Sky’s Blog @ The Dalai Lama Foundation — Spreading the word in a networked world

In my quest to find better ways to deliver training and learning around the world, a suggestion from a colleague has turned into a unique distance-learning solution.

We’ve put about 6 hours of video recordings from our teacher training session onto an iPod Nano in MPEG4 format, and the Nanos are being carried to teachers in countries where Internet connectivity is thin or doesn’t exist.

And we’ve added a couple hundred photos, and videos produced by our first year participating schools.

In a subdirectory on the Nano, accessible from a computer, are copies of various documents that may also be useful to teachers and Project Happiness leaders.

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Jessica Margolin, a colleague who I run into once a month or so over at the Institute for the Future, has written a succinct post that begins “The real harm of helicopter parenting: correcting the problems we encounter in OUR generation and forgetting that our children will encounter entirely different ones…”

Jessica does a lot of thinking about young people - and her focus is quite good.

Her post suggests to me that the important thing is that we should always be teaching hyper-skills (meta-skills and meta-learning) - skills that allow kids (any age!) to organize and reorganize their thinking and their actions when the environment changes.

For me this is totally, totally key to what I’m doing these days. As a PhD Computer Scientist, I have skills that are generalizable. But, in case you hadn’t noticed it, VERY small numbers of programmers are now creating applications that millions and millions of people will use. A couple hundred engineers at Google can create online products that are used by hundreds of millions. A small group at Apple creates an operating system (based on FreeBSD) that supports fabulous software on devices undreamed of even twenty years ago.

So when I first started writing software in the 1960s, we were anticipating a global need for millions of programmers. But today, even though there may be lots of programmers, there are some very small groups who are responsible for the majority of today’s software. And consequently, what I have been doing recently is “re-treading” myself so that rather than concentrating on software-creation, which is a less-in-demand skill, I’ve been focusing more on visual, audio and written journalism. And on online strategies for my customers.

What’s that have to do with helicopter parents? Well, as parents you should be ensuring that your kids have the skills to step up above what they do day-to-day, and rather than beat their heads against the wall trying to get mundane things done. Ensure that they have the ability to pop their head “up above the surface of the water” look around and see the environment, and then retool what they’re doing in order to achieve long-term goals.

[See also: an archive of the Meta-Learning Lab // or another archive]

The first Dalai Lama scholars… with the 14th Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama Scholars program was envisioned by Vice Chancellor Manuel Gomez of the University of California at Irvine, and formed as an honorarium to His Holiness in conjunction with his appearance there in 2004. The Dalai Lama does not receive any payment for his appearances - instead, all net proceeds from tickets and other sales (after expenses) go to benefit appropriate causes and organizations. [UCI Juniors Rajiv Ramdeo and Aswathi Sreedharan, recipients of the inaugural scholarship 2006, are pictured here with the Dalai Lama.]

Lori Warmington was instrumental in the creation of the scholarships, and in this interview, she describes for us how they came about as well as what they’re about.

The Dalai Lama Foundation featured the scholars in its March 2007 newsletter. The University describes the endowed scholarships on its web site. His Holiness gave two talks at the University of California Irvine, both of which are archived online (video/RealPlayer).

Amy Krantz is a special education teacher who studied at Bank Street College of Education. She taught for almost 30 years in New York City schools. Her Master’s thesis dealt with her experience teaching young severely-language-impaired children, using a method that utilized reflection and self-expression thru writing and poetry.

I met Amy Krantz almost by accident about two years ago. Introduced by a Buddhist nun in Pasadena. Amy was looking for someone to share a cab from the airport. We have had occasional conversations ever since - somehow karmically connected as we seem to just “run into” each other from time to time in places like Dharamsala (India) and San Francisco (California). Amy has an adopted daughter who lives in Dharamsala and spends a lot of time there.

A couple of months ago, I suggested to Amy that we sit down and discuss learning and teaching. She is one of those people who has a special approach, and that’s always worth paying attention to. In this interview, we focus a lot on the relationship of “listening” to “expression” and learning. I intend to expand this into a series of interviews with educators who have special messages to share.