Showing posts with label Education System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education System. Show all posts

Monday 1 March 2021

Ejukkayshun

Education is a noble activity. The mere act of gaining knowledge inherently is free from evil. It is what we intend to do with the knowledge that leads to immorality. A member of the bomb disposal squad ought to understand the internal mechanism of a bomb. Only when he has acquired sufficient amount of required knowledge can he be excellent and faithful at his job.

Roger Schank Blog

Lectures are not effective for teaching and learning. Education begins with curiosity. We learn through conversations that are dialogues in nature not monologues. In other words, a good teacher talks with the students and not to the students.

Do Schools Kill Creativity is a popular TED talk. Children are born free-thinkers --- have lots of questions, want to know everything, and are not afraid of making mistakes. However the modern education system is a factory to produce corporate slaves and brain-dead people.

“So, my advice. Know what matters to you. Learn that. Temporarily memorize nonsense if you want to graduate but have a proper perspective on it. Nothing you learn in high school will matter in your future life.” --- Roger Schank

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”―Benjamin Franklin

“Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” ―John Dewey

ADHD, autism, dyslexia, introverts

Pedagogy

  1. learning by teaching - learn by teaching fellow students in the class
  2. flipped classroom - (not an intuitive term) interactive learning; discussion; real-time problem solving; watch video lectures together; the lecturer or teacher is no longer primary focus in the classroom; project-based learning
  3. Jigsaw - students learn from each other; cooperative learning
  4. Education 3.0 - the marriage of technology and learning; personalised learning
  5. MOOC (massive open online course) - mass learning; e.g. Udemy, Coursera, MIT OCW
  6. homeschooling 

ഒരിക്കലും അവസാനിക്കാത്ത ഒരു പ്രക്രിയയാണ് വിദ്യാഭാസം. ജീവിതകാലം മുഴുവൻ ഒരുവൻ വിദ്യാർത്ഥി ആയിരിക്കും. ഒരു യഥാർഥ വിദ്യാർഥി എന്നും എളിമയുള്ളവനായിരിക്കും.

എന്താണ് വിദ്യാഭ്യാസത്തിന്റെ ഉദ്ദേശ്യം?  (1) അറിവ് - അറിവിലൂടെ ലോകത്തെപ്പറ്റിയും, സമൂഹത്തെപ്പറ്റിയും പ്രയോഗികജ്ഞാനം ലഭിക്കുന്നു; (2) നെറിവ് - ശരിയും  തെറ്റും തമ്മിൽ വേർതിരിച്ചറിയാൻ  ഉതകുന്നത് നെറിവു; (3) തിരിച്ചറിവ് - തെറ്റ് മനസ്സിലാക്കി  നന്മയുടെ പാതയിൽ നേർവഴി നടക്കാൻ തിരിച്ചറിവ് സഹായിക്കും. 

    അറിവ് (information), ജ്ഞാനം (knowledge), വിവേകം (wisdom)

    എന്താണ് അറിവ്? (1) വസ്തുതകൾ (facts), (2) വ്യാഖ്യാനം (interpretation), (3) വ്യവഹാരം (critique), (4) ലാവണ്യം (aesthetics, elegance)


    Monday 17 August 2020

    Academia: Stay Clear of Predators

    Today I was searching for a scientific article ("Entity Linking with a Knowledge Base: Issues, Techniques, and Solutions") on Google scholar and the results caught me by surprise. There were only two results. The article  I was searching for has been published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, which is a reputed journal. This one was the first hit, and the right one. 

    However the second hit was an article with the same title but published in a predatory journal. This bogus article is rife with grammatical errors. From a cursory scan of the paper, the content seems to be ruthlessly lifted from the original TKDE paper. The rogue authors did not even bother to 'copy-paste' the footnotes correctly. This is outright plagiarism --- unethical and punishable. I am ashamed of the fact that the authors of this paper are also from India. It is well-known that low-tier and middle-tier colleges in India publish in such journals either due to ignorance or to cheat, a quick and dirty way to increase your publication count. That the second author is himself a PhD indicates that the the act was not one out of ignorance but a deliberate act of fraud.

    The predatory journal is called International Journal of Advanced Technology and Innovative Research. The name of  any reputed journal or conference is very specific about the targeted special interest group, e.g. Association of Computational Linguistics or Knowledge Capture. Predatory journals are too vague about their areas of interest. So this is a simple heuristic to identify predatory journals. Reputed journals always publish articles after thorough peer-review process. In addition, reputed journals do not solicit any fees to publish articles. 

    This behavior also demonstrates the pathetic state of scientific research in the country. A majority of academics are unaware of the value of ethics in scientific research. Since only a certain elite can even comprehend or question the nuances of the research conducted on a topic, it is very easy to keep everyone in the dark on the details of a research project. Predatory journals can thrive in such an atmosphere. This practice penalizes honest academics and incentivizes rogue academics.

    To the ignorant academic: you  may use these two websites to decide for yourself before you decide to send your manuscript to a journal for 'peer-review':

    1. https://predatoryjournals.com/journals/

    2. https://beallslist.net/

    Stay clear of predatory journals. Uphold the virtues of science, research methodology and communication.

    Sunday 26 April 2020

    Review: The IIT System

    (NOTE: Originally written in December 2018)
    (Edit 1: May 2020, grammar correction; Edit 2: September 2020, minor edit)  

    The IIT system is very successful in India. Some of the positive aspects about IITs are given below:
    1. IIT-JEE is a very competitive exam. It tests the candidate’s understanding of concepts instead of one's memory. So it avoids rote-learning or cramming, which are heavily promoted in the Indian school system.
    2. The exams conducted in IITs also test the student's understanding of concepts. In addition, the projects, assignments and tutorials together make sure there is ample opportunity for students to learn from each other. The TAs assist in teaching by taking classes, grading assignments and conducting tutorial sessions.
    3. There are ample facilities in IITs for pursuing extra-curricular activities: sports facilities, sports fests, tech fests, department fests, cultural fests, PG-sports, clubs, colloquiums, and so on. Everybody is welcome to join these events.
    4. The professors know what they are teaching. Compared to low-tier institutes, every member of the faculty holds a PhD degree. The system is flexible enough to allow professors to decide the course syllabus.
    However, as an IIT professor rightly mentioned, IIT is a mirage. Although the IITs are premier technical institutes in the country, the system is plagued with many issues. I list some of the issues (in no particular order) I have noticed from my first-hand experience while pursuing post-graduate studies at one of the older IITs:
    1. There is an undue craze to get into IITs. This results in students who are pressurized into clearing IIT-JEE by parents, peers and the society. The art of learning gets reduced to just an exercise with the aim of passing an extremely competitive national-level exam. These students would never enjoy the art of learning.
    2. IIT coaching centres only create students who are good at clearing IIT-JEE. The students lack any social skills or social awareness. Students who get into IITs are naturally exhausted after years of preparation for JEE and join IIT without any energy to realize their interests or follow their passion.
    3. IIT is a brand. That’s how everyone in India considers IIT. The downside of the brand value is that students are made to believe that just getting into any IIT secures their life for ever. However this is far from the truth. Students have to work really hard to earn a degree at IIT. Learning is a life-long journey. IIT aspirants want to make sure that once they manage to secure the IIT tag, they can latch on to it for the rest of their lives. IITs should be rebranded as technical institutes and research centres.
    4. The classes at IIT are not very inspiring. Except for a few courses, most of the courses are offered just because faculty members are required to offer at least one course every semester. The professors do not care how individuals perform and leave menial tasks such as invigilation and grading to their teaching assistants.
    5. Since IITs follow relative grading, there is tremendous competition among the students in a class. This impedes learning because students are not motivated to discuss with each other and thereby learn from each other.
    6. The system of awarding marks for attendance is not very effective. The students are forced to attend lectures even though they might not be interested in doing so. For instance, MOOCs from world-class universities such as Stanford can be a substitute for lectures. IITs should make sure that learning and creativity is encouraged, and unhealthy competition is discouraged.
    7. The placement season at IITs is highly overrated. Not everybody at IIT get 1 crore job offers. Only a bunch of students, from computer science or electrical engineering, get such heavy packages. This creates a bad impression about IITs on the society. This impedes creativity of students and forces students to participate in various extra-curricular activities just for the sake of ensuring their placement in an MNC with a high-paying job.
    8. The competitive nature of Indians is clearly visible within the walls of IIT. The IIT system provides ample platforms pitching students against each other - courses, technical fests, sports fests, cultural fests and placements to name a few. There is no shortage of talent in IITs. However the current state of affairs is not conducive enough to assist students to sharpen their skills and talents. Only a handful successfully manage to navigate the labyrinthine system.
    9. The academic pressure in IITs ensures students face the same amount of pressure they were made to feel during the JEE preparation phase. Every year a few students succumb to the pressure  and thus reports of student suicide at IITs is not newsworthy anymore. A common pattern seen in IITs is that the first two months in every semester is pleasant for the students and then the students become a lot busier in the final two months. The students are finally unable to do anything else other than prepare for end-semester exams, finish assignments and projects.
    10. The research scholars are paid scholarship for TA duties. However this is not monitored well. There have been occasions when research scholars had to work more than what is stipulated by the institute (8 hours per week).
    11. The research culture at IIT is mediocre. Many PhD (and MS) students do not receive effective and efficient supervision. As a result, the research scholars face immense pressure due to the requirements of having to publish in high-quality journals or at conferences in spite of the deplorable research atmosphere. PhD students have to clear comprehensive evaluation, the purpose of which has always eluded me. Rather than copying the American system, IITs should develop their own style of teaching and research that meets the demands of the country. In this manner, IITs should be a role model for lower-tier institutes such as NITs or IIITs.
    12. The work culture at IIT is pathetic. Many scholars are night-owls and the labs are operational 24x7 with sufficient facilities for overnight stay such as recliner. A few food stalls are open throughout the night rendering it easy for night-owls for grab a munch during their `working (waking?) hours.'
    13. The number of research scholars who finish the PhD program successfully needs monitoring. For instance, in the lab where I worked for three years, only one scholar defended his thesis, while I personally know at least seven scholars struggling with their research, a handful of which are currently not in a position to even dream of their thesis defense. If IITs are aspiring to be world-class then there should constant monitoring of the status of research conducted by the scholars.
    14. The food at mess is horrible. The quality of food degrades continuously. Moreover, hostellers are forced to pay for food for the whole semester in advance. The system should be made more flexible. For instance, hostelers should have to option to cook food on their own in hostels itself. A common kitchen can be set up in every hostel, on every floor to be more efficient, so that those who do not want to eat from mess have the freedom to do so.
    Let me conclude by saying that my stint at IIT was the most rewarding and exciting phase of my life. I learnt a lot during those three years. However I understand that the system has many flaws and so it is important to identify the areas that warrant improvement. This article is a small such effort from my side. There is no dearth of talent in the IITs. I believe the system will soon catch up with other elite technical universities around the world.