Creative Society...

In my Media Application class we saw a video titled, "Sowing the Seeds for a more Creative Society". This was a presentation given by a professor at MIT Media Labs, Mitchel Resnick. It was one of the most interesting and thought provoking lectures on creative societies of the future. He started off with a very simple question, Pick the odd one out from: Television, Computer and Paintbrush. Most people would pick Paintbrush because other two are both inventions of 20th century but he comes around to the point that there is or should be much more commonality between a Paintbrush and Computer than the other two because both are an interactive mediums of expression. In India, China and Japan the buzzword is knowledge-based industry but US/Canada are moving to the next step with creative societies, while outsourcing some of the work of knowledge based industries to third-world countries, in order to remain competitive and increase their efficiencies.

MIT Media Lab in Boston

The Professor argues that Computers have to an extent failed the educational system. They have replaced teachers by providing students information but this information is very one-sided and non-interactive. The way computers can serve our society better is by becoming an expression of creativity rather than knowledge. He gave a very interesting example of Kindergarten. How do we learn in school in KG? We usually have a KG class (or Nursery in India) with toys, shapes, colors, paint etc. and we would experiment and explore, to learn about them. He argues that we should have the same approach to rest of schooling where we don't learn from books but by experimenting and exploring things that interest us. I disagree a bit with him because it is necessary to atleast get the basic education the traditional way like Math and Sciences because they are working well but once those are imparted, in later classes we should revert back to the KG approach of learning by experimenting. Traditionally, this would be very expensive way to teach but this is where software technologies can come and let people experiment without being too expensive and in most cases free by using open-source technologies.

Creativity starts here...

He gives an example of Singapore where traditionally Math and Sciences are valued very highly by its society very much like India, but not much innovation is coming from people there because they are not experimenting and learning the old-way. So, although they can solve traditional problems but they cannot provide creative solutions to problems and we are living in a world where in order to succeed one has to be creative to flourish. He then goes on to show how MIT has developed some software that can revolutionize how we learn and educate are generations to come. He also shows example from around the world, how kids are using technology to solve their day to day problems in a creative way.

The last success story he tells is the one that stand out. MIT Labs have Computer Clubhouse Project where they are giving children from low-income families or countries opportunity to express themselves using technology. They have a center in Delhi and he tells about a project there where a 13 year old who was living in slum area, was part of this project and using software with which you could see things under microscope on the computer screen. He was playing with that when he put the water he was drinking under the microscope and discovered that it had germs of all kinds. He decided to check the source of water and found that it was usually taken from municipal taps in unhygienic areas of slums. He did a survey in the slum on how people treat the water and found that boiling water is the best way to get rid of germs and so he convinced his parents to boil the water. It just shows how technology was able to raise standard of living of this individual and his family. This boy learned more by experimenting and exploring then he would have learned it in school if someone would have lectured him about water safety.

As a software professional these are the kind of projects that excite me. It gives me tools to make a difference in our society through my knowledge. If we all can use our skills, that we gained through traditional or otherwise means, we all can contribute to our society. This is one of the most inspiring video that I watched and it had rejuvenated me to learn 'n' explore more, not only to get a good paying job but create software that can bring the best in our society.

This is a long video but if anyone wants to watch it, the link is here.

Destruction, a new photo-post up @ kaarindah...

NEW - A new tech blog by yours truly...Creative Minds