Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
Get set for a connected campus
|
Indian college students increasingly carry mobile phones and FM radios. It is a reality that parents and educationists must address - and handle sensibly.
|
A New York Times article last week tracing teenage trends in technology, narrated a recent incident in an American high school. The Principal was startled to find a pizza delivery van arrive at the gate with an order for a student who was in the classroom.
"How to find the culprit?" was the question. The cell phones of all the students of the class were examined till one phone had the pizza joint's telephone as the last number dialled. The student couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. He missed his lunch, so he ordered a pizza, he explained. He missed his lunch anyway, because the pizza was confiscated.
Don't be surprised if school and college administrations in the major Indian metros soon face similar problems.
Cell phones among students may not have reached the proportions of the West. The BBC reported last year, that 9 out of 10 British school children carry mobile phones to class.
Visit any of the newer (i.e. non-trad college campuses) in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai or Delhi, and you can see a fair number of students with mobiles clapped to their ears during the lunch intervals.
Others while away the idle hours playing video games or sending SMS messages to friends on or off campus. In cities like Mumbai and Bangalore where youth-oriented private FM stations have sprung up in recent months, you can also see dozens of students sauntering around with headphones glued to their ears and beatific expressions on their faces.
Educationists whose blood pressure has been growing in this situation need to remember one fact - it is not just the Rich and the Famous, the Bold and the Beautiful who spend money on such gadgets.
You can get a second hand mobile for around Rs. 2,000 these days and an FM headset comes as cheap as Rs.100.
In many cases, parents are perfectly happy to provide their sons and daughters with a cheap mobile connection, because this is one way of keeping track of them.
Let's face it. City life is full of hazards - a bandh here today, a hartal there, a police firing somewhere else... Which parent wouldn't spend a couple of thousand rupees for the mental peace that comes with being able to keep in touch with the family in all emergencies.
So, before teachers and principals and the like begin wielding the danda and banning such devices outright from school and college premises, they would do well to remember that many parents are unlikely to support them.
There is another practical reason: such devices are now so small that they can be slipped into a purse or pocket. There is no point in banning something, if you cannot enforce the ban. And surely college administrators are not going to introduce body searches for students entering the campus!
Some of the newer private institutions have taken a sensible stand - you may carry cell phones, FM radios, CD players and what not, as long as they are switched off and kept out of sight in the classroom.
If a student knows that his cell phone will be confiscated if it rings during a lecture, he or she will make sure that the device is turned off for the duration.
Because, technology being what it is, such gadgets are part of the `connected' age we live in.
They will become cheaper, more affordable and more pervasive. You can like it or lump it - but if you hold your hand up trying to stop it, you will be swept aside like a certain King Canute, who, according to legend, tried to stop the sea waves from rolling in.
The message to teachers is loud and clear. Don't stop the waves now sweeping over our campuses - ride them.
vishnua@hotmail.com
A VISHNU
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
|
