A New way to learn — Peer to Peer Learning
During school days, I still remember running to the friend for help whenever I used to get stuck up with any doubt in maths and science, then tell him
“Yaar,(buddy) you are the best teacher, you should start tuitions.”
Education is always been structured as a very serious process of facilitating learning, it’s been a least explored field by human race. Due to industrial revolution, it was developed in certain way which suited British & left as it is & we are still following the same model since then. Ironically, what we know about learning is that it is more personalised as all minds are developed with different backgrounds and with different modes. And so many of us actually say & believe this- “Maximum of our learning has actually happened outside our classrooms”.
Experience is considered as one of the best form of learning, but to teach some one or by sharing your knowledge is considered an even more effective form of learning. Unfortunately, nothing is been structured around it, it seems everyone left changing/transforming education as something that will happen naturally.
The other day I was watching a great TED TALK by Sujata Mitra, he was talking about his experience on Self-learning. But I still think, it needs to be more encouraged, peers need to meet in more structured form to learn and teach in so called Peer to peer learning.
By definition,
Peer-to-peer learning is where one student leads another through a concept, in which the first student is an ‘expert’ and the second is a ‘novice’. The peers don’t necessarily need to be from the same class or age group.
At present when the whole world is talking about Bitcoin, one of the most successful form of real PEER TO PEER NETWORK based on Blockchain technology, I think, its is a right time to also explore about learning & teaching in Peer to Peer Learning network. When the Internet as a technology has already brought us more close through different networks with lots of content always exploding around us, it has already become easier to make learning from peer possible but then the only hurdle is to go out there & make it possible!
We at teachmitra.com have already taken a small step to move in this direction, to connect like minded peers together on the platform to learn and share their experiences and learnings with each other. We help our peers to send a connect request in 3 easy steps & actual Connect session (Learning session) happens through a simple micro-learning video chat session on WhatsApp, Skype, Hangout etc. It is already easy for us to connect simply by touching on our phones through these Apps. To add to this, Teachmitra moderates the connect session through a moderator sitting (only coming in when needed) this keeps the peers focus on learnings and not on technology or other glitches (if any).
If you would talk to elders in your house who are in their 60’s , most of them would say “In our times, we use to study till 12th or may be graduation and we use to easily get some skill level or even officer level job”, then people in their 40’s and 50’s would say “we had studies professional degrees to get good jobs at executive level”. Then in last 15 yrs, we have seen the need for everyone to get a double professional degree like BE+MBA in order to get a Job at good position. But then what would happen in 2020 and onwards, learning will not only be what you do at school or colleges; instead it will be life long process where by-default everyone will have to be updated every 6 months with new skills or technology; anyone failing to do so, may fade out of the market/field. This is where Peer to Peer Learning becomes more important, where you stay updated with any skill you want by taking a micro learning session from a peer who has a experience or knowledge in that field.
We at Teachmitra think, it is a time to look forward & think on how to improve the way you consume the content & help others in their learning journey. If you too think the same & like what we are doing at Teachmitra join us using this referral code- 11Z7WL
Know more on how Teachmitra Connect Works here
