Metaphorically speaking, knowledge is light. If I ask you to take it literally, it will be easy for me to get into the science of it.
Light, as we know it, shows wave-particle duality. Einstein proved that light is not just a wave but is made up of small particles or packets called Photons. These photons have a certain energy, which was further elaborated by Max Planck in his famous relation,
where E = Energy of Photon
h= Planck’s Constant
v=Frequency of the Electromagnetic Wave.
Now let’s make an abrupt but meaningful transition into the World of Online Education and try to relate it to the scientific stuff that I just babbled about.
“E” is for the Energy of an Online Class
Lecture-based teaching is the primary outcome of a lack of resources and awareness among the teachers. A lecture can stretch for hours resulting in a monotonously low ‘energy’ towards the end. This format is epidemic in our educational system.
However, with technology and online learning, can’t we get past the lecture?
A 21st century online class (which is like the “Photon” of a course) demands a high energy delivery of knowledge. This quantised energy needs to be contagious enough to overcome virtual barriers and stimulate thinking and imagination among the students sitting behind a screen. This energy must only be a facilitator in learning.
But how do we ensure that? How do we acquire this energy?
“v” is for the Frequency of Online Classes
Education turned to technology because the students no longer wished to be fed and manufactured like machines. They wanted to be able to understand and comprehend the world in their own time and space, not all at once but in chunks or packets (or quanta).
If an online class is just a modern replica of the traditional, lecture-based classroom, what difference does it make? Does it serve or beat the purpose of adopting ICT(Information and Communications Technology)?
There is absolutely no need for educators to make an online class go on for more than an hour. Instead, knowledge can be imparted in small packages with a higher frequency of classes. This can be termed the “Quantisation of Knowledge.”
For instance, an hour long class can be divided into 4 high energy 15 minutes mini-sessions. A higher frequency of scheduled classes ensures higher energy (E is directly proportional to v, remember?).
“h” is for the WizIQ Constant
This “h” is a constant and a very important factor in this equation. I’d like to call it the “WizIQ constant. All through the process of de-Lecturization, it remains a loyal associate and guides you through the designing of modules and scheduling of classes. It is an important determinant to balance both the final energy as well as the frequency variable.
WizIQ Virtual Classroom makes online teaching and learning available in real time, anywhere and anytime.
(I am not trying to take it away from Mr.Planck. This is just an analogy used as a reference to deliver a message. Or is it?)
The Calculation
The aim is to get rid of the lectures and instead bring into practice what the Vloggers (Video Bloggers) do.
They keep the full screen for themselves and don’t let anything else (read Facebook, Twitter, et al) distract the viewers. They stick to a limited amount of information all through the video and never lose focus. They use comic elements and hilarity to explain things as complex as rocket science.
(These are the Vlog Brothers, Hank and John Green, who Vlog about Biology and History. Click on the picture to watch a video!)
The key is to know exactly what you are going to say. The online teacher can not afford to lose any time since they are not physically present with the students. Unlike in the traditional classroom, the teacher can not snap the stick from time to time to ensure rapt attention.
Eureka!
Now that I have all the relevant data (and a genius mind in place), I thus derive the WizIQ’s Equation of de-Lecturisation as follows,
Energy of the online class = WizIQ x Frequency of scheduling the online class.
Get past the lectures and treat your students to eLearning in bites with the WizIQ Virtual Classroom.
