Just as power corrupts a politician, power-point presentations corrupt a good teacher,” said the Chief Guest for an annual day event of a prestigious institution in Goa, which I also happen to attend. For couple of days, I was pondering upon this statement, which made me think from a teachers’ perspective as well as that of a learner.
Most important element between teacher and student is the connect. Not just, how well but how effectively both can communicate with each other within and beyond four walls of a classroom is all that really matters.
‘Learning 2.0’ by Manoj Sonawane could well be considered an informative dossier for all those who want to acquire knowledge as well as pass it on to others. Personally, the book has much wider reach and implications, beyond teacher-pupil domain.
Author has very smartly opened up his narrative by very simple yet appealing concept of learning through story. Who does not like to hear one if not tell a story? Everyone at some point time in our lives has heard a story. That is exactly what the author suggests as an effective medium of learning.
Book also offers a thoughtful approach towards content creation, which includes creating new ideas and improvising upon the existing ones over a period.
Important elements in the process of self-learning are also taken care of by the author with usage of simple words and down-to-earth examples throughout the book.
Like in every class, there are one or two students who are odd ones. In this book too, there is a chapter on Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), which I personally feel author could have avoided with. It somewhere disconnects a reader with its corporate kind of explanations.
Probably, he could have worked upon a separate book on it in near future. Not that it is irrelevant, but it just does not seem to go well with the flow bringing in some complexities.
