A Curious Mind

The Italian Navy's historic and iconic training ship, Amerigo Vespucci , has been sailing around the world since 2023, visiting over 30 ports across 28 countries and 5 continents. Built in 1931, it replicates 18th-century ships-of-the-line , featuring a steel hull and three masts, offering a fascinating glimpse into naval history. The black-and-white stripes on the hull are reminiscent of 18th-century naval vessels. Named after the Italian explorer and navigator Amerigo Vespucci, this majestic vessel is celebrated for its classic beauty and maritime tradition. Often referred to as the "most beautiful ship in the world," it serves primarily as a training vessel for naval cadets in the Italian Navy. Its motto, "Not he who begins, but he who perseveres," inspired by the words of Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian polymath of the Renaissance, emphasizes the importance of seeing projects through to completion. During its global tour, the ship is open for public visits....

Source: nationalgeographic.org Service learning is a powerful teaching tool that integrates meaningful service in your community into a rigorous academic curriculum. You can engage students with real world challenges and help them become agents of change. Service learning is different from community service. Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Service learning is an educational approach that combines learning objectives with community service in order to provide a pragmatic progressive learning experience while meeting societal needs. Service learning motivates and empowers students by giving them a voice in an ongoing issue in their community and helps them to see the relevance of the learning that they're doing in their classroom. It provides an important framework for civic education and an authentic outlet for learning in many disciplines. Service learning i...

This post is based on an article - Studying Childhood in India by Krishna Kumar (EPW, June 2016). The article looks at the various ideas of childhood that have been dominant in India over the past century or so, and what they mean for parenting, pedagogy and politics in the new century. Diversity is a Deceptive Term Our ability to use term childhood analytically is based on knowledge conditions about distinct areas like parenting, teaching, children's literature and children themselves. Major dimension that limits our knowledge is the diversity of circumstances in which children grow in India. Author argues that our idea of childhood is likely to be influenced by dominant global disclosure on the subject and our comparative outlook. Therefore, the author thinks that the term diversity is deceptive as it highlights the geographical and cultural difference, while keeping out of view differences arising from economic conditions & caste hierarchy.  Our Colonial Context Our contempl...

Part of  two blog posts  based on my learnings about ‘ICT in Education’ using ‘E-Learning Series on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education’ available through bangkok.unesco.org. This is a second post. Read previous blog post here .  According to the Delors Report (a report created by the Delors Commission ), learning constitutes “the heartbeat of society” while 'learning to know', 'learning to do', learning to live together' and 'learning to be' constitute four pillars of education; mutual understanding, peaceful interchange and harmony can be taken as the social aims of education. UNESCO believes that the ‘four pillars of education’ advanced in the Delors Report can be evoked through the effective use of ICT.  Consider the different factors involved in choosing the right technology to use in your education setting. As you design and deliver solutions, it is useful to bear in mind the different types of literacy: Basic Literac...

Part of two blog posts based on my learnings about ‘ICT in Education’ using ‘E-Learning Series on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education’ available through bangkok.unesco.org. What is ICT? ICT refers to a range of electronic tools for sharing, displaying, and exchanging information and for communicating. ICTs and ICTS is same, and singular & plural form refer to same thing. ICT is not just limited to computer and internet, other technologies that are part of ICT are: email, video conference, telephone, satellite system, DVDs, radio, TV, video etc. Internet is powerful tool for education, but it should be used under guidance to avoid access to unnecessary information and guard against scams. Electronic devices are used where internet access is limited. ICT is a very useful teaching tool, but not replacement for teachers. ICT is effective and efficient management tool that facilitates data collection, processing and reporting. ICTs have become, within a...