Innovative ideas for learning

Kathmandu:

The survival of humanity depends on innovations. After learning to walk upright, we have adapted ourselves to the ever altering habitats with innovative plans and practices in order to survive, reproduce and be distinctively different from other living entities.

Innovation could be described as the mechanism of translating intelligent views into tangible societal impact. The goal of innovation is to solve a problem and is indeed an important topic for study in relation to economics, commerce, technology, sociology engineering and policy construction.

Innovative change is the most stable factor for our existence. Formal education at schools could be the starting place for future innovators to be trained for expounding their hidden creative strength. These endeavours inspire a student’s curiosity and desire to participate actively in project design and building.

Consequently, innovation is ideally suited as a starting point for project-based learning, where students could gain skills and subject matter in structured system of creating their own ventures.

In this course, students collect and evaluate data from variety of prints, multimedia or Internet sources. They could read and relish books and articles in magazines and professional journals on related topics in which students would be working on. They could further visit web pages and follow the academic polemics by mobilising search engines to conduct on-line research.

Students could ask carefully-crafted questions to experts, who could often provide them with amazing insights into the problems or opportunities.

Mapping and charting out desired information from reliable potential sources and open-ended questions could exact and elicit invaluably useful informative data. They could analyse and synthesise information they have gathered and gleaned in peculiarly cooperative team-alike effort. They could determine and enhance the direction of their task. Students could eventually develop and augment the sense of ownership with us-feeling and slowly do away with egoistic me-attitude while working snugly in adhering team.

Such programmes could undoubtedly expose younger generation to become more constructive and innovative, while trying to address perplexing and worrisome issues in sustainable fashion.

(Shah is an academician at NAST; Karna is a Physics major from Tri Chandra College)