I was walking briskly with my #camera, with an intention to #photograph #Kite-making, in the short half an hour time I had. This young man, a #logistics-auto plier, tapped me as I was passing by his auto and asked, “#Reporter?”, “Write for #Magazine?”. I said I do write, for my websites and blogs, at times columns in newspapers. His #enthusiasm was so #infectious, I paused to talk to him….. As he started, realized this #interaction will be so invaluable for #youth who give a million reasons for their inability to perform. Hence recorded….
listen to him…..
Since I was in Ahmedabad, I had acceded to requests from Baroda and Ahmedabad offices of CL Educate to take PDP workshops. These we’re eight hour sessions, covering..
A. Understanding self
B. Personal Victory
C. Public Victory
D. Creating a vision for self
E. Building Profile
Leading to excellence in life
At the end of the sessions, quite a few participants started asking questions on how they keep their enthusiasm for long, overcome their language challenge etc…
I just showed them this video that I had just captured… Each one was overawed.
Yesterday was a very insightful, introspective and compelling morning, being at the ITIHAAS’ 9th Annual Summit of Teachers and Educationists. Over 250 of them congregated in this annual immersion from across the country. Prof Poonam Batra, an eminent professor who has contributed immensely to the education space in the country, and Ms Prachi Agarval, noted developmental psychologist were the first ones to address the esteemed audience on the issue of, “Teachers and Curricula in the times of Educational Reforms”
It was a pleasure listening to Prof Poonam Batra of Delhi University on the shifts in the outlook towards education as the nation went on a roller-coaster ride that the ruling dispensations took the nation through, with their concept of nation and nationalism, paradigms of developmental economics, notions of secularism and tolerance! Here are a few of the salient points I managed to capture and tweeted live too.
Prof. #PoonamBatra #Teachers&CurriculaInEducationalReforms @ITIHAASKiBaat
Teachers have become one of the most marginalized, in a society that is hierarchical! #EducationalReforms are driven by #EconomicReforms. what are the #HumanIndicators? #Health #Education sliding further
#Teachers are catalysts in societal transformation. But #liberalization made the schools a market place #lessonplans, #studentprojects are being bought! #Teachers become #laborers #corporates who don’t understand #children and #education are packaging
#EducationPolicy is being pushed by #VentureCapitalists. #Teachers are no where in deciding what, why, when, where and how of #curriculum. #market has taken over #love, #affection too. Where is #Education? Where is development of #people?
We are focusing on #learningOutcome than #LearningExperiences #joy #child #Centricity has vanished! #Education has to be contextual, you cannot have global uniformity. Marginalization of #knowledge #context of course #Teachers.
#Child-centred vs #Discipline, #traditional vs #modern, why do we see only #polarity? Best way to learn is to have a non-threatening environment? Freedom means free to make mistakes, air opinions! Children observes your walk, do not talk!
Here are few points that I captured from Prachi’s sharings – @PrachiAgarval
Why do we go to #school? How many of us as #Teachers promote #questioning? Do we help the child to #realize his #potential? #developmental #relationship
Are we listening, understanding children? Are we co-creating? are we making children comfortable in committing mistakes? Helping them be compassionate? how many of us use our potential? How will we help children unearth theirs? #ExpressCare belonging, #ChallengeGrowth
Singers from TONK who have been championing the cause of education in country side, championed by dear friend Amir Abidi and his movement. The audience had the privilege of listening them.
I had short engaging interaction with the audience on “#Perspectives, in the rapidly changing #world”.
Thanks to my dear friend Manohar Khushalani, an eminent theater personality and a Professor at IIIT Delhi, who went live on FACEBOOK while I was engaging the keenly learning facilitators and mentors in the auditorium.
#Education is so much more! It is not about syllabus and marks for sure!
I am summing up the three things that any #educationist or #institution should strive to facilitate in a #child………………………..
1. Desire to #learn, through life: Life-long #learner
2. Have #courage to push boundaries: #Discover more of self. Dare to make #mistakes.
3. Be #humble whatever you achieve: #humility
These will not only help one in the changing times, but also #facilitate one ride the #change. Be the #master of your journey and destiny. Be the #change-maker. #Impact the #world.
#Shivani of @ITIHAASKiBaat nicely summed up. If you do not know #where you are #coming from; if you do not take pride in who you are, #why and #How will you know where you want to go? Do we facilitate #integrity #compassion #courage #humility?
Smita Vats, the founder of ITIHAAS concluded in her inimitable style, exhorting the teachers to create their own stories that they and also the society will be proud of, and also facilitate children in a manner that their stories too become legends.
It was an honour to have Prof S Sadagopan, Director IIIT Bangalore, as the chairperson of the Meltingpot2020, a landmark movement, an initiative by CL Educate, that is working towards bringing youthful, research-oriented entrepreneurial education institutions and innovation fostering industry players.
(Prof Sadagopan interacting with Dr. Mashelkar, former chairperson of CSIR, the keynote speaker at MeltingPot2020)
Prof Sadagopan, in his opening remarks spoke about how the time has come for both, educational institutions and industry, to work together with technology playing the role of innovation amplifier to solve problems that will change the nation.
IT as innovation Amplifier
Core competence of most of us who started in 1960s –
We digitized everything over the forty years
Changed industry after industry
2Ts were the largest exports
Tea, to drink
T for textile
IT is the largest now
8bn dollar revenues today
MMT changed how travel industry works
Today innovation has changed how governments functioning
IT has been enabler and amplier of innovation
Kapital needs is much smaller in tech space compared to other spaces
NEXT PRACTICE, from CK Prahalad, one of the foremost thinkers India has produced in the modern times spoke about how next practice is what we need to focus upon
For the youngsters, your time has come, with all humility we can change the world
Our generation went to the US, worked for the best, for the US and Europe
We contributed a lot, that shows up… GOOGLE and Microsoft
SATYAM, SIVAM, SUNDARAM….soon we will have a SIVAM joining Satya of Microsoft and Sundar of Google
Solving problems in India
From 2010 things have changed
Indians solving India’s problems, in India
They have global reach
Tweak the innovations with price-performance parameters
Examples
Railway reservation
A 60 kg human being had to go 16kms for reserving his seat, one day gone
Now we can have it in a jiffy, from anywhere. With millions doing reservations every day; imagine the man days saved, at one-tenth cost
Travel-khana
Food delivered at Train stations – priced at 29,49,69 rs
Delivered to your seats – breakfast, lunch and dinner
33 million people travel every day on trains
Investment is a pittance
Redbus
Organizes small bus operators
Handling 2 buses to 6000 buses today
A Stanford undergrad student of sociology
Heard about India’s innovation explosion
Landed in Blore at my office
She was fascinated how they were using Egipura
They were using missed call
Husband comes up picks her on cycle when he receives a miss call
Missed call service offered by banks
1 for balance in account… 2 for ….blah blah
She starts a business in Thailand and Malyasia – Valerie is her name
Can we make a difference to our neighborhood, that is happening
It can make a big difference
We need to make a delta difference, not just an epsilon
Health, fitness, stamina, endurance, speed, alacrity are paramount for any individual’s excellence and fostering of team spirit, belonging, oneness, collaboration in the process of realizing the greater vision is the key to organizational excellence.
The Annual Olympic Srijan holds a mirror to each one to take stock of personal health and team health parameters. Here, I managed to capture a few glimpses to stitch into one short film. Enjoy.
Endeavaours at the Dibrugarh university are adding more magic to the students and the university, empowering them to excel in life. Post my last visit in August, I had shared a short write up, here is the next post. The Videos here share what a human being can gain, how one can transform in life, in just a matter of four days. It is all about the awakening that one goes through, discovering the purposefulness in life and with determination moves in the direction that he or she ought to move.
Enjoy listening to their reflections and sharing of their delightful transformations…
Here is a video that strings together short captures of many participants making their presentations, and engaging in public speaking, for the very first time in life. Look at their confidence.
Every presenter has worked in a group of complete strangers, from other departments of the university, to study an alien topic (the topics they never ever read or studied about – due to poor reading habits), discuss, engage, share and then create a presentation to engage larger public of aliens (other groups).
I gain a lot more inspiration from the whole exercise, as it reinforces my belief that it is possible to bring the transformation in a very short span of time. I believe, I can.
The powerful “Empowerment to Excellence” program takes its powerful strides in the second season at Dibrugarh university. The four-day intense, interactive programme enables every serious participant to transcend every barrier that one has created for oneself in our journey of life. The program has been liberating each one from the shackles and helping each to realize the infinite potential we all have. It facilitates each to believe in oneself, to dig deeper and discover, what more one can be.
This year we are initiating 1200+ students into their empowered, rejuvenated and joyful journey ahead.
Just listen to the students giving their feedback on what they have gained out of the program and experience their unshackling…..watch their confident presentation skills, even on those topics that they never even heard of, let alone study.
Since I had space constrains on my mobile to videograph the whole of two hours, I voice recorded the entire introspective session. Kindly find time to listen to the enthusiastic sharing. You will be surprised how they share about not just their own, but also how they invited their shy friends to come into public and openly share..
– The transformations they have seen in themselves and, their friends and classmates
– The cathartic experiences
– Commitment of participants for their own future and that of the group
The four day process is an engaging endeavaour to help each participant
– Explore oneself, Understand oneself well
– Make notes on strengths and areas of concern for improvement
– Realize the elements of personal effectiveness
– Understand the secrets of being an effective communicator
– Being a good participant in group discussions and activities
– Being an effective presenter and communicator
– Being a very good communicator even while writing
– How to invoke the leader in you, and take leadership
– Introspect, realize and set an agenda for personal growth
Finally
– Create a vision for oneself, for ones career and life
– Set Long term and Short term goals
– Commitment to ones own development and also development of the entire group
These sessions were facilitated by R. Sreenivasan, with Bhargav Deori and Dr. Sarvjeet Herald as co-facilitators.
Looking forward to the second half of season 2 scheduled for Sept 8-11 that will have participants from humanities, commerce and all non-science and technology faculties.
If you are reading this and are from Dibrugarh University, make sure you make the maximum out of Sept 8-11 schedule.
Every year, this time of the year is a challenging time for most students who are graduating from school. The expectation that is thrust on each by the families and society really takes toll on every child.
It is very important to understand the child and help the child have confidence in himself or herself, in their capabilities. Through the school, facilitate the child to understand self and the world around, by exposing, exploring, experimenting, experiencing, imbibing in many contexts, across a variety of spaces in those eight intelligence dimensions – linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, nature, kinesthetic, Musical (read the article Every child is gifted).
The world is looking for problem solvers and shall dish out anything to have such on their board. Money is never a problem. Be a learner for life time, have courage to push boundaries, to discover what more you are; Be humble in any given situation… So much more in this panel discussion with renowned career counsellor, Ms Pravin Malhotra.
If you have any more thoughts or doubts can surely write to me sreeni@careerlauncher.com
