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Education

Can Education Teach Us a Virtue like Integrity?

Despite all the degrees and specialized education that we all have, we find it difficult to deal with drudgery or mundane monotonous work. We all have this great ability to get bored with anything and everything very easily.

No, we do not believe in giving anyone elaborate sermons or a pail full of advice. We just wish to share a few thoughts with all of you because they often occur to us when we interact with youngsters of all ages:

Academic education in itself teaches us a virtue like working hard:

We spend hours memorizing details and formulae and definitions in order to score great grades. We use different techniques to deal with different subjects.

This system of education is often applauded and appreciated the world over because it gradually cultivates values like:

Focussing on the task at hand.

Patience. What we learned yesterday is out of our memory today. So we get down to revising the same topic again.

A creative approach to making a dull, boring subject interesting.

Doing things that simply need to be done – whether we like it or not. We learn a beautiful trait like DUTY.

These two factors prepare us for times when we simply need to slog it out. We realize that shortcuts don’t always work. Boring work, drudgery and mundane tasks are a part of our workday lives.

Appreciating subjects that we do not excel at. When youngsters are exposed to as many as 10 subjects in a year – they quickly realize that they are passionate about some subjects and hopeless cases in some subjects. They then smartly team up with other students to complement their weaknesses. They then learn useful techniques to master the subjects from them.

Knowing where they stand amidst a crowd. This teaches them humility. They may be the apple of their parents’ eyes – but in school, the youngster may be an above average student like several other students his age.

These are just some intangible elements of our education system which makes our students work hard to achieve some tangible form of success.

The minute these students step out into the real world- they realize that all their textbook knowledge cannot be applied on a practical basis.

They come across phrases like – work smart – don’t work hard. Initially, this perplexes them. Slowly they try to implement it while they are working in their offices.

The work smart philosophy is actually practical education:

Knowledge may help us secure a job. But practical education teaches us how to work in a team setting. The work smart philosophy teaches us values like:

Communicating effectively.
Time management.
Team co- ordination.
Seeing the bigger picture.
Responsibility and accountability.

Crisis management. This is where the work smart philosophy actually works well. In a crisis, we capitalize on the strengths and weaknesses of our team. We simply learn to think on our feet and take the initiative. This means accepting total responsibility for all our decisions. It also means delegating tasks to other capable and reliable team members. Work smart means using our common sense to get the best possible results in the shortest possible time. That is what crisis management is all about.

Being calm and cool and unruffled during a crisis. Thinking with a confident cool mind is not a trait that we will master overnight. Such values can come only with years of experience. Academic education exposes us to this kind of stress during exams. And the work smart philosophy simply takes it forward to a practical level.

Two beautiful aspects of work –work hard and work smart. Both these concepts are required at different stages in our work profile. But sadly quite a few youngsters misinterpret this phrase. To them a work smart philosophy means:

Taking short cuts to secure grades.

Outsourcing practical learning projects to professional experts in the market.

Doing just enough work in the office to get by.

That list can be endless. That is not the point of the article. What we wish to reiterate here is that education basically refines our thinking and equips us with a set of ethics.

There will be times when time is our prime priority. In such cases, delegating tasks to others frees up our precious time so that we can focus on things that are more important at that point of time.

There will be times when a particular task needs our specialized skill set and our total focus. We simply cannot afford to delegate such tasks to people who are not as experienced or mature as us. And at such times, we need to slog it out by working long hours.

Look at the leaders who head organizations. They balance their knowledge with their practical experience to get the results that they visualize. They work extended hours when there is a crisis and will refuse to budge till the problem is solved. And at other times, they will use the work smart philosophy to keep the team in working order.

While a blend of working hard and working smart is required at different times of our career – what is more important is working effectively.

The quality of our work suffers due to the numerous constant distractions that ping on our smartphones. All the academic and practical education that we have derived in our growing up years is of no use, if we do not know how to overcome our addiction to social media pages and updates.

The virtual world is most definitely not equal to the real world. The sooner we realize this hard hitting fact –the greater will be our effectivity and our progress.

Working effectively means overcoming the ‘Just chill attitude!’ another cool misinterpretation of the smart work philosophy. We feel we are smart if we are able to do just enough to get by in our work day every day. People in every and any organization pay us a salary in return for some kind of quality work which is done in a timely manner.

There are no free lunches out there in this big beautiful world. Misusing the work smart philosophy to hide our lackadaisical attitude will not take us very far in the long run. Such people are quickly identified in an organization and are shown the door without a second thought.

True isn’t it? It does not matter which aspect of education we choose to find solutions to our professional challenges. As long as we work effectively and ethically all our academic or practical education will be worth it. But all the knowledge in the entire world is of no use to us if we do not know how to earn our livelihood with integrity. Can education teach us a virtue like integrity?

May 4, 2017 0 comment

Does-Just-Chill-Attitude-work-Indian-Education-System

Skill Empowerment Skill India

Does the ‘Just Chill Attitude’ Really Work in Indian Education System?

written by Brinda Shah

Why do we have exams? Without even conducting a simple survey – we can unanimously come to the conclusion that no student really likes exams or even studying for that matter.

The students’ perspective of exams

YOLO – You only live once – is the latest mantra. Students are young, and all of us make conscious efforts to ensure that we live our lives fully and freely. There are games to play, friends to hang out with, movies to watch and malls to visit. A simple exam timetable forces us to start flipping the pages of our books.

Then we progress to the next stage of cramming all the knowledge of our books into our minds at the very last minute. We feel it is enough if we remember the facts/equations/definitions and diagrams till we write the exam.

All of us know a few students who believe in securing marks by hook or by crook. There is no need to elaborate about the how they go about doing this because we all know what we are talking about.

The next day or next week we will not even remember the questions that we attempted in the exam.

A mark sheet displaying good marks relieves us of the burden of facing our parents’ wrath. Our parents are satisfied or proud of us depending on the scores that we managed to secure. We can now continue to lead our lives as coolly as we want to.

Visualizing the big picture

Childhood/adolescence is that phase of life where we can completely dedicate our time to amassing knowledge.
This knowledge stands us in good stead throughout our lives. We may lose everything in life ………our money/ friends/house/family members, ……but we can never lose our knowledge.
Studying different subjects is compulsory until grade 10 because all students need a strong base of the different components of knowledge.
After spending a decade pursuing 8 diverse subjects – students can clearly find out their areas of interest and also the subjects that they are inherently good at.
Some may excel in Math, others are excellent creative writers, and some will discover their passion for chemicals or fluid dynamics during these years. Others will want to know the intricacies of how the human body works.
Schools/Colleges give us the right infrastructure and ambiance so that we can imbibe these concepts in the right manner from experts.
Tests/ exams are just tools to ensure that we focus on assimilating small chunks of knowledge at a steady pace throughout our childhood days.
Tests/ exams instill a sense of discipline in students. They learn to:
- Study regularly.
- Adhere to a schedule.
- Take up the responsibility of doing things on time.
- Plan their day.
- Compete in a healthy atmosphere.
- Gauge their inherent/dormant potential.
- Work hard to realize their true
Knowledge does not mean excellent marks alone.
Grades/Marks are just a benchmark to gauge our understanding of that particular part of the subject. If we get good marks – it simply means, we have grasped that concept correctly.

Just think for a while

Don’t youngsters learn things quickly and correctly compared to their parents or grandparents?
Don’t you honestly think that childhood is the best stage of life for garnering knowledge when our mental faculties are still developing, and we have no other responsibilities to shoulder?

Bridging the gap

Somewhere down the line, the meaning and value of exams have been lost. Several factors may have contributed to the stress that is now related to exams. Competition has increased because the population has increased. Good schools, quality education, international boards have created such hype around education that even parents are clueless and don’t really know what will work best for their children.

We cannot change these constants. We cannot control the population nor do anything about the competition. Neither can we change the system of our education. If we actually look at it objectively – it may have its share of flaws, but there are a lot of imperceptible benefits too.

What we can do is change our perspective and our approach regarding education. Our parents may have worked hard to ensure that we study in the best schools and colleges. A good school or college means good facilities, better equipment, talented expert teachers all of which contribute to great quality education.

We need to consider ourselves fortunate if we are studying in such reputed institutions. But sadly, we take things for granted. After a couple of years, we even get used to excellence. Instead of taking full advantage from these institutions, we will adopt the ‘Just Chill attitude!’

We feel exams don’t actually serve any purpose (apart from placating parents of course!)

As students, we don’t really understand how studying differentiation or the anatomy of frog or antonyms or Shakespeare will help us in the future.

Again -Just think for a while

At a very elementary level, studying Math improves your logic and helps us understand how various businesses operate at a basic level. Studying languages helps us communicate politely using the right words at the right time. Sciences will help us understand how our bodies work, and we learn how to take care of it properly. Physics and Chemistry help us understand how the material things around us work.

Before we even attempt to study one particular subject properly – we need to figure out why we are going to school or college in the first place. In other words, we need to visualize the big picture more often.

When we see things with the right perspective – we will be able to study with the right spirit enthusiastically and zealously. Every school ensures that their students get ample free time to play, interact with friends, watch movies and visit malls. No parent, school or teacher will ever endorse the fact that they want their children to study 24x7x365.

All adults have experienced childhood. They know and understand that children need to enjoy their childhood years. But they also know the value of good quality education. Most mature adults understand that higher or better marks don’t really mean more knowledge. Multinational companies also realize that great scores reflect just one part of the person’s personality.

Yes, we can feel and sense that education around the world is slowly but surely changing for the better. It may take a few more years for us to see and experience the change.

As students – as future citizens of a global world – all we can do is change our ‘Just Chill Attitude’ and focus on accruing knowledge with the right spirit and perspective!

January 24, 2017 0 comment

Kids Lifestyle

Teachers! No Home Work Please!!

written by admin

Announce a project as holiday homework and we will hear groans around the classrooms. Disappointment is evident on all the students’ faces. They want free time. They want to catch up on their sleep. That is their prime priority. Then they just want to chill. On face book, on WhatsApp, on Google, on their smart phones, laptops and tablets.

Most teachers are genuinely at a loss when they see the total disinterest that students seem to have for academic knowledge.

We need to acknowledge three facts here:

Students lead extremely busy lives too. Most of them attend tuitions after school. This leaves them with very little free time on a daily basis.
Technology is here to stay. Televisions and video games have replaced real life games. And teachers cannot really do anything about how they spend their time at home. They need to unwind too. Perhaps it is not the right way to relax. Nothing can ever replace a good game of street cricket or seven stones. Teachers know this. Parents know this. But we need to move with the times and accept the fact that our children lead different lives compared to ours.
Doling out homework and projects and assignments regularly may have an adverse effect on the students. Parents/students outsource the entire project to other people. There are people out there in the market who make good money simply by doing the projects for their student customers.

The teacher is left with only one option. He/She has to ensure that all the learning and doing is done in the classroom itself. No. Don’t raise your eyebrows and roll your eyes. It is possible and I speak from experience.

Create that interest in your students first. Create a love for the subject first.
Come in with a tray full of colorful liquids in different test tubes and see how the class is suddenly attentive.
Break the structure and the pattern of the classroom. Why should the students always confine themselves to desks and chairs? Why should they always sit beside their best friends?
Ask them to lift – not drag – all the furniture. Make them put it along the sides of the classroom. Make them sit on the floor.
Use a wet chalk and use the floor as a blackboard. Take them out to the courtyard and use the sandy surface as a black board. Use a short stick as your chalk.
Do the experiments first. Let them see things first and then teach them that topic. See the clarity of understanding on their faces.
Want them to learn about geography. Ask them to bring a pair of scissors. Make them draw the outline with a sketch pen on a chart paper or on the floor. You will be amazed at how accurately and precisely they draw the outline.
Pin four empty chart papers on the soft board. Make them stick real food grains and real clothes on the chart paper. One class even stuck an idli and a dosa on a chart paper. I am sure every student will remember the staple food of South Indians even today.
Let them draw. Let them search for pictures. Let them download images and get printouts.
Divide a class into four groups. Announce a competition. See how the students get excited about the whole concept.
Concepts like area, surface area, volume can be done live in a class room. Get measuring tapes. Make them measure the floor of the class room. They will understand the different units of measurement this way. They understand what they are studying in the class.
Show them how to create a cube and a cuboid from a piece of card board. Let them fiddle with the chart paper for some time. They will get a feel of the object. They will now be able to relate to the concept properly. They will then be able to apply their learning in practical life.
Play a vocabulary game for five minutes during the English classes. Let the students test the teacher. Write out any word that the students select from their dictionary. Let them flip through the pages. Let them select a word that piques their curiosity. Give them the meaning of the word. They will be impressed by your vocabulary. If you don’t know the meaning – simply say so. The entire class will remember the meaning of that word for a long long time. Now make them construct sentences with those five words. Ask the students to write down those sentences on the black board. Right now. No home work. Correct the sentence then and there. The whole thing will take five minutes flat. But the class will be receptive to what you are teaching for the rest of the period. I assure you of this.
Enact history chapters. Make them act and behave like the characters. Draw the historical territories on the floor. Create the battle scenes and the wars in the class room. The entire history chapter will take care of itself.
If we want our students to be innovative and creative in their thinking – we need to be innovative and creative ourselves. We need to think and carefully plan our lessons.
We need to strictly monitor the activities and control the time span.
We need to split a forty-minute class and plan every minute properly.
It is not a fun class. There is syllabus to be completed. The learning has to be evident.
It will get reflected in the tests and the exams.
We need to be effective. We need to break down the traditional structured method of teaching and create newer methods of teaching.
Slide shows, video clippings, animated clips all are effective tools that we need to use regularly.
Projectors, smart boards, laptops are all very effective teaching aids.
Learn how to use such equipment. See the difference in the quality of the teaching.

Yes. The teacher really needs to work hard to create those activities, slide shows and/or competitions etc. But the efforts will be worth our while. Our students’ faces light up with smiles when they see us. They look forward to our classes. They understand what we teach. Each one of them. That satisfaction is the real ultimate reward for the teacher. They know that they were effective and that is always enough for them!

August 3, 2016 1 comment

Skill Empowerment Skill India

Want to Acquire a New Skill? – Don’t Indulge in Excuses!!!

written by admin

Age, gender, class, caste, country, language, educational background – nothing should deter us from developing new skills.

We can and should develop any or all kinds of skills that:

Really matter in our day to day lives or
Create a difference in our lives or
We are keenly interested in acquiring.

The group discussion was taking an interesting turn. The students were all able to relate to the topic and each one of the participants wanted to put forth their views on the topic.

The medium of communication was English. Not all of the students were very well versed in English. But they had overcome their initial inhibitions and had started conversing despite several grammatical errors. My colleague and I smiled with relief. Unless they made mistakes – how would they ever learn? We exchanged a nod of understanding and encouraged the youngsters to continue speaking. One particular student, whom we all knew was quite intelligent, suddenly mustered up all his courage and just started speaking in Marathi. He did not wait for anyone’s response or reaction. His points were valid; he knew what he was talking about and was quite knowledgeable about his subject matter too.

When we discussed each participant’s contribution and how they were progressing really well, this Marathi speaking boy’s contribution to the group discussion was highlighted by both of us.

Yes, the medium of communication was supposed to be English. English is now a global language and we cannot – simply cannot do without it. But it takes a lot of effort, time, patience and practice to learn English – or any language for that matter. Any one learning a new language will know how difficult it is to gain complete mastery over any language. As Indians, we are exposed to multicultural backgrounds as children – and so learn several languages at this stage. So we never realize how arduous a task it might be to others.

Most of the students who had enrolled for the classes had studied in vernacular medium schools – simply because 20 years back – it was the norm. English as a language was not globally recognized then and most of the parents could not afford to put their children in expensive English medium schools.

20 years later, in the current context, these students faced a major handicap and it became our duty to help them overcome their inhibitions.

Just because they did not know English, or any language for that matter, did not mean they were stupid or inferior in any way!

They were making slow, but steady progress with the language but needed to equip themselves with other skills despite the handicap that they faced!

In fact, the other skills were far more important than learning English – they understood everything that was taught in class, knew how to read and comprehend correctly, and wrote with several mistakes – sometimes really terrible mistakes – and their spoken English was even more terrible!

I would always say so with a smile – and then tell them that my Marathi was worse – and I was facing the same problem with my Marathi – so I knew and understood their problem.

That’s it! We became great friends – my students and I and they gained the confidence to participate actively in group discussions despite their terrible English!

My cousin set up her own preschool at the age of 50. I would keep prodding her to use Whatsapp to send messages or circulars to the parents. Snap pictures on her smart phone and send them to parents. Take photographs of special occasions, burn a CD and gift them to the parents. Take videos and upload them on face book.

“I don’t have a smart phone. I don’t need one. I don’t know how to use one. No one will teach me. I forget what my son taught me yesterday! L L L L !

More prodding and a few years later – her dialogue is “I know how to do this and my daughter in law uploads all the photos and we now have a new face book page and yes – I use Whatsapp to send messages to all the parents – and if I forget how to operate things – I simply ask my daughter in law or son!”

People will help you overcome your mental barriers or your inhibitions only if you show the inclination to learn something.
There are umpteen blogs in vernacular languages that have a great fan following.
Senior citizens go out of the way to learn how to use smart phones and Skype because they want to keep in touch with their sons and daughters and grand children living abroad.
They learn – spend hours – learning how to do online banking and book tickets using internet banking.
Koreans, Iranians, Iraqis and students belonging to other countries consciously leave their countries to develop new skills. They may or may not be rich – but most of them opt to come to India because English is widely used here. They struggle, they cry, they stutter – really stutter and stammer to speak one single sentence in English.
Like our vernacular medium school students, they know their alphabets, have functional vocabulary and can comprehend basic level English.
And then it is all a case of confidence – under confidence.

Why – OH! – Why do we feel so under confident when we don’t have a particular skill?

We need to:

Be comfortable in our skins first.
Analyse our strengths and weaknesses objectively.
Study our background to understand ourselves better.
Project our skills in the current context of the world.
Understand where we stand in the current scenario.
Update our skills accordingly.

That will involve a lot of time, energy and effort. Acquiring any new skill is not going to be easy. Something that looks so easy – and we all take for granted – like rolling a chapatti or baking a perfect cake – takes time – a lot of time!

Heads of leading business houses all over India – have years of experience behind them. That is how they learned all those leadership skills – the hard way – they made plenty of mistakes and developed each skill – with every mistake that they made. Sometimes the mistakes were trivial, sometimes it cost them a pretty buck – but the learning was invaluable!!

And yes – I know – and have worked with such business heads – and such good men they were too – they had not even cleared grade 10 – they simply knew what they wanted – they knew the skills they lacked and employed people to complement their weakness! A true and good leader knows this and is humble enough to know that he is not perfect.

At the end of the day – and at the end of our lives – we should be constantly evolving as better human beings. We should be flexible enough to adapt with the changing times. We should be eager enough to accept the changes that are happening around the world. And if we want to play an active role and be a part and parcel of this fast progressive world – we better do our best to acquire all the skills that help us do so!

Or we will be left behind – and we will have no one else to blame but ourselves for the dismal predicament that we find ourselves in!!

August 1, 2016 1 comment

Digital Empowerment Knowledge

20 Collaborative Tools For Teachers and Students

written by admin

Younger generation are more familiar to technologies and this brings up the great possibilities of making studies more fun and easy with the use of the same. With multinational companies like google introducing google classrooms it has become more easier for teachers and students to use technology to help the process. Here am presenting you 20 collaborative tools for teachers and students.

Titanpad

Titanpad is a great platform for teachers to track the works of students and what each student can contribute to a collaborative work assigned to them. Student can create a public document and share the url with other collaborators. Each of them can make changes to their work as per their ideas. Teachers can also judge each one individually as each collaborator will have their color and whatever changes they make will be given different colors. A record of every changes made will be kept orderly and in colors to analyze the work of each collaborator. This ensures the participation of every collaborator as the teacher can individually track everyone’s contribution. Students can create private and public space according to the need of the work. Titanpad also makes sure that students don’t have to register or log in to use a public space. This helps them to save plenty of time

Google Docs

Google docs as the name sounds is about working on documents. It helps students to work on essays, projects, class notes, reports, lesson plans and more. It gives them plenty of fonts, images, drawing etc.. to choose from and helps them with editing and styling tools which over all makes students love what they are doing and the study process becomes more fun. Students can have access to it from anywhere any time. Google docs can be used even when there is no connection which makes this one even more appealing to teachers and parents. Also multiple users can work on the same document at the same time. Every work will be saved as you type and there is no risk of losing a file when a student forget to hit the save button all the time. Every versions of the work can be seen in history and whoever have made the changes.

Google Classrooms

The name tells you all. Yes. This is a classroom. Teachers need to create a classroom. Different classroom’s will have different codes which can be shared with the students or they can be directly added. Teachers are able to track the progress of each students works on the assignments given. Queries can be made to the whole class or individually with teachers. This a great step made by google in promoting eco-friendly education by eliminating usage of bulks of papers.

Palbee

Younger generations are very much used to recording audio and video clips enjoying more access to gadgets at home. Palbee therefore is a great option available to teachers and students alike. This is a video conferencing service. This can be used to deal with seminars and presentations. Students shy of crowd can use this as a starting level to perform and slowly they can beat the shyness within them to address a crowd. Teachers can also upload videos of tutorials which students can have access to even after class and prevent them getting stuck in doubts.

Podio

Podio can be better described as a social network meant for studies. Teachers can distribute presentations and notes to students in no time. This minimizes lots of paper works and hence saves time. It also offers unlimited storage. Podio is not only meant for sharing files but is a mini classroom where students and teachers are able to confirm. Students can submit works and collaborators can comment on them too which results in getting instant reviews. Comments and tips from teachers will be very much encouraging to students.

Crocodoc

Crocodoc lets you upload documents, pdf files and PowerPoint slides which helps create a classroom using the tool. Students can send their works and teacher can make the necessary corrections and send it back. Teachers can also share url’s of e-books which students can refer. Uploading class room notes as documents can even help students who couldn’t attend the class.

Teamviewer

Teamviewer is a communication platform where you can chat with multiple users at the same time. Students and teachers can keep in touch even when they are at different places with a chat room. Different chat rooms can be created for different class rooms and subjects. Transfer of files is also possible. It also helps collaborators know if their message is read and also if the one you are chatting with is typing anything which clearly shows one’s interest in the work involved.

Thinkbinder

Another collaborative tool that makes you comfortable to deal with your study matters. You can create a study group and you have access to five different platforms. Discuss, chat, share, collaborate and manage.

Discuss lets you can share your queries and teachers can respond to your queries here. It also admits sharing of videos and links.

Chat can be used for both texting and video chats. Students who wants to ask doubts individually can use this to communicate with their teachers. Share lets users share links, videos and pictures. This can be called as the library.

Collaborate provides a collaborative white board where problems can be solved together. Manage lets you keep all the files and works organized.

ChannelME

A great tool for co-browsing. Teachers and students can access the same web page at the same time and offers chat options. Chat options lets everyone communicate and share their ideas and queries. This helps teachers take students out of text books to get them a clearer picture about the topic.

Mind42

Mind42 is about creating a mind map. This can be used by teachers to create a mind map and share with students. Options are available to let others edit your mind map or just let them go through it. By using the collaboration option teachers can invite students and also let them edit the map and share new thoughts. If any of the collaborator is online and is making some changes to the map, there is an icon at the bottom which will turn blue and the collaborators name will also be displayed.

Google Drive

A tool according to me every teachers, students and also parents should be having. Here you can keep files private and can share files with or without the option to edit. When the file is open to limited collaborators having permission to edit then they will require to sign in with a google account. In case the file as open to all, then signing in wont be required. By keeping files private, students and teachers can keep the notes and study materials in a disciplined way with access to it from anywhere anytime. Files shared publicly without option to edit can be used by teachers to provide class notes and release statements to students and parents.

Google Calendar

An excellent tool for teachers and students to keep track of things. Class room information can be uploaded here. It will help students be reminded about projects, seminars, discussions and works as such and deadlines associated with it. This helps teachers even when they are absent to post new works and also remind students about already given works.

WordPress

Teachers can create a website or blog in WordPress. Here they can share links to websites or pages that could be helpful to students and can also post newsletters and study notes. Online discussions can also be conducted. Another major positive of this tool is, teachers can instruct blog writing to students which can improve the writing and referencing skills of students. It can also spark the creativity in them

Twitter

I bet you are surprised. Aren’t you? Twitter can be used for education in plenty of ways. One of the best qualities of a professional is to be very specific when he conveys something. The 140-word limit provided in twitter can develop this quality in students when they are asked to tweet something very informative and striking on a given topic. Teachers can tweet about project and seminar topics and remind about deadlines. Depending on topics of studies students should be asked to follow individuals related to it. Students will also be up to date about the latest news and technologies. Teachers are also able to make sure students are using the platform for the best cause by seeing whoever they are following.

TED-Ed

A collaborative text book. That’s how I would like to describe TED-Ed. This tool makes studies much easier. Teachers can select any video from YouTube and create a lesson around it. With video attached lessons, students pick up the topic fast and is easy for every student to understand. Associated with every lesson there will be few sections namely Watch, Think, Dig Deeper and Discuss. In Think section teacher can post questions for students to answer. In Think Deeper section teacher can post more articles, web links or blogs so that students can get deeper knowledge about the lesson. Students will have individual profiles where teacher can access their information such as lessons viewed, lessons in progress and completed lessons. Teachers also have access to the questions answered by them to track their performance.

Edublogs

Teachers will have a class blog as a platform to keep students and parents informed by posting important news, calendars, class notes etc. Students will have a platform to publish their works. With the blog various learning tools will be provided to teachers and students. Teachers will have total control of students’ privacy settings and content usage which makes this tool even more appealing to parents.

Pinterest has taken bulletin board online. Each user can create different boards in different names. Every individual has the freedom to decide who can see their boards. They can have private boards and public boards as well. Teachers and students can follow each other. Teachers can create boards on different study topics and can pin to it necessary articles and pictures so that students can have access to it. Students can go through it and can pin the same to their own personal boards. Students should be advised to keep their boards pubic and let their teachers also pin on their boards so that the latter can give special attention to students who are little backward in their studies. As the teacher will be having a better idea about each student and their comfort zones, different study materials can be pinned on their boards. High quality visualization used in Pinterest makes it very interesting for students. With a library board teachers can update students about latest books arrival.

Sophia

If someone asks you to pick the odd one out from all the 20 collaborative tools mentioned here, then your answer should be Sophia. This is not just about teachers and students from the same institution interacting each other using a tool. Sophia offers around 37000 free tutorials and thousands of teachers. With different students being comfortable with different teaching styles Sophia offers you a great platform to choose a teaching style that suites your learning methods. This one makes you feel like you are playing a game by offering you different badges based on your performance just as in a game. It makes learning more fun.

Edmodo

Edmodo is a great choice when you require more digital sharing. Provide assignments and projects and students can have online discussions. Teacher can divide students into categories and they can collaborate as a group. Platform will be provided for students to post digital contents created by them. Online discussions can be used to discuss and share queries regarding the content.

Google Forms

I thought I would mention this one last. Know why? This one is more of a survey tool. Teachers can post several questions to evaluate their own performance. Questions like whether the class was effective, do you find any topics need more explanation, is there any way my methods should be changed to effectively reach out to you. Questions can be posted on various other matters too where student opinions are very important. Responses can be presented in charts. This one is another great collaborative tools that should be used in every education centers. Surveys are always a great method to keep going improvising on areas by taking opinions and education sector is no different

General questions:

1) While internet is required to use most of these collaborative tools don’ t you think there is a chance of misuse?

Education sector has become so competitive that teachers are forced to push learning beyond borders. Many multinational companies like Google has developed tools solely for education addressing every such concerns. Institutions are able to block every other website that they feel is irrelevant to education preventing the possibilities of misuse inside the institution. At home, parents can use of the parent control available in devices before letting children use Internet.

2) A major concern for parents in this era is that children are more device oriented and lacks face to face communication such that they fail to notice what is going on around. Don’t you think a collaborative study method using devices and internet is going to add to it?

Internet and devices are the future of education like any other sector. It should be noted that using these tools doesn’t replace other interactive class sessions and collaborations. Devices could replace paper books in future as part of going green and these collaborative tools should be just seen as books providing a platform for collaboration in the form of devices. In short this is a positive move that ensures collaboration and communication even in your books which actually doesn’t provide any platform for interaction.

3) How to possibly eradicate the distractions digitalizing education can cause during studies?

At first place, the influence of gadgets on younger generation was never generated from the use of those for education. And it should be stressed that using gadgets for education will never be in such a way that their fingers and eyes will be running wild on the screen.

Younger generation are so fast in typing than writing in paper. Using that skill in them helps to cover the lessons even faster.

They are used to depend on gadgets in every situations of boredom, be it in a function or otherwise. Instead of letting them roam in useless stuffs in their gadgets, introducing of educational tools which is more fun than normal books is in a way distracting them from their on distractions.

Embrace the idea of distractions itself to use their time productively. Use their distractions like texting, gaming or any other to pull out the creativity in them. Ask a frequent texter to write essays, articles or stories. Ask a frequent gamer to develop his own idea of developing a new game which could also help gain some knowledge.

July 26, 2016 0 comment

Digital Empowerment Innovation

20 Innovations in Education in Last 10 Years

written by admin

The world around us is living in perilous economic times. Almost every field on this planet demands new innovations; these innovations are necessary for the developments and benefiting the human race. Same can be said about education. Unfortunately for some time or years to be accurate our education system remained stagnant. But the last 10 years have seen very positive changes from infrastructure to basic education course changes to multimedia. I have written about 20 innovations in education in last 10 years and discussed in detail about their impact on our society.

Computing going cloud

Cloud computing is on the rise in the world especially in the last 5 years. With Google, msn, yahoo and other such internet giants offering online data storage people now are using less space on personal computers and prefer more to use online servers. The advantages are numerous as now people who store data using cloud services don’t need to carry data in USB and other devices all the time, their data is already online. So wherever they require, they can access their data. There is always risk of hackers stealing into their data but is being eliminated by more and more secure measures. This is a huge benefit for students and is being used widely by students across the globe & in India too.

Mobile learning

Advancements in technology especially in smart phones in last decade have seen advent of mobile learning. Mobile phones have become like pocket laptops. Students are using smart phones to access internet, to use all sorts of educational apps, for storing data and everything they previously used to do on desktop computers or on laptops.

Tablet computing

Tablets are officially replacing other gadgets in universities and colleges as devices for benefits of students. Some universities give tablets to all their students as a bonus & as a sign of good repute of university itself. To make known among other competitors that this particular university offers more technology based learning to its students than others.

Open content, remote learning, e books

Last decade has seen the advent of online learning, remote learning and e books. This is proved most beneficial not only for those students who can’t afford expensive education but also those studying in best institutes in making their assignments and further research on any topic. Online learning helped where textbooks could never help, they are easily updated & are usually kept up-to-date by their providers. Good examples include khan academy, London school of business and finance online earning, some free online resources like open tuition.

Computer based testing

Another innovation in education seen in last year’s is the advent of computer based testing. A lot of universities across globe and in India are starting computer based testing. It enables fast checking of tests. Mostly multiple choice questions are given in these tests and their answers already saved online as soon as the student completes the test, the result appears online because of already created database of answers.

Online way of earnings

People prefer to get self employed by working online rather than working for some company. Opportunities are available online to generate good amount of earnings and increase the current resources for utilizing the future opportunities. Best of the minds are working online on platforms like Upwork, Elance and freelancer etc. The revenue and percentage of Indian freelancers on this forum reflect their contributions towards helping the people in generating some source of income. People are choosing to work on their own without much dependency on anyone in their own comfort zones. This all is because of recent innovations in education over last decade preparing students for this internet age.

Education throughout life

Historically many people in India used to get education to get jobs and that’s it. This is changing with the advent of internet and interaction with the developed nations of the west. People are learning new things all over the span of their lives. Thanks to the online learning & scientific advancements.

Game based learning

Many educational games are developed by educational institutes with intention of making little kids or older people learn things. It’s a good technique especially for the children but one should get specific in terms of using game based learning.

Women empowerment

Women in India are fighting for their empowerment issues. This is changing since last decade as more women are encouraged to participate in everything from education to sports. Women are joining universities more frequently than they did in last decade. Government rules and regulations are getting strict to eliminate this gender gap in empowerment, general public awareness and evolution in the thinking of our society has also helped in this process. The dream of incredible India can be achieved if we fight with the orthodox believers of our society, although their percentage is very low; but with proper education innovations we can eliminate them form our society.

New subjects

With new scientific explorations new subjects have gained popularity in education system of India, such as Fashion, music, computer science, physical sciences, stem cell research, cloning, neurosciences are some examples.

Change in teacher student relationship

One main innovation that happened in last decade is a huge change between teacher and student relationship. It has changed from the strict autocratic relationship to a very friendly relationship. Teachers now are more involved with students, are more friendly less strict and the beating kind of teachers are almost diminishing from all good Indian institutes as beating is permanently disallowed in all good institutes. One reason for an improvement in the relationship is development of alternative online education forums. The teachers do have idea about this alternative and they know that students are not much dependent on them in present time.

Increase in private education & new ideas of educating

Education has become much privatized and a very big business too. In this privatization and competition; new forms of schooling have emerged, as private institutes are giving most comfortable and rich campus life to its students. Concerts, music classes and parties are a norm in private institutes for student comfort. This privatization has also resulted in creating opportunities for those students who couldn’t able to get admission in government institutions based on their merits. But the downside is that the fee structure is very high even in the presence of competition between these institutions.

Technology enabled campuses

More and more importance is laid on campuses which are technologically enabled. Wi-Fi, computer labs, air conditioned rooms, projector enabled classrooms are must in this age. This is a major innovation in education field as institutes who don’t have technology enabled campuses are considered backward and are losing student enrollment.

Increase in university facilities

Universities have become as comforting as home in this decade. Sports, prom nights, educational seminars etc, are basic facilities& provided by all top institutes. Most top universities provide pick and drop free bus services to all its students who don’t have their own transports. This was very rare sight 10 years ago as most universities didn’t have this much funding to cover such wide array of facilities. Similarly hostels are given very much importance among students. Many students coming to study from other cities and countries stay in hostels. Hostels also need to be air conditioned, Wi-Fi enabled, should have good food and laundry setup.

World class level higher education being initiated in India

Since the last decade it is utmost importance of government in India to make Indian education setup at par with west and all other developed nations. Efforts have been put to make sure rightly qualified teachers teach at universities and school only. Top notch campuses, best student facilities are enabling India to rise as a star in education field worldwide.

Coeducation helping people eliminate gender gap

Gender gap in India was a big issue because of narrow-mindedness of people and this exists in all over south Asia. This is ending now mainly due to the western education taught all over India. Women are enrolled in most cities studying with boys in all institutes. Most youngsters find their wives or long term relationship girlfriends in universities too. We need to educate our students in term of ethical behavior, so that we can eliminate this gender gap from our society completely.

Startup culture

The world is going through a phase of startup phobia and this has influenced our society as well but in a positive way. Entrepreneurs especially students are taking more interest in starting their businesses than outsourcing their skills and talent to other companies. Startup culture is a direct product of business incubators. Due to this approach our countries economy is growing and we Indians are exploring new segments of market around the globe.

Cultural exchange program

Due to the strong efforts of diplomats of different countries or we can say different universities around the world have formulated cultural exchange programs in order to help the students in terms of understanding each other’s culture. These types of programs are helpful to understand the development and innovation of each other’s society.

Practical experience

In last few years the internship culture has grown very rapidly. Universities are designing special kind of programs to help their students in terms of getting internships. Even the companies in India are helping the students in this approach, but they have their own interest; they want the fresh graduates to be more skilled and professional with respect to the working environment of their organizations.

General questions:

1) Where do you see Indian education now in comparison to American and European education system?

The future of Indian education system is bright even if we compare it with the American and European education systems. The Government and especially the universities have learned a lot from the past experience. Due to the growth of the private sector in education, it has become necessary for the government institutions to achieve the global level of educational standards.

2) Are women feeling empowered through these innovations?

If we analyze the situation so far, these educational innovations have helped our society in terms of this issue. Growth of Startup culture has helped the women to get economically independent and we all know that this factor is the most important one in the process of getting more empowerment. Government and even the private organizations are taking lot of steps in order to create different opportunities for women.

3) How these innovations helped general public?

If we analyze the benefits we will find that funds like Education Innovation Fund for India ( EIFI ) are playing a vital role in terms of creating initiatives for handling this kind of situation. The efforts they are putting in helping the poor students in getting better education are incredible. Schools like Gramodaya are helping the students in their early ages to eliminate the gap between the educational standard of urban schooling and rural schooling.

4) How have these innovations helped you in studies as compared to previous era?

The main difference among innovations is actually created by technology in terms of helping the students, Due to the advancement in use of electronic devices and online material resources; students are now independent in terms of gaining the knowledge and implementing the knowledge. No one is dependent on the existing education system. It’s really easy to excess the research material and prepare our self for any kind of exams. I am not denying the importance of educational system but ground circumstances have changed and a new alternative with a strong base has occupied the world in term of knowledge and affordability.

5) Why business incubators are so important?

Business incubators as the name suggests are individuals or companies made for the purpose of funding any new business. They provide basic management, training and office space. Sometimes they do the task of venture capitalists by spending in new business as capital. Business incubators have helped a lot of businesses to shape in less time than they would have normally taken. Some famous incubators in India are Sine (Innovation and entrepreneurship, IIT Mumbai) they incubated Webaroo, smsgupshup.com and Bhugol Gis Pvt ltd.

Technology business incubator, IIT Delhi, this is one of the top incubators service providers in India. And another top example is techno park technology business incubator Kerala. Established in 2006 with the support of the Government of Kerala, T-TBI offers fully furnished working spaces spread over 15,000 sq., expert opinions and guidance from the industry, marketing and legal management consultancy and financial assistance.

T-TBI has till date successfully incubated about 60 companies and has had a 92 percent success rate. As a fresh graduate it’s really important for the student to keep full information of these incubators, this will definitely help them in exploring new options in the future.

September 6, 2015 0 comment