Analyzing Journey to the end of the Earth

How is the Antarctic like a living laboratory that helps us learn about the past, present and the future?

Antarctica is indeed like a living laboratory that helps us learn about the past, present and future. We learn about the past by studying how the continents were formed six hundred and fifty million years ago. We learn about Gondwana and how things were different then. We also learn about how the climate was warmer, and how there was a huge variety of flora and fauna. Additionally, we get to learn about the formation of the continents, the rocks, the significance of  Cordilleran folds, and pre-Cambrian granite shields; the ozone and carbon; evolution and extinction of species. An examination of ice-core samples can provide us with half a million-year-old records of carbon deposits which in turn tell us about the annual global temperature corresponding to each sample.

Antarctica is a living laboratory because it is pristine, untouched by pollution, industries and even man. By studying Antarctica we can see how 'unmitigated burning of fossil fuels has...created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, which is slowly but surely increasing the average global temperature. Thus Antarctica can tell us about the present and how healthy it is. The prognosis is not good!

A study of Antartica can give us a glimpse into the future. Study of ice core samples can to a great extent provide us with data that can help us predict future temperature spikes. Moreover, increasing global warming could cause the West Antarctic ice sheet to melt, this could cause a disruption of the Gulf stream ocean current. Should this happen, it could result in the end of the world.

Clearly, therefore, Antarctica is a living laboratory from which we can learn about the Earth's past, present and future.

William Douglas' Childhood Experience of nearly Drowning would affect him later

William Douglas' childhood experience of nearly drowning in the YMCA pool in Yakima affected him as an adult. It was a handicap that would prevent him from enjoying his outdoor's activities of hiking in the mountains, canoeing, fishing for landlocked Salmon and wading in the rivers and lakes.

Our childhood experiences often determine the kind of adults we become. Douglas' fear of water hampered his enjoyment of outdoor's activities. He realised that he could not go on living with his childhood fear of water. Sometimes our experiences during childhood might put into us irrational fears, phobias that gain control over our personalities, attitudes and beliefs.

Douglas wanted to do something about overcoming this debilitating fear of water so he hired the services of a swimming instructor so that he could train to be a swimmer. However he was not done when the training ended so he decided to swim solo in the swimming pool, Lake Wentworth and Warm Lake. This was because he wanted to face his fear, challenge it and take it out of his life. His old fear returned while swimming solo in the swimming pool and Lake Wentworth. Each time the fear appeared he challenged it and it fled.
The moral of the lesson, biography at least is that handicaps can be overcome in life through persistence and hard work. Douglas was able to cast away the handicap that the fear of water had imposed on him. The negativity of childhood experiences can be nullified through conscious effort.

How did the near death experience affect William Douglas mentally?

It is pertinent to note that his near-death experience at the YMCA pool in Yakima affected William Douglas greatly. This was more so after he had been able to overcome his fear of water much later in life. He had nearly drowned to death in the swimming pool in Yakima and it was a miracle that he survived! The experience would have a deep meaning for him. He had seen death at close hand and survived it. 

In the words of Roosevelt, "All we have to fear is fear itself", and Douglas realised that it was easy enough to submit to what was in store for him. When he stopped fighting for life in the swimming pool in Yakima, Douglas slipped into 'oblivion', it was peaceful. It is so easy to let go, stop fighting for survival because it is so peaceful. One runs away from one's fears because it seems to be so convenient. But then to stand and fight requires some effort, and so when Douglas finally achieved success in overcoming his fear of water, the will to live grew in intensity.

Douglas learned to respect life even more after he had managed to conquer his fear of water especially when taken in the context of his past experience of near-death in the YMCA swimming pool. His ability to shake off his fear made him feel 'released', he felt free to enjoy walking the trails and to climb the peaks without his childhood fear of drowning.

Is Educational Technology the Holy Grail of Learning?

I recently came across an interesting article written by Helen Lee Bouygues titled, Does Educational Technology Help Students Learn and was amazed by what she had to say! Interestingly, Helen came out with three hard-hitting points, namely, “Screen time can diminish face to face interactions”- suggesting a negative social impact, “People navigate and comprehend texts on paper more thoroughly than text on screen”- asserting that print on paper has more impact than pixels on screen, and that, “Socrates famously observed that writing tools would impair people’s ability to remember.”

Strangely enough, some of these things strike a chord! While no doubt Ed.Tech. does provide for an immersive experience, the fact is that it also adds up to distraction in learners. How often does one see students in the I. T. Laboratory. Playing games, or probably surfing the net to chat to friends or even check cricket scores? In many cases, students would rather have me send their homework online than jot down a few sentences in their notebooks. How often do students ask me if they can submit their essays and projects in a printed format. While some might feel it would be OK, I would counter with the argument that since their final exams are all in the written form, it would be better if they wrote more!

It has come to the notice of many educationists that since we have started accepting word processing, the quality of expression, creativity, transition and flow of written material has deteriorated. The confidence that comes with actually writing down one’s thoughts and knowing one’s spellings without having to resort to a spellchecker are advantages that speak in favour of the pen and paper.

Technology Failed my Students and Me.

Although I use technology as often as I can, there have, however,  been times when Technology failed my students and me! There was this time when I had prepared for an observation lesson in grade eight, the Principal was to come. I had just connected my laptop to the projector and was going to show them a presentation when things began to happen. Ma’am entered the class, my H.O.D. also decided to step in. It was a high energy class. But then the projector would not connect, the WiFi connection failed and there I was twiddling my thumbs wondering what I could do to salvage the situation. The voice level grew and the students became distracted and there was chaos. Fortunately, my Principal offered to call the I.T. Technician.  By the time he came and fixed the fault, the magic had faded.

 In yet another instance, I had prepared for a lesson on speech writing with links for videos of speeches by Steve Jobs, J.K.Rowling and Shah Rukh Khan. I had even brought my external Blue-Tooth speaker, not trusting the installed classroom audio system.  I wrote the learning targets on the green board, told the students to open their note-catchers and then started the video. Five minutes into Steve Job’s speech, the audio faded away. To make matters worse, the WIFI failed. I quickly whipped out my cell-phone and used it as a WiFi hotspot and struggled on with Job’s speech. Alas! It still didn’t work out. The classroom at the end of the corridor was somehow not ideally located to receive Cell Phone signals. We managed fine with J.K. Rowling’s speech and that was it. Surprisingly I was able to play all three speeches in another section in the next two periods.

Technology Made me a Handicapped person.

A cable that had shorted, a battery that was depleted, a WIFI connection that was on the blink had all caused Technology to fail. The resulting effect was that the students were distracted and they had more time to talk amongst themselves. Sometimes we have great plans for a great topic. We research topics, gather material, develop PowerPoint presentations, prepare flow charts, create infographics for the class but then when something fails then it causes great anguish. Technology, unfortunately, requires quite many supporting systems. You need an internet connection, a projector, a laptop, the audio cable, VGA Cables, HDMI Cables, Ports and the list can go on. When any one of these systems goes on the blink, things go wrong. People who depend too much on Technology become handicapped when any one of the systems fails. Few teachers are able to improvise technology failures by using the green-board to write, draw or highlight important topics of the lesson because their handwriting has become so bad.

But then, I love Technology in spite of everything!

In spite of some of its worst failures, I love Technology because it makes life easier. If you don’t use technology, then you will have to write more on the Green Board - you will have to speak more in class and work even more!  Showing students a video and then asking them to fill up a note catcher or an exit ticket is easier than having to give them a lecture on the Renaissance period. An online test is easier to correct than a written one, in fact, online objective tests can be auto-corrected by the LMS platform itself!

Can we celebrate our own Versatility as teachers?

Looking at everything, one cannot help appreciating the fact that when everything fails, it is the teacher with his or her chalk and blackboard who pass the test of time. A skilled teacher will offer everything that technology can offer and even more. When all the technology fails, it all ends up with the teacher himself. When Socrates taught his followers the art of metacognition he taught them without the help of technology. Socrates continues to be one of the most researched thinkers even today. He was a great teacher and he did not use technology. It is important to note, therefore that while a teacher can do his job without technology, the latter, however, cannot work without the former. Technology apparently cannot replace the teacher! It can at best be a tool - a teaching aid to promote learning. We can, therefore, celebrate our versatility as teachers, individuals, who, when required can work without technology and yet provide exceptional results. Human beings are versatile, creative, inventive and effective on their own. Technology has yet to catch up with human beings.

When I started teaching in the year 1994, in a Government-aided school in Delhi, I came across students who were first-generation students besides those who came from the relatively affluent families living in Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar and Shakti Nagar. In those days one could barely think of Educational technology. If at all possible, it was all about hiring a video player and the needed Video Cassettes. I remember getting a Video Player and showing the children Titanic the film because they had the lesson Sinking of the Titanic at the grade twelve level in English. It was much later that I helped set up a computer lab in that school and then, of course, it was all about computer-assisted learning. Then INTEL came up with the INTEL Teach to the Future programme. I was able to get my beginners followed by my Master's level certificate after training ten other teachers. The takeaway from that programme, however, was that we got to learn more about how to operate computers than really using computers to teach subjects. In those days anyway, very few schools had computer labs and so it was really not possible to use computers to teach students. The effective use of Educational Technology in the form of Computers and Projectors was strongly dependent on whether it was available in the classroom. Limiting the use of computers to the computer labs was really not helping. And yet, most of the students that I taught in those days have achieved great success. They did not have access to Educational Technology, they depended on textbooks, refreshers, classroom lectures and discussions.

Today things have changed. I teach in a school where each classroom is provided with a projector, an audio system, cables and a WiFi internet connection and teachers only need to carry in their laptops. Students can research in the classroom itself, watch a movie, a powerpoint, infographics and so on. Things have become easier what with the resources that the internet has thrown open to us. Unfortunately, this access to Educational Technology has not really led to an extraordinary improvement in learning outcomes. The novelty factor apart, the use of Educational Technology has in many schools become an accepted tool a mere paradigm shift from pen and paper, chalk and green board to E-Books, E-Documents and the so-called Soft-Copies of homework and projects.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/helenleebouygues/2019/06/14/does-educational-technology-help-students-learn/#481e11074539

Susurration-A Poem

The sky burns above,

Pin-pricks of jewels glitter in the 

Velvet spread, even as

The camp does sleep!

On the ground darkness 

Does prevail, shrouding everything

In unexpected latency.

I feel a presence.

The sky burns above, a

Meteor flashes past, a brief

Streak of brightness, disappearing

 In a blink, even as they sleep!

I feel a presence as I

Walk around, the darkness hiding.

What might be out there? 

So I decide to return.

While the world does sleep,

 The moths do rest, the sky does glow,

The moths do rest. The sky speaks

Of worlds out there.

I feel a presence in the

Velvet cloak that covers the ground even

As the stars do glow. I decide

To return to my restful sleep.

But something stops me

From returning, a thrill a tremor, that draws

Me on. I shiver as I look once more

At a star-studded sky!

And the world does sleep,

Oblivious of the fiery action unfolding 

Above, a magic moment lost to

Those that snore and toss!

Long Horn Beetles and other Insects spotted at Sitlakhet

Longhorn Beetle

This time while on a retreat at Sitlakhet, I was pleasantly surprised to spot the Longhorn Beetle, Large Lace Border Moth, different forms of Tiger Moths and a variety of Butterflies. Of all of them, the butterflies could be seen during daytime while the others were seen at night, probably drawn to the light bulbs that were left burning in the night.

Large Lace Border Moth

The Tiger Moths seemed to come in different colours and sizes. They were mostly stuck to the walls and in one case to a mirror outside.

Tiger Moth

Tiger Moth

Tiger Moth

The butterflies could be seen flitting around in the daytime, although I was able to capture only one.

The Longhorn Beetles appear quite scary, what with their large mandibles and segmented antennae. They seem to be drawn by bright lights especially light bulbs. All of these insects were spotted at Sitlakhet, thirty kilometres away from Kandaghat at an altitude of 7000 feet.

Longhorn Beetle

Longhorn Beetle

Large Lace Border Moth