Day 68: An idea for a technology platform to support Self-Designed Learners
I rarely think of technology as the “solution.” In fact, often times, technological “solutions” seem to be an extension of what I view as the “problem” — a mechanical worldview that sees humans as machines, which doesn’t acknowledge the complexity of human intention, emotion, or thought. And instead, believes that all problems can be solved via the next “disruptive” innovation. And which places technological progress over human well-being, where we value going to the moon more than ensuring that all people have clothes to wear, a place to sleep, and food to eat.
Yet, I’ve started to think more about how technology — the internet more specifically — can play a key role in improving the learning possibilities for self-designed learners in rural Bihar — at least in our community. One way of looking at it is by listing some of the learning needs that the Swayam Seekhis have and then discussing how technology can be useful in fulfilling those needs.
As a reminder, Swayam Seekhis focus on self-designed learning, which means that there is a steady emergence of interests and projects based on their curiosities and intellectual agendas. What this means is that having a medium for further exploration of the initial sparks of curiosity is incredibly important — otherwise that spark may die out. For many of the interests, the knowledge exists within our immediate organization or within the local village. In the case that the required knowledge cannot be found within the community, then generally speaking, one of the following may happen:
- Swayam Seekhis search on the internet: Because we want people to both learn how to gather information on their own, this is generally the first attempt. It rarely yields what they are looking for, however, because they are searching in Hindi and there simply isn’t very much quality content online in Hindi (only, for example, 100,000 low quality Wikipedia articles for 500 million speakers).
- Facilitator searches on the internet: If someone has a question — let’s say, what government schemes exist for farmers — and they haven’t been able to find the answer within our community or online, then I might search for it online and then share the findings with them. The problem with this approach is that it’s not fully in line with the self-designed learning concept, it’s extremely time-consuming and it limits the total amount of information that Swayam Seekhis are able to collect; if ten people are collecting information versus one, then over time, the overall amount learned will be exponentially greater.
- Facilitator calls someone they know to get more information: Similar to the above, except I’m calling people to collect information. This technique is more useful during times when we are looking more for more specific or time-sensitive information — like connections to a certain organization or information on a workshop. This method suffers from the same issues mentioned in the last point — particularly the pieces on time and information.
- Swayam Seekhis call mentors: We have tried, as much as possible, to pair our Swayam Seekhis with mentors, who can help them further explore their interests. Thus, they can also reach out to mentors, who can then help them explore their ideas via some mixture of sharing personal knowledge, further research, or connections to new people.
The idea to “just teach them English” may have come to your mind. While I despise the hierarchization of languages — with English at the topic, Hindi in the middle, and the local language at the bottom — I’m not opposed to people learning English as such if they are doing it intentionally and toward a specific goal. But still, it must come from within — otherwise our whole concept of intrinsic motivation and self-designed learning will cease to have any meaning. With all that said, some people have recognized English as a need and have been learning.
But you don’t just “learn English” — it takes time, especially when you’re not in an environment where people speak English. It may take at least a year or two for people to learn enough for it to be useful, by which time they may no longer be in our program. So what do we do in the interim so that they can continue to pursue self-designed learning to the highest degree?
A second need area that, I think, can be aided via technology is as a means of collecting the resources required for learning. Thus far, we have been providing food and shelter so that Swayam Seekhis don’t have to worry about basic survival. And we have also provided resources for learning — spanning from technology (laptops, cameras, projectors), to books, to art supplies, to space, to plants, to small amounts of funds required for local travel and projects, to the funds required for learning journeys and internships. In the near future, some Swayam Seekhis will also require various resources and people for the projects they start — these might range from technology to furniture to capital to volunteers. We will need a system where some of these needs can be met via a larger community and circle of friends.
(*Again, because many people think of ‘learning’ as schooling, and schooling as mainly reading, assignments, and exams, it’s important to note that our concept is much broader, encompassing travel, community living, learning journeys, and self-initiated projects.)
So what I propose and want to create is a system, where a community of people can invest holistically in a Swayam Seekhi; a Swayam Seekhi would be able to list the needs that they have, and then different people, based on their own specific gifts and endowments, would be able to support them. In some cases, it might be a forum (like Quora or Reddit), where a question is asked and experienced people can offer information. Or where brainstorming can happen and people can help build on the ideas being worked on by our Swayam Seekhis.
In other cases, there would be options for Swayam Seekhis to both list needs that they have — a camera for Rashid who is learning video editing, a place to stay in Delhi for Pramod who plans to work with an upcycling organization here, or a small campaign for Suraj to fund his learning journey or new open educational space for children.
Currently, in order to meet all of these needs, we would need to engage the following platforms/kinds of platforms:
- Fora: Reddit, Quora — neither of which are particularly active for Hindi users
- Social media: Facebook
- Classifieds: Craigslist — which is not particularly active in India, and better for selling, less so for gift-giving
- Crowdfunding: Ketto, Bitgiving, etc.
Engaging so many different platforms separately is messy and hard to manage. I want to bring them all together into a seamless experience for those who are looking to support the self-designed learning journeys of our Swayam Seekhis.
Friends and supporters would be able to figure out where they can be most helpful by finding the nexus of their unique gifts, resources, and interests, and the needs of our Swayam Seekhis. It’s a way of revolutionizing giving to go beyond being a simple financial transaction, in which one weak party receives at the whims of the powerful. Instead, the Swayam Seekhi himself/herself is asking from a place of power and strength, as the help they are asking for is coming out of full intentionality and consciousness — whether it’s help brainstorming an idea, providing a place to eat and sleep during a learning journey, or helping to fund a new enterprise.
And I know that there’s a huge demand from people who want to get involved; pretty much everyday I get an email or a message from someone who wants to help out, but who can’t necessarily come to Bihar immediately. And until now, it’s been a mixture of me trying to find the right fit or me not having the time to figure out the right fit. Again, not a sustainable or particularly effective way of coordinating those who want to give with those who are looking for support. A much better way is to seed serendipity by putting power into the hands of the Swayam Seekhi and into the hands of the gift giver so that they can find each other where necessary and appropriate.
Many questions remain around how to even pilot the idea — maybe via a Facebook group? And who to and how to initially attract as the “gift givers,” especially given the various kinds of gifts required and the fact that different groups of gift givers are generally rich in some areas by not necessarily in others (and vice versa).
Secondly, if the idea seems to hold promise, then there will be a lot of questions around how to organize and sort the information — by Swayam Seekhi (all of their varying needs); by topic (education, health, philosophy, etc., though I find these artificial much of the time); by tag (however the Swayam Seekhi chooses to tag it); by need area (information, connections, resources); or in some other way all together. From a user experience perspective, how do we ensure that the entire platform is not too overwhelming?
Again, the reason why this kind of idea and technology hold so much potential power (in my biased opinion) is because so many of the other needs of the Swayam Seekhis are already met via our community. Socially and emotionally, they support and are supported by one another. And, secondly, because we have a learning=living and living=learning philosophy, the platform is simply another tool for learning, rather than the entire learning system. The idea is to holistically lower the barriers to pursuing a life of learning, where you yourself, while in conversation with many other friends, decide on your own important questions and next steps.
So, to sum it up, the idea is to create a platform to support the self-designed learning journeys of Swayam Seekhis from rural Bihar by connecting them with people in the larger community, who can provide information, relevant connections and opportunities, and resources.
This idea is only just developing — whether it actually makes sense will only emerge after we try it out. But in the mean time, I would love for you to raise thought-provoking questions for us and for you to further build the idea out!
