CONVENTIONAL BLACK BOARD TEACHING IS THE BEST

             And no other modern methods will match to it

DR.S.RAGHAVAN,VISITING PROFESSOR,N I T TRICHY

Senior Most Professor(H A G) Retd.,ECE Dept., N I T TRICHY raghavannitt@gmail.com

In the educational class room ‘SMART BOARD’ is the state of art teaching tool. In broad sense ‘SMART BOARD’ can be defined as a giant size monitor. In addition to the functions that can be done using a PC, drawings, graphs also can be done manually with SMART BOARD .  Most of the class rooms in the developed countries use this and very few of the Indian colleges do have this modern teaching board. Virtual class room, cool sites, web browser, blogs, MOO (Multi user Dungeon, Object – Oriented) “White Board”Teaching software, slide projectors, Epidiascope, Over head projectors (OHP), LCD projection are the alternate methods existing for carrying out class room instructions and teachings. Each method has got its own merits and demerits. Over all it is inferred that nothing to match the ‘Black Board’ teaching method. It has got a winning edge over all modern methods. It certainly beats ‘Smart BOARD’ also. This conclusion is arrived by experience and also by the survey taken with around hundred students of National Institute of Technology, Trichy.   

                                  The popular and most convenient, simple and affordable gadget for the class room teaching is ‘over head projectors (OHPs ‘). It is a handy tool for teachers and there is no necessasity for the room to be completely darkened unlike for slide projector. The teaching material can be written easily on the transparent sheet or can be Xeroxed using xer\oxable thin transparencies. Colour projections also can be done. In short it is teacher friendly. But the content also will be wiped off from the student’s mind the moment the transparency is taken out of the OHP. Students will not have a ‘feel’ for lengthy derivations.

                                The predecessor to the OHP is the opaque projector, epidiascope, epidiascope or episcope a device whose system of mirrors, prisms and imaging lenses is used to focus an image of the material on a viewing screen. Opaque projectors require brighter bulbs and larger bulbs than OHP. Hence care must be taken that the materials are not damaged by the heat generated by the light sources. The greatest advantage of this epidiascope is the projection can be done direct from the book and hence no separate transparency is to be made. Of course this method is just the reproduction of the book and hence no part played by the Professor and now it is very hard to find even a single piece since it has become obsolete.

                               Slide projector (35 mm/16 mm) is very convenient in making stills of the actuals. More useful in showing complicated set up and natural geographical settings. Easy to convert into picture slides. Difficult to prepare write ups. No virus threat. Corruption will not occur. Easy to group and identify manually.Comparatively costly, cannot be changed after process and this gadget also is slowly going out of the scene.

                             Since few years the method that helps every one is the ‘Power Point’.

Lap top, Desk top, PC are the platforms using which ‘power point’ slide show can be effectively projected. Very convenient method for Professors and colorful show as regards to students. Many attractive methods of slides can be done using power point.

It adds visual component to their verbal messages. It removes stage fear of the presenter. No points will be missed in this projection method. Reusable with any kind of modifications. Animation can be done. Magic of flexibility in Text, Video, Pictures, Diagrams, tables and Graphs can be easily achieved. Remarkable merit is at any stage contents can be edited. The major draw backs are students should be given the material in advance and also the feel of deriving equations will be very much missing. Technology helps a lot in the modern method of Teaching.  But the ultimate aim of registering the concept in the students mind cannot be done effectively in all these methods however advanced the system may be. The smart board which has many flexible provisions including the merger of computer benefits with the conventional black board also has its own limitations.

                    A lengthy mathematical equations if derived step by step using chalk and the conventional black board (which cannot be done in any of the existing modern methods), and if taken as notes by the student with due concentration, certainly the concept will be registered in the minds of the students. At the end of the class, students will have a real satisfaction of having learnt some principles and also will feel the method of derivation. Say ‘THIRU KURAL’ or ‘TABLES’,  in olden days by ‘GURUKULA KALVI’ students used to recite in any way. Now if a person is asked what is 7X8, he will ask CALCULATOR to get the answer! In certain area ‘HERITAGE ‘ has got its own value and modern gadgets cannot be a complte substitute. Old is Gold!

                   During the survey conducted with regards to the above topic following are the opinions of a section of the students of N.I.T., Trichy.

                   “I like all the methods but preference is ‘teaching in the class room for derivations”- Natesh

                  “Quick slide show discourages us from taking notes”- Sathesh.

                  “Nothing like deriving ourselves and following conventional black board teaching” – Aparna

                “I personally prefer you using black board. I would say the conventional method is the most efficient method of teaching”-Ramamoorthy

               “Conventional method makes us have better grasping’ Aravind

             “The best way of teaching would be writing on the black board and ensuring that the students take it down” – Srivatsan

Palesh Kusumwal, “class room teaching with conventional black board is the best method”. “of all the methods of teaching aids, nothing can beat the conventional black board” – Archana.  “chalk and board is the best”- Vishnu. “A teacher can draw more attention with chalk and board only. Students will be more attentive. Other methods will make students feel relaxed”- Pon nithya.”nothing can be compared with black board teaching”-Maruti Agarwal. Aparna, Sriram, Chacko strongly feel that over all  

Conventional black board method is the best. Saranya, Vijaya Sadhana, Sundaram also support this conclusion. Many more students have listed out the advantages of other modern methods teaching (especially for animation and 3D

Structures), but finally have preferred conventional black board method of teaching only. In short even the Professors will forget the method of derivations.