Playing and learning are synonymous for children.

Children of all ages develop cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically through play. Play provides them with an opportunity to create, invent, reason and problem solve - key skills for the 21st century learner.

Every important concept can be taught through organised play. Children’s play, whether functional, constructive or socio-dramatic opens up a new dimension of exploration, discovery and enjoyment for children and learning happens in a natural and intuitive environment.

Most children learn the difficult of skills before the age of five, be it crawling, walking, speaking or riding a bicycle. Most, if not all, of this is done through play and intrinsic motivation. And when a child begins formal schooling at the age of five, he/she is expected to learn without play. Play becomes a reward, to be doled out after the child has learnt/accomplished a chunk of curriculum/work. As a result, slowly the child starts disassociating play from formal learning, which not only puts them in an unnatural environment but also squeezes out the joy that creation, invention, reasoning and problem-solving brings. In some cases, learning and playing, transform from being synonymous to antonyms.

The adult - teacher or parent - has a crucial role in planning, monitoring and assessing the learning outcomes of play; who should ensure that learning while playing is organised and explicit and not incidental to the learning activity.

Yet, today, there is very little use of play in teaching children. Schools are hesitant, if not phobic to the idea of play as a tool for learning. This is primarily because, as adults, we have successfully unlearnt how to play and associate play with fun alone. The use of term “fun” in the context of play has done much disservice to the application of play in learning. Play like learning, need not necessarily be fun, but to be a successful tool it does need to be engaging, at all times

The author writes a regular blog http://artoflearning.in/ 

Publically launched in April 2009, the World Digital Library (WDL) is easily the most exciting e-learning tool on the web. It exemplifies what Web 3.0 is about and its power to transcend geographical boundaries and reach global audiences promoting cross-cultural awareness and understanding.

Developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress in partnership with UNESCO, WDL makes available on the Internet significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. The digital library contains materials from over two-dozen libraries around the world, searchable in 7 different languages. The library will continue to add content and will be the largest collection of the world’s cultural riches that would tell the stories and highlight the achievements of all countries and cultures.

The digital library makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site. One of its many exciting features includes multiple forms of search and browsing capabilities that allows items to be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities.

Home Page - Interactive Search Browser

The library’s cultural treasures include manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings and more. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.

Even with its current limited range of resources, it can easily be seen that the library has the potential to transform teaching - learning in a classroom. The variety of literary resources that will be available to seekers of information can have wide implications for collaborative learning (including international collaborative learning between grades) and in bringing multiculturalism and the real world into the classroom.

Thank you Nancy, for bringing this to our attention.

In both the countries of my residence, it is the beginning of the festival season, that goes well into the New Year. Adults approach festivals either as harbinger of joy, laughter, socio-cultural interactions or the “been there (many times over), done that (many times over)” syndrome, harbinger of the holiday blues. For kids it is fun, fUN and FUN, year after year, after year-a time for revelling in colours, lights and sounds.

In Canada, there is a wide range of festivals from pumpkin picking to apple picking and Halloween to Santa Parades. There is an amazing sense of celebration, multicultural and cross-cultural, that engulfs the country and its people, making the most of the outdoor life before the onset of severe cold. The Fall Season itself is a multi-sensorial experience with the leaves showing off their richest hues, farmers harvesting their best yields, people savouring all sorts of freshly baked pies, music, theatre and film festivals dotting the city’s calendar. Special efforts are made to make the festivities child-centric, to maximise their sensorial experience. Schools design curriculum around these events and teachers plan out students’ learning using the festive environment. For instance, the autumn leaf can be an interdisciplinary unit in itself. The vibrant shades and shapes of leaf can be a lesson in art. The falling of the leaf and life cycle of trees and its adaptation to its environment can be a lesson in science. The song “Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down” by Shari and Jerry Tallon can be a lesson in music while early Math is easily discernable in counting and patterning of the leaves. Foliage can be an interesting road to traverse in Social Studies comparing foliage in different places - Canada and another place. Nature walk or simply jumping on the pile of fallen autumn leaves can be a piece of physical education.

In India, the whole year is marked with festivals but they are in very quick succession between September and January. The sights, sounds and flavours that mark Indian festivities make them memorable experiences. I recently took my three-year old to the neighbourhood Ramlila, a dramatic re-enactment of the epic Ramayana that goes on for 9 to 11 days. Ramlila, in itself, is a multidisciplinary and cultural unit. There is a script, prose and poetry, on which the drama is based; the rich genre of folklore and mythology. There is Math in the measurement - area of the place, seating arrangements to be made, tickets, costs etc. There is a huge component of Art - both visual and performing arts. The science of sound and light is most obvious; social studies is prominent in the study of land and its culture.

Not only do festivals provide a learning opportunity and multi sensorial experience; but it also provides the opportunity of strengthening our family ties, in an era when the hurried living is taking a toll on the very values and virtues that these occasions celebrate. For adults, these celebrations may be routine or ritualistic but for children there is novelty in all these festivities. We can infect them with our cynicism or joie de vivre. The choice is ours.

Recently, I came across an interesting article by a parent and an educator about raising an introverted child who found her child’s temperament very different from her own and those of her “star children”. Instead of moulding her daughter to become something or someone she was not; the mother decided to understand, embrace and appreciate her “different” daughter.

Sailing in a similar boat, my three-year old has a temperament of his own that is very different from both his parents. He is an extrovert who has had this uncanny ability to strike an interaction with people of all ages, gender and race even before he could walk or talk. Our families like to explain this difference between him and us in terms of genetics or environmental influence. I believe that it is primarily a temperamental thing. Genetics and environment contribute to it but are not the main determinants. We are who we are because that’s what energizes us along our path to self-actualization. Introversion and extroversion are continuums and not isolated traits of which we display deferent degrees based on circumstances, interest, mood, etc.

As adults, parents and teachers, we want to see ourselves in others, hear what we believe in from others before we can acknowledge and interact with others. We find it bothersome interacting with someone who is different, in abilities, views, interests etc. As a society that is basically intolerant of differences, we decide that an individual’s natural temperament needs to be moulded in a certain pre-determined manner based on our perception of the ideal. For instance, I have often wondered why most schools have a uniform for students. The idea of homogeneity is so dear to us that we enforce uniform code of apparel but do not care whether the child dresses up smart or sloppy. Recently, I visited a prestigious boarding school in the hills where children have the liberty of wearing what they want, within prescribed parameters. All children that I met, fifty odd, were dressed smartly, decently and appropriately. It is about accepting and treating them as individuals not as collectives.

A child who speaks softly, reacts quietly to new situations and likes to learn by observing and not by overtly participating is frowned upon and pronounced slow or disinterested. Whereas a child who participates actively, talks loudly and responds quickly is branded bright. We as parents and teachers are prone to believing that the former needs to be educated and trained to become the latter; the more valued of the two individuals. Look at the teaching learning and assessment practices in our schools - how many schools differentiate the content or process or product to individualize education for students? Within the given school realities, good schools do it all the time, while others are busy making excuses to justify their actions.

Both at the micro level of an individual and macro level of a society, we need to let individuals be and empower them to be more of who they are within the realm of safety and security, rather than create pseudo-nothings or as my partner calls them “sab-janta-phools”. This is difficult work, time-consuming and iterative. But it is the only way to foster self-concept and mutual respect.

 The author writes regularly at www.artoflearning.in 

The size of the global education industry, defined as all the money spent by governments, individuals, and corporations on education and training, is almost three times the size of the global entertainment industry, and double the size of the global telecommunications industry.

So why do technical innovations in education feel like hand-me-downs? What is it about education, or educators, that make this industry so relatively sparse of innovation? Some of the obvious answers are it’s hard to sell new technologies when they’re being bought by non-profits and government entities. Or, educators’ grip on traditional methods is too tight. Or, investors don’t like the education market because they don’t understand it.

However, the real answers may lie elsewhere.

One of the reasons for the adoption of technology in education being low is because education is more complex than either entertainment or communications. If you’re educating well, you are both communicating and entertaining as you go. So it follows that education technology should borrow heavily from both these fields and should essentially be an integration of components that both communicate and entertain.

However, the integration of technologies into education requires the developer of education technology systems to understand the learning process and the teaching process inside out. People who know what makes learning work and why? What makes learning exciting, interesting, rewarding? People who by their training in education and interest in curriculum, understand the theoretical underpinnings of how education carried by technology should be framed and delivered.

Experts with these qualities are hard to find as education as an industry is full of people who are content experts, and severely lacks people who are learning experts or more specifically, learner experts who really get the whole process, and are passionate about it, from the learner’s perspective. The technical sector too is dominated by people who are technical experts but understand little about the teaching learning process.

One of the implications of this is that for technology to start playing a bigger role in education, it would have to move beyond the bits and pieces role that it currently plays and create products that reflect how learning is achieved instead of just the delivery aspect of education/curriculum.

This blog borrows from the views given here.

Art of Learning runs a regular blog at www.artoflearning.in. 

Here are some simple and practical student-friendly teaching techniques which can be incorporated into the classroom. These techniques, if used purposefully, puts the learner at the centre of the learning experience by increasing their participation and engagement in a classroom; providing an opportunity of moulding their learning experience; and by building a connection between the environment and concepts taught.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLES: Connecting theory with environment

The introduction of practical examples into the subject matter serves as an enhancement and is complementary to the concepts taught in the classroom. Note that it is important to develop the conceptual and practical base simultaneously since neither is useful without the other.

SHOW AND TELL: Reversing Teacher - Student Roles

The “Show and Tell” technique can be used in various forms depending on the subject content, the age group of the students and the degree of their sophistication. In its most elementary form, show-and-tell can a form of story-telling (development of communication skills); and in its more advanced form is another type of the “Practical Examples” technique. Putting the students into the role of a teacher makes the students look deeper into the assigned problem.

CASE STUDIES: Bringing “Real-Life” Scenarios into the Classroom

Cases are accounts of “real-life” activity, they help the students to better relate concepts to the “real-world”. In this method, Learners can be required to work either individually or in groups. The case method promotes classroom discussions, problem solving and feedback from learners.

GUIDED TEAM PROJECTS: Introducing practical experience into Classrooms

Team projects can be short projects/activities which are completed in one classroom session or longer projects/ activities which span multiple sessions. Team projects give learners an opportunity to work in a team environment, applying concepts learned in the classroom. Students work together in teams generating ideas/solving problems/illustrating concepts while giving the entire class opportunity to participate and reflect during the presentation.

OPEN-ENDED LABS: Making learners think deeper

Open-ended laboratory classes are classes where the students are encouraged to design their own experience / concepts or experiments, rather than required to follow a rigid set of guidelines specified by the teacher. This learning strategy is all about exploring alternative methods of doing things which results in a deeper understanding on what works and what does not while fostering creativity and lateral thinking.

THE FLOWCHART TECHNIQUE: Organizing flow of thought

The technique of flowcharting, as applied to a classroom scenario, is a tool for precisely and concisely representing the flow of information among various stages in the development of a concept; in the formulation or analysis of a problem; providing linkages between various steps; and presenting information / thought.

OPEN-ENDED QUIZZES: Moving students away from memorization

Open ended quizzes (e.g. problems that do not specify all information to arrive at the answer; problems that require students to use their judgement, etc) are an enhancement of the straightforward “Given this, calculate that” or “Plug and chug” type of quizzes that merely encourage students to memorize. The open-ended quiz is intended to stimulate students’ creativity and help students think deeply about the material covered in the classroom.

BRAINSTORMING: Encouraging creativity

The brainstorming technique is widely used in industry and academia to encourage participants to generate ideas in an unhindered manner. In an academic context, brainstorming encourages students to participate actively in idea-generation exercises and experience benefits of a multi-dimensional approach to analyzing problems or solutions. The brainstorming technique is applicable to all levels of the curriculum and to all teaching scenarios - labs, lectures or discussion.

4MAT: Catering to multiple learning preferences

The 4MAT approach caters to the multiple learning profiles of students (recall, understanding, application and synthesis) and each lesson is planned to focus on each preference. Learners are encouraged to participate in all approaches thereby learning through the preferred approach while strengthening their weaker areas.

QUESTION-AND-ANSWER METHOD: Encouraging student participation

This is the most commonly used technique of encouraging learner participation in a classroom. The goal of the question-and-answer method is to draw students into active participation in the teaching and learning process. When used properly (merely posing questions is not enough to motivate learners to move to higher levels of learning) this technique encourages learners to move to higher levels of learning by clarification, expansion, generalization, and inference.

Summation

The teaching strategies mentioned above enrich the classroom environment. The success with which these strategies are used in a classroom is dependent on the skill of the teacher in integrating the strategies into the stated learning outcomes. It requires that the teachers devote time and thought during the planning of the lesson and determine the manner in which these teaching strategies will be used.

It should be noted that that these strategies do not imply a “hands off” policy by the teacher, but is plays a big role by acting as a facilitator / consultant in guiding the learning process. The effectiveness of each of these techniques is only limited by the creativity / enthusiasm of the instructor and the constraints imposed by the system.

A few days ago I was reading an article by an eminent Indian educationists and came across a reference to a 1991 report “Learning without Burden” and its conclusion that “the problem of curricular load is rooted in the system’s inability to distinguish between information and knowledge”.

An analysis of this statement reveals its various components (Note that the analysis is based on the above statement alone, and not on the original document. I can barely wait to lay my hands on the report and read it cover-to-cover

The malaise: Curricular load of the Indian student is high

The source: Inability to distinguish between information and knowledge

The breadth: System-wide

What intrigued me about the statement was the insinuation that the nearly the entire population of India (constituents of this system – policy makers, the schools, teachers, curriculum designers, examiners, parents and students; past and present) has failed to do something (in this case distinguish between information and knowledge). Quite a LARGE problem, I would say!!

The other issue that struck me was the source of the problem itself – our inability to distinguish between information and knowledge. This is a life skill that we practice every day if not at every conscious moment, and therefore should be the one skill that we are most proficient in. What troubles me more is that this deficiency is aggravated at the very institutions which should be responsible for honing a child’s skill to master this competency. If we are not teaching our children to gather and organise and analyse data into information and skills to make informed and competent decisions (knowledge), then what exactly are we teaching our children?

While acknowledging the fact that a considerable proportion of us (including people in the workforce) do give more weightage to the data and information rather than the conclusions / interpretations that can be drawn from the information, I do not think that this is the main cause of the problem being faced by Indian education. At best, it is a manifestation of other more severe issues that should be addressed on an urgent basis.

I think that one of the biggest issues facing teaching learning in Indian education is the excessive emphasis on 2 events is a student’s life, to the absolute exclusion of all other events and achievements- the 10^th and 12^th class board examinations. Schools / parents / teachers and community at large recognise the importance of these two milestones in a child’s life and have developed processes that would maximise the probability of scoring big in these exams.

* Parents are known to discourage all activities that would impinge upon study time which would result in a compromise of even one mark. The period before the board exams are one of the most strenuous for most parents, I personally know of parents who stay awake late at night with their kids administering regular doses of tannins and caffeine to induce insomnia in extend the hours of study.

* Most teachers also are resistant adopting alternative teaching practices. In a fact finding interview, on teaching practices and the development of creative skills in students, some teachers replied that “they have never felt the need to acquire such skill” and that they did “not think that there was any relevance of promoting creativity in a classroom in so far as performance in the examination was concerned”.

My observations, while may be a bit simplistic, provide clear direction on where the problem lies and the vice like grip it has on the choices of the various stakeholders of the Indian education system.

Yesterday, I came across a very curious bit of news - California has announced a ban on textbooks in schools. One of the reasons for such a radical move was to save money for the state exchequer, as textbooks were too expensive and that California spent $350 million on textbooks that it could no longer afford.

I dare say, if I were to meet Mr. Schwarzenegger, I would tell him that the $350 million that he hopes his government will save, would not result in a radical change in the financial situation of the State of California.

Nevertheless, a seed had been planted in my mind; and when that happens, additional information on the subject does come my way, without me necessarily actively seeking it. So I was not surprised when I discovered soon thereafter that the State of Virginia had decided to go with some open source online textbooks in its schools.

Hmm… it was now time for me to find out how wide and how deep this trend actually was – and I decided to actively seek out further information. I have been acutely aware of the differences in reading styles between GenNext (who can’t seem to read from a traditional book) and myself (belonging to the antiquated GenX and who cannot read anything but text on a piece of paper). Within this context, I mulled over another discovery that Barrett, the Honors College (in Arizona State) had proposed the use of the Kindle DX (a wireless electronic reading device from Amazon) to be used in a pilot group study and that the roster for the study group was filled up at an extraordinary speed and as soon as the students came to know of the use of the device in the class.

UK also seems to have made significant progress (probably in the last 10 years) towards a paperless classroom with an estimated 20% of the learning resources in primary and secondary schools being purely in digital form. Further, it has been estimated that in the next 10 years, this figure will reach 40%… interesting statistics to say the least. Casual discussions with teachers and educationists also revealed that many schools around the world had moved away from using textbooks in primary grades.

While these trends do not in any way suggest that paper based textbook has outlived its usefulness and it will soon come die a natural death; it does clearly lay down the path that teaching-learning methodologies / philosophies and aides are taking. Such trends are less noticeable in developing countries like India, where digital penetration is low and the digital divide is quite significant. However, the sizable Indian middleclass and the affluent do have the option and the opportunity of taking the same route their cousins in developed countries are taking.

This brings me to another discussion that I had with friends a few weeks ago, where my opinion on the topic was the minority opinion of “one”. At that time, I had raised the possibility that, we may in the future see a world, where children may not necessarily have to enrol into a school for their learning and technology would enable the learner to attend any school of his/her choice and study from a teacher of his/her preference. In this argument, I was opposed by my friends and colleagues; on the basis that a child needs a teacher and peer interaction that a school provides, for his/her overall development. I do not disagree with these needs of children, but contend that, in the world where children choose their environment of study separate from the four walls of what we today call a school, these needs of children would be addressed in another social setting.

Are there any takers out there who would agree with me on this discussion?

I have a recollection of someone telling me some time ago that education needs to be rescued from the 2, 4, 5 of the current system (2 covers of the textbook, 4 walls of a school and 5 days a week). Developments in some quarters suggest that we may have made some headway towards this direction, but the practice is far from pervasive. However, recent and emerging trends clearly show the direction in which education is headed.

As a parent of a 3-year old son who is an articulate communicator and natural inquirer, I am currently facing a dilemma. If I put on my educationist lenses to view the issue, the dilemma assumes very serious proportions.

My son, who will turn three in a fortnight, goes to a preschool where kids are organised by age grouping with March 31 (DoB) as the date cut-off for determining the age grouping - a logic that pervades enrolment procedure for subsequent grades as well. Since he was under the age of 3 on the cut-off date, technically he will continue to be in the 2-3 years grouping even after June (when he becomes over 3 years of age). There is a huge developmental gap between a 2 year old and a 3 year old. 

It is not that this problem has just dawned on me; it was a concern I had expressed at the time of enrolment, but my mind was put at ease by assurances of differentiated learning within the same class. From training and experience, I understand the implications and benefits of differentiated learning so I decided to be patient and see how differently he and similar children in the grade would be taught. But now patience is running out as I haven’t seen much of the differentiated instruction in action during the past 2 months that he has been going to school. 

My dilemma stems from the fact that I do understand the working of schools and the issue of teacher training in differentiated instruction and assessment in schools, but how do I reconcile that as a parent of an ever-eager-to-learn soon-to-be-three-year-old.   

As I search for sorting the dilemma, I ask myself, using the powerful words ofKaren Morrow Durica: 

Is it truly easier for all to sit and learn?

Should 8-years old all share the same ability and concern?

Does everyone learn better when there is silence in the room?

Do 50-min periods give all the time to bloom?

Is the only way to learn about geometry from a book?

Are having 5 neat paragraphs how each essay should look?

Does every brain work at its best at 7:45 am?

Do practice tests for seven weeks make everyone thrive?

Does every learner need a break at exactly the same time?

Are projects better if each one must have the same design?

Does only certain literature make someone a better reader?

Do only sports, or math, or speech make someone a leader?

Can everyone show what is known by way of written tests?

Does giving “points” inspire everyone to do their best?

Does compliance to school rules define a better student?

Is it possible the misfits are as able, bright and prudent?

Appears if we look closely at the structures we embrace-

Creating hardship for some students, making school a hampered place:

We’d understand that many problems seem to be our fault-

How we do school is often for the convenience of the adults.

If teaching were as simple as using the one best way to teach everyone, “one size fits all” kind of approach,  it would be considered more of a science. However, there isn’t just one best way to teach everyone and that’s why teaching is an art.

E-portfolio (EP) learner preferences in an EP system:

Flexibility: EPs are about people, rather than technology. EP tools should be unobtrusive, supportive & flexible to accommodate the diverse learner needs & preferences who can benefit from the ability to integrate their choice of tools into the EP system (i.e. social networking websites for discussion or mobile devices for capturing evidence). The ability to customise is especially important if EPs are used for reflection and personal development. Flexible EPs encourage learners to explore different ways of understanding and recording the learning journey & to gain a better appreciation of their learning preferences.

Learning Goal Matrix: EPs are most effective when used along with a learning goal matrix and introduced to learners at the very beginning. The goals matrix, discussed and negotiated first with the class, establishes ownership of the portfolio building process and encourages learners to reflect on their learning throughout the development journey.  EP based tasks have more credibility for learners if learner progress against the goals matrix is assessed.

Teacher Engagement: Learners become empowered through the reflective cycle associated with EP based learning. However, learners require guidance and direction throughout the learning cycle and a system that promotes dialogue with teachers and provides prompt and personalised feedback is preferred. Teacher engagement enables learners to be more focused on attainment of learning goals by facilitating an understanding of areas for improvement.

Peer learning: Working partnership between learners, teachers and peers is important in the achievement of EP-based learning objectives. Peer-to-peer support in a school establishes a shared understanding of the value of EPs for all participants. Participative discussion within EPs during reflection helps identify difficulties that impact the achievement of learning goals. Reflection provides a record of skills development over time – a progressive track record of which can boost learners’ sense of self worth. 

Supporting e-portfolio learners: Flexible support options are critical to learners’ progress. Learners are more likely to respond positively if EP use is introduced through carefully scaffolded tasks.