Daily Times

Recent closure by the government of Punjab has forced our classrooms to be shut down once again because of the smog and its related disease and issues.

There is no denying the fact that the human beings have been changing their lifestyles as per the natural dictates towards them. It has been seen that during the COVID era it was not possible to carry on with the traditional system of classroom and that has proved once again because of the harsh weather conditions during the last winter and in the summer season and now this smog which has landed earlier than expected.

We have closed our classrooms once again at least from primary to tertiary and to the higher secondary level. We have reverted to once again online classroom systems to teach our kids so that they can stay at home while the teachers can teach from their respective platforms online and perhaps it is providing more practical education as compared to the classrooms in tradition. It is not only the natural epidemics which would result in the closure of the classrooms in the traditional sense but also the technological revolutions that are taking place in the 21st century would also force us to close the traditional classroom.

There is an echo in the air already of distance learning programs to be run online by the multiple universities that are following the dictates of HEC that the learners would be able to watch and listen to the recorded videos on the university platform and would be then required to undergo certain assignments and afterwards would visit the university to appear in test in person in the university campus.

So, the educational process would shift largely from the traditional classroom to the modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven technologically advanced online classroom. Our doings cannot be our undoing, so we need to follow the dictates of nature now because it is largely disturbed by the human activity in the last so many decades of its exploitation that now we have the smog system earlier than the last year and it can be followed by very severe winter season, heavy rains already witnessed – which would again force us to close our institutions to save young and precious lives from getting ill and sick. So, it means that there can be such problems whose solution lies only in the use of highly technological online classrooms.

The change in the traditional classroom has also necessitated now that the lecture which most of the teachers like to deliver are already accessed by the students via their cell phones or any type of device which they possess as they have access to such online sources for example open AI meta.AI.

There is an echo in the air already of distance learning programs to be run online by multiple universities.

They can have this type of information prepared already by accessing about the topic of their lessons. What the teacher teaches that becomes a lot irrelevant. If we start our classes according to the student-centered approach and let them access the information and knowledge, which is handily, readily and easily prepared by the artificial intelligence software, and let them compare different versions and the real live versions.

The teacher’s dexterity would be to make the students discuss all that and at the end of every class he may be preparing a unified and diversified opinion according to the discussion of the students and get them write as well. This process may be very helpful in conducting the classes online also but for this right type of infrastructures is to be provided, the training sessions are to be held for the teachers who are not so far willing to change.

It is necessary for all of us to provide latest version of education to our students which is not now possible through the traditional classroom. For this purpose, AI driven technology is very much essential to be employed for our young learners because we cannot keep them 200 years back as compared to the education that is being given to their counterparts in the West and the other developed countries.

It is the need of the hour that we may develop such interconnectivity with our students based on the artificial intelligence and put them to work in the classroom or online and they may come up with their assignments and their practical work. These may be assessed by well trained teachers who can run the software for not only evaluating the student’s work but also to provide feedback through the online systems initiated and developed by the universities and by the other educational relevant management institutions.

Now having said all that, it is not the purpose of this article to negate the existence of traditional classroom, the purpose of this article is to let the relevant people know that instead of putting our students to loss by adhering to traditional system and by not developing the online educational system, we can proceed with the help of our computer based technology to provide our students the best possible education even when there are epidemics, natural calamities ,and non-accessible part of the syllabus which they can have outside of the classroom also.

But the need of the hour is also that syllabus should be revised as per the need of 21st century student, the examination system should also not check the memory of the student, but the evaluation of his learning may be done and lastly job opportunities whatever they are available in accordance with that our learners should be taught.

In this way, there should be increasingly lesser dependence on the traditional classroom and more of that may be created on the well-equipped online classes systems.

The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson University, Multan. He can be reached at zeadogar@hotmail.com and Tweets at @Profzee