In my TED(G14) Talk, I had touched upon two key observations. One, we all look at education from a school's perspective - what the infrastructure looks like, what amenities they have, how their ranking has been, the quality of teachers and the quality of other students already in that structure. Two, the use of technology as an addition to the infrastructure and it's influence and impact. I then tried to look at this entire structure from a student's perspective. What if we brought the student to the centre, making him/her the focus and made everything else accessible, but optional? If we do consider that, how can we optimise technology and what are the roles that the other elements could evolve into?
My curiosity to experiment with this perspective made me design my GIST plans predominantly to observe the penetration of technology in Education and the impact it was having. The age group I chose was elementary/primary education. The more people I met, the more schools I observed, the more I learnt about their philosophies, their interest in a student's growth and the significance of structures. I have so far covered International schools in Kuala Lumpur, NGOs in Cambodia and Future Schools in Singapore. I have met, mailed and video conferenced with policy makers, education theorists, disruption innovation experts, education psychologist, gamification ninjas and educators. One thing they all believe in is in understanding future job needs, leading the next generation towards that and equipping students with 21st century skills which includes critical thinking and problem solving. Technology supports this massive education machine by plugging in and simplifying many things. All these educationhacks are fabulous and have lured me into digging deeper and understanding them a lot better. Asynchronous and Synchronous Learning Management Systems, STEM, Multi-modal assessments, iNACOL standards and so on. My conversations have helped me gain insight into the application end of how adults are facilitating learning. The biggest take away so far has been the sensitivity with which education institutes handle the idea of making their students active learners and the immense focus they have on 'engaging' them. So far, I feel like we're definitely on the right path towards making the student the centre in his/her learning path. I am no expert in this field to comment or criticise on what the right approach is or what's not and as I discover more, I understand a new angle with which they lay the path for learning. The real question I am yet to find answers for is: Are student's capable of making these decisions themselves? Instead of an adult or school exposing them to what is available, given the tools and access to information we have today, can a child customise their education and choose what they learn? One of the biggest education program with ongoing research that institutes all over the world are quickly converting to is Blended Learning. You've probably heard of names or terms that fall under this umbrella from the early 1990s including hybrid learning, Online learning, MOOC, Clayton Christensen, Innosight Institute, Blooms Taxonomy, Flipped classroom, computer-based learning etc. Ever since I embarked on exploring my passion in education and technology, I've also stumbled upon way too many terms and solutions that it all started overlapping and sort of getting muddled up. So, I got in touch with Michael Horn, one of the most well-known writer and researcher of Blended Learning and got a few leads in SE Asia (Singapore and Vietnam to be specific). My conversation with Anna, his research assistant gave me a lot more clarity on business structures and how typical blended learning systems function. In my own interest to get a lot more familiarised and study theories beyond what I learnt from books including Disrupting Class, I signed up for a course on Coursera 'K-12 Blended and Online Learning' and this has been one of the best decisions I've made. The GIST team meets again on the 27th of Feb and I can't wait to share my experiences in-person. My own learning journey so far has been a key motivating factor to explore self-directed learning and I truly hope that by the end of GIST, I'm able to find systems where the student is the focus and he/she can be the master of his/her own learning. If not, I'm confident, I'd make one :)
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One of the ideas I'd had while writing my APLP application essay was to explore business-like leadership. This type best illustrated in this region by Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, who developed Singapore from a squalid, disease-infested island dependent on its "big brother" Malaysia, into what can be observed as one of the economic leaders of Asia - Pacific today. While his legacy is inspiring, I had nothing but bookish knowledge about it. So I dropped the idea then and it seems to have resurfaced now. Without getting too much into what he's done and all his right moves, here is how I see it. Singapore functions like a big company, within which there are many divisions with excellent decision makers and within each division, there are ongoing projects and programmes. One such ongoing programme that I am absolutely fascinated by is called FutureSchools@Singapore. It would be vital to understand the Programme Objectives of Future Schools before I share why their thought process is spot-on. FutureSchools@Singapore is developed to serve as peaks of excellence in an ability-driven education paradigm, and to encourage innovation and enterprise in schools. These schools will not only enhance the diversity of educational offerings to cater to learners' needs but provide possible models for the seamless and pervasive integration of infocomm technology that includes interactive digital media. By harnessing infocomm technology in the education sector through innovative pedagogies and flexible learning environments, schools will be able to achieve higher levels of engagement of their students who already have an infocomm-integrated lifestyle. Thus, students will be equipped with the essential skills to be effective workers and citizens in the globalised, digital workplace of the future. A key factor to consider, FS@S is supported by infocomm companies and gets guidance from education technology research partners who then work together to infuse ICT into the learning environment. So, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education when FS@S launched the program in 2008, they chose 6 schools as the pioneer batch. These schools were a mixture of brand new ones and slightly older, well-established ones. On successfully implementing and collecting data, in 2011 they adopted two more and by 2015 up to 15 schools will be developed under the FS@S programme. Each of these schools choose a specific area of focus and run it under a project name.
I have managed to visit most of these schools, if not, I at least got to talk to their key persons and understand their solutions and challenges. I hope to get their approval in time to post about their work in a public blog. Hopefully, I hear from them soon (since CNY celebrations just wrapped up). Echoes my thoughts and explains my status. Excited to share what I've seen, experienced and learnt. Reflections coming soon! "[When] you’re right in the work, you lose your sense of time, you’re completely enraptured, you’re completely caught up in what you’re doing, and you’re sort of swayed by the possibilities you see in this work. If that becomes too powerful, then you get up, because the excitement is too great. You can’t continue to work or continue to see the end of the work because you’re jumping ahead of yourself all the time. The idea is to be so... so saturated with it that there’s no future or past, it’s just an extended present in which you’re, uh, making meaning. And dismantling meaning, and remaking it. Without undue regard for the words you’re using. It’s meaning carried to a high order. It’s not just essential communication, daily communication; it’s a total communication. When you’re working on something and you’re working well, you have the feeling that there’s no other way of saying what you’re saying." |
SHARANYA DilipFun | Learning | Innovation | Education | Technology The more I read, the more I learn. The more I see, the more I understand.
Education is a complex system, how about we start at "I"? Archives |
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