Projectors and advanced presentation options have revolutionized the teaching and learning experience. Videos, pictures and animations have made both practical learning and theoretical learning possible. But what I’ve noticed in the past few years is that the use of chalkboards has lessened and in most of the lectures, it ends up remaining clean and neat. Are chalkboards really not required? Will there be a day where there are only presentation boards and no chalkboards?
In my school days, I remember teachers saying, “You must have seen…” quite a lot to explain a particular phenomenon. We didn’t have the best of audio-visual facilities back in the early 2000s. The picture in the textbook was all we had and we had to understand everything from it. The teacher’s explanation and use of the board obviously simplified the concept, but we always felt something was missing.
By the time I was in college, we had projectors, better internet connectivity and cheaper laptops. We got to experience modern teaching and learning methods and nobody was complaining. In a few years, I realized a lot of the teaching was being done with presentations and the board was just used to explain a concept or two. It took me a lot more time to study and understand some concepts from the textbook. Also, the notes in my book were not even close to what they were during school. Modern learning methods were supposed to help me, but I was facing a few difficulties. What changed?
When the faculty uses the board to explain concepts, there are a few things that are happening. When he writes on the board, the student sees it and writes it down in his book. Even if the student was not paying full attention, he has enough time to gather his thoughts and pay attention to the board. I’ve always believed that handwritten material has a significantly different effect on our minds as compared to that of print.
So, say that, there’s a figure which has to be drawn. Seeing it in the textbook is one thing and watching the professor draw it another. We get the idea from where to start, how to connect the points and eventually complete the figure. The same goes for equations. When we’re exposed to equations for the first time, it’s slightly difficult to comprehend each and every term in it. If the same equation is written on the board, the comprehension is easier as the faculty writes it term by term, taking more time. Also, as writing on the board and explaining takes more time and this extra time actually gives the student innumerable chances to get his attention back. Of course, less material will be covered in the class, but the whole idea is for the student to understand the textbook in a better way rather than just being exposed to more and more concepts. A chalkboard is the best way a professor can walk a student through a textbook.
All in all, a presentation definitely helps in imagining and understanding practical concepts which are difficult to explain on a board. Videos, pictures and animations can make learning fun and can also make dry or boring passages in the textbook interesting. Chalkboards, though, have their own importance. I’m already unhappy with them being underused and I fear that one day students might not be able to experience chalkboard based learning at all!
