Shadow Correspondent
KATRA, MAR 29:
We need to translate knowledge into service to mankind, said yesterday Prof. K. L. Chopra, former Director of IIT Kharagpur and Member of the Executive Council of SMVDU during his visit to the university. Prof. Chopra is a noted physicist, whose 1969 work on ‘thin films’ triggered the today’s buzz research area of nanotechnology. He stressed in his talk that the institutions which just teach or where students are just taught are either dead institutions or dying institutions. The purpose of education is learning, one has to end up with learning process, not only learn to do something, but learn to learn also – learn to work together, collaborate together. Education today cannot be confined to the boundaries of disciplines, the boundaries of disciplines must melt, the disciplines must converge.
Every university must develop some peaks of excellence, he further stressed.
The key of today’s teaching-learning is the outcome based learning. Gone are the days of pure theoretical knowledge and scholarship that just exercised freedom of thought and expression. Outcome based learning is an important concept because it engages in continuous learning process. For teachers it is important to teach that much what can be learnt, even if the course is to be cut down. Students must also be taught how he learns to use what he is taught, how things are connected in life, or how a thing is dangerous; for example, we all throw away every year millions of mobile phone batteries which all are made of lithium which is dangerous for the environment, and nobody is mindful about it. So the curricula and the way of teaching have to be revised and at the same time teachers must also know how knowledge relates to life and in what way. Everyone cannot be a researcher, but one has to have a very clear attitude towards learning as how one uses the knowledge matter a lot and affects all. The session was attended by all faculty members of SMVDU and was followed by extensive interactive session. Dr. Sumeet Gupta, Dean Academic Affairs gave welcome address and vote of thanks.
