Is Content really King? Then Long Live Google!

At a recent discussion on Learning innovations, the favourite topic turned out to be eLearning.  What was interesting though was the attempt by more than one speaker to capture the classroom experience and bring it online.  The lecture was largely attended by lecturers – mostly the arts and science colleges.  It seemed like the whole discussion, for them, was zillions of miles away from their reality. 

In an era where the student is perhaps more clued in to what’s happening around the world, the teacher will look woefully out-dated.  They seem quite out of touch with the progress that’s happening in their own sphere of competence.  This is one instance where the old adage “Content is King” has been dethroned.  The new era demands that the teacher is able to reinvent himself and create pedagogical constructs that puts the content in the right context. 

“Koshwan Acharya” (The one with the book is the teacher) is out.  Google has replaced the book.  The teacher will have to become a facilitator – bringing the appropriate pedagogy into play to make the content relevant and transform it into knowledge. 

On a related note, ( pkmadhu's post) talks about the huge opportunity in the content development space.   For this to become a really huge opportunity, I think the learning context needs to change.  Can Kindle replace today’s textbooks?  Is that again the right approach.  IMHO, that again is just one more way of recreating the old paradigm in the new world. 

If the Gutenberg press was in a big way responsible for changing teaching methods, moving it away from the spoken word to the written and read medium, and in the process also making it available to the masses (and not restricted to the elite few), I wonder what will drive the next revolution in teaching.

Any bold predictions?

Technorati Tags: eLearning,Knowledge Management,Content Development,pkmadhu,KenQuest

To Sir, with Love

What would it be like to become the Headmaster of one of Chennai's most famous institutions at the age of 27? An onerous responsibility for sure, but it would seem like an equally challenging opportunity to carve the destiny of a school. And that was exactly what Mr. Kuruvila Jacob did. As this school turns 175 years old, all old boys of MCC School will definitely salute this man, who made this school one of the most prestigious institutions in Tamil Nadu, probably even in India. For the students of MCC School who studied from 1932 through 1962, he was a powerful force who influenced them, and to put it in the words of more than one man of that time – "Made men out of boys". And we are talking of people who are doyens of Indian Politics and industry; but yet to hear them talking of their teacher is truly inspiring.

And so yet again, August 3^rd was a day when people from different walks of life gathered to pay tribute to one of India's finest teachers. What makes this gathering so unique is the manner in which they choose to pay tribute to someone who inspired them during their formative years. A group of students belonging to this era have come together to create a trust that goes by the name "The Kuruvila Jacob Initiative for Promoting Excellence in School Education". This has been formed with the objective of encouraging schools adopt a more holistic concept of education that allows students to develop a well-rounded personality. One of the key objectives is to act as a catalyst in aiding schools adopts innovative methods and techniques in the learning process. Towards this cause, they have launched an Education Leadership Program that provides senior teachers of various schools to gain exposure in advanced teaching methodology and training methods. The CII Institute of Quality and IIT Madras (whose director Dr. MS Ananth is an old student himself) have been largely instrumental in designing the TQM program and the web-based learning programs, while the Eduction Leadership program is being conducted in conjunction with CEMD, Delhi. They have been taking these educational methods to Government-run schools and supporting the teachers create a more effective mechanism for increasing attendance in schools and reducing drop-out rates. (http://www.kuruvilajacob.com/school.htm has more information about this)

The web-based learning project is yet another initiative that is set to transform the way teachers teach. In a move to make education more student-centric, there has been a lot of emphasis on creating an environment where the teacher is the facilitator and allows the student to explore and discover knowledge. In the collaborative environment that is the classroom, this knowledge is shared and discussed, thus creating new knowledge. Even in the days when the Guru was considered the sole resource person, our ancient texts said the knowledge was the cumulative process of combining the teaching of the guru with introspection, interaction and experience. Today's challenge is to make available the cumulative experience of the class so that the student's learning goes beyond the experience of just one individual. From that perspective, web-based education, rightly-harnessed will allow for greater collaboration among schools and in the process greater sharing of knowledge. It is hoped that this learning process will not duplicate a typical classroom learning experience, but harness the power of the internet to make the resource available in a manner that facilitates and encourages the student to explore and create his knowledge base.

"When I graduate, I'll probably have a job that doesn't exist today". This quite aptly sums up the challenges of the students of the Net generation. In his best-selling book "Grown up Digital", Don Tapscott talks about the this generation of learners thus: "They seek choice, customization, collaboration, fun, speed and innovation in their learning… they expect to learn how to learn, not what to learn." Students will use technologies in collaborative inquiry-based learning environments with teachers who are willing to assist them in transforming knowledge and skills into products, solutions, and new information. How well will our schools be able to transform themselves and adapt to the new pedagogy – the intersection of pedagogy, content, knowledge and technology?

As long as we have far-sighted teachers like Kuruvila Jacob, we can rest assured that schools will face up to this new challenge too.

Profit from Music…

I have just finished reading Grown Up Digital and have been trying to relate this with a lot of the changes that are happening with respect to how people are networking. From Sharad who has been looking at the mobile device as a means for recruiting people to Prabhu who has in fact been dabbling with this new revolution for quite some time, there is a paradigm shift in the way people are learning to reach out to what Don Tapscott calls the Net Generation.

So it came as no surprise when Prabhu introduced me to the latest gadget he has been working on "UTVatPlay". A user-customizable radio (called the UDIO) – something that one can configure in three simple steps: Add Music that you like, Add your voice, Save and Launch! So, what's exciting about this? This is an excellent adaptation of the social networking concept to the world of Music. Throw in the ability to customize and personalize your radio (an important criteria for the Net Geners) and I have a powerful medium to reach out to my social network. I have the ability to add my voice, so I can now host my own talk show, or share information with my friends. For example, having just returned from a vacation, I can now talk about how wonderful the holiday was, and why it must be a place that you must go to if you want a quiet holiday…far from the madding crowd. This, surely will have a lot of takers…especially like-minded friends who are looking to get away from the hustle and bustle of their daily hectic lives. So, this now becomes even more powerful than a status message which I put on facebook!

The second important aspect is the ability to bring together a group of people with like tastes and preferences. When I create a radio which contains music of my liking, it is quite likely that I will have some followers (quite similar to the followers of my blog) who will be keen on knowing what kind of music I listen to. More importantly, for someone who is looking at getting a target audience with similar interest profiles, it is quite possible that they will now have a profile of people who apart from belonging to a network have also similar taste in music. I'm sure that's something that is of immense value to someone who is looking for such a niche target market.

The third aspect is that this tends to grow just as any other Social Network. I will soon be linking up to friends and friends of friends who have got something interesting to talk about, or are playing music which I like. And soon enough we'll probably have a group that keeps close tabs on what each other are doing. More importantly, for someone who is tracking all this, it soon becomes quite evident the kind of music that is popular, the radios that have the highest audience, the time and duration that people listen to these radios each day. An advertiser can easily pick the sweet spot for placing his commercial in between songs.

I just hope Sharad gets to read this…for I'm sure he can come up with another million ideas of how to exploit this medium!

And while he does that I'm trying to figure out how this can be used in a knowledge management scenario…especially one that may benefit the microfinance sector!!! Any ideas….leave me a note.