 Mapping the neighbourhood
An alternate learning experience
Except the lone community kiosk in rural India there are very few instances of knowledge dissemination through IT. Knowledge creation by the community through IT is still a dream.
The major goal of education is the acquisition of basic academic and social skills, which would permit progression to further education, training or employment. Today education is limited to fixed syllabus, rigid timetables and permanent classroom exercises. The instructor instructs and the student passively listens. Where as most children have a fresh and magic ways of seeing the world, the present formal education system provides no scope for the students to express their creative self or vent their imaginative spirit. Students are simply passive recipients of handed down knowledge with absolutely no participation in knowledge creation. Again educational outcomes, measured solely by the performance of students in tests, have quite often remained the same. While many schools specify high performance goals for all students, unfortunately, measured performance often falls short of expectations.
A characteristic of the present education system is that it has very little public involvement or support. The present system provides no scope for the community to support and be involved in the education process or address issues of common interest. There is very little interaction or dialogue between the schools and the community at large. As a result, school goals rarely interpret into the educational goals of the community. Academic skills learned in schools are not able to meet the community needs.
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