This Children's Day - Foster a Yearning for Learning

At Timeless Lifeskills, we're bringing in Children's Day this year with a bang of a book - the only way we know how! Celebrating the joy of learning for the sake of learning such that it helps you grow and flourish in the 21st century and beyond, Yearning for Learning: The Adventures of K is what you should be getting your intelligent yet distracted (read: wired) children. Plus, it's Pay What You Want! 

To download your copy go to https://gumroad.com/l/yearningforlearning > click ‘I want this’ button > to get it for free put the amount as £0 (the credit card fields will disappear) > type your email > click ‘Get’ to download.

Online Course on Self-directed Learning

With eminent Indian educationist Professor M.M. Pant we have launched a pilot online course on self-directed learning. Over the next six weeks we will be looking at various aspects of self-directed learning - why has it become imperative in the 21st century, what are the dispositions of an autonomous learner, how can these be imbibed, what leads to the a-ha moment, trends in online education like OERs and MOOCs and what should be the end-game of education.

We will be sending out three emails every week. For those who just want an overview of self-directed learning simply reading these emails will suffice; for those who want to dig a little deeper we will provide podcasts and links to other interesting learning resources; and for those who are keen to become über smart learners - we invite you to participate actively in the online discussions and debates that we will catalyse and moderate on the course website. You can register for the course here - http://www.timelesslifeskills.co.uk/usasdl/

Jeevanshala Field Trip to Almora

Many of the children at Jeevanshala, the tiny primary school in village Maram in the Himalayas, have never gone beyond the villages in their vicinity. Thus, with a lot of support from well-wishers like Mr Ranjan Joshi, a 3 days field trip to Almora, one of the major towns in the region, was organised by Timeless Lifeskills from 23 to 25 June, 2014.

Twenty children, ranging from 6 to 11 years and three Jeevanshala teachers came to Almora on the field trip. They stayed in dormitory accommodation provided by Uttarakhand Seva Nidhi Paryavaran Shiksha Sansthan (USNPSS) - http://www.ueec.org.in
Atul was accompanied by his soon to be 13 years old son, Manan and 19 years old nephew, Vishrut.

The highlight of the trip was a 6 hours long walking tour of Almora. The children visited the regional post office, broadcasting studio of All India Radio, Kumaon University campus, a Khadi factory and the local museum.

What was pleasantly surprising was how the kids were welcomed everywhere.

In the market, at an impromptu request made by the teachers, a well-respected and erudite bookshop owner gave a 15 minutes talk to the children about Almora, consisting of facts and stories. At the Khadi factory, even though it was lunchtime, some ladies working there demonstrated their machines and answered questions.

Most surprising was the unannounced visit to the All India Radio broadcasting studios. The station in-charge allowed the children in even though we had not taken any prior appointment and organised a tour.

The museum officials were thrilled to have these young visitors and explained many artefacts in great detail, adding anecdotes to make the explanation interesting for this young audience. Even in the market place strangers asked where the kids were from and offered help, guidance and encouragement. Such spirit is hugely lacking in big cities!

Vishrut, who was carrying his guitar, took music lessons and helped the kids understand notes and basics of music composition. Manan demonstrated a popular computer game Mine Craft and helped the young learners get a hands-on feel of the game. The children enjoyed Vishrut’s and Manan’s company and both these boys are keen on volunteering again.

Seva Nidhi officials were pleasantly surprised to see the children clean the assembly hall every morning without anyone asking them to do so, a habit they have cultivated because they clean their classrooms twice every day.

Even though it was a first time without their parents for most kids they coped well, including the 6 year olds. They cracked jokes, told stories, played games, slept late… and had a ball!

Plans are afoot to organise a Camp in Almora in October or November this year where we hope to get resource people from different fields – music, dance, drama, creative writing and film making to volunteer. Idea will be to put together a joint production at the end of the camp. Drop us a line if you would like to pitch in - atul.pant@timelesslifeskills.co.uk

At the Mall road, Almora

So much to note down! 

At the regional post office
 

Kitab Ghar, a famous bookshop on Mall road, with its erudite owner

Soaking it all in!

Stretching our legs at Kumaon University Campus grounds

At All India Radio studios

At River View Khadi Factory

Inside the factory

Sidha Naula at Paltan Bazaar, a rather large naula

Manan giving a helping hand at the Naula

Tasty Meals at Seva Nidhi

Chilling in the dormitory after lunch

Vishrut teaching basics of music composition

Children singing with Vishrut

Manan introducing Minecraft

Children getting hands-on with Minecraft

Group Photo at Seva Nidhi Courtyard

Yay, we had a great time! At Mr Ranjan Joshi's residence in Almora

Timeless Lifeskills Workshop at Jeevanshala primary school, village Maram

Field Trip to Sudana Naula 

At Jeevanshala, a tiny primary school in village Maram, 50 k.m. from Almora the focus of Timeless Lifeskills workshops was on self-directed learning, critical thinking, creative expression and multimedia skills.

One of the projects we did was on ‘naulas’, a traditional source of water in the mountains. Water pipes and taps are now much prevalent in Himalayan villages and naulas are no longer being properly maintained. However, when there is a crisis, like the flash floods in this region in 2011, people realize the importance of such traditional sources and significance of water conservation.

The project started with a question formulation session. This is important because questions pique students’ curiosity and help in securing a cognitive commitment to follow through on the project. Questions also invoke prior knowledge and help build a connection between what a student already knows and the new knowledge acquired, thus deepening comprehension.

Students were encouraged to seek answers to their questions from teachers and family members. One of the questions the students had posed was – how old are these naulas? One boy shared that he asked his grandmother who told him that the naula in their village was still there when she had got married. She remembered this because on entering the village for the first time after marriage she was taken straight to the naula to pay her obeisance, as naulas were considered sacred. She said that her mother-in-law had in turn told her that she too had visited the naula when she got married! We later figured that many naulas have been around for hundreds of years.

To understand naulas better we made a field trip to a naula situated not very far from Jeevanshala called, Sudananaul. At the site their teacher, Sandeep, who is extremely knowledgeable, explained to them how a naula works, how it requires expert craftsmanship and what is the relationship of the jungle and the naula (broad leaf trees like Oak are extremely important because they break the speed of falling rain and hence rain water seeps into the ground instead of flowing away).

Sandeep also explained how in olden times naulas contributed to social cohesion. People would gather every day to fill their vessels and in the process they discussed family matters and helped out if a family was facing some problems. Much like the water cooler effect in corporate socialising!

The children later wrote articles based on answers they found to their questions and created a newspaper. They also used play dough to depict naulas and forests and made stories about the importance of reviving naulas. 

In a second field trip they made a documentary on a local ‘gadhera’ – another natural source of water. They showed off their knowledge of various trees and shrubs – their medicinal value and other uses.

While in the forest we watched documentaries created by Himalaya Seva Sangh on water conservation and filtration related issued and ended the day with a picnic.

We are going on a... field trip!

Sudana Naula (naula is a traditional source of potable ground water)

Forests (specially large leaf trees) and Naulas have a symbiotic relationship

Class 4 and 5 Students of Jeevanshala

With Atul

Games and Eats!

It was a great learning experience

Another Round of Timeless Lifeskills Workshops in Himalayan Schools

If Mahatma Gandhi were alive today would there be no corruption in India? Would relations between India and Pakistan be better? Would he run a factory or spin the wheel? What impact did Mahatma Gandhi have in the Kumaon region? Did the Himalayas influence him?

These were some of the questions posed by 6th, 7th and 8th class students of Aarohi Bal Sansar, a school in village Satoli 30 km from Almora, at a recently concluded workshop on self-directed learning skill. The workshop was conducted by Atul during his almost month long trip to the Himalayas in June and July.

The workshop kicked off with a discussion on ‘what dispositions make Eklavya an Eklavya’? Students listed intrinsic motivation, determination, perseverance, focus and resilience as some of the traits of Eklayva (who is a great example of a self-directed learner*).

The students then created a newspaper on Mahatma Gandhi based on the questions they had earlier raised. In finding answers to these questions the students followed a process of ‘guided discovery’. They sought inputs from their teachers, from books in their library and searched the internet.

There were lively discussions on each article, which facilitated reflective learning, an essential element of self-directed learning. The students then played the role of editors and set parameters to judge the quality of articles they had written, which in turn decided which article should come on the first page, second page and so forth. The editorial criteria set by the students included – critical thinking, creativity, self-expression and narrative quality. The exercise culminated in the production of an 8-page broadsheet newspaper, which the students titled ‘Aarohi Reporter’.

At the start of the workshop on each of the four days Atul explained the big picture – how our economy is undergoing a phase change and computerization, mechanization, hyper connectivity and knowledge explosion are making the future very uncertain. More and more jobs are now better done by machines, computers and robots - like the bank tellers being replaced by ATM. In such an uncertain scenario ability to become a self-directed, lifelong learner, who yearns to constantly learn and reinvent becomes imperative.

It was also discussed how technology is opening up freelance opportunities like animators and programmers who can provide their services remotely to companies and organisations in India and abroad using the Internet. Talented individuals can set-up pollution free, low energy consuming, micro enterprises that are highly suitable to the Himalayan ecosystem while earning well and doing very creative work.

Cutting edge research on education psychology, like Carol Dweck’s work on Mindset and Angela Duckworth’s research on grit were explained to students in the form of interesting activities.

The workshop concluded with a fun activity – making stop motion animations, something Atul had introduced to the students when he had visited Aarohi Bal Sansar last December.

_______
*(In the Indian epic, Mahabharata, Eklavya is a tribal prince who, when denied archery training by the royal teacher Dronacharya, makes a clay model of the teacher and teaches himself archery. He becomes a great archer).

Deeply grateful. Intensely responsible. Supremely motivated.

Our sincere thanks to all our contributors for making us feel this spectrum of emotions, by helping us reach our target in our maiden crowd funding campaign, And, a big shout-out to all our supporters for their time, mind share, energy and influence.

Thank you all for your faith in Timeless Lifeskills, our belief in inculcating self-directed learning skills in our children, and our dream of making education less exclusive, more affordable.

Our comic e-book is rearing to see the light of the day, and our protagonist, K, is getting ready to face the world. Atul is going upto the schools in the Himalayas this June again and there are exciting plans underway.

Hurray! £9068 raised, only £932 remaining. 65 hours to go.

45 supporters have helped us raise £9,068.

Our sincere thanks to all of them. Only £932 remains to be raised of our project cost of £10,000, to create a comic book on self-directed learning and make it available for free to 200 schools for underprivileged children.

Even a small contribution has the power to effect a big difference now. Please chip in and help make it happen.

You can make an online contribution here - Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning

An Inner Compass

If our children are destined to be doing jobs that haven’t been invented yet, have you thought about how we, as parents, can equip them for a future we cannot even comprehend today? The only thing certain about it is that it will be fiercely competitive.

In an ubër wired world with unbelievable access to reams of information, at the touch of their fingertips, children today are all sharp, intelligent and super-capable.

What then would set anyone apart, when the going gets tough?

Timeless Lifeskills thinks about things like this.

We feel it’s an inner compass that we need to build on – one that encourages the child to think for herself, and drives in her the passion to learn. Our new attempt that aims to speak to children today about these concerns (in a language they understand!), is a comic e-book that shall play out, through the power of engaging storytelling, the impact of self-directed learning skills.

Do support our campaign. And hurry, it ends on May 20! - Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning

Help us Help 200 Schools, but hurry

At Timeless Lifeskills the three key issues we are addressing are – Relevant Curriculum (life skills needed for shining in the 21st century), Enticing Learning Experience (that appeals to today’s distracted learners) and Affordability (to make education inclusive as it is otherwise becoming expensive and hence exclusive).

The past four years have seen us creating and sharing learning modules on life skills, on platforms such as Scribd and Slideshare. Some 215,000 views, 10,500 embeds, 2,200 downloads, 3010 likes and 584 followers encouraged us to build our website, which we plan to develop as a platform for engaging conversations and productive collaboration.

Our Latest Initiative

A comic ebook on self-directed learning (a skill essential for thriving in a knowledge abundant world but a skill not taught in schools) is an experiment to entice otherwise reluctant learners through a cool form factor. We plan to sell the comic ebook on platforms like Kindle store (at an affordable £2, that is $3.5 or Rs 200) and all revenue generated will be used to create more comics on other life skills.

We have conducted pro bono workshops in India at schools for underserved children and understand that even £2 (Rs 200) is out of their reach. We also need to address the lack of devices to read ebooks in these schools. Thus, we will be translating the comic into Hindi and printing 1000 copies. We will send 5 free copies to 200 schools in India that are teaching underprivileged children.

We have launched a crowd funding campaign to raise £10,000, which is the production cost of this project. Here’s the break-up:

Researching, writing, editing, illustrating, designing: £8,000

Printing 1000 copies in full colour on a good quality paper: £1,500

Packing and distribution to 200 schools: £500

So far we have raised around £5,000 and urge you to consider making a contribution to help us meet our target. You can make an online contribution here by choosing one of the perks or give any amount you like – http://bit.ly/Rclzh9

You can also help spread the word by liking or sharing this post.

Hurry! Our crowd funding campaign ends in a week’s time, on May 20th.

A Scenius for K

In the science of ideas, sometimes called ideonomy, we have what Brian Eno calls, ‘scenius’ - “Scenius is like genius, only embedded in the scene rather than the genes. A communal form of genius.”

With your help we want to create a 'Scenius for K', the 15 year old hero of our comic ebook.

And, from the comments we have been getting it seems that the creation of such a scenius is already happening, for K and for the team behind K!

Uzma Aslam Khan, a Pakistani author says, "A wonderful project. I think a lot of people are thinking about this, but also not doing much about it. It takes hope and innovation. I wish the team, the best."

Deonne Newby, Assistant Manager at Peacocks Academy, an East London based charity offering alternative provisions to young people aged 14-19 years who are at risk of exclusion in main stream education reiterates the social benefit of the project, "We often deal with very independent, quite challenging, individuals who do not necessarily respond to the conventional methods of learning and thus we are always looking at other ways for students to learn, and more importantly enjoy learning. I feel that the comic ebook project could be something to look further into in regard to supporting our learners."

There is also traction in the corporate world. According to Nishma Gosrani, Director, Deloitte Consulting, London, "The ability to unlearn and relearn, to continually reinvent yourself, all life long is imperative for thriving and being successful in the corporate world. This is a fantastic and innovative tool - a great way to entice and encourage young people."

Mr Suhil Radia, MD, Westminster Healthcare, London notes, "This is an excellent initiative by Timeless Lifeskills. In the days of just in time marginal learning one needs an ability to distinguish between facts and opinions."

Pooja Guha from New Delhi, who works in the eclectic field of cultural branding for corporates (putting her LSE degree in Social Anthropology to good use, as she likes to say!), is highly supportive of the comic ebook. She shared with us the insights she formulated while working on a project recently which involved studying child representation and iconography in Indian culture, "Alongside the dominant stereotype of the stimuli-laden digital native, a new alternative and very niche profile is also emerging – a child who is encouraged to step out, make mistakes, be curious and play and live in an environment where boredom and free time are not bad words."

It's what we're telling K too, Pooja - thanks!
__

Our crowd funding campaign to create a comic ebook on self-directed learning is progressing well. 24 contributors have already helped us raise £3,500, which is 35% of our target amount of £10,000 we need to create the fully illustrated comic ebook, in English and in Hindi.

Help us raise the balance. Ask your friends, family and colleagues to open their heart and their wallet and make an online contribution (any credit or debit card or Paypal account will work) - Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning

Flash Boys and an Education in Liberal Arts

In an earlier blog post I had shared a quote from Tom Friedman’s interview of Laszlo Bock, senior VP in-charge of hiring at Google:

"…I told that student they are much better off being a B student in computer science than an A+ student in English because it signals a rigor in your thinking and a more challenging course load."

A little more disconcerting was another comment that Bock made which seems to suggest that aim of education is ‘learning to earn’ -

Or, he added, think of this headline from The Wall Street Journal in 2011: “Students Pick Easier Majors Despite Less Pay.” This was an article about a student who switched from electrical and computer engineering to a major in psychology. She said she just found the former too difficult and would focus instead on a career in public relations and human resources. “I think this student was making a mistake,” said Bock, even if it meant lower grades. “She was moving out of a major where she would have been differentiated in the labor force” and “out of classes that would have made her better qualified for other jobs because of the training.”

Personally, Wall Street Journal is the last place I would consider to figure out the purpose of education!

I think formal education needs to focus on liberal arts (Bock too recommends this).

Think of Michael Lewis’ latest book, Flash Boys, which is about High Frequency Traders (HFT) figuring out clever ways of making money by shaving off milliseconds in online share transactions. They spend millions in laying direct fibre-optic cable and microwave internet connections to stock-exchange servers and to place their server inside stock-exchanges, to gain an information advantage. 

The way this works is that when an investor places a trade online for buying shares in a company, the high frequency trader picks up this trade a few milliseconds before the trade reaches the stock-exchange server. The HFT then buys the stock from the stock-exchange and sells it to the investor for a little more. This may look like a small margin but when you multiply it with millions of dollars of trading that takes place every day the high frequency trader makes huge money.

This is unnecessary intermediation that adds no value and borders on cheating. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Attorney General have launched an investigation to see if this is equivalent of insider trading.

The sad part, as Michael Lewis notes in an interview with Charlie Rose, is that the HFT say that they are not doing anything illegal and hence this is a fair way of making money. Even worse, some young programmers find HFT really smart and cool. They seem to be missing the point that what HFT are doing is ethically wrong even if it is within the letter of the law.

Juxtapose this with what French economist (now being called Rockstar Economist), Thomas Piketty says in his book, ‘Capital in the 21st Century’ – that inequality is on the rise in America because of inheritance and extravagantly paid ‘super managers’. The American dream of ‘hard work leading to success’ is being belied and the ‘rags to riches’ story works out for only a few people because the system is now so structured that most of the times it is only the rich who become richer.

If an education in liberal arts is ignored, then chances are we will have more people like the high frequency traders who think successful life is only about finding clever ways of making money.

Imagine, a World Full of Computer Scientists!

To fire up K's passion for learning, learning for the sheer joy of it instead of learning to earn, learning for the thrill of knowing something about the world he didn’t know before, something about himself, we plan on taking unsuspecting K, the hero of our comic ebook, on an adventure.



An adventure that will give him an inkling of the world Before Google and prepare him for a world Beyond Google. Before Google, when gaining knowledge was difficult and grit, perseverance and lot of intrinsic motivation was needed just to know; the Google era when knowledge is available on tap and what is important is an ability to connect the dots; and, Beyond Google – realising the timeless wisdom of passion with compassion, equanimity, harmony, well-being and joy.



We didn't realise that our B.G. - 'Before and Beyond Google' thinking would prove so prescient.



In a recent column, Tom Friedman interviews Laszlo Bock, who is in-charge of global hiring at Google, to get Bock's advice for job-seekers anywhere, not just at Google. Among a lot of good advice Bock makes a statement that we find disconcerting. He says, "…I told that student they are much better off being a B student in computer science than an A+ student in English because it signals a rigor in your thinking and a more challenging course load."



If the vision Google has with its Glass is 'a world full of computer scientists' then we sure want to prepare K for a different future!

Help us create an enthralling learning adventure for K, which we hope will inspire many others his age. Some images from the storyboard are pasted below (final version will be more polished and in colour).



Pre-order the comic ebook for just £2 ($3.5, INR 200) or select from other options of supporting our initiative. Visit our crowd-funding page on IndieGogo -  

http://bit.ly/Rclzh9

Don't delay, Act now! Also tell your friends and colleagues.

Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning

आत्म-निर्देशित अनौपचारिक शिक्षा पर एक रोमांचक चित्रकथा

When you yearn to learn - learn for the sheer joy of learning - chances are you’ll survive the coming age and its challenges better. Not just survive, but thrive and prosper - ride it. And not just thrive, but find that elusive equilibrium within yourself.

Our objective of creating a comic ebook on self-directed, inspired learning is to help young learners understand the value of yearning to learn. In the comic ebook our 15 year old hero dives deep into understanding the dynamics of learning and learns the dispositions he needs to cultivate.

To enhance the social impact, we are producing the comic ebook in English and in Hindi initially and if funds permit then in other languages too. Watch a short video introduction of the comic ebook in English and in Hindi below.

You can pre-order the comic ebook, in English or in Hindi, for just £2 (US $3.5 or INR 200). Or you can opt for higher value perks like get your name acknowledged in the comic ebook or even appear in one of the scenes!

Want to do good? You can sponsor 3 hard copies for the library of a school for the underprivileged. We will get the comic printed and couriered to the school with a covering note acknowledging your support.

There are other perks to choose from - fun stuff and social good. Visit the project page on IndieGogo, the crowd funding website, and show your support: http://bit.ly/Rclzh9

Support our Crowd-funded Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning Skills

If you, like us, are concerned about how children are learning (or not learning) these days, consider joining us in creating a 'Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning Skills' that will provide information and guidance to young adults on how they can become better learners. They will also find reading our comic ebook on their iPod, smart-phone or tablet pretty cool!

In the comic ebook, K, our 15 year old hero dives deep into understanding the dynamics of learning. He learns about the works of psychologists and neuroscientists and figures out the dispositions he needs to cultivate to become an inspired learner who yearns to learn and can make the most of the abundant learning resources available today at a click of a button.

The comic ebook will be created in English and in Hindi and will be very moderately priced so that it is within the reach of many.

We have launched a campaign to fund the comic ebook on the crowd funding website, Indiegogo. For as little as £2 you can support our project. Please click on the link below.

Please also consider sharing this message. We want to attract a crowd!

Endgame of Education?

Fellow travellers on the Jubilee line in London may recall an ad campaign for a university last year. The ad read, “Think Different, Think Employability, Think xxx University”.

The ad set me thinking.

While considering a university degree if you are thinking employability are you really thinking different?

I believe better copy for the ad would have been, “Think Different, Think Value Creation”.

After you have got your university degree you think of a job, self-employment or entrepreneurship and in today’s world all three require the ability to create value.

To thrive in the 21^st century you need to become “Creative Creators” (a term coined by Friedman and Mandelbaum in their book ‘That Used to be Us’) and cultivate the ability to do, what Seth Godin calls, ‘remarkable’ work.

What was even more fascinating to me about the ad was a university implying that the endgame of education is employment, or what we can call ‘Learning to Earn’.

We really need to question this. Why earn, Why earn, Y-earn, till we ‘Yearn to Learn’!

One of the main objectives of a good university should be fostering a yearning to learn, all life long.

Building character, encouraging ethical behaviour, enabling and empowering a person to pursue a life of meaning and purpose - with passion and compassion and encouraging joyous living are the other raison d’etre for education. Or so I believe.

Empathetic Human vs Efficient Machine

My son is going on a school trip to France and since he holds an Indian passport he has to apply for Schengen visa. This morning we went to the company that processes Schengen visa applications.

Although the experience was pleasant enough and fairly efficient it made me wonder how secure are the jobs of the people working in this company? How secure is the future of the company itself?

Work they are doing – inspecting original documents, ticking boxes on a checklist, receiving payment, biometric finger printing… these tasks are easily replaced by an algorithm, specially as scanning and digitizing bank document, birth certificate, passport and even biometric finger printing can easily be done at home and submitted online.

Even more important is to ask if the whole process can be reinvented? Can someone think different and create value in a novel way?

Surprisingly when it comes to tourist visas Turkey has got it right. You can now apply for a visa online and the process takes just a few minutes. I am sure simplifying the visa process will get Turkey more boost in tourism than an expensive tourism ad campaign.

I used today’s visa trip to discuss with my son what sort of skills and competencies will make sure that he is not replaced by an algorithm (he is 12 and he may well have to compete with artificial intelligence instead).

He made an interesting observation. Few weeks back, as part of his school debating team, few students along with their teacher were going to the debating venue after school. All of them didn’t have an Oyster card so they approached the Transport for London official at the station and he allowed them entry. My son pointed out that in the ongoing debate about replacing humans with automated machines at the London tube stations, he prefers interfacing with humans.

I think the key question is whether the human you are interfacing with is empathetic or not. If not, you would prefer the efficiency of a machine. Ask yourself who/what would you prefer dealing with - an angry bank teller or ATM, an un-attentive shopkeeper or a vending machine, a lazy check-in executive or a self check-in machine.

In the world we live in there is a lot of premium on efficiency so chances are algorithm and artificial intelligence will be our preference, unless the human beings we are dealing with are capable of highly empathetic decision making, adding value and when we interface with them it is a pleasant and enjoyable experience.

I hope as he is growing up my son learns the ability to think different and create value, learns empathetic decision-making and collaboration and most important, he becomes a pleasant human being.

21वीं सदी में समृद्धि के लिय क्यों भिन्न जीवन कौशल आवश्यक हैं? Why a different set of life skills is needed to flourish in the 21st century?

Inspired by the trip I made to the Himalayas in December to conduct Timeless Lifeskills workshops in small schools, I have started rerecording the videos I have created earlier on 21st century life skills with narration in Hindi. Here is the second video with Hindi narration. I discuss why a different set of life skills is essential for flourishing in the 21st century. Original videos in English are available on Timeless Lifeskills website - http://timelesslifeskills.co.uk

Timeless Lifeskills video in Hindi

कालातीत जीवन कौशल - Timeless Lifeskills video in Hindi: अhen I was interacting with the teachers in the schools in the Himalayas in Dec while conducting my workshops, I figured that the videos I have created on Timeless Lifeskills are relevant and useful for the teachers but because the videos are in English it becomes difficult for most teachers to understand these videos. Hence I have started rerecording these videos with narration in Hindi. Here is the first video with Hindi narration on 'Timeless Lifeskills - The Second Strand of Education' -

Self-Directed Learning workshop, at Pataudi, a small town in Haryana, India

The last workshop I conducted during the Dec 2013 trip to India was at Pataudi, a small town in the state of Haryana.

9th class students, 15 from the local government school for girls and 15 from Pathfinder school attended the workshop. The workshop was held at the Pataudi Palace, courtesy of Mrs Sharmila Tagore.

My focus was on self-directed learning and how ability to self-learn is becoming essential in the 21st century when knowledge is exploding.

We looked at the story of Eklayva, a tribal prince who when refused tutelage by the royal guru, Dronacharya, created a clay statue of the guru and self-learnt the art of archery. We deliberated on the dispositions that made Eklavya a self-directed learner – grit, growth mindset, self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, emotional resilience and ability to overcome inner conflicts like fear of failure and ridicule.

We considered how an Eklavya in the 21st century can find many a virtual Dronacharya by making the most of Open Educational Resources, MOOCs, games and apps now available on the Internet.

We also discussed how skill sets required for social success change with the changing complexion of the economy. How in the agrarian age learning the 3Rs and a family profession was adequate for economic wellbeing; how the industrial revolution meant that beyond the 3Rs learning a technical skill became important; how in the information age getting deep knowledge in a domain (like a university degree in a particular discipline) became essential for employability, and how the ongoing automation, computerisation and knowledge explosion implies that a new set of skills, dispositions and competencies need to be learnt for social success and long-term well-being.

We concluded the workshop dwelling on how multiple ‘performances of understanding’ lead to deeper comprehension and how ICT and multimedia now offer very interesting and engaging ways of demonstrating deep understanding (beyond rote learning and regurgitation in exams). For example, to demonstrate understanding a student can write a blog, summarise in tweets, create multimedia presentations, videos, animations and more. The students then split into groups and I worked with them to create short 10 frames animation on a topic of their interest.

Timeless Lifeskills Workshop at Aarohi Bal Sansar, Satoli village (near Almora)

Around 30 kms from Almora is village Satoli, where Aarohi is located. Aarohi is a not-for-profit grassroots organization, with the mission of creating development opportunities for rural Himalayan communities through quality healthcare and education, enterprise promotion, sustainable natural resource use, and the revival of traditional culture.

I spent three days at a school run by Aarohi called Aarohi Bal Sansar (ABS). Agenda was similar to Jeevanshala – teach the kids basics of movie making and animation and demonstrate how these skills can be incorporated to deepen comprehension of curriculum by doing multimedia projects and creating e-portfolios.

I was interacting with 50 plus students from classes 6, 7 and 8. We started by looking at how a series of stills can be made into a flipbook animation. Students then worked in small groups. Each group had 10 post-its and they had to create a short story that could be animated. For example, how, when a fat ball bounced it burst, or how a chick hatched out of an egg.

All of us were sitting in a room and I thought I will give the students instructions in small doses. To my surprise, as soon as I had given the first set of instructions all the children ran out and spread out in the field. ABS is located in picturesque settings and in the distance one can see the snow clad Himalayan peeks. It was a sunny day and it is usual for ABS children to have their classes outdoors. Lucky guys!

After they had finished sketching and painting each group used a free stop-motion app to create simple animated stories. One group could not create a story because they could not agree on a topic! Later, with the entire group, we had a very interesting discussion on what makes collaboration tick and how conflicts in a group can be resolved. We also discussed parameters on which animations should be judged and deliberated briefly on how the animations could be improved in the next attempt. Empathetic collaboration and ability to self-judge and improve performance are very important life skills in today’s world.

The next activity was making a short video film on a topic that was being studied in class. Students put play dough and other material available to creative use and made projects on solar energy, amoeba, photosynthesis, how the internet works and more. Each group talked about their project for a few minutes. I recorded the same and made short videos.

The final exercise was looking at how special effects are created in movies. I was carrying a green-screen and a morph suit and we made one student fly and attempted to make another into an invisible dancer. A bunch of enthusiastic girls role-played being TV news reporter and music show host. Using green-screen we then removed the background and added background effects like footage from cricket and Bollywood.

I also interacted with some ABS teachers on how they could curate content online using computers and tablets and augment their classroom teaching. We looked at resources like Khan Academy, TED-Ed, apps and games.

Two NID graduates, Manasi and Dhruv, who were volunteering at ABS were a big help. Manasi has taken most of the accompanying photographs. My thanks also to Mr Pradeep Gupta, who heads the ABS education initiative and who was also my extremely gracious home-stay host.

ABS students were eager and enthusiastic learners and hence conducting this workshop was an exhilarating and hugely rewarding experience for me. ABS often gets visitors to interact with their students and how beneficial such exposure is was apparent in the children’s confidence and creativity.

I encourage readers of this post to consider volunteering at ABS. More information and contact details are on their website - http://aarohi.org/index.php 

If you are a keen cyclist Aarohi is organising a Kumaon Himalayan Cycling Tour from 18-20 April 2014. You can find information and register on their website.