Addressing the Human Resource Challenge
In the paradigm shift occurring in education--and every other aspect of our society--the role of the teacher is also changing. The Instructor or teacher is becoming the Facilitator. This requires a 'letting go' of the monopoly of power in the classroom. This change in posture parallels the emergent web 2.0 environment, where a pluralistic definition of knowledge and truth is occurring. Knowledge is shared and contributed by a variety of participants, each informing the others until an consensus is achieved. Knowledge is becoming more and more localized. This is one aspect of the transition to a knowledge economy that must occur; localized self knowledge within a global context. So, what does this have to do with Human Resources?
One of the failures of our European inherited educational system-- one that has essentially remained unchanged since the Middle Ages-- is to utilize and value the contributions of the young, women and marginalized populations. We can no longer afford to do this. We need all of these participants to contribute and engage in the challenges confronting us as a species. So the model that I am suggesting we use to address the Human Resource challenge is empowerment of the students (all ages, genders, etc.) through reciprocal apprenticeships and peer to peer learning and teaching. We must value the contributions made by our students, indeed our hope lies in their success. The methodology is to employ Interns at every level of the process. If you look at the Learning Pyramid
you will notice that most learning occurs teaching. By tapping into the energy and contributions of the student Intern, you provide the best environment for learning that the Intern can have. The value proposition for the Telecenter is the labor and contribution of the Intern. I put together a summary of the structure of an Internship Program that I hope you find useful. I will post it in the ICT4D Group.
One of the failures of our European inherited educational system-- one that has essentially remained unchanged since the Middle Ages-- is to utilize and value the contributions of the young, women and marginalized populations. We can no longer afford to do this. We need all of these participants to contribute and engage in the challenges confronting us as a species. So the model that I am suggesting we use to address the Human Resource challenge is empowerment of the students (all ages, genders, etc.) through reciprocal apprenticeships and peer to peer learning and teaching. We must value the contributions made by our students, indeed our hope lies in their success. The methodology is to employ Interns at every level of the process. If you look at the Learning Pyramid
you will notice that most learning occurs teaching. By tapping into the energy and contributions of the student Intern, you provide the best environment for learning that the Intern can have. The value proposition for the Telecenter is the labor and contribution of the Intern. I put together a summary of the structure of an Internship Program that I hope you find useful. I will post it in the ICT4D Group.
Tags: economy, interns, knowledge, learning, paradigm, pyramid, shift
Comment
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Comment by Jan Herder on January 21, 2009 at 11:07pm -
Hello Shirpa, thank you for your reply and insights. The direction I am going with this is to propose a constructivist philosophy of education to achieve a rapid results full capacity transfer methodology for teaching and learning ICT's in the telecenters. Your observations confirm my experience and that of the emerging paradigm in this regard. Permit me to provide a link to a wiki that a colleague of mine is developing that has a good discussion of this learning technique for the 21st Century.
Regards,
Jan
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Comment by Shipra Sharma on January 21, 2009 at 11:05am -
Hi Jan,
The average learning retention rates as shown in the pyramid is very true in the context of the average telecentre operators also. For a case study, I interviewed them to know the kind of training they are undergoing currently and also asked for their suggestions to improve it. Interestingly majority of them were not in favour of the conventional classroom kind of training. They found certain participatory methods such as role play and group discussions more relevant. I could see that even after a gap of almost a year, they were able to retain much of the knowledge gained through these two methods, whereas they struggled to remember things that they learnt through the audio visual technique. As far as notes were concerned, they wanted them to be short, simple and easy to understand.
I also introduced them to an online curriculum for telecentre operators, but their response was-- who has the time to read all this? They were more in favour of a short term, face to face training workshop because since they are physically there, they can focus completely on the training. Moreover, the participatory learning method makes it even more engaging and interesting and their problems and doubts are immediately addressed to.
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It is interesting to learn how to make computer learning accessible to the poor especially those who only had a few years of primary education and are adults, especially the women.
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Also, we might want to say that the position is based in Delhi (preferably)... if we fail to find a candidate from Delhi, we might look for one in Manila.
cheers
Shadrach
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