As parents:

• do we teach our children about making informed choices or oscillate from laissez faire to making those choices for them, potentially crippling them for life?

• do we make it our business to find out what our child is reading, listening to, accessing, borrowing, downloading or swing from disrespectful intrusion to hands-off right to privacy non sense?

• do we make time to enjoy the boons of technology and learn from our kids or look at it as something to keep them out of our way after a long, stressful work day?

As parents, we probably have a much skewed view of technology associating it with largely electronic gadgets that are ever so rapidly evolving in terms of complexity and sophistication. We patiently teach our children how to use and master the art of eating with a fork and knife, writing with a crayon/pencil/pen, riding a bicycle for days/weeks/months till the child masters both the skill and attitudes related to it, rarely associating these with technology. We associate technology with electronic gadgets like computers, iPods, e-gaming and the like, giving them access or ownership but absolving ourselves of all responsibility to train and educate them about their judicious usage.

Also as parents, we find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with that which we consider “technology”, and therefore take the easier option of surrendering our parental responsibilities of helping our children grasp and responsibly handle technology to teachers, peers and other second or third parties.

As teachers, we train our children to handle laboratory apparatus and classroom resources like manipulative so that they learn to use them to enhance their learning. But when it comes to computers and associated accessories, the onus of their proper use is conveniently palmed off to the IT teacher. The IT teachers, given the length and breadth of their curriculum, and probably because they themselves are inadequately informed or because this aspect of technology is not covered by the syllabus, bypass these crucial life skills in their classes.

With little or no guidance from parents and teachers, children either “figure-it-out” for themselves or learn by trial and error, or turn to equally inadequately informed peers for guidance or worse turn to strangers exposing themselves to manipulation.

In the meanwhile, it is not surprising ,that, children make poor choices in handling technology.

India is a land of many, many contradictions. Since ancient times foreigners have been fascinated by India who have come here to find themselves, or religion, or something equally important.

Continuing with this tradition, writer & journalist Elizabeth Gilbert travelled to India during a difficult period in her personal life in an attempt to find herself, spirituality and love. Her memoires are published in her highly successful & acclaimed 2006 spiritual travelogue named “Eat, Pray, Love” (the book was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 110 weeks).

A few days ago, Hollywood star Julia Roberts arrived in India to shoot Ryan Murphy’s screenplay adaptation of the book. The filming of the movie is taking place at “Ashram Harimandir” in Pataudi, Haryana – 40 Km from Gurgaon. The Ashram is a picturesque 25-acre campus, which houses a temple, an educational institution for higher learning, residences for students & an old persons’ home.

Despite the fascination India holds for foreigners and its reputation for being a destination where one can find piece of mind, spirit and body; Indians seem to find their own country as a place where they lose themselves in the daily humdrum of life and living. We are so busy with our daily lives that we don’t question contradictions and idiosyncrasies in our systems and behaviours.

Included in this contradiction is the decision of the Ashram authorities to shut the educational institution for a period of 2-3 weeks for the filming of the movie. The authorities of the educational institution seem to have forgotten that their primary job is to teach the students and to prepare them with life skills relevant to their chosen fields of specialization. In turn students also devote significant time and effort mastering the syllabi and sharpening their skills. The closing of the institution for something as trivial as a filming of a movie seems to be an extreme injustice to the students. This is specially so when the primary argument given by almost all educational institutions in India – for not changing/ improving existing teaching learning practices and/or adopting best practice – is work overload and paucity of time.

How is it that work overload and unavailability of time are not factors considered while making the decision to suspend classes? In recent months, a number of schools have temporarily suspended classes – some of them being the most prestigious and best in India – as a precautionary measure against H1N1 (Swine Flu). Now, closure of an educational institution as a precaution against swine flu makes perfect sense – but this does not take away the schools responsibility to take measures to compensate for lost time. Most schools, especially when it comes to their senior school and students who will be sitting for the external board exams, will put in a programme which will make up for lost time. This brings me to the point that I would like to make – where there is a will, there is a way and where there is a need, solutions are found and in these situations constraints are not impediments but catalysts for creative solutions. When it comes to our education system, we need to recognise the dire need for bringing about positive change to make the system more relevant to the requirements of the 21^st century (there is an urgent need and ways to address the need must be found). Mr. Kapil Sibal’s reform push have provided the thrust for change; the other stakeholders now must to do their bit to ensure that there is a positive outcome to these initiatives.

For most people “change” is an alarming concept. It signifies the end of continuity or familiarity, the start of a journey into the unknown. If change is difficult for adults then it probably has a magnified impact on children who carry the baggage of their own expectations, in addition to the baggage of expectations and insecurities of their elders – so unreasonably thrust upon their tender shoulders. I can see how changes to the education system can result in feelings of fear and anxiety in children and in everyone who are stakeholders in their journey into the real world. After all, India’s education system has virtually not changed for decades and students have mastered the “Art of Performance” through rote learning and teachers the “Art of Delivery” through chalk and talk. Marks in high 90’s are common practice and is symptomatic of how the system has been mastered. Thus, there is bound to be resistance towards any significant changes to this system.

Over the last few weeks, I have been reading with keen interest the various aspects of Mr. Kapil Sibal’s proposed reforms to the Indian education system, including the abolition of the Class X external exam, assessment & grading system,  and his proposal to introduce an all India exam for admission into the science stream; amongst other things. While most of us would agree that the system needs review and revamp and it is high time a well thought-out action plan was implemented to weed out the malaise that infects the K-10/K-12 system, there is significant resistance to the changes from almost all quarters. I have also had the opportunity of speaking with a number of principals, who too, are not enthusiastic about the changes proposed by Mr. Sibal. Why is it that we are resisting? Some of the objections that I have read or heard are akin to clutching to the last straws and do not withstand any degree of scrutiny.

Evaluating the arguments, it seems to me that the resistance is not against the changes, but against the lack of insight into how the proposed reforms will be implemented and more importantly, how the system will work post reforms. Change, in any context, needs to be undertaken with great sensitivity; and in most successful implementations significant time, effort and money is expended to educate the affected stakeholders on their standing and understanding of the new system. Buy-in from the main stakeholders is a prerequisite for achieving any significant degree of success.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kapil Sibal’s has not articulated his vision of what the system will look like once he has implemented his full range of proposals/ initiatives. Nor has he provided an insight into how the individual components of reforms fit into this vision. To assuage the fears of the parents, teachers, administrators and students, Mr. Sibal should start communicating with the nation on what his proposed changes will mean for them, instead of their receiving piecemeal information in the form of selected passages provided by the media.

Mr. Sibal and his band of Merry Men in the education ministry, should also reach out to as many principals and education professionals by holding discussions and by articulating the many benefits they see from the reforms and by addressing common concerns.

It seems to me, that the changes proposed by Mr. Sibal are well intentioned and if implemented well, could result in a significant improvement in the teaching learning practices adopted in our schools. However, I am concerned that the implementation process is not robust and significant areas still need to be addressed before we can be made comfortable with Mr. Sibal’s vision. At the moment, Mr. Sibal is adding more stress to the lives of the children and parents instead of his claim of trying to reduce it. My suggestion to him would be to defer the implementation of making 10^th class exams optional from academic year 2010-11 to say academic year 2014-15. This would give schools, administrators and regulators adequate opportunity to implement a holistic model and to cater to the needs of the new reality and to address its shortcomings.

Change cannot merely be brought about by a mere sound bite or stroke of a pen; it needs to be understood before it can be embraced.

Does “Payal Mahajan, OCT” read better than “Payal Mahajan” was my first reaction to the introduction of a professional designation/title for teaching professionals in good standing in Ontario, Canada.

Recently the Council of Ontario College of Teachers granted all certified teachers the professional title of OCT  (Ontario Certified Teacher). Professional designation for teachers is rare across most of the world, with Ontario, Canada being the only other country outside of mainland UK that confers such an honor on its teaching community. Similar recognition is also proposed for teachers in other Canadian provinces.

Professional designation is a formal recognition of the expertise and skills of a profession and provides its members greater credibility and standing in society. Coming from a regulatory body, it carries more weight and respect than an academic or a job title, indicating “accountability to the profession” while at the same time underscoring the professional distinction between the teachers and those who assist in the delivery of the curriculum in Ontario schools. For those like me, it will transform `teacher` from a common noun to a proper noun. Its significance lies in the fact that it will make the profession more respectable and distinct, with built-in assurance of quality.

The recognition of the professional standing of the teaching community in this manner sends a clear message that Canada is proud of its teachers and their contributions. It implies, in no unequivocal terms, that the person so recognized is a credible educator whose qualification and training, has been approved and whose antecedents have been verified in order to protect the interest of the vulnerable children.

For some, it may be the case of what’s in a name, a rose by any other name…..

For others like me, it is la cause de faire la fête.

The study was based on comparative research from 1996 – 2008; some of which was in the K-12 settings. The analysts found that, on average, students doing some or all of their courses online ranked in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile.

The difference in performance although modest is statistically significant. As per Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist “The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction”.

Until fairly recently, online education amounted to little more than electronic versions of the old-line long-distance courses. In the more recent past, universities (especially in the developed countries) have adapted their in-class teaching material and made it available in online format (some of it for free or nominal cost). Universities — and many K-12 schools — now widely use online learning management systems, but that is mostly used for posting assignments, reading lists, class schedules and hosting some Web discussion boards.

While initial attempts in e-learning were not inspiring, the pace of progress has been rapid and encouraging. Enhancements in digital software, e-learning tools and learning management platforms have changed the quality and utility of online education. The arrival of social media, Web-based video, instant messaging and collaboration tools have radically altered the way participants of the online education environment interact with and learn from each other. The absence of collaboration and interaction, which had traditionally been the main drawback of online education is in-fact now posed to be its fundamental source of strength; as online education has the potential of providing an enriching collaborative environment by bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

So, what are the implications of this for in-class education?

The development of online education is expected to evolve fairly rapidly, accelerated by the increasing use of social networking technology which will create new and innovative learning communities among students. The real promise of online education is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms and enabling more “learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and useful.

Online education is already showing healthy trends in freeing education from the four walls of the classroom; and can be expected to increasingly take things out of the classroom. It is not entirely inconceivable that, in the not so very distant future, technology will be able to simulate a classroom environment – while contributing significant benefits of its own – which would make the physical presence of a school a thing of past. If this were to happen, the first casualties would be the less than “A” grade teachers and educational institutions.

For another perspective on this topic, see my blog dated June 12, 2009

]]> http://artoflearning.in/online-education-will-it-revolutionise-delivery-of-education/feed/ 0 http://artoflearning.in/the-angry-child/ http://artoflearning.in/the-angry-child/#comments Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:08:09 +0000 sandeep http://artoflearning.in/?p=904

A few days ago I came across a news report that intrigued me. The report suggested that poor parenting and lack of appropriate role models within families were to blame for juvenile crimes. According to the report, “Child psychologists claim juvenile crimes are on the rise because of the rapidly changing social ethos, influence of the media and negative role models (in families).”

I couldn’t help but get the feeling that the analysis presented in the report was overly simplified. After all, Tom and Jerry is not a recent phenomena, I do remember watching it as a child. In-fact, the “violent” cartoon came into existence in the 1940’s, and would have been staple diet for those of our parents’ generation who had access to television and MGM productions. Gabbar Singh, the ultimate villain of Bollywood belonged to my generation that grew up watching movies starring the angry-young man. So unless Tom and Jerry has created two generations of hardened criminals and Amitabh Bachchan has been responsible for massaging the dark side of quite a few youth, I would think that there may be other factors at play here.

So, what is responsible for the violent triggers in the angry child of today?

* Is it that today’s children have too many pressures and expectations on them and are finding it hard to cope?

* Is it that, life has become too fast paced and no one really has any time, let alone to raise children and to teach them the fine distinction between right and wrong?

* Is it that we are unable to inculcate in our children a sense of self worth and they are voicing their frustrations through their misguided or rather unguided actions?

* Is it that our children today have too many options without enough guidance to make informed decisions?

I think that, while the above statements may have a lot to do with it, the erosion of societal values may have began to set in a long time ago, and the problem may be deeper rooted than it seems. I think that the biggest problem may be that the current generation of parents themselves cannot differentiate between right and wrong – and are ill-equipped to pass on these values to their children. We have become too used to and reliant on the system of “Jugad” that socially productive action has become history. We are VIP’s in our own rights and are thus exempt from regulation and a moral code of conduct.

An interesting and curious illustration to this point goes like this:

I live in an apartment complex which has at the centre of it, a beautiful lawn. For some time now, the administration of the complex has been trying to discourage residents from jumping the hedge to enter / exit the lawns with limited success (it baffles me why someone cannot walk another 50 feet to do the right thing). One day, when my family and I were playing in the lawns, my 3 year old son noticed that a girl had exited the lawns walking through the hedges. He commented on this loudly, which was heard by the girl’s 4-5 years old brother, who in-turn responded, “It’s OK, she is allowed, she is my sister”.

What struck me was the coherent and lucid argument made by the young boy that rules applied to everyone else but to him and his family. Therefore, if we break the law then it is okie, but if someone else displays that same behaviour, then it’s not okie. To tell the truth, is this not how most of us conduct ourselves? As children learn from their environment, are they not behaving in a manner consistent with the environment we have presented to them? Are we ourselves not becoming intolerant and are our children not mimicking those traits.

The news report suggests that “A lot of responsible parenting is required, value-based life skill education needs to be imparted in schools along a proper process of counselling and correctional behaviour”. I would say that we need to do better and improve ourselves before we can bring out the desired behaviour in our children.

Taking a different track today, I am a little amused by two contradictory pieces in Sunday TOI. I usually merely skim and scan through the newspaper, but I found myself glued to these two taking in every printed word.

The first one pertained to the recent SRK incident at Newark Airport, where a senior Indian police officer, agreed that it was racial profiling but candidly admired the functioning of the US police without political interference wishing that he and his juniors had the same autonomy and work culture. The second piece has delivered coup de grace for a certain senior journalist, whose editorials I always read. The scribe pronounces the NRI an “intellectual nuisance” who needs to be “royally ignored”.

True that in the metro towns of India, generally speaking, the NRI is no longer an object of reverence and his yearly gifts are not eagerly awaited. But what about the rest of India, the major chunk of what makes up India, exemplified by the Doaba region in the north and Kerala in the South. Non-resident Indians are supporting the economies there, more than any Union or State budgets.

Even in the metros, although the populace no longer yearns for the material goods from a non-resident Indian, the latter has very important lessons to teach the resident Indian of the likes of Mr Xenophobia in the garb of a journalist. These are some of them:

1. A non-resident Indian has made himself successful in a foreign land with little or no personal support system by his sheer grit and determination. How many resident Indians can claim to have achieved success on their own and not through nepotism or favouritism of some kind? The ratio between the two will be pretty skewed in favour of the former.

2. A non-resident Indian has learnt to respect and follow laws of the land of his residence, whether out of fear of consequences or out of moral uprightedness. How many resident Indians can I claim to know, who in their daily lives do not violate or try to circumvent some law? Negligible.

3. A non-resident Indian has learnt to keep public and common spaces clean. What the resident Indian has done to our public spaces and monuments is pretty evident. Any place in India can be converted, at the drop of a hat, into a public lavatory or garbage dump.

4. A non-resident Indian pays his taxes, by and large, so that it can pay for social security of those in need. A resident Indian finds ingenious ways of evading taxes to hoard more for himself and his family, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the needy, visible and audible, everywhere in India.

5. A non-resident is extremely supportive of his brethren in the foreign land of his residence. A resident Indian has raised the crab mindset to an art, to be applied indiscriminately. Whether it is the famous sons of Dhirubhai or the not-so-famous family aptly depicted in the soaps, everyone seems to enjoy family bickering. And don’t even get me started on how a resident Indian treats foreigners!

I am not sure what inspired or instigated Mr Know-it-all scribe to write something like that but I am pretty sure that he did not reread it. If he had, he would have acknowledged that for resident Indians, although there is nothing to yearn but certainly a whole lot to learn from a Non-resident Indian.

I am not really certain by what measure can an injury of this type be described as “normal” or “minor”. The word normal is used to describe something that happens regularly or is widely prevalent. The word minor describes something of no or low consequence, and therefore no corrective action or precaution is necessary or desired. Do I hear the school as saying that a loss of a tooth by a student is matter of routine at this educational institution? Do I also hear that the school thinks that a 2 year old’s (or for that matter any child’s) face being bruised black and blue is insignificant and is part of business as usual?

If the answer to both the questions is yes, then I think that this educational institution needs to be closed down by the authorities, with immediate effect.

The fact of the matter is that most schools in India do not pay any attention to student safety. There does not seem to be any requirements, regulations, standards that prescribed a minimum level of safety that a school should implement. Six months ago, my wife and I visited a number of schools (including the school that is the topic of this blog), for our 2 ½ year old. Having lived overseas for over 10 years, and having become acutely sensitised to safety standards in anything and everything that forms a part of his environment, we were shocked to see the apathy of schools towards implementing, what would be considered even basic safety measures in most countries, overseas.

We even came across one school (an equally reputed play school as is being discussed here and which has built for itself a successful brand franchise) that had installed in its garden flood lights to light its façade. This garden was also the main playground where children of ages 3 and up were designated to play and had all the children’s play equipment neatly laid out. The floodlights had been joined to a lamppost within the same playground, with the wiring exposed to natural elements and for the children to touch and pull. I am not sure why anyone would want to send his / her ward to this school or how this school is being allowed to operate. Another school, we visited, had stored toxic materials used to clean toilets within easy reach of the kids. Yet another exclusive Delhi based day school, as part of its counter measures against the swine flu, has introduced disposable paper towels for use by children in the toilets. However, earlier plea’s by parents to have the school introduce paper towels in the bathrooms had fallen on deaf ears. Why is it that our schools need a major scare or catastrophe before they act (Last week, the Delhi based school was closed for a week due to swine flu)?

Schools in Canada (and in other western countries), the country that I lived in for the best part of the last decade, have been closed down for offences much smaller than these. I know of a school that lost its license to operate daycare due to negligence, all because of a single nail protruding from the walls (in a part of the daycare not frequented by kids), which was considered injurious to the students.

We did eventually admit our child to a play-school in Gurgaon. One of the biggest considerations for putting him in that school were the visible efforts made by the school’s administrators to child proof the school area.

It is time that we start prioritising the safely of our children and make conscious efforts towards it. If certain schools choose not to do participate, then they should be forced to shut shop; and in certain circumstances, the administrators held liable for injuries suffered by our children.

Jaago India Jaago

The British have been trying to make their own life easier (after-all English is said to have been made by the Devil). They have discovered, after all these centuries, that the rules behind the English language are far too complicated, and don’t really serve any purpose. It seems that the only place where the British will read about “i before e except after c” is in their history books. In the 21^st century, with the advent of the information age, it is felt that some of these rules are irrelevant; a learner’s time would be better spent trying to master the requirements of the information age.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Some Indian education boards too have determined that spelling (in Queen’s English) are not very important – and have decided to be more considerate towards its alternative counterparts. The relaxation has been justified on the grounds that the world is becoming a smaller place and the way we teach the language in the modern day should recognise global influences and differences (Viva Americana Spellings!). Indian schools will now accept American (and we know the Americans are very flexible when it comes to spellings) spellings, spellings that don’t change the meaning of the word and spellings that are phonetically correct (of course, different boards may have different criteria – thus adding to the confusion).

Medically too, there is a growing body of research to suggest that remembering spellings and its rules are a problem for people with learning disorders. The de-emphasis on spellings will certainly be welcomed by these people as it will make their life easier.

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

In my case too, this is good news as I cannot spell to save my life (when it comes to spellings, I like to think I have ADHD and my doctor is just not on the ball). All my life I have been aware of this deficiency and have tried to compensate by keeping a dictionary close to me. The computer has come as a boon that automatically corrects all my spelling disasters like a magic wand.

However, with the growing de-emphasis of spellings and the growing use of the short text style of writing, I wonder what written texts will look like in 20 years. I recently had a comment on one of my blogs written in short text style, for which I literally required a decoding key (There was not one word that was spelt correctly and I don’t recall seeing a vowel). What a nightmare!!

Rewrite of the last paragraph in short text style:

Hwvr, wth d grwng d-mphss f spllngs n d grwng use f d shrt txt styl f wrtng, I 1ndr wat wrttn txts wll luk lik n 20 yrs. I rcntly hd a cmmnt n 1 f my blgs dat ws wrttn n shrt txt styl, fr wich I ltrlly rqrd a dcding ky (Thr wsnt 1 wrd tht ws splt crrctly d I dn’t recol c`ing a wow`l). Wat a nitemare!!

Seems like a great idea to ensure that primary school teachers have the requisite skills. Wrong!!. Firstly, despite fact that civil service exams are one of the most difficult in the country, a good proportion of the civil servants in the country are rendered incapable. There is something very degenerative about the system that takes away from its people their abilities and potential replacing it with inefficiency and rigidity. Is this how we envision our education system? Personally, I would like to see our education system nurture flexibility and creativity and not the other way round.

Secondly, how much do our primary teachers get paid anyway? At best, between Rs 10,000 – Rs. 25,000 monthly. I don’t see many of India’s best and finest queuing up for a job that pays an amount similar to what a supervisor at a department store earns. I also just don’t see 400,000-500,000 people vying to give an IAS type exam to become a teacher competing for 1000 odd seats.

I have immense respect for Dr. A.P.J Kalam. He is one of the very few intellectuals in recent years, who has had the courage to enter Indian politics. His contribution to India, political and scientific, has been remarkable. I do believe that he would have made these remarks only after he has given it some thought and convinced about its implementation. I only wish, he would have shared with us more details about his concept within the context of desired competencies and objectives.