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Networking for Results

Networks or networking is not new to humans. Every social interaction is in a sense is act towards building a network. Connecting to our neighbor or another person is much appreciated and widely practiced feature of human society. Rolodex is an example. However networks in the past were constrained by time and distance barriers. Today technology enabled networks such as social networks have transformed the range of reach and made the job of networking much easier and brought the privilege of being a part of network to every one's reach. Technology-enabled networks are here to stay and grow. In fact they are growing exponentially.  Facebook , one of such rapidly growing network has over 500 million users - meaning one in every 14 people on the earth is on Facebook.  This fact has far reaching implications for each one of us: faculty, students and institutions. As our experience shows, our students who belong to digital natives generation and were born into " another time&quo

Don’t; confine u r students into u r learning for they were born in another time

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"Don’t; confine u r students into u r learning for they were born in another time" asserts a old  saying. I quoted this in my engineering class and asked my students to i dentify their “another time” for which they were born into . In other words I asked them to describe the kind of world they are living in now and expected to have during their life time.  Times have changed from agrarian to industrial to information times now.  Information Times is one in which every activity we do is some way related to information. A small discussion helped us to identify activity generally undertaken by students: They Google to search information, they blog to publish information, they comment ( add info) and  they  ‘inform “ their status. At that point of time, I provided a small description of the information world we r living in Today networks have created “an editable information space in which everything is connected to every thing else “ .   " My Mtech Seminar via kwo

Information Life

We all intuitively understand the phrases such as working life, professional life, social life, school life and even married life and so on. Each of them refers to a one dimension of our personal life or some time segment of life. What most of us fail to recognize or miss to realize is what we all have another important dimension to our existence Information Life too.  Our information life is all about our relation with information or in other words relation with outside world. We live in an information rich (or inundated) world, in which we either produce or consume information. We also act as a conduit in information life cycle. Information work is widely accepted term to describe the nature of information life.   To be successful in our Information life, like in any other dimension of life such as financial or social life, we need to think through and do work with direction, method, and purpose. Information life has to make contribution towards one’s overall life and one must perfor

What can I contribute? : U set my agenda

Annual occasions like teachers day give us chance to ponder over important matters such as a teacher what can I contribute to my students.. Over the years, I have been trying to  figure out “ what is the most important contribution I can make to the performance of  my students and my institutions . With whatever modest exposure I have had, I used it  my experimentation such as introducing emerging technologies into academics and  projects , introduction of work and performance tools within academic settings and more. However lot more needs to be and can be done in preparing myself and my community (students and colleagues) for harnessing emerging opportunities in increasingly connected world. My alumni which numbers more than 1500+ and working around the world may help me by suggesting ways and means towards improving my answering to the fundamental challenge on day-in and day-out basis: What can I contribute?   The following questions may broadly guide you in knowing my informat

Knowledge is the professional

Knowledge is the professional. Work, assignments, services are only the vehicle for the exchange of professional knowledge against employment and associated aspects such as salary. Business is a human organization, made or broken by the quality of its people. In this knowledge era, the quality of people is nothing but the quality of their knowledge. Knowledge is specifically human resources. Knowledge is not found on the web. Web contains information whereas knowledge is the ability to apply information to specific work and performance. For instance a professional be it a marketing manager or a learner can use web for mining information to carry out her work and improve performance. So every professional today must determine (1) her work and its associated performance expectations before going to web and (2) use web as an information source to support her work and elevate performance level. Web after all is another resource. As we have learnt in our school lessons resources are only me

Information Literacy: The Next ‘R` In The Networked World

The evolved and emerging networks such as the Internet, mobile are ushering a new world order. They are setting up a new playing ground for human endeavors such as business and education. These networks are fundamentally different from the traditional building blocks and infrastructure and are increasingly becoming game-changers. Because of these developments success and even survival in this new networked world order demands new category of skills. These skills are broadly called Information literacy. Demand for new skill is not strange to human race. Like many other “survived” species humans have acquired a new set of  skills at every crucial stage and turn of natural  evolution. However, need for a new set of skills for a world order created by human themselves is of recent origin. The invention of printing press and consequent ability of humans to produce books in millions created new institutions such as modern universities and governments. The successful participation in thes

Organized Learning in Human History: Oral Tradition to Personal Learning Environment ( PLE)

Education has been a mainstay of many of human societies throughout civlizations. Education is a process of transmiiting of content- knowledge, experience and values from one generation to another. The mode and means of education have been always evolving and are reflection of state of art of technology avaialable to that society at that time. Oral tradition was the chief mode of education for most part of human history. However arrival of new technologies periodically have helped people to find news ways of delivering education. The invention of  printing press in 14th century and consequent ability to produce books in large numbers gave impetus to educational process and helped to build modern universities. Liberal education promoted and practiced by universities tried to reach masses and offer education in large scale. Later development such a radio, TV and other made education more accessible. However, education was organized around an institution and all learning happened in the &

Technical Teaching For Results

I teach in an engineering college and I am a technical teacher. Technical teaching is all about making a learner functional and a contributor in the domain of her choice. Technical teaching has a purpose and must get results. Technical teaching for results must be a legitimate concern and a duty of technical teacher Technical teaching is practical and has a thesis Technical performance. Technical performance is the ability of a t eacher to put technology into effective use in teaching and in the daily activities of the learner. It is the specific function and the contribution of teacher. and the reason for his existence and employment.