tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:16:19 +0000Facebookclassroomlearning architecturelecture formatonline educationAmazonFOOHGoogleHarvardLong TailMBANEJMRotmanStanfordUT Austinarchitectureattendanceattentionbloggingbroken paradigmcontentcorruptioncrowdsourcingdesign thinkingdisruptioneducation policyforeign universitiesformfree educationfunintroductionjohn medinakurzweillecture theatremetaphormodelparadigmpeer reviewpodcastingpowerpointpurposeretentionscalesingularitysocial appssuccesstegrityExploring the future of learning - and perhaps, education.http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Murli)Blogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-2647469692363712291Wed, 09 Oct 2013 11:09:00 +00002013-10-09T16:40:14.331+05:30I'm responding to Viplav Baxi's post, The outcomes of our educational systems where he ponders over the relationships between educational systems, outcomes and the larger social/cultural contexts in which these systems and learners are embedded.  He asks: Does a particular type of education system tend to produce the same outcome irrespective of the underlying environment? Or is it that http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-partial-response-to-viplav-baxis.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-2621309561124986374Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:46:00 +00002010-11-10T00:39:18.318+05:30metaphormodelOne repeatedly hears complaints about the irrelevance of certain courses in an academic program. That the course added no value; and besides, one never will apply that knowledge to one's life, and so why bother. Why bother?Why, indeed. One purpose of education is to learn "facts". Facts are important, of course. It is important to know that there are ten millimetres in a centimetre. And a http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2010/11/purpose-of-broad-education-models-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-4428101080523966976Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:34:00 +00002009-07-08T00:04:07.543+05:30pdnc6wm24zhttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/07/pdnc6wm24z.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-5794371954801789377Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:32:00 +00002009-06-30T09:04:48.256+05:30The New York Post is not exactly a fount of intellectual discourse. Still, it's never a mistake to see what the "other side" has to say. Thought provoking article here.http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/06/dont-get-that-college-degree.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-3836638659126898372Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:37:00 +00002009-06-25T14:25:28.267+05:30As the father of a boy who just got done with his 10th std. board exams, I cannot but jump for joy upon hearing that the government may scrap 10th standard board exams. I couldn't believe my eyes, but the link came up just above my Gmail messages and I had to go check it out immediately. If this actually happens, I am ready to forgive Kapil Sibal -- a person I don't particularly like -- for allhttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/06/tenth-std-board-exams-to-go-away-will.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-4762238675396285159Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:20:00 +00002009-06-22T21:39:35.752+05:30education policyforeign universitiesNobody will argue that Indian families place a premium on formal, institutional education. A big part of it is because getting a college degree is highly correlated with (relatively) decently paying employment. But a very significant part of it is because education is considered intrinsically valuable -- education is viewed as something that makes one more cultured, more informed, and a better http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/06/american-education-indian-price.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-7687470431653456101Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:12:00 +00002009-06-12T06:55:45.522+05:30Pathetic. Donald Norman, the distinguished interaction design researcher and former university professor turned Apple fellow turned consultant, received his PhD in psychology from Stanford University. Prior to this, he received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from MIT. Hang on to this data point for just a bit.I was waiting for my son to finish up his exam at his school and http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/06/idiots.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-283813700430728243Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:13:00 +00002009-06-06T11:02:12.927+05:30corruptionAtanu Dey is usually a good read, and this post of his presses one of my hot buttons -- education in India. Innovation is my shtick, and I am convinced that large scale innovation in all areas of our society is essential to pulling this nation out of its -- at least partially self-generated -- morass. While anybody, regardless of skill and learning, can be innovative -- and frequently are, as http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/06/education-sheducation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-7653848278948683484Sat, 30 May 2009 08:52:00 +00002009-05-30T15:38:24.045+05:30In my previous post I launched a polemic against the 'corporatization' of education: by this I mean an education system whose primary goal is to supply corporations with skilled, trained employees. I am not at all against corporations, or even capitalism -- corporations are a means of pursuing the goals of a capitalist society. Capitalism, in turn, is expected (or believed) by many to be the http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/coupling-education-to-institutions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-3334124427070452571Fri, 29 May 2009 16:08:00 +00002009-05-30T00:12:46.948+05:30classroomjohn medina... it's true ... they are alive and alert and bring all sorts of wonderful gifts whose full worth even they may not be aware of. I have at least one such young friend, Janardhan Rajan, who alerted me to the existence of this cool book called Brain Rules (Amazon, another) by John Medina. I love books about the brain, cognition, mind, intelligence and so on, and I am now compelled by forces http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-good-to-have-bright-young-friends.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-1353071147990807724Mon, 25 May 2009 05:33:00 +00002009-05-25T14:21:28.084+05:30kurzweilsingularityNo self-respecting blog -- and this is one, trust me -- purporting to be about education in the 21st century (and beyond) could be complete without at least some discussion about Singularity. After I planned to write this post, I realized I had actually mentioned it once before, but that doesn't really count because it merited no more than a mention in that post. So, let's talk about http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/singularity-end-of-all-formal-education.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-5367569097086575433Sun, 24 May 2009 03:16:00 +00002009-05-24T23:05:00.684+05:30online educationDelivering education online has been the Holy Grail of the New Academia -- Holy Grail, because, nobody seems to have found the right formula yet. The Chronicle of Higher Education, a US publication avidly followed by universities brings two troubling reports: two major university systems -- the University of Illinois and the University of Texas are scaling back their once ambitious online ed http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/trouble-in-online-ed-land.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-4409256806264124077Wed, 20 May 2009 16:53:00 +00002009-05-24T23:11:03.607+05:30free educationonline educationMy friend Pavan Soni who, like me, is into innovation in a big way, is an Innovation Evangelist at Wipro. Pavan is an enthusiastic and gung-ho soul and sends out interesting snippets about innovative initiatives around the world. I just received this one about University of the People -- a new online university that intends to provide tuition-free education to less fortunate and indigent peoplehttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/free-online-university-from-israel.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-3876642685912655574Wed, 20 May 2009 15:16:00 +00002009-05-20T22:13:36.314+05:30podcastingI've taken to podcasts in a big way, but only for one reason. Back in the US, I never felt any need to get into podcasts because whatever I wanted to listen to, I heard directly from people, the radio, or on TV (on the few occasions I chose to turn it on). The only time I listened to the radio was when I when I was in my car, or when I wanted to listen to a favorite program of mine aired on http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/podcasts-creep-into-my-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-8325119209816400736Mon, 18 May 2009 10:34:00 +00002009-05-20T20:19:21.901+05:30bloggingcrowdsourcingpeer reviewThat the internet is causing paradigm shifts in a number of areas, not the least of which is news publishing is beyond dispute. Much less has been said about its effect, if any, on the hallowed and time-worn process of academic peer review. One of the cornerstones of modern scholarship, whether it be in the sciences, humanities or the arts -- or anywhere else -- is the peer-review process. Peer http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/crowdsourcing-peer-review-in-age-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-2352671210463031921Mon, 18 May 2009 03:09:00 +00002009-05-18T11:36:46.975+05:30funI kinda hope so, for it looks so much fun. Here's Richard Stallman of GNU fame - the fearless and untiring slayer of windmills and champion of FREE (as in freedom, not beer) software, hamming it with a laptop and a bunch of graduate students at MIT.If learning can be so much fun even as a grown up, heck, who wouldn't want to sign up?No, learning ought to be fun. For what is fun but the lightinghttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/is-future-of-education.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-965241933984677610Sun, 17 May 2009 02:20:00 +00002009-05-18T07:50:47.500+05:30FacebookNEJMsocial appsThe rush to set up shop on Facebook continues with the New England Journal of Medicine being the latest entrant. Facebook has become a sort of Second Life for many organizations and institutions, the idea being to go where people are. Second Life, Facebook and other such 'social apps' are the beach, the city square, the village commons, and the mall of the World Wide Web; it's where people hanghttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/nejm-sets-up-shop-on-facebook.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-7998358236144054091Sat, 16 May 2009 15:17:00 +00002009-05-20T09:24:01.413+05:30classroomlearning architecturepowerpointMy first opportunity to teach came in the fall of 1988 at the University of Texas at Austin. My students were almost entirely undergraduate business majors and I was assigned to teach them an introductory course in Management Information. I was excited to be given this opportunity although this was part and parcel of my Assistantship responsibilities. I had previously spent five years in http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/technology-as-crutch-for-inflicting.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-1760582838735235291Fri, 15 May 2009 14:52:00 +00002009-05-16T20:47:10.554+05:30contentformlearning architectureIf there were any doubt that prestige and appearance are as much the currency of formal institutional education as the quality of knowledge they dispense to their students, this New York Times article will likely dispel it. The author, a professor of classical studies at a small American liberal arts college, rails against the use of Latin in college diplomas, stating:Latin is a beautiful http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/latin-diplomas-form-over-function.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-6524163810802415325Fri, 15 May 2009 13:31:00 +00002009-06-06T08:08:53.529+05:30attendanceattentionretentionsuccessHere's a public confession I have been waiting for years to make, with a view to cleansing myself: During my final year of undergraduate engineering education, more than three decades ago, I attended less than a week of class. Well, it's worse than that: I attended a sum total of three days of class, and even worse, I was proud of it. Used to be that one wore such feats like a badge of honor tohttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/attendance.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-7045332502062104825Fri, 15 May 2009 11:18:00 +00002009-05-15T19:01:03.326+05:30AmazonGoogleLong TailI chanced upon this musty, old article (by internet standards) from the BBC about Joe Kraus, co-founder of Excite, a once promising internet search engine that peaked before Google even got going and later founded JotSpot, an application wiki company acquired in 2006 by Google and relaunched as Google Sites. The key takeaway for me from the news story was this reflection by Joe Kraus on Google (http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/from-dozens-of-millions-to-millions-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-2763844997338027448Fri, 15 May 2009 05:56:00 +00002009-05-15T12:13:23.235+05:30design thinkingdisruptionHarvardMBARotmanIn the wake of the numerous financial scandals that have beset the United States -- and Wall Street, in particular (as well as the world as large) -- the heads of Harvard and other business schools have been scrambling into damage control mode as well attempting to engage in a process of genuine introspection. Business schools have a lot at stake. Prominent among those being held responsible http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/harvard-wants-to-fix-business-education.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-490467415344224157Thu, 14 May 2009 07:37:00 +00002009-05-14T14:40:31.450+05:30FacebookFOOHStanfordStanford U - like much of California - is known to push the envelope when it comes to technology (and culture). After all, Stanford was the pot in which Yahoo and Google - and a whole lot of other wonders of modern living - were stewed and brewed. Understanding that the traditional educational model isn't really working well (or perhaps just in a fit of whimsy), Stanford now has leading http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/stanford-launches-open-office-hours-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-391252004584165591Wed, 13 May 2009 16:21:00 +00002009-05-17T08:59:38.224+05:30lecture formatparadigmThis blog post began as a response to VS Baskar's comment/query in response to my previous post (Tegrity: BandAid for a broken format?). He asked:The format which you are discussing as outdated, is it being followed in India ?If not what format is followed in India and how many years we are lagging in keeping pace with the world standards. Can the western format be followed if the number of http://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/of-lectures-lamps-and-leds.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1657982374090828127.post-5754364959182751462Tue, 12 May 2009 09:48:00 +00002009-05-12T22:12:18.712+05:30broken paradigmlecture formattegrityI've been checking out Tegrity (or rather, its website), the 'lecture capture web service' I mentioned in an earlier post and have come away with mixed feelings. Tegrity captures audio and video lectures and presentations and stores them on a server. Lectures are delivered in a fairly ingenious way to students and there is some capability to search and drill down to specific bits of informationhttp://navashiksha.blogspot.com/2009/05/tegrity-bandaid-for-broken-format.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Murli)3