Vipassana is a 2500-year old Buddhist meditation practice that claims its lineage to the Buddha himself. Various institutions carry on the tradition of teaching Vipassana and one such is led by Shri S.N.Goenka. Goenkaji, as he is known by his students, has his headquarters in Igatpuri, a small town near Nashik in Maharashtra, India. I came across Vipassana about 15 years ago in California through some American friends who are his students. Continue reading “Meditations on a New Education Model”
Category: Education
De-Linking Teaching and Testing
If the industrial age was characterized by increased specialization and standardization, then the post-industrial modern age — often referred to as the information age — is subject to even greater specialization and standardization. Since education forms the very foundation of this information age, one should expect greater standardization and specialization in the production and delivery of education. Continue reading “De-Linking Teaching and Testing”
A Review of Education Related Posts Here
On this blog, I have pondered the matter of education quite a bit because development and education are inextricably related. Irrespective of how rich an economy is by the usual measures of GDP, if the population is not educated, it is not a developed economy. An economy may have a high per capita GDP, due to say exporting oil, but it cannot be considered a developed economy.
Continue reading “A Review of Education Related Posts Here”
Learning How to Think, to Fast, and to Wait
When Kamala, the courtesan in Hermann Hesse’s novel Siddhartha asked the young brahmin ascetic what skills he had, he replied that he has learnt “how to think, how to wait, and how to fast.” To my mind, that is a complete education. Being able to fast is the ability to live on a limited amount. Freedom is inversely proportional to the external resources one needs to survive. One is free only to the extent that one does not depend on resources external to oneself. Continue reading “Learning How to Think, to Fast, and to Wait”
Re-inventing Education — Part 3 (From Teaching-centric to Learning-centric Education)
Our present education system is teacher-centric. It is easy to understand why it is so if you consider that it has historically been very expensive to gain and transmit knowledge. Information — the foundation upon which knowledge rests –was in limited supply. A teacher, together with a limited set of books, was the knowledge base which anchored the education process. The teacher was the active agent, communicating information to the students, the passive receptors of information. Learning by rote was the method most favored because the information was largely disjointed and the student was not really quite sure what the motivation behind knowing all those disparate facts was. Continue reading “Re-inventing Education — Part 3 (From Teaching-centric to Learning-centric Education)”
Re-inventing Education — Part 2 (The Imperatives of Technology)
To think of technology as know-how is immensely useful. At its core, technology is knowledge. The artifacts of technology are essentially embodied-knowledge. Some of this technology is very sophisticated and we call it “hi-tech”. Examples of technological artifacts with embodied knowledge abound such as nuclear bombs, computers, DVD players, cell phones, shoes that make irritating squeaky noises and light up, digital cameras, jet planes, drugs that help people have fun, spam and spyware, laser guided cruise missiles, satellites, search engines, triple heart-pass surgeries, and nanotechnology. Continue reading “Re-inventing Education — Part 2 (The Imperatives of Technology)”
Re-inventing Education in a Brave New IT World
He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils for time is the greatest innovator.
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Last week I presented a paper on ICT and education at a conference in Bhopal organized by the All India Society for Electronics and Computer Technology. In the paper I explored the opportunity the current state of the art of information technologies (IT) provides for re-inventing education. Continue reading “Re-inventing Education in a Brave New IT World”
India and Utility Computing
Stand-alone computing a la PCs delivering “services” is fine for those who can afford that luxury, but is definitely a show-stopper for those who have very little disposable income and yet can make use of those services that PCs deliver. I remind myself repeatedly that people do not want a PC — what they actually want are the services that a PC delivers. As long as we focus on the fact that it is services — and not the hardware nor the software — that matter to people, we will not end up putting the cart before the horse. So if a firm were to deliver those set of services at an affordable price, it is immaterial to the consumer whether the consumer (of those services) uses a PC or some other device. Continue reading “India and Utility Computing”
A Modest Proposal — Part 5
For the past few weeks, I have been exploring what I call a modest proposal for making India 100% literate (parts 1, 2, 3, and 4). Here I will explore some aspects of my proposal.
I had proposed that for every person who is certified to have attained a certain level of literacy and numeracy (essentially, a primary education), the government should give them around $100. Here is the reasoning why this payment is necessary and why India will not attain 100 percent literacy without a payment of some sort.
A Modest Proposal — Part 4
Given half a chance, people cheat. Basic human nature. There is little gain in believing otherwise. Taking undue advantage of something to get ahead is part of the basic human DNA. (I admit to being an unabashed hardcore dyed in the wool cynic. Among my all-time heroes is Diogenes. More about him here.) So one has to plan ahead and design mechanisms that account for that fact. Ravikiran asked in connection with my proposal to make India 100 percent literate: What stops the NDS from colluding with the testing centre and making off with the money?. Continue reading “A Modest Proposal — Part 4”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 