3/05/2021 Part 2.41
Mr B Sambamurty has a holistic looking problem. His query is
“Scale design thinking:
1. IPv4 could accommodate about 4 billion addresses.
2.IPv6 can accommodate 340 trillion, trillion, trillion.
Thanks to Vint Cerf.
Why not we design such scale for Health care, Education, Basic citizen services, solutions for billion people.”
My response
What Vint cerf did was representation of large numbers. The first credit should go to Aryabhatta and other Indians who invented positional number system to count up to hundred digits -googol
In computers representation scaled slowly from kilo to mega to giga etc. depending on the word length of computers. Early 1970 s we used to teach tree structures to represent large entities. UNIX used this for representation of files.
This was used later for domain representations in Internet. So, no originality there. standardization was done.
Computer speed was slow in milliseconds per operation in the beginning and memory was 1000 words in the first computer I used. VLSI allowed the development of a processor in a chip. Moore conjectured that speed of computers will double every 18 months. But addressing memory was a problem initially. Intel 8086 has 16 bits address space which can address only 64 k bytes. But memory available at that time was one megabyte. It was handled by an indirect way. But Motorola had 32 bits address space capable of handling four giga bytes memory. That was forward thinking. Networking of computers started with packet switching concept developed by Kleinrock and later ARPANET. Internet use and penetration was slow.it depended on developments in hardware, memory, communications and networking. Its use increased with Google search engine and now ecommerce. But internet is passe. We moved to mobile and apps and social networks. Diamandis, author of the great innovative book called abundance has come up with a book the future is faster than you think. He talks of convergence of the many new technologies like cloud and edge computing, sensors, IOT, GPUs, ML, AI, big data ,5 G. We see convergence in autonomous cars and cyber physical systems. These lead to faster billions scale development. But will it reach the billions in India and Africa and many other countries.
I give credit for scale up thinking to Negroponte for looking at the real physical problem of a computer for each child.
So it took more than five decades, effort by hundreds or thousands of researchers and developers, enough money and lab facilities to reach this far.
Let us see the scale up aspect in health, education and delivery in the next post.
The operative part of Mr Sambamurty s concern deals with scaleups in education, health care and citizen services. It is an important concern.
As a country, we are not new to billions scale-up. Our postal system is a great example. It reaches every person in every village and hamlets with mails coming from anywhere. Mails were transferred through aircrafts, mail trains, busses and runners reaching all post offices. Hundreds of sorting units were set up. Post man walked to the last mile. Many services including money order, telegraphs were available. This great system is in trouble now. But it’s success depended upon a high degree of decentralization contrary to our present day philosophy of centralization and complications. It used multiple modes for transfer. It played a vital need for migrants.
Land records is another system working till now. These were pre-computer era systems. Designers need to see their success factors and build them into their design.
Citizen services are easier to implement. Sakaala of Karnataka provides most services. It operates on PPP model and it involves both decentralized data and traversal through many data bases. It reached million to near billions with Aadhaar registrations. DBT and jandhan have taken money transfers to close to billion people.
Health is seeing a greater reach now. We have asha workers at village level, we have PHCs and a hierarchy of private and government hospitals and nursing homes. The polio vaccination is a good example of public participation. The current experiment of vaccination against covid is another scale-up example.
Some problems major ones are
Mindset changes this is tough with doctors with fixed mindsets and egos. It is much worse with teachers and educators. Recall how the sanitation for all campaign was run with Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar playing a major role in convincing people about the need for toilets. Educated elites mocked at this campaign. They mocked at independence movement also. Computers are secondary. People are primary focus. Convince both beneficiaries and operators. Health has multiple aspects like good and balanced food, cleanliness, regular and proper exercises, yoga, meditation, calming the mind, and happiness.
Medical persons do not consider these holistic aspects in treatment. This will avoid diseases or minimize it.
Technology is available to scale-up now. We need to create a reach. Mobile phones and apps will help us. But distributed systems work not one centralized one. We need to interconnect them. We need better data connectivity. That is a major problem today. Hope it gets solved. We should have used the old telegraph lines for digital transfers. We discarded that network.
Knitting multiple components in a distributed that is loosely couple way will lead to scale-up in health.
Education is a tough proposition. We need several alternate models to learning, not the only one approach. Remove or reduce regulation drastically. That is the hinderance to scale-up in education. Open mind is needed. Many startups are handling it at small and local levels. Instead of building one central system, connect these, encourage more startups thousands to come up, facilitate their operations, build local language contents networks and go for mentoring to most. Special learning should be there. Localized community centers and activities is something we are missing. Since schools have failed in this aspect, we need a separate structure which does not become a complaint center but a holistic self-understanding self-helping and repairing system.
Lots of efforts by governments and private entities are required to operationalize a great health and education system. Scale-up of existing inefficient systems will not be helpful. So, think a holistic systems approach and not a technology approach. Focus on people, reach, activities, relevance and ease of use and motivation.
We were talking about scale. We are known to perform well on a single function like Kumbh handling large number of people. But the pandemic revealed another character in Indian’s. It is not for a month but close to year millions are toiling to control this virus through public education, punitive measures, manufacturing, accelerated research, treatments and tracking and testing on a massive scale. Remarkable. We did it well. We developed vaccines and started a massive campaign of vaccination. I had vaccination a few days back. It has disproved sceptics. There is organization, cleanliness, zeal, dedication and service by medical persons, good manufacturing speed, good distribution network, participation by a large number of private and public, small and large health units. It looks like being done seamlessly but a lot of effort has gone into it. A lot of education is happening. Some hiccups are there definitely. But it shows we can achieve scale. Very heartening indeed.
3/13/2021 Part 2.42
Quite a few responses on India’s scalability of services and it’s reach have come.
1.Mr N Ramanathan comments on the changed approach now.
“Yes. I have been telling friends across globe that India has demonstrated capability in multiple spheres, including mindset change in millions of unmotivated Govt employees. While much of the older problems remain, this has doubtless kindled new hopes.”
2.Mr Anantha Simha of TCS also commented on this.
“As a country we have done a great job. When the pandemic started about a year ago, none here were aware about sanitization, masking etc. unlike other countries which had some experience with such pandemics before. We managed all that at scale which is no small feat in our vast country. Digital currency starting gaining ground and even the milkman, flower sellers and vegetable vendors have all taken to it like a fish to water. We have our own vaccine which has high efficacy and proven sceptics wrong. Vaccination is under way in full swing despite hiccups. We as a people are capable of doing great many things if only, we don’t squander our energy in pulling each other down…”
3.A third comment came from Mrs Bharati Prabhu with concerns on reach.
“Respected Professor, Good to read your posts.
Great that vaccination drive is being described as smooth by most recipients.
What about the poor, has their experience with covid vaccination been equally good? We don’t see many reports of that.
Polio eradication and family planning drives have shown that our country can tackle massive challenges across urban/rural rich/poor divide. Covid 19 handling may not need to be on a similar scale because perhaps we will develop herd immunity shortly and also while the disease did bring the world down on its knees, the world has faced far more serious challenges like wars and famines and natural disasters. This pandemic appears huge perhaps because
1. Entire world was affected at the same time
2. We live now in an eternally connected world where we know what is happening everywhere
3. Media both traditional and social have played a huge role in keeping the issue on top of everyone’s minds.
The pandemic, people’s reaction to it and our tackling of it are all products of this time?”
These are good, positive and perceptive comments.
4. A short and perceptive derivation is provided by Mr Sanjaya Gupta.
“Small is beautiful but large is necessary!!
So much so on ‘Scale’”
The above comment reflects my reflections on binary thinking. It is not either-or approach but a bit of both or a mix of both is needed. This is captured by Mr Gupta.
Let us look at another comment in the next post and move on to causal learning.
3/15/2021 Part 2.43
Learning initially is based on senses – feeling, visual, hearing etc. But how we are learning more. Let us look at Vygotsky.
Vygotsky had a groundbreaking theory that language was the basis of learning. His points included the argument that language supports other activities such as reading and writing. In addition, he claimed that logic, reasoning, and reflective thinking were all possible as a result of language. This led to the development of instructional strategies to support growth in literacy as well as a reassessment of the classroom setup. Teachers were to encourage leadership in the classroom, collaborative learning, and thoughtful discussions. With the exception of independent tasks, which were also included, the goal was to create purposeful, meaningful exchanges between students. The role of the teacher was to facilitate learning by directing the dialogue and confirming contributions in an effort to further motivate the students.
Very insightful ideas developed in early to mid-twentieth century.
We don’t follow it.
3/17/2021 Part 2.44
Let me reiterate learning has to be multidimensional for effectiveness and clarity. True visual learning provides a better understanding in many situations particularly dynamic actions like blood flow in the body, digestion process, working of many machines, combustion, traffic flows in a city, location / identification of units in a large area, remote sensing of an area and interpretations etc. We couple it with sound also. But we cannot deal with mathematics, logics through only pictures . Even languages were not effective here. We need a different set of symbols and representations. But oral communications need a language. Language speeded up clarity. Knowing the importance of phonetics, and semantics and the prime need of unambiguous and clear transmission of thought processes, Panini developed a detailed semantics-based grammar for Sanskrit. He called it Ashtadhyayi – that is eight chapters. It gives a clear expression for our thoughts. That is how Vedas, Upanishads, tarka, nyaya and mimansa, were developed. Complex problems were solved. Astronomy depended on observations and calculations. Temple building depended on geometry, diagram, calculations and detailed procedures. So a mix of multiple forms of learning produced results. Also remember that while language facilitated thinking and communications, unambiguity in languages like English clouded understanding of concepts. We need to accept the fact that a lot of so-called failures of students is due to the ambiguities of English and resultant lack of clarity in understanding.
Let us look at Vygotsky s ideas further.
The primary role of the teacher in the educational context is to act as a facilitator for learning. Guided exchanges, comprehensive discussions, and the creation of an engaging community are valuable strategies for cognitive development. Many educators have incorporated Vygotsky’s ideas of social connection and small group learning in the classroom in an effort to see more growth.
Let us continue further in the next post.
3/18/2021 Part 2.45
Muralidharan from Tata has made a correction in the last post.
“Thanks Sir
Hope you meant “…ambiguities in English…” and not “unambiguities….”
Thanks for correction.
Mr Joshi has two questions.
“Well explained . Whether learning contributes always to growth?
Will group learning is better in nature than classrooms.
My Qs
Thanks Regards”
The first question relates to purpose of learning.
Purpose is to survive first. Humans, Animals, birds and insects learn this to eat first and later to save from predators.
Humans learn for good habits, citizenship, societal person and then for a living – a job. But for centuries a small group of Indians, Greeks, Romans and others lived to learn purely for knowledge and understanding. Universities came up to promote knowledge. But the past centuries post industrial revolution linked learning to jobs and growth. And the past two or more decades have shown we got a lot of material growth and lot of knowledge. Both are not opposite to each other. Most innovations come from learning and understanding.so learning has helped in individual, family and societal growth. Remember learning is not restricted to formal education.
The second question is how do we learn. I have repeatedly said we learn from everywhere and we use our senses and language to learn, not just in a class room. We learn by observations, experiments; we learn from society and from jobs. We learn from friends and peers and in groups. We learn for material benefits and pure knowledge gathering. Learning for jobs is only three or four centuries old. Formal learning is also centuries old. Our old Dronacharya style of learning improved skills in warfare. Discussions and questions and answers are time tested and best strategies for learning not just class room teaching. Gurukula system used that strategy.
We will see later what is cognitive learning. Appreciate your comments on cognitive learning.
3/19/2021 Part 2.46
Prof Vasudev parvati comments on need for class rooms.:
Sir, today we have the concept of flipped classroom possibly based on Vygotski concepts. Here the teacher announces the topic and provides learning resources apriori , expects the students to comprehend and then discuss about the same in the classroom. But I feel that, in the context of undergraduate engineering studies, several topics like engineering mechanics, electromagnetic fields, fluidics etc. explanation of the concepts with examples by the teacher in the classroom are absolutely essential, flipped methods may not work!
I request you to comment on this sir!”
My response
Your observations are correct to a point. When we discussed online learning, it was felt mixed and multiple mode learning is needed. So flipped mode is a good tool to make students do self-study and self-learn and think. It needs supplements from teachers to get insights. Today resources are abundant. Lectures by experts are accessible.
So teaching so-called tough subjects like electric field theory, fluid mechanics etc. is definitely challenging. I won’t say these be done by class room teaching. Most teachers have a sketchy knowledge of these topics and won’t do good justice to the topics. Hence, we should access teachings by great teachers and providing it to students supplemented with comments. The best way is still Q and A and discussions with examples. The next aspect is then what about class room teaching and its relevance. We need to use class room teaching to discuss a complex problem or a derivation in a slow step by step approach. This helps in understanding and retention. Complex mathematical equations and solutions will not be easy to fit into your display device today. They need a big black board. Clarity is better with class room teaching. Doubts can be handled. Online corrections are possible. I taught algorithms in sixties and early seventies by developing them online in a class room, not precooked. Because books were not available. One example is handling linear programming. I devised an algorithm in the class room in 1973. Another example is handling sparse matrices and fitting a matrix of size 200 by 200 in a small memory without dimensioning and writing operations on them. So class room teaching has a role even today
3/20/2021 Part 2.47
Mr K V Ramaprasad from HAL gives his experiences in learning:
“In US my granddaughter’s teaching at 10th standard is by what is mentioned here as concept of flipped class room. Specific books which are supplied here by school/CBSE in the beginning of the year for 10th standard (or for any other lower classes) as in the case of my grandson studying here is not the standard practice for the students at US. Yet she scores better.
Does it mean at these level concepts introduced to the students are not complex?”
My response
Learning by people depends on their motivation, attitude and interest. It is not a standard uniform process. What works for one does not work for another.
The pace of learning is different. Time for absorption is also a major variable – some understand quickly, some need more time to understand the same. Schools and colleges have been set up not just to impart knowledge but to facilitate and speed up learning in many ways. The most important aid for learning is the ambience. One follows what others are doing. Quads at American universities play an interactive role in accessing knowledge and going further. IISc has a strong academic culture and learning ambience. Good ambience is helped by several factors like reading facility and inducements, great intellectual approaches, discussions, lectures by visiting experts including Nobel Laureates, cultural diversity, encouragement to individuals and activities suited to them etc. This helps students to concentrate and learn. It is not fear or threat that works in learning. The number of people who don’t succeed in IISc is very very small. Success rates are very high. Any institution can become an equivalent of IISc if there is a mindset, a good value system, a will, transparency and open mind, a culture and a serious- and open-minded faculty. So culture- at home, at school and colleges and at work places as well as in our neighborhood environment – plays a big role in learning, habits, success. We need a different approach to create a learning ambience. Technology is helping us to take good and great learning to homes. Books are an outmoded concept. We get enormous knowledge from webs. I tell people to visit many websites of great teachers and universities on a daily basis. We will get better understanding. In the end the individual decides after experimentation what works for him or her. Some need handholding regularly. Some are independent. Some need nudging. Options are available now. With flexible curriculum, choices will be plenty.
Challenges to students is another great thrust to reaching higher potentials. Some schools in India challenge their students to get involved and do more. Examples are seen in robotic experiments and drones. Their successes are very visible. Many have risen to great heights in academics, industries or business. But we need larger attention to individuals and challenges. I keep asking our institutions what are you doing to your distinction students. Nothing. Challenge them, they will do wonders. We may get a Nobel prize.
3/22/2021 Part 2.48
Fundamentally, Vygotsky recognized that social settings and learning were closely entwined. Therefore, one must identify and implement strategies that are effective in a social context. It is also important to note that the culture of each individual is created by their unique strengths, language, and prior experience. One of the ways that students gain knowledge is when they collaborate with their peers or mentors on activities that involve problem-solving skills and real-life tasks.
Vygotsky maintained that the social world is not only the interactions between peers and their teacher but also consisted of outside influences within the community. Prior knowledge, such as learned behaviors at home, impact learning in the classroom environment. As such, Vygotsky outlined three main concepts related to cognitive development: (i) culture is significant in learning, (ii) language is the root of culture, and (iii) individuals learn and develop within their role in the community. Culture can be defined as the morals, values, and beliefs of its community members, which are held in place with systems and establishments. Acceptable attitudes and conduct are communicated by the use of language. Culture is shaped over time as the result of specific events, whose messages are then conveyed to its members. Vygotsky explained that culture consistently affects cognitive development by affecting human behavior. He wanted others to realize that there is a complex relationship between culture and human development. It is a cycle; at the same time that the culture is influencing an individual, that individual is in turn creating culture.
3/24/2021 Part 2.49
Let us see culture and ambience as it exists now. Is ambience conducive to learn?
While culture has improved considerably to inculcate the importance of learning and education to most children, ambience is not helping. Urban households spent tense mornings preparing breakfast and lunch and getting children ready in time to go to school. This tension is passed on to children. Worry on homework and studying add to this. Most rural schools do not give importance to learn. But they scold the children for non-performance. Who should be held responsible for non-performance – students or teachers?
In addition, the ambitions of urban parents are high – admission to IITs. So, torture starts at ninth standard itself and continues till twelfth. Best torturers at kota and Ramiah show success rates. Is this good or bad? How do we minimize this torture? More importantly how do I make learning a pleasurable or exciting activity.
What are the requirements for a good ambience for education?
Calmness of the mind – if one is tense or worried or the mind is wandering, the learning becomes difficult. Concentration is not there. Absorption and understanding are low. The first step is to calm the mind. Pranayama and meditation are useful for this.
Second requirement is inculcated good habits for reading, writing, group studies, and discussions. These need to be done in the school not home work. Encourage visits to local facilities, labs and libraries. Have a debating society. The new education policy says minimize curriculum. A very good advice.
Three allow students to learn what they want. Flexibility and choice of learning are essential for a positive and vibrant ambience.
Fourth is to reduce distractions – gaming, emails, messaging etc. digital addictions. More on this in next post.
Mr Aravind from TCS comments on the ambience:
Teaching informs students about the world around them and helps them become critical thinkers. But coaching classes provide information skewed information with the ability to solve only JEE papers, but not develop the brain holistically at the younger age – say 8th or 9th standard when children are co-oerced by parents to join coaching classes. The same feeling I have for White hat jr. which is forcing children to start programming at a very young age. This may have effects on children’s future development is what I feel.
Ambience is the environment provided by parents and elders in the house and not just the physical structure. Urban children are probably lucky to have internet, though online classes get frequently disturbed by road side noise, where as rural children are by and large lucky to experience a calm environment, lovely nature, but weak internet and electricity
My response
The biggest difference between rural and urban is the importance of money and positions considered by urban people and basic values by rural people. We call them old fashioned, feudal, casteist etc. The narrow mind exists with urban intellectuals. Till nineteenth century there were miniscule middle-class people in India. Most survived. Even IISc professors just survived
I recall one professor could not get a place to live in Bangalore. Monetarily we were poor but intellectually we were rich.
3/28/2021 Part 2.50
We look at one approach to learn effectively. How critical is the time spent on learning?
In the old system of schooling in India even during the 19th century, students spent a lot of time to learn a topic. There was no fixed school timing. One learnt from morning to evening with suitable breaks. Whereas in our current education system, we fix about three periods per week for many subjects including programming numerical methods, statistics, mathematics etc. Is this enough? Is this the correct approach?
We tried to teach some subjects like data structures, operating systems, in a week or two weeks to teachers and it worked well.
Why not we follow an alternative system? Some management schools went for trimester system. But why not teach each subject to a great depth in a shorter time. This will prove that we can improve learning considerably. This needs concentrated learning. Remember software hackathons. Enthusiasm and tireless working for long time needs to be seen to believe it and its effect in focusing and charging students.
Prof Cal Newport wrote a book called deep work. The book says if you want to learn a subject or a skill, spend ten or more days full time to read many books and acquire knowledge. You also absorb, abstract and find a better retention.
He says
“Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there’s a better way.”
“he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits.