A UnSuitable Boy
Honestly! I am totally unsuitable for this role. I do not know the full form of ADDIE or who Gange or Kirpatrick
are?
To me it sounded like captain Kirk from Star Trek when I first heard the name. My boss asked me to design a module
keeping in mind Gange’s Nine Events and I thought ‘Oh No!’ not one more of developmental psychologist like Piaget
and his four stages. ‘Don’t these theorists get tired of saying that learning is non-linear and then keep giving
linear models in which everyone gets stuck’. I had enough of them when I was doing my course on Child
Development.
Not knowing what to do, I googled Gange, copied his 9 event names, pasted them in a word document, typed some
fancy mumbo jumbo in front of each event related to the module and sent it to my boss. Wow! I must have done
something right, she seemed pretty happy. I am an engineer! Who would have thought that I would leave a cushy
paying job with great potential to study how people live in the villages and what can be done to help them. I did
not even remotely imagine I would be teaching school students and tearing my head off each night over how could I
get these brats to fall in love with science the way I had done. No amount of research through philosophy,
psychology and curriculum books gave me the peace of mind when I faced them again the next day.
I now know what my teachers must have gone through and how difficult it is to really educate young minds. I think
eLearning means electronic learning and that includes a 2 year olds experience of putting his finger in a live
electric socket.
I don’t know what all the hype is about mLearning, Cloud Learning, Tablet Learning, CBT, WBT, ILT is? I thought
the more we learnt the simpler things would become. They are all just mediums of learning with their pro and cons.
Has learning fundamentally changed over the years? Can anything really replace a meaningful and deep interaction
between human beings? How can the learning needs of learner’s best be met?
I am a dreamer at heart. I want to make a difference in the lives of people around me. I like learning new things
and engaging with people. I have been to some good schools and had some great teachers who equipped me with skills
to do absolutely anything with my hands, heart and mind.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.
I really am unsuitable for just this role.