After watching “An Inconvenient Truth,” John and Cynthia Hardy, an American expat couple living on the Indonesian island of Bali, decided to sell their jewelry business and build a completely green school to teach the next generation how to live sustain ably. Since opening in 2008, the Green School has grown to teach 400 students from kindergarten to high school, even offering a boarding option.

Traditional topics, like math and languages, are combined with experiential classes, including cooking, gardening, and even traditional Balinese mud wrestling.

The teachers are as diverse as the students, coming from all around the world to teach at Green School and learn about its mission and values.

Green School is becoming much more than just a school; it is turning into a community. More and more parents are building houses within walking distance of the campus in a green, sustainable way, using the principles their children learn at school.
The concept is based on three simple principles: be local, let the environment lead, and think of your grandchildren’s future.

It explores the potential benefits of such an outdoor learning experience and claims that it boosts development, children are much better socially, more creative, more innovative and happier. 

 

I believe experiential learning is a great way to complement classroom learning, which is just as important. So, such an experience will surely help students understand the real life context before they step into a school

 

The relevance of such an education in a tech driven world is a concern that the article touches often. I feel no matter where technology or development is headed, this outdoor learning experience will teach students more about life skills such as fending for themselves, getting more out of less resources and dealing with unpredictable circumstances which are always relevant.

I would like you to read this article to understand how education doesn’t necessarily need to happen in a classroom or through technology, but sometimes going back to our roots and learning the way our ancestors learnt is a better way to grow.  

 

You might think, what is new in it….

 

The interesting thing is that there are geniuses around the world who can write using both hands together. 

 

You again might think what is new in it, we have heard of this as well… and the first picture comes to your mind is of Veeru Sahastra Buddhe, the 'antagonist' in 3 Idiots, played by Boman Irani who uses this skill to write the letter to the parents of two other lead characters, Raju and Farhan.……

 

Have you ever thought that we can even MAKE our students ambidextrous???

 

Yes friends, while enjoying the video that follows the link mentioned, let your neurons work on the idea as to what happens to the cranial capacity/brain when such a skill is adopted and practiced with utmost expertise……..

 

Students of Veena Vadini School, Singarauli, Madhya Pradesh developed this ambidextrous skill of using both hands with equal power for writing in their school notebook. This is India's one and only 'ambidextrous' school, which has more than 150 students who write using both hands together at the same time. These students have a high speed of writing with both hands and another fascinating thing about this story is they can write in six different languages Hindi, English, Urdu, Sanskrit, Arabic, and Roman. These students can finish the three-hour long exam in one or one and half hour.

 

Mr Birangat Sharma, the founder and principal of the school, is an ex-army man who got inspired by the same skill of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, and thought of adopting this as a unique feature for his school.

 

Whenever a new child comes in, she/he holds the pen with one hand, and they are taught to use their other hand after a month. After that, the students are taught to use both the hands together. In 45 minutes of class, every student does the practice of writing for 15 minutes with both hands.

 

According to an article published in Reader's Digest, only 1 per cent of the total population is ambidextrous. Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Leonardo da Vinci, Ben Franklin, and Albert Einstein are some of history's most famous personalities who shared the same skill as that of these students in India.

 

‘Disruptive Innovation’ was coined by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen in early 1990s and in his words, it is not breakthrough technology that makes good products better. How the million-dollar main frame computer was replaced by mini frame then by desktops to laptops and smart phones eventually is an example used by him to simplify the disruptive innovation. Smart phones democratized technology, everybody has access to it today.

The ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment by Sugata Mitra had caught my attention many years back. As I thought about disruptive innovation in education, I was tempted to explore the work of Sugata Mitra and his ‘SOLEs’ attracted me to explore about them. Listening to TED talks, reading blogs, interviews and comments on his work I experienced immersion in finding something suitable to post in this edition of KOSH. SOLEs – Self Organized Learning Environments in the ‘School in the Cloud’, where children can explore and learn from each other is a concept that will democratize education and make it accessible even in the most remote areas is how I see it. 

To know more about the SOLEs across the world and connect to the ‘School in the Cloud’ log on to their site -

 

An Interview and a TED Talk will give you some insight into ‘School in the Cloud’