The twenty first century has seen the initiation of life skills programs for students in many schools. Children today are living in a global village and have access to information at the click of a mouse. Values and beliefs are far from what they were a couple of generations ago. Peer pressure at schools and in the neighbourhood is here to stay, and children of today need additional support to cope with the fast paced materialistic, liberalised life that they are exposed to.

It is also a fact that children spend most of their time in school and students look up to their teachers as "confidantes". It becomes imperative that schools set up programs that help students build skills that help them prevent risky behaviour through effective problem solving and decision making. Our adolescents are tomorrow's citizens and as adults and responsible citizens it is our duty to ensure that they possess skills that will allow them to make informed choices, thereby preventing any risky behaviour and ensuring a healthy tomorrow.

What is Life Skills Education?
WHO defines Life Skills as "skills or abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with demands and challenges of every day life." The ten core life skills in 5 related pairs are listed below:

• Self awareness & Empathy
• Interpersonal Skills & Effective Communication
• Creative Thinking & Critical Thinking
• Decision Making & Problem Solving
• Coping with Emotions & Coping with Stress

Effective and conscious Integration of the above 10 Core Life Skills in the day to day academic/co-curricular/extra curricular activities of the students would form a robust Life Skills Education Program. And how can this be done in schools?

Catch them young…ideally start working with students in the lower classes on topics like eating healthy, keeping clean, analysing stories from Panchatantra, etc. Build the skills of being self aware and empathetic in the lower classes - they should become aware of their likes and dislikes and willingly share and care with their peer group. Allow them to communicate their likes and dislikes and feelings with the teacher and peer group. This will also help them cope with emotions and stress as they know they have an outlet in their peer group/teachers without them being judgemental. Encourage whole class creative thinking for various problems that needs effective solutions, and get students to zero in on the most effective solution through use of critical thinking, decision making and problem solving skills. As students grow older and get into adolescence the focus should additionally be on using these life skills to sort out emotional upheavals and handling conflict that is so common at this stage.

Parents are an important part of the Life Skills Education program - the school must orient the parents and make every effort to keep the parents informed of the progress of the program and any special activities undertaken by the school.

Life Skills Education in schools will be successful only when all the teachers

• are sensitised towards and have a complete understanding of what life skills are
• have internalised them in letter and spirit
• apply life skills in their daily life
• are willing to transfer them to the students at all time.

While physical growth of students will carry on upto a certain age, teachers have the responsibility of development of students in terms of helping them to grow into adults with good self esteem, good social skills, good decision making skills while maintaining dignity and equanimity in the worst of situations.

The author can be contacted at Padma.j@ilfsets.com

Nothing suits children better than a smile. Looks like the smile has disappeared behind those tech savvy, over burdened faces of tomorrow. My heart goes out to today's children caught up in painful experiences both at home and school, far away from feeling safe and untroubled. Children are mirrors that reflect society. When adults are ailing and their vision clouded, children are bound to suffer.

'Judging the children by their peak of excellence'… is not taking us very far. The distance they have traveled from the point where they began …is what counts.

What is particularly important to children is a sense of security. If they do not feel genuinely loved and needed, their minds may become unstable. The love and affection children receive become their source of strength for their entire lives. Taking out time to reconnect with them is the key to motivate them.

Children are meant for neither their parents' vanity nor their reputation. The only thing that needs to be communicated to the hearts and minds of children is their parents' genuine desire for their healthy development.

Spare who…the child or the rod

When children cause trouble, adults are quick to enforce laws to discipline them, which incidentally suppress and restrict the kids. This way of thinking on the part of the adults is confusing. The adults complicate the situation further while protecting their selfish interests.

Firstly, we must set good examples. The ways the adults live their lives, offer fundamental solution to the issues surrounding the youth. We must establish appropriate standard of value upon the foundation of the dignity of life. Children should be made to understand the distinction between good and evil and enabled to think in the direction of goodness. Today rising socio-economic status of the adults leads to more wrongdoings. Looking at such selfish adults devoid of any benevolent approach to life, children cannot possibly grow upright.

We need to introspect and seriously reform ourselves. Without self reflection, we are not qualified to scold our children.

Neither politics nor economy determines the happiness or the future of society - education does. Education is the foundation of all. Education is a supreme, sacred enterprise, and parenting its cornerstone.

Parents' daily conduct is the greatest form of education. What is most readily passed on to children, however, is the character of parents and their way of life. In school as well, the teacher's character is the most influential element of the children's academic environment.

Trust is the foundation of education. Unless there is a bond of trust between children and adults, no matter how much lip service adults pay to morality, children will not listen.

Believe in them. Believe in their potential. Be confident in their capabilities. Let them take responsibility of their actions. Being patient, constantly encouraging them…is the need of the hour.

Let us wipe away tears of sorrow from the faces of our children. We must protect them and give them courage, strength and vitality.

In this context, I am reminded of the words of the song by the ABBA

I have a dream …a song to sing
To help me, cope with anything.
If you see the wonder of the fairytale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something in good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream…I have a dream
I have a dream.. a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream
I'll cross the stream - I have a dream

"Let's all work towards an era in which children live true to themselves, running around with smiles, enjoying their happiness and exploring their potential to the fullest."

The author can be contacted at Meenu.Gulati@ilfsets.com

Computers in schools are no longer a new phenomenon in India. While a large number of schools are using computers to ‘teach computers’, many upscale private schools have started utilising them to teach regular subjects like science, history, geography, mathematics etc. However, there is growing frustration that existing computer labs cannot accommodate both ‘computer education’ and ‘computer-aided education’ activities in schools. With limited budgets available to prove that computer-aided learning helps students understand regular subjects better, Indian educators have long debated the benefits of integrating technology into education.

So, is the problem really with computers or the way teachers are using computers in schools? I believe it is the latter. In my view, Indian educators need to re-evaluate whether computers are ‘information and knowledge objects’ or ‘objects-to-think-with’. This requires a powerful mindset shift from traditional views on computers in education. A computer as an ‘object-to-think-with’ can offer fundamentally new ways of learning and thinking within student and teacher communities.

Seymour Papert, a protégé of renowned educator Jean Piaget and the author of Mindstorms (1980), invented the Learning Theory of Constructionism. It was "grounded in the idea that people (including children) learn by actively constructing new knowledge, rather than having information ‘poured’ into their heads".

Based on this theory, Papert forecasted the role of computers in education almost 24 years ago. "In many schools today, the phrase ‘computer-aided instruction’ means making the computer teach the child. One might say the computer is being used to program the child. In my vision, the child programs the computer and, in doing so, both acquires a sense of mastery over a piece of the most modern and powerful technology, and establishes intimate contact with some of the deepest ideas from science, from mathematics, and from the art of intellectual model building," he wrote in Mindstorms.

Most of us learn to understand our thought processes very late in life, after leaving school, college or even later. Now ICT (Information and communication technology) can offer this benefit to children in schools at a very young age; it can make children think in structured ways and over a period of time they learn to use these skills to master difficult concepts of maths, science and other subjects.

Let me offer the example of one of my classes at MIT Media Lab. As part of the course work, we were asked to download a children’s software program developed by MIT Media Lab and use it to generate some computer games.

Though this exercise seemed very simple for students from the American school system, it was a mind-numbing experience for me. As I struggled to make the program work, the computer forced me to visualise something I had never experienced throughout my entire life — it made me project my thought process on the terminal. What I designed as a program and how I designed it translated into a visual representation of my mind at work! It made me ‘think about thinking itself’- a surprisingly sensational experience for a graduate of Indian academia. If this could happen to me so late in my life, then can’t we make it happen for millions of Indian children using computers in schools? I believe we can, and here’s how.

First and foremost, teachers need to stop transferring traditional teaching and learning pedagogies to the computer. Computer labs should be for ‘learning’ rather than ‘teaching’. Instead of forcing knowledge upon students by making them passively absorb multimedia content, teachers should encourage them to freely utilise ICT for projects and assignments which make them think creatively. There are several programs that schools can download (at no cost) from the internet to undertake such activities. Some of the programs are:

http://education.mit.edu/starlogo/
http://www.squeak.org/
http://www.kiddonet.com/kiddonet/gelsparks

Not only will these programs teach students to think cerebrally, but also prompt them to ‘think about thinking’— a process wholly neglected by the Indian education system.

Secondly, schools need to start using projectors or compact media centres for teaching regular subjects through multimedia. The cost of a projector or a compact media centre is equivalent to that of four personal computers (PCs). By compromising on four PCs for a projector, schools can free computer labs having 15-30 computers. There is little that kids need to interact with while they learn curriculum-based topics on a computer. The additional free lab time available because of the projector can be used to make students undertake creative computer-based projects that sharpen their critical thinking skills.

Thirdly, teachers need to refocus their ‘duties’ on the computer. While making PowerPoint presentations can be a great way to teach students, it is too much of a time investment for teachers. Such activities should be undertaken during long holidays or teachers must use ready-made multimedia content available off-the-shelf in the market. Computers should be used by teachers to sharpen their own thinking skills, and thereby, teaching skills.

Though no country has yet fully embraced Papert’s philosophy on role of computers in education, India can be the first. This is because, for a country with over 1 billion people, submerged in millions of problems, it is more germane for educators to cultivate minds that think than students who score.

'Thinking about computers in education does not mean thinking about computers, it means thinking about education’- Allan Ellis, The Use and Misuse of Computers in Education, 1982

Ninad can be contacted at Ninad.Vengurlekar@ilfsets.com

The Knowledge Era

If you asked anyone how they could help their children cope with the changing world you may find a large number of people – parents and teachers included – are concerned with how they will manage to ‘keep up’ with their children. But the world is NOT changing! Not for the child – he is born into a world where the great changes of the twenty-first century have already taken place. The problem perhaps is not helping the child to cope but helping adults to understand the differences. For today’s child the only constant is change. Like heat-seeking missiles, they actively seek out the latest change and adapt to it far better than most of us can.

The learning resources, learning world of today’s child

As an example of the use of just one gadget, the TV offers more than 50 channels today versus our 2 channels 20 years ago. Children can absorb far more, can carry far more information in their minds; not raw facts, but information about where to get those facts when needed. Today’s learner can make choices because he has them. The fact is, children learn better from the audio-visual medium, yet we pretend it isn’t there.

With the wide variety of resource material available to young learners today it is neither possible nor desirable for any group of children to ‘own’ this material. Nor is it possible for parents in the Indian economy to afford the variety of learning material that is necessary for an all-round education. Other than books, this would mean that children would need access to high-quality libraries, DVDs and CDs, computers with Internet access, charts, maps, globes and a host of other knowledge devices. This is truly possible only in an environment such as a school where the cost of such material is shared by a large number of learners and can be used multiple times with different learners.

The Teachers’ New Responsibility

The teachers’ job is far more exacting. It involves evolution of newer roles for the teacher – the teacher as facilitator of learning, a person who guides knowledge and a developer of ‘knowledge seekers’, rather than of ‘academic monsters’. With such an overflow of information, the teacher has to guide its proper use – put the use of gadgets like computers and cellphones in their proper perspective, decide what information should be allowed into the classroom, advise on how the new instruments can be used for the benefit of the learner. In order to do this, the teacher must know how to handle the technology herself. Today there is choice for the teacher too – she can learn to create resources, develop and deliver lessons using powerful computers and projectors.

Further, the teacher has to have a working knowledge of the multiple learning systems available and of what they contain, so as to lead and guide the learner through the several alternatives, many of which may also mislead, misinform and confuse. Let’s take a quick look at some of the technology based learning systems that are being used in schools today:

• Internet-enabled computer rooms ensure that kids can find information, learn new skills, create presentations, work as teams when resources are limited and have a lot of fun learning.
  
• Laboratories for every subject where enough apparatus is available for learners to experience the concept not merely learn about it. Can you pass a music theory exam without playing an instrument? You can. But can you learn to dance by studying about it from a text book? This is why various exam boards have recommended subject-based learning labs
  
• Libraries to teach children to be critical consumers of knowledge. There can be several texts available for a subject including encyclopedias, magazines and problems to solve. There is also Audio-visual material – interactive multimedia with an opportunity for a teacher to explore along with a class.
  
• Regular and focussed field trips to museums, technology parks like Science City, and Birla Industrial and Technological Museum – making experience real.

All this requires new attitudes, new knowledge and new skills of learning -- an alternative to the traditional teaching techniques and a higher level of responsibility and accountability on the part of the teacher and school. How many of us have updated our knowledge or attended refresher programs in teaching techniques? So what are our skill sets? How do they match with what is needed today?

A snapshot of Teaching Techniques being used extensively across the world to cope with new learning styles – Using Multiple Intelligences, Collaborative Learning, Project Based Learning, Constructivist Classrooms, Peer Teaching, Theme Teaching, Team Teaching, Presentations.

Developing Soft Skills - Because teachers are no more regarded as ‘gods’ in the system, they have to learn new ways of dealing with learners – some of the areas in which teachers could develop are in Interpersonal Skills such as Anger and Conflict Management, emotional intelligence and new ways to communicate. We have to look at teaching a child to be assertive, not submissive! Discipline can no longer be imposed – it is the act of a disciple and is learned through example only. It’s a long climb down from the pedestal!

The School would have to become an enabling environment where guidelines take the place of rules and freedom of choice is offered to teachers and students alike. And of course, schools would have to house regularly updated repositories of information, with newer, state-of-the-art libraries, laboratories for all subjects and free access to knowledge banks. I am not against swimming pools, tennis courts and multigyms. However, these are available in clubs and some of the newer residential blocks. Let schools concentrate on the core business of education and primary socialization.

Who will take the risk?

So, whose responsibility is all this? It is primarily the school’s responsibility to decide the path that it wishes to take; to have a clear vision of the future; to provide opportunities to the students and teachers to upgrade and refresh knowledge; to provide better learning facilities than those available at home. It is the teacher’s responsibility to actively seek out the knowledge that is needed, perhaps using the long vacations to update oneself in teaching skills. It is the student’s responsibility to grab the learning opportunities with both hands, whenever available and to have the courage to think beyond the narrow horizons of syllabus and textbook. It is the parent’s responsibility to support the school in its endeavours to touch the future, to have faith and provide the value foundations at home.

Attitude is Everything.

"If I cannot learn the way you teach me, why don't you teach me the way I learn?"

Leslie can be contacted at Leslie.D'Gama@ilfsets.com