Challenges and Opportunities Kalyan K. Banerjee 24 May 2014
JNTU, Kakinada 1 Education = 360 degree engagement
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Exam Structured Disciplines Hour by hour schedules Rewards for
the Smart Content added to keep pace with change Fixed Time,
Variable Quality 2 Education as we know it
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Regulation Fixed Syllabus Failure is not an option Focus on
Scale Equal courses, equal pace The show must go on! 3 Education as
we know it
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The Changing Nature of Challenges 4 High Quality, Too few seats
Increasing Opportunities, Not enough quality talent Surfeit of
Universities, Not enough faculty Wheres the education 20102000
19901980
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Biz focus Content ++ Concepts Motivation Exposure Scalable
Exams Constrained by Syllabus Do More, With less Speed, Higher
Degrees 5 Reality Check
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Learner in the Centre Teacher as a Mentor Technology as an aid
Find a Purpose Custom Progress Variable Time, Fixed Quality 6 The
New Education
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Challenge in Modern Society 7 7 Time Abundance of Knowledge No
Barriers to Access Low attention span Confused in decision making
Plenty of connections, too few friends Join the gang! Focus on
Speed over Substance Short Term Focus More wisdom than we can
absorb Guidance
Mentor Inspiration Student as Apprentice Helps solve problems
Custom Support Provides direction 9 New Age Teacher
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Problems are Many Solutions are Few Education for Nation
building Beyond the Degree Long term Not just the degree Parents
and Society Inspiration and Aspiration Responsibility and
Accountability Ethics, Empathy and Inclusion Theres no failure only
different challenges 10 What we did
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The Five Principles 11 Exposure Learn from Diverse Sources
Concepts Environment to Fail Purpose Show possibilities. Show
alternatives. Show conflicts. Show role models. Exposure builds
Aspiration. What do I want to achieve, Why? Why am I studying, What
are my priorities, what can I avoid? Mistakes are a critical
element of learning. Are we allowing that to happen? Or are we
preventing it? What did I learn? Where else does it apply? Why this
way? Question. Where to apply it? Less, not More! Reading Diverse,
Diverse friends, diverse hobbies, Learn from Peers
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Define the ten Levels Assess where you are Take your own
targets Set intermediate targets Simplify the programming challenge
Variables and Operators, If-else, Loops, Arrays Structures,
Functions, Files and Pointers Do not Copy You must fail if you have
to learn Come to me when you make mistakes 12 Teaching
Programming
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Groups and Captains Students move at different pace, and thats
a blessing Group incentives Custom Feedback Custom attention,
variable time 13 Teaching Programming
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Most of these experiments did not work! 14 The catch
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Excursion off-site to learn programming 17 students of 2 nd
Year B. Tech. CSE opted Students opted for the program (i.e. not
selected by faculty) 24 days off-site, Dec 18 to Jan 11 Primary
Objective: Experience the joy of programming Measurable outcomes:
Students remain engaged every day, till midnight or later Students
retain the programming habit even after return While the
improvement in programming capability has been dramatic, We
observed tangible changes in self confidence, communication skills,
questioning ability, 15 The Programming Excursion
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Secondary Objectives: Exposure to diverse areas Group learning
Teamwork Reflection, introspection, self assessment Fun, informal
and voluntary attempts at improving communication skills Tangible
Outcomes Confidence in Programming Visible difference to spoken
communication High confidence Questioning instinct 16 The
Programming Excursion
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Core tasks Write a program for the Sudoku Solver Break down the
large problem into multiple small tasks Code the small tasks Debug
the code Discuss and compare Integrate code with code written by
others Compare timings and explain the differences Program for
buzzword analysis, i.e. find most common words and phrases in a
text 17 What we did
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Students can fail They can take their time Teacher sits with
them, through their mistakes shows them how to find bugs When
mistakes are common, they learn from others who made the mistakes
ahead of them They can choose their own methods Allow them to
wander Aggressive targets are needed To push them Keep putting
aggressive targets from the first day Programming styles evolve
Pushed them to merge with others programs, that forced them learn
effective programming style 18 The programming experience
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Activities beyond the technical engagement Psychometric
instruments for self assessment Discussions with industry leaders,
and academic leaders Wellness programs Outbound games, experiences
and learning Outdoor games, e.g. cricket and volleyball Structured
Fun Scrabble Panel discussions Quiz competitions Videos
Consequences High confidence Visible difference to communication
skills 19 What else we did
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After a while, students took all the responsibility They set
the agenda They set the schedules, and worked beyond those They
refused the breaks, and the games They collected and consolidated
feedback And acted on those They reflected on what went wrong, or
what does not work, and informed the faculty 20 Students called the
shots
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Just 24 days of intense engagement and diverse exposure made a
critical impact What was the difference? Students exposed to
variety of thought And these were debated in fun style like panel
discussions on TV And when students were shy, they were drawn out
with informal and personal attention Students empowered to create
their own schedules, own learning plans, and who they worked with
Students provided their feedback, and were also given
responsibility to track actions on their feedback Students were
made responsible for varied tasks on rotation and they took the
responsibility seriously Mistakes were encouraged they were
repeatedly told: you cannot learn if you do not make mistakes.
Students were encouraged to question 21 Conclusions from the
experiment
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Other observations (relevant to communication skills) The
grammar has not improved, but they are speaking more fluently We
need to move one step at a time trying to be perfect too soon
probably keeps them back. First you speak, later youll figure out
how to speak. Responsibility for doing well should be passed on to
students Mentors need to show them meaningful purpose, inspire
them, and be behind them specially when they make mistakes Only one
out of 17 students had even heard of Scrabble So we need to focus
on improving exposure We need to gently influence their
non-academic habits as well Now around half the students
voluntarily want to play Scrabble We allowed them to look up the
dictionary while playing 22 Other observations from the
experiment
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Students were empowered to take responsibility Students found a
Purpose Exposed to role models Variety of experiences Students did
not feel the rush Even though they had targets, and knew they had
Students had the freedom to choose When to work Who to work with
How to work Activities at one stretch No fifty (or 60) minute
capsules No continuous context switching They could fail ! 23
Success factors
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Not everything we planned for, could be achieved Thats ok, not
everything can be achieved in 24 days Not much interest in
Hollywood movies Movies with sub-titles can help Students have not
written diary (or blog) every day But probably they understand the
importance (now) Newspapers, blogs, and dictionary (with English
usage tips) should become their habit not yet We cannot impose, but
we can inspire Involving them in our activities will help the cause
in a big way Faculty must outsource some of their work to students
24 Other observations from the experiment
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Its possible, even scalable! With technology + intelligent
Mentors with Empathy Lets focus on Skilled workers, not shaky
degrees With continuous knowledge upgrade path Memorizing details
from 50 courses is more difficult than writing an original
2000-line program Focus on the magic of numbers, rather than
struggle with differential equations everyone does not need them
Teach concepts Teach little Teach little, can never hope to teach
everything Apply concepts, only then will people learn Create
exposure Show possibilities, show role models, Inspire them Create
Purpose Learning is a Lifelong journey Create the motivation and
the foundations 25 Summary
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The future of education is here! Can we shape it together?
Kalyan K Banerjee Centurion University [email protected] 26