Tata Interactive Systems

Give Me Back My Fun Learning!

Call me a spoil sport, call me a traditionalist desperately holding out against new trends, but terms such as “Speed is King” and “Rapid Creation” in the context of e-learning sends a chill down my spine. To me, speed often means “plain vanilla” and “no jazz” and “no fun”, because there is just not enough time or resources to add such elements.

I do understand the compelling business requirements that drive Rapid e-Learning. I appreciate the needs of businesses to deliver rapidly-changing information such as the latest product knowledge, competitive intelligence, and corporate initiatives that help employees to respond quickly. We are all living in “future shock” zone and acceleration has become a way of life.

But whither fun learning? What about learning that is engaging, interactive and exciting? What about the amazing things that can be done on the (not so anymore) new medium that adds to the learning experience?

My angst is that of a learner, not of a developer.

When I was 10 years old, my all-consuming passion was to learn Indian classical dance. Fearing that I will waste away with the longing, my parents arranged for an instructor in great haste. She came with excellent credentials—she was a product of one of the premier performing arts institute and had a lot of successful students.

The enterprise lasted for a tenuous 18-month period despite my high levels of motivation because the instructor just failed to engage me in the process. In fact, she managed to de-motivate me with her unimaginative, “don’t-ask-questions-because-it’s-the-way-things-are-done” approach. I think both of us heaved a sigh of relief when I dropped out in the end.

This has been more-or-less the story of my life. Suffice to say that I was never popular with my teachers.

This is perhaps why I am always pushing the envelope when it comes to participative learning experiences.

Give me games; give me case studies that I can sink my teeth into; give me “wow” concept diagrams to fix my mental models; give me an exploratory learning experience that sharpens my “aha” moments; give me humor—in short, give me fun!

(Priya Thiagarajan is a Senior Instructional Design Consultant at TIS)

Changing the Way the World Learns

At TIS our Mission Statement is to change how the world learns. And we recognize the important part we play in the evolution of our industry.

We also recognize that we are but one of many innovators in this industry, so we share our ideas and leap frog from the ideas of others.

This website caught my eye as I surfed through my latest Newsgator hits on the keyword "elearning." http://www.connectivism.ca/about - its an interesting discussion evolving around a proposed new learning theory entitled connectivism....I especially like the question that has been posed about its relation to social cognitivism.

eLearning is changing the way the World learns...no doubt about it!

(Dawn Papaila is Consultant – Instructional Design with Tata Interactive Systems.)

Brain Teasers - Helping Children Rediscover The Joy Of Learning

TIS recently provided Dr. Madhuri Kulkarni of  Sion Hospital with 800 copies of a specially created book titled, "Brain Teasers". As part of the team that worked on this book, it was a very satisfying moment indeed.

We created this book ("Brain Teasers"), with inputs from Sion Hospital, to meet the special educational needs of children with learning disabilities. It provides practice in reading, writing and mathematics, and is intended to help children with learning disabilities rediscover the joy of learning. It also helps parents understand learning disabilities and find ways to address them.

The book is aimed at students in the age group of 11 years to 13 years and covers all the learning disabilities; Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia.

The book is a collection of interesting activities intended to engage children with learning disabilities. The activities have been designed keeping in mind the special educational needs of such children. They provide practice in reading, writing and mathematics. The book is divided into two parts: Information on learning disability for parents and activities for children.

Our main objective while designing the book was to keep the activities simple and colourful so as to help children rediscover the joy of learning. 

• We have purposefully incorporate examples from day-to-day activities to aid better recall.
• We have used simplified illustrations, to help children identify the images.
• We have used bright colours to provide a fresh look to the entire book.
• The activities have been graded with three levels of difficulty.
• The page numbers have been colour coded to depict the levels of difficulty. 

Please click here and here for a look inside this book.

(Manisha Mohan is Head - Innovation & Design with Tata Interactive Systems)

The Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics

It’s the last place one would associate with any sort of creative endeavor—a Nazi concentration camp. And yet, it was in one of those living hells that Prof. Jakow Trachtenberg, a Russian engineer and mathematical genius, came up with his famous—in mathematical circles—system for high-speed mathematical calculations.

Condemned to death, the Professor barely escaped with his life, only to be arrested again. Amidst the misery that surrounded him, he found solace in numbers, playing with them, finding patterns, perfecting his system in his mind before he wrote them down—even scraps of paper were a rare luxury.

The system deals with a range of mathematical problems—division, multiplication, and squares—that students generally find, well, problematic. (You can view a simple example here .) It is similar to its Eastern counterpart, the Vedic Mathematics system in some of its approaches, and its application in aiding students with Learning Disabilities. 

Prof. Trachtenberg, having given the Gestapo the slip, went on to found the Mathematical Institute in Zurich after the war. Today, it is better known among the Swiss as the “School of Genius".  The Trachtenberg system is extensively used in that country in banks, commercial institutions, and tax departments. It can add great value to any course on numerical calculations—after all, the Swiss bankers would know.

(Vivek is Manager – Content at Tata Interactive Systems and a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology)