What is a Text Book is Evolving Right Before Our Eyes!

What is going to be the form of the books, text books in particular! That some form of electronic reading will take over is almost certain. Is the ereader device going to win or the tablet computer ? That is not clear at the moment. The eReader  completely copies the printed book reading experience. That, to my mind, is a faulty approach. With a new approach we need not follow something existing! Multi media experience in imparting knowledge has been hyped about for a longtime. I can easily agree with that. Somebody reading about a Cheetah, can definitely gain from the sound recording of its roar/call and nothing will establish the fact that it is the fastest animal by a video clip.


There is no way a ereader can incorporate the multi-media data into a book. Even illustrations, which often best done as an animated piece can never be included in a eReader. In the present avatar, even color cannot be presented. Tablets can tackle all those issues very easily. besides it can be your link to the Internet and run you productivity applications too. It has to win in the long run. the eReader too will co-exist for those situations where you want to curl up with a book like item!

Another Feedback about Our Students being Weak in Communication

We had representatives of the Indian Army visiting us today for initial selection to their technical branches such as Engineers, EME and the Signals. At the end of day they did tell us our boys were weak in listening & comprehension as well as speaking. Our students come from Bengali background as well as fro Bihar, Jharkhand area.


Bengal boys were generally weak in speaking English back in our time too. But what happened during the intervening period was that we got rid of English from school curriculum for a very long time. That screwed up the situation further! Bihar and Jharkhand had the problem for a long time as well.


Interestingly we have a peculiar situation in the college. While many times we come up with complaints from some students that our faculty members speak Bengali in the class. Now, if they strictly follow speaking English in the class, the same boys will have problem with that too.


Question that is bugging me is how to solve this problem not only when students face external agencies but also in following the daily classes leading to that event.

Student Activities

Our recent foundation day celebrations triggers the thoughts here! To my pleasant surprise, I found an array of talents in the student community. On the other side, we have student unrests that start on very flimsy pretexts.What I started wondering was if we could keep students busy with these extra curricular activities year long, if that would not keep them out of harm's way!

Being away from Kolkata, the only real city in West Bengal and the nearest town Bisnupur being too insipid, there is very little to do beyond regular hours and during weekends. Faculty members run away during the week ends that too adds to the problem. Would lots of additional activities help with the problem! My guess is it would. In fact, I made that comment elsewhere and found some encouraging comments from the student community.

I remember my stint at IIT, Kanpur, that was a long distance away from the city proper. Thirty years back they had a large number of student activities and a full time dean was there to look after the student activities!