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Textbook to Facebook

- Rajendra Shende, Chairman TERRE Policy Centre, Former Director UNEP and IIT AlumnusEnter heading here...

2019 will see Facebook become 15. That is the age when adolescence begins. 2019 will probably be the first year when Textbook will begin its journey towards obsolescence. May be that journey has already begun as the educational campuses begin their transformation towards 'Smart Campus'.

To the ardent supporters of privacy, Facebook poses a global threat. To the national law-makers, the omnipresence of Facebook-empire is the profound confusion as to what exactly are the consequences on the future of personal information. As we witnessed in 2018, USA Senators looked funny, ridiculous and baffled during congressional hearing. While questioning Mark Zuckerberg-the inventor of Facebook they have to pretend that they know all. Interestingly, each of the responses of the Mark Zuckerberg was like Facebook-post, nicer than the reality.

Textbooks, in contrast, are the private property with public appeal as the basic tools to turn the 'page' of one's career. They are real. They need supplementary nutrients in the form of extra reading and other teaching tool to master the fundamentals and comprehend the subject.

Thanks to the digital technology and software, the textbooks may now all become part of the history. Mathematics, is better understood by listening to the authoritative voice accompanied by the text online. Then one gets to watch a gripping video that illustrates how sums are added and numbers are multiplied. A game that students can play like a game of cards adds to the 'fun' that goes deep in the brain cell to clear the 'fundas'. Top it with a smart problem-solving with hints that takes you as if someone is handholding you to the final answer.

What more, it can help the student to create its own quiz with a knowledge of perfect way to solve it. That completes the 'smart teaching' and new way of answering the questions by creating the questions!

The teacher gets a summary assessment through the IoT and cloud data that monitors what you read and watch, which quizzes you solved and even created, and the gaps where you need more help. Next day the teacher is equipped with a precise information that helps in saving the teachers and students time.

Importantly, teacher is not replaced. Teacher is, in fact, helped to spend his time and efforts more efficiently.

The digital curricula of Zearn, i-Ready, and LearnZillion are now being used by students and the faculty throughout the U.S. Thousands of schools are benefitting from digital course. Some of the softwares are even used to directly provide the suggestions for the improvement that students need, leaving teachers to spend more time in upgrading their own learning.

Age of copybook maxims is over. 2019 onwards a classic college student who attends classes, gets the assignments to be completed in time, lives in a hostel and graduates in four years after a couple of internships will transform into a 'smart learner'. College students will tend to be 25 or even older with a job or business. Class rooms would become more and more virtual. Student would live with a partner and have kids. Boundary between 'learning' and 'delivering the learning' will become blurred. A famous phrase of 'Learning by Doing' would now be the new maxim. Campuses outside the class rooms would be the training grounds for entrepreneurship and smart-jobs.

Future of Facebook may be cloudy and that of textbooks is vanishing. The new copybook will be the maxims of 'smart campuses'.

Our project of Smart Campus Cloud Network (sccnhub.com) promotes contribution by the students and teachers to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It aims to mould the students into the emerging transformation. SCCN makes students future-ready.