With 600 teachers from all across India and nearly 100 faculty members (mainly from US), the month-long IUCEE Workshop is an exciting event; in its third year of operation, I always make it a point to be there, thanks to Dr Krishna Vedula of UMass, USA (who coordinates from the US side) and Dr MP Ravindra of Infosys (who coordinates from the Indian side)
While several eminent academic heads talked about the challenges of teaching in India and the pathetic state of some of the educational Institutes, I used the time to talk about the positive side; to remind the teachers assembled to “count the blessings“
I talked of just three things
- Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society
- Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society elsewhere, but not in India
- Not widely known ideas about teaching that are NOT well appreciated by the society
Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society
- The general respect academics command in India, something that can be touching many times
- The campus advantage; the fact that students & faculty live together for years leads to several spinoffs; SPICMACAY would not have happened without IIT Delhi campus
- Freedom to pursue what you like; no need to listen to the managers every day
Widely known ideas about teaching that are well appreciated by the society elsewhere, but not in India
- Opportunity to teach “Full time students”, who are supported by families all the way up to PhD without having to worry about supporting them or their families; the students can be given lot more challenging work, demanding work; campus life adds to this advantage
- Students in India viewing Computer Science as Top 3 options for 20 years (unlike countries like USA where Computer Science is NOT in the Top 10 first choices)
- Ability to see the world, thanks to conferences happening all over the world
Not widely known ideas about teaching that are NOT well appreciated by the society
- Age advantage; we age every year but every year we get 18+ age group to teach; it keeps us younger!
- The absence of topline and bottom line!
- The 4Ls of learning getting transformed within the past 5 years, more so in India; Lectures going to e-learning, Library going digital, Labs going online thanks to tools like iLab and Life getting increasingly digital
IUCEE (Indo US Cooperation in Engineering Education) Workshop at Infosys Leadership Institute, Mysore on July 2, 2009
