Category: Blogs

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #15 – Measureless Learning He has been engaged for the last 2/3 days with these water jelly beads his cousin gave him. How does it swell when left in water, how does it become a bead again, sorting them color-wise, size-wise, arranging them as soldiers, photographing them with my…

#14 Benefit – Forceless Learning Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning Krishiv, 12yrs old sharing, “I accidentally made that weird squiggle on the right while I was fidgeting with my mouse and then I immediately saw the possibility and drew the thing on the left. I use different tools for different things and I discover…

#13 Benefit – Carrotless Learning Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning Chitra a mother sharing, “Yesterday Zohar and I were working on English…he told me he wanted to work by himself and ‘compose’ something as mama does on her email …then he said…words can be boring I will make it more interesting for myself…ok I…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #12 – Ceaseless Learning Advay wrote screenplay for a short film and he wanted to make it for real. The film was quite imaginative, so we did a trial shoot for a small segment of the film. This is a video story about that shoot. He says , “I…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning#11 – Boundless LearningThe world is our curriculum, we learn from life for life Sakila sharing “Since we started with OL, I was trying to give exposure to @pavan with different prompts. He would get interested for a couple of days and then it fades away. Last week I ran…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #10 – Unlimited Ways There many ways one can learn and we don’t need to bind our children with one way of learning. Open Learning allows exploring those unlimited ways Bindhu, sharing her experience of writing the first chapter of a story with her 10yrs old daughter ” We…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #6 Benefit – Family learning Together Mother of 12yrs old, Srishti sharing, “Trying my hands at food photography. Srishti made these cupcakes in today’s cooking klub. Double bumper for me. I get to eat and also opportunities for taking pictures. Now that Srishti is into baking, I am getting…

#5 – Play is LearningSeries of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning Ambica, part of the science-exploration club sharing, “We had all bouncy bouncy explorations today, some weren’t but still some were exploring with paper, broken hockey sticks, balls(jelly types, rubber, plastic). We read a resource on the net about how things fall, Advay & Nandini explained…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #4 Benefit – No age bar to learning Sakila, a mother sharing, “Tried sketching this yesterday. The edges have a 3d effect by merging the lines and the shading. But the rim doesn’t look 3d maybe because it’s a curvey surface. Maybe the 3d shading technique for curvey, and…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #9 – Joyful Learning A group of people in the community from different ages decided to record a story and their story “We started with few voice exercises where on the first day we tried working on the ‘pitch’. The second day was more about picking up the characters…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #8 Benefit – The Limitless Learning Trupti, a young adult, part of the Aarohi Community sharing “I had thought of hosting an open community space in Mumbai. But, as, I am a product of the same system, I have many fears – what will people say, how will people…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #7 – The World is our curriculum But what is the curriculum? Is it defined by me or the learner or none or both? Life is part of the curriculum Living is our curriculum When all this merges, it just becomes an experience. From the travel diary of Mishti,…

#3 Self Discovery Series #21 benefits of OpenLearning Imagine Open Learning which guarantees one definitive outcome – that learning will be self-discovery. 16yrs old sharing, “I kept talking, which is better than not talking at all. I did stop during the last drill because everything was going wrong repeatedly, as a result, I got frustrated…

#2 Understand Learner Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning Dunno why we have confused learning with teaching. Learning by definition means, being in sync with the learner – her styles, her methods, her needs, her self. Jayshree, mother of 12yrs old Shreyas sharing, “When I asked my 12-year-old son to take Chess classes in Aarohi.…

Series of #21 benefits of #OpenLearning #1 – Free to Celebrate Everyday Anuj, the mother of 5yr old Suhrud, sharing “Last night, just before going to bed Suhrud picked up paper n colours and started drawing and told me not to peep in & asked me to spell Happy Birthday Aai ( mom) for him.…

Will children not take the easy path, while away time, become lazy or complacent, etc?This can happen not just with a child in open learning, but in conventional schooling/college as well as with us adults at any point of our life. And this is where the family plays an important role, closely reviewing, reflecting, and…

One announcement – anyone would like to try wall painting? She wanted to paint on the wall She has never painted She designed on paper Started to work on the wall Few more joined We decided to use charcoal for the outline She used different combinations to get what color she wanted This too was…

We began with two questionsDo we need Teen/Tween Klub?What do we want to do in this Klub?I informed, “I am not part of this discussion”. I sat in the back seat. And captured some of these conversations We don’t want to, but we may need it.If anyone doesn’t want to join, just don’t join.That anyway…

LAKSHMI, MOTHER OF AVANICame to the campus to pick up AvaniCame with a need “I want to paint anything on the “telescope room”She picked up the need from the campus to “label the wall”.Designed as per the needAdded her masala with different fontsComposed with elements of the sky (Astronomy”Discussed the designComposed the wallCollected the colors,…

The construction of understanding and learning not only is natural in children (just how a toddler constructed a whole mother tongue) it is the way they enhance their cognitive powers. The child uses his thinking to experiment, to know, to make sense, to create his own learning. The child naturally explores, invents, copies from peers,…

In free play, there is no right or wrong. So our recommendation – Cut out the judgment; let the child just play ( if possible join them, have fun, and burn calories for free!) Play not just with games and toys, but play with knowledge, with concepts, with skills, with images, with emotions, with the…

MADE TO BELIEVE We have created more than 5000 blogs, more than 800 videos of various experiences of learning, around more than 1000 videos of various programs, 100’s of articles, 100’s of newsletters, few podcasts, 1000’s sessions designs, 100’s of programs, a few public talks…all are not being used/monetized/apprenticed by others, For that matter not…

Sometimes we underestimate the impact of our actions Two recent storiesPreeti, she is 28 yrs old now. When she was around 12 yrs old, she did a summer program based on the Multiple Intelligence “discover me” program with us in Bangalore. Last week she called up and said “the experience which I got in that…

This year of the pandemic has been the year of co-creation for me. I have been collecting and collating – here is one more: Hasmukh from the Sapna Ranch shares this picture with the tag “This is for the adults to share with children.” Shared with the parents of Aarohi with “reminder for parents” and…

They got togetherCreated this magazineThey had to work on getting the entries – multiple reminders, different ways of communication They had to work as a team They had to work on editing They had to put it togetherAnd they did it!

Says Vishruthi, So before I present the audio story to you, here is a small (though looks very big ) STORY behind the AUDIO STORY (Ratnesh named it ) So it was an impromptu idea of Ratnesh “Vishruti, would you like to create an audio story with children?” I loved the idea and it was…

Isn’t the child’s future in open learning insecure? What if the child is denied opportunities of Jobs etc because he/she does not have a degree?”A good question that we should delve into! Dwiji, a parent sharingFirst, it is important to clarify Open learning does not imply that the individual does not get a degree. They…

The question was asked, “What are the pros and cons of open learning vis-s-via conventional schooling?” ROSHANI sharing, mother of 5yrs old Ronak, doing open learning for last one yearOpen learning = seamless extension of real life. Open learning = integration of individual/ family/ society. Open learning = freedom of self-expression while considering the interests…

Story of co-creation When mixer jar and shin pads joined hands:) For the last two weeks, Krishiv has taken up the responsibility of repairing things in the home under his contribution to the home. He had two tasks 1. Repair mixer jar 2. Repair handle of his bicycle Bicycle thing got done but mixer jar…

A parent asked “How does this reflection help me to understand my child? LET’s THINK IT THIS WAYIt will be difficult to “understand the child” – this claim “understand child/you” is a “mirage or a trap” (good feel factor type). The information which the child is giving you now will be soon outdated. As the…