CONTEMPORIZING ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION USING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Anil Chotmarada
The recent spurt of growth in the schools of architecture in the country is indicative of the coming of age of architectural education in the country. Though there is a multifold quantifiable increase in the number of architects being produced in the country, the quality of these young professionals is not taken to be of an acceptable standard in all cases. There is a need to review the training programmes of the architects of tomorrow because of the changing times and the consequent changes on the demands on space. This change in educational systems is also necessitated because of the changes in the employability patterns of graduating architects in the changing professional field of architecture. The booming economy, global exposure and rising aspirations also demand teat the young architects be trained differently. Many feel that the architects need to be more aware about things than they are at present. Given these conditions it is imperative that new methods to train architects be developed.
Tomorrow will be seeing a marked shift in our life style with the intervention of revolutionary technologies. Today the advent of computers in our lives is a case in example. These machines have brought a complete change in not only our life styles but also in our attitudes. The ubiquitous micro processor has entered all domains of our activities except our architectural educational systems and it is about time that we took advantage of modern electronics in our teaching systems and methods.
Architecture as a profession is an extremely versatile area calling for a very large information base and a systematic approach for the resolution of spatial problems for providing human comfort, happiness and meaning in the performance of the various human tasks in the process of living. It embodies cultural values, social aspirations and psychological expectations of the envisaged users. Architecture is created with the complex nature of humans in mind, to suit their varied needs and complicated behavior systems. Given this complex nature of the profession the teaching of the subject is multi faceted and complicated. There are a wide variety of informational inputs, and other socio-cultural inputs which bring about a change in the attitudes, value systems and mind sets of students whose educational background is generally limited to the study of basic sciences and mathematics.
Architectural education can be seen as a subtle amalgamation of technology and philosophy, of science and art requiring an extremely complex array of multi-faceted educational technology inputs. The under graduate five year programme comprises, consequently, courses of a motley nature varying from the technological to the social sciences to the fine arts. As is well known, there is a perspicacious difference in the ideal teaching methodologies in these diverse areas of learning; the teaching of architecture thence becomes a rather complex balance of widely differing areas of information and subsequent analysis. There are certain courses that require only a transfer of information while there are other courses that require the application of analyzed information while there are still other courses that require personalized creative and philosophical inputs.
Some of these courses that require only the transfer of information need not necessarily consume precious and scarce human resource as this transfer can be achieved more effectively by the aid of computers. At present such courses are being conducted by generally young teachers in most schools of architecture who invariably read the text the night before the class and then throw-up the information, using the chalk and talk method, to a bunch of disinterested students the next morning. A lot of information either gets lost in this process or loses its meaning in this rather primitive method of communication.
The present structure and demands of the professional field require the architect to be a jack-of-all-trades. As it is there is an explosion of information available by the revolution in information technology. It is expected that a professional will be well informed on all front and architects with their diversified nature of work need to be conscious of all that is happening around them in the field of technology, arts, sciences and humanities. This versatility of the profession needs a very large body of knowledge as a basic repertoire of an architect. It would be nearly impossible to assimilate all this information through the conventional means and modern means of information technology will have to be used in our teaching systems to create efficient professionals. It is about time that we gave up our outdated chalk and talk methods of teaching and start using the modern gadgets for teaching.
Contemporary electronics can be used in all aspects of teaching, be it information transfer, attitude building or testing the assimilation levels of students. A compact disk carrying the encyclopedia is much more fun to use than the information available on the printed format. The inter net and the world wide web is a much faster and effective way of getting information than looking up various references or writing to people in different parts of the world. It is much more interesting to pick up information from a film than to sit through a class room lecture. Given this psychological advantage of the new technologies it is imperative that we incorporate these as a major tool in the teaching systems, especially to the teaching of subject like Architecture which covers a diverse nature of course contents and materials.
Except for the very few who join the profession with a real interest and by choice, architecture can be full of ennui unless it is made interesting and alive. For this mechanical aids can be of great use besides, of course, the human motivation and encouragement provided by the teachers. The process of learning can, however, be made an exciting phenomenon by the intervention of modern technology. Instead of the conventional blackboard, the use of computers in the teaching programme can add a new dimension to the course curricula. Flexible timings, interactive lessons, information through animated graphics, getting tested by the machine and generally learning at ones own pace are some of the advantages of using mechanical aids in the teaching process. It would be so much more interesting to insert a floppy in a machine at ones own convenience to learn something than to sit through a boring lecture or tutorial.
The incorporation of the new teaching modes will yield numerous advantages. One of the major advantages is that we shall be using the human resource more effectively. Teachers freed from the tedium of lecture delivery will be able to use their time more meaningfully in assisting students in analyzing and using the information than in just deploying their energies in information transfer. On the student’s front, these teaching aids will permit them to learn at their own pace and at their own convenience and introduce flexible timings to the teaching curricula. These aids will besides simplifying the learning process will also make them interesting and exciting.
The usage of the new technologies will be a path breaking effort in making the architectural educational process more effective and meaningful and are seriously required seeing the acute shortage of man power in the field of architectural education. Not very many architects are interested in teaching. This is probably because of the practice being more lucrative and not many architects having the leaning toward the vocation. Another reason for the shortage of the teaching staff in schools of architecture is the recent spurt of growth of the number of architecture schools in the country. It is therefore imperative that we conserve the scarce human resource available for this work by utilizing it where it will be most effective.
The intervention of the new technologies in the teaching of architecture are envisaged as the conversion of some of the theory programmes of the syllabi into digestible modules on the electronic medium for the students to use at their own convenience in a given time frame of an academic calendar. This process will involve first the identification of the courses which can be converted on this format. This would entail scripting the course material and the transferring the information to the electronic medium creating modules through text, graphics and animation. Introducing testing modes in the programme will be the final step of this intervention process.
The new teaching mode is seen as an environment in which an architecture school is equipped with a networked system of computers. The communication channels will be electronic except where direct human interaction is required. According to the syllabi course material will be provided on the electronic format for the student to study and respond to through the machines which are easily available at all hours and seasons. The programme with its testing mode incorporated within its own structure can eliminate the presently prevailing meaningless examination system
Architectural education embodies the inculcation of the learning of assimilating and analyzing data for application in diverse situation. The assimilation of data is the most difficult part as it relates to extensive storage of information. An architectural teacher has to be most innovative for this component of the learning process. Some subjects can be rather uninteresting except when taught by the most passionate of teachers. Other teachers make these subjects even more detested. If such teachers were to digitize their teaching material and method enhancing their quality by adding visual and auditory effects using contemporary technology, the subject could be made very interesting for all students, even those who abhor theory. As a case in example, a teacher passionate about history of architecture could create a learning resource on the electronic format based on the history syllabus of a school (or Council of Architecture) that imparts information about history using visuals, animation, video, music, text and audio effects. This exciting data base could be assimilated by the students at their own time and pace, in the hostel, at home, on their laptop – when they are in the ‘mood’.
Imagine the advantages of the process mentioned. The teacher would have prepared a perfect lecture as he had all the time, resources and interest to generate an interesting lecture. Other teachers of history who are forced to teach the subject would, in contrast, have passed on the half baked information that they had collected the evening before the lecture, in a most uninspiring manner to a bunch of students who had spent the night before on their design assignment and are in the least mood to listen to the lecture but are present only because of the compulsory attendance regulations. The same information on an interesting format when observed at ones own convenience at ones own time can be much better assimilated. It was much more fun seeing Mahabharata the film than reading the text of Mahabharata. Of course, this does not mean that the teacher is redundant. The teachers’ role comes in once the basic data on a subject is passed on the student.
This interestingly created data base could be put not only on compact disks that can be given to the students at the beginning of the academic term but could also be loaded on the server of a campus network for easy access by the students who are otherwise interested but not enrolled for a course. This could, over time, meet the inherent purpose of credit system of evaluation whence students from other disciplines could access this data as an interdisciplinary learning process.
The teacher’s role is to build attitudes and to help students analyze the data for application in diverse situations. A teacher can be most effective if instead of only passing information to the student the teacher becomes a source of inspiration to use the assimilated data. This would result in the optimal utilization of a scarce human resource and also its correct utilization in terms of a teacher becoming an agent of creativity than just data transfer that can be done better through the usage of a good machine.
The present system of evaluating students has also been degraded in to a dull routine of time bound invigilated examination mode. Online, any time testing modes are already in vogue for some aptitude, entrance evaluation processes. Variants of these testing modes can be applied in regular course work schedules. A student through an electronic testing mode would be able to test oneself and in case of incorrect answers be reverted back to the portion giving the correct answer by the machine. In case of major difficulty or in an exceptional situation a teacher could be referred to through the electronic connectivity eliminating the constraints of time and place. Once the data is assimilated, discussions in electronic group forums or physical groups would help students in analyzing the data assimilated for actual use in resolving a design or construction situation.
These new methods will have many intangible advantages. In some of the schools of architecture a serious problem is of lack of interest in the students towards the subject. This is specially seen in schools located in small towns and the hinterland. In the absence of getting admission in any other professional programme the students join the architecture course. The attitude of these students is apathetic and of rejection necessitating the need for intense motivation and interest building activity. With their lack of interest and hardly any exposure to the urban situation the teaching of architecture to such students who come from the rural/semi-rural backgrounds becomes an extremely difficult task. Using contemporary technology it is possible to make students develop an interest in the subject. Courses which are dull and boring can be made exciting through the presentation of course material through graphics, animation and film a method which can be easily incorporated in the teaching programme through the contemporary technology.
The prevailing common teaching methods are quite ineffective in the present scenario where a lot of information has to be given to students in a short span of time. A young teacher asked to conduct a course picks up the readily available published information, jots a few notes and regurgitates it in an environment of ennui. As a mode of information transfer this is most inefficient. Unless seriously interested, students find reading textbooks very boring, especially so in architecture where a general feeling of neglect for theory subjects prevails. Thus, in the case of theory subjects in an architectural educational programme the electronic medium can play a greatly positive role by conveying to the students essential information in an effective and interesting manner.
This method of teaching will have another major advantage. Once the courses are available on the electronic format, the teachers will be available for the real work in the teaching programme, which is of analyzing and using this information and facts and building an appropriate attitude in the minds of the students which requires greater human intervention. Architectural education must be appreciated as a process of picking up information and then using it to solve spatial problems. Unfortunately most of the energy of teachers is lost in the information transfer process and both the students and teachers do not have the stamina to attend to the more important part of the educational programme of actually using the information. If the learning part of architecture is made easy both the students and teachers will be relieved of tedium.
The information explosion and the need to know more and to do more of data crunching and analysis of facts has necessitated the intervention of sophisticated machines in the teaching programmes. While this is happening at a very fast pace in most fields, architectural education seems to be left behind. If we do not take timely action there is the possibility of being left behind by the more enterprising. It is imperative that the more concerned architectural educationists direct their energies in this direction and the sponsoring agencies provide the necessary infrastructure and support to the people doing research in this area. The more enterprising teachers need to get together to create a group or forum whence at least the basic courses of the under graduate programme can be digitized by experts for application in different schools. These basic models could then be improved and developed by different teachers over time.
Anil Chotmarada is a Faculty & Director in Gateway College of Architecture & Design, Sonipat-131001, India.