Debjani Sarkar, Author at Adamas University

Digital Classroom-the beginning

The Concept

The year 2020 is full of challenges and new endeavour. We never have fathomed that darkness will engulf our life while we ushered 2020 with much joy and happiness. With respect to Teacher- student relationship we are experiencing a vast change and the journey has become very intriguing.
For the first time ever, schools in India have moved to online classrooms. It’s a struggle for both the students as well as the teachers. So far, we have been hearing the concept of Digital and remote classrooms, now it is just happening in front of our eyes. This is a Journey we were longing for. Now every journey has its own stories to tell. This journey which is now only a three-month-old has already gathered numerable interesting stories.

Challenges

Unlearn: Yes, teachers and students have this immense challenge of unlearning the age-old practice of face to face teaching using chalk and a board. The physical connection between a teacher and students which is very vital to understand the psyche is no more there in the present situation. Once a connection is established it becomes possible to deal with or clarify any situation immediately. Then comes the physical content. The physical contents keep the students more engrossed and focussed and this had to be replaced with digital version

Logistics: It is no more School Bags but handheld devices or a computer. This is also a great challenge as we did not know how much logistically we are ready. To run a Digital or Remote classroom, the Schools need to invest in IT infra. It was not at all easy while we are in pandemic. It was a huge task to streamline a process and run it seamlessly. The challenge is to develop a secured platform where both Teachers and student can interact and enjoy the journey.

Learning Materials: Teachers reading through schoolbook text needed to be replaced with interesting presentation which would enable them to remain engrossed and focussed. Remote classrooms ought to have interactive content, but it was never easy to create such contents within a few days’ time. The schools remained sceptical about how the students, specially who are in lower classes would react. It was always on the student’s reactions how this journey would shape in future

Parent: Most unpredictable dice in this whole play. Schools never could understand how they would roll. At any given point of time Parents might turn up to be one of the major reasons to derail the journey.

The Journey

Every successful journey has two key points. Acceptance and Endurance.
Most of the School Management accepted the fact that there would be lot of challenges and the Journey would not be going to be an Evening walk in a Garden. Most schools started searching for avenues and path which would lead them to the other side of the tunnel where they could find light for the rest of the journey. It was never easy. It has be reported by various Educational Institutions on how many hours they spent on brainstorming to come to with some feasible ideas and plans. The key as I mentioned earlier is finding a right and secured Interactive platform. There are number of open free mobile applications or platforms through which the online classes could be taken. But the authorities were never sure. So the Trial and Error method was implemented before they could freeze on one. It is not hundred percent success but eventually it would. We are at a very nascent state of the Journey and there will be multiple iterations.

Second is Endurance. Questions were asked. How to make Study materials. Not All teachers are computer savvy or know the nuances of presentations. But as they accepted the journey was tough, they toiled extremely hard. Some brushed up their presentation skill, some just pulled up their socks and started learning computer. School authorities also supported the teachers in their Journey which needed both moral and financial support. Teachers have taken the challenge head on and created number of Digital contents which could run in MS Power Point or any presentation software. The task was not at all easy and to make the content interesting and engrossing Teachers have put a Monumental Effort. There was high chance of breaking down and that did not happen. The teachers kept on accepting the change and remodelling themselves to fit in. The classroom board was replaced with Power Point presentation. Chalk got replaced by mouse or finger. Class room got replaced by handheld devices.
Students remain the same enthusiastic bunch and lapped up this Idea of Digital Class room and started enjoying. They remained engaged and more focused.

Future
Pandemic has radically changed the concept of traditional education in the past few months and virtual learning will be the new future of education. Before the pandemic, technology was just considered as a means of entertainment. Now, along with teachers, every profession has chosen the virtual platform, providing precious opportunities to both new learners and experts. There appears to be no dearth of online resources of academic value. And therefore, online teaching is more an opportunity than a challenge for teachers today.

Use of ZOOM as a mode of communication in this new era

Video Conferencing

The word video conferencing was constrained to its individuals or Big MNCs. A video meeting is a live, visual association between at least two individuals, dwelling in discrete areas with the end goal of correspondence. At its least complex, video conferencing gives transmission of static pictures and content between two areas. At its generally complex, it gives transmission of full-movement video pictures and top notch sound between various areas. Sounds so entangled, right?

ZOOMED

In any case, ZOOM streamlined everything. It has recently zoomed into our day by day life and made everything look so straightforward for those 40 minutes. It is the short-sighted type of Video conferencing and that excessively free and you do not have to master in PC to begin. You have to have standard 4G advanced mobile phone or a Laptop and an Internet information pack. That’s it. Indeed, you need not bother with whatever else. It is that basic and you can interface in excess of 20 individuals with a straightforward snap. It has demolished all different applications which give video call. Indeed, even WhatsApp bowed down to Zoom and it is developing prominence. WhatsApp began making updates and now WhatsApp video call can run with a more prominent number of individuals. In any case, nothing near the Seamless Video conferencing that Zoom gives.

History

Eric Yuan an American brought into the world Chinese was originator of Zoom. Eric is previous VP for Cisco Webex (Another Web Base Video Conferencing App). He left Cisco in April 2011 with 40 specialists to begin another organization, initially named Saasbee, Inc. Tragically, the organization experienced difficulty discovering financial specialists. The primary explanation was that market was under impression that videotelephony showcase was at that point soaked and demonstrating no development. Be that as it may, as we realize God consistently has supported the fearless. In June 2011, the organization raised $3 million from WebEx originator, previous Cisco SVP and General Counsel Dan Scheinman, and investors Matt Ocko, Logo of TSVC, and Bill Tai. In May 2012, the organization changed its name to Zoom. In September 2012, Zoom propelled a beta form that could have meetings with up to 15 video members. In November 2012, the organization marked Stanford University as its first client. In January 2013, by and by the organization raised a $6 million through different speculator like Yahoo Founder Jerry Yang. Past financial specialists kept on demonstrating their confidence and contributed. At that point Zoom propelled from 1.0 of the program with an expansion in the quantity of members per meeting to 25. Before the finish of its first month, Zoom had 400,000 clients and by May 2013 it had 1 million clients.

Zooming

Zoom didn’t develop as much as it thought. In the Year 2013 Zoom made number of associations with different blue-chip organizations and by June 2014 Zoom had 10 Million clients. The organization just developed and developed. In the Year 2017 Zoom raised it valuation to USD 1 billion and tallying. On April 18, 2019, the organization turned into an open organization by means of a first sale of stock. In the wake of valuing at US$36 per share, the offer cost expanded over 72% on the primary day of exchanging. The organization was esteemed at US$16 billion before the finish of its first day of trading. Prior to the IPO, Dropbox put $5 million in Zoom.

Be that as it may, Zoom was as yet not a commonly recognized name in the greater part of Asian nations. The individual clients shared with WhatsApp and constrained video call between two people. At that point the Pandemic strikes began and most of the nations went for lockdown. While we are for the most part thinking how to push forward extraordinarily, guardians and instructors who never have thought of an answer in a Pandemic circumstance as how the students will begin ,examines how schools will work, how students will show up for private educational costs. Out of nowhere it appears we are for the most part conscious from a profound sleep and we have an answer in the form as ZOOM. It just raged into regular daily existence and helped us get associated. It is a restart catch to new typical and everything is on Zoom. All the classes all the tuitions are on Zoom now. Zoom has become an easily recognized name. All inclusive, 2,000 organizations extending from the world’s biggest monetary administrations, organizations to driving broadcast communications suppliers, government offices, colleges, human services and telemedicine rehearses have done comprehensive security audits.

So Is it Safe

Zoom has security defects before, including a helplessness which permitted an aggressor to expel participants from gatherings, parody messages from clients and seize shared screens. Another saw Mac client constrained into calls without their insight. All these were fixed however a few specialists despite everything believe that the firm has a fairly nonchalant mentality to security.

Alan Woodward, a professor of computer science at Surrey University, told the BBC that a major fix is needed.

“I don’t believe this is something that Zoom can just add to their list of jobs to do in the next 90 days. It’s possible, but this requires a re-engineering of the way they encrypt their calls, so it’s a major undertaking.”

Prof Woodward added: “I would not use Zoom for any sensitive or secret discussions.”

( https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52152025)

Towards the End

Regardless of these admonitions, individuals by and large appear to be glad to share an ever-increasing number of parts of their life on the application, webinars, classroom interactions. Even the government organization are opting various option of zoom for their internal meeting. The biggest wave is the domestics use of Zoom. Multiple gatherings are happening across globe everyday every minute. We are only seeing the numbers are increasing. Inspite of other players like Google DUO, Hangout Skype WhatsApp, who have robust security system, zoom is winning the race hands down.

Zoom gives an option to reach out to our students more efficiently and effectively. The hasslefree userfriendly app made the life of the teachers who are less technically equipped much much easier.

The Indian Economy in the crucial phase of Covid 19

The Lockdown

The first case of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in India was reported on 30 January 2020 and first official Lockdown or Janta Curfew was observed on Mar 22 2020. The 14-hour janta curfew or voluntary public curfew was followed up with lockdowns in 75 districts where COVID cases had occurred as well as all major cities. Furthermore our honourable Prime Minister on 24 March, announced a nationwide lockdown for 21 days. This was first major jolt which affected the entire 1.3 billion population of India. It was once again extended On 14 April, and the Nationwide curfew will continue till 3 May.

2019 – Indian Economy

It is very important to understand how India was faring pre and post Lockdown at the Economic front. From the blog page of IMF we came to know that from last quarter of 2019 the whole world was in a synchronized slowdown and downgrading growth for 2019 to 3 percent, it was slowest pace since the global financial crisis. The reason behind this weak Growth pattern was due to rising trade barriers and ever increasing geopolitical tensions all across the globe. World Economic outlook projected a modest improvement in global growth to 3.4 percent in 2020. Which was again a downward revision of 0.2 percent from their April projection. The sharp deterioration in manufacturing activity and global trade were the two needle which had effectively punctured the growth rate. Also in addition to this the higher tariffs and complicated Trade policy along with growing uncertainty damaging investment and demand for capital goods. One of the major hit was Auto Industry. The Auto industry started contracting their production. This was due to a variety of factors. The major was disruptions from new emission standards. It was mainly in the Euro Area and China. Overall, trade volume growth in the first half of 2019 has fallen to 1 percent, the weakest level since 2012.

India was part of the global slow down we have experienced severe setbacks. The Unemployment percent was at its peak and overall GDP started showing the deviation from the projected growth. The GDP growth rate for the first quarter of 2019-20 has been revised to 5.6 per cent, and for the second quarter to 5.1 per cent. Therefore, the GDP growth for the third quarter at 4.5 per cent is showed that India could not hold up to the promise. Though at the end of third quarter there was a marginal increase of .2 percent and stood at 4.7.

The Fork

In the midst of this global pandemic the Financial Year ends and It is very interesting to find out how we faired and what is the projection. In Chess there is a move called Fork. Is a tactic whereby a single piece makes two or more direct attacks simultaneously. Most commonly two pieces are threatened. The attacking piece is called the forking piece over here it is COVID 19; the pieces attacked are said to be forked that is Economy and people’s life. A piece that is defended can still be said to be forked if the forking piece has a lower value. Now the biggest challenge over here is to decide which has a lower value. The Lockdown is without any doubt saving more life but simultaneously the Economy is getting a Major Hit. The Indian Lockdown is World’s biggest lockdown and an Independent study shows It may have cost India close to 7 to 8 Lakh crore. This is a huge loss. One of the renowned Ratings & Research company declared that the Lockdown in India will cost the economy almost USD 4.64 billion (over Rs 35,000 crore) every day and the entire 21-day lockdown will result in a GDP loss of almost USD 98 billion (about Rs 7.5 lakh crore).

It is amount estimated till April 15. But as we see the Lockdown has extended till May 03, we all may understand the loss would be even more. The Confederation of All India Traders made an estimation on the loss. This is the loss that would be incurred by the retail trade of the country in the second half of March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The amount would massive USD 30 Billion.

The Indian retail sector comprises of 70 million small medium and big traders employing 45 crore of people. All-inclusive they do a monthly business of approximately USD 70 billion. These SMEs and MSMEs are in huge loss and employment growth is slipping down.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicted India’s economic growth slipping to 4% in FY21, while S&P Global Ratings has further slashed its GDP growth forecast for the country to 3.5 per cent from a previous downgrade of 5.2 per cent.

The Solution

In this dark time do we have a hope. That is biggest question. We do not know. We are only speculating and thinking some miracles to happen. What would happen once the Lockdown is lifted. Life and Economy both are important and being forked. It has been predicted that there will be huge job losses which needs to be minimised. Increase in unemployment might have a snowball effect with millions of graduate pass out every year and start standing in the que. The COO of Vested Finance prescribed Government stimulus to ensure job losses are minimised is very important. India so far has committed 0.7 percent of its GDP amount to around $23 billion. This amount will be distributed in the form of health insurance for health workers, cash transfers, free food, and gas distribution. But if we look at the other countries and understand to what an extent and impact of support they have provided, it is highly understandable that India must consider a second and a larger stimulus. That will be necessary for India to prevent significant collapse of small businesses. If only the SMES and MSMES start operating and once again start giving employment India has a chance to pass through this dark Period