Timeless Lifeskills

To Thrive in Change, Reinvent Yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 03:11:00 -0700

Meet Pete. At school, Pete was a star rugby player. He was scouted and joined the training programme for the Under 19s at the national academy. For the last seven years, he has played professional rugby. Now, because of an injury, his career as a professional rugby player is coming to an end. Pete is financially comfortable for now but he is only 29 and has a family. What options does Pete have to ensure that he and his family live comfortably for the rest of his life?

Explore the Adjacent

Leveraging the experience he has gained as a professional rugby player, Pete can look at work opportunities that are, so to speak, adjacent to where he is. These would include becoming a coach, or a commentator, or a journalist, or a rugby video analyst for a TV channel.

Leapfrog

Alternately, Pete could consider leveraging the core dispositions he has acquired playing professional rugby – team player who is good at empathetic collaboration, good leadership skills, quick decision making, determination, resilience, grit, stamina to put in hard work and ability to remain calm under pressure. Having the mindset of a sports person – who knows he has to play to win but if he loses he should accept defeat gracefully and strive to do better next time – will give him the gumption to venture into unchartered waters ever ready to bounce back even if he faces failure.

Of course, in the new pursuit, he will have to learn new skills and acquire knowledge in new domains. Say Pete applies to a hotel for a middle-management job. His people skills, ability to inspire juniors, ability to remain calm under pressure and ability put in tonnes of hard work will be big positives. However, Pete will also have to make sure he becomes a self-motivated learner who can learn at an accelerated pace about his new responsibilities, which could be related to marketing, catering, HR, customer relations, event management, or other functions required for the smooth running of a hotel.

Learning Missions and Personal Learning Networks

To climb the career ladder in the hotel towards more general management roles, Pete will have to gain experience in different functions in the hotel. For this, not having the luxury of taking long sabbaticals, he will have to acquire the ability to learn on the job, fast.

It will help if Pete sets Learning Missions for himself, to quickly gain expertise in any field or area. The first requirement of a Learning Mission is understanding what are the key concepts that need to be learnt in order to gain mastery of a particular domain and then setting clear learning goals to learn these fundamental concepts (and more) in a given time frame. Learning Missions also include formulating questions that lead to deeper comprehension and creating Personal Learning Networks of resource people, both online and offline, who can answer these questions and give expert guidance.

As Pete becomes better at learning new things fast, he will realise that being a self-directed learner means answering three questions:

- What is worth learning? (related to desired outcomes in the given context)

- How will I learn this? (using online and offline learning resources and building Personal Learning Networks)

- How will I know I have learnt this well? (creating performances of understanding to check level of knowledge in the new domain, which could be real-world application of knowledge in Pete’s case)

As Pete climbs the corporate ladder that requires going on more and more Learning Missions, he will become a better learner, who is self-directed, intrinsically motivated and learns-to-learn at an accelerated pace

Reinventing Yourself

Much like Pete, with technology and other disruptors constantly changing the economic landscape, and in such a scenario looking for promotions, job hopping, becoming a freelancer in the gig economy, or becoming an entrepreneur, you too need to learn to constantly reinvent yourself in order to thrive. Such reinvention of self requires work at two levels:

Intrinsic

On the one hand, reinvention includes working on your mindset, dispositions and changing the way you think, and on the other, it implies acquiring new knowledge, skills and competencies. Ability to accelerate the rate at which you learn, unlearn and relearn dispositions, skills and knowledge are the key factors, for which you need to first set for yourself Learning Missions and then pursue them with military-like focus and zeal.

External

Besides working on yourself, successful reinvention also includes the ability to create a meaningful network that helps open doors (not collecting a stack of name cards but establishing meaningful relationships) and finding the right mentors who can give you judicious guidance.

Some would argue that luck, chance and fate also play a role in your success. Even if that be the case, the point is that you have no control over these factors. You can only address that which is in your control. So keep working on your dispositions, keep acquiring new knowledge, skills and competencies, keep reinventing yourself and there is a high probability you will flourish even in fast changing times.

Remote Mentoring for Students of SDSN School, Dariyapur village, Raebarely

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 05:26:00 -0700

The Amazing History of the Universe - in Hindi

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Sun, 4 Dec 2016 02:35:00 -0800

Arvind, a software engineer by profession and a lifelong physics enthusiast, and I have collaborated under the ‘Timeless Lifeskills’ banner, to produce a video series in Hindi titled, “Brahmand Ka Adbhut Itihaas”. Over 13 episodes we narrate the history of the universe from its creation to the expansion of intelligent life on planet earth.

There are plenty of resources available online in English on ‘Big History’, a term generally used for the 13.8 billion years scientific history of the universe, but similar resources are woefully lacking in Hindi (and in other languages). Filling this gap was our primary motivation in creating this series.

While these videos are only a beginner’s introduction to the important events that shaped our universe and our planet, we hope that they will inspire our young audience to take that next step and dwell a little deeper into this fascinating story. We start this 13-episode journey with an introduction to the series: https://youtu.be/cjekAfX-THA

The formal subjects one studies at school are often organised into neat packages that don’t seem to have much to do with each other. This story touches on a variety of disciplines like cosmology, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, anthropology and more, and we hope that by the end of this series our audience would’ve learned that these syllabus and exam-driven boundaries are superficial, and there is an amazing continuity in the human scientific endeavour. Moreover, the ability to connect the dots between different disciplines, to find an innovative solution to a complex problem, is a Timeless Lifeskill!

Over the last 4-5 years that I have been conducting workshops in rural/remote schools, I have observed that the lack of good quality learning resources in Hindi and regional languages puts the students at a disadvantage. This video series is a small step towards bridging this content divide. So please help spread the word about availability of this video series and let anyone in your circle, whom you think will directly or indirectly benefit (students, teachers, parents, school/college principals…), know about the availability of this learning resource by sharing this post, sending the YouTube link as an email or as a Whats App message, tweet about it, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or in any other creative way!

The RGB Life Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 04:34:00 -0800

What makes a student future-ready: O-level or GCSE? IB Diploma or A-Level? Academies, Grammar schools, or Faith schools? These issues seem to be the focus of debate about education today.

However, instead of focusing on ‘how’ should education be imparted, isn’t it a lot more important to first ponder ‘what’ education should be imparted, given the fast changing contours of the 21^st century, when mechanisation, automation, and now robots and AI are changing the very fabric of employment and entrepreneurship? Isn’t it worth wondering if, like the primary colours Red, Green and Blue, which can be mixed to create millions of colours, are there some core skills and competencies, that when learnt, will prepare students to shine, whatever be the shape of things to come?

The 19^th and 20^th century paradigm of stockpiling knowledge, usually in the form of a University degree, that almost guaranteed lifelong employment is no longer viable, and while the focus of formal education is on ‘vertical skills’ like math, science, history, or marketing and finance, people who excel in different fields have an additional set of ‘horizontal skills’ which are often described as 21^st century skills. For example, UNESCO’s report ‘Learning the Treasure Within - Education for the Twenty-first Century’ describes the four pillars of education as – Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together, and Learning to Be.

Researching, creating online learning content in multiple formats and conducting regular workshops in remote, rural schools in India to impart life skills to make students future-ready has given me the unique opportunity of interacting with many hues of learners and closely observing challenges of education in a multitude of situations, from metropolitan London to hinterland India. Based on the insights gained I think the RGB life skills are:

Yearning to Learn: how to fire up the learner within, remaining curious, taking ownership of own learning, and being able to answer four questions for yourself: What is worth learning? How will you learn it? How will you know you have learnt it well? How will you become better at learning new things?

Learning to Think: deep and independent thinking, critical, creative and computational thinking, being able to formulate insightful questions, pattern recognition, understanding complexity, ability to solve unstructured problems, ability to innovate and judicious decision making.

Learning to Be: understanding the construct of your emotions, ability to rewrite the script that plays inside your head and determines how you interpret and react to life situations, setting goals that go beyond self-interest, deep self-awareness and living a joyful life.

Once you have awareness and clarity about the RGB life skills, you can chart the ‘how’ of the learning journey for yourself, or for your loved ones, not relying just on formal education but also making the most of the tonnes of informal learning experiences now available, many of them online for free.

Get ThinKING!

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Sat, 19 Nov 2016 04:28:00 -0800

In the late 18th century, steam led to the First Industrial Revolution; in early 20th Century, electricity led to the Second Industrial Revolution; in late 20th century, ICT led to the Third Industrial Revolution; and now, Blockchain, Big Data, Robots, Drones, Machine Intelligence, Nanotech, Biotech and other technologies are ushering in another new era. If one ingredient, steam, electricity or ICT, so completely changed the global landscape, just imagine the upheaval that could be caused by the combined onslaught of all these emerging technologies.

Widening hiatus between the rich and the poor, massive displacement in the job market, and super opportunities for those who are future-ready, it's all on the cards. As the global contours shift massively, will you become a mere cog, or will you thrive? It will depend on how you think.

The importance of critical thinking – ability to make rational and reasoned judgments, and creative thinking – ability to create something novel that is useful, is already well established. However, to flourish in the world that is now fast emerging, you need to add more dimensions to your thinking ability. These include,

Abstract Thinking: correctly formulating the problem after looking at the big picture and asking insightful questions that lead to pattern recognition and generalisation. This is very different from solving an MBA Case Study where a pre-formulated problem is presented!

Computational Thinking: algorithmically solving problems of scale. This starts with pattern recognition and abstraction so that the problem can be represented in new ways, then breaking the problem into smaller parts, and finally, recasting the problem to solve it in steps (i.e. algorithmically).

Ability to Innovate to Solve Unstructured Problems: the economic, social, political and other issues we face today are not complicated. They are complex! A complicated problem is difficult to solve but it has a unique solution, like a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle. A complex problem is not only difficult to solve, its solutions are fluid and need constant updating, like forecasting the weather. The challenges we face today – clean energy, poverty, terrorism, climate change, water crisis, financial crisis, health and well-being… are all very complex. Amazing value-creation opportunities lie ahead for people who are keen to tackle ‘wicked’ problems – problems that are difficult to solve because of incomplete, contradictory and changing requirements.

Evolving the way you think is the only way to navigate and shine in a future that is VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. You need to shape your thinking such that you connect the unconnected dots, and connect the already connected differently. To do this, you need to not only ask why, what and how but also why not, what if and how else.

Full STEAM Ahead!

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 1 Jul 2016 05:51:00 -0700

At the recently concluded Brexit referendum in the UK, it is estimated that only 36 percent of people aged 18-24 voted, when the decision to leave or remain in the EU impacts the youth most. Young people who did vote, did so overwhelmingly for ‘Remain’ while the overall outcome was in favour of ‘Leave’ begging the question if the voting age should have been lowered to 16, as was the case in the 2014 Scottish referendum. This is anecdotal but on BBC news I heard some young people say that they didn't think through their choice as they figured how could their one vote matter!

Low voter turnout of 50% - 60% has become the norm in most national elections today and voter apathy is especially high amongst the youth. But democracy works only when its citizens vote, and vote with some clarity of consequences of their choice. So how to get more people to cast their vote, sensibly?

One option for a democracy is to adopt a law akin to the Australian law that makes it mandatory for eligible citizens to register and vote in all elections, by-elections, and referendums. If they fail to do so they have to pay a fine and if they fail to pay the fine they can be convicted and jailed. Does this work? Well, in the 2013 Federal Elections in Australia the voter turnout was over 93%

But compulsory voting does not necessarily mean voting with awareness of consequences of choice. Another option that addresses the issue of voting with awareness is educating citizens of a democracy on why and how they should practice their franchise. And, this brings me to STEM and STEAM.

Over the last decade, STEM has become a popular acronym in the educational rhetoric. It stands for the study of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths and is often quoted as a panacea, a ‘tabeez’ that will magically solve the problem of unemployability in the age of intelligent machines. But now a new term is slowly coming into fashion – STEAM, which is STEM, with an ‘A’ added for Arts and its advocates want Art & Design to be the centrepiece of STEM education in order to add the element of innovation to STEM.

I personally think that the ‘A’ in STEAM education should stand for a very inclusive definition of Arts – study of Liberal Arts that include languages, music, aesthetics, philosophy, psychology, history, and humanities. You could argue that with such a broad definition of Arts in a STEAM curriculum what is left? Nothing!

And, that is my point. Education means preparing a student for life, not a subset of life.

The Latin phrase for Liberal Arts is ‘artes liberales’ and ‘liberales’ means, ‘worthy of a free person’. In classical antiquity, Liberal Arts meant subjects and skills essential to ‘know’ so that a free person could take an active part in civic life. Today Economics and its still more limited dimension 'learn to earn' has hijacked the education agenda. Imagine the future of STEM only education – students grow up to be highly employable but incapable of sensibly taking part in the civic life of a democracy, and worse, incapable of deep self-awareness hence raising the probability of leading a stressed and unhappy life.

Referendums also point to another possibility – a move away from Representative Democracy to Direct Democracy. Representative Democracy, when an election is held once every 4 or 5 years and people choose their representative to the Parliament who in turn make policies, is a sensible choice when holding elections is an expensive proposition. But taking a cue from the hunt for talent competitions on television, where people vote using their mobile phones, it is not hard to imagine a future where all important legislation is decided by referendums, with voters casting their vote using a mobile phone – Direct Democracy.

If you think Direct Democracy is a dangerous idea just consider the, not very hard to guess, reason for voter apathy – voters don't find a leader worthy of representing them. Like right now in London people over at The Globe Theatre are crying foul. All the Shakespearean drama has shifted to Westminster. And, we the people are wondering what Mr. Gove, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Corbyn and many others in politics are doing in Westminster. They should be in the West End. Given a choice between leaders who are driven by personal ambition or dogmatic beliefs, or a Parliament that is more often than not disrupted, as in India, and Direct Democracy, I would vote for the latter.

The increasing use of referendums, lowering of voting age, voter education and sensitisation, these factors alone make a case for adding Liberal Arts education to a STEM curriculum. Add to that the role education in the Liberal Arts plays to foster the basic human spirit – to learn and to know (including Know Thyself), I think there is a strong case for taking education full STEAM ahead.

‘Flip’ Your Job with AI

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 09:23:00 -0700

Search Engine Optimiser was not in the job lexicon a decade ago and a decade hence, probably earlier, Blockchain Validator might become a sought after job. Artificial Intelligence (AI), or computers that can learn themselves are changing the complexion of employment by becoming capable of doing tasks that could earlier be done only by a human, for example, driving a car in traffic.

AI is disrupting jobs all across the skills ladder. According to a McKinsey study, this is happening because, be it a low skill or a high skill job, if you deconstruct the tasks needed to be done for the successful performance of a job, you will find that in almost every job there is a component that can be done better by AI. In such a scenario people who have the skills that complement AI will thrive. Think of a good surgeon who can become great by using AI-based Augmented Reality glasses that overlay useful information while the surgeon is performing surgery.

I think the Flipped Classroom model, where teachers curate online learning resources for delivering the didactic part of teaching and use precious classroom time on learning activities like discussions and debates that ensure students have a deeper understanding of the topic of study, can also be applied to the use of AI in jobs. Ability to use AI to ‘flip’ a job will distinguish a good professional from a great professional. For example, doctors could use IBM’s Watson AI machine for better and faster diagnostics and use the time they save in solving more complex cases.

You may not realise it but AI is already very much a part of your life. It lives in your email spam filters, it is present in your smartphones, it drives Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s recommendation system and soon it will impact many more areas. Many tasks being performed by humans today will be better done by AI machines and in the coming decades, this will change the nature of employment. Just like you may not know how your smartphone works but you know how to make the most of it since AI is becoming an integral part of your life, it is better you understand it and know how to complement it with your skills instead of competing against it.

AI is a computer that can learn by itself. It does so by using Machine Learning, which is different from traditional rule-based programming and uses computers' ability to analyse the big amount of data and decipher patterns from it.

Pedro Domingos, the author of the book The Master Algorithm, explains that traditional programming involved inputting data and an algorithm (an algorithm is a detailed sequence of steps or operations that tell the computer what to do with the data), the computer then processes the data based on the algorithm and outputs the result. In Machine Learning, the data is input along with the output and the computer generates the algorithm.

For example, we may input thousands of x-ray images of lungs and tell the computer which x-ray images reveal cancer and which are normal. The computer takes both these inputs and teaches itself how to detect cancer. If it makes a mistake in its diagnosis this data is again fed back and the iterative process helps the computer enhance its cancer detection algorithm. Computers taking data and figuring out the algorithm themselves is called Machine Learning.

Domingos explains that there are different approaches to Machine Learning. Some computer scientists take inspiration from first order logic to derive the AI algorithm. In this method the data that is input are specific facts and the computer works out the general principle. This approach, for example, is used in drug discovery like finding a new drug for malaria. Another group of computer scientists takes inspiration from the way the brain and the neurons work and create Neural Networks to extract rules and patterns from a set of data. This AI approach, also called Deep Learning, for example, is used by Facebook’s Deep Face facial recognition system, which identifies human faces in digital images. It has a nine-layered neural network and used four million images uploaded by Facebook users to train itself.

In another AI approach, uncertainty decides the probability of different possible outcomes and based on actual outcomes this probability is updated and iteratively the system performance improves. This AI approach is used, for example, in Google’s self-driving cars, and in email spam filtering. Another AI approach takes inspiration from ‘reasoning by analogy’ and uses what is called the ‘nearest neighbour algorithm’. Recommendation Systems (‘if you liked this song you may also like…’) and Collaborative Filtering uses this approach.

We can distinguish between two types of AI.

Weak or Narrow AI: is AI that is good at doing only one task. In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat the world chess champion, Gary Kasparov. In 2011, IBM’s Watson computer beat the human champions of the American television game show, Jeopardy. Earlier this year Google’s AlphaGo AI machine beat the world champion of Go, a really complex strategy board game. These and other areas like spam filtering and recommendations systems are all examples of Weak AI and can do only one task. IBM’s Deep Blue computer was very good at learning and improving its chess playing technique but it was not much good at anything else, not even playing another type of game.

Strong AI or Artificial General Intelligence: is, as yet, a hypothetical machine that can think, learn and perform any intellectual task that a human being can perform. Strong AI can improve its performance by itself using what is called ‘recursive self-improvement’. Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision are examples of strong AI.

Some computer scientists believe that sometime in the future, not certain when, there will be a moment of ‘singularity’ when AI will exceed human intelligence. We could also come to a point where AI machines will create even more intelligent machines themselves – what is described as Artificial Super Intelligence. Although when this will happen is not certain, many prominent people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking are of the view that we need to put safeguards in place because the ‘maker’ (us humans) will no longer be in charge of such machines. Swedish philosopher, Nick Bostrom, believes that Artificial Super Intelligence poses ‘existential risk’ meaning such machines pose the danger of annihilating humans.

Whether in the long run Strong AI poses an existential threat or not, what is certain is that in the shorter term Weak AI itself is disrupting our socio-economic future. Some experts argue that AI will lead to mass unemployment (leading to massive social unrest) while other experts are of the opinion that adoption of AI will lead to the emergence of new jobs, like repairing robots.

We don't know which of this prognosis will come true but one thing is certain – the skills, competencies and dispositions needed to flourish in the age of intelligent machines will be very different. Creativity, ideation, large-frame pattern recognition, ability to solve unstructured problems, fine dexterity, and complex communication, along with the ability to complement these skills with the use of AI, such that the human-machine alchemy allows you to do tasks that were not possible earlier, will greatly enhance your employability and entrepreneurship potential.

I am Going on a Digital Diet!

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 06:28:00 -0700

Recently I attended a panel discussion at my son’s school on students’ wellbeing and the most hotly discussed topic there was the overuse of computers, internet and smartphones by adolescents. This set me introspecting about my own use of digital technologies. I believe, while I am definitely not addicted to ICTs, I will be better off changing some of my technology-related behaviour.

For example, the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is to check my email on my smartphone, which I keep next to my bed. Another area of concern is frequently looking at how many people have viewed my blog posts and ‘liked’ them! The third culprit is the number of times during the day I glance at my smartphone to check my email and Whats App.

My diagnosis: I need to go on a digital diet, which I hope will also lead to permanent behavioural change.

It will not be an anorexic diet. Luddite abstinence from ICTs will be madness, given all the positives these technologies have to offer, like access to good quality learning content. It will be more like Atkins or Paleo diet where you deliberately choose not to eat certain types of foods, which in my case are the three areas of behaviour noted earlier. I surmise I should go on a digital diet now so that I can nip any possible future technology addiction as there is a fair chance of becoming a technology addict given the proportions compulsive use of internet and smartphones is taking.

Consider: In South Korea, internet addiction and gaming is deemed to be a national crisis. To tackle this problem the Korean government has set up National Centre for Youth Internet Addiction Treatment, where participants admit that they play online games for up to 10 hours during school days and up to 20 hours during holidays, staying awake till 4 a.m. In a recent health poll in Australia, 58% of parents said that their top health concern for their children is excessive screen time. A study conducted by Pew Research Centre in the US noted that – 'young users are particularly likely to use a smartphone to avoid boredom – and ignore other people'. Researchers are finding that pathological use of ICT is impairing familial, social, academic and occupational aspects of life.

While the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the Bible for the mental health professionals, does not yet include smartphone and internet addiction as a mental order (the latest addition notes that this area merits more research), psychology practitioners are finding similarities between gambling addiction (which is included in the DSM) and pathological use of the internet.

Feeling depressed, hopeless, or pessimistic about the future sometimes leads to binge behaviour, which could be excessive eating, alcoholism, or even binging on television. This happens because such binge behaviour presents itself as a relief and escape from negative emotions, even though it is temporary and illusory. Today, gaming, the internet and smartphone apps are emerging as another type of binge behaviour that serve as powerful distracting sensations and provide relief, though momentary.

In his book Sapiens, author Yuval Noah Harari makes an interesting observation about the advent of agriculture in human history. He infers that ‘wheat domesticated humans’ and it was not the other way around. Before agriculture humans were free roaming, hunter-gatherers but once they started cultivating wheat, the crop made humans do backbreaking work so that it could survive and thrive. Humans cleared forests, tilled the land, watered the saplings, removed weeds – all so that wheat could flourish. And in so doing, humans became domesticated. The word domesticated comes from the Latin root ‘domus’ meaning house, or living in a house, and it is not wheat but humans who have ended up living inside houses!

Like wheat, ICT seem to be controlling humans so that ICT can flourish! As one Korean teenage gamer at the National Centre for Youth Internet Addiction Treatment admitted, “I feel like the game is controlling me.”

A good lens to look at your internet and smartphone use is ‘locus of control’. In psychology, 'locus of control' is the extent to which you believe you can control events affecting you. You have a strong internal locus of control if you firmly believe that events and outcomes in your life derive primarily from your own actions. You could ask yourself if the use of technology is leading to a shift of your locus of control from being internal to becoming external?

For example, I write these blog posts because doing so gives me clarity about my own thoughts and ideas and because I enjoy writing them. But if the lack of readership or a single negative comment makes me distraught then I am letting my locus of control become external.

Whether internet addiction makes it into the DSM or not, the question we should be asking ourselves is if our use of technology is becoming compulsive? Are we becoming so dependent on our smartphone that its absence leads to withdrawal symptoms like feeling angry, tense or depressed? In children, is internet taking precedence over necessary life tasks and basic drives? Is its excessive use leading to a loss of sense of time? Is it stopping them from being physically present with their family, friends and with nature?

I should highlight that it is not the amount of time you spend on the internet, or on your smartphone that is a cause of worry; it is how you are using technology that could lead to problems. If your use of ICT is compulsive, if it is leading to an attention deficit (you can’t focus for long periods of time on a single task because you can’t resist checking email, Facebook, Whats App or Instagram frequently), if you are ignoring family, study and work, or if technology is impacting your wellbeing, then you should investigate if you face the danger of becoming a tech-junkie.

In another post, quoting from a story from the Indian lore, I have described ICT as a ‘Bhasmasuri Vardaan’ – a boon that can become a curse if you lose self-control and the ability to self-regulate. To make sure your ‘ability to be’ or what Aristotle calls ‘eudaimonia’ (long-term wellbeing) is not being impaired, check your use of digital technologies and if required, go on a digital diet now before you are forced to go on a digital detox!

Videos in Hindi on Trends & Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Tue, 7 Jun 2016 08:08:00 -0700

I have started a video series in Hindi on technologies and trends that have the potential to disrupt life in the 21st century. I have done so because there is a lot of information available on these topics in English but not so much in Hindi. To be aware of the challenges and opportunities these trends and technologies will throw up for the youth, it is important they understand them.

This 9-minute animated video explains the 'Gig' economy in Hindi.

'गिग' इकॉनमी में मनमौजी रोज़गार

आज नौकरी की परिभाषा और कार्य का स्वरूप बदल रहा है. एक नयी वैश्विक अर्थव्यवस्था उभर रही है जिसको नाम दिया जा रहा है 'गिग' इकॉनमी - फ्रीलान्स, प्रोजेक्ट आधारित काम करने की विधि. गिग इकॉनमी में आपकी सफलता निर्भर है आपकी विशिष्ठ निपुणता पर. यह हो सकती है आपकी असाधारण प्रतिभा, गहरा अनुभव, विशेषज्ञ ज्ञान या प्रचलित कौशल. आज आप आरक्षणपूर्ण सरकारी नौकरी कर सकते हैं, या किसी प्राइवेट कंपनी के मुलाजिम बन सकते हैं, या एक मल्टीनेशनल कंपनी में रोजगार ढूंढ सकते है, या उभरती गिग इकॉनमी में मनमौजी काम कर सकते हैं, या मुमकिन हो तो शायद आप इन भिन्न विकल्पों का मिश्रण पसंद करें - जैसे तीन दिन प्राइवेट कंपनी में नौकरी और तीन दिन गिग इकॉनमी में मनमौजी काम. सबसे महत्वपूर्ण बात यह है कि आपको इन सब अवसरों की जानकारी हो ताकि आप एक सूचित निर्णय ले पायें. इस वीडियो का उद्देश्य आपको यह जानकारी देना ही है. https://youtu.be/04su1fuTaiM

This 3-minute video explains Blockchain Technology, in Hindi.

ब्लोकचेन

ब्लोकचेन उन टेक्नोलॉजी में एक है जो कि 21वीं सदी कि अर्थव्यवस्था में बहुत बड़ा परिवर्तन लाने की क्षमता रखती हैं. यह वीडियो संक्षेप में आपको समझाएगा कि ब्लोकचेन टेक्नोलॉजी क्या है? https://youtu.be/lPnmCxdZQYQ

Life in the Gig Economy

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 3 Jun 2016 09:19:00 -0700

In the early 20th century, for a city dweller in India, definition of a nice life usually meant, “He got a government job, and lived happily ever after!” Such a person studied until a certain age, usually until graduation, and then looked for a job. A good job usually meant working for the government, or for a reputed public or private company. Once hired people would work with the same employer all their life and retire with savings in their Provident Fund, and possibly a life-long pension.

In the late 20th century definition of a great job became, “She got a job with an MNC and lived happily ever after!” The notion of ‘first learn, then work’ got challenged and to succeed in your career you constantly needed retraining. This retraining was mostly provided by the employer in the form of seminars, conferences and executive courses. Few people also took sabbaticals. People now changed jobs a few times in their career.

The answer to ‘What is a job?’ is changing again. Earlier we thought of a job as a service a person is capable of providing for which there are takers who are willing to pay a salary. Definition of a job has now become ‘your ability to add value’ to an undertaking. Say some entrepreneurs plan to start an IT company that will service the banks and you have expert knowledge of banking. You can offer your knowledge to this group to help improve their product. Your expert knowledge, talent, skill, or experience is the value you bring to the table for which you get compensated. Today compensation can be in the form of salary, retainer, fee, bonus, profit-sharing or shares.

To succeed in today’s economy, from being a passive job seeker, you have to learn to ‘invent’ a job for yourself, nicely packaging and marketing the ‘value’ you can add, 'value' being your experience, knowledge, talent, or skill.

The good news is that if you have something of value to offer you can now plug yourself into a bigger pool of demand, even into the global economy, sitting right where you are. A multitude of platforms or online marketplaces has emerged where you can offer your knowledge, skill, or talent and get rewarded.

If you make exquisite handmade things you can now sell them globally on the online marketplace Etsy - https://www.etsy.com If you are a good artist or designer you can now get work, even from abroad on https://www.fiverr.com If you are good at coding you can offer your talent to international clients on https://www.upwork.com If you enjoy making films and are good at it, you can get freelance work on http://90seconds.co.uk

These are just a few examples, there are several other platforms that consolidate the fragmented demand for a product or service, even an esoteric one. They bring together buyers and sellers, ease the transaction process and put checks in place. Negotiations and payments are made online and buyers and sellers can rate each other. Rating puts their reputation at stake and if the buyer’s reputation gets tarnished no seller will sell to that buyer and vice-versa.

The point here is that nature of work and its economics is changing. This freelance, on-demand economy is being called the 'gig' economy. The word 'gig' as used in this context has been borrowed from the music industry where artists are not employed full-time but live from one performance (gig) to another. This is also being called ‘uberisation of work’ thanks to the success of the company Uber that has allowed anyone with a car and a driving license to become a freelance driver.

Earlier self-employed individuals and micro-enterprises could only cater to the local demand because they didn't have funds to market their offering. They relied on word-of-mouth publicity and middlemen. There was information asymmetry because the seller (individuals and micro-enterprises) didn't know the true worth of their offering and the middleman could exploit this information asymmetry. Today sellers, however small, can plug into the market via the online aggregators and offer their skill or talent globally, for a negotiated price.

To succeed in the gig economy you have to become very good at what you do because when you tap into the global market you also face tough competition.

The gig economy offers upsides like flexibility, autonomy, creative expression and a chance to acquire mastery in what you love doing. And, autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the three drivers of intrinsic motivation. The gig economy thus offers you a chance be an intrinsically motivated participant in the emerging global economic milieu and live an exuberant life.

However, for a fair assessment, you should also be aware of the downsides of the gig economy – you thrive only if you are really good at what you do, you face volatility in income, it becomes difficult to plan the future because of uncertainty in inflow of funds, bank loans may be difficult to come by as banks require documents like a salary proof, there no job security, no mandatory savings and no pension.

If the downsides have dampened your enthusiasm for the gig economy, do consider that before the industrial revolution, that is just around 200 years back, before the era of mass production, the main avenues of employment were microenterprises and self-employment (in fact, in India, unorganised sector still accounts for over 90% of employment). Job security is a fairly new concept and unavailable to most people in economies where the unorganised sector dominates employment. Instead of being afraid of the on-demand, freelance economy, focus on cultivating attributes that will enable you to thrive, viz deep knowledge, creativity, innovation, and mastery.

Most people ‘work to live’ and some ‘live to work’. We tell ourselves, “I will first work, make some money and then do the stuff I really enjoy doing.” The gig economy offers you an opportunity to ‘live and work’ – do what you enjoy doing and also make money doing so!

Go ahead, measure your risk appetite and figure out if there is a life for you in the gig economy.

Old Tales Retold

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 20 May 2016 01:36:00 -0700

As a kid, I enjoyed reading stories from the Indian lore. If I were to narrate the same stories to kids living in metropolitan cities today I doubt they will relate to these stories. These old tales need a retelling. So here goes…

Shravan Kumar

On behest of his old and blind parents, Shravan Kumar attached two large straw baskets on a pole and carried his parents on a journey of pilgrimage.

Tell this story to your kids today and they tell you that the story is a psychological trap and you are just trying to insure your own future in a Machiavellian way!

In modern times, you need a new version of Shravan Kumar’s story. A story that appeals to today’s generation and gives them hope.

ver 2.0

Once upon a time, in the not so distant future, there lived Sophia, a kid who grew up unemployable. Artificially Intelligent machines had taken all the jobs she was capable of doing. So Sophia’s parents agreed to support her all her life. With her parents’ money, Sophia got married, had kids and this big, joint family lived happily ever after.

Bhasmasura

Another story I read as a kid was of Bhasmasura Praveen, a devotee of Shiva, who performed great penance and Shiva agreed to grant him a boon – anyone whose head Bhasmasura touched would immediately turn into ashes. Upon being granted the boon Bhasmasura tried putting his hand on Shiva so that he could annihilate Shiva and marry his consort, Parvati. To help Shiva out, Vishnu, disguised as beautiful Mohini, told Bhasmasura that she would marry him if he would follow her every step in a dance. While dancing Mohini mesmerised Bhasmasura and placed her hand on her head. Bhasmasura imitated, and immediately turned into ashes. The moral of the ‘Bhasmasuri Vardaan’ (Bhasmasura’s Boon) story is that if you have power, use it with discretion and self-control.

ver 2.0

Savvy Smith was a precocious teenager. He impressed his parents with good marks and great behaviour. So they agreed to grant him a boon. He asked for a smart-phone and his parents said, “Tathastu” (so be it). In no time, Savvy Smith discovered Whats App, Snap Chat, Facebook, and Vine. And then… sports became virtual, nature looked better on the screen without that irritating cold wind or sticky sweat, relationships were never so easy to make, or break, then remake, only to repeat the cycle, and Savvy Smith forever lost touch with the real world.

Karna

To learn the invocations for using the Brahmastra, the ultimate weapon, Karna had lied to his guru, Parshuram about his lineage. When Parshuram found out, he cursed Karna that as Karna had learnt the Brahmavidya (divine knowledge) through deceit, at the critical hour, he would forget it. Parshuram’s curse became Karna’s undoing. At the epic battle of Mahabharata, when Karna came face-to-face with his foe, Arjuna, he forgot the Brahmavidya and Arjuna defeated him.

ver 2.0

Markus Maximus had always focused on securing good marks in the exams. To do so he had mastered every trick in the book – diligently practicing past year question papers, meticulously reproducing mugged up answers and litigiously retaliating if even one single question was 'out-of-syllabus'. These best practices held him in good stead and made him teachers’ pet, school’s pride and even got him admission into a good college, and later still, a decent job. Few years passed. Markus Maximus found that promotions and salary hikes were hard to come by. His annual performance appraisals would always state, ‘lacks the creativity to come up with innovative solutions to challenges and problems’. He realised he should have made the effort to deeply understand the knowledge being imparted during those formative years. Alas!

Abhimanyu

When Abhimanyu was still in his mother’s womb, he would listen to stories, his uncle Krishna used to narrate to his mother, Subhadra (Krishna’s sister). Once Krishna was telling Subhadra about his war adventures and how to penetrate the Chakravyuh, a seven-tiered, spiral, defensive army formation. Half-way through the story Subhadra, fell asleep and Krishna stopped narrating. So Abhimanyu knew how to penetrate the seven-tiered formation but he didn't know how to come out. During the great war of Mahabharata, the Kauravas formed the Chakravyuh and since Arjuna, who knew well how to penetrate this formation, was fighting elsewhere, brave Abhimanyu ventured forth. He managed to penetrate the formation but because his knowledge was half-baked he could not come out and died fighting.

ver 2.0

Ever since she was a little girl Lucky Lucy had always been enamoured with all that glitters. Then one day she won the ten million dollar jackpot! She was absolutely thrilled! She could now buy all that her heart desired – a convertible, diamond jewellery, dream cruise… A year passed. Things that gave her a thrill earlier no longer held the same charm. To get the equivalent high she now had to possess that bigger bungalow and that flashier car. Totally unaware, Lucky Lucy was stuck on the hedonic treadmill – she had to run faster and faster to get the same level of thrill. The society she grew up in had told her only half the story, omitting to tell her that she first needs to fix the inside so that whatever be the circumstances outside they don't impinge on her ability to live a joyful life. Lucky Lucy had entered the Chakravyuh of life half-prepared.

The old tales still lure me and beyond retelling them in a modern context, I hope someday I am able to really experience the cosmic dance and truly understand the meaning of Shiva’s Tandava, much like physicist Frijit Capra, who wrote about this epiphany in his book The Tao of Physics.

This Summer Vacation, Tinker & Learn Life Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 13 May 2016 05:50:00 -0700

I find tinkering activities if designed well, are a great way to learn some essential life skills. Not just Timeless Lifeskills but also skills that need to be learnt urgently given the context of the 21st century, like developing curiosity, taking ownership of learning to satiate own curiosity, making learning fun, developing the power of observation, ability to formulate insightful questions, abstraction, creativity and problem-solving.

By well-designed tinkering activities I mean the learn design or pedagogy should take into account the desired learning outcomes and ensure that the experience is engaging and fun. For example, I consider Threshold Concepts while designing my workshops.

Meyer and Land have proposed the Threshold Concepts theory. They define a threshold concept as, “Akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress.”

Thresholds Concepts are the fundamental building blocks of a discipline, which if not understood properly can be troublesome (make the students lose interest in a discipline) but if understood, they can be transformative (ignite deep interest in a discipline). For example, opportunity cost, elasticity, and incentives are some threshold concepts in economics; voltage, current, and capacitance are few threshold concepts in electronics.

Once you have figured out the Threshold Concepts for what you are planning to help your students learn you can then curate or create suitable tinkering activities. For the young students in my Tinkering with Electronics workshops, I figured that electricity, its relation to magnetism, voltage, current and circuits are few Threshold Concepts I should focus on and I designed the tinkering activities with these in mind.

I start my workshops by giving children electronic components like bulbs, LEDs, motors and buzzers and let them mess around with them for a bit, without any guidance (which is good fun for them, especially not being told what to do!). They end up wiring the components in different ways. I then ask them to observe what different groups have done and why in some cases the two bulbs in one combination (circuit) are brighter than in another combination. This leads to a discussion on series vs parallel circuits.

We then explore other questions like: In which type of circuit will the battery last longer and why? What type of circuit they think is used in their school/home? How can they find out if the Diwali/Christmas lights are in series or parallel? Sometimes the kids come up with interesting observation-based questions like one time a girl asked if there are two different types of electricities because in their school all the switchboards had two types of sockets, one for thinner pin plugs and one for broader pin plugs and this led to a discussion on relationship between voltage, current, and power.

I then ask the children to flip the plus and minus wires from the battery on each component. They figure out that the bulbs work just fine both ways but the LEDs work only one way and the fan on the DC motor rotates clockwise or anticlockwise when they flip the wires from the battery. With this empirical observation in mind, we discuss polarity.

At this point in the workshop, I usually demonstrate a remote-control car and ask students how does the car go in reverse? Since they have tinkered with the motors earlier they figure out that the switch on the remote must be somehow flipping the polarity, that is why the motors start rotating in reverse. To find out how a remote-control car makes a turn students observe closely and soon figure out that to make a left turn the left wheel stops moving and only the right wheel rotates and vice-versa. Once they have had this eureka moment it becomes simpler to explain to them that if we could make a circuit that can control the current to the two motors we can make the car turn left or right.

While designing the workshop another pedagogical idea I like to keep in mind is phenomenon-based learning, which is being adopted in schools in Finland with some good results. In phenomenon-based learning, students observe a real-life scenario or phenomenon, which could be a scientific breakthrough, or a current event, or a situation present in the students’ life — and analyze it through an interdisciplinary approach.

To adopt this in my workshops I get the students to put their knowledge of circuits into practice and they make a ToothbrushBot. It is a simple toy with a vibratory motor mounted on a toothbrush head. The vibrations transfer to the bristles and makes the brush head move. This becomes the engine and chassis. The students then have to exercise their creativity and come up with ideas to make this into a fun toy. They make creepy-crawlies, aliens and moving paper boats.

We then discuss that the switch on the ToothbrushBot could be replaced with a sensor. We look at the five human senses and how they help us navigate our way in the physical world by sending inputs about our environment to the brain and the brain in turn commands the limbs and other systems in our body. We also discuss how bats navigate and how radars function.

This helps students understand how robots navigate and do tasks based on the inputs they receive from their sensors, which are devices that sense the physical world and convert that input into an electrical signal. Like our brain, robots have computers (microprocessors) that decipher the signals from the sensor and then command the actuators (like motors) that convert electrical energy back into physical energy.

We then build a few robots, learn to control them and then senior students imagine how robotic machines could be used to solve a problem in their life, like a sensor-based irrigation system. We discuss trends like Internet of Things and AI and students ponder on more complex questions like the challenges, opportunities, and dilemmas of such a world.

Tinkering can be a great way to learn, with deeper comprehension, while having a lot of fun. If you (or your child) want to tinker with electronics / science / technology this summer vacation here are a few links for ideas and inspiration that will get you started:

- San Fransisco Exploratorium Science Snacks

- Toys from Trash

- Steve Spangler Science

- Instructables (DIY projects)

MOOC

- Coursera: Tinkering Fundamentals

- edX: Electronic Interfaces (build a simple BouncyBot and then step-by-step add sensors attached to a micro-controller; also learn fundamentals of electronics; this course is for senior students)

Getting Future Ready

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 11:05:00 -0700

Millions of years back the only driver of change and adaptation was evolution or the gene. Then around 70,000 years back, Homo Sapiens evolved to speak a complex language, with which they could communicate abstract ideas. The advent of language and writing allowed us to codify, exchange and preserve knowledge efficiently. Prof David Christian, the creator of Big History course, calls this ‘collective learning’ and it implied that we humans no longer had to rely on snail-paced ‘genes’ for change, instead ‘memes’ (ideas) became a potent tool for surviving and thriving on the planet.

By using this collective knowledge we humans learnt to augment our muscle power. First, we invented stone and metal tools, then we domesticated animals, after that we harnessed steam, followed by electricity, and made machines do all our heavy lifting. Towards the end of the last century, we started augmenting our mental prowess too, by inventing computers or intelligent machines.

The next giant leap in this trajectory is Artificial Intelligence. As Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity, explains: if you learn some technique to improve your driving only your driving improves (and even if you share this knowledge on the internet, only a few other humans will learn it). However, when an autonomous vehicle (driverless car) learns a new manoeuvre that makes driving safer, this knowledge can be instantly transmitted to all autonomous vehicles.

From genes to memes, we are now taking the next leap, to technology-based knowledge acquisition and instant dissemination (temes?) – where the machine learns by itself (called deep learning) and can update that knowledge instantly to all other machines. You can extrapolate the autonomous vehicle example to all other areas where AI is augmenting or replacing humans, be it medicine or creative expression, and contemplate the social and economic consequences this will have.

The key question for us humans now is: what knowledge, skills, and dispositions learnt today, will help students flourish in such a future?

To put the problem in perspective, in India alone, it is estimated that for the next decade, every month, about a million young people will turn 18. They will all look for a job (or entrepreneurship opportunities). Whether they succeed will depend on whether they are in competition with the intelligent machines, or has the right education prepared them to make artificial intelligence their friend?

In the 1960s, economist Milton Friedman was at a worksite where a canal was being constructed. He observed that the workers were using shovels instead of bulldozers. He enquired why machines were not being used? A government bureaucrat explained that it was a ‘jobs’ programme and the objective was to employ more labour. Friedman has said to have quipped – ‘so why don't you give them spoons instead!’

Policy makers today seem to be keen on taking a similar Ostrich like approach, ignoring the fundamental issues and instead making an argument for low-skills jobs with minimum wage. While for those at the very bottom-of-the-pyramid some such government scheme is and will continue to be necessary, our education policy should take cognisance of the looming paradigmatic shift in the nature of the economy and focus on imparting an education that ensures meaningful employability or entrepreneurship for all; an education that equips students of all hues to be able to live a healthy and joyful life.

My own journey in imparting life skills essential for thriving in the 21st century has been a fascinating one. Four years back, when I first started conducting workshops on 21st-century life skills, I used to take a very direct approach. I would explain dispositions of a good learner, self-directed learning skills, learning to think, learning to be and other life skills with the help of examples, stories, and discussions.

With experimentation, I found that a learning activity or project-based approach worked much better and I started conducting field trips and doing projects like making newspapers where students first formulated insightful questions, then went on a quest to find answers and used these inputs to write articles and create a newspaper. I would also explain ways to make learning fun, like using stop-motion animation to demonstrate the understanding of a topic.

Lately, I have added another dimension to my learn design. The projects and tinkering activities students do are around cutting-edge themes like electronics, sensors, robotics, 3D and virtual reality. Life skills like curiosity, imagination, abstraction, critical thinking, observation, formulating insightful questions, creativity and problem-solving are embedded in the learning activities and projects. I have done so because these technology oriented themes, I believe, better equip students to be future ready by getting them familiar and comfortable with trends that will dominate their lives.

Besides these science and technology themes, to help students learn different modes of thinking and thus enrich their perspective, I am also working on projects ideas like thinking like a historian and other liberal arts projects. Later I plan to focus on themes like entrepreneurship which will help students learn how to create 'value' and unlock the commercial potential of their knowledge and skills. Initiative and leadership is another theme I would like to include in my repertoire.

Most important, for the Learning to Be life skill, that helps students become deeply aware of their own self (physiology, psychology and energy), I am imagining projects and activities that lead to the creation of an Operating Manual of Me!

I believe, Learning to Learn, Learning to Think and Learning to Be, are the RGB of life skills. Like the three primary colours red, green and blue can be mixed to create any colour, these three skills, once mastered, can be used to cultivate any desired disposition, learn any life-worthy knowledge, and hone any timeless lifeskill.

Exhibition at The White Eagles School, April 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 04:47:00 -0700

After the 3-day workshop on Tinkering with Electronics and Robotics, on the fourth day, an exhibition was organised at The White Eagles School, where not only the projects completed during the workshop were on display but students also showcased many other projects they had worked on in their school. These projects were on Science, Social Science, Maths, Hindi, and Art. Students from other rural schools in the vicinity were invited to attend the exhibition. The objective was to expose them to these projects and get them excited about learning so that in future an outreach programme can be started.

On the table, we have electronic components mounted on wooden blocks. The students used these to learn about circuits. The two excited students are holding what is called an 'Energy Stick' which lights up and makes sounds when its two ends are touched with a conductor. Here the kids are holding hands, thus completing the circuit and proving that human body is a conductor

Class-5 student explaining to the seniors how to make an Art Bot!

Last year I had done a workshop on how to make Stop-Motion Animations with The White Eagles School students.
Here they have made a car race animation using play-dough and are explaining how it is made to the onlookers.

Google Cardboard, the Virtual Reality viewer that uses any smartphone and a free app, was a big hit!
In the background, on the table, ToothBrush Bots are on display.

Electronic Cards made with LED, Copper Tape and Coin cells are on display here.

A fantastic model that uses motors and pneumatics (water-filled syringes) is on display here.
Raj, the student, made it at home, all by himself. Great tinkering spirit!

A simple projector! Made by students in the school.

A siphon-based water fountain. Another science project made at school.

A battery made from lemons

Social Science exhibits hall

An electronic display of the cities associated with the French Revolution. A social-science project.

Art exhibits, all made by the students.

More art exhibits

Young students of the school got a guided tour of the exhibition

Children from other rural schools in the vicinity were also invited

Workshop at The White Eagles School, village Devpur, Kutch, Gujarat, April 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 04:39:00 -0700

After conducting workshops in rural schools in the Himalayas, I reached The White Eagles School in Devpur village, 50 k.m. from Bhuj in the Kutch region of Gujarat. Conducting workshops with me I had Mehul, a 12th grader from Delhi and my son, Manan, who is studying in the 9th grade. We interacted with students from grades 5 to 12 and also with the teachers. The topic of our workshops was Tinkering with Electronics and Robotics, with life skills like creativity, collaboration and critical thinking embedded in the hands-on activities. I also conducted workshops on the same theme for the teachers.

Students learnt about electricity, conductors, insulators, circuits...
and used this knowledge to make electronic art, craft and robots!

Manan worked with students from classes 6 to 8 and build sensor-based robots that do not require a micro-controller

Mehul worked with students from classes 9 to 12 and they built Arduino-based robots

Class 5 students making a simple ScribblerBot

Senior students built more complex robots

Mehul had curated videos to explain future trends like sensors, robotics, Internet of Things
and the whole gamut of what is being called the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Manan and Mehul also conducted workshops to introduce Scratch,
MIT Media Lab's free tool to teach coding

A Scratch workshop in progress

I also conducted workshops on Tinkering with Electronics for teachers

Teachers also learnt how to make electronic greeting cards and toothbrush bots

Hard at work!

Ah, the LEDs light up!

And those are some really creative ToothBrush Bots!

Making the Most of Whats App!

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 04:10:00 -0700

I have been conducting workshops at rural schools in India for the last 5 years. 85 teachers and students are in regular touch with me on a Whats Group we have formed. Among other things I take them on 'virtual' tours wherever I go. This time was no different. I took this group with me to Delhi, the Himalayas and to Gujarat, the three places where I conducted workshops in March and April 2016.

Virtual tour of the Kumaon region of the Himalayas.
I took my Whats App group from Kathgodam to Kausani to Almora region.

I would stop to click photos of famous spots, or beautiful scenery and share them on the Whats App group.
This is Kakri Ghat where Swami Vivekananda attained enlightenment.

This is the Chitai temple just outside main Almora town, famous for its bells.
If you don't get justice in a court of law, you can lodge an appeal here with higher powers!

I also try to introduce group members to each other.
This is Vimla, a young and enthusiastic KG teacher at Aarohi, in her well-decorated classroom.

This is Kamla, also from Aarohi, she is also an innovative teacher.
She has just won the Mahatama Gandhi Fellowship for teachers and will be going for teacher training.

This is Anand, who is my transport manager and driver. I include him in my workshops as not only is he charged-up he is also a great role model. At 28 he owns the car he drives and does fruit, vegetable and poultry farming!

Workshops at schools in Maram, Chanoli and Satoli villages in the Himalayas, April 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 04:02:00 -0700

After Hiteshi, in the Indian Himalayas I also visited Jeevashala in village Maram, Government Junior High School in village Chanoli and Aarohi Bal Sansaar in village Chanoli. The theme was the same 'Tinkering with Electronics' and the objective was to explain to students how to think like a scientist and ignite their interest in science.

Jeevanshala, a tiny school in village Maram, that I have been visiting for last four years

Children made ToothBrush bots and then used their imagination to convert them into fantastic creatures!

Enjoying 3D Virtual Reality with Google Cardboard, an inexpensive virtual reality viewer

Government Junior High School in village Chanoli

The school had organised a march under the government's 'School Chalo Abhiyaan'

I liked their students' suggestion box 'Mann ki Baat' (what your heart desires)
- same name as that of the monthly programme hosted by Indian Prime Minister

I too enjoyed the mid-day meal provided free at all government-run schools

Aaron Bal Sansaar, a K-8 school in village Satoli, run by the NGO, Aarohi

Workshop at Hiteshi, a rural school in village Dyunai in the Himalayas, April 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 03:55:00 -0700

At Dyaunai, a village around 15 k.m. from Kausani in the Himalayas, I stayed overnight with my host Kishan Rana, who, along with his wife, Pushpa, founded a primary school here called Hiteshi.

The couple started Hiteshi 20 years back and have been supporting the school from the meagre income from their farm. They are very hard working, mornings in the school and afternoons in their field. Almost all that we ate for dinner and lunch was from their fields! Meeting them was inspiring.

I conducted workshops for their 4th and 5th-grade students and interacted with some of the teachers.

View of the valley from Hiteshi

Hiteshi Vidya Niketan

Kishan Rana, co-founded Hiteshi with his wife, Pushpa

Class 4 & 5 students at the morning assembly

I didn't get a chance to take photos during the workshop but the grand finale was
demonstration of an obstacle avoiding robot to all the students

Workshop at Neev, a charitable school in Gurgaon near New Delhi, March 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 03:51:00 -0700

In March and April 2016 I was in India for three weeks conducting life skills workshops in the Himalayas. I started with a two-day workshop on Tinkering with Electronics at Neev, a charitable K-10 school in Gurgaon near New Delhi. Few photos...

Campus of Neev school, Gurgaon

Tinkering with circuits

The two-day workshop was attended by students of classes 5 to 9

Making a Tooth-Brush bot

ToothbrushBot, made with a vibrator motor and coin cell

Students learnt to make electronic greeting cards using paper circuits

Next Valentine sorted!

With students and teachers of Neev

A Curriculum for Tinkering with Electronics

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 14:10:00 -0700

Tinkering is learning by playing. Tinkering fuels the imagination and catalyses creativity – both essential life skills for the 21st century.

So for my forthcoming workshops in April, I have designed, no curated, a Tinkering with Electronics curriculum. Curated, because I have taken project ideas from MIT Media Labs, San Francisco Exploratorium, Toys from Trash, Science Buddies, Instructables and many other sources.

Over three weeks I will be interacting with primary, middle and senior school students in rural schools in India. Grades 4 and 5 students will start Tinkering with Electronics by building BristleBots and ArtBots – simple toys, built with a vibrator motor, that dance around and can make attractive squiggly patterns. They will also learn how to use conducting dough to create 3D shapes and light these shapes up with LEDs.

Grades 6 to 8 students will learn the basics of electronics and circuits by playing with the Component Tiles (wooden blocks with different types of components mounted on them like bulbs, DC motors, LED, switches and buzzers). These students will also design Paper Circuits – interactive cards made with copper tape, LEDs and coin cells. They will then build four types of robots – a line tracking bot, a light sensing bot, a motion sensing bot and an obstacle avoiding bot, all four without using a microcontroller (a programmable chip). My plan is to also introduce them to coding using Scratch, MIT Media Lab’s free GUI programming tool that has become hugely popular.

Senior school students will learn about advance circuits using breadboards and they will build three types of robots based on the Arduino microcontroller – an obstacle-avoiding robot using an ultrasonic sensor, a line-following robot using IR sensor and a gesture-controlled robot using an accelerometer. They will also learn how to programme these robots. If time permits, we might even try an IoT (Internet of Things) project.

The idea is to start Tinkering Clubs in these rural schools that ignite students' interest in science and technology. I have observed that even in rural schools the pressure of completing the curriculum and preparing students for examinations is very high and any non-exam related activity seems like a digression from the main agenda. Hence, 21st-century life skills, like tinkering, are best introduced as the second strand in the DNA of education, the first strand being prescribed-syllabus focused education. Such an approach, I find, creates least friction to new ideas.

Creating and equipping such Tinkering with Electronics clubs is not very difficult and also not a very expensive proposition. Many online vendors in India now offer components required for tinkering and a club offering several electronics and robotics projects can be started with a budget of Rs 20,000 (£200) odd.

But there are challenges.

Finding a person who is excited about running such a club is one challenge. For many teachers, such activities like clubs are added burden with no monetary payoff. Some teachers still have the ‘sage-on-the-stage’ mindset and for them leaping into areas where they lack formal training is daunting. Still I am hopeful that we will be able to find mentors who are excited about starting such clubs with not a ‘know-it-all’ but a ‘co-explorer’ spirit. These mentors could be teachers, senior students, or local youth – someone who has the tinkerer spirit in abundance.

Another challenge is easy access to related knowledge so that when students are learning informally and in a self-directed fashion, they can course correct themselves by referring to myriad learning resources. Good news here is that there is no dearth of online guidance and information on such topics. Slightly bad news, especially for rural Indian schools, is that much of these online resources are in English. To the extent possible I plan to help club members by creating relevant web-based learning resources in Hindi and providing guidance through Whats App groups (something that I have been doing for the last couple of years).

In April, I will be accompanied by Mehul, a class 11 student from Delhi and my son Manan, a class 9 student. Following the Tinkering with Electronics curriculum, they will both be conducting their own workshops. I am hopeful that they will return charged-up and will continue contributing by adding learning resources (videos, tutorials etc) to the planned digital learning resources repository for the tinkering clubs.

I recently came across the word ‘Libratory’ – combination of laboratory and library and I think this captures the spirit of a tinkering club – a Laboratory 2.0 that focuses on emerging areas like sensors, robotics, internet of things, 3D, virtual reality… backed by digital access to online learning resources or a Library 2.0.

This combination, offered in the form of clubs, as opposed to exam-focused learning, could be the right form factor for imparting 21st-century life skills and igniting in students a passion for science.

GPS or Compass?

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 08:03:00 -0700

Formal education tends to behave like a GPS giving learners step-by-step instructions for a well-defined world. This GPS approach worked well in the 19th and 20th centuries when stockpiling knowledge in a domain, in the form of a University degree, usually assured lifelong employment because the rate of knowledge accumulation in most domains was not very high.

In the 21st century, knowledge is exploding and the terrain is changing every minute. Most employment or entrepreneurship depends on three things – muscle power, mental prowess, or dexterity. The industrial revolution led to machines replacing human muscle; today nano-machines are replacing human dexterity and artificial intelligence is replacing or augmenting human cognition. Chances are that learners today will switch several careers in their lifetime and formal education at best prepares them for their first career.

When unchartered waters lie ahead no GPS can help. Learners need an inner compass.

By inner compass, I don't mean a moral compass but a compass that helps learners figure out for themselves how to make their lives purposeful and joyful. An inner compass helps learners stay ‘on purpose’. Peter McWilliams explains in his book Life 101, “A goal is something that can be reached. A purpose is a direction, like east. No matter how far east you travel, there's still lots more east to go. A purpose is never achieved; it is fulfilled in each moment you are on purpose."

The inner compass behaves much like the Golden Compass in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials. It can point out the clues to the most profound life questions. It can help light the three life-valves, “To-Be, To-Do and To-Have” in that right sequence.

Having set a broad life trajectory the inner compass can help learners figure out: What is Worth Learning? – life-worthy knowledge, timeless life skills and right dispositions (qualities of the mind) that will keep them ‘on purpose’.

An inner compass helps learners find their True North.

ACGT Life Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 01:46:00 -0800

In my forthcoming workshops in April, I plan to build on the theme of 'Tinkering with Electronics' that I had started last December and introduce robotics in rural schools in India I work with. For this, earlier in January, I had ordered robotic kits from two vendors in India and purchased one here in London for evaluation. The one I bought in London was nicely packaged, with clear instructions and worked like a charm. However, it was double the cost of the Indian kits. I wrote off the first Indian kit as I was opening it because it was shoddy. As it is most students find STEM subjects daunting and using unwelcoming hardware to introduce technology would make my job significantly more challenging!

The second kit was better. During assembly, I found one component faulty and to save time I ordered that part locally in London. However, even then I could not get the kit to work. So I got in touch with the company. They arranged a Skype chat with a member of their support team, who asked me to get a multimeter and start testing the capacitors on the micro-controller board! Worse, two capacitors were shorting and this person asked me if I had a soldering iron and could I remove the solder bridge that must be shorting the capacitors. Though I am no electronics engineer I have tinkered enough so I removed the solder bridges and got the capacitors working again. However, the micro-controller board still did not work. I was told that the issue requires further investigation. This was last week and I am yet to hear from them.

I am giving a very abridged account. In reality there were delays in shipment, many emails were exchanged, assurances were given but not followed through et al. Bottom line is that in an age when Amazon has spoilt us with prompt delivery and no-fuss exchange my experience was rather unpleasant. This company is founded by alumni of the most famous technology institute in India and while my case may be an exception it left me a bit anguished that how could such a company lack quality checks and not understand the importance of customer delight. Is fostering such a spirit and mindset out-of-syllabus even in a premier technology institute?

I was reminded of the cult book ‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ and felt that ‘metaphysics of quality’ and ‘gumption’ are perhaps essential dispositions which should be a part of any education.

This raised a more fundamental question: Are there any ACGT life skills that we all need to learn and hone? ACGT are of course the primary nucleobases that make the DNA and DNA is the key ingredient for life within. My question is are there any primary life skills that make up the DNA of the life we lead out in the world?

In my opinion three strands of this ‘DNA of life without’ are:

1 Self-Awareness: a deep dive within where you investigate meaning, purpose and how you can make your life joyful. Understanding the construct of your emotions and ability to rewrite the script that plays inside your head are included here.

2 Ability to take ownership of your learning: here I include curiosity, intrinsic motivation or firing up a yearning to learn, figuring out what is worth learning and then finding out ways to learn it well.

3 Ability to think independently and deeply: this includes critical, creative and the new-kid-on-the-block, computational thinking and also ability to formulate insightful questions that help you get clarity such that you can abstract and make sense of patterns to solve complex problems.

There are many other contenders for ACGT life skills like information literacy, which includes an ability to find, validate and use information in an information abundant world, or financial literacy, or empathy, or initiative… However, our investigation is about simple, primary life skills that lead to all other permutations. For example, building character is coming back in fashion in education and this includes ethics and morality. However, I believe if a person is deeply self-aware ethics and morality are not something you need to teach. They are natural ingredients needed for a life well-lived.

What we are looking for are fundamental, building-block life skills so that focus can be on imparting these well to all hues of learners. We could then rely on the property of emergence for self-directed development of other skills, competencies and dispositions, including gumption and quality mindset!

I think a discussion on ACGT life skills is much needed and would be very useful. Your thoughts and ideas are welcome.

What’s the Title of Your Life Story?

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Thu, 3 Mar 2016 23:19:00 -0800

Thinking of a title of your life story can be a good exercise in catharsis. You can not only look back and think of appropriate titles for different stages of your life, you can also look forward and imagine captions for chapters that lie ahead, which will make your life more joyful and meaningful. You can then strive to live a life true to the future title of your memoirs. I did this exercise. Here are the results.

I started my career with a national daily in India and after a brief stint moved to a prestigious Chamber of Commerce and subsequently worked with two privately-held companies. Then in 2001, in Singapore, I co-founded a venture providing bespoke e-learning and knowledge management solutions. I don't have a MBA and I had no experience with large corporates so this bold decision to quit a well-paying job and take an entrepreneurial plunge I caption, ‘Playing Without Pedigree’.

My son was also born in 2001 and the alternate title of this stage of my life could well be titled, ‘Chasing Clients, Changing Nappies – How to Successfully Juggle Two Start-Ups!’. After initial hiccups the e-learning venture was fairly successful and an apt sequel to ‘Playing without Pedigree’ could be, ‘Market was my Litmus’.

By the way, my other start-up is not doing too bad either and the headline here is, ‘Empower, Role Model. Then Let Him Be’.

After about a decade of managing my e-learning company a chance visit to a remote village in the Himalayas, where I got to interact with teachers in small, rural schools and on an impulse got a few students to make short videos using my smart-phone, I got enamoured with the idea of providing 21st century life skills to under-privileged children. Gradually I got sucked in and started spending more and more of my time pondering what are the most relevant ‘horizontal’ skills like learning to self-learn and learning to think, that are essential for success in the fast changing 21st century, in addition to the conventional ‘vertical’ competencies like expertise in a particular domain.

As I started investing much of my time and resources shaping this informal, not-for-profit initiative friends would admonishingly ask, “How are you going to scale? What is the business model?” Only half in jest I would retort that I have a very unique business model. A business model that doesn’t even feature in the best-selling book ‘Business Model Generation’. It is called ‘she earns - he burns, but wisely’ and for the model to succeed you have to be married to a successful banker, who is better than you are (i.e. she can earn faster than you can burn)!

Three years back I got introduced to Isha yoga and was instantly hooked. With me doing yoga and dabbling in philanthropy based on ‘she earns he burns’ model, this chapter of my life is best described as, ‘Yogi and the Banker’. However, I have had to revise this caption as earlier this year my wife switched careers and she now works for a large mining company. The new title of my current life phase reads, ‘I Mine Within, She Mines Without’.

Straddling the worlds of for-profit, not-for-profit, job, entrepreneurship and philanthropy what I have come to realise is that the secret to joyful aliveness is living your life with absolute exuberance, no matter what your pursuit. As I move to full-time philanthropy, along with a deeper dive into yoga, the title of the next stage of my life is, ‘Ascetic in Exuberant Action’.

An eminent educationist who knows me well, some years back prognosticated that my life may well be summed up as, “Entrepreneur at 30, Philanthropist at 50, Philospher at 70”. To whatever degree, first stage – check, second – on track and two decades and a bit hence, given the heady mix of philanthropy and yoga, the title of this part of my biopic may well be, ‘For Me, the Cave’ (who knows real or virtual)!

Thinking of apt titles for different stages of your life, past, present and future, can be a great exercise in connecting the dots, sense-making and figuring out where you want to go. Give it a shot.

It’s About Time

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 06:05:00 -0800

In their annual letter, this year Bill and Melinda Gates write about energy and time. Among other things they describe the importance of opportunity cost of time. Opportunity cost is the next best use of a resource. If instead of doing what you are doing right now what ‘other’ thing could you be doing? That ‘other’ thing is the opportunity cost of your time. The letter highlights opportunity cost of time for women, especially in South Asia and Africa, who are doing unpaid, menial chores instead of spending that time getting education, better health and pursuing income-earning opportunities.

Opportunity cost analysis of time is also very important for you. It can serve as a lens for introspecting about your life. Ponder on what you are doing vs what you could be doing different to enrich your life.

Usually when we think about time we think only of time management. How can we do more with the 24 hours we have in a day? How can we become more efficient, effective and productive? Then we come up with all kinds of strategies to make the most of our time like learning to prioritise, or as students we make a time-table and might adopt techniques like pomodoro or the wedge technique and most frequently we create 'To Do' lists.

This view of time management I think is a micro view of time. It is important but we also need to have a macro view of time. What organisational psychologist Elliott Jacques calls ‘Time Span of Discretion’ – the longest time a person is capable of spending on a single task.

At Level-1 of Time Span of Discretion are people capable of spending just a few months on a task. At Level 2 to 4 people can invest between one to five years pursuing their intent. At Level-6 are statesmen and business leaders who have a time horizon of 20 years to accomplish what they have imagined. Level-8 are people who have a vision that will have a 100 year impact. Finally, at Level-9 are people like Gandhi and Einstein whose work has an impact for centuries because they “planted trees under whose shade they did not expect to sit”. From Mandela to Obama, Gandhi still has huge influence globally and the recent observation of gravitational waves bears testimony to Einstein’s thought experiments done a century ago.

No doubt micro aspect of time is important, especially in today’s world where technology allows you to fill otherwise dead time productively. Like the time spent commuting in buses, trains and airplanes, or simply waiting can be productively filled by reading, listening or watching something on your mobile phone. Or, in such moments simply watching your breath, as advocates of ‘living in the moment’ will tell you, is a type of meditation that makes you more conscious and aware.

However, most of us seem to be losing sense of macro aspect of time – ability to have a life pursuit with a very long time horizon, with success not guaranteed. I think reasons for this are many. In our hurry to become socially successful (more money, power, fame) we have become slaves of time. Time is money. And FOMO or Fear of Missing Out makes the ‘time is money’ phenomenon even worse. “There is money to be made in the booming e-commerce sector in India – start-up today, IPO tomorrow. Don't miss this opportunity.” This sort of peer-pressure escalated, comparative approach to life makes it extremely difficult to pause and ponder if we are making investing our time wisely.

To makes things worse we believe the way to live life is sequentially: “I will first make money, then have a family and after I retire from my active income generating pursuits I will do some socially relevant work.” Nurse Bronnie Ware, who worked for several years with terminally ill patients in the last weeks of their lives records “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying” in a book with the same title. The most common regret her patients had was, “I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Male patients who missed the growing up years of their children and their partner’s companionship lamented, “I wish I hadn't worked so hard.” “I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends” was another of the top five regrets.

Learn from the words of the dying! Life is better lived in parallel. The wheels of life turn more easily and smoothly if you give time and energy to all the spokes – social success, physiological success, psychological success and spiritual success.

Based on such an opportunity cost analysis of your time rewrite your ‘To Do’ list. Consider the importance of all the spokes of your life and whether you would like to reach a much higher level in the ladder of Time Span of Discretion.

And remember, success of your new 'To Do' list hinges on it being accompanied by a 'Stop Doing' list!

Ooch Before You Leap!

noreply@blogger.com (Atul Pant) — Sat, 20 Feb 2016 02:38:00 -0800

Couple of days back I met a 15 year old. He mentioned that this summer holidays, after his GCSE examinations, he would like to do a short internship in a bank or a tech company to get a feel of what life is like in these professions. He is interested in economics and technology and he figures that such an exposure will get him a better sense of what pursuit of these subjects can later lead to.

In their book ‘Decisive’ authors Chip and Dan Heath describe what this young student wants to do as ‘ooching’. Ooching is dipping your toes to test the waters before you dive in. You may have pre-conceived notions about a job or a profession – the glamour of being an actor, or the money in finance but rather than basing an important life decision on your notions it is better to test your assumptions, to the extent possible.

'Decisive' authors highlight that some colleges are making it mandatory for students to get some work experience to become eligible to apply for a course. For example, Hunter College at the City University of New York, for the undergraduate course in physical therapy, does not admit students unless they have spent at least a hundred hours observing physical therapists at work.

Ooching sounds great but I do not know how feasible it is for a 15 year old to get a summer job in a bank or a tech company. He is a minor and large corporates will have strict rules and regulations about engaging a minor even for a short, unpaid internship, plus they will probably not be very keen to take on the associated hassles of insurance and other legal and risk issues.

But today there are several other ways to ‘ooch’ what different professions feel like. A tech or a fin-tech start-up might be a more conducive place for a minor, as would be many non-profits. In fact, I personally think for a young person volunteering their skills and talent for a good cause is excellent experience.

Or, perhaps this young person could request mentoring meetings with professionals and if he can frame the right questions he can get good insights into what a day in the life of that profession feels like, what it entails to get into that profession and what it takes to succeed. To make this mentoring meetings more disciplined this young person could perhaps start a blog. Writing and editing what he learns in an interview will lead to more introspection. Each new interview will also improve quality of questions asked. The ‘Cut to the Chase’ interview series we had run last year had the same objective – to give a feel of a profession, what it takes to get into that profession, what it takes to succeed and how the profession might change few decades from now - http://timelesslifeskills.co.uk/interview/

This youngster could also collaborate with his friends, conceive an idea and crowd fund it. The idea could be development of an app, or a tech project for a non-profit, given that IT is an area of his interest. Or, he could do crowd-based fund raising for a charity. I know someone who, for her Diploma in Rural Management, is planning a crowd funding project to get Android Tablets for a rural school in India. While such a project might not get insights into a profession and it might even fail to raise the target amount, it will definitely give useful experience of conceiving, planning and executing an idea – great competencies to have in the 21st century.

In today’s world reputation matters. The open-source hardware movement has led to large communities forming around electronics and micro-computers. Arduino and Raspberry Pi communities are two examples. This youngster could actively participate in such communities, imagine and share innovative, problem-solving projects and guide others. This way he will gain experience, have a portfolio of projects and build an online reputation - stuff that is pretty useful for college admission. And, imagine all the fun he will have!

Or, this young person could take inspiration from Amol Bhave. 17 year old Amol, from the small town of Jabalpur in India, did MIT edX’s MOOC on Circuits & Electronics and scored 97% The follow-up course on Signals & Systems was not available as a MOOC so Amol, along with two friends, created their own online course combining videos lectures, discussion boards and elements from MIT courseware. 1100 students from around the globe enrolled, enough to impress MIT to offer him a place for the class of 2017.

Reality-testing different professions and your perception about these professions is definitely a great way to improve your decision-making about your career. And, the second decade of the 21st century offers many ways to ooch.