#application of knowledge

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If #Digital #Learning 1.0 was focused on #Scaling #Knowledge, #Digital #Learning 2.0 is about building #Skills through #Application of #Knowledge. So-Young Kang on why and how #Learning should change and catch up with #Technological and #Social Developments. World Economic Forum http://ow.ly/aT8850xnRqP

Albert Einstein

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Every university allow the colleges to have guest lecturers.  But now i wonder if our universities or colleges know the purpose behind introducing a facility for guest lecturers.  The system is so misused or manipulated in our colleges in such a way that the word has a twisted meaning these days.  When you hear of a guest lecturer the idea comes to mind is a junior fellow passed out of the same course one or two years earlier or the best is a  fresh post graduate.   They are appointed in the colleges when a formal faculty is not available or where the college could not appoint a formal and qualified faculty due to lack of approvals from the university or the government.   Misusing the facility for long both the colleges and the universities in India forgot what a guest lecturer is or what it is meant for.  I do not say there are no universities or colleges take it in the right spirit and with correct meaning, but ninety percent of then do not. The universities do fix the syllabus for the courses and the colleges are following them.   The autonomous colleges enjoy the freedom of  fixing  the syllabus for themselves and the university do honor them.  Whatever the case may be the basics of the subject are to be covered in the classes to make sure the knowledge is built on strong foundations and not on assumptions.   Fixation of syllabus and preparation of text books need to go through lot of formalities and it is not practical for the universities to revise the syllabus every year whatever may be development in the field in the current year or the previous.  Usually they do revise only a small part of the syllabus once in a while whereas a complete revision takes too long and many a times ignored. This is very relevant when introducing new courses.  A classic example is the syllabus for B.Tech. Computer Science, and B.Tech. Information Technology.   They are built on the basics of engineering courses already existed in the universities of Kerala, and many other universities in India.   B.Tech. Computer Science is more oriented into the formation of computers where as the B.Tech. IT is into application of computers and the software industry.   The syllabus for both are based on the earlier B.Tech. Civil Engineering, B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering Etc.  What is the relevance of the subjects being covered in the first three semesters in these universities for B.Tech. Information Technology?  I do not think anybody has ever give a serious thought about it. Did we go away from our main stream?  A little but that is needed to understand the relevance of guest lecturers.   In the earlier days the only source of knowledge was classes in colleges.   Nobody could ever dream of excel in Civil Engineering without attending the classes in a regular college.  But today the scenario has changed.  Sources of knowledge are plenty.  Someone really want to benefit from them are never get disappointed.   The science and application of science grow too fast that the universities generally fail to transfer the latest knowledge to the students.   The universities have the responsibility to build the basics into the students at the same time they need to keep them ahead with the application of science in the industry.  In the earlier days the best technical knowledge in India, and elsewhere, were available in the faculty room of the colleges.  They were the best of the brains.  That was the best paid and most respected job.  But today the world has changed a lot.  The best in the industries are in the application side of the industry.  They are working in the factories, software houses, and management rooms.    These facts added with the inability of the universities in keeping their syllabus up to date brings in a big gap between what the students learn and what the real knowledge and application of knowledge in the industry. The concept of guest lecturer was originally introduced to fill this gap.  The colleges could invite somebody that excel in industry or anybody who has sufficient knowledge and skill in the area of application and new technologies in a particular area could be invited to give a few lecturers in a college.   For example the students for Automobile Engineering can benefit a lot from two or three sessions by an expert working in the modern automobile industry.   The students will be able to link the pieces of knowledge they gathered with the real application of them in the industry, they will be knowing what to learn more and what not, based on their skill and interests.    In such cases the formal qualifications of the guest lecturer is irrelevant.  The value is in the knowledge he has and that is what we are going to put into the young brains. I guess you got what i was trying to tell you.   Guest lecturer is not someone that need to continue classes for the whole year, or months regularly.   They need only a few hours to ignite the thirst for knowledge in the young minds.  The colleges have to pick up different personal from time to time, the right resource for the right knowledge to prepare the students for the industry.    This is true not only for technical courses, but true for all graduate and post graduate courses. Now even universities are ignoring this.   Recently i happened to meet an expert in printing technology. He is a chartered mechanical engineer who has extensive working experience.  He has twenty two years of experience with the printing machinery division of HMT Kalamassery, and another sixteen years working with Heidelberg Middle East.  He got high end training at Wurzberg and Heidelberg in Germany. An excellent hand in modern printing technology.    He had attended an interview at Calicut University.  The university found him ineligible as he did not have eighty percent mark in the MIE-Mech.  They preferred to select a fresh M.Tech graduate who scored above eight percent for M.Tech.   The university is still using a printing machine they procured sixteen years ago from HMT!  Just imagine gap between the development in printing technology in the past sixteen years and the printing system the students get trained in the university!! [email protected]