. On the issue of cost, we must rely on the State to do what is necessary to make these miracle machines affordable to poor students