Share your thoughts on how learning can be improved in Schools!

[EkaLustYa]

NAIL – New Age Interactive Learning

In this section - you have discussed about your “pvt ltd” developed tools - all good if implemented correctly . And I have seen other tools such as - schoolagy, clever, night zoo keeper etc which works better and yielded results in the education system that I am currently living in.

And simultaneously “ COVID” has changed the world order in a great way just not socially but technologically as well.

1 PC (Personal Computer – Laptop) for each class:

Each class ? I’m in an education system where each student gets a chrome book or any other laptop that are from available choices with all the apps preloaded and can interact with local libraries for digital downloads .

Wireless projector eliminates issues that arise from wired projectors.

Aren’t we talking about the Wi-Fi bandwidth and speed here? In a dropping signal of rural areas does wireless works better or hard wired network devices ? Don’t know !

'School on Wheels' Education setup facilitates the setting up of an educational entity in villages that have no school establishments.

This sounds like “ Mallee Badiki” or “ Pallevelugu” I am not sure. But this is old concept, tested and failed without the government support after the election campaign was over.

Four villages make a Primary Education Node (PEN), each hosting two groups. Five PENs together form CEN (Central Education Node), bringing 20 villages under each CEN.

Seriously I liked this idea - provided if it works .


Note : I couldn’t fit this into one single comment thread. But above comments were from my own experiences as I’m son of a teacher, who is also the state president of a teachers organization who travelled vastly and fought many a battles with pay commission.

To be honest - your framework sounds to me like a business proposition! Which only serves the corporate elite irrespective of government support or not.

 

[Tomato Fellow]

Is any government ready to take it up with full of red tape ?

Within the Telangana govt. few IAS folks did show interest. However, they said, it is a long road ahead, and we are trying to get the director of SCERT on board - a move that can propel us forward.

I have seen the tools and the concepts in augmented reality that are better teaching aids.

There are two things when taking a concept at a mass scale

• The maturity of the concept
• Practical Possibility

While AR tools were a part of our plans, we do not have the funds, resources, and the 'societal advancement' to adopt them. Rather, we are going with physical and assembled models of various concepts (whatever we can) to put forth and forward to kids.

I strongly believe majority agree with me, when it comes to preferring a 'Physical and assembled model' of a volcano than a AR. The physical models bring the 'touch' factor, which is a vital element as per pedagogy.

Honestly that “ pvt ltd” part did slightly offset me going forward. Aren’t all “ pvt ltd” ultimate objective is to make business and get profit out of it ! Isn’t it? It’s not a non-profit NGO with full of altruism !

When working with the governments, we put things straight and bland. The biggest revolutions came because a business model can be spurred out of it. Here there are two aspects.

• Commercial Viability
• Social Responsibility

The governments can afford Rs 50 per student on a yearly basis, for what we are trying to offer. Whilst working with the government, our main motive is to equip the students and teachers with what all we can without going broke. The company isn't looking to make millions out of it. Nor, I am going to say it is 'not for profit'. The working/collaboration with the government is soley aimed at taking the initiative forward.

The commercial aspect truly benefits the mass adoption of this initiative. I love Microsoft products, but churning out $100 to get a new liscence, despite the money already making a good chunk (along with R&D costs and dropped products), I would think twice to pay even $50 for the product if it's 6 years old. There needs to be a model where the prices can come down once the adoption is done on a large scale, and the company did make 5x profits to cover other costs. Byju's sells stuff at Rs 40K. None can decide a price of the product for other company. But what consumers get for what they pay, is a social debate. I ain't against Byju's. But to satisfy their investors who pooled in the money on an already over-valued company, things should change.

The recent news that, 'they miscalculated their earnings projection' is a farce. Every tom dick and harry knows that they are lying through their teeth. The product which we offer at government schools will have numerous add-on featuers, making it a full fledged commercial product. That is where we intend to make money. I am into developing these education frameworks and stuff for the last 7 years. Successs is hard to come by, but the journey as taught me a ton. And i will invest another 5-6 years to bring it out completely. I am prepared for a long battle. I personally, feel if you have a genuine product and if it can reach 30% of ur target, the days are bright.

 

[Tomato Fellow]

Rural and urban problems are vastly different, where rural people do not have access to the technology and driven by their poverty driven problems in a country where still 14.8% below the poverty line as per UN statistics.

A classic case of 'perceptions', I would put it as. Governments are scraping up schools and other edu. infrastructure, because of lack of enrolment. Physical infrastructure demands good number of kids to make use of it, to justify the costs. We are removing the barrier of a physical infrastructure, and rather utilize the existing resources with some modifications. The modificiations cost a fraction. I beleive you are aware of PCI, and how it paints a fuzzy picture. We have thought about possibly all numerous outcomes (if not all) and did go ahead with this. I'm really happy you did throw up some numbers, hinting you are clear on what you are putting across.

with this transportation facilities they don’t even come at times and the attendance register will be sent to their place to sign their presence.

Hence, we are removing the need of displacement of anyone from one place to the other. A local will be designated to look after the school, possibly at a pay rate of Rs 10,000, which is quite good considering the lifestyle in rural and remote areas. I cannot commit to the number, but yes, we do take other aspects into consideration. When hundreds of variabels are needing to work in tandem, it's nothing but short of hara-kiri.

Hence, I disengage those vairable. But what are the variables?

1. Teachers needing to move from one place to other - Are they ready? Mostly no
2. Teachers movement needs transport - Poor transport facilities exist currently
3. Teachers committemnet - No. They get a good pay cheque and lack responsibility
4. Physical Infrastructure - No. Expensive to maintain. So govt. scarps them up
5. Accountability - No. We don't have the framework to make folks accountable at a grassroots level in this scenerio.

So, we have addressed the above mentioned, and other factors that are not mentioned. We opted for the following:

1. No need for teacher movements - Live Digital Teaching
2. Transport aspect is out of the window - Kids can easily move from a village to village - Less than a mile across
3. Teachers whom we hire are trained by us, and continuously monitored. Live sessions go from our premises
4. Physical Infrastructure - We just need the 'society building' which is available. Not an issue. Rs 100,000 is needed to set up the rest
5. Accountability - Every cluster is inspected on monthly basis, and we have access to teachers directly.

 

[Tomato Fellow]

Schoolagy, clever, night zoo keeper etc which works better and yielded results in the education system that I am currently living in.

I doubt Indian edu. system can facilitiate such aspects. We are short of true human resources who can contribute to the mental growth and thinking ability of the kids. On other frameworks which I have designed, I did include few aspects similar to these. But yes, will see how these can be a part of the larger picture.

I’m in an education system where each student gets a chrome book or any other laptop

I am talking about Indian edu. where it's difficult to get government do real things for real people without the finger called corruption. Yes, few govts. in few states did give laptops, without existence of a 'student friendly and learning-centered education database'. U need to consider the social stature and advacement when developing frameworks.

Wi-Fi bandwidth and speed here? In a dropping signal of rural areas does wireless works better or hard wired network devices ? Don’t know !

In rural villages, the teaching is more or less live classes. The data will be stoerd on local pc. This PC and Projector are connected via Wifi. Wiring and stuff can really mess up. I have experiences with that. It's remotely easy to fix things running on Wifi, than physical wired connections, which also lead to 'wear and tears'. One wif router per class works like charm.

“ Mallee Badiki” or “ Pallevelugu” I am not sure. But this is old concept, tested and failed without the government support

We evolve and innovate at large. It depends on who is taking the initiative, and I don't beleive in govt. support. I focus on establishing a perennial resource before i start investing into fragile programs like this. A pathway has been laid, and these can be executed even without govt. support.

 

[Tomato Fellow]

To be honest - your framework sounds to me like a business proposition! Which only serves the corporate elite irrespective of government support or not.

It's quite simple.

We offer the basic product to the government at dirt cheap prices - a move that has no ill intentions. We are committed to developing and improvign the experience as much as we can, without burdening the government too. Remember, we can negotiate behind the doors with the govt. folks. But that is not my way of leading my firm. I stand honest and I continue to do so.

We are trying make way to take quality education to the masses. At the same time, we cannot forget about our investors who pump in money. Though these folks look to make money, they aren't those who like their investments to go 100x or 1000x in 5 years. These folks are happy to exit with 6x to 10x returns after 5 years. So, we are also building a preimum product that has added features.

As a framework maker, it is important to understand that, by giving an expensive and feature-rich product to someoen who has not used its basic form, is nothing but a grave error. We need to train them to use the basic version first, and then keep adding features - which is what we do with the government schools aimed product.

Likewise, giving a feature-rich product to someone who already knows how to navigate within, helps on the feeedback front and feature development.

I am currently living to make money, but in a way that is mutual to me and the society. No ripping off someone's flesh because they can't feel the pain is not my way of life!

Cheeres maTe!

 

[Deleted member 3142]

Hi...

Learning is always fun, when taught the right way. A new day should welcoem students (irrespective of age) with new thoughts and concepts. But that does not seem the case in everyday life. Meanwhile, people are speaking about STEM Education being introduced in schools. But is it really following the discipline of STEM education? Or is it a mere hush up activity trying to rip off money from parents by just handing kids 'kits and assembly units'?

- Would love to have your thoughts and inputs. Future is awaiting.

Our education system has a lot to learn...lot to improve....
Even in the era where people forget their loved ones but never forget to carry their phones along.... Technology has taken over us..the world..yet our education is all about subjects.. marks...grades etc ...

We have to teach our children... How to live ..how to socialize.. how to make friends..sharing..caring ...how to behave..how to respect...how to treat others . help others....these has to be there at school too...cuz i feel all these things are more important than just ABC..


We are teaching our kids to be mechanical just like us.... Infact may be if we let their innocence bloom infront us...it's an eye opening for us ...so that we should let them keep their little innocence and humanity the same way...

We should let them learn rather than forcing them to be a machine like us....

Ofcourse education is important but there is life which is more important...we can't apply all those things that we learnt in school ... Most of the time....

1.So teach them observation...

And also we need to observe what they are intersted in rather than posing your interests on them...

2. Teach them morals and skills....
Also do it along with them...

Kids learn more at home than they learn at school..

What we speak ...how we react . Is what they do to others... So whatever you want them to be ..you become such person first ....

 

[Tomato Fellow]

Technology has taken over us..the world..yet our education is all about subjects.. marks...grades etc ...

In marketing we say, we have 5 senses, and the only time all the 5 senses work is when we use our mobile. A disgusting fact though. True, kids are made to believe that education means being the topper in the class, and getting a percentile. Singapore has recently struck down the system of 'competition on the basis of marks'.

How to live ..how to socialize.. how to make friends..sharing..caring ...how to behave..how to respect...how to treat others

Real life skills - these are hard to come by in the current education world. Education should nurture human minds and not machines.

if we let their innocence bloom infront us...it's an eye opening for us

Agreed very much. It's important to encourage the kids into fields that drive their passion and keep them hungry for knowledge. Implementing this at Grades 6-7 would be difficult and involves a lot of complexities, but cane be achieved.

1.So teach them observation... And also we need to observe what they are intersted in rather than posing your interests on them...
2. Teach them morals and skills.... Also do it along with them...

Yep. We as a team beleive in 'observing' - just watching stuff than having any particular mindset. And the second point requires 'Parenting' development. And it's a farce when I see parents in this society. They occupy kids with gadgets and not morals!

Thanks for putting your thoughts across. Cheers!

 

[AlexusSawyer]

I remember when my little cousin started attending Oxford Academy. At first, I was skeptical, wondering if it was just another money-making scheme. But let me tell you, I've seen firsthand the difference it's made. They don't just throw kits at the kids; they ignite their curiosity with hands-on experiments and real-world applications. It's like a light bulb moment every day!

 

[ReddyGari ammai]

I don't want to go school