Too much help with homework can hinder your child’s learning progress

Parents are often guilty of helping their child a bit too much with their homework. Sometimes the homework battle can be made that little bit easier if you just tell your child what to do, or simply do it for them. At least it’s been done, you think.

Teachers have spoken of parents writing their children’s assignments, taking on the homework responsibility and emailing teachers out of hours, or, as in one case, turning up at a teacher’s home on the weekend to ask about the homework that was set.

But research shows that giving your child too much help could actually hinder their skills development and lead them to feel incompetent.

Help with homework can be filled with tension or create pressure to succeed for the child.

That’s not to say that parents shouldn’t get involved, as research shows this is an important factor in academic success. But parents need to know when it’s appropriate to do this, and when to step back.

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For creativity over conformity in classrooms

Flexibility, adaptation, new thinking and innovation are 21st century skills

Do schools kill creativity, asks Ken Robinson in the much-watched TED talk. I am inclined to say, they do. Of course, educational systems do notwork in a vacuum, but are a reflection of the society they function in.

India’s educational system is modelled on the mass education system that developed in the 19th century in Europe and later spread around the world. Tracing the roots of the movement, the goal is clear — to condition children as “good” citizens and productive workers. This suited the industrial age that needed the constant supply of a compliant workforce with a narrow set of capabilities. The educational environment even today resembles factories with bells, uniforms and batch-processing of learners. They are designed to get learners to conform.

From an economic standpoint, the environment today is very different. In a complex, volatile and globally interconnected world, new-age skill-sets are essential. Wired magazine estimated that 70 per cent of today’s occupations would become automated by the end of this century. What will be the role of humans in this new economy? Linear, routine thinking will have no advantage. It calls for flexibility, adaptation, new thinking, paradigm shifts, and innovation — and that is the language of creativity. Creativity is an essential 21st century skill.

So, how would an educational system built around creativity look like? I use the word creativity here in its broadest sense — the nurturing and igniting of a human being’s latent talent and abilities to the fullest potential. From a scientific perspective, creativity is an aptitude for new, original and imaginative thinking. Let us consider some key aspects of an educational system with creativity at its core.

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The ABC of a great LOR

A good letter of recommendation can be a ticket to your college admission abroad. Here’s how you can get it right.

Every year, several students approach me with requests for writing a letter of recommendation (LOR) for them. If a student is known to me personally or if I have taught him/her, I respond positively and invite the student for a personal interview. If a student is not an acquaintance, I politely say, “Sorry, it is not fair on my part to write an LOR for you, as my acquaintance with you is limited.”

A letter of recommendation is a letter written by an academic, administrator, or employer who recommends the applicant for a university study and states how suitable the applicant is for the graduate programme he/she has chosen. Most top colleges and universities abroad require that applicants get LORs from at least three persons, preferably from academics (professors and education supervisors) who have known the applicants long enough and who can write authoritatively about the applicants’ personal qualities, academic achievements and competence. The universities/colleges require that the applicants provide the contact information of the recommenders so that the admission team can contact the recommenders directly via email. Below is a sample from the University of South Florida:

“XYZ has requested that you write a letter of recommendation for admission to a graduate programme at the University of South Florida. By requesting a recommendation through the university’s online application system this applicant has agreed to waive the right to view the recommendation letter that you submit…”

The email communication tells the recommender to maintain confidentiality and not to show the LOR to the candidate or anyone else.

An LOR carries weight and plays an important role in the application screening process. The applicants’ personal qualities, abilities, aptitude, preparedness, research experience, and so on can be known through LORs whereas their other skills (proficiency in the English language and knowledge in the core subjects) can be assessed through standardised tests such as TOEFL, IELTS, GRE and GMAT. Some universities give guidelines to the recommender on what should be focused in the LOR. Here is a sample from San Diego State University:

“Please upload a letter of recommendation. Please include any comments you think important concerning this applicant. We would especially appreciate your comments about (a) the applicant's work prospects; (b) the relevance of graduate work to the applicant's future; and (c) the applicant's intellectual ability and capacity for advanced graduate work.”

In the light of this, it is fair to say that an LOR is a true reflection of an applicant’s self in the form of a letter sent to a university’s admission team for the trust it has placed in the recommender.

For applicants, choosing a good recommender is as important as choosing a good university. How to choose one?

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Schooling without learning

The Right to Education Act needs to be focussed back to its core intent instead of allowing the authorities to impose extraneous conditions on schools

Contrary to popular perception, the vast majority of the 3.3 lakh private unaided schools in India are low-fee establishments. Only about 16,000 of them are ‘elite’ high-fee schools affiliated to the Indian Council of Secondary Education and the Central Board of Secondary Education. According to the National Sample Survey 2014, the median fee in rural India was Rs. 300 per month and the median fee in urban India was Rs. 416 per month for all the high- and low-fee private unaided primary schools taken together. There are inter-State variations, however; in Uttar Pradesh, the median fee in rural and urban India was Rs. 117 and Rs. 250 per month, respectively.

By contrast, in government schools, per pupil expenditure on teacher salary alone is around Rs. 1,300 per month. At the same time, the achievement levels of children in the budget private schools are no worse (and maybe somewhat better) than those in government schools, after adjusting for family background.

Shutting down of schools

Despite giving far greater value for money (learning per unit of cost), thousands of low-fee private schools are being forced to shut down in India. According to media reports and Right to Information inquiries, by March 2014, about 4,355 private schools had been closed down and another 15,083 had received notices to close down, affecting the educational rights of nearly 39 lakh children.

The reason: the requirement of the Right to Education Act (RTE) that all private schools must mandatorily get government recognition by complying with the norms stipulated in the RTE Act and in State RTE Rules. For good measure, many additional conditions for ‘recognition’ have been added in States’ Government Orders (GO). For example, a GO of U.P. dated May 8, 2013 notifies about 40 different conditions a private school has to fulfil in order to obtain recognition.

Simultaneously with private school closures, many government schools are also shutting down because of a lack of demand for dysfunctional schools where teachers are often absent. Meanwhile, the population of children who are of school-going age is rising by 3.8 per cent per year, according to the Censuses of 2001 and 2011.

This situation where both private and government schools are shutting even as more children are going to school has created a national crisis. It has also created a paradox: an Act that vows to promote children’s right to education is itself potentially violating the same. It is also violating fee-paying children’s right to attend a school of their choice.

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Educate yourself on AI: Seven books to get you started

From drones to self-driving cars to caring robots, artificial intelligence is becoming woven into our lives at a rapidly accelerating pace. With its roots back to Alan Turing in the 1950's, artificial intelligence today has become increasingly sophisticated—where machines were once used to perform simple tasks, they are increasingly being designed with more human-like traits.

If you know little about artificial intelligence and need to get up to speed, here are seven books that can help you get some important evolving field.

1. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005) by Raymond Kurzweil

2. Designing Sociable Robots (2002) by Cynthia Breazeal

3. Our Robots, Ourselves: Robotics and the Myths of Autonomy (2015) by David A. Mindell

4. The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind (2006) by Marvin Minsky

5. Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology (1992) by Steven Levy

6. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014) by Nick Bostrom

7. Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era (2013) by James Barrat

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The American Dream and the enigma of departure

The deportation of hundreds of aspiring Indian students betrays not just a lack of synergy between U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. consular missions in India but also a series of fatal flaws in the regulation of American higher education

In late 2015, Venkat, an Indian national, arrived at a popular West Coast airport in the U.S., brimming with excitement about the degree in computer science that he hoped to pursue at Northwestern Polytechnic University (NPU), in Fremont, California.

He had diligently pulled together what he believed was a strong cache of evidence on his college admission and his financial record, including documents citing the value of the farmland his father owned and even his brother’s income certificate.

But a different fate awaited him.

Instead of disembarking the aircraft and travelling on to the NPU campus as he had hoped, Venkat was pulled out of the immigration line and grilled for three hours by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in a well-lit, sparsely furnished room.

During the interrogation, officials even tested his academic proficiency with mathematics equations and computer science concepts, and despite giving “satisfactory answers” to convince the border police of his bona fide admission to NPU, Venkat was handcuffed at the end of the ordeal, deported to India and slapped with a five-year entry ban.

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The 20 best online master's programs for engineers

When you consider how expensive and time-intensive graduate degrees can be, online programs are a great way to continue working while you study at times that are more convenient to your schedule.

Especially for engineers, whose jobs sometimes require long hours and trips to manufacturing plants or construction sites, "distance learning" can keep you competitive in your field.

U.S. News & World Report recently published its 2016 list of the best online graduate engineering programs by looking at student engagement, faculty credentials and training, student services and technology, peer reputation, and admissions selectivity.

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Microsoft Turns a Minecraft Mod Into an Education Business

Teachers in thousands of schools in dozens of countries use the video game Minecraft to teach subjects from math to English to computer programming through MinecraftEdu. They use a modified version of the game first made in 2011 by an independent group of teachers and computer programmers. Microsoft is validating their work by turning MinecraftEdu into the centerpiece of its own business plans for Minecraft as an educational tool. But MinecraftEdu's creators aren't coming along for the ride.

Now Microsoft is buying the MinecraftEdu franchise.

Microsoft is as excited as the other giants of the technology industry to gain a foothold in schools. Since Minecraft is that rare product considered both potentially educational and fun, the company sees a big opportunity here.

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Amplifying Human Potential: Education and Skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The research findings provides insight into a generation that is positive about technology, keen on success-oriented learning, and not entirely satisfied about their formal education.

The study, commissioned by Infosys and conducted by independent research agency Future Foundation, polled 1,000* young people per country, aged between 16 and 25, in Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Contributing toward important debates with political, business and civil society leaders around preparing those who will truly master the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Amplifying the voice of young people can only help amplify their potential.

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BBC Offers Free Tiny Computers to UK Students

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is partnering with more than two dozen companies and organizations to provide at least 1 million British school children with a free pocket-sized computer. The device, called the BBC micro:bit, is similar to the Arduino and Raspberry Pi computers used by hobbyists. These small computers have become popular among educators in recent years as a way to teach students about programming.

The BBC micro:bit features a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer for sensing motion and a magnetometer for sensing orientation, two programmable buttons, a microUSB connector, and Bluetooth networking capabilities.

Students will be able to use it as a controller, sensor, or interface for mobile phones, computers, or consumer electronics.

The new device harks back to a similar program run by the BBC in 1981, when it offered the BBC Micro computer as a way to improve computer literacy. The BBC hopes the new BBC micro:bit will help students learn and develop computer skills, and help to build a high-tech workforce. The computers are expected to show up in British schools this October.


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Nobel laureate Amartya Sen says Modi government wants control of academic bodies

NEW DELHI: In a move that could intensify the confrontation between the Modi government and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Sen has now gone public with what he calls his "ouster" from the Chancellor-ship of Nalanda University.

In a 4000 word candid essay about to be published in the August issue of the New York Review of Books, Sen has written about his exit from Nalanda University and said that Nalanda is by no means an isolated incident but part of a wide ranging attempt by the Modi government to seize direct control over academic institutions.

Read the story from TOI dt. 7th Jul 2015

Tech doing good: 10 inspiring stories on TechRepublic in 2014

This year, TechRepublic published a lot of stories about companies that use technology to solve real problems. This includes stories about technology's positive effects on the conservation efforts, technological advancements in medicine, and the increasing awareness and education about women in STEM fields. Here are 10 stories we published this year that focused on businesses and organizations using technology for the good of the world.

1. How Jane Goodall Institute uses digital mapping to save chimp habitats in Africa, empower children in the US

2. PowerToFly connects women around the world to tech companies that need talent

3. Hack the gender: Womens hackathon aims to show young women a future in tech

4. Technologists and conservationists are teaming up to stop Africa's elephant crisis

5. How an Atlanta education startup is inspiring early learning in tech and coding

6. Significance Labs is building apps to improve the lives of low-income Americans

7. How recycled solar powered phones could save rainforests and change how the tech industry tackles climate change

8. With Ushahidi's global innovation engine, Africa has joined the tech revolution

9. Business as a force for good: How benefit corps are rewriting the rules of the corporate world

10. How social media rerouted over 400,000 pounds of food waste in a year

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Tomorrow's engineers will learn architecture, anthropology, sociology as well

Sitting in his office in the German university town of Chemnitz, ArvedHuebler often thinks of the poor in rural India. Huebler is a physicist, a professor at the Chemnitz University of Technology and director of the Institute for Print and Media Technology in the university.

He runs an exchange programme with Manipal University and has a lab there, but that isn't why he has Indian villages on his mind. Huebler is developing a product that will be useful for the poor, those who do not have electricity connections or cannot afford them.

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Education to Employment: Designing a system that works

Around the world, governments and businesses face a conundrum: high levels of youth unemployment and a shortage of job seekers with critical skills. How can a country successfully move its young people from education to employment? What are the challenges? Which interventions work? How can these be scaled up? These are the crucial questions.

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Transforming learning through mEducation

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Education to employment

Young people today are three times as likely as their parents to be out of work. Yet many employers can’t find people with the right entry-level skills to fill their jobs. How to close the gap? In this video, McKinsey directors Diana Farrell and Mona Mourshed share insights from our research with 8,000 stakeholders. We also profile two innovative organizations—one in India and one in the United States—that are pioneering new approaches to successfully transition greater numbers of students from education into employment.

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The SIIA CODiEM Awards

During the past 27 years, the SIIA CODiE Awards have recognized more than 1,000 software and information companies for achieving excellence. The CODiE Awards remain the only peer-recognized program in the content, education, and software industries so each CODiE Award win serves as incredible market validation for a product’s innovation, vision, and overall industry impact.

The SIIA CODiE Awards were established in 1986 so that pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other's work. During the years that followed, the program evolved into three tracks—organized by industry focus in content, education, and software—but our core mission has always remained the same: recognizing excellence by honoring the software and information industry's leading products and services. Award winners are able to leverage their CODiE Award as a prestigious representation of outstanding achievement and vision in the software and information industries.

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Will MOOCs Destroy Academia?

"Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee," wrote the prophet Isaiah. This phrase has been popping into my mind as I have been following the recent raging discussions over the topic of MOOCs.

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If I had my wish, I would wave a wand and make MOOCs disappear, but I am afraid that we have let the genie out of the bottle.

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The right university-industry nexus

If industrial houses can be allowed to run banks — the Reserve Bank of India is currently working towards issuing licences – they could a fortiori be permitted to run colleges as well.

The All India Council for Technical Education should be complimented for deciding to allow companies with net worth of more than Rs 100 crore to set up universities. But this should be subject to suitable safeguards. A company should, thus, not be allowed to spread itself thin. Rather, it should be made to impart education only in areas that are its core strength.

Larsen & Toubro, for example, could offer relevant courses in civil, structural and electrical engineering and its offshoots. It would, after all, be a mere me-too, if it sets itself on imparting education on biotechnology as well.

In other words, just as companies concentrate on their niche areas in the market, they should impart education as well only on those very same niche areas. If they are willing, they may be allowed to have campuses across the country to cater to various regions, so that children are not wrenched away from their parents besides ensuring that the latter do not have to fork out huge amounts on hostel expenditure as far as possible.

It should also be kosher if two or more companies — otherwise competitors in the market place — pool their resources and jointly set up a university.

Read the full story from Business Line

Know Your English -- dt. 09-04-2013

What is the difference between ‘bogie’ and ‘coach’?

What is the difference between ‘I have seen the film’ and ‘I saw the film’?

How is the word ‘beleaguered’ pronounced?

What is the meaning and origin of ‘at his heels’?

“Anybody who doesn’t know what soap tastes like never washed a dog.” — Franklin P. Jones

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Know Your English -- dt. 02-04-2013

What is the meaning of ‘clean chit’?

How is the word ‘limousine’ pronounced?

What is the meaning and origin of the expression ‘put one’s neck on the line’?

What is the difference between ‘takeaway’ and ‘takeout’?

“Generation gap: The one war in which everyone changes sides.” — Cyril Connolly

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