Blank document

Ever wondered 'how to begin' or 'what to write' when you are given an empty page with nothing on it? It's hard because you have to first figure out how to structure what you want to write. This is particularly hard for novices (in any area). I will give an example from the area I am most familiar with - Programming. For example, if a novice is given a blank editor and asked to write a program that produces a specific output, the first thing that crosses his mind is "what do I start with" ?(I don't remember the references for this.. will pull them up later on, but I can say this thought is for real because I also went through it). It takes time to get used to syntaxes and the general structure of the program (references later on) and till then a blank editor is always scary.

The same can be said for any new document that needs to be filled. If you are told to fill all the details of your taxes on a blank document, how are you going to start? How do you know what all is expected from you by the document processor (in this case the tax dept. and in the case of programs - compiler/interpreter)?

That is why, all such documents have questions or visible place holders that convey clearly what information is needed and where. These documents are commonly called 'forms'. Although, now I'm not sure why Visual Basic calls it's blank canvas Form. The word "Form" generates the image in mind that it will have place holders in it conveying how the information needs to be structured.

Clearly, learning from these "Forms" and providing a good template to scaffold the programming skills of a novice is the need of the hour. There are editor wizards, but you have to have a certain level of expertise with the language before you can start using them. Can't we come up with something that is intuitive and provides enough support to help a novice begin?


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It's different !! - A new school model

When Dee Thomas and her colleagues got together 15 years ago to design a new high school, they knew there was one thing that had to go: The bell. Thomas said that everyone agreed that the constant interruption of classes caused huge amounts of strain. Moreover, it's just not natural, Thomas said.

"You don't go into your job in the morning and say, 'OK, for the first 42 minutes of my job, I'm going to do the math part.' And then a buzzer goes off, and you do the social history part of your job. You don't do that," Thomas said.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15322289&ft=1&f=1013


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Quality of education in India - A study

"According to an ASSOCHAM Eco Pulse (AEP) Study “Comparative Study of Emerging Economies on Quality of Education’, India was ranked at the second last place among seven developing countries in terms of education quality as it score minimum points in primary, secondary, tertiary and demographic parameters as compared to other six emerging economies of the world."
http://www.assocham.org/prels/shownews.php?id=1815

This is quite disconcerting and reflects the urgent need of focusing our attention on this critical issue. I'll write on this more later on....

For the full report visit -
http://www.assocham.org/arb/aep/quality-of-education_nov_2008.pdf



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You don't need a reason to be happy...

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-> Where the hell is Matt?
Every time I watch this video, it makes me smile :)
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-> What is happiness, and how can we all get some?
Excellent talk by Matthieu Ricard on Habits of Happiness. Watch the video

Google Tech talk by Matthieu Ricard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_30JzRGDHI&NR=1
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-> Want to know what it really takes to succeed?
8 steps to success in 3 min. Excellent stuff !! Watch the video
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- Enjoy life as it comes and never fear. You FEEL what you WANT to feel.

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C O N F I D E N C E !!!!!!

I received this short story by email today morning. Really liked it .. so decided to put it up here...
(Source - Uttishthata@yahoogroups.com / www.uttishthata.org)

When Henry Ward Beecher was a young boy in school, he learned a lesson in self confidence which he never forgot. He as called upon to recite in front of the class. He had hardly begun when the teacher interrupted with an emphatic, "No!"

He started over and again the teacher thundered, "No!"

Humiliated, Henry sat down. The next boy rose to

recite and had just begun when the teacher shouted,

"No!" This student, however, kept on with the

recitation until he completed it.

As he sat down, the teacher replied, "Very good!"

Henry was irritated. "I recited just as he did," he

complained to the teacher. But the instructor replied,

"It is not enough to know your lesson; you must be

sure. When you allowed me

to stop you, it meant that you were uncertain. If all

the world says, 'No!' it is your business to say,

'Yes!' and prove it."

The world will say, "No!" in a thousand ways.

"No! You can't do that."

"No! You are wrong."

"No! You are too old."

"No! You are too young."

"No! You are too weak."

"No! It will never work."

"No! You don't have the education."

"No! You don't have the background."

"No! You don't have the money."

"No! It can't be done."

And each "No!" you hear has the potential to erode

your confidence bit by bit until you quit all

together.

Though the world says, "No!" to you today, will you

determine to say, "Yes!" and prove it?

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Have a positive day!

Nurturing Ideas Into Actions

Okay.. so it's time I wrote down the "good" ideas before they vanish into thin air. The funny thing is that these ideas come to your mind when you are the least prepared to attend to them e.g. one day before your final exams or when you've just woken up from a "perfect" sleep and have no clue what time or day it is !! (maybe Murphy's law..).

With each idea, I will try to break them into sub-components that seem more achievable. The final goal, as the title suggests, is to put them into action.. try them out. And I want everyone to participate and own these ideas.

IMPORTANT: If you don't have any ideas i.e. NO-IDEA about anything, you are probably the best person here because you will get lots of different ideas to pick from :)

So here goes:-

1. I want to make a public space that allows participants to discuss their ideas in a collaborative and active way. These ideas SHOULD be about doing good to others and can include lots of stuff. I will begin with some and leave the field open for more -
- something that you saw today that want to rectify
- some good act that you saw today that you want to emulate
- some problem you faced today and you have an idea about how to avoid that
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example:
-> I saw a person providing food to lots of homeless people in my neighborhood. I want to do something similar...

Going back to the public space, here's how it "might" work:
a. People pool in ideas without being afraid of being criticized
b. Discuss ways of putting those ideas into actions
b. Everybody sees those ideas and suggestions and comment
c. The idea draws other people (co-located or distantly located) to participate in executing that idea
d. A plan evolves on how to get it done.
e. It gets done!
Simple? Not really.
What's the motivation? Why would people participate? -> (Answer) The group consists of people who WANT to do good. They wouldn't be here if they did not. So they are pre-motivated :)

[[ I don't have anything more to add to that right now and I have NO-IDEA how this will get done ]]

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2. Bringing textbooks alive (the name says it all.... make learning fun and engaging for children) - But how?



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3. Learning in an immersive environment

a. hmm... this might make learning fun and engaging... seems like a direction
b. using experience prototyping for creating immersive learning environment
b1. what constitutes an immersive feeling/experience?


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4. The next three ideas came to me as part of the project for the Happy-Healthy-Home class:
(contents removed... to be included after some refinements)