Serendipity and Learning

The vacations are coming to an end. The vacation for education is the human civilizational equivalent of disappearing cities. The books have all been covered with layers of mud, forests and infested with dangerous animals - mostly amnesia inducing. But the schools are about to reopen. And those ancient cities need to be discovered. Again. Now. The discovery is not easy though. The locals say that such cities never existed. The little ones deny that they were ever educated in the alphabet. In fact they are quite sure that certain alphabets do not exist in the Devanagari script. Satellite images clearly show the presence of lost cities under the earth, but the people around are not convinced. Old books have been produced, with their own writing to show that they were once educated in this language. However, a combination of amnesia and denial can do many things to civilization. And only the bravest of the brave archaeologists can delve deep into the mounds, brave the snakes and animal...

Solving a problem..Innovation...whatever you want to call it! A useful video to share...

It is one of those things that do not need explanation! Worth a watch this one...

Some years ago at a job interview a candidate told me, "I am looking for a challenge that is why I am looking for a new job" And I asked him,"Why is staying at your current job not challenging enough?" A few days ago, the little one was building yet another complex contraption with his building blocks and was stuck. He said, this is difficult. And off went the parental machine,"Well everything is difficult. Things take time and effort. And you know it. But ask yourself how come you do these challenges very well with patience, time and effort while other challenges like Hindi make you crib" "I don't like Hindi" Yes, in both cases, challenges are challenges only if the mind sees an element of positiveness in them.  If the learner does not accept your challenge as a challenge but as a drudgery then you have lost the battle. The 'why' has to be established in the learners mind - and then challenges become challenges worth tak...

Each time one downloads a new game app - the most likely reason is curiosity. Which is really, "Let me see what it is about." And in an area that we are interested in - that is the big pull. Do I care. If I do not, the existence of it is invisible. Once you download, what sustains the interest for that immediate trial is the novelty - because it is different - either the genre or the treatment or the format or something like that. The second is the challenge - how easy or difficult is it. And the trick is for it to be exactly in the middle  - not too easy not too difficult. And from then on, it is all about sustaining interest - are we progressing while maintaining the level of interest and challenge and that the parents do not see it as a waste of time and so on so forth. Until now, only two games have sustained our interest beyond 6 months. Take it Easy and Clash of Clans (now deleted because it was eating up too much time of parent and kid). Threes made it for a few w...

I read a fascinating article in Swarajya magazine the other day by Sanjoy Mukherjee (the content is behind a paywall), on Prashnopanishad and on questioning. Apparently the story goes that the students asked 6 questions, one after another and after one question was answered, they asked the second one and so on. Each question took them to a higher level of consciousness and so on from which they never turned back. That got me curious about the Prashnopanishad. ( From the wiki page ) The opening verses of Prashna Upanishad describe students who arrive at a school seeking knowledge about  Brahman  (Ultimate Reality, Universal Soul). [13]  They ask sage Pippalada to explain this knowledge. He does not start providing answers for their education, but demands that they live with him ethically first, as follows, [13] तन् ह स ऋषिरुवच भूय एव तपसा ब्रह्मचर्येण श्रद्धया संवत्सरं संवत्स्यथ यथाकामं प्रश्नान् पृच्छत यदि विज्ञास्यामः सर्वं ह वो वक्ष्याम इति || To them then...

As we played Valiant Hearts - the game is free only unto a point - it becomes chargeable. And the game, engaging as it is, stops at a crucial point and says, "Want to know what happens to these heroes?". It is as great as a pull as you can get. The game was engaging - for all of us across age groups and it was particularly interesting because everyone was involved, taking charge, guessing and working it through. And as you might imagine - we purchased the first episode. Not sure if we will buy the rest (though they have used some really smart behavioral psychology methods) - because it depends on interest being sustained etc., but the post purchase experience has been good either. The graphics, the game, the clues, the interest - have all been flawless. What if we did this with learning experiences? What if, we were able to give a teaser of a learning experience (of anything - online, offline, virtual - whatever the mode)? And tell the learner that if you want more, yo...

Anyone can build a castle in the air. But to build a real livable castle on the ground, on time, within budget, with all the approvals and still create a wow factor - that is something. And that is the reality of any environment. Whether it is building a house or organizing an event or building a training. Creativity within constraints is where the ability of the really creative people come out. How can one do a truly outstanding job with the constraints at hand. But there are times when one sees this creativity in action delivering something truly out of the box and yet very relevant. What can one do as a leader? Push the team to think harder. Just that little bit. Like the challenge for the learners in the previous post - pushing the team to think a little more works. (How and when you do it is the secret sauce.) What can do one do as a person? This is trickier. Because, for one, creativity may or may not be appreciated. Second, the stakeholder may or may not want ...

As we usually do, the little ones and I explored the app store for trying out a game or anything that catches our fancy. This is something we do quite often. Explore. Discuss. And then try out. Sometimes we try out someone that someone has recommended on the net (and usually paid apps fall in this category). Sometimes, we try out something on a whim. And a few clicks later, some apps fail the initial interest test and are deleted ruthlessly. Some sustain interest for a longer while. Some keep us occupied for a long time. And so on and so forth. (As customers, someone who explores the app store is more ruthless than a channel surfer on television. But thats for another post.) As part of this process, we chanced upon an app named Valiant Hearts. It is part graphic novel, part strategy game, part war game, laden with juicy clues as 4 people make their way across a war theatre (WWII). (Aside: There are zero games with Indias freedom story as a backdrop as much there is a ton of WW...