Versatility in Education - III

The paradigm of education has always been looked at as a one way street (i.e.) What our mentor has to offer to us. How can we in the true sense of the word “Know” what is being told? What does it mean to know is a question in itself, in a MBA program everybody hears terms such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL etc is knowing just what SWOT stands for and what needs to be filled in each column? If that is so then what is hearing, understanding or even comprehending? To say “I know something” is to accept great responsibility of being able to mentor based on that and actually accepting that we know without stopping to learn.

More often than not, we hear about all this in class in the case of conventional education, books in the case of correspondence education and are mentored in the online classroom. Can we at that point in time hear what is being said, relate it to something that we have done in the past, and to learn how differently we could have done something if we were equipped with this new found knowledge. If we can get past doing all this and do the entire process more than a few times then perhaps we are a step closer to knowing.

Characteristically when we work we implement what we know that that is what we think is perhaps the best perspective, when we learn we acquire new perspectives, even great ideas which sad but truly are not implementing right away and then the spark dies. So the value addition of practicing while learning is eliminated. To quote Albert Einstein who said “The only source of knowledge is experience”, in perspective can we use the information we learn while being educated in the University of Life and at about the same time implement it with work to have “knowledge” or for us to be able to know. Most traditional forms of education do not offer to us the flexibility of being able to implement what we learn as and when we learn it.

I have been reading and have been impressed by the new methods of learning Online sounds like a plan. We have the doyens of the industry contributing to the industry on the likes of Jack Welch. Jack Welch has initiated his own program, so has Brian Tracy so has Ken Blanchard. What draws these management gurus to actually do all of this? In the previous post we discussed about the luminaries spreading the ‘Cheer of knowledge’, lo and behold we have it here. These distinguished personnel are leveraging on the world space (no, not the radio) but the internet. A global platform, a world leader, an established ‘guru’ brilliant! If this doesn’t sound like a plan then what else will. Online education is perhaps what the Wright brother did to travel, what ford did to automation. Will there be a method, a process, a something better than this? Perhaps yes but as of now this stands as the most likely success scenario for these luminaries to teach all of us. I am due to read and have more discussions with some of the leading brains in the industry from entrepreneurs who have taken cognizance of this to the professors, some from the IIM. All excited that I am about the prospect of learning so many things about this from them, will update this blog most likely sooner than expected.

Versatility in Education - II

Ahead of defining a process where the learner can actually learn at ones own pace; at the time when the person deems fit and with a mentor to guide the person when the person wants to learn. Let’s clearly analyze the needs or perhaps even wants to embark on a journey of learning.

The inherent need to learn is due to the fact that we need to constantly improve, learning need not be limited to the amount of knowledge obtained from books or associations with scholars or any such structured syllabus but in fact from the everyday learning from life itself. To think of it, what can be a better school than the school of life! Having said that; it is also incredibly difficult to learn from life, if at first we do not have a form of education which makes us interpret the knowledge available to us. We would never have learnt the importance of freedom unless we have at some point been denied it. Learning is interpreting and understanding reality in a different way. Learning involves comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge1.

The glorious fact remains that the learner has differentiated himself from the rest of the crowd and has set the stage for success by simply acknowledging the need to constantly learn and by taking the very first step of understanding the need to learn.

What if the learner does not have time – can they find it?
What if the learner does not have the resources – can the universe in some form create the resources?

Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. Once the battle is startled, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance. The Universe in its entirety will stand by you.

With technology today, perhaps the art of learning has been simplified to such an extent that it is not only accessible but can also be all pervasive. In the days of yore we have heard the hardships of traveling to a far of land to learn, we have heard of the greats who have graced our planet but how did they travel in 1815? Let us for a brief moment reflect on the hardship faced by these personalities and how much more could they have done had there been correspondence education, distance education or for that matter even online education. These luminaries would have spread the “cheer of knowledge” perhaps more effectively. How many more luminaries could the world have witnessed and how much more of a better place would the world have been? These luminaries are set apart in the grand stage simply because they taught, they mentored, and they were there when the avid student needed them. Is this serendipity or is this just how the world operates that the seeker always finds the answer.

1 quoted in Ramsden 1992: 26