Cover Story
Moving towards a world of open education Michelle C
Is good quality education available to everyone equitably? Learning is continual and an ongoing process and knowledge has to be acquired but the path to open access and free knowledge is not entirely straight. Open Education believes in a world where everyone, everywhere has access to high quality education and training they want; where education is seen as an essential, shared, and collaborative social good. But there are barriers to this goal. The truth is that real knowledge is not free. The aim of this article and the others covered under this theme is to question the commodification of knowledge, how it denies access to millions and what educationists and practitioners can do to bring openness in education.
The power of collaboration
April is a month of transition. In many parts of the country, it marks a shift from not-so-hot to really hot, from somewhat pleasant to somewhat hot; the trees begin
The here and now: why it matters
Sharoon Sunny I remember distinctly a couple of occasions where I have driven my car and reached my destination only to be bewildered that I do not remember anything about
The CCE conundrum
Garima Bansal A six-year old child was caught red-handed by the school teacher using unfair means in the exam. She was interrogated by the teacher and the child sitting beside
The picture tells it all
Proma Basu Roy I have always believed that everyone can read. I say everyone because I have seen people from a range of diverse social backgrounds read, even though some
Eins, two, teen, nalgu….
Manaswini Sridhar Do you remember how we as children enjoyed counting? We would take such delight in counting the number of birds sitting on a wall, the number of yellow
It’s elementary, dear chemist!
Yasmin Jayathirtha Last time, I had mentioned about using the periodic table as a link between the world of atoms and the world of reactions. This can be done through
How plants make their own food
Ambika Nag Everybody loves stories, especially children. A science classroom may become interesting for students if the teacher tells them stories about discoveries, about scientists and how gradually our understanding
Education 4.0: Personalization of Learning
Ullas Ponnadi Prior to the start of the third Industrial revolution, learning and acquiring skills was more or less a personal journey. Engineering, art, literature, craft and trade were passed
The inner beauty of math
Pooja Keshavan Singh Mathematics is one subject that suffers negative feelings from its learners. Numerous studies have recorded the number of students who dislike mathematics, suffer from a phobia or
Abode of peace
Chintan Girish Modi I have a special affinity for quiet, open spaces abundant with trees, therefore it was difficult to keep myself from visiting Santiniketan when I was in Kolkata
A room full of surprises
Tim Hibsman In one of my teaching sessions on anecdotal learning, several of the junior high school students were asked to give a quick one or two-minute informative speech. They
Moving towards a world of open education
Michelle C In an atmosphere where feverish excitement is created by the media around learning applications like Byjus (http://byjus.com), it comes as a shock to many when told that apps
My rendezvous with FOSS
Samprati Gada On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I am set, thinking about my journey into the world of open source software and open educational resources...after viewing a video link sent
Opening up the code
Neha Kulshrestha Most 21st century classrooms include a plethora of subjects such as mathematics, science, language, social sciences and computer science but now, what's interesting to witness is the emerging
The present is open to all
Suzanne Singh In 2015, when Pratham Books launched StoryWeaver, India’s first open source platform of multilingual children’s stories – a world open to parents, educators, publishers and most importantly, children,
Learning from and for life
Madhulika Sagaram In the current age of information and innovation, a shift in lifestyle from tangible lived experience to intangible ideas, thinking and experience can be noticed. This shift, impacts
Is open education really open?
Sharmila Govande For over 20 years, Manish Jain has been a crusader of the ‘unschooling movement”, a firm believer in free and natural learning, founder of Shikshantar, Swaraj University, Creative
Finding ways to cope
We’ve all heard that adage – that change is the only constant – so often that it doesn’t even seem to hold much meaning any more. But that’s the problem
A dose of discovery
Sudha Mahajan Have we ever wondered why students have lost interest in learning? Have we ever asked ourselves if this has something to do with the way we teach? Everything
Word pictures
Meena Raghunathan Have you ever made or heard comments like: ‘I don’t at all like the actor who plays Sherlock Holmes in the new serial. He is too fat/short/old/young’? What
Conquering the kingdom of fears
Aditi Mathur and Ratnesh Mathur The Queen was quite worried. Her first son, the heir apparent, was a timid boy. To the Queen, at seven years, he seemed to be
What counts as knowledge?
Kamakshi Balasubramanian The first article in this series (on Theory of Knowledge) introduced personal and impersonal knowledge. Impersonal knowledge is also called shared knowledge, although that expression can be misleading.1
What would you like to do today?
Arun Elassery Anand Niketan, no relation to the Nai Talim school at Sevagram, is a chain of popular schools in Gujarat founded by Kamal Mangal, a visionary businessman. Mr Mangal
Health & Healing
Shruti Singhal Health is the most basic requirement for us to carry out any function – whether it is an internal function of the human body or an external one
The change agent
Ankita Rajasekharan and Zakeeya Zahra Abbas There has been a renaissance of education in Old City, the proverbial ‘heart of Hyderabad’. where some schools with foresight are beginning to deviate
When questions turn into answers
Shree Singh Kuriyal Name – Kinzom Khampa Teaching Experience – 5 years Present posting – GIC, Pujar Gaon, Uttarkashi Questions question our understanding of concepts, situations and ideas. There is
The story weavers
Manaswini Sridhar As parents and as educators, we teach our children to speak and then to write. Once they have grasped the fundamentals of both, we urge them to develop
Don’t always go by the book!
Nimesh Ved Some days ago a friend invited me to interact with students of class 8. He teaches science in a school that adheres to the CBSE curriculum. The topic
Gearing up to teach
Gowri Iyer Learning is natural and continuous. We are all learning all the time – the students, teachers, families, peers and communities. Learning is also a collaborative effort and an
“What good is trigonometry in my life?”
Jyoti Thyagarajan All teachers of trigonometry start with right-angled triangles, and they draw a little square where the 90º angle is. Then they put θ at the other angle, which
Letting children think things through for themselves
Neeraja Raghavan This month, I would like to bring to you a research paper that emerged from my own classroom experience. About a year and a half ago, I was
Staying cool during exams
Smaranika Pattnaik Students all over are gearing up for their year-end examinations, and it is common to hear about the stress they feel during this season. It’s normal to assume
In This Issue
