What are the characteristics of effective distant students and teachers?

                                                                                          S.A.K.Durga

 

Distance education is the process of providing instruction when students and teachers are separated by physical distance.  Technology and print material often in tandem with face to face communication are used to bridge the gap.

 

The role of the teacher in the context of an evolving teaching/learning environment is undergoing changes with the advent of Distance education for Indian Classical music.

 

As the boundaries and distinctions between traditional and non-traditional education can no longer be clearly demarcated, the teachers are expected to play  their roles comfortably and effectively in both.

 

Unlike other forms of education, music education has certain special characteristics.  It was quiet late in being included as part of the formal educational system of universities and schools in India.  The preferred method to acquire practical proficiency in music continues to be private education with a chosen Guru.  Only a small percentage of colleges offer Degree courses in music.  Traditionally Indian Classical Music was taught through the Gurukula sustem where the student lived as a part of the teacher’s household enabling him to learn the intricacies of music and style of his Guru not only by direct lesson but also  through  the  musical  environment.   The demands of the modern social life

 

 

has seen the disappearance of the Gurukula system, to be replaced by tuitions taken during certain fixed hours and days.  In either system, the stress is on the practical side of the music – to take the student to become a competent musician.  In the formal education of music imparted through Universities and colleges in the Degree course equal stress is given to the performing and theoritical aspects to enable the student to know how to perform as well as to be knowledgeable in musicology.  In this context, to teach music through distance education using print and technology becomes more difficult than for the other subjects.

 

 

A student of music has not only to learn a song but until he/she is competent enough to perform the composition in a good manner, the student should be guided by the teacher to make it perfect.  A much greater interaction between a teacher and student is involved in music education.  The special aspect of Indian music is that it cannot be completely written down in notation.  The notation system is skeletal, giving only the outline and the gamakas and fine nuances have to be learnt only from the teacher or by listening to the music through audio or visual media.(demo)

 

 

The present distance education system in many of the Indian Universities depend upon the supply of study material through print and audio cassettes and conducting contact classes for the distance education students.  The computers are not being used to any significant extent in Carnatic music education though other audio electronic gadgets are familiar.

 

In this context, it becomes necessary to know about the characteristics or Gunas of the teacher and the student in the Distance education system for Indian classical music.

 

Teachers are expected to have a few more additional characteristics when they interact with students in the Distance education.  When teaching at a distance, teachers do not have a relatively homogeneous group of students and face-to -face feed back from the students.  Therefore the teacher must know the background of the students – age level of instruction and grasping capacity.  The teacher should also adapt to the student in degree of formality and pace of communication to get to know the positive and negative feed back in the sense  of what is not working and is working (Barry Willi – Distance education a practical guide. University of Idaho).

 

Teachers have to alternate between instruction and interaction and evaluation as a method for understanding the grasping capacity of the students.  Teachers must evaluate through different parameters – such as homework and informal approach in collecting data.  The student can be also asked to mail their questions and problems and teachers responding to them then and there. Teachers must assess the students’ familiarity with the various instructional methods and find out how they will apply their knowledge gained at the course.

 

The development of instructional materials and selection of delivery methods will often require integrating print, voice, video and audio which the teacher has to integrate the delivery components based on identifiable learner needs, content requirements and technical constraints.  Although technology plays a key role in the delivery of distance education, educators must remain focussed on instructional outcomes and not of the technology of delivery.  The key to effective distance education is focussing on the needs of learners. Therefore the approach must be a mix of media, each serving a specific purpose.  For example, A strong print component can provide much of the basic instructional content in the form of a course text book as well as readings.  Teachers must be aware that print is a foundational element of distance education and the basis from which all other delivery systems have evolved.  The teacher must suggest to the learner various print formats such as text books and study guides etc.  Teachers must also prescribe instructional audio cassettes and videos/CDs which are very essential for Distance education for classical Music. 

 

Teachers must be aware of the latest developments in the media  which would help students.  There are audio  cassettes for voice training exercises and also video cassettes for voice counseling. (demo)

 

At the same time the teacher must understand that technology is just a medium - it is the teachers who must define its application for the purpose of achieving worthwhile educational ends.

 

The teacher must also assess the amount of content that can be effectively delivered in the course.  Because of the logistics involved, presenting content at a distance is usually more time consuming than presenting the same content in a traditional class room.

 

Teachers should recognise the subtle point  that their core competence should not be seen as simply transferring knowledge but rather orchestrating knowledge that leads to understanding the subject.

 

Teachers should avoid long lectures and must intersperse the content presentation  with  discussions and student centered exercises.

 

With the advent of Cyber Universities in the new millenium, teachers should also familiarise themselves to the use of computers as an effective teaching aid.  The use of computers in the field of music was restricted to the laboratory and required special hardware at the beginning.  At present with the coming of the PCs, the Personal Computer, systems are developed for recording, storing and playing music through computers.  The computers can be a good tool for teachers to get the feedback on their presentation which is an essential ingredient in any educational system.  Feedback for music in distance education is complicated by the fact that the student’s singing or playing an instrument has to be transmitted to the teacher and comments sent to the students to answer questions through e-mail or interactive web pages and evaluate their understanding and proficiency.  Music can be also put on the web pages and the concept of one- to- one individual teaching which is more effective for Indian Classical music can be achieved by the teacher.  With the help of the Internet, teachers in the Distance education for Indian music in Virtual Universities must remove the “distance” from distant education.

 

The characteristics for students in Distance education are:

 

1.      High motivation to complete the courses because the day-to-day contact with teachers and other students is lacking.

 

2.      Students must be aware of their strength and limitations.

 

3.      They must understand the purpose and objective in taking the distance education course in classical music.

 

4.      Student must train themselves for self-learning and should be familiar to use the tools such as computers, video and audio for learning purpose.  Computers will be a good tool for practising music for the beginners where the stress is on singing notes correctly in terms of pitch and tempo.  Videos will be also useful to learn the beginning lessons as it is a audio-visual media (Demo : Video cassette – Nadopasana)

 

5.      Contact with the teachers through correspondence either by e-mail or post card to find out how much the students has grasped the subject - matter is very necessary as the face to face contact is absent.

 

6.      Students must quickly become comfortable with the process in distance education.  They must take an active role by independently taking responsibility for their learning.

 

7.      Last but not the least  the utmost desire for music learning is the bottom line for the distance education student to be successful and get the most benefits from the Distance education.

 

No doubt teaching and learning Classical music in Distance education is demanding.  However, learning will be more meaningful for distance education students if the students and teachers share their responsibilities for developing learning goals and objectives, actively interacting with each other and evaluating what is being learnt by the students which reflect the effective teaching of the teachers.  This is the challenge and the opportunity provided by Distance education for classical music in open universities/ correspondence education/virtual universities/Cyber vidyalayas to teachers and students who should possess special characteristics different from the students/teachers in formal education system at the Universities.