Though I am not in the profession of teaching now, I know of a few LMS that is used a lot by institutions like Canva. And in my short stint as a professor, the department I worked with used Edmodo. But sadly I did not become a pro in using it or learning its many features (much to my regret). So here, I will share my observations of a platform that we used when I was a student myself – Google Classroom.

My Google Classroom - Flim Studies Elective

Now though Google classroom allows for greater interaction, connectivity and distance learning, (they have newly unveiled a new feature in their April 2020 update – a facility that allows for video meetings that can be hosted by the teachers powered by Google meet! This is a much-welcomed move in a time when educators are grappling with distance learning facilities for their students with almost the whole world going into lockdown, one country after another due to the COVID-19 pandemic) in my Google classroom that was started for the elective course on Film Studies, it was sadly nothing more than a platform for sharing notes.

And that too was something of a top-down communication – notes from the teacher, passed down to students, except probably before exams. I was and am sad to say that the potential of this platform was not explored at all and it was a stand-in for a didactic practice where active note-taking on paper, became PPT slides that can be shared with the class. And here’s another point that needs to be taken note of, these presentations were compiled after watching the movies; learning and researching diligently on the topics, be it something basic like ‘camera movements’, ‘mise-en-scene’ or a film movement like ‘Italian Neorealism’ or ‘German Expressionism’ or the ‘French New Wave.’

In that way, the class and the subject, the way they were handled was by a combination of didactic and authentic practices, but they did not come near the realm of ‘transformative education.’ But, when the way the technology was utilized, I must say that it becomes obvious that we have been products of didactic pedagogy than any other.