FLLinNZ facilitation sessions – day two

Sean McDougall – speaking via videoconferencing classrooms of the futurenot a lot has changed – still sitting in classrooms altogether slumped over desks which are unsuitable for learning and sitting at all day. All studying at same time in groups. Sean has been working in designing learning spaces for the future.

No point in designing new buildings and doing the same sort of teaching there will be no additional benefits for the teachers and students. “It is about how you do it not where you do it.” Example of a design where the teacher could get around the students (children) better which improved the activitiy. Design of saddle seats which could swivel in any direction – take up less of a footprint – tables fit around the room – four-way data projector. Cheaper option than billions spent on school rebuilding. Room designed to encourage conversation and collaboration and teacher tried to teach by standing up the front. Learned from mistakes – need to educate teachers in new approaches.

Design my school – tool where students could be involved in designing school. http://designmyschool.net used wikipedia design – Co-Design

Provided some statistics about education in UK – 80% black children leave school at 16yrs and over half jobs advertised in UK in 2012 will require a degree. need to get back to the idea of a creative school rather than an “exam factory”. The system is not working – community minority groups illustrate this.

Singapore exampleeight years old problem-solving re bomb in an oil facility – building robots to clean up oil, building website to keep parents informed, writing business plan – a year long project. need to invent and create and solve future for themselves.

Xchurch School called Unlimited
Barriers removed – students direct their own learning Involved in projects in which they are interested e.g. designing logos, music distribution, own record label. Studying alongside 18 yr olds to get qualifications like Business.

Design done by people and with people. How can we work with excluded communities?
Example from Ireland – Sean is working with nuns in Cork. How can they work with people who are falling through groups. Responsive servicing. Immigrants, travellers, prisoners working together to find solutions to help stop people dropping out. They told their stories –
1. need place to come to meet with friends

children had different perspectives about how the building looked like – teachers forget what the rooms of the school look like.
Introduce opposites e.g. if you want technology look at what the organisation would look like without technology.

Another example-what could we do to make a fountain better? Designing a programmable, interactive fountain e.g. speed camera – measure how fast children are running around. could measure height and jets could respond to different heights. Give fountain three wishes – to see, hear, feel. Children helped design a mural with pictures and ideas of what they liked or did not like about the school. invites configuration and brings people together to work on a common problem to prepare them for the rapidly changing 21 century. create your own models and not wait for someone to “design a catalogue and you order from it”.

Allow people to skill up – learn and make mistakes. Video showing chidren with robots they constructed – watching them work and showing the great excitement. learning what they need for the knowledge economy. Need to redesign the service to meet the needs of the children e.g. reading construction manuals as that is where the interest lies for one of the children who likes building things.
Have moved from where things are done to them to one where people create their world. can you hand over what is seen to be important information to be displayed e.g. Cardiff streets.

1.What will it mean if we get it right?

increased success. Teachers who get it. learners who get what they want.

2.What happens if we carry on as we are?

no change as technology etc. changes around us.

3.Why haven’t we done anything about it?

too hard, no money.

4. What could we do about it?

let people know what skills people will need in the future

Mark Nichols – institutional change for eLearning
Statement: 
now know how eLearning works – do we? We know how to facilitate online discussion – do we?
Beeby 1992 wrote about lessons learned in 1930s. Mark is an educational evolutionist. Focus is on formal education. He has failed spectacularly. Failures are far more interesting and you can learn from it. In his FLLinNZ year he read a lot about institutional change and talked to lots of people about it. Reckons it is commonsense. Has been ignored and now feels like he is prophetic.
What do we know about change
Peter Senge – 
see institution as a whole “see the wood for the trees”. Large scale change is complex. Example: had a CDROm of video, looked after website, used discussion – looked after it himself and it worked well. what would happen if it was systemised? Need to train people and learners. need to copy multiple CDs. What about looking after discussions – technical support, archiving.

Who maintains resources? How do we support subject matter experts with elearning. can they use pre-prepared materials. how are new technologies incorporated? How do we enrol students? Innovation in one course is very different to what is needed in a whole programme. Good systems solve problems before they happen.

Best to work with late majority – sustainability through transformationwork on changing core ideas – workshops Core and custom – complement standardisation with innovation. How do you get buy in. Use systems that organisation has in place – systems for internal review. Meet with programme leaders and work with them. Division of labour – how to best support those who are not tech literate. Engage at level of the core with tech support at that level.
FL strategy or teacing and learning strategy – use them.

How do you go about internalising elearning?
strategic ownership – VLE a thermometer – some staff flocked to it – others ignored it. If few staff got excited good prognosis – otherwise more difficult to change ideas about eLearning.

John P. Kotter – leading organisational change, very good book.
useful orientation to major changes that are involved.

Examples from Bible College
1. establishing a sense of urgency –
 better resourcing of students, costing
Developing a strategy and PD. College eLearning audit and prepare national exemplar.
Sense of urgency varies – depends on hierarchy and priorities e.g. pbrf. When there is a crisis – lack of students for programmes. Responding to market.

2. Creating the guiding coalition
put ideas in front of managers with evidence

3.Developing a vision and strategy
what evidence is there that it improves learning? works well where there is no choice or it supports lifestyle. Don’t change what is working and change what and when you need to.

4. Communicating the change vision

5. Empowering broad-based action

6. Generating short term wins

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture

Some discussion on the above questions but not enough time and no summarising of them at the end.

Maret Staron – TAFEOverview of some research projects. “Designing Professional development for the Knowledge era”.
Big emphasis in Australia with workforce development. Mentioned learning environmnet managers – work done in the workplace with learners there. Moving more to learner directed ideas. Open standards
Now in the Knowledge era – environment, learning ecology, business,
focus for all four areas on learners, context, technologies

Suggestion that the knowledge era will only last a decade – has progressed from information era. Next era proposed to be the concept era. Is this true?

Need to be knowledge workers – need to find, use information. Now need to generate our own information. One of our greatest challenges – how to work in groups to generate new knowledge?

Work is becoming more unbounded in time and space now with practitioners increasingly needing to work and engage in their own learning at work and at home” (ANTA 2004).

Used an ecology metaphor – broader than networks – what is your learning ecology? relationship between entitities and their environment. Dynamic, adaptive and diverse – there is no one way. Maron promised a model to help but no one way.

Stuck in the mechanistic metaphor – want to think, feel, use intuition, be creative – a contradiction.

Strength-based Philosophy – moves us from deficit-based modelWhat is wrong and we will fix it. Hard to shift to strength-based model. Constrained by bureaucracies who follow the deficit-based model. A lot of organisations try and solve problems by looking at what they need to fix. Martin Seligman – how to look at what helps people thrive. How to help organisations be the best they can. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – psychology of optimal experience – “in the flow” when things work well and you are in the optimal skill level. When in the flow anxiety, boredom and apathy reduces.

Business wisdom
How to bring leadership on board. What is the glue that connects the elements of a learning organisation? (Wise thinking and actions.)

Key findings of research
Strength-based orientation more effective.
capability – moves beyond professional development – confident, capable, competence – ability to work in unknown areas.
Values is the bedrock
Disruptive model

  • action learning, mentoring is strength-based, communities of practice

Some places run events on a cafe conversation model for PD. Look at what is working and why.
Who is practising deviance in a positive way for the benefit of the organisation.
What gifts does each person bring to the organisation?
How to reshape the description of your work so it is more flexible – job sculpting.
Appreciative inquiry.
Disruptive technology – policy, research, processes
Life-based learning, expert-centred model, work-based learning
In reality learning crosses work, leisure, family etc.
What is the source of learning not the continuum? “Learning for work is not restricted to learning at work.”
Life-based learning is integrated and holistic. What are the enablers to create this type of learning?
A business approach to capability development “- companion document to research report.

http://www.icvet.edu.au

Discussion of four questions: Modifying what could we build? – Listening, sharing stories and conversations. previous knowledge and recording.
Exploring – what assumptions should we challenge?
Visioning – what would be your ideal, your dream?
Experimenting – what can we combine and test?

What is your personal stance in relation to work-based and life-based learning? What does it it mean to design this ideal for approaches to learning?

Stanley Frielick – Real change institutional challenges and opportunitiesThreshold concepts and troublesome knowledge – a new way of understanding, interpreting or viewing something may emerge a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape or world view.
What is a threshold moment? – when someone starts contributing and/or facilitating to an online discussion. When people take charge of something – self-directed learning.

The real university is a state of mind. Zen and the art of motorocycle maintenance : an inquiry. Are there two universities? The first real university is the concrete one – state of mind sits within there. What are the mental models which underly our university structures?

Teachers and learners are inextricably linked and there is not just a one-way flow of information. Reactive (teacher-centred) versus constructive (learner-centred). Both demonstrate a dualist model – autonomous model where learner is separated from the world. Ecological model – capillaries of power – an energy which circulates through an institution. (Foucalt). Need to focus on capillaries when look at change. what are the technologies of power?

threshold concept 3 – Can teaching and learning function like an ecosystem? Is it similar to indigenous models of learning? Example, dialogical model where relationships occur between teachers and learners.

Mention of DNA and genetics as shaping learning – evolution, mutants, survival of the fittest – social dynamism – who supports the weak and do we just leave them in the wilderness?

Threshold concept 4 – ecological sensibility – disruptive technologies. who decides what is knowledge? Who decided what is needed for promotion?

Real change
Form (media) and content – most disruption happening here – disruptive technologies and disruptive pedagogies.
Assessment examination and accreditation
Appraisal (teacher) and evaluation (courses)

Immune system – assessment and appraisal areas. what is needed to make this disruptive – quality, prescriptive and normative, secretive – policies and processes, rewards. Suggests real change needs to be focussed on immune system (resistance). Make them more open, networked and ecological.

The disruptive technologies and pedagogies will act as an external stimulus which will upset the balance of the ecosystem and stimulate internal systems in assessment and appraisal i.e. disrupt them – they will have to change so they can revert to a balanced model. Change cannot occur in an ecosystem without an external stimulus. An internal stimulus can change an individual’s system but not when an individual is part of a bigger system. Negative and positive feedback. Negative feedback in a closed system will return it to the status quo. Positive feedback will stimulate either rebirth or bleeding to death or system wide shock and collapse.

In complexity or chaos theory where there is a complex system – competency alone is not enough – it is very linear and serves only part of the purpose. Capability occurs when there is a branching out and multiple layers of action and direction.

FLLinNZ facilitation sessions – day two

Sean McDougall – speaking via videoconferencing classrooms of the futurenot a lot has changed – still sitting in classrooms altogether slumped over desks which are unsuitable for learning and sitting at all day. All studying at same time in groups. Sean has been working in designing learning spaces for the future.

No point in designing new buildings and doing the same sort of teaching there will be no additional benefits for the teachers and students. “It is about how you do it not where you do it.” Example of a design where the teacher could get around the students (children) better which improved the activitiy. Design of saddle seats which could swivel in any direction – take up less of a footprint – tables fit around the room – four-way data projector. Cheaper option than billions spent on school rebuilding. Room designed to encourage conversation and collaboration and teacher tried to teach by standing up the front. Learned from mistakes – need to educate teachers in new approaches.

Design my school – tool where students could be involved in designing school. http://designmyschool.net used wikipedia design – Co-Design

Provided some statistics about education in UK – 80% black children leave school at 16yrs and over half jobs advertised in UK in 2012 will require a degree. need to get back to the idea of a creative school rather than an “exam factory”. The system is not working – community minority groups illustrate this.

Singapore exampleeight years old problem-solving re bomb in an oil facility – building robots to clean up oil, building website to keep parents informed, writing business plan – a year long project. need to invent and create and solve future for themselves.

Xchurch School called Unlimited
Barriers removed – students direct their own learning Involved in projects in which they are interested e.g. designing logos, music distribution, own record label. Studying alongside 18 yr olds to get qualifications like Business.

Design done by people and with people. How can we work with excluded communities?
Example from Ireland – Sean is working with nuns in Cork. How can they work with people who are falling through groups. Responsive servicing. Immigrants, travellers, prisoners working together to find solutions to help stop people dropping out. They told their stories –
1. need place to come to meet with friends

children had different perspectives about how the building looked like – teachers forget what the rooms of the school look like.
Introduce opposites e.g. if you want technology look at what the organisation would look like without technology.

Another example-what could we do to make a fountain better? Designing a programmable, interactive fountain e.g. speed camera – measure how fast children are running around. could measure height and jets could respond to different heights. Give fountain three wishes – to see, hear, feel. Children helped design a mural with pictures and ideas of what they liked or did not like about the school. invites configuration and brings people together to work on a common problem to prepare them for the rapidly changing 21 century. create your own models and not wait for someone to “design a catalogue and you order from it”.

Allow people to skill up – learn and make mistakes. Video showing chidren with robots they constructed – watching them work and showing the great excitement. learning what they need for the knowledge economy. Need to redesign the service to meet the needs of the children e.g. reading construction manuals as that is where the interest lies for one of the children who likes building things.
Have moved from where things are done to them to one where people create their world. can you hand over what is seen to be important information to be displayed e.g. Cardiff streets.

1.What will it mean if we get it right?

increased success. Teachers who get it. learners who get what they want.

2.What happens if we carry on as we are?

no change as technology etc. changes around us.

3.Why haven’t we done anything about it?

too hard, no money.

4. What could we do about it?

let people know what skills people will need in the future

Mark Nichols – institutional change for eLearning
Statement: 
now know how eLearning works – do we? We know how to facilitate online discussion – do we?
Beeby 1992 wrote about lessons learned in 1930s. Mark is an educational evolutionist. Focus is on formal education. He has failed spectacularly. Failures are far more interesting and you can learn from it. In his FLLinNZ year he read a lot about institutional change and talked to lots of people about it. Reckons it is commonsense. Has been ignored and now feels like he is prophetic.
What do we know about change
Peter Senge – 
see institution as a whole “see the wood for the trees”. Large scale change is complex. Example: had a CDROm of video, looked after website, used discussion – looked after it himself and it worked well. what would happen if it was systemised? Need to train people and learners. need to copy multiple CDs. What about looking after discussions – technical support, archiving.

Who maintains resources? How do we support subject matter experts with elearning. can they use pre-prepared materials. how are new technologies incorporated? How do we enrol students? Innovation in one course is very different to what is needed in a whole programme. Good systems solve problems before they happen.

Best to work with late majority – sustainability through transformationwork on changing core ideas – workshops Core and custom – complement standardisation with innovation. How do you get buy in. Use systems that organisation has in place – systems for internal review. Meet with programme leaders and work with them. Division of labour – how to best support those who are not tech literate. Engage at level of the core with tech support at that level.
FL strategy or teacing and learning strategy – use them.

How do you go about internalising elearning?
strategic ownership – VLE a thermometer – some staff flocked to it – others ignored it. If few staff got excited good prognosis – otherwise more difficult to change ideas about eLearning.

John P. Kotter – leading organisational change, very good book.
useful orientation to major changes that are involved.

Examples from Bible College
1. establishing a sense of urgency –
 better resourcing of students, costing
Developing a strategy and PD. College eLearning audit and prepare national exemplar.
Sense of urgency varies – depends on hierarchy and priorities e.g. pbrf. When there is a crisis – lack of students for programmes. Responding to market.

2. Creating the guiding coalition
put ideas in front of managers with evidence

3.Developing a vision and strategy
what evidence is there that it improves learning? works well where there is no choice or it supports lifestyle. Don’t change what is working and change what and when you need to.

4. Communicating the change vision

5. Empowering broad-based action

6. Generating short term wins

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture

Some discussion on the above questions but not enough time and no summarising of them at the end.

Maret Staron – TAFEOverview of some research projects. “Designing Professional development for the Knowledge era”.
Big emphasis in Australia with workforce development. Mentioned learning environmnet managers – work done in the workplace with learners there. Moving more to learner directed ideas. Open standards
Now in the Knowledge era – environment, learning ecology, business,
focus for all four areas on learners, context, technologies

Suggestion that the knowledge era will only last a decade – has progressed from information era. Next era proposed to be the concept era. Is this true?

Need to be knowledge workers – need to find, use information. Now need to generate our own information. One of our greatest challenges – how to work in groups to generate new knowledge?

Work is becoming more unbounded in time and space now with practitioners increasingly needing to work and engage in their own learning at work and at home” (ANTA 2004).

Used an ecology metaphor – broader than networks – what is your learning ecology? relationship between entitities and their environment. Dynamic, adaptive and diverse – there is no one way. Maron promised a model to help but no one way.

Stuck in the mechanistic metaphor – want to think, feel, use intuition, be creative – a contradiction.

Strength-based Philosophy – moves us from deficit-based modelWhat is wrong and we will fix it. Hard to shift to strength-based model. Constrained by bureaucracies who follow the deficit-based model. A lot of organisations try and solve problems by looking at what they need to fix. Martin Seligman – how to look at what helps people thrive. How to help organisations be the best they can. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – psychology of optimal experience – “in the flow” when things work well and you are in the optimal skill level. When in the flow anxiety, boredom and apathy reduces.

Business wisdom
How to bring leadership on board. What is the glue that connects the elements of a learning organisation? (Wise thinking and actions.)

Key findings of research
Strength-based orientation more effective.
capability – moves beyond professional development – confident, capable, competence – ability to work in unknown areas.
Values is the bedrock
Disruptive model

  • action learning, mentoring is strength-based, communities of practice

Some places run events on a cafe conversation model for PD. Look at what is working and why.
Who is practising deviance in a positive way for the benefit of the organisation.
What gifts does each person bring to the organisation?
How to reshape the description of your work so it is more flexible – job sculpting.
Appreciative inquiry.
Disruptive technology – policy, research, processes
Life-based learning, expert-centred model, work-based learning
In reality learning crosses work, leisure, family etc.
What is the source of learning not the continuum? “Learning for work is not restricted to learning at work.”
Life-based learning is integrated and holistic. What are the enablers to create this type of learning?
A business approach to capability development “- companion document to research report.

http://www.icvet.edu.au

Discussion of four questions: Modifying what could we build? – Listening, sharing stories and conversations. previous knowledge and recording.
Exploring – what assumptions should we challenge?
Visioning – what would be your ideal, your dream?
Experimenting – what can we combine and test?

What is your personal stance in relation to work-based and life-based learning? What does it it mean to design this ideal for approaches to learning?

Stanley Frielick – Real change institutional challenges and opportunitiesThreshold concepts and troublesome knowledge – a new way of understanding, interpreting or viewing something may emerge a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape or world view.
What is a threshold moment? – when someone starts contributing and/or facilitating to an online discussion. When people take charge of something – self-directed learning.

The real university is a state of mind. Zen and the art of motorocycle maintenance : an inquiry. Are there two universities? The first real university is the concrete one – state of mind sits within there. What are the mental models which underly our university structures?

Teachers and learners are inextricably linked and there is not just a one-way flow of information. Reactive (teacher-centred) versus constructive (learner-centred). Both demonstrate a dualist model – autonomous model where learner is separated from the world. Ecological model – capillaries of power – an energy which circulates through an institution. (Foucalt). Need to focus on capillaries when look at change. what are the technologies of power?

threshold concept 3 – Can teaching and learning function like an ecosystem? Is it similar to indigenous models of learning? Example, dialogical model where relationships occur between teachers and learners.

Mention of DNA and genetics as shaping learning – evolution, mutants, survival of the fittest – social dynamism – who supports the weak and do we just leave them in the wilderness?

Threshold concept 4 – ecological sensibility – disruptive technologies. who decides what is knowledge? Who decided what is needed for promotion?

Real change
Form (media) and content – most disruption happening here – disruptive technologies and disruptive pedagogies.
Assessment examination and accreditation
Appraisal (teacher) and evaluation (courses)

Immune system – assessment and appraisal areas. what is needed to make this disruptive – quality, prescriptive and normative, secretive – policies and processes, rewards. Suggests real change needs to be focussed on immune system (resistance). Make them more open, networked and ecological.

The disruptive technologies and pedagogies will act as an external stimulus which will upset the balance of the ecosystem and stimulate internal systems in assessment and appraisal i.e. disrupt them – they will have to change so they can revert to a balanced model. Change cannot occur in an ecosystem without an external stimulus. An internal stimulus can change an individual’s system but not when an individual is part of a bigger system. Negative and positive feedback. Negative feedback in a closed system will return it to the status quo. Positive feedback will stimulate either rebirth or bleeding to death or system wide shock and collapse.

In complexity or chaos theory where there is a complex system – competency alone is not enough – it is very linear and serves only part of the purpose. Capability occurs when there is a branching out and multiple layers of action and direction.

Due Process Of Law For Rapists Must Speed Up Now

It has been repeated ad nauseam that we all must respect law and allow the due process of law to work accordingly. It cannot be denied that “fake encounters” and “extra judicial killings” are a big threat to our Indian democracy. But the biggest threat to our criminal justice system is to justify the excruciatingly glacial pace with which our courts function under the garb of “due process of law”! It is the victims families who bear the maximum brunt because of this which under no circumstances can ever be justified on any ground whatsoever! This cannot be left unattended and it is high time now that the due process of law for rapists must speed up now!

Is it due process of law that thousands of Judges post are lying vacant in trial courts due to which inordinate delay in delivering justice happens? Is it due process of law that an astonishing 38% of sanctioned posts for High Court Judges – 410 of 1,079 posts are lying vacant? Is it due process of law that thousands of Judges post are lying vacant in trial courts? Is it due process of law that we earlier saw how even posts of Supreme Court Judges are lying vacant?

Is it due process of law that witnesses are threatened to turn hostile by dreaded goons due to which they succumb many times out of fear? Is it due process of law that those witnesses who still don’t listen to dreaded goons are liquidated brutally? Is it due process of law that witnesses who speak up against dreaded goons or who are rape victims and inspite of security needs are denied the same by the police due to which they are brutally murdered?

Is it due process of law that rape cases keep pending for many years first in the trial court, then for many years in the High Court and finally in the Supreme Court? Is it due process of law that Public Prosecutors many times skip appearance on crucial hearings due to which rape victim suffers immensely? Is it due process of law that the victim has to wait endlessly for getting justice and she is told clearly by the Judges that don’t expect instant justice and she can get justice after decades of fighting the legal battle in court after following the due process of law?

This must change now and the judicial system must now speed up cases in serious crimes like that of rape among others. Our judicial system needs a lots of changes which will benefit the rape victim. It can be done if there is adequate political will in this regard!

We just saw how amid a chorus of voices in both Houses of Parliament endorsing the encounter killing by Telangana Police of the four accused in the gangrape and murder of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad, there were a few voices of caution and dissent also that cut across party lines which cannot be ignored. We are a democratic country where “rule of law” prevails and we all as good citizens have to abide by it. There can be no denying or disputing it.

While condemning the Hyderabad police encounter, BJP MP Maneka Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament that, “Whatever happened was terrible for the country. You cannot take the law in your hands. They (accused) would have been hanged anyway.” I agree with Maneka Gandhi’s first two statements that whatever happened was terrible for the country and no one can take law in one’s own hands. There can be no denying it!

But I don’t agree with the third line that, “They (accused) would have been hanged anyway.” Our past experience does not inspire the unflinching confidence which Maneka has tried to demonstrate in our criminal justice system! We cannot run away from the ugly truth that confronts us on this score!

Based on my personal knowledge I will tell what I know on this count. The last time we had the great privilege to see a rapist being hanged was 15 years ago in 2004 when a poor Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged on circumstantial evidence alone with his petition being drafted by Tihar jail prisoners as was pointed out by senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves which is nothing but a “miscarriage of justice” because in other similar cases like that of Priyadarshini Mattoo rape cum murder case where the evidence was direct, death penalty was not given because there were “eminent and experienced lawyers” to defend him! Similarly before 2004, it was way back in 1982 that Ranga and Birla were rightly hanged.

But can Maneka Gandhi tell me why is it that just three rapists hanged in last 37 years and why no gang rapists have been hanged ever till now at least to the best of my knowledge? Is this due process of law? Is this the right manner of imparting justice?

What about the other thousands of rapists cum murderers who escape very easily from punishment? Why have they been spared? Is it just because they were able to hire a battery of “eminent and experienced” lawyers who were able to give thousands of reasons for saving their clients from being sent to the gallows? Is this due process of law?

I have just no words of praise for Naresh Gujral who is Rajya Sabha MP of Shiromani Akali Dal and who sums up most eloquently and elegantly by saying that, “Though I feel very strongly for women’s security because I have two daughters, the due process of law is to be followed. The problem is the process of law has become very slow. But still, there has to be process of law. This way, we are walking towards anarchy. We are not savages. There were four accused and a full investigation did not take place and we do not know whether all four were involved or not. This is dangerous.”

In other words, Naresh Gujral who is a learned Rajya Sabha MP and son of former PM IK Gujral has not minced any words to make it very clear that the nub of the problem in our criminal justice system is this: “The problem is the process of law has become very slow.” Why can’t the due process of law for rapists be speed up? Who is stopping it?

It can be done provided there is political will as was very rightly acknowledged by none other than the Vice President – M Venkaiah Naidu himself. He said that, “I am not against any bill or new law, but what I always feel is political will and administrative skills to kill the social evil are needed. Change in the mindset is the need of the hour and that we should go back to the roots and culture. Looking at such incidents from the prism of religion and politics would ensure that the “cause is lost”.” Very rightly so!

Why can’t Centre display adequate political will and take the bull by the horns? Why can’t thousands of rapists be hanged by ensuring greater speed in “due process of law” which presently is moving at snail’s pace? The ball certainly lies clearly in the Centre’s court and it must now take the historic initiative in this regard just like it did on Article 370 which invited praise from many Congress and other opposition leaders also!

Having said this, it must be pointed out that on new laws, the Vice President said that, “Bringing new laws was not the solution. We brought a Bill on Nirbhaya. What happened? Was the problem solved?”

With due respect to Vice President whom I adore, I must tell him that he is right that they brought a Bill on Nirbhaya but it did not solve the problem. In the same vein, I must tell him even though it would seem unpalatable that the Bill on Nirbhaya was riddled with inconsistencies and there were too many “escape routes” which were exploited fully. Why mercy petition for rapists and terrorists have not been abolished? Why no time limit fixed for deciding mercy petition?

Why mandatory death penalty not inserted in Bill on Nirbhaya? Why Judges were armed with “discretion bombs” in form of “may” in the new Sections inserted by the 2018 amendment which now must be defused by removing “may” and punishing those who commit rape as in Nirbhaya case with mandatory death penalty? Was it done earlier? Certainly not!

Why even for repeated offenders of rape there is no mandatory death penalty? Why “escape route” in form of “life imprisonment” still open in the Bill on Nirbhaya? Why should rapists get a chance again ever to commit rape again and still not get death penalty compulsorily?

Why no time limit was fixed for trial court, High Court and also Supreme Court to decide the case? Why was it allowed to linger on for so long? Why minimum punishment for gang rape was fixed at 20 years?

Why no mandatory death penalty was fixed for gang rape? Why maximum punishment was fixed only at life and not death? Why time limit not fixed for filing review and mercy petition and also for deciding them?

Whose interest did all this serve by leaving it totally untouched? It goes without saying that it was the accused rapist who gained the most due to all this just like we saw earlier prior to bringing of a Bill on Nirbhaya. Can the Vice President deny this? Certainly not! But certainly Vice President is right in advocating that minor rapists whop know how to rape must be punished just like other adult!

I must also admire what Trinamool Congress Leader in the Rajya Sabha – Derek O’ Brien said about this. He very rightly said that, “The problem needs a solution without politics. West Bengal has 48 fast track courts of which 46 are for dealing with cases of violence against women. I strongly believe it’s a social evil. We need to solve this without politics. Quick justice is the need of the hour, but we need the rule of law. This is a very emotional issue, a sensitive issue.”

More importantly, selective hanging of rapists as we saw in case of poor Dhananjoy Chatterjee must stop once and for all. All rapists irrespective of their background must be hanged and killed promptly just like mosquitoes! No discrimination based on economic and social status should be done on this score!

Also, those who are poor like Dhananjoy Chatterjee must be given the best lawyer so that “due process of law” is actually implemented on ground and it is not the prisoners of Tihar jail who draft his petition which ostensibly had to be rejected as it was poorly drafted! What a shame that Dhananjoy Chatterjee’s application was drafted by Tihar jail inmates as was pointed out by senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves which is nothing but the supreme rather worst travesty of justice as he was hanged on circumstantial evidence alone whereas in other similar cases the accused rapist were not given death penalty! This nothing but abuse of “due process of law”!

This should never be allowed under any circumstances to happen! Why should rich rapists be allowed to walk away even after raping, committing murder and committing gang rape? To walk the talk, no rapist irrespective of his economic status should ever be spared under any circumstances and this is when we can then say that “due process of law” has been followed!

Most importantly, the due process of law for rapist must be speed up. The time limit for completing trial in trial courts as well as time for deciding cases in High Courts and Supreme Court must be fixed and should be accorded the topmost priority as it brooks no inordinate delay! Centre and also Supreme Court must act in tandem to ensure this.

To sum up, Julio Ribeiro who is a retired IPS officer and who was Mumbai Police Commissioner, DGP Gujarat and DGP Punjab and whom I hold in highest esteem very rightly says that, “The Telangana police unit which shot dead the four suspects in the veterinary lady doctor’s rape-cum-murder offence were likely carrying out a mandate entrusted to it by their own leaders who, in turn, will have received instructions from political superiors. The public baying for blood is a symptom of a puzzled and ill-informed society. Until the system of judicial process is put back on the rails, these short-cuts will continue. How does the government – with the judiciary, the Bar and the police, all components of the judicial process – correct all these flaws in the system? For starters, the court must hold daily hearings in such cases without any interruption. No adjournments should ever be given. If lawyers are busy with other cases, they must take steps to send their juniors to attend those other cases instead. All stakeholders in the judicial process must sit across the table and take a decision to speed up the trials of rape and murder cases, at least.”

He further adds that, “When I was a young student of law, those accused of heinous crimes like murder or rape were tried swiftly and punished or set free, as the evidence on record dictated, within a year. The average time taken was eight or nine months, during which time the accused were in the custody of jailors. The hearings were held daily, and no adjournments were asked for or given. The public prosecutor and the lawyer of the accused were invariably present in court to rise in their seats when the presiding judge entered at the appointed hour of the morning. The witnesses were kept ready outside the court and would be ushered inside the courtroom when his or her name was called by the judge’s clerk. There was great precision and solemnity to this whole process. Sadly, this has disappeared now with advocates for the prosecution or the defence seeking adjournments, often on flimsy grounds. Sadder still, they are able to obtain it without any difficulty. The entire atmosphere has been transformed into one witnessed routinely in the courts of the lower judiciary. Delays in the disposal of trials of those accused who are charged with murder and rape, or other heinous crimes, has warped the judicial system. If those who dare to commit such crimes feel that there is laxity within the system, where the chances available to suborn witnesses are enhanced, then the threat of law catching up with offender retreats. An atmosphere of lawlessness creeps in. It is exactly this atmosphere of lawlessness that presently prevails. The middle class, who form the bulk of the opinion makers in any country, put pressure – subtle or overt – on the governments of the day to preserve their sense of security in anyway possible. Since the judicial system does not operate as smoothly as it used to in the past, popularly elected governments, in turn, put pressure on the police forces to use other methods to solve the problem.”

It is high time now and both the judiciary and the Centre must take the suggestions of Julio Reibero who has a vast experience of police service most seriously and implement his commendable suggestions! Rape laws must be earnestly expedited and all laws which affect women must be speed up so that women gets justice as per due process of law and not by encounters! Only then will people start respecting judiciary in the true sense and people’s unflinching faith which earlier was there shall stand restored once again!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,

s/o Col BPS Sirohi,

A 82, Defence Enclave,

Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera,

Meerut – 250001, Uttar Pradesh.

FLLinNZ facilitation sessions – day two

Sean McDougall – speaking via videoconferencing classrooms of the futurenot a lot has changed – still sitting in classrooms altogether slumped over desks which are unsuitable for learning and sitting at all day. All studying at same time in groups. Sean has been working in designing learning spaces for the future.

No point in designing new buildings and doing the same sort of teaching there will be no additional benefits for the teachers and students. \”It is about how you do it not where you do it.\” Example of a design where the teacher could get around the students (children) better which improved the activitiy. Design of saddle seats which could swivel in any direction – take up less of a footprint – tables fit around the room – four-way data projector. Cheaper option than billions spent on school rebuilding. Room designed to encourage conversation and collaboration and teacher tried to teach by standing up the front. Learned from mistakes – need to educate teachers in new approaches.

Design my school – tool where students could be involved in designing school. http://designmyschool.net used wikipedia design – Co-Design

Provided some statistics about education in UK – 80% black children leave school at 16yrs and over half jobs advertised in UK in 2012 will require a degree. need to get back to the idea of a creative school rather than an \”exam factory\”. The system is not working – community minority groups illustrate this.

Singapore exampleeight years old problem-solving re bomb in an oil facility – building robots to clean up oil, building website to keep parents informed, writing business plan – a year long project. need to invent and create and solve future for themselves.

Xchurch School called Unlimited
Barriers removed – students direct their own learning Involved in projects in which they are interested e.g. designing logos, music distribution, own record label. Studying alongside 18 yr olds to get qualifications like Business.

Design done by people and with people. How can we work with excluded communities?
Example from Ireland – Sean is working with nuns in Cork. How can they work with people who are falling through groups. Responsive servicing. Immigrants, travellers, prisoners working together to find solutions to help stop people dropping out. They told their stories –
1. need place to come to meet with friends

children had different perspectives about how the building looked like – teachers forget what the rooms of the school look like.
Introduce opposites e.g. if you want technology look at what the organisation would look like without technology.

Another example-what could we do to make a fountain better? Designing a programmable, interactive fountain e.g. speed camera – measure how fast children are running around. could measure height and jets could respond to different heights. Give fountain three wishes – to see, hear, feel. Children helped design a mural with pictures and ideas of what they liked or did not like about the school. invites configuration and brings people together to work on a common problem to prepare them for the rapidly changing 21 century. create your own models and not wait for someone to \”design a catalogue and you order from it\”.

Allow people to skill up – learn and make mistakes. Video showing chidren with robots they constructed – watching them work and showing the great excitement. learning what they need for the knowledge economy. Need to redesign the service to meet the needs of the children e.g. reading construction manuals as that is where the interest lies for one of the children who likes building things.
Have moved from where things are done to them to one where people create their world. can you hand over what is seen to be important information to be displayed e.g. Cardiff streets.

1.What will it mean if we get it right?

increased success. Teachers who get it. learners who get what they want.

2.What happens if we carry on as we are?

no change as technology etc. changes around us.

3.Why haven\’t we done anything about it?

too hard, no money.

4. What could we do about it?

let people know what skills people will need in the future

Mark Nichols – institutional change for eLearning
Statement: 
now know how eLearning works – do we? We know how to facilitate online discussion – do we?
Beeby 1992 wrote about lessons learned in 1930s. Mark is an educational evolutionist. Focus is on formal education. He has failed spectacularly. Failures are far more interesting and you can learn from it. In his FLLinNZ year he read a lot about institutional change and talked to lots of people about it. Reckons it is commonsense. Has been ignored and now feels like he is prophetic.
What do we know about change
Peter Senge – 
see institution as a whole \”see the wood for the trees\”. Large scale change is complex. Example: had a CDROm of video, looked after website, used discussion – looked after it himself and it worked well. what would happen if it was systemised? Need to train people and learners. need to copy multiple CDs. What about looking after discussions – technical support, archiving.

Who maintains resources? How do we support subject matter experts with elearning. can they use pre-prepared materials. how are new technologies incorporated? How do we enrol students? Innovation in one course is very different to what is needed in a whole programme. Good systems solve problems before they happen.

Best to work with late majority – sustainability through transformationwork on changing core ideas – workshops Core and custom – complement standardisation with innovation. How do you get buy in. Use systems that organisation has in place – systems for internal review. Meet with programme leaders and work with them. Division of labour – how to best support those who are not tech literate. Engage at level of the core with tech support at that level.
FL strategy or teacing and learning strategy – use them.

How do you go about internalising elearning?
strategic ownership – VLE a thermometer – some staff flocked to it – others ignored it. If few staff got excited good prognosis – otherwise more difficult to change ideas about eLearning.

John P. Kotter – leading organisational change, very good book.
useful orientation to major changes that are involved.

Examples from Bible College
1. establishing a sense of urgency –
 better resourcing of students, costing
Developing a strategy and PD. College eLearning audit and prepare national exemplar.
Sense of urgency varies – depends on hierarchy and priorities e.g. pbrf. When there is a crisis – lack of students for programmes. Responding to market.

2. Creating the guiding coalition
put ideas in front of managers with evidence

3.Developing a vision and strategy
what evidence is there that it improves learning? works well where there is no choice or it supports lifestyle. Don\’t change what is working and change what and when you need to.

4. Communicating the change vision

5. Empowering broad-based action

6. Generating short term wins

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture

Some discussion on the above questions but not enough time and no summarising of them at the end.

Maret Staron – TAFEOverview of some research projects. \”Designing Professional development for the Knowledge era\”.
Big emphasis in Australia with workforce development. Mentioned learning environmnet managers – work done in the workplace with learners there. Moving more to learner directed ideas. Open standards
Now in the Knowledge era – environment, learning ecology, business,
focus for all four areas on learners, context, technologies

Suggestion that the knowledge era will only last a decade – has progressed from information era. Next era proposed to be the concept era. Is this true?

Need to be knowledge workers – need to find, use information. Now need to generate our own information. One of our greatest challenges – how to work in groups to generate new knowledge?

Work is becoming more unbounded in time and space now with practitioners increasingly needing to work and engage in their own learning at work and at home\” (ANTA 2004).

Used an ecology metaphor – broader than networks – what is your learning ecology? relationship between entitities and their environment. Dynamic, adaptive and diverse – there is no one way. Maron promised a model to help but no one way.

Stuck in the mechanistic metaphor – want to think, feel, use intuition, be creative – a contradiction.

Strength-based Philosophy – moves us from deficit-based modelWhat is wrong and we will fix it. Hard to shift to strength-based model. Constrained by bureaucracies who follow the deficit-based model. A lot of organisations try and solve problems by looking at what they need to fix. Martin Seligman – how to look at what helps people thrive. How to help organisations be the best they can. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – psychology of optimal experience – \”in the flow\” when things work well and you are in the optimal skill level. When in the flow anxiety, boredom and apathy reduces.

Business wisdom
How to bring leadership on board. What is the glue that connects the elements of a learning organisation? (Wise thinking and actions.)

Key findings of research
Strength-based orientation more effective.
capability – moves beyond professional development – confident, capable, competence – ability to work in unknown areas.
Values is the bedrock
Disruptive model

  • action learning, mentoring is strength-based, communities of practice

Some places run events on a cafe conversation model for PD. Look at what is working and why.
Who is practising deviance in a positive way for the benefit of the organisation.
What gifts does each person bring to the organisation?
How to reshape the description of your work so it is more flexible – job sculpting.
Appreciative inquiry.
Disruptive technology – policy, research, processes
Life-based learning, expert-centred model, work-based learning
In reality learning crosses work, leisure, family etc.
What is the source of learning not the continuum? \”Learning for work is not restricted to learning at work.\”
Life-based learning is integrated and holistic. What are the enablers to create this type of learning?
\”A business approach to capability development \”- companion document to research report.

http://www.icvet.edu.au

Discussion of four questions: Modifying what could we build? – Listening, sharing stories and conversations. previous knowledge and recording.
Exploring – what assumptions should we challenge?
Visioning – what would be your ideal, your dream?
Experimenting – what can we combine and test?

What is your personal stance in relation to work-based and life-based learning? What does it it mean to design this ideal for approaches to learning?

Stanley Frielick – Real change institutional challenges and opportunitiesThreshold concepts and troublesome knowledge – a new way of understanding, interpreting or viewing something may emerge a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape or world view.
What is a threshold moment? – when someone starts contributing and/or facilitating to an online discussion. When people take charge of something – self-directed learning.

The real university is a state of mind. Zen and the art of motorocycle maintenance : an inquiry. Are there two universities? The first real university is the concrete one – state of mind sits within there. What are the mental models which underly our university structures?

Teachers and learners are inextricably linked and there is not just a one-way flow of information. Reactive (teacher-centred) versus constructive (learner-centred). Both demonstrate a dualist model – autonomous model where learner is separated from the world. Ecological model – capillaries of power – an energy which circulates through an institution. (Foucalt). Need to focus on capillaries when look at change. what are the technologies of power?

threshold concept 3 – Can teaching and learning function like an ecosystem? Is it similar to indigenous models of learning? Example, dialogical model where relationships occur between teachers and learners.

Mention of DNA and genetics as shaping learning – evolution, mutants, survival of the fittest – social dynamism – who supports the weak and do we just leave them in the wilderness?

Threshold concept 4 – ecological sensibility – disruptive technologies. who decides what is knowledge? Who decided what is needed for promotion?

Real change
Form (media) and content – most disruption happening here – disruptive technologies and disruptive pedagogies.
Assessment examination and accreditation
Appraisal (teacher) and evaluation (courses)

Immune system – assessment and appraisal areas. what is needed to make this disruptive – quality, prescriptive and normative, secretive – policies and processes, rewards. Suggests real change needs to be focussed on immune system (resistance). Make them more open, networked and ecological.

The disruptive technologies and pedagogies will act as an external stimulus which will upset the balance of the ecosystem and stimulate internal systems in assessment and appraisal i.e. disrupt them – they will have to change so they can revert to a balanced model. Change cannot occur in an ecosystem without an external stimulus. An internal stimulus can change an individual\’s system but not when an individual is part of a bigger system. Negative and positive feedback. Negative feedback in a closed system will return it to the status quo. Positive feedback will stimulate either rebirth or bleeding to death or system wide shock and collapse.

In complexity or chaos theory where there is a complex system – competency alone is not enough – it is very linear and serves only part of the purpose. Capability occurs when there is a branching out and multiple layers of action and direction.

FLLinNZ facilitation sessions – day two

Sean McDougall – speaking via videoconferencing classrooms of the futurenot a lot has changed – still sitting in classrooms altogether slumped over desks which are unsuitable for learning and sitting at all day. All studying at same time in groups. Sean has been working in designing learning spaces for the future.

No point in designing new buildings and doing the same sort of teaching there will be no additional benefits for the teachers and students. \”It is about how you do it not where you do it.\” Example of a design where the teacher could get around the students (children) better which improved the activitiy. Design of saddle seats which could swivel in any direction – take up less of a footprint – tables fit around the room – four-way data projector. Cheaper option than billions spent on school rebuilding. Room designed to encourage conversation and collaboration and teacher tried to teach by standing up the front. Learned from mistakes – need to educate teachers in new approaches.

Design my school – tool where students could be involved in designing school. http://designmyschool.net used wikipedia design – Co-Design

Provided some statistics about education in UK – 80% black children leave school at 16yrs and over half jobs advertised in UK in 2012 will require a degree. need to get back to the idea of a creative school rather than an \”exam factory\”. The system is not working – community minority groups illustrate this.

Singapore exampleeight years old problem-solving re bomb in an oil facility – building robots to clean up oil, building website to keep parents informed, writing business plan – a year long project. need to invent and create and solve future for themselves.

Xchurch School called Unlimited
Barriers removed – students direct their own learning Involved in projects in which they are interested e.g. designing logos, music distribution, own record label. Studying alongside 18 yr olds to get qualifications like Business.

Design done by people and with people. How can we work with excluded communities?
Example from Ireland – Sean is working with nuns in Cork. How can they work with people who are falling through groups. Responsive servicing. Immigrants, travellers, prisoners working together to find solutions to help stop people dropping out. They told their stories –
1. need place to come to meet with friends

children had different perspectives about how the building looked like – teachers forget what the rooms of the school look like.
Introduce opposites e.g. if you want technology look at what the organisation would look like without technology.

Another example-what could we do to make a fountain better? Designing a programmable, interactive fountain e.g. speed camera – measure how fast children are running around. could measure height and jets could respond to different heights. Give fountain three wishes – to see, hear, feel. Children helped design a mural with pictures and ideas of what they liked or did not like about the school. invites configuration and brings people together to work on a common problem to prepare them for the rapidly changing 21 century. create your own models and not wait for someone to \”design a catalogue and you order from it\”.

Allow people to skill up – learn and make mistakes. Video showing chidren with robots they constructed – watching them work and showing the great excitement. learning what they need for the knowledge economy. Need to redesign the service to meet the needs of the children e.g. reading construction manuals as that is where the interest lies for one of the children who likes building things.
Have moved from where things are done to them to one where people create their world. can you hand over what is seen to be important information to be displayed e.g. Cardiff streets.

1.What will it mean if we get it right?

increased success. Teachers who get it. learners who get what they want.

2.What happens if we carry on as we are?

no change as technology etc. changes around us.

3.Why haven\’t we done anything about it?

too hard, no money.

4. What could we do about it?

let people know what skills people will need in the future

Mark Nichols – institutional change for eLearning
Statement: 
now know how eLearning works – do we? We know how to facilitate online discussion – do we?
Beeby 1992 wrote about lessons learned in 1930s. Mark is an educational evolutionist. Focus is on formal education. He has failed spectacularly. Failures are far more interesting and you can learn from it. In his FLLinNZ year he read a lot about institutional change and talked to lots of people about it. Reckons it is commonsense. Has been ignored and now feels like he is prophetic.
What do we know about change
Peter Senge – 
see institution as a whole \”see the wood for the trees\”. Large scale change is complex. Example: had a CDROm of video, looked after website, used discussion – looked after it himself and it worked well. what would happen if it was systemised? Need to train people and learners. need to copy multiple CDs. What about looking after discussions – technical support, archiving.

Who maintains resources? How do we support subject matter experts with elearning. can they use pre-prepared materials. how are new technologies incorporated? How do we enrol students? Innovation in one course is very different to what is needed in a whole programme. Good systems solve problems before they happen.

Best to work with late majority – sustainability through transformationwork on changing core ideas – workshops Core and custom – complement standardisation with innovation. How do you get buy in. Use systems that organisation has in place – systems for internal review. Meet with programme leaders and work with them. Division of labour – how to best support those who are not tech literate. Engage at level of the core with tech support at that level.
FL strategy or teacing and learning strategy – use them.

How do you go about internalising elearning?
strategic ownership – VLE a thermometer – some staff flocked to it – others ignored it. If few staff got excited good prognosis – otherwise more difficult to change ideas about eLearning.

John P. Kotter – leading organisational change, very good book.
useful orientation to major changes that are involved.

Examples from Bible College
1. establishing a sense of urgency –
 better resourcing of students, costing
Developing a strategy and PD. College eLearning audit and prepare national exemplar.
Sense of urgency varies – depends on hierarchy and priorities e.g. pbrf. When there is a crisis – lack of students for programmes. Responding to market.

2. Creating the guiding coalition
put ideas in front of managers with evidence

3.Developing a vision and strategy
what evidence is there that it improves learning? works well where there is no choice or it supports lifestyle. Don\’t change what is working and change what and when you need to.

4. Communicating the change vision

5. Empowering broad-based action

6. Generating short term wins

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture

Some discussion on the above questions but not enough time and no summarising of them at the end.

Maret Staron – TAFEOverview of some research projects. \”Designing Professional development for the Knowledge era\”.
Big emphasis in Australia with workforce development. Mentioned learning environmnet managers – work done in the workplace with learners there. Moving more to learner directed ideas. Open standards
Now in the Knowledge era – environment, learning ecology, business,
focus for all four areas on learners, context, technologies

Suggestion that the knowledge era will only last a decade – has progressed from information era. Next era proposed to be the concept era. Is this true?

Need to be knowledge workers – need to find, use information. Now need to generate our own information. One of our greatest challenges – how to work in groups to generate new knowledge?

Work is becoming more unbounded in time and space now with practitioners increasingly needing to work and engage in their own learning at work and at home\” (ANTA 2004).

Used an ecology metaphor – broader than networks – what is your learning ecology? relationship between entitities and their environment. Dynamic, adaptive and diverse – there is no one way. Maron promised a model to help but no one way.

Stuck in the mechanistic metaphor – want to think, feel, use intuition, be creative – a contradiction.

Strength-based Philosophy – moves us from deficit-based modelWhat is wrong and we will fix it. Hard to shift to strength-based model. Constrained by bureaucracies who follow the deficit-based model. A lot of organisations try and solve problems by looking at what they need to fix. Martin Seligman – how to look at what helps people thrive. How to help organisations be the best they can. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – psychology of optimal experience – \”in the flow\” when things work well and you are in the optimal skill level. When in the flow anxiety, boredom and apathy reduces.

Business wisdom
How to bring leadership on board. What is the glue that connects the elements of a learning organisation? (Wise thinking and actions.)

Key findings of research
Strength-based orientation more effective.
capability – moves beyond professional development – confident, capable, competence – ability to work in unknown areas.
Values is the bedrock
Disruptive model

  • action learning, mentoring is strength-based, communities of practice

Some places run events on a cafe conversation model for PD. Look at what is working and why.
Who is practising deviance in a positive way for the benefit of the organisation.
What gifts does each person bring to the organisation?
How to reshape the description of your work so it is more flexible – job sculpting.
Appreciative inquiry.
Disruptive technology – policy, research, processes
Life-based learning, expert-centred model, work-based learning
In reality learning crosses work, leisure, family etc.
What is the source of learning not the continuum? \”Learning for work is not restricted to learning at work.\”
Life-based learning is integrated and holistic. What are the enablers to create this type of learning?
\”A business approach to capability development \”- companion document to research report.

http://www.icvet.edu.au

Discussion of four questions: Modifying what could we build? – Listening, sharing stories and conversations. previous knowledge and recording.
Exploring – what assumptions should we challenge?
Visioning – what would be your ideal, your dream?
Experimenting – what can we combine and test?

What is your personal stance in relation to work-based and life-based learning? What does it it mean to design this ideal for approaches to learning?

Stanley Frielick – Real change institutional challenges and opportunitiesThreshold concepts and troublesome knowledge – a new way of understanding, interpreting or viewing something may emerge a transformed internal view of subject matter, subject landscape or world view.
What is a threshold moment? – when someone starts contributing and/or facilitating to an online discussion. When people take charge of something – self-directed learning.

The real university is a state of mind. Zen and the art of motorocycle maintenance : an inquiry. Are there two universities? The first real university is the concrete one – state of mind sits within there. What are the mental models which underly our university structures?

Teachers and learners are inextricably linked and there is not just a one-way flow of information. Reactive (teacher-centred) versus constructive (learner-centred). Both demonstrate a dualist model – autonomous model where learner is separated from the world. Ecological model – capillaries of power – an energy which circulates through an institution. (Foucalt). Need to focus on capillaries when look at change. what are the technologies of power?

threshold concept 3 – Can teaching and learning function like an ecosystem? Is it similar to indigenous models of learning? Example, dialogical model where relationships occur between teachers and learners.

Mention of DNA and genetics as shaping learning – evolution, mutants, survival of the fittest – social dynamism – who supports the weak and do we just leave them in the wilderness?

Threshold concept 4 – ecological sensibility – disruptive technologies. who decides what is knowledge? Who decided what is needed for promotion?

Real change
Form (media) and content – most disruption happening here – disruptive technologies and disruptive pedagogies.
Assessment examination and accreditation
Appraisal (teacher) and evaluation (courses)

Immune system – assessment and appraisal areas. what is needed to make this disruptive – quality, prescriptive and normative, secretive – policies and processes, rewards. Suggests real change needs to be focussed on immune system (resistance). Make them more open, networked and ecological.

The disruptive technologies and pedagogies will act as an external stimulus which will upset the balance of the ecosystem and stimulate internal systems in assessment and appraisal i.e. disrupt them – they will have to change so they can revert to a balanced model. Change cannot occur in an ecosystem without an external stimulus. An internal stimulus can change an individual\’s system but not when an individual is part of a bigger system. Negative and positive feedback. Negative feedback in a closed system will return it to the status quo. Positive feedback will stimulate either rebirth or bleeding to death or system wide shock and collapse.

In complexity or chaos theory where there is a complex system – competency alone is not enough – it is very linear and serves only part of the purpose. Capability occurs when there is a branching out and multiple layers of action and direction.

Using Phraseum to learn lexical chunks

I recently revisited Phraseum, an app which I first discovered and reviewed in March 2014. I’m glad to see that the tool is still around, has gathered a loyal following and has developed both in terms of design and functionality since that first review.
In this article I’d like to show you some of the new features and also share some ideas for how you can use it. Let me start though by recapping what Phraseum does.
Phraseum is a tool that students can use to capture lexical chunks, collocations and expressions while they read online text. It helps students to collect these expressions into theme based phrasebooks that they can then use to revise and share their learning. 
Within the platform there are also a number of features to help them learn the phrases, these include tagging of phrases and links through to Google translate. Phraseum also records the source of the phrase so that students can go back and find the phrases in their context. 
A new feature that’s been added since the last review is the ‘Learn’ feature. This is great as it  helps them learn and memorise the phrases using a process of spaced repetition. To use this students just select a phrasebook and then click on the ‘Learn this phrasebook’ button.  
They can then select key words to remove from the phrases. After these have been clicked, they will have to select them in the correct order to put them back into the sentence. 

They work through the phrases doing this a couple of times and each time things get harder and more words are removed. Eventually the prompt words are removed and they have to type in the missing words. 
Once the students type in the words they will be able to compare with the original.
Phraseum can also create revision tests so that the students re-study a selection of the phrases in their collection. When students have learned new phrases, each session begins with a test. This test is designed to identify exactly what they can remember. In each test they are required to type in phrases with minimal prompts. Their success in the test determines whether a phrase is learned or marked as weak and repeated again.

As a teacher you can also create your own phrasebooks just by typing in the phrases you want stusdents to learn and then sharing the phrasebook with them.


Getting started with phraseum. 
Once you have registered on the site, one of the first things to do is to add the ‘Clipping button’ to your browser. You can find it at: https://www.phraseum.com/page/clipping-button and just drag the button onto the bookmarks bar of your browser. 
Once you have done this all you need to do is highlight some text while you are reading and then click the button and it will open the clipping window which helps you to save the text chunk into the correct phrasebook and add tags and annotation to it. 
It’s also wise to decide how you want to organise the phrase you collect and create some empty phrasebooks too, then these will appear as options when you clip phrases from a text. Once you have done that you (or your students) are ready to start clipping as you read.
Activities for students
Here are some activities you can do with your students to get them started with Phraseum.
  • Choose a web based text that you would like your students to read. Collect phrases from the text into a phrasebook. Share the phrasebook with your students and get them to check their understanding of the phrases. Ask the students to try to learn the phrases using the Phraseum ‘Learn’ feature. Once they’ve made an initial attempt to learn the phrases, get them to read the text.
  • Give the students a web based text to read. Once you have completed comprehension and reading development activities ask the students to look for sentences in the text that have vocabulary, collocations or lexical chunks that are new to them and save the sentences into a phrasebook. Then get students to use the learn feature and choose the specific words from the phrases within the sentence that they need to learn. Students can then practice them regularly.
  • When using a text that has a lot of dialogue such as a play, you can get the students to choose one of the people in the text and grab all the sentences they say into a phrasebook with that person’s name. They can then use the ‘Learn’ feature to try to memorise the lines of the text. You can then get the students act out or recite the text.
  • Collect some different lines from a range of short poems into a phrasebook. Share the phrasebook with your students and get them to try to decide which poem each line came from (You’ll need to give them the titles of the poems, or use poems they have already read.) 
  • Get students to collect wise quotes or sayings ( these could be based around a specific topic or just any that the students are interested in) once they have 5 to 10 quotes get the students to use the ‘Learn’ feature of the site to try to learn and memorise the quotes.
  • Create or get students to create a phrasebook containing each of the lines from a short poem. They can then use the ‘Learn’ feature of Phraseum to try to memorise the complete poem. 
 If you\’d like more ideas for how to use Phraseum to develop your students\’ vocabulary, check back to my original review: Creating social phrasebooks with Phraseum
Related links:

National Capital Region (NCR)

 

National capital region

The National Capital Region (NCR) is the designation for a conurbation or metropolitan area in India. It encompasses the entire national capital territory of Delhi, including New Delhi and urban areas surrounding it in neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. NCR is India’s largest and one of the world’s largest agglomeration with a population of over 46,069,000. All the areas of NCR together generated GDP of $128.9 billion in 2011-2012, which was 7.5% of the Indian GDP. Delhi and its urban region have been given the special status of National Capital Region (NCR) under the Constitution of India’s 69th Amendment Act of 1991.
In July 2013, NCR was expanded to include 3 more districts, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh in the state of Haryana, as well as Bharatpur in the state of Rajasthan. This brought the number of districts in NCR to 19, with the total NCR area increasing 34% to 46,208 km2. Before July 2013, NCR had a total area of 34,144 km2 spanning over 16 districts in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan, together with the National Capital Territory of Delhi, with the Nation Capital as its core.
On 9 June 2015, Government of India approved the inclusion of three more districts in NCR – Jind and Karnal in the state of Haryana and Muzaffar nagar in U.P. There are now a total of 22 districts (plus Delhi NCT) within NCR, covering a total area of 58,332 km2.
A total of 22 districts in three neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan along with whole of the National Capital Territory of Delhi constitute the National Capital Region (NCR) of India as defined in National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) Act, 1985.
The concept of the National Capital Region was first mentioned in 1962. The plan was to develop a metropolitan region around Delhi in order to divert the escalating pressure of population from Delhi. This plan was necessary in order to protect Delhi’s infrastructure from extreme pressure.

Participating States and their Districts in NCR  

  1. National Capital Territory of Delhi – It covers Delhi and New Delhi.
  2. Haryana – Bhiwani, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Jhajjar (Jhajjar and Bahadurgarh),
  3. Mahendragarh, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak, Sonipat, Mewat, Palwal, Jind, Karnal
  4. Uttar Pradesh – Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Gautam Buddha Nagar District (Noida and
  5. Greater Noida), Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut Hapur,
  6.  Rajasthan – Alwar, Bharatpur

Zones of NCR

  •      Faridabad – Ballabgarh Complex
  •      Ghaziabad – Loni – Bulandshahr Complex
  •      Gurgaon – Manesar Complex
  •      Noida – Greater Noida Complex
  •      Sonipat – Bahadurgarh Complex
  •      Sonipat – Kundli Complex

The planning body for the region is the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB). It has issued two regional plans, the “Regional Plan 2001, National Capital Region” approved in 1988, and the “Regional Plan 2021, National Capital Region” approved in 2005. Topics covered by the 2001 plan included transport, telecommunications, power and water supply, waste and sewerage, education, health, the environment, housing and the “counter magnet” areas. The 2021 plan extended these with the additional topics of social infrastructure, heritage, tourism, rural development and disaster management.


No hike in fees for IIT, IIITs and NITs for AY 2020-21: HRD Minister

New Delhi, 05 May 2020: Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ interacted with the students across the country through a webinar. During the one hour interaction, the Minister responded to the various concerns and queries of the students relating to school examinations, entrance examinations, Academic Calendar, online education, Fees, Mental health of students, international students, fellowships among others.

There will be no hike in fees for IIT, IIITs and NITs for the academic year 2020-21,  said– Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank.  IITs, IITs and NITs are premier technical educational institutes in India. There are 23 IITs and 33 NITs in India.

The Minister highlighted that the admissions to the UG and PG programmes for the session 2020-21 may be completed by 31.08.2020. If necessity arises, provisional admissions may also be made and relevant documents of qualifying examination may be accepted up to 30.09.2020. The Academic Session 2020-21 may commence from 01.8.2020 for old students and from 01.09.2020 for fresh students. More details can be obtained from the UGC website.

While replying to questions  ,ShriPokhriyal informed that MHRD is planning to bridge the academic gap created due to COVID outbreak. MHRD has encouraged students to keep on learning and to aid  thelearning through various e-learning resources and digital platforms for both school and higher education. ShriPokhriyal informed students that the Alternative Calendar for the primary, upper primary stage and secondary has also been released. This Calendar provides guidelines to teachers on the use of various technological tools and social media tools available for imparting education in fun-filled, interesting ways, which can be used by learners, parents and teachers even while at home.

Speaking on the occasion the  Minister said that the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is very concerned about well being and academic activities of the students of the country. In view of this Ministry is taking all measures to quickly and immediately address the concerns of the students. Shri Pokhriyal appreciated the Minister of State for HRD Shri Sanjay Dhotre for his commendable work done to ensure safety and quality education to students.

A Minimum Opportunity Of Hearing: SC

It has to be conceded that the Supreme Court in a latest and laudable judgment titled M/S Daffodills Pharmaceuticals Ltd. & Anr. Vs. State of U.P. & Anr. In Civil Appeal No. 9417 of 2019 (Arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) No. 4074 of 2018) delivered on December 13, 2019 has once again reiterated the time tested adage and a fundamental legal principle that no one can be inflicted with an adverse order, without being afforded a minimum opportunity of hearing. In other words, the Apex Court has once again reiterated the supreme importance of the legal maxim and latin phrase titled “Audi alteram partem” which means “listening to the other side” or “let the other side be heard as well”. It is this legal principle which enunciates that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond to the evidence against them! Very rightly so!

 

This was held so while quashing an order passed by Uttar Pradesh Government directing its Medical and Health Department to stop local purchase from Daffodils – a pharmaceutical supplier. Thus we see that the Apex Court has once again set to rest all the gnawing doubts that were raised in this case! Very rightly so!

To start with, this noteworthy judgment authored by Justice S Ravindra Bhat for himself and Justice RF Nariman sets the ball rolling after observing in para 1 that, “Leave granted. With consent all counsel who appeared were heard” by then remarking in para 2 that, “The appellant (hereafter “Daffodills”), a pharmaceutical supplier, is aggrieved by a decision of the Allahabad High Court, rejecting its challenge to an order (dated 21.08.2015) issued by the Principal Secretary, Government of U.P. to its Medical and Health Department, directing it to stop local purchase from the appellant. Daffodills had participated in a tender process, in which the state called for bids from interested parties, willing to supply various categories of pharmaceutical products. The successful bidder was required to supply medicines to various hospitals, under the control of the Medical and Health Department, U.P. for one year. Daffodills was one amongst 56 bidders; its bid was acceptable to the respondent, i.e. State of U.P.”

While elaborating further, it is then pointed out in para 3 that, “Daffodills was asked to match its previous bid to the Tamil Nadu Service Corporation Ltd. for the year 2015-16, at approved L1 rates, on or before, 29.05.2015 in respect of 14 specified drugs. At the time of bid submission, every tenderer/bidder had to furnish a declaration to the following effect:

“Firms should give an affidavit that there is no Court Case/Vigilance Case/CBI Case pending against the firm. All the documents given in the tender are true. If found false/fake the person/firms will have to be accepted by the firm. (Court case means “Criminal Case” against firm/board of Director/Directors/principal stock holder as per relevant law)”.

It is not disputed that Daffodills furnished the required declaration in terms of the tender.”

Going forward, it is then disclosed in para 4 that, “While so, on 21.08.2015, the impugned letter/notice was issued by the Principal Secretary to the Government of U.P. stating that a first information report (FIR) had been lodged against Daffodills alleging that it had committed offences, and that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was inquiring into the issue. Accordingly, the offices under Department of Health was directed to desist and stop all procurements from the appellant, i.e. Daffodills under the following terms:

“I am directed to say in the described situation that no more local purchase is to be done till pre order of the government, from the above said firms which are under the investigation of CBI in the NRHM Case, by the hospitals at the rate of contract of DGS&D/ESIC and Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation. If medicine is purchased by any hospital-in-charge from these firms without approval of the government then strict action would be taken as per rules against him.””

While elaborating on the submission by Daffodills, it is then pointed out in para 5 that, “Complaining of arbitrariness on various grounds, (including that the impugned direction not to procure or purchase medicines issued against it, was on a mistaken assumption that a criminal case was pending against it), Daffodills submitted that the criminal case was filed against one Mr. Surender Chaudhary, an erstwhile Director, who had ceased to have any connection with it (i.e. Daffodills) from 22.02.2012. Besides, it was argued that the decision not to procure, amounted to blacklisting and that it was issued without notice or pre-decisional hearing and was consequently liable to be set aside.”

To say the least, while dwelling on what the Allahabad High Court ruled and what the CBI did pursuant to it is then explained in para 6 which states that, “In the impugned order, the High Court recalled a previous direction in other proceedings, i.e. Writ Petition No. 3611 (MB)/2011 where it had enquired in regard to the execution and implementation of the National Rural Health Mission in regard to utilization of funds released by the Government of India. The impugned order states that in compliance of that order, CBI registered a case for preliminary inquiry and after concluding the investigation filed a charge-sheet in the competent court against Surender Chaudhary, the then Director of Daffodils and other co-accused.”

While elaborating further on it, para 7 then observes that, “After noticing Daffodil’s contention that Surender Chaudhary ceased to be its Director and also that it was not given opportunity of hearing before the passing of the order, the High Court observed that in matters of contractual disputes relating to policy decisions, the scope of jurisdiction under Article 226 is limited and therefore, it could not be assumed that the action of the State Government was unreasonable or contrary to public interest. Dealing with the complaint of breach of principles of natural justice, the High Court was of the opinion that such principles cannot be placed under a straight-jacket formula and consequently, Daffodills’ failure to comply with express terms of the contract and its breach of the terms resulted in the State resorting to recalling its business through various directions to State Agencies. The High Court, therefore, concluded as follows:

“32. It is clear that when there is a failure on the part of the contractor to comply with the express terms of the contract and/or to commit breach of the said terms resulting into failure to commence/execute the work or supply the items as per specification as stipulated in the agreement or giving the performance that does not meet the statutory requirements of the contract or the action of the petitioner is reported against the provisions and against the interest of the State, the Department has a right to regulate its business through various directions to State Agencies in which the petitioner has no right to interfere.””

While then dwelling on Daffodills contention, para 8 then illustrates that, “It is argued on behalf of Daffodills that the impugned decision is erroneous because the High Court overlooked a salient aspect, i.e. Surender Chaudhary has resigned as Director, way back in 2012. Therefore, his being implicated in the criminal case could have impact on the business of Daffodills, i.e. the appellant. It was argued furthermore that besides an unwarranted and arbitrary action against the company on account of the acts and omissions of its erstwhile Director, the High Court committed an error in overlooking binding decisions of this Court (including Rastriya Ispat Nigam v. Verma (2006) 7 SCC 275 and Kalja Industries v. Western Telecom (2014) 14 SCC 731), which clearly held that before proposing to pass a blacklisting or debarring orders, the parties had to be given hearing followed by an appropriate reasoned order.”

Needless to say, it is then pointed out in para 12 that, “Although in the proceedings, it appears that the suit was filed by Daffodills at some stage against the finalization of tender (issued in 2014) it is not clear whether the suit was withdrawn, in the wake of the filing and dismissal of its writ petition in 2015. What is clear, though from the narrative is that before the order of 21.08.2015 was made, no show-cause notice or opportunity was granted to the appellant to represent against the proposed action.”

Interestingly enough, it is then made clear in para 13 that, “Although, State of U.P. has argued that the impugned order requiring that no procurement ought to be made from Daffodills, is neither a blacklisting nor a debarring order, in our opinion, in fact and in reality, that order is nothing but an order or a directive, debarring and preventing the State of U.P. from local purchase of medicines from Daffodills for an indefinite duration. Unlike a “normal” blacklisting order which has a finite life span (of three or maximum five years), the indefinite directive (which appears to be co-terminous with the lifetime of the criminal case) is facially far more disproportionate than a blacklisting order. Even as on date, it is not clear whether formal charges have been framed against the accused i.e. Surender Chaudhary.”

Significantly, it is then explicitly held in para 14 that, “The decisions in Erusian Equipments and Chemical Ltd. v. State of West Bengal 1975 (1) SCC 70 and Raghunath Thakur v. State of Bihar & Ors. 1989 (1) SCC 229 as well as later decisions (Southern Painters v. Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd., 1994 Supp (2) SCC 699; Grosons Pharmaceuticals (P) Ltd. v. State of U.P. (2001) 8 SCC 604; B.S.N. Joshi & Sons Ltd. v. Nair Coal Services Ltd. (2006) 11 SCC 548) have now clarified that before any executive decision maker proposes a drastic adverse action, such as a debarring or blacklisting order, it is necessary that opportunity of hearing and representation against the proposed action is given to the party likely to be affected. This has been stated in unequivocal terms in Raghunath Thakur (supra) as follows:

“20. Blacklisting has the effect of preventing a person from the privilege and advantage of entering into lawful relationship with the Government for purposes of gains. The fact that a disability is created by the order of blacklisting indicates that the relevant authority is to have an objective satisfaction. Fundamentals of fair play require that the person concerned should be given an opportunity to represent his case before he is put on the blacklist.””

More significantly, it is then held in para 15 that, “In the present case, even if one assumes that Surender Chaudhary, the accused in the pending criminal case was involved and had sought to indulge in objectionable activities, that ipso facto could not have resulted in unilateral action of the kind which the State resorted to against Daffodils, which was never granted any opportunity of hearing or a chance to represent against the impugned order. If there is one constant lodestar that lights the judicial horizon in this country, it is this: that no one can be inflicted with an adverse order, without being afforded a minimum opportunity of hearing, and prior intimation of such a move. This principle is too well entrenched in the legal ethos of this country to be ignored, as the state did, in this case.”

What’s more, it is then observed in para 16 that, “The High Court, in the opinion of this court, fell into error in holding that in matters of award of public contracts, the scope of inquiry in judicial review is limited. Granted such jurisdiction is extremely circumscribed; no doubt the court had refused to grant relief to Daffodils against its plea of wrongful rejection of its tender. However, what the impugned judgment clearly overlooks is that the action of the state, not to procure indefinitely, on an assumption of complicity by Daffodils, was in flagrant violation of principles of natural justice.”

Finally, it is then held in the last para 17 that, “Normally, this court would have quashed the Government of U.P.’s decision, and left it to grant a hearing to Daffodils, before taking any action. However, given that the impugned order of debarring (i.e. directive not to procure locally from Daffodills) was made over 4 years and 3 months ago, this court is of the opinion that it would be in the overall interest of justice that appropriate relief is granted. Accordingly, the said order of the Principal Secretary, Government of U.P. directing all concerned departments to desist from resorting to local purchase from the appellant is hereby quashed. The impugned judgment of the High Court is hereby set aside. The appeal is allowed in the above terms. No cost.”

In a nutshell, this landmark, latest and extremely laudable judgment once again reiterates the fundamental legal principle that no one can be inflicted with an adverse order, without being afforded a minimum opportunity of hearing! Appropriate case laws have also been cited as mentioned above! All courts must always keep this in mind while delivering decisions on such similar matters! There can be no denying it!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,

s/o Col BPS Sirohi,

A 82, Defence Enclave,

Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera,