Notes of Meeting on 8th Feb at Asha PowaiWill invite all in CC to a google group.
Had a discussion with around 10 volunteers from IIT+StXaviers yesterday. Very sorry that none ( NONE) of the teachers or organisers of ASHA could be present though it was a much planned meeting .I will make a specific request to those interested next time myself unless the coordinator (Ms Karuna in this case) has clear instructions to necessarily inform all concerned . I had not forgotten to specifically request her to send a mail to all attendees with a CC to me.
- Warning: The following is about to disrupt the quiet and smooth function of ASHA and I shall take the credit for it if it happens.Any collaborators!
- I explained to volunteers the purpose of the meeting as follows
- Background
- The objective of ASHA should not be to merely act as appendage of municipal school
- It is criminal to reenforce the notion in underprivileged children that that is all they deserve
- ASHA students learning should be an envy of even the best private schools in the area
- That there is a possiblity of raising the expectation of the children , particularly from themselves
- That technology provides this as opportunity
- and that Asha Powai has , more than any other perhaps the desire and resources and history of doing this.
- that this has to be taken further
- that proximity near IIT and hence availability of capable volunteers enjoins upon us the responsibility to take this lead
- That ASHA can provide support system for such a mission
- The 'Learning Hub' concept as propounded by Seymour Papert is guiding global thought that needs to be localized to the indian and powai context
- Ken Robinson's Changing Paradigm of Education is another corroboration.
- How technology and collaboration combined with compassion can change paradigm and DEEPEN learning
- that using technology we can create learning environments that can be very enchanting ( with 'Aha' factor) that can create the necessary motivation to even do the 'boring' tasks better
- The technology we choose should be designed for deeper learning which includes
- opportunity to converse among peers and with facilitators('teachers') to chisel the concepts through expressions in language (the concoction of hindi+marathi+english+?) of communication
- the conversation be supervised with an objective of facilitation to communicate and not 'right' or wrong'
- that projects be designed ( as far as possible self designed by learnners) in consultation
- The projects endup as public expressions ( to be put on the intranet ) and with choice to learner to put up on internet
- that peers evaluate ( Vidya is developing a format, moodle can be rigged up to do the same) and facilitators provide reasoned evaluation more as feed back
- Learners should get to choose project areas and counsellors advise how the mix of projects be chosen
- The breadth of choice be given due evaluation ( so that some areas say maths or biology or language or history) is not eliminated and some areas are not over-emphasized but still maintain roundedness
- Rather than 'date of manufacture' as the basis, the groups of learners should be mixed across age
- Reviews to make mid course corrections
- Which project Ideas
- GoogleAPI : search and locate your home or Asha and create a program for google map ,use 'tryit' tutorial . Anyone above 7th standard and all teachers can do this. I will offer to demo.(wish some IITians can be motivated to help)
- http://www.w3schools.com/googleapi/google_maps_basic.asp
- http://www.w3schools.com/googleapi/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_map_overlays_infowindow
- scratch model making : I am prepared to lead once (First year IITians are studying this in their computer course and are eager to 'teach')
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkhjX792yVI&hd=1
- Scratch Tutorial 3: Aquarium http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPLKltqLANE
- Content creation on mediawiki source
- e.g Type-in (from scanned image)
- transcription : speech of Kejriwal
- translation : some text like above, build a dictionary
- video:
- screen capture
- capture with camera , then edit
- mapping trees of powai : I have one tablet. More may be available with others.
- Use of treemapindia android app
- Logo programming : use of fmslogo ( or mswlogo)
- Googleartsproject : study of museums all across globe with debates and discussions
- The Art Project is a unique collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art institutions to enable people to discover and view artworks online in extraordinary detail. Working with over 250 institutions, we have put tens of thousands of works of art from more than 6,000 artists online. This involved taking a selection of super high resolution images of famous artworks, as well as collating more than thirty thousand other images into one place. It also included building 360 degree tours of individual galleries using Street View ‘indoor’ technology. The project has expanded dramatically since it first launched. More than 45,000 objects are now available to view in high resolution, an increase from 1,000 in the first version. Street View images now cover over 60 museums,
- Googlelittrips : putting stories on maps . Our learners can produce this.
"Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story...."- https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexklein/kano-a-computer-anyone-can-make?ref=live
- A computer and coding kit for all ages, all over the world. Simple as Lego, powered by Pi. Make games, learn code, create the future.
- Pragmatics ( ASHA organisers to help in this)
- Resources
- Human
- expert
- locational
- virtual
- support
- computational
- financial
- Organisational
- Learners
- a mix of underprivileged with some resourceful kids is strongly recommended
- target more on kids above 5th standard or 11 years
--
jitendra