In my forthcoming workshops
in April, I plan to build on the theme of 'Tinkering with Electronics' that I
had started last December and introduce robotics in rural schools in India I
work with. For this, earlier in January, I had ordered robotic kits from two
vendors in India and purchased one here in London for evaluation. The one I
bought in London was nicely packaged, with clear instructions and worked like a
charm. However, it was double the cost of the Indian kits. I wrote off the
first Indian kit as I was opening it because it was shoddy. As it is most
students find STEM subjects daunting and using unwelcoming hardware to
introduce technology would make my job significantly more challenging!
The second kit was better.
During assembly, I found one component faulty and to save time I ordered that
part locally in London. However, even then I could not get the kit to work. So
I got in touch with the company. They arranged a Skype chat with a member of
their support team, who asked me to get a multimeter and start testing the
capacitors on the micro-controller board! Worse, two capacitors were shorting
and this person asked me if I had a soldering iron and could I remove the
solder bridge that must be shorting the capacitors. Though I am no electronics
engineer I have tinkered enough so I removed the solder bridges and got the
capacitors working again. However, the micro-controller board still did not
work. I was told that the issue requires further investigation. This was last
week and I am yet to hear from them.
I am giving a very abridged
account. In reality there were delays in shipment, many emails were exchanged,
assurances were given but not followed through et al. Bottom line is that in an
age when Amazon has spoilt us with prompt delivery and no-fuss exchange my
experience was rather unpleasant. This company is founded by alumni of the most
famous technology institute in India and while my case may be an exception it
left me a bit anguished that how could such a company lack quality checks and
not understand the importance of customer delight. Is fostering such a spirit
and mindset out-of-syllabus even in a premier technology institute?
I was reminded of the cult
book ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ and felt that
‘metaphysics of quality’ and ‘gumption’ are perhaps essential dispositions
which should be a part of any education.
This raised a more
fundamental question: Are there any ACGT life skills that we all need to learn
and hone? ACGT are of course the primary nucleobases that make the DNA and DNA
is the key ingredient for life within. My question is are there any primary
life skills that make up the DNA of the life we lead out in the world?
In my opinion three strands
of this ‘DNA of life without’ are:
1
Self-Awareness: a deep dive
within where you investigate meaning, purpose and how you can make your life
joyful. Understanding the construct of your emotions and ability to rewrite the
script that plays inside your head are included here.
2
Ability to take ownership of
your learning: here I include curiosity, intrinsic motivation or firing up a
yearning to learn, figuring out what is worth learning and then finding out
ways to learn it well.
3
Ability to think
independently and deeply: this includes critical, creative and the
new-kid-on-the-block, computational thinking and also ability to formulate
insightful questions that help you get clarity such that you can abstract and
make sense of patterns to solve complex problems.
There are many other
contenders for ACGT life skills like information literacy, which includes an
ability to find, validate and use information in an information abundant world,
or financial literacy, or empathy, or initiative… However, our investigation is
about simple, primary life skills that lead to all other permutations. For
example, building character is coming back in fashion in education and this
includes ethics and morality. However, I believe if a person is deeply self-aware
ethics and morality are not something you need to teach. They are natural
ingredients needed for a life well-lived.
What we are looking for are
fundamental, building-block life skills so that focus can be on imparting these
well to all hues of learners. We could then rely on the property of emergence
for self-directed development of other skills, competencies and dispositions,
including gumption and quality mindset!
I think a discussion on ACGT life skills is much
needed and would be very useful. Your thoughts and ideas are welcome.
