“You know what, he can tell names of all the capitals of the world in less than a minute!” chirped a satisfied millennial mum describing the impeccable qualities her 4-year old possesses, thanks to his photographic memory.
Parents in a rote environment are happy if their child has memorized capitals or currencies of every country or some tongue-twisting dinosaur names. They are seldom happy when their kid has figured out how to dismantle and re-organize a TV remote! Genius in children is rarely celebrated.
It will not be wrong to state that more often than not, parents find curiosity silly and weird. Because parents have forgotten curiosity. Movies, news channels, office gossip, competition has taken away their capacity to conceive genius.
Generally speaking, many believe that memorizing concepts through repetition is how learning takes place. This technique for learning is classified as “rote learning”. For a long time it has been believed to be the only way to secure good grades.
But with the world transitioning towards experiential learning, how dependable is rote learning in the 21st century? Is repetition reducing your child’s creative thinking and analytical skills?
Creativity is the capacity to concoct new, unique, and special answers for everyday issues or situations. It utilizes divergent reasoning, which is a thought process that involves a spontaneous, free-flowing, and non-linear flow to reach numerous conceivable solutions. This is the opposite of concurrent reasoning, which is characterized by tackling issues in an isolated manner not taking into account variables and is usually associated with linear thinking.
Rote learning, basically, has been believed to empower concurrent reasoning and when utilized as the sole learning method it disregards the advancement of a child’s creative thinking and analytical skills- one of the core 21st century skills. It centers around finding the solution rapidly, rather than concentrating on likely scenarios.
This type of learning infers that there is just a single “right” answer for each issue and the emphasis is dependable on building up that answer as fast as could reasonably be expected. In the long haul, this demoralizes students from investigating further to the limits of conceivable outcomes and reduces their capacity to imaginatively approach each issue and circumstance.
Progressively, rote learning is being surrendered for fresh learning approaches utilizing digital learning apps, educational gaming, and personalized learning.
Explore Learning with Dell Aarambh
At the other end of the learning spectrum is interactive learning. A progressive initiative by Dell India titled Dell Aarambh is working towards bringing about a paradigm shift in the way learning is perceived in 21st century through the use of PC for education. It is designed to help parents, teachers and students find firm footing in digital India. This initiative seeks to connect parents, teachers and students and provide them with necessary training so that they can better utilize the PC for learning, both at school & at home.
And taking this initiative a step further, Dell is celebrating Anti Rote Day to make learning fun and captivating for students through the use of interactive PC- enabled learning. With an increased use of computers in school, students think out of the box for problem solving, becoming better collaborators and future proofing their career. Students engage in a more practical approach to learning by engaging in virtual tours, videos, quizzes and apply concepts learned in theory.
Think about this-
How does a child learn to pick a bat, or throw a ball?
It is very tough to explain intellectually, but in action it is far simpler.
Education is, in fact, that simple.
Remember, we learn words by rote, but not their meaning.
Go Mommy!
This is a great initiative by DELL and I’m sure many would be greatly benefited by this.
Kids can’t learn by just mugging up lessons.They obviously forgets everything after exam.Great initiative by Dell to highlight this issue and encourage parents and kids to use the latest technology and practical learning.
Computers can make learning easy and fun at the same time. It’s so important to understand the concepts and basics, instead of mugging them up.
It’s important to learn and understand rather than rote learning. Great initiative by dell
If subjects are taught using a Personal Computer , the lessons becomes so easy to understand . Kudos to the initiative by Dell.
You perfectly explained the Rote learning and the advances of digital learning. I must say, Dell took really a good initiative.
I like the idea of throwing away rote learning out of the options for kids and to promote pc enabled learning! 👍
That is such a wonderful initiative by Dell, rote learning is no more a valid way of learning concepts. It’s great to know that they are paving way for PC enabled interactive learning for kids.
I appreciate what Dell has started, this initiative. It’s a great way to learn and impart knowledge in the growing generations.
Hey!Thanks for stopping by and resonating with the views and this initiative.
So agree with you learning can be done better with examples and action not just by mugging up. Rote learning can only teach you so much to survive but it aint sustainable.
absolutely! interactive learning is the way forward!
Dell did a great thing by bringing up this initiative. So lovely.
Thank you
Dell has really understood the need and brought up this much needed change in the current education system Really appreciate!
Thank you! Glad you liked the article.
Rote Learning cannot make a student understand the concept and purpose. PC do give a chance to make learning interesting.
A good initiative by Dell.
Indeed!
You are so right. I remember as a kid I was conditioned to think that if I replicate the answer as it is during exams I will score full marks. I used to rattofy and write verbatim without applying my own thinking. But I don’t want the same for my kids. Rote Learning serves no purpose at all.
I know right! Be it multiplication tables or periodic table- it used to be terror situation coz rote learning has a short span in our memory!
Indeed a worthy initiative by Dell India to put an end to rote learning, a step in the right direction
Right, I am glad to see so many like-minded moms resonating with this initiative.
Great initiative by Dell. Creative thinking and analytical skills are the most important skills to develop.
I agree. technological know how is an important life skill for this age.
I absolutely agree rote learning is entrenched in pur educational system. This is a gr8 initiative by Dell.
Agreed, it’s time to Bring about a change for raising 21st century kids.
This initiative by Dell will definitely make parents and teachers think again of the methodolgy used to explain subjects to the students.
true, very rightly said.
This is a great step by Dell to provide PC for good learning future of kids.
yeah, we are thrilled to be a part of this initiative!