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Get set for a `connected campus'
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Indian college students increasingly carry mobile phones and FM radios. It is a reality that parents and educationists must handle sensibly.
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AN ARTICLE in The New York Times recently tracing teenage trends in technology, narrated an incident in an American high school. The principal was startled to find a pizza delivery van arrive at the gate with an order for a student who was in the classroom. "How to find the culprit?" was the question. The cell phones of the students of the class were examined till one phone had the pizza joint's telephone as the last number dialled. The student couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. He missed his lunch, so he ordered a pizza, he explained. He missed his lunch anyway, because the pizza was confiscated.
Don't be surprised if school and college administrations in the Indian metros soon face similar problems. Cell phones among students may not have reached the proportions of the West— the BBC reported this past year that nine out of 10 British school children carry mobile phones to class. Visit any of the new (non-traditional college campuses) in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai or Delhi, and you can see a fair number of students with mobiles clapped to their ears during the lunch hour. Others play video games or send SMS messages to friends on or off campus to kill time.
In cities like Mumbai and Bangalore where youth-oriented private FM stations have sprung up in recent months, one can also see dozens of students with headphones glued to their ears and beatific expressions on their faces.
Educationists need to remember one fact - it is not just the Rich and the Famous, the Bold and the Beautiful who spend money on such gadgets. You can get a second hand mobile for around Rs. 2,000 these days and an FM headset comes as cheap as Rs. 100. In many cases, parents are perfectly happy to provide their sons and daughters with a cheap mobile connection, because this is one way of keeping track of them.
Lets face it. City life is full of hazards - a bandh here, a hartal there, a police firing somewhere else... Any parent would spend some money to be able to keep in touch with the family during emergencies.
So, before teachers and principals and the like begin wielding the `danda' and banning such devices from school and college premises, they would do well to remember that many parents are unlikely to support them. Some new private institutions have taken a sensible stand - you may carry cell phones, FM radios, CD players and what not, as long as they are switched off and kept out of sight in the classroom. If a student knows that his cell phone will be confiscated if it rings during a lecture, he or she will make sure that the device is turned off for the duration.
Because, technology being what it is, such gadgets are part of the `connected' age we live in. They will become cheaper, more affordable and more pervasive.
The message to teachers is loud and clear. Don't stop the waves now sweeping over our campuses - ride them.
A.VISHNU
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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