Must thank The Hindu and Vijaysree Venkatraman for a lucid write-up on the OpenCourseWare (OCW), a website that provides free and unstinted access to material on some 1600 courses taught at MIT, Cambridge. Those who created OCW believe knowledge should be free and open to all; and that innovation and discovery are possible only if resources are shared. Highlights of the article:
NGOs have translated OCW content into many languages, widening its reach.
Some 150 like-minded universities, including those in China, Japan and Spain, have formed s consortium to publish their educational material online.
A Chennai user, 35-year-old businessman, is quoted as saying, “Some of the first courses I looked up were from the Sloan’s School of Management" (was then an MBA student at Madras University)”. He visits the site to learn about relativity, robotics or any topic he fancies.
The MIT initiative helps self-learners and the intellectually curious to acquire knowledge that would otherwise be possible only by joining a regular university course that every one, everywhere, cannot afford. . .Read The Hindu article . .
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
July 31, 2007
April 10, 2007
Bringing Montessori into mainstream education
It’s good, it is holistic, and is child-friendly. And yet Montessori is widely seen as experimental, with parents and education policy makers not quite willing to accept it as mainstream school education. A report in The Hindu says the system has been adopted in just 10 schools in Bangalore, Chennai, till the fifth std.
I didn’t know Bangalore has an institute of Montessori studies, which has trained nearly 100 teachers in the past decade. A couple of teachers from the institute spoke to the media about the positives of the Montessori system. Every child works to his/her own time-table. The focus is on hands-on method of learning; on laying the ‘right foundation for blooming to happen’.
That’s fine, but does it get children the kind of grades they do, with the rote-based system? This is what concerns most parents. And this is why they prefer to put their children in conventional schools, where they are encouraged to rely on coaching classes and guidebooks to get through their exams. Does the Montessori Institute have an answer to such parental concerns?
The answer lies with the government. It needs to take a policy decision to have all primary schools in Karnataka adopt the Montessori method. The government school teachers could be suitably retrained.
Meanwhile at the Bangalore institute they are reportedly conducting seminars on ‘Understanding Montessori’ for the benefit of anyone who cares to attend – teachers, parents, social workers, child psychologists. Check out their website. Contact – iims.blr@gmail.com .
I didn’t know Bangalore has an institute of Montessori studies, which has trained nearly 100 teachers in the past decade. A couple of teachers from the institute spoke to the media about the positives of the Montessori system. Every child works to his/her own time-table. The focus is on hands-on method of learning; on laying the ‘right foundation for blooming to happen’.
That’s fine, but does it get children the kind of grades they do, with the rote-based system? This is what concerns most parents. And this is why they prefer to put their children in conventional schools, where they are encouraged to rely on coaching classes and guidebooks to get through their exams. Does the Montessori Institute have an answer to such parental concerns?
The answer lies with the government. It needs to take a policy decision to have all primary schools in Karnataka adopt the Montessori method. The government school teachers could be suitably retrained.
Meanwhile at the Bangalore institute they are reportedly conducting seminars on ‘Understanding Montessori’ for the benefit of anyone who cares to attend – teachers, parents, social workers, child psychologists. Check out their website. Contact – iims.blr@gmail.com .
April 3, 2007
Coping with copying in exams
Karnataka education minister Basavaraj Horatti has decreed that SSLC candidates found copying would now be debarred for three years, instead of a year or two as was done earlier. This is a deterrent insofar as the students planning on copying in exams would now think thrice (not just twice) before taking the plunge, besides upgrading their anti-detection skills. It has been established that copiers are usually smarter than exam invigilators.
The (mal)practice has now become a joint enterprise involving students and unscrupulous teachers. Recently it was reported that 52 Bangalore SSLC candidates had their answer papers replaced with ghost-written ones, in as many as five subjects - Kannada, English, Hindi, Math and science. That they managed to get this far before detection speaks of lapses in the system. We’re dealing here with a candidate-examiner collaboration on an organized scale. Three school headmasters are reported to be in custody and six others face criminal charges.
Debarring candidates – whether for two or three years – makes sense only for those who are found out. But then candidates who are determined to copy and the teachers willing to accommodate them abide by the 11th Commandment – ‘Thou Shall Not Be Caught’. So long as we press on with the current exams system, copying wouldn’t go away. The only way to fight the menace is, perhaps, by reinventing an exam system in which copying would be pointless. Open-book exams may well hold the key. Would it work in all exams?
Educators and policy-makers ought to think of devising a system in which students are tested, not so much for what they know on a given issue or subject, but for their knowledge on where they could find relevant information. In the age of information overload propensity to identify right sources, presenting relevent information in context, and doing it all within a specified time assume importance. Info is free; packaging it in answer papers takes intelligence and gets the grades.
Here is a thought, how about an Internet-driven exam system? In which candidates (with laptops in ‘hotspot’ exam centres) could browse the Net to get answers.On test would be their presentation skills and propensity to identify sources tap-able for answers. Candidates would be required to list their sources for the benefit of examiners. I know this system would not be compatible with all SSLC subjects. Math is one I can think of, where an open-book approach wouldn’t work.
The (mal)practice has now become a joint enterprise involving students and unscrupulous teachers. Recently it was reported that 52 Bangalore SSLC candidates had their answer papers replaced with ghost-written ones, in as many as five subjects - Kannada, English, Hindi, Math and science. That they managed to get this far before detection speaks of lapses in the system. We’re dealing here with a candidate-examiner collaboration on an organized scale. Three school headmasters are reported to be in custody and six others face criminal charges.
Debarring candidates – whether for two or three years – makes sense only for those who are found out. But then candidates who are determined to copy and the teachers willing to accommodate them abide by the 11th Commandment – ‘Thou Shall Not Be Caught’. So long as we press on with the current exams system, copying wouldn’t go away. The only way to fight the menace is, perhaps, by reinventing an exam system in which copying would be pointless. Open-book exams may well hold the key. Would it work in all exams?
Educators and policy-makers ought to think of devising a system in which students are tested, not so much for what they know on a given issue or subject, but for their knowledge on where they could find relevant information. In the age of information overload propensity to identify right sources, presenting relevent information in context, and doing it all within a specified time assume importance. Info is free; packaging it in answer papers takes intelligence and gets the grades.
Here is a thought, how about an Internet-driven exam system? In which candidates (with laptops in ‘hotspot’ exam centres) could browse the Net to get answers.On test would be their presentation skills and propensity to identify sources tap-able for answers. Candidates would be required to list their sources for the benefit of examiners. I know this system would not be compatible with all SSLC subjects. Math is one I can think of, where an open-book approach wouldn’t work.
February 21, 2007
English for pre-school kids
Happened to read an article on ‘do’s’ and ‘don’t’s’ of teaching English that appears in Pratham publication, State of Education in Mysore. Though the write-up is addressed to teachers of Kannada medium primary classes, it could be instructive for young mothers keen on interactive baby talk, in English, with their two or three-year olds.
Excerpts, reproduced without permission from the teachers’ English teacher, Dr Durai Krishnan:
DO encourage the child to use English household words – table, tube-light, bus, book (without literal translation in mother tongue) so long as they understand what these words stand for.
Common household vocabulary of English words vary with families – mom, dad, breakfast, dining table may not be commonly used in all households.
DO proceed teaching from the known to unknown in respect of words, sentence formation and conveying ideas.
When it comes to teaching, spoken words precede writing – No slates or notebooks until a ‘child’s mouth is full of English’, says Dr Krishnan, and at the primary level teaching of writing should be limited to the alphabet, and the child’s own name.
DO keep talking to your child – acting, laughing, story-telling; reading is no substitute to talking.
DO NOT alter the child’s learning sequence – listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Speaking to children and story-telling are best done outdoors, outside a class-room setting.
Books are not for reading – use them for showing pictures, talking about them; and also use charts, flashcards, photos, 3-D toys etc.
Teach a child one word at a time – speaking it out clearly, loudly, with lip movements.
For further details contact duraikris@gmail.com. Dr Durai Krishnan, a retired BARC scientist, is founder trustee of Sethu Bandhana Trust, Mysore.
Excerpts, reproduced without permission from the teachers’ English teacher, Dr Durai Krishnan:
DO encourage the child to use English household words – table, tube-light, bus, book (without literal translation in mother tongue) so long as they understand what these words stand for.
Common household vocabulary of English words vary with families – mom, dad, breakfast, dining table may not be commonly used in all households.
DO proceed teaching from the known to unknown in respect of words, sentence formation and conveying ideas.
When it comes to teaching, spoken words precede writing – No slates or notebooks until a ‘child’s mouth is full of English’, says Dr Krishnan, and at the primary level teaching of writing should be limited to the alphabet, and the child’s own name.
DO keep talking to your child – acting, laughing, story-telling; reading is no substitute to talking.
DO NOT alter the child’s learning sequence – listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Speaking to children and story-telling are best done outdoors, outside a class-room setting.
Books are not for reading – use them for showing pictures, talking about them; and also use charts, flashcards, photos, 3-D toys etc.
Teach a child one word at a time – speaking it out clearly, loudly, with lip movements.
For further details contact duraikris@gmail.com. Dr Durai Krishnan, a retired BARC scientist, is founder trustee of Sethu Bandhana Trust, Mysore.
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