Learning In a Flat World

1970: The Year I was born. My parents would have probably dreamt of me becoming a doctor or an engineer at best. And then they embarked on that long journey of providing me the best that they could afford. At the same time, I was offered the most respectable education anyone could have afforded then. Hats Off to those two individuals who helped shape my life. 1982: I went to Modern School, N. Delhi to study on a scholarship that would ensure any child a future that he could dream of, or at least he was capable of. Hats Off to my teachers who put in that effort in making me the way I am. 1993: I passed out of Indo-Swiss Training Center, Chandigarh with a job in my hand that would ensure that I could "enjoy" my bachelorhood with friends watching movies and just having a good time. Hats Off to my instructors at the college who made me learn everything the hard way! 1999: I passed out of Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, again with a job that was roughly five times

I am often amused by educators who wish to "upgrade" themselves by venturing into elearning and using tools that will take their offerings to the next level. With all their good intentions, they start thinking about various ways of achieving this: 1. Teaching Aids: Right from a projector to a sophisticated writing board that prints, saves and replays what the teacher wrote on it. 2. Animations and Interactive Tools: Intended to deliver better understanding of a concept by doing something that can't be otherwise easily achieved in a verbal and on-the-board version. 3. Recording and Replaying Content: To achieve scale and ensure consistency of quality across time and place. 4. Online synchronous training: The ultimate goal of delivering training to multiple locations with the closest to real-life classroom experience. There are virtually thousands of products available in each of the above categories, ranging in price, quality and complexity. And the last variable worries t