Innovation for eager eyes – an article by Prof. Kirti Trivedi
Acknowledgement: First published at http://www.eetindia.com/

Innovation for eager eyes
Posted: 14 Feb 2006

Professor Kirti Trivedi returned after conducting a creativity workshop for tribal children in Madhya Pradesh, only to be haunted by the lingering image of their eager eyes. "These were intent eyes—I can never forget them. If you see their situation, they receive no information as their parents do not get newspapers nor have television. So, these are very eager eyes, hungry for information. In contrast, the eyes of some of my students, quite often show boredom—they see too much. Those are tired eyes," he observed.

That highly moving picture stirred his mind's eye open, and sparked a realization—the information revolution is bypassing all those who do not have access to computers. And this particularly holds true for children in rural areas. In Trivedi's view, this situation has the potential to create a new type of poverty, where people who have grown up without being familiar with a computer would be deprived in the true sense.

Work was then clearly cut out for the professor. The answer lay in developing a universal learning environment that would have educational material, and the inbuilt facility for access to information from multiple media and channels. "The whole world then comes into the classroom even in the remotest location," explained Trivedi.

What then followed was the first spark of innovation, in the form of a device housed in a one cubic foot box that combined the functions of a large screen television, multimedia computer, VCD/DVD player, Internet surfer, projection display system, built-in network card and modem. Any user could operate the device using a wireless keyboard or a remote mouse. In keeping with its intended purpose, the device was named K-Yan, where "K" stands for "knowledge" and "yan" is Sanskrit for "vehicle."

For Trivedi, the challenge was in designing a platform of learning for a large-sized community. "If you look at a PC, the most widely used device in accessing information, it is designed for a single user. In a learning situation, this places enormous strain on the teacher, as the teacher has to repeatedly explain the same point to reach a larger audience size," he said.

The second challenge was affordability. "India is still a poor country, though it looks like it is becoming rich. It is not financially viable to provide a PC to each student, even in institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology where you do not have a money problem," noted the professor.

Trivedi believes that K-Yan meets the clear need for a hardware platform distinct from a PC—one that is effective in a community setting, is low in cost, easy to use, sturdy and portable.

With the K-Yan, a teacher can talk facing the audience since it can be operated by a remote wireless mouse. The display is a projection on any flat surface in a large format. Its TV tuner can be switched on using a toggle switch, and the built-in computer generates data on a real time basis to support simulation techniques used by teachers to illustrate concepts.

K-Yan was developed for Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (ILFS), a body comprising Indian banks that also promotes and markets it. Priced at about Rs.1.5 lakh, it has primarily been offered to students in remote areas through NGOs and schools. The initial batches of the device were manufactured by Celetronix in its facility at Chennai. K-Yan production will move to TVS Electronics' facility in Himachal Pradesh. In less than a year of production, 300 pieces have been sold.

Learning-to-understand with K-Yan
Trivedi does not think that the K-Yan represents a profound technological leap. However, when you look at K-Yan as a vehicle for implementation of the professor's "Learning-to-Understand" methodology, the innovation aspect of K-Yan finds eloquent expression.

Trivedi has a simple point of view on learning—much of innovation stems from an integral understanding of basic concepts at a very native level. "To work in a truly innovative environment, there must first be an integral understanding that is an outcome of a deliberate process of learning. We are proposing an approach where integral understanding is developed through a process of observation, experimentation, hypotheses building and validation." According to Trivedi, the current learning system is designed in a way that it does not result in understanding. Its emphasis is higher on memorizing facts and retrieving them during examinations.

His Learning-to-Understand methodology adopts a fresh approach toward the learning process and the design of the learning content.

Trivedi revealed that the basic learning method has been drawn out of his experience in teaching at the IIT for over 30 years. Fundamental to this approach is learning through individual interaction by discussion. "It is in the way we interact together on a topic, discussing it threadbare from multiple perspectives that ideas get developed, problems get resolved, and the core concept of that topic gets understood. Only then do I throw in more information on the topic, as it then becomes easy to understand," explained Trivedi. "But if I miss the basic concept, understanding does not come."

Lending much of the substance to this approach is the manner in which content is designed. There is high reliance on the use of visual examples to illustrate concepts. "For instance, we depict two children playing with water jets to explain the concept of projectile motion. The observation that the angle of trajectory and the linear distance traversed by the water jet are related must come from the students. We then repeat this concept in another context and ask questions," said Trivedi. "Then, we go on to check their understanding in a completely different context. At the end of all this, the concept of projectile motion is understood reasonably well."

Universal content
For Trivedi, this approach of visually depicting a phenomenon in different contexts, and initiating discussion on it is by itself a language. In fact, he has used visual representation to achieve a purpose—that of language independence. "Most present day content gets written in English, which makes the content language specific. Then, we have to translate this to other regional Indian languages, which add which adds to cost. We can instead have the teacher provide the language support. This can make for language independence of the content."

Another interesting bit of learning insight that has been embedded in the design of the core content is the concept of universal learning.

Universal content is learning material that can be used anywhere by anyone, purely for the purpose of understanding through exploration. "What we will do here is teach the kind of issues we discuss at post graduate level, at the kindergarten level. Simply because many of these things are discussable," chuckled Trivedi.

To illustrate his point, he then switched on a presentation titled, Introduction to Vegetables. "In our approach, the point is not to know the names of vegetables, but to get interested in vegetables," said Trivedi. "The point is to get interested in all things in life."

In a striking departure from the current method of asking children to identify vegetables from a chart, this approach helps a child observe the main characteristics of each vegetable. "Children can recognize the typical features of a vegetable, regardless of its shape or size. They will then slowly begin isolating the key characteristics of the vegetable, abstract that knowledge, and then use it creatively in another context."

Through a sequence of successive modules, children can be taught to differentiate one vegetable from another. "This enables children to observe things more minutely," Trivedi said.

The software complement
The development of the K-Class software in a way completes the first phase of Trivedi's creative expression. K-Class is the software complement of K-Yan, which ensures that K-Yan actually moves towards its intended purpose of becoming a universal learning environment. Currently, development of content under K-Class is underway for kindergarten level to class 12, in line with the initial concentration on schools as a market.

K-Class represents a unified environment to provide a complete learning context on any given subject area. It hosts pre-loaded core content on a range of subjects. It also has an expandable multimedia library collection, and provides a gateway to external learning environments accessible via the Internet or TV stations. "The learning environment provides access to all learning resources external to the environment while remaining completely within its context," explained Trivedi. "The set of resources changes depending on the subject being learned."

The student or the teacher can expand the library collection by including any book, audio or video CD, or DVD that facilitates exploration and learning, and satisfies their curiosity. "The idea is to develop active minds who, in the pursuit of learning, will discover new things," Trivedi said.

There is also a main library in the resource base, at a higher level than the subject specific library. Visually represented as a categorized library shelf, this provides access to any subject level collection. K-Class includes a bundled-in library management software routine, which features facilities for cataloguing and administrative management functions.

K-Class has a simplified user interface, with the intention of providing access to any topic within two clicks of the mouse. The screen area is divided into a navigation bar; the learning area for the display of material; and a resource area, which contains access gateways to library resources and the external learning resources.

Trivedi vows to use the learning area of the screen to bring the thrill of discovery back into learning. "I can have my students feel what Archimedes felt by making water splash out using a parametric model, and the students can do a "Eureka!" I can have them converse with Socrates and Plato. The context is all there, it just needs to be put together," he exclaimed.

Another software module, the K-Content Creator, is also being developed. This will allow an institution to develop its own content and integrate it into the K-Class environment with ease.

Blueprint in mind
Will the K-Yan bring about a change in the Indian education system? Will it be met with enthusiastic adoption in the mainstream national education?

Trivedi said the answer lies in trying persistently. He believes that the direction he has chosen is correct; that the idea of universal learning will flourish and gain momentum internationally. He is also convinced that this is an area in which India could contribute.

In the meanwhile, he plans to work with his team of designers and engineers to build a universal, language-independent operating system for learning. And yes, crores of eager eyes await that development.

- By Krishnan Sivaramakrishnan EE Times India