Source: Business News This Week
From helping students to grant access to education through different learning styles simultaneously to solving problems associated with student absenteeism, hybrid teaching has emerged as one of the best teaching methods in today’s era of education. Hybrid learning has made a passage into the scholarly field a long time ago and has forwarded through numerous changes, presently procuring a spot as an augmentation of formal learning. Hybrid learning combines online with synchronous or on-site learning where parts of the curriculum are taught online while other activities are taught in a classroom setting.
Considering the current COVID-19 scenario, the hybrid model of learning has become one of the effective and popular methods of education. It offers the best of both worlds; getting access and flexibility of an online course with the additional support and classroom interaction with faculty and classmates. Apart from this, it also provides huge benefits for both students and teachers such as:
Students are regularly arranged into visual, sound, and sensation classes, and most understudies learn best utilizing a mix of these for retaining various types of ideas or data. The virtual medium makes it workable for instructors to offer this sort of gaining experience even from distant areas. Availability of a huge amount of study materials online in the forms of text, video, quizzing and interactives gives students more agency over their learning and enables them to engage with course material in the ways they learn best. As institutions expand their learning options, hybrid learning can provide more learning opportunities for students. For instance, students who can’t travel to campus can learn online while the rest of the class participates in person.
Time management is a necessity in education. Good time management skills boost productivity thereby helping students to complete more tasks by prioritizing time. Time management skills help a learner reduce stress and manage their own time to meet deadlines, collaborate more, and be able to focus on their passion. In hybrid, one can also control lectures and learn more efficiently. Also, it provides students to be more flexible with their time and can improve their overall performance.
Educational technology expands the reach of teachers beyond classroom sessions and office hours. E-learning offers the chance for an instructor to record meetings – rather than going through a module more than once for various clumps of understudies, the educator can rather invest that energy being useful, either by investing additional time upgrading their information or by offering more opportunities for customized regard for every understudy and assisting them with conquering novel learning difficulties. With the available technologies, teachers now have access to more pedagogical tools to engage and challenge more students.
– By Ms Ayesha Sirajuddin, Head of South Campuses, Ekya Schools, Bangalore
Source : Deccan Herald
Name: Ribhav Nair
Grade: 7
School: Ekya School, Byrathi
“Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings - Evan Esar.”
How apt and sincere! This quote speaks volumes about zoos which are undoubtedly a safe haven for many endangered species. Many people believe that zoos cage animals and put them in small enclosures just for people to look at; they don’t give the animals any sort of freedom. Though that is true, people are so narrow minded that they don’t bother to look at the positive side of zoos. To start with, zoos educate people. And the information they provide to the public, could save a whole species. Secondly, zoos raise money for those endangered species that would not have survived in the wild. With the money raised, they give the species one more opportunity to bounce back and continue life. They also give animals shelter, food, and protection from poachers, habitat loss, and predators. Whether acceptable or not to innumerable minds, zoos have saved countless species of animals.
Against
Name: Siri Neti
Grade: 9
School: Vishwa Vidyapeeth, Yelahanka
I have always had my reservations about zoos and the pandemic has only strengthened my stance. Haven’t we all been confined to our houses? Aren’t we relieved to be able to live our lives with freedom to stroll, and go out as desired?
We are independent as a nation and as humans so don’t the animals have the right to live independently? Mind you, animals are not for entertainment.
Every time I visit a zoo, the sight of animals cramped up behind walls or metal cages melts my heart. Animals in captivity often suffer from boredom and stress. We, as humans, have no right to capture animals and captivate them. The generational bond of the animals breaks if we sell or trade them to other countries. Helping the endangered animals breed and give birth to their own species is not a bad idea but excessive breeding leads to overpopulation of the animals. I believe that there are many zoos that should be shut down immediately and the majority of ‘good zoos’ still need to make massive improvements to their facilities.
Source: Animal Adoption
With an aim to create awareness among students to feel the need to support the welfare of animals in the wildlife habitat, Ekya School, BTM Layout, encouraged students to start the PAL (Passionate Animal Lovers) initiative as a part of their Service Learning Program through which they have passively adopted a few species in the Bannerghatta Biological Park.
Passive adoption gives each one a chance to be the guardian of a few specific species chosen by the school from the list provided by the conservationists at Bannerghatta National Park. "Our adoption covers feed, maintenance and veterinary health care expenses," according to Ekya officials.
With the motto, 'Be Kind to Every Kind', the students have adopted two endangered wildlife species - The Indian Grey Wolf and African Grey Parrot, for one year. This initiative by the school is a part of the 'Service Learning Program' (SLP) introduced by Ekya Schools where students can be involved in activities beyond their academics.
The Service Learning Program was introduced at Ekya Schools as it helps students identify themselves as part of the community and pick up on civic engagement skills. It encourages students to understand more deeply about their local communities, gain practical skills, develop their career and personal interests.
The Founder and Managing Director, Ekya Schools, and Provost, CMR University, Dr Tristha Ramamurthy said, "We have introduced SLP to bring students and teacher communities together, build their bond stronger and work for a noble cause. We are thrilled to see students coming forward and donating money for the adoption. Adopting is a lifestyle. It creates a sense of participation and attachment to the wild animals thereby creating bonding and a sense of involvement. Besides, this also provides a source of revenue for better zoo management and for better up-keep of animals. Also, it helps children understand the habitat and the lifestyle of the animals at a closer level."
Under this initiative, a total of Rs 33,000 was raised through various crowdfunding and contributions by the students. The same was handed over to Dr Sunil Panwar, Conservator of Forests and Executive Director of Bannerghatta Biological Park, Bangalore.