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Atanu
Joined: Dec 26, 2001
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Theoretical Issues
March 6, 2003 - 09:27 AM
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The term "open society" was first proposed by French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) and developed further by the Austrian philosopher Karl Popper (1902-1994) in his 1945 book Open Society and Its Enemies.
"At the most fundamental, philosophical level, the concept of open society is based on the recognition that people act on imperfect knowledge and that no one is in possession of the ultimate truth."(http://www.osi.hu)
George Soros' article on the concept of open society:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98jan/opensoc.htm
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Atanu
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Technology Forecasting for 2020
March 6, 2003 - 11:54 AM
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TIFAC has released forcasting reports for these technology areas.
For details:http://www.corporatepark.com/tifac/vis2020.html
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Atanu
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J V Narlikar
March 16, 2003 - 12:38 PM
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It’s Question Time: Children Must Look for Answers*
J V Narlikar
Curiosity killed the cat. What killed curiosity? The answer is CAT, meaning conformism and teaching. I am talking of curiosity in the context of school education, of course.
In his autobiography, the famous astrophysicist Fred Hoyle recounts an episode from his primary school days. His school teacher had told the class that a certain type of flower has five petals. Young Fred was curious and wanted to check the facts by looking for those flowers. While most did have five petals he came across one that had six. He brought it to the attention of the teacher. Had there been only four petals, one could explain the fact by arguing that one had fallen off. But how do you explain the extra petal? Was the rule of five petals wrong, after all, he asked. The teacher was not used to being so questioned and responded by boxing the boy’s ears. Fred, however, did not take it lying down. This is not the way of answering a legitimate question, he argued and managed to convince his mother that she should change the school.
Autographed Answers
So far as putting a lid on a child’s curiosity is concerned, Indian schools have been no different. Children are encouraged to memorise the text as well as the answers to question raised therein, regardless of whether they understood the subject matter or not. Their schools hardly provide suitable outlets to their spontaneous questions in case they didn’t.
This fact was driven home to me in the following way. For years, I had been operating a scheme of encouraging students to ask questions. At the end of a public lecture there would be the inevitable autograph-seekers. Rather than give my autograph then and there, I would announce that one could get my autograph by sending a post card with a question relating to what I talked about, and that my anwer would carry my signature. The system worked reasonably well for a while ands was based on the premise that of those who rush in for an autograph of the speaker, usually only a small fraction are serious about the subject. So onlythose would filter through this scheme and thake the trouble to write. I was only too happy to spend time replying to their questions as they represented a spontaneous outlet to human curiosity. One NGO in Mumbai subsequently published a booklet of these question-answers in Marathi, under the title Science through postcards.
However, we Indians are good at misusing well intentioned programmes. My intention was to encourage spontaneity in asking questions. Some school teachers began to dictate questions to their class, which were to be sent to me by the students. Thus one week I would receive 50 postcards with identically phrased requests for many autographed answers.All from same class of the same school. Then there were instances of students sending in routine textbook questions which their teacher would have answered, but didn’t, because the teacher said, “Since Dr Narlikar is answering is anwering these questions you better ask him rather than me.” Reluctantly, therefore, I have now stopped that scheme.
Our school syllabi, teaching methods and examinations are, with a few exceptions, based on encouraging conformism and rote learning. Questions by students are discouraged for several reasons. The teacher does not have the confidence to answer the question. Or,the question, although a good one, may be irrelevant to the subject matter in the syllabus. Or, the class is too big for the teacher to be able to establish a one-to-one rapport with each and every pupil. And, of course, there is shortage of time for questions as the syllabus is crammed with too much matter.
Curiosity Amiss
Whatever the reason, curiosity takes a backseat well behind memorization of the subject matter. We may proudly assert that this is the way our ancestors acquired knowledge, which was orally learnt, memorized and then passed on to the nest generation. This is the way the Vedas were handed down from generation to generation. It also tells us why we do not have the wealth of written knowledge of ancient origin as in the West or in China.
Rote learning, however, freezes the knowledge base in its tracks; there is no evolution, no addition. It discourages creativity and originality. I recall an incident when I was in the 10th standard. I had found on my own, a new and shrt proof of the Pytahgoras theorem. I gave that proof in the half-yearly examination. My class teacher called me to say that although the proof was a good one and he was giving full marks for it, he wished to caution me against giving it in the Board examination; for the examiner there may not appreciate it. I still recall his words: “If the examiner sees an unfamiliar diagram, he will give you zero for it, without bothering to read the proof. The reason? He may have very little time to look at the answer-books.”
This time-crush is often held as the prime culprit. With syllabi overloaded with subject matter, harassed teachers addressing huge classes and many outsider interruptions like bandhs and holidays, who has time to answer pupil’s questions or to encourage a new line of thinking? It will take a long time for lw-makers to get their priorities right and encourage more schools, smaller classes and syllabi that emphasis compression rather than an excess of information.
Search and Find
Nevertheless, given the fact that teachers will have no time in the foreseeable future, can we encourage students to be more self-reliant? Can they find answers to their questions themselves? Just as finding a hidden person in a hide and seek game brings pleasure, so can searching and finding the answer to your question. If the school has databases like encyclopaedias, Who’s Who, and books specially written with answers, students may browse and locate the answers themselves. With the Internet growing in its coverage and access to it becoming cheaper, the neworked PC can be an invaluable tool in the quest. Even with six decades behind me, I experience a childlike thrill whenever my search leads to website with the much sough for information.
But this will work, provided school authorities create a time-slot for such a search-and finf exercise, just as they create a time slot for games and PT. During this period, the students are let loose in the library and information center of the school to find for themselves the answers to their questions. For, they do still have questions despite our educational system..as I have found whenever I engage them in question and anser logue. I have learnt a lot myself by doing so.
*Times of India, May 23 2000
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Ashwin Gopinath
Joined: Oct 26, 2002
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Country: India
Province/State: Kerala
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Mobile Internet Unit
March 28, 2003 - 08:57 AM
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Knowledge and Project Management Services for a replicative model based on the Mobile Internet Unit (MIU). The Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) was birthed from the endeavour to bring ICT literacy to the marginalized, particularly the rural communities. A coach, complete with trainers, a server, internet-ready computers, printers, scanners, LCD projectors, etc, was built through the collaborative effort of NITC, UNDP, APDIP, the Ministry of Education, MIMOS Berhad and Automative Corp (M) Sdn Bhd. For more information about the MIU, please visit http://www.miu.nitc.org.my/
I got this from GKP website, i dont know whether you all have gone through this earlier.
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