Books are bad technology

We need to stop thinking of 'books' in the codex form of printed sheets, and embrace the new definition, of data storage and distribution devices, to make full use of new technology

BY LUIS MIRANDA | PUBLISHED: 26, Mar 2019

Socrates did not write anything. He opposed the new concept of writing because he believed that writing would adversely impact our memory and distort the way we dealt with each other. Over the next 2,400 years, the written word and books took over the world. Today, people look at the digital world with the same suspicion–it will destroy the way we deal with each other. This blog looks at why we should embrace new technologies because the older technologies that we are used to, were at one time considered to be radical and bad. Yes, many elites considered writing to be bad technology thousands of years ago. And people feared that books would keep people away from meeting others and lead to the growth of silent communication.

I love gifting books and our kids have picked up that habit. Our son, Khashiff, recently gifted me a book titled, simply, The Book. It is a book about books, written by Amaranth Borsuk, a scholar who works on the intersection of print and digital media. It was an eye-opener for me. She talks about the book as object, as content, as idea and as interface. It made me look at books from a new perspective. Today, people say that the youth are reading less. Actually, they are not reading less; they are just reading differently.

What is a book? I ask people this question and I get different answers. Borsuk defines a book as a portable data storage and distribution device that is a by-product of the shift from oral to literate culture. What a brilliant definition. I’ve never looked at books that way before. To most people, including me, a book is the codex--sheets of paper printed on both sides, bound on one side, with a front and back cover. That’s how I have known books as. Because we looked at books as an object, not for the content.

When people first started documenting oral messages, they did so by painting and carving on rocks. Later, tablets and scrolls came into being. Paper was invented around 105 AD in China, but people still preferred the old technology of writing on bamboo slips. People did not want to adopt this new technology, which prompted Emperor Huan Xuan to issue an imperial decree that forced people to use paper and give up antiquated technologies. It took another 600 years for paper to reach the West, and that happened thanks to the spread of the Islamic Empire.

The codex (which is the form of the book that we have grown up with) developed over a period of 200 years and the invention of printing presses led to the growth of literacy. Some people criticised printing presses because it made artists and book writers less important.

Today people say that the youth do not read books and that they spend too much time on their phones. As we look at the criticism against smart phone technology today there are three points to note.

First, people objected to books many centuries back. As I said earlier, the great Greek philosophers were opposed to the written text. They felt that the new technology of writing would ‘destroy the oral arts of debate and storytelling’ on which based their context of the world. Borsuk writes about how in Plato’s Phaedrus (Plato wrote books!), Socrates disdained the written word for separating ideas from their source. Socrates feared that writing will both hamper memory and muddle the interpretation of philosophy in the hands of the reader. Doesn’t that sound familiar today, when people complain the same way about smart phones and Google? How people are using their memory less (is it really that important to remember Socrates’ date of birth?) and how people are jumping to conclusions because they do not fully understand the issue at hand. History teaches us that so much remains the same despite so much changing. Writing, in fact, allowed knowledge to grow beyond the monasteries and the elites. It democratised knowledge, the same way that technology today is democraticising knowledge. And the elites of today protest, just like the elites of the past protested. People are wary of change.

Second, people feared that books would make people interact with others less. But people continued to talk to each other for the past thousands of years, despite the growth of books. I am pretty sure that people visited each other less after the telephone was invented, because you could now talk to someone else without being in the same room. Today, people criticise new technologies like WhatsApp and smart phones because people interact with each other less in person. But the watchman in my building can talk to his wife back in her village thanks to his phone. He can see live videos of his child growing up thanks to his phone. If you look back at history, people communicate more today, it is just that they communicate differently.

And finally, if we look at books as an idea, we realise that the shape of how we communicate depends on the materials available to us at that time--the clay tablet, papyrus scroll, codex book--they were all shaped by the materials available at that time. Smart phones, e-books and internet-based apps are all by-products of the materials available today.

I love reading books. And I still prefer the feel of a paper book, even though I have a collection of books on my iPad and read a lot on my iPad and iPhone. I personally find the smart phone to be an incredible device to stay in touch with people, take notes on, read books on, learn about new ideas, and so on. And I believe, thanks to Amaranth Borsuk, that those who criticise the way people communicate today, are behaving the same way as the people who objected to the introduction of books centuries ago.

 

Source : http://www.forbesindia.com/blog/accidental-investor/books-are-bad-technology/

No directive to restrict choice of subjects for research

Ministry of Human Resource Development

No directive to restrict choice of subjects for research

Government believes in the principle of freedom in research

Posted On: 25 MAR 2019 5:33PM by PIB Delhi

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has not issued any directive to restrict choice of subjects for research, as has been reported in a section of media since the Government believes in the principle of freedom in research.

Last year, there was a meeting of Vice Chancellors of 11 Central Universities, which were lacking in research. In the said meeting they presented a road map to improve research and also discussed the issue of more research on issues relating to national priorities. The minutes of the meeting were recorded.

The Government has given impetus to improve and expand research facilities. The Government has provided Rs 480 crore for Social Science Research Project under Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS); Rs 225 Crore for research in basic sciences; Rs 1000 crore under Impacting Research, Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) for technology related research; Rs 450 crore under STRIDE for research in Humanities; and Rs 480 crore under Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) for joint research with foreign universities in any discipline.

 

Source : http://www.pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1569420

Education reform needs a systematic approach

Academic interventions like competence-linked teaching, learning and assessments need to be accompanied by an overhaul of the existing governance structures.

ANALYSIS Updated: Mar 25, 2019 07:45 IST | Amitabh Kant

Approximately 29% of India’s population is below the age of 14, and, at 250 million, we have the highest number of school-going students in the world. Unfortunately, we also have a public education system that is failing the young population by denying them quality education.

To effect a large-scale transformation in education, a systemic approach, consisting of comprehensive and coordinated set of academic and administrative reforms, is needed. Academic interventions like competence-linked teaching, learning and assessments need to be accompanied by an overhaul of the existing governance structures.

Some states like Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha have implemented these system-level reforms, leading to many early successes. Here are five key lessons that emerge from these comprehensive change programmes that can be useful for other states in their effort to improve their public education systems.

One, embed grade competence in all classroom transactions: More than half of our children studying in government schools lack competencies appropriate to their grade levels, which when accumulated over the years, lead to significant learning gaps. This is because teachers focus on syllabus completion instead of emphasising the attainment of competencies. Haryana has instituted a system of saksham taalika that takes the shape of a table that defines grade competencies for all subjects for each two-month cycle in an academic year. These grade competencies are mapped to all teaching and learning material — specific chapters in the text books, state designed remedial programmes and teacher training programmes. To close the loop, assessments are conducted and mapped to the grade competence framework with standardised statewide Summative Assessment Tests (SATs), conducted every two months to track progress on these metrics over time.

Two, ingrain human enablement in the system: For quality delivery of education, it is important to empower frontline workers such as teachers as well as those working in the background such as education officers, state board officials, etc. with appropriate skills and resources. In recognition of this, states have taken several steps. Himachal Pradesh, for example, has launched the TeacherApp, which is a tech-based teacher training platform that provides bite-sized content for easy consumption by teachers. Remote training ensures that teachers do not lose time in travel and can upskill themselves continuously. Another great example of human enablement comes from Andhra Pradesh where an assessment cell has been created with 13 subject matter experts. This cell aims to build capacity of relevant stakeholders.

Three, leverage data/ technology to improve efficiency: According to a report by the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA), teachers spend less than one-fifth of their time on teaching activities, with more than double their teaching time being spent on administrative activities such as data collection, material distribution and redressing their human resource and personnel issues. It is widely accepted that accountability in delivery of services is achieved when stakeholders are enabled to better perform their core functions by minimising time and labour on tasks removed from their primary responsibilities. In acknowledgement of this, states like Rajasthan have sought to free up teacher time by creating an enterprise system like the shaala darpan web portal. This portal allows for faster grievance redressal, online transfers and postings, and acts as a single source for all school-related data, eliminating the need for repeated data collection for various material distribution and other activities.

Four, strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems: Most states have an established system of inspection of schools by the education department to ascertain their quality, but the reality is that the target numbers of school inspections are rarely met because of manpower shortages. Mindful of this, states like Andhra Pradesh have created systems that set in place publicly available, real time and data backed monitoring mechanisms.

Five, build momentum through a public campaign: All the above interventions are dependent on stakeholder commitment and their consistent high performance. This can only be brought about by a steadfast political and bureaucratic commitment to the goal of improving learning outcomes. A dynamic campaign with the support of highest levels of political leadership needs to be built to provide momentum and align all stakeholders on a single transformation road map.

While these interventions are replicable everywhere, their success or failure ultimately rests on a state’s ability to move these parts simultaneously. Given the right momentum, these interventions can, over time, mature into transformative juggernauts such that they both individually thrive, and collectively drive the education system to produce consistently better outcomes.

Amitabh Kant is CEO, NITI Aayog

Full Info | https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/education-reform-needsa-systematic-approach/story-j7jaZmTpTUShMrphmj4e0H.html