Expand your horizons

Expand your horizons

Learning on the fly is increasingly gaining popularity

“Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit,” said NASA astronaut Frank Borman. Gone are the days when youngsters were forced to apply themselves only to blackboard-and-chalk teaching techniques. In a technologically-advanced era where Skype classes and smartphone-notes rule the roost, the concepts of education and learning have undergone a sea-change — show and tell — travelling to destinations related to the curriculum to see and learn, have become popular trends in education.

It is perhaps after identifying this trait that Thomas Cook decided to collaborate with schools and colleges and cash in on the opportunity to popularise experiential learning or education through travel.

Experiential

Abraham Alapatt, President and group head, Thomas Cook, elaborates on what made him and his team delve into planning and curating such tours: “We examined institutions in terms of what constituted an international model — apart from their syllabus — and realised it was the spotlight on practical training,” he explains. “While the emphasis in traditional schools was theoretical information, international curriculum, especially the American school system, focussed on non-classroom, practical development which often meant it was about real-life projects and experiences. There was a clear demand from these schools for a partner that could effectively create such trips for them and that’s why we decided to explore education tours,” adds Mr. Alapatt.

And the response has been enthusiastic. In the last two years, more than 1,000 students have travelled to the USA, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, the U.K, China and have benefitted by participating in programmes of NASA, visiting Harvard and MIT, doing a certification workshop in Chinese paintings, nitrogen workshops, attending Kung-fu workshops in a Shaolin temple, visiting the Volkswagon factory to witness how production management happens, going on a war trail of WW II to understand the role of Indian soldiers, visiting the U.N headquarters, architectural tours to Putrajeya, to name a few. “The clientele varies from IITs and IIMs to top schools across the country. This is not just a big-metro school phenomenon but often, a tier-2 and tier-3 phenomenon where students are hungry for such exposure,” explains Mr. Alapatt.

While students naturally respond with verve to such tours as they break the monotony of classroom teaching, teachers are duty-bound and time-bound to complete the syllabus. Thus, the question inevitably arises on how the teaching fraternity reacts to such forms of learning. Mr. Alapatt is quick to add, “Some teachers have been niggling in their enthusiasm until they went on a trip, while others have been passionate at this prospect and have driven the agenda within their schools. Teachers have realised that learning is more about personality development and not merely about learning by rote.”

For teachers too

Sheelan Misra, Head of Dept of Management Studies, New Horizon College of Engineering, Bengaluru, admits that the college has been organising such tours for their MBA and engineering students for four years now. “We want to expose students to foreign universities, help them get a feel of how a foreign economy operates, and a country’s business functions. In the last few years, they have travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar and more. These tours help students widen their horizons and compete in a highly global world,” he adds.

Dr. Avinash, from School of Management Studies, Varanasi, believes that such trips help teachers too. “Our university has MoUs with universities in the U.S, South America and Europe. One of the key highlights is that they involve both student and faculty exchange,” he explains while stating that because of the faculty exchange, teachers have an opportunity to observe foreign teaching practices and tweak their pedagogy. He also points out how most foreign universities have various industries associated with them. “Traditional methods of teaching are no longer in use and it is through such travel jaunts that adequate, hands-on learning take place,” adds Dr. Avinash.

Vikram Bajaj, vice chairperson, RNB University, believes that such tours are instrumental to learning. He explained how students visited Dubai’s Port Khalifa and interacted with the officials to understand the port operations. “The trips were planned by students after collaborating with travel agents,” he explains.

Besides standard tour packages depending on the class, syllabus and so on, Thomas Cook offers tailor-made packages based on the syllabus that is being taught and the kind of skills teachers want to inculcate in their students. “Depending on what they want, we offer history, culture, language tours and more, after curating them to suit the specific requirements of each institution,” says Mr. Alapatt.

Madhuvanti S. Krishnan 

Thanks to : THE HINDU - 05.03.2017