Links and blog roll

Some miscellaneous interesting/inspiring/comment-worthy links:

1. Follow up to Mitch Resnick's talk (that I discussed here) :
2. Engineers quit jobs to teach kids
3. Fun algebra class

Also there are some interesting reads in my blog roll! I try as much as possible to find things like this. If you have a blog or know of a blog that belongs in that roll, do send me a comment! 

Technology as a tool for learning

I watched a video some time ago of a 2 year old kid who keeps tapping on a magazine and pushing it around. The kid was clearly confused that the magazine was not really doing anything. It was not moving, there were no funny noises coming out of it. The magazine was not worth paying attention to. "Where's that iPad!"

Kids are surrounded by technology and there is a need to understand that their world is different from ours was when we were their age. It is important to create a learning environment for them that will allow them to express themselves in a better manner.

Mitch Resnick of MIT says that kids should be taught how to code at a young age in his talk. He says that children must learn to code in order to use code to learn.

I have experienced in the past and continue to experience even today that I understand a concept better when I have coded it. This maybe because I spend a long time in trying to split the problem into simple language - essentially into the program's pseudo code. When I taught people to code I often asked them to think of the computer as a stupid machine that needed to be told in an extremely simple manner how to do a task. This enhances the understanding of a particular concept in leaps and bounds.

This of course does not mean that kids begin to be trained as software engineers in kindergarten. Children can be provided with a means for them to express themselves and learn through doing rather than reading textbooks. Honestly, textbooks no longer have an appeal to kids who play with tablets and game stations. I saw some textbooks recently in which there was a lot of colour and figures and even cartoons. Yes, the ones from NCERT that are subject of a lot of controversy. Controversy or not, they are far off from the dull textbooks that I used in school. But they do not do much towards providing interactivity.  And this is the point of my argument.

Everything boils down to interactions. What can be lectured about for hours can be demonstrated in 20 minutes and learned through doing in less than that! The easiest way to do this today is through technology. Right?

Translating this to children who do not have access to computers or even a TV is tough. There are three aspects to the problem: (1) introducing rural and urban poor children to technology, (2) encouraging these kids to use technology to learn, (3) to teach children to code so that they can use technology to implement their learning and expand their knowledge further.

 Towards the first aspect, some projects have seen small successes with solar powered projectors using cheap parts from used phones, torchlights and computers etc. (low cost and sustainable) and as gadgets get cheaper, people will gain access to them as is seen from the ubiquity of mobile phones today. Again, this projector idea is a means to get information as a sort of virtual teacher across to students. Yet the role of a teacher is beyond providing children with information. The teacher is also someone who evaluates the progress of a child and guides him/her to what he/she should do to improve. The interactive nature of a teacher's presence is absent here.

The second aspect of the problem - the use of technology is still a tricky matter. There have been some examples of cheap used computers being donated to children in rural areas. But with selfish and greedy software manufacturers constantly withdrawing support for primitive software, access to the internet becomes a challenge. There is the issue of lack of electricity in many places, poor internet connections and so on. Of course many more issues to this problem than this simplistic example that I provide.

The third aspect of the problem requires that people work towards creating software and creative solutions that help children learn coding. Scratch is a great idea, but how far it can go for these rural/poor settings where a computer for each kid is still a far cry, is a question. Finally, there is also the question of the use of English on the net and in these kind of software. This can be a serious hurdle for many.

Teachers - not the problem

To a thinking teacher who understands the importance of his/her job and puts in his or her life's effort into teaching, it must be tough to listen to people berate education, schools and teachers for the society's ills. Headteacher of a London school, Kenny Frederick writes about how teachers must stand up and defend themselves against this.

The truth is poor education is the cause for a lot of society's problems. In India's case, it is the lack of literacy in the first place. But the problem is not caused by teachers themselves but poor policy and management by governments. Yes! I am making a sweeping statement.. deal with it! This is a universal phenomenon. Public schools in the U.K and the U.S are constantly under attack because of poor pupil performance. While the U.S tries to solve this "by throwing money at the problem" which studies have shown does not help, the U.K debates merit-based pay for teachers (bringing forth backlash against government representatives from teachers).

On a universal scale, it is evident that large scale reform must be conducted on education policy. This does include allocating more money towards recruiting better teachers and training them frequently to adapt to changing requirements in education. Updating and improving school curricula and textbooks, ensuring that kids stay in school, equality in classrooms. The list is gigantic. Most solutions are close to utopian and discussions are few and far between. There is rarely any consensus. But it is clear that these solutions go beyond spending large sums of money. This is good news for developing countries. There is still hope for us!

India's story however goes one step below this in having to build and maintain infrastructure for schools in rural and remote areas, improving health and nutrition for children, stop private institutions from making education a market. I do not intend to oversimplify the issue, these are just a few important areas to focus on. There are many more issues and people do not really know all the reasons for our issues. There seems to be no lack of data and there is some analysis. People seem to be discussing this as well.

Coming back to my point: teachers should not have to bear the brunt for the large scale failure of our education system. It is unfair to them. Also, there used to be (and as far as I know still is) an idea that you become a teacher just because you found no other job or just because it was comfortable is absurd. I know for a fact that (most) teachers devote their whole life to their profession. Their work follows them home. They attach emotion to being present for their students every day. They take personal responsibility for any student's failures, yet they are most often not appreciated or acknowledged for any success their students may enjoy. There are some individuals who are not like this, but they are not the reason why we have a failed system.

So teachers, do stand up and defend yourselves. You are doing all you can when the odds are stacked against your work. At the same time, make your voices be heard. Everyone thinks that they are qualified to hurl insults at the education system, no one knows how to improve it and solve its issues. If teachers spoke up about their personal experiences with teaching maybe some solutions can emerge. 

Well Educated

What makes one well educated? In trying to frame a follow-up question to this I came up with the following:

1. What must be done to equip him with skills and ability to do good for himself and society?
2. What must be done to help him understand the world around him?
3. What must be done to help him acquire morals, ideals and integrity?
4. What must be done to give him the achieve and rise to his potential?

I think many such questions can be asked in order to define what a well educated person must be and have.

Before solutions are given, it is good to define our problem in an inclusive and precise manner. 

Imparting Language Skills in School

Undergraduate students in their final year in college often have to make a choice whether to take a job or to study further. Often the biggest challenge that they face is the terrifying set of entrance exams that they need to prepare for. Among these exams is one called the GRE - the graduate record examination that is required by several American universities. While the quantitative section of this exam is hardly any trouble for Indian students, they struggle with the verbal abilities and analytical writing part.

Most students hate the preparations for this exam because it involves memorizing lengthy, never-ending lists of words that they are hearing for the first time. Worse, learning these lists of words seems quite pointless as it doesn't seem likely that words like 'pariah' or 'panache' would ever be used by an engineering student during his further studies. English ability is tested by exams such as the TOEFL and that definitely is not what the GRE aims at. But it is a requirement for students aspiring to go the U.S for studies. So, coaching centers that claim to teach students to remember the 'most important' words thrive all over cities in India.

Though I think the GRE goes a bit too far, it makes an important point. The test includes reading comprehension and analytical writing tests which I think are its best part because they test the ability of a student to understand high level text and produce some of his own as well. This is a skill that is required of all Bachelor degree holders, no matter what their field of study is. Unless they have these skills, students really cannot do well in an academic setting.

For example, a Master's student at university is required to be able to skim through a published technical paper or textbook and summarize it quickly to be able to turn in homework in graduate courses. He requires writing skills to be able to generate text to describe experiments and results in order to publish. While the Master's student still has time to learn these skills while doing, the PhD candidate cannot afford to lose precious time in learning to do these activities. So, no matter how excellent the student is in his chosen field of specialization, to demonstrate this brilliance, he has to be trained to express his ideas with efficiency and clarity.

This is true of every highly skilled worker. Every job requires understanding documents and producing them. Inability to document work clearly could very well come in the way of a skilled worker, even if she possesses the ability to carry out that task successfully. If she is unable to communicate to her co-workers or subordinates, she could put her career on hold.

Our school system does not do well to give students the ability to understand/produce high level texts. This is because language is often something that a student picks up because of her own interest. Schools treat language class as an extra, something that is like break-time for students, something that can be ignored for the sake of more 'important' things like Chemistry or Mathematics. When I finished higher secondary school, language marks were not even considered for my placement in college. I suppose (and hope) this situation has changed.

I must stress that by language I do not simply mean English. While it is important for us to create readable and useful text that can be shared and used all over the world, we must not undermine the important contribution that is made through regional languages. I am arguing for the ability to read and write better in any language that a person may choose. I am arguing for the importance of equipping our researchers, engineers, social scientists and artists with language skills that they can use.

Students admire a good speaker. They enjoy reading textbooks that are easy to understand. They love a teacher who gets through to them without too much effort their side. The reason is simply that a good speaker, a well-written textbook and a great teacher are able to express ideas and thoughts clearly. Instead of leaving this to chance or personal interest, why shouldn't we give students everything possible to help them succeed?

Of course, it can be argued that increased importance to language in school would add to the huge workload that children in schools have already.  I would like to point out that very often students resort to ugly means such as memorizing textbook passages when they do not really understand concepts in subjects like Physics or Biology. Maybe, improved language skills would allow them to grasp technical concepts more easily. This could mean that students would be able to do better with lesser effort! 

I am not trying to make a simplistic claim that language (English or other regional)  skills are the cure-all. The education system in our country requires deep-rooted change. However, increased importance and a practical approach towards improving language ability at the beginner level could be a starting point.

TL;DR - Language skills are required to succeed as a highly skilled worker. Indian schools are not doing enough to encourage or support language learning as they should. They must.