Repairing-Restarting-Reusing: Teaching Innovation in schools

Everybody swears by innovation and wants innovation. We have numerous anecdotes and stories about how innovation happened...How some people created some new things/ideas/processes. But nobody knows how does anyone teach innovation.

There are exercises and activities to initiate people into thinking and creativity...But innovation is still far far away. But outcomes of these activities dont lead to innovation.

One thing that I noticed early on was that one key element in many innovations is a problem and then creating a solution to it. Another thing that I realised is that 'repairing' something is a key innovation activity.

Was glad to read about the 'Restart Project' being run in UK somewhere...where people get together to restart or repair something...(restart)old transistors and other electronic gadgets. The founders knew that this was a regular affair in developing countries but had perhaps died out in the developed world.

Also, repair has a lot to do with the environment as well...no wonder the tweet that led me to Restart project was tweeted by a environmentalist. 

But right now my effort is to bring environment, innovation and education on the same platform...and actually talk about the interface of all the three.

In my book...To, The Principal...Yours sincerely, I have talked of the idea of a 'kabaaad se jugaad' innovation lab...a lab at the interface of environment, innovation and education.

A lab full of all the tools (read screw drivers, spanners, springs, pulleys etc) and full of kabaad (read junk) old machines etc which are now junk. Using all of these to first get acquainted with how things work first and then using some of the material available to make something knew.

If children and left with constructive material to work with...even if it is junk...you dont need a Lego. Just old junk can work wonders with children and even adults. And the process of repairing leads to innovation. It could be even as simple as repairing a chair with a broken leg. 

My father was an Aeronautical engineer and often used to tell me that there are so many innovators in Old Delhi and Ludhiana that they could make a plane if asked to do. Dont think it was an exaggeration.

What the Restart project is doing is intrinsic and embedded in developing economies. 

I started on one such innovation lab in a school in Delhi. We asked students to get old material from home and we got some basic tools, screw drivers and spanners. It was fun dismantling stuff for all of them.

In subsequent classes we went on to take some specific items. We got a locksmith to our lab and got him to show us whats inside a lock...how do levers work. It was all fun.

Found out later that a Sweden based organisation called Snilleblixtarna is doing similar activities with children even in Grades 1 and 2.

Its just activities like these, which will get us to innovation as there is no specific path.

If we can teach innovation embedded in repair (reuse or recycle)...it will be best for the planet as we would be addressing the two most pressing needs of the planet envisaged in environment and innovation.

Suli Breaks Videos...Moving on from Ken Robinson's TED talks

I bumped into Suli Breaks on the net.

This man is up to something. As I watched ' I will not let an exam result decide my fate'...I was immediately able to connect to this guy.

The simplicity with which he talks about the issues of the education industry is amazing. No big jargon...just plain little talk.

What clarity.

 One thing that I immediately connected was the fact that we studied so much in school and university but dont remember even a tiny percentage of it. This resonated with something similar which I mention in my talks and in my book..."I remember just 5% of what i studied in school, university and college'

Ken Robinson was the rockstar in terms of great education related stuff on videos and I admire him a lot...but I am really excited about his new genre of videos from Suli Breaks. Though I also watched his first one on education i.e Why I hate school but love education. But this one ' I will not let an exam result decide my fate' is a block buster.

I particularly like the part when the kid tells the lady...that you were young at some point of time...but not right now.

I do have a dream of starting a Teachers' Band...which sings for the education revolution. But until that happens...and until we have quexaminations.

Watch Suli Breaks and connect with it as we revolutionise education.

Why aren’t our teachers fun? Why aren’t they mad sometimes?:Gangnam Style dance video by a Teacher

Teachers are folks who have to be serious. Whether we like it or not...thats the norm. Dare a teacher try to act anything but serious. The more serious you are, the better are the chances to go up the ladder.

While there are teachers who are friends with children but they never explore being fun with children. While its an established norm in early childhood education for teachers to do some mad drama for children...we believe that children don’t require that madness or drama as they grow up.

A tweet from Huffington post led me to  a video of a Head Teacher of a School who turned mad publicly...just to add fun and keep a promise he had made. This teacher had promised his students that if they keep up there grades, he will to a Gangnam style dance for all of them. The students got the grades and the teacher decided to do a video, which apparently is a hit on youtube. Find a link to the video in the end.

If you see the beginning of the video...he seems a serious teacher...the one I talked about. But its his dynamism that he had the courage to turn mad (read fun) for his students. I am sure his lectures will now be listened to and children will have fun being in his classroom...no matter he is serious in his classroom.

It takes courage to be mad and madness often helps with students...it brings fun, which is a necessary element of education.

I remember Aamir Khan doing Bum Bum Bole and some gimmicks for his class and remember the times when our teachers would shake a leg in some farewell party. I think I developed a liking for those teachers who could move out and be mad.

Inviting teachers around the world to experiment with madness.

Presenting the first mad video by a teacher in public