Prof.MM Pant’s Learning321 Initiative

Learning 321: Education for the 3rd decade of the 21st Century:

Children who are studying at School today will be adults ready for further education or to face the world in the years from 2020 to 2030 and beyond. 

This is the 3rd decade of the 21st Century and is a very different world from the one experienced by their grandparents,parents and teachers. 

Their future is being shaped by two major forces: the 4th Industrial Age driven by Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and allied technologies like the Internet of Things, Blockchain, 3D Printing, AR and VR, and the 4th education revolution which is disrupting the traditional education model, propelled by the same technologies.

This leads to two very important questions. The first is what should a child learn in School to prepare for an Age of intelligent assistants that can fetch any information and do low level cognitive tasks, and the consequential question as to how do we teach what should be taught. 

It is often said that change is the only thing that remains constant. But what we are experiencing is the rapid rate of the change itself. And it’s wider impact, across almost all fields of human endeavour. 

Trying to accurately predict the future is futile. Perhaps becoming intelligent enough to build a perfect future is too. We must develop foresight and ready ourselves  by being a pro-active self directed lifelong learner and defensively by building skills of critical thinking and discernment to prevent us from being swayed by misinformation. 

This is the true objective of a good School education: to prepare children to prosper, flourish and thrive in an unknown and rapidly changing future. 

I am listing below 10 salient features of this new educational paradigm: 

1: Educators will be the most important members of Society. As we enter the rapidly developing knowledge society, very large numbers of people have to be trained in new knowledge and skills domains. 

To put it into context, the OECD estimates that, owing to the fourth industrial revolution and automation, 38 to 42 per cent of the UK population will need to completely retrain in the next 10 years to be able to stay employed. That is a staggering amount of training required to keep the UK workforce and our industries productive and competitive.

Quote from : https://www.cityam.com/retraining-course-the-case-for-lifelong-learning/

While more and more learners will move towards autonomous learners, it is educators who will enable this transition and provide the resources and guidance for self-directed learners. Microsoft in 2017 proposed “ Deep Teaching” as the sexiest job of the future. 

2: An educator takes a learner through 4 stages, in the journey from ignorance to knowledge, even if not clear to the learner: 

1. Unconscious Incompetence : In the unconscious incompetence stage , the learner isn’t aware that a skill or knowledge gap exists.

2. Conscious Incompetence : In conscious incompetence, the learner is aware of a skill or knowledge gap and understands the importance of acquiring the new skill. It’s in this stage that learning can begin.

3. Conscious Competence : In conscious competence, the learner knows how to use the skill or perform the task, but doing so requires practice, conscious thought and hard work.

4. Unconscious Competence : In unconscious competence, the individual has enough experience with the skill that he or she can perform it so easily they do it unconsciously.

The four stages of competence are core to the algorithms used in adaptive learning technologies. By knowing in which stage a learner is for a particular topic, an adaptive learning platform can select content on that topic that will help the learner reach the next stage. It can even use assessments to demonstrate to learners that they have skills gaps, thus moving them from stage one to stage two.

This journey will be personalised for each learner and each learning goal by AI-fluent SmartEducators. 

3: We are at the intersection of 2 fundamental revolutions : the 4th Industrial Revolution, announced by Klaus Schwab at the World Economic Forum in January 2016 and the 4th Education Revolution proposed in a recent book (2018) by Anthony Seldon. This is unprecedented for the whole world. Anthony Seldon says “ There is no more important issue facing education, or humanity at large, than the fast approaching revolution in Artificial Intelligence or AI. This book is a call to educators everywhere to open their eyes to what is coming. If we do so, then the future will be shaped by us in the interests of humanity as a whole.”

4: The recent advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have an important bearing on how we teach humans. We are now in a position to move from the art of teaching to the Science of learning. And achieve the goal of education for all, and the democratisation of education. The entire entrance test and coaching for the entrance test industry will be a thing of the past. So will the School leaving Board or University graduation final examinations. Assessments and feedback will become a continuous on-going process. 

5: The mobile is the device for access to learning. UNESCO has been organising a  Mobile learning week every year from the year 2012. 

* https://en.unesco.org/themes/ict-education/mlw/

Mobile Learning Week is the United Nations’s flagship ICT in education conference. Held annually at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, the event convenes experts from around the world to share how affordable and powerful mobile technology – from basic handsets to the newest tablet computers – can so accelerate learning for all, particularly people living in disadvantaged communities. Each year the event has a specific theme to focus discussions.

Holistically the event seeks to advance understandings of how technology can be leveraged by UNESCO Member States and others to improve education.

*2019: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its implications for sustainable development

* 2018: Skills for a connected world

* 2017: Education in emergencies and crises

* 2016: Innovating for quality

* 2015: Leveraging Technology to empower women and girls

* 2014: Teachers

* 2013: Mobile Learning and EFA Goals

* 2011: December: Using mobile Technologies to transform educational process and outcomes

UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2020, the flagship ICT in education conference, will be held from 2 to 6 March 2020 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

First you learn to use the mobile. Then you use the mobile to learn. 

Most mobile devices are now equipped with AI powered chips. The future of learning is therefore in your hands. 

6: Learning will be a lifelong pursuit, with 3 broad stages, of which the first is pre-natal, neo -natal and pre-school learning. The new education policy 2019 has acknowledged that 85% of the child’s cognitive development happens by the age of 6 years. 

7: The stage of School, College and University is the period  during which a learner must acquire the skills and competence of learning how to learn and become an autonomous learner. The importance of learning how to learn has been acknowledged in the new education policy 2019 in the 3rd paragraph in the beginning and also at para 4.5 while dealing with School education. 

8: For the rest of a person’s life, a person would be pursuing lifelong learning to continually learn, unlearn and re-learn to achieve his human as well as academic potential. 

Blockchains will be used for academic credentials. Growth and widespread recognition of micro-credentials such as badges. 

There is already a pilot experiment with a Blockchain University and an MIT supported Blockchain credentials system in edublocks. 

9: In an unknown and uncertain future, instead of trying to find what we should teach during School, College or University, we should develop youth who love learning and having decided to learn something are capable of learning it well ( mastery learning). This is achieved by building learning power. ( ज्ञान ऊर्जा अर्जन)

10: MeetUps in co-learning spaces. While much of the learning will be ‘anytime anywhere’ occasional in person meetings would be organised at “co-learning spaces” to support in person peer and social learning. 

The present didactic model of the ‘sage on the stage’ does not encourage live learning interactions between the learners in the classroom. This is OK when only the teacher is informed and knowledgeable and all the learners are ignorant, of the topic being dealt with during the lecture hour.

But in lifelong learning the learners are also informed and aware of what they want to learn. The dynamics in such a situation changes fundamentally, allowing for huge benefits from social peer learning. 

If there are n  students in a cohort, and the teacher is essentially in a single student teaching mode, then the quality of learner engagement reduces with increasing n as 1/n. That is why in good institutions there is an attempt to have a small teacher to student ratio, in the range of 1/10 to 1/20. If however the teacher is in a broadcast mode, like a text-book or a video, then the effectiveness is independent of the value of n. 

But if the pedagogy is designed to encourage interactions between the learners, as happens in the digital environment, then the number of student interactions becomes n(n-1)/2 in pairs, or proportional to n squared. There may be smaller clusters with more than 2 students. Very soon, there is an overwhelming contribution to the discussions and construction of knowledge, leading to a better and richer experience. 

Reflections on Teachers Day:

The recent upheaval in the economic and employment landscape is evidence that a paradigm shift is taking place. The key observable is rapid change and the VUCA ( Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world taking shape. This presents an unprecedented challenge for teachers. It is no longer about teaching to pre-determined learning outcomes. John Holt has suggested that “ Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.” The key words are ‘ love learning and learn well’. 

A person with School education from a prestigious high fees School with granite flooring in the classrooms and air-conditioned buses for going to and from School passed with high marks in CBSE and further coaching at a well  advertised coaching Institutions and access to educational Apps promoted by film stars may feel that he is well equipped for the future. But as he tries to engage with the world, he realises that his education has not adequately prepared him either to learn more on his own or to bring any economic value for which he could be remunerated. There was no love for learning and no pursuit for excellence. 

The World Economic Forum, the Brookings Institute, Oxford University and many consulting organisations in their reports have indicated that in the coming age of the confluence of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the 4th Education Revolution, there will be a disruption across most of the human activities. The recent economic slowdown in many parts of the world is a consequence of these changes. 

The only way to see further is to stand upon the shoulders of giants ( as Newton had said, a long time back).

And the collective wisdom of  these giants ( Ken Robinson, Guy Claxton, Clayton Christensen, Anthony Seldon, Eric Hanushek, Howard Gardiner, Conrad Wolfram, Jeanette Wing, Joseph E Aoun) has a simple prescription. The unequivocal advice of all thought leaders is to immediately start pursuing active learning, to develop learning power as the means of overcoming their miseries and sorrows. Learning is not a spectator sport, it is a participative activity free from ‘ taughtitis’. 

This mantra of  “Learning first, AI next “ should be pursued  by everyone  to add to their learning potential. The Economic value add by educators has been well researched by the Stanford Professor Eric Hanushek in his book ‘ The Knowledge Capital of Nations’. The Human Capital Index (HCI) database provides data at the country level for each of the components of the Human Capital Index as well as for the overall index, disaggregated by gender. The index measures the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18, given the risks of poor health and poor education that prevail in the country where she lives. It is designed to highlight how improvements in current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers, assuming that children born today experience over the next 18 years the educational opportunities and health risks that children in this age range currently face. 

The government has raised “serious reservations” over the first Human Capital Index (HCI) compiled by the World Bankas part of the WorldDevelopment Report 2019. Indiais ranked at 115 position in the index with its score of 0.44 on a scale of 0 to 1 coming even below the average score for South Asia. One way to substantially  raise this score is the concept of “ The AI experience Hub”. 

The AI experience Hub: 

With the goal of every village being connected with optical fibre, it is feasible to have a whole new approach to raising the HCI from its present 0.44 to a significantly higher value. The spread  of long distance education to which the Prime Minister referred in the recent Independence Day speech, has the potential that by the time a child attains the age of 18, it has evolved to the lifelong learner that John Holt referred to.

To enable this to happen, numerous AI experience hubs may be established with as wide a reach as possible, using Government projects, private entrepreneurial initiatives, NGO initiatives and CSR initiatives of large Corporates. 

These AI experience hubs will have an inspirational ambience, fast Internet access and facilities for participating in remotely held webinars. 

The infrastructure at each hub would be a suitable mix of consumer devices like Alexa, PCs that can run the required software, cloud services from Amazon, IBM, Google etc. Raspberry Pi with AIY voice kit, Intel Mobidius CNN stick, Amazon DeepLens and others that can help members to build projects that demonstrate AI abilities such as face recognition, Build a voice recogniser, Create a voice user interface, Control a LED,Attach a servo, Control a DC motor do fake news recognition and so on. 

Members will be from the neighbourhood community ranging from School students to grown ups. As the purpose is to enhance curiosity as well as to make applications and perhaps sow the seeds of an AI start-up, there will be categories of memberships such as : Observer, Explorer, Creator, Developer and Entrepreneur. 

Education and training to overcome ignorance of STEM and acquisition of new skills led by complex problem solving, cognitive flexibility, critical thinking and creative thinking for very large numbers over very short times is fundamental. Educators empowered with mobile phone technology of specific Apps and WhatsApp for learner cohort management will be the most powerful enabler for this. India could possibly become the world’s hub for educational Apps.

The reason why accomplished practicing educators are more important than the policy maker bureaucrats and fossilised experts in this situation is that while an expert can demonstrate his or her expertise, an inspiring technology empowered educator can transform every ignorant person to an expert by using techniques for successful learning. 

These Stages of Learning are –

• Stage1: Unconscious Incompetence.
• Stage2: Conscious Incompetence.
• Stage3: Conscious Competence.
• Stage 4: Unconscious Competence.
• Stage5: Flow / Mastery.

I have labelled the way forward as Learning 321, to mean the right approach to education in the 3rd decade of the 21st century. The 3 digits 321 indicate that we are referring to the upcoming 10 years, and in these rapidly changing times a horizon of more than a decade is too long to foresee and anticipate. With the education conceptualised in Learning 321 which is the combination of the soul of an IIT education, the large amount of resources accessible through the Internet and the power of self-education, the otherwise dreaded VUCA ( volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world becomes transformed to a visible, unbounded, challenging and abundant world. 

Learning 321: the 8-fold path:

1: Teachers have a deep learning mindset ( well versed in deep learning techniques of Machine learning as well as pedagogy of mastery learning and learning in depth) 

2: Learners are heavily engaged in the learning process having mastered the techniques of learning to learn and to build ‘learning power’.

3: Instructional activities promote “high cognitive challenges” to build Complex Problem Solving Skills

4: Opportunities to apply learning to authentic situations. 

5: Development of Mathematical and Computational Thinking

6: Following the adage of Francis Bacon that “Knowledge is Power”

7: Fluency in English language skills.

8: Blending of personalised and community learning. 

Happy Teachers Day!

This is your decade. Educators will be the most important. They will be training AI empowered software and educating humans to transform them from uninformed persons to experts. 

They are the engines of India’s acceleration to the 5 trillion dollar economy.

Schedule of WhatsApp courses : for August 2019

There are 2 tracks in which I am offering WhatsApp courses, one is the awareness track on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning ( for School students, Educators and Parents) and the other is a lifelong learning track to make everyone a better learner and be able to have a long, healthy and meaningful life. 

The AI track: 

1: AIML4CBSE+: Fresh cohorts will be formed on every first weekend of the month, beginning with the August cohort  beginning 3rd August 2019:( Scheduled posts from 5 pm to 7pm): a 4 weekends course that will run on Saturday 3rd/ Sunday 4th ; Saturday 10th/ Sunday 11th; Saturday 17th/ Sunday 18th; and Saturday 24th/ Sunday 25th.

2: AIML4 educators: This course will run over two weekends, with two different batches every month. The first batch for August 2019 will run on Saturday 3rd/ Sunday 4th and Saturday 10th/ Sunday 11th, with scheduled posts between 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. 

The second  batch of AIML4 educators  for August 2019 will run on Saturday 17th/ Sunday 18th and Saturday 24th/ Sunday 25th, with scheduled posts between 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. 

3: AIML4 parents : of School-going children, every weekend of the month. There will be 5 different batches in the month of August  2019. This course will have fresh cohorts that will run on Saturday 3rd/ Sunday 4th ; Saturday 10th/ Sunday 11th; Saturday 17th/ Sunday 18th; Saturday 24th/ Sunday 25th; and a 5th batch on Saturday 31st August/ Sunday 1st September, with scheduled posts from 10 pm to 11:30 pm: 

The Lifelong Learning Track: 

Weekend courses on lifelong learning:

Scheduled posts at 7am, 7:30am, 8am, 8:30am and 9am on both Saturday and Sunday:

1st weekend: August 3rd and 4th 

LLL01: Becoming a Better Learner:

2nd weekend: August 10th and 14th

LLL02: An investment in learning is the best option :

3rd weekend: August 17th and 18th

LLL03: Learning with Whatsapp, other mobile Apps and MOOCs:

4th weekend : August 24th and 25th

LLL04: Grit: Passion with Perseverance :

Weeklong courses on lifelong learning :

Scheduled posts at 7am, 7:30am, 8am, 8:30am and 9am everyday from Monday to Friday

1: First week : 5th to 9th August:

LLL13: Overcoming Maths Phobia

2: Second week: 12th to 16th August:

LLL14: Finding your ( or your child’s ) element?

3: Third week : 19th to 23rd August:

LLL15: Disruptive Innovation 

4: Fourth week : 26th to 30th August: 

LLL16: Computational Thinking 

————————————————

Registration and Course Fees:

Registration: 

For all Programs prospective learners can make an advance request for enrolment, and their request will be noted. The course specific group will of course be activated a couple of days before the start of the course. There would be time upto the start of the course to pay the fees.

Course Fee structure : 

Course fee are different for different courses depending upon the topic and target group. For the August 2019 admission cycle the fees are as follows:

1: AIML4CBSE+ : fee Rs 3000/-

2: AIML4 educators : fee Rs 2000/-

3: AIML4 parents : fee Rs 500/-

4: Fee for weekend courses ( LLL01 to LLL04): fee Rs 500/- for each of these courses

5: Fee for weeklong courses ( LLL13 to LLL16): fee Rs 1250/- for each of these courses

For any special, bulk, group or Institutional arrangements, please make enquiries by sending an e-mail to mmpant@gmail.com or a WhatsApp or simple text message to Prof MM Pant at :+919810073724

Fees can be easily paid by PayTMto mobile number :+919810073724

For those who would rather pay by Bank Transfer, the following is the required information :

LMP Education Trust

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sector 31, Gurgoan 

A/c 9812371643

IFSC- KKBK0004258

Type of account- Saving

My schedule of WhatsApp  courses : for July 2019

There are 2 tracks in which I am offering WhatsApp courses, one is the awareness track on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning ( for School students, Educators and Parents) and the other is a lifelong learning track to make everyone a better learner and be able to have a long, healthy and meaningful life. 

The AI track: 

1: AIML4CBSE+: Fresh cohorts will be formed on every first weekend of the month, beginning with the first cohort  beginning 6th July 2019:( Scheduled posts from 5 pm to 7pm): a 4 weekends course that will run on Saturday 6th/ Sunday 7th ; Saturday 13th/ Sunday 14th; Saturday 20th/ Sunday 21st; and Saturday 27th/ Sunday 28th.

2: AIML4 educators: This course will run over two weekends, with two different batches every month. The first batch for July 2019 will run on Saturday 6th/ Sunday 7th and Saturday 13th/ Sunday 14th, with scheduled posts between 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. 

The second  batch for July 2019 will run on Saturday 20th/ Sunday 21st and Saturday 27th/ Sunday 28th, with scheduled posts between 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. 

3: AIML4 parents : of School-going children, every weekend of the month. There will be 4 different batches in the month of July 2019. This course will have fresh cohorts that will run on Saturday 6th/ Sunday 7th ; Saturday 13th/ Sunday 14th; Saturday 20th/ Sunday 21st; and Saturday 27th/ Sunday 28th( Scheduled posts from 10 pm to 11:30 pm): 

The Lifelong Learning Track: 

Weekend courses on lifelong learning:

Scheduled posts at 7am, 7:30am, 8am, 8:30am and 9am on both Saturday and Sunday:

1st weekend: July 6th and 7th 

LLL01: Becoming a Better Learner:

2nd weekend: July 13th and 14th

LLL02: An investment in learning is the best option :

3rd weekend: July 20th and 21st

LLL03: Learning with Whatsapp, other mobile Apps and MOOCs:

4th weekend : July 27th and 28th

LLL04: Grit: Passion with Perseverance :

Weeklong courses on lifelong learning :

Scheduled posts at 7am, 7:30am, 8am, 8:30am and 9am everyday from Monday to Friday

1: First week : 1st to 5th July:

LLL13: Overcoming Maths Phobia

2: Second week: 8th to 12th July:

LLL14: Finding your ( or your child’s ) element?

3: Third week : 15th to 19th July:

LLL15: Disruptive Innovation 

4: Fourth week : 22nd to 26th July: 

LLL16: Computational Thinking 

————————————————

Registration and Course Fees:

Registration: 

For all Programs prospective learners can make an advance request for enrolment, and their request will be noted. The course specific group will of course be activated a couple of days before the start of the course. There would be time upto the start of the course to pay the fees.

Course Fee structure : 

Course fee are different for different courses depending upon the topic and target group. For the July 2019 admission cycle the fees are as follows:

1: AIML4CBSE+ : fee Rs 3000/-

2: AIML4 educators : fee Rs 2000/-

3: AIML4 parents : fee Rs 500/-

4: Fee for weekend courses ( LLL01 to LLL04): fee Rs 500/- for each of these courses

5: Fee for weeklong courses ( LLL13 to LLL16): fee Rs 1250/- for each of these courses

For any special, bulk, group or Institutional arrangements, please make enquiries by sending an e-mail to mmpant@gmail.com or a WhatsApp or simple text message to Prof MM Pant at :+919810073724

Fees can be easily paid by PayTMto mobile number :+919810073724

For those who would rather pay by Bank Transfer, the following is the required information :

LMP Education Trust

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sector 31, Gurgoan 

A/c 9812371643

IFSC- KKBK0004258

Type of account- Saving

Now available as a one month course every month: 

Schedule for May 2019: 

Saturday 4th May: Session 1

Sunday 5th May: Sessions 2 and 3

Saturday 11th May : Session 4

Sunday 12th May : Sessions 5 and 6

Saturday 18th May : Session 7

Sunday 19th May : Sessions 8 and 9

Saturday 25th May : Session 10

Sunday 26th May : Sessions 11 and 12

This is the tentative outline of the topics to be addressed in each of the 12 sessions of the program:

Saturday 4th May : Session 1: Why the buzz about AI?

1.1@5pm: AI is all around us

1.2@5:30pm: Future expectations from Artificial Intelligence

1.3@6pm: How do machines learn? 

Sunday 5th May: Session 2: AI today

2.1@9am: A short history of Artificial Intelligence 

2.2@9:30am: Artificial Intelligence and its applications in daily life.

2.3@10am: Human-AI interaction

Sunday 5th May: Session 3: Computational Thinking

3.1@5pm: What is Computational Thinking

3.2@5:30pm : Decomposition and Pattern Recognition 

3.3@6pm : Algorithms and evaluation

Saturday 11th May: Session 4: AI exploration:

4.1@5pm: Inspirational AI start-ups 

4.2@5:30pm: Explore application of Artificial Intelligence in their daily lives.

4.3@6pm: Explore trends and  potential of AI in a given context

Sunday 12th May :Session 5: AI and imagination: 

5.1@9am: A letter to your future self

5.2@9:30am: An imaginary conversation with some (5) AI pioneers : Alan Turing, Geoffrey Hunt, Ian Goodfellow, Marvin Minsky, Herbert Simon

5.3@10am: A debate about good AI versus bad AI

Saturday 18th May: Session 6: IoT and AI

6.1@3pm: Smart Cities 

6.2@3:30pm: Smart Homes

6.3@4pm: Smart Schools

Session 7: Natural Language Processing: 

7.1@3pm: Speech generation

7.2@3:30pm: Speech Recognition 

7.3@4pm: Chatbots 

Session 8: Computer Vision

8.1@9am:Object Recognition 

8.2@9:30am:Face Recognition

8.3@10am:Image recognition

Session 9: Deep Learning:

9.1@3pm: About the human brain and the Central Nervous System

9.2@3:30pm: Artificial Neural Networks

9.3@4pm: Applications of Deep Learning

Session 10: AI and sustainable development goals 

10.1@3pm: What are the SDGs?

10.2@3:30pm: AI for human happiness 

10.3@4pm: Responsible Citizenship

Session 11: AI and ethics 

11.1@9am: Bias: in data collection 

11.2@9:30am: Bias : Why it occurs and how to reduce it

11.3 @10am: Bias : in access

Session 12: A bright  future with AI

12.1@3pm: Opportunities in AI and Machine Learning 

12.2@3:30pm: Attributes of an AI Practitioner : communication and collaborative skills 

12.3@4pm: The education and skills set of an AI Practitioner

The details may be tweaked somewhat during the actual delivery of the program. 

One session on Saturday: in the afternoon from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Two sessions on Sunday : morning from 9:00 am to 10:00 am and afternoon from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

This will be repeated every month.

The fee per person will be Rs 3000/-. 

Fresh students will be added till the end of 2nd weekend. Such students will be sent the earlier posts as direct messages.

Those who come in later will be registered in advance for the next month’s batch. 

For joining the course or to know more, please send a WhatsApp message to Prof. MM Pant at +919810073724

The Program

Inspirational AI@class 8:

A recent CBSE circular number 14/2019 dated 9th March 2019 addressed to the heads of all Institutions affiliated to the CBSE, in the last sentence of its first paragraph says, “To enhance the multidisciplinary approach in teaching learning and also to sensitize the new generation, it was decided that School may start AI “Inspire module” of 12 hours at Class VIII itself.”

CBSE has not given any indicative content yet, so we have created our own module with content to inspire young learners to aspire to pursue both careers in AI or careers with AI, depending upon their aptitude’s and interests. As CBSE shares indicative content, we will include them in our futuristic learning model.

CBSE has suggested a 12 hour learning intervention. In addition to the traditional way of teaching where it is feasible, I have designed a digital and mobile learning framework to enhance or as an alternative to the traditional form.

One format which is my recommended format is a learning experience over 6 weekends, each day being about an hour of learning spread over 4 Whatsapp posts at scheduled times which may be either a morning slot (8am, 8:30am, 9am and 9:30am ) or an evening slot (4pm, 4:30pm, 5pm and 5:30pm) . The choice of the morning slot or evening slot will be left to the learner.

Since CBSE refers to this as an inspirational course, every session will have an inspirational quote about AI and allied Technologies. It will also have a brief inspirational message from great thought leaders related to life-skills and values especially for the future in the 21st century.

The content for each Whatsapp post will comprise text ( ~ 800 words) and a short video/ audio. The total transaction time for each Whatsapp post will be about 15 minutes. The total time by the student during each session will be about an hour, but with breaks allowing for ‘spacing’ of learning and also use of multiple media types to make learning more engaging.

The first batch ( cohort) is on offer during the four weekends of April and the first two of May in 2019.

A proposed schedule is : Session 1 on Saturday 6th April 2019, Session 2 on Sunday 7th April 2019, Session 3 on Saturday 13th April 2019, Session 4 on Sunday 14th April 2019, Session 5 on Saturday 20th April 2019, Session 6 on Sunday 21st April 2019, Session 7 on Saturday 27th April 2019, Session 8 on Sunday 28th April 2019, Session 9 on Saturday 4th May 2019, Session 10 on Sunday 5th May 2019, Session 11 on Saturday 11th May 2019, and the final session Session 12 on Sunday 12th May 2019.

Then regular batches in many formats moving towards personalisation for each learner from July 2019. These could be instructor led sessions by trained facilitators, remote training using Skype, Zoom or similar technologies. There are many possibilities depending upon the context of the School.

We can facilitate the School so that they can start AI for class 8 students right when the new session begins in April 2019 through Whatsapp on mobiles.

The program begins with capturing the present buzz about AI, and sharing the narrative on how it got this way. This is followed by introducing Computational Thinking an idea mooted by Jeanette Wing in 2008 and now accepted by large parts of the world as an essential competence for future readiness. The 4th session deals with Mathematical Modelling which is a precursor to AI. All the NCERT Mathematics books from classes 9 to 12 have Mathematical Modelling as Appendix 2. But very seldom student does a learn it and it is a rare teacher that teaches it. It is hoped that this will motivate the learners to not only better learn Mathematical Modelling but other topics in Mathematics as they would have appreciated the importance of Mathematics in their pursuit of AI. The 5th and 6th sessions survey the landscape of AI and allied technologies. The 7th,8th,9th and 10th sessions cover the nuts and bolts of AI. Today the most versatile tool in the AI armour is Deep Learning with almost universal applicability. The second last session no.11 addresses concerns of jobs, work and ethics, while the last 12th session throws up the various new opportunities for persons with AI competencies. It describes the attributes and competencies expected of an AI Professional, and what educational path to follow to be an accomplished AI professional.

This is the tentative outline of the topics to be addressed in each of the 12 sessions of the program:

Session 1: Why the buzz about AI?

1.1: AI is all around us

1.2 :Amazon, Netflix, Siri and Alexa

1.3 : Future expectations from Artificial Intelligence

1.4: Difference between traditional Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Session 2: AI today

2.1: A short history of AI

2.2: The winter of AI

2.3: The renewed interest in AI

2.4: What can AI do today

Session 3: Computational Thinking

3.1: What is Computational Thinking

3.2 : Decomposition

3.3 : Pattern Recognition

3.4 : Algorithms and evaluation

Session 4: Mathematical Modelling

4.1: What is Mathematical Modelling?

4.2: The stages of Mathematical Modelling

4.3: Applications of Mathematical Modelling

4.4: From Mathematical Modelling to Machine Learning

Session 5: The Landscape of AI:

5.1: The Turing Machine

5.2: Rule Based Expert Systems

5.3: Swarm Intelligence

5.4: Narrow Intelligence and Artificial General Intelligence

Session 6: Other allied Technologies

6.1: Sensor Technologies

6.2: Internet of Things

6.3: Blockchain

6.4: Augmented and Virtual Reality

Session 7: Classifiers:

7.1: What are classifiers?

7.2: How do they work?

7.3: Spam filters

7.4: Identifying fake news

Session 8: Other tools

8.1:Predictor Systems

8.2:Speech Recognition

8.3:Image recognition

8.4:Chatbots

Session 9: Machine Learning :

9.1: What are learning algorithms? Supervised, Unsupervised and Reinforcement Learning

9.2: Examples of Machine Learning Applications

9.3: Popular Machine Learning Algorithms

9.4: Limitations of Machine Learning

Session 10: Deep Learning:

10.1: About the human brain and the Central Nervous System

10.2: Artificial Neural Networks

10.3: Types of Artificial Neural Networks

10.4: Applications of Deep Learning

Session 11: AI, work and human happiness

11.1: AI and the future of work in the Gig economy

11.2: AI for human happiness

11.3 : The idea of a Universal Basic Income

11.4: AI and ethics

Session 12: A bright future with AI

12.1: Opportunities in AI and Machine Learning

12.2: Attributes of an AI Professional

12.3: The education of an AI Professional

12.4: Formal and self-learning opportunities for a career with AI

The details may be tweaked somewhat during the actual delivery of the program.

The entire program is designed, developed and delivered by Professor MM Pant ( mmpant.com and mmpant.net).

Programs in AI for School children have been under consideration for about 2 years, shortly after Professor Klaus Schwab in January 2016 at the World Economic Forum drew attention to the arrival of the 4th Industrial Revolution led by Artificial Intelligence and allied Technologies, in a convergence of the Physical world, the Information world and the biological world.

To know more and join the program, please send a Whatsapp message to Prof. MM Pant at : +919810073724

Inspirational AI@class 8:

The CBSE circular says, “To enhance the multidisciplinary approach in teaching learning and also to sensitize the new generation, it was decided that School may start AI “Inspire module” of 12 hours at Class VIII itself.”

CBSE has not given any indicative content, so we have created our own. As CBSE shares indicative content, we will include them in our futuristic learning model.

CBSE has suggested a 12 hour learning intervention. In addition to the traditional way of teaching where it is feasible, I have designed a digital and mobile learning framework to enhance or as an alternative to the traditional form.

One format which is my recommended format is a learning experience over 6 weekends, each day being about an hour of learning spread over 4 Whatsapp posts at 8am, 8:30am, 9am and 9:30am.

Since CBSE refers to this as an inspirational course, every session will have an inspirational quote about AI in particular or Technology in general. It will also have a brief inspirational message from great thought leaders related to life-skills and values especially for the future in the 21st century.

The content for each Whatsapp post will comprise text ( ~ 800 words) and a short video/ audio. The total transaction time for each Whatsapp post will be about 15 minutes. The total time by the student during each session will be about an hour, but with breaks allowing for ‘spacing’ of learning and also use of multiple media types to make learning more engaging.

We are ready to offer it during the 4 weekends of April and 2 of May in 2019.

A feasible schedule is : Session 1 on Saturday 6th April 2019, Session 2 on Sunday 7th April 2019, Session 3 on Saturday 13th April 2019, Session 4 on Sunday 14th April 2019, Session 5 on Saturday 20th April 2019, Session 6 on Sunday 21st April 2019, Session 7 on Saturday 27th April 2019, Session 8 on Sunday 28th April 2019,

Session 9 on Saturday 4th May 2019, Session 10 on Sunday 5th May 2019, Session 11 on Saturday 11th May 2019, and the final session Session 12 on Sunday 12th May 2019,

Then regular batches in many formats moving towards personalisation for each learner from July 2019.

One format can be instructor led session using PowerPoint slides and initial training provided by us.

Another could be remote training using Zoom or similar technologies. There are many possibilities depending upon the context of the School. We can facilitate the School so that they can start AI for class 8 students right when the new session begins in April 2019.

This is a tentative outline of the topics to be addressed in the 12 sessions of the program:

Session 1: Why the buzz about AI?

1.1: AI is all around us

1.2 :Amazon, Netflix, Siri and Alexa

1.3 : Future expectations from Artificial Intelligence

1.4: Difference between traditional Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Session 2: AI today

2.1: A short history of AI

2.2: The winter of AI

2.3: The renewed interest in AI

2.4: What can AI do today

Session 3: The Fundamentals: Computational Thinking

3.1: What is Computational Thinking

3.2 : Decomposition

3.3 : Pattern Recognition

3.4 : Algorithms and evaluation

Session 4: Mathematical Modelling

4.1: What is Mathematical Modelling?

4.2: The stages of Mathematical Modelling

4.3: Applications of Mathematical Modelling

4.4: From Mathematical Modelling to Machine Learning

Session 5: The Landscape of AI:

5.1: The Turing Machine

5.2: Rule Based Expert Systems

5.3: Swarm Intelligence

5.4: Narrow Intelligence and Artificial General Intelligence

Session 6: Other allied Technologies

6.1: Sensor Technologies

6.2: Internet of Things

6.3: Blockchain

6.4: Augmented and Virtual Reality

Session 7: Classifiers:

7.1: What are classifiers?

7.2: How do they work?

7.3: Spam filters

7.4: Identifying fake news

Session 8: Other tools

8.1:Predictor Systems

8.2:Speech Recognition

8.3:Image recognition

8.4:Chatbots

Session 9: Machine Learning :

9.1: What are learning algorithms?

9.2: Examples of Machine Learning Applications

9.3: Popular Machine Learning Algorithms

9.4: Limitations of Machine Learning

Session 10: Deep Learning:

10.1: About the human brain and the CNS

10.2: Artificial Neural Networks

10.3: Types of Artificial Neural Networks

10.4: Applications of Deep Learning

Session 11: AI and the future of work

11.1: AI and the future of work

11.1: Jobs displacement by AI

11.2: The Gig economy

11.3 : The idea of a Universal Basic Income

11.4: The future of the professions

Session 12: AI and human happiness

12.1: Social robots for children

12.2: Woebot: The CBT based psycho-therapist

12.3: AI for human happiness

12.4: AI and ethics

The entire program is designed, developed and delivered by Professor MM Pant ( mmpant.com and mmpant.net). Programs in AI for School children have been under consideration for about 2 years, shortly after Professor Klaus Schwab in January 2016 at the World Economic Forum drew attention to the arrival of the 4th Industrial Revolution led by Artificial Intelligence and allied Technologies, in a convergence of the Physical world, the Information world and the world of Biology.

We now have a whole suite of AI programs for School children in classes 8 to 12th, for teachers to become AI learning Facilitators as well as for parents to appreciate the future world of their children.

More information is available on other pages of this site. Try asking the bot or send me a Whatsapp message at +919810073724

Announcement:

#LLL06: Preparing for a 100 year life :

The Backdrop:
As part of our mission of lifelong learning, we are offering a number of weeklong, weekend and one day courses delivered through Whatsapp on mobile devices.
In May 2018 an unusual movie was released “102 not out”. It starred Amitabh Bachchan as a 102 year old father of a 75 year old son ( Rishi Kapoor) whom he planned to send to an old age home.
It is an amusing story about old age and some of its challenges.

Why this course :
The life-spans and life expectancy at birth have been continuously increasing over the last decades, creating new unforeseen and important changes in the social and economic fabric of society as well as personal challenges for those with the blessings of a ‘long life’.
But during the last 3 years, in the US there has been a slight drop in this trend. It can be dismissed as insignificant or interpreted to suggest that leading a long life is not enough. Humans want to lead a meaningful life as well.
Japan on the other hand has a large number of happy persons who have found their Ikigai and are living to be 100 and beyond ( many in Okinawa).
The psychologist Karl Jung was perhaps the first one to suggest that one cannot lead the second half of life on the principles applicable to its first half and lamented the lack of a ‘ School for the second half of life’.
This program attempts to fill that need in part, and shares the tasks that Jung recommended for the 2nd half of life.
The program is delivered through Whatsapp which can be accessed through a mobile phone, independent of location

The flow of the weekend program:

Day 1: Saturday:
Understanding the Ageing phenomenon
1.1@7am: Drivers of increasing longevity
1.2@10am: What Science says about ageing?
1.3@1pm: Lifestyle to promote healthy ageing
1.4@4pm: Positive Ageing
1.5@7pm: About death and dying

Day 2: Sunday :
Your action plan : making old age a blessing not a curse
2.1@7am: Becoming a lifelong learner gives you a longer life
2.2@10am: Finding meaning and purpose in your life ( your Ikigai)
2.3@1pm: The 7 tasks for the 2nd half of life ( Karl Jung)
2.4@4pm: Interviews with 100 year olds
2.5@7pm: Wrapping Up: Developing your Lifestyle plan

The exact titles of the posts and their sequence may be tweaked during the delivery of the course.

Methodology:
This is a course that can be pursued on any weekend ( Saturday and Sunday) that is convenient to the learner. Expression of interest can be made on any day, and all requests received upto a Friday till 12 noon, will be placed in a cohort that would begin on the next Saturday.
The course related posts will be made at 7am,10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm on both Saturday and Sunday.
The course posts are in English for now, but if there is sufficient demand, a Hindi or other regional language version would be feasible.
It is expected that participants are at least 18 years of age, but there is no upper age limit.

Registration:
To register for this course:
First pay the fee of Rs 500/- by PayTM to MM Pant ( mobile number : +919810073724).
Then send a Whatsapp message to MM Pant ( *919810073724) with the following information :
1: Your Name : First and Last
2: Mobile phone number linked to Whatsapp
3: Course Code and course name: The course code for this course is LLL06 and the course name is “ Preparing for a 100 year life”
4: PayTM transaction number/ screenshot
5: Your brief profile ( optional). There will be an opportunity to briefly introduce yourself within the group also.

For those who prefer to pay through bank transfer, the required information is :
LMP Education Trust
Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sector 31, Gurgoan
A/c 9812371643
IFSC- KKBK0004258
Type of account- Saving
——————————————-
To seek any clarification or for further information, please send a Whatsapp message to Prof. MM Pant at +919810073724.

AI empowered education is key to success in the 4th Industrial Age: 

In another 10 days, from March 4th to 8th, UNESCO will be holding Mobile Learning week, the next edition of its flagship ICT event at Paris. UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week 2019 (4-8 March) will focus on “Artificial Intelligence and sustainable development”. The themes of this series earlier were:

• 2018: Skills for a connected world
• 2017: Education in emergencies and crises
• 2016: Innovating for quality
• 2015: Leveraging Technology to empower women and girls
• 2014: Teachers
• 2013: Mobile Learning and EFA Goals
• 2011: December: Using mobile Technologies to transform educational process and outcomes

And from February 25th to 28th Barcelona will be having the MWC ( Mobile World Congress) where AI is one of the 6 themes. Another important theme at this event is Digital Trust. Both of these have huge implications for education. 

In his recent book, the 4th education revolution, Sir Anthony Seldon has said that “ Schools and Universities in the developed world are doing a good job overall at preparing students……..for the 20th Century”

It is clear that in an exponentially changing world which is at the beginning of the 3rd decade of the 21st Century, this is woefully out of date. 

“Education will be profoundly transformed by AI. Teaching tools, ways of learning, access to knowledge and teacher training will be revolutionised”: Audrey Azoulay, Director General UNESCO

While the UNESCO will also deliberate on the issues, these are important matters to be addressed : 

To look at the opportunities and threats linked to the use of AI in education. Key issues include:

• How to ensure inclusive and equitable use of AI in education?
• How to leverage AI to enhance education and learning?
• How to promote skills development for jobs and life in the AI era?
• How to safeguarding transparent and auditable use of education data?

The mobile revolution has convincingly demonstrated that this nation can use self and peer learning to adopt mobile and web technologies. Awareness, adoption and internalisation of AI should also be a people’s movement. Already there are a number of Smartphones which have AI chips in them, and in the foreseeable future we may expect AI empowered mobile phones to be ubiquitous. And with devices such as Raspberry Pi, Amazon Deeplens and Alexa, Intel’s Movidius Neural Compute stick  the use and applications of AI will become commonplace. 

There are more than 850 million mobile phone subscribers in India. According to a report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), mobile internet is largely used by youngsters. With an increase rate of over 10M users a month, there’s no doubt that mobile devices are the classrooms of tomorrow.

I would like to visualise the future  by drawing up the contours of an AI empowered educational ecosystem that can be put in place right now and a complete transformation to the new model could be done by the end of the year 2020. Of course continuous improvement would then follow.

A complete mobile based teaching-learning model:

• A motivated passionate inspiring teacher
• Mobiles in the hands of all ( new meaning of EFA)
• Mobile Internet access
• e-mail for course content  delivery
• WhatsApp for instant feedback
• Twitter as a back channel 

All administrative tasks would move over to AI solutions provided by the companies that provide Ed-Tech services. Admissions, fee management, attendance ( through face recognition) safety ( with IoT and AI), time-tabling and scheduling of activities… etc. 

Record keeping of credentials would move on to a Blockchain system, 

But the real transformation would be in enabling the teachers to manifold improve upon the efficiency and effectiveness of the teaching learning process. 

The holy grail of education is a model of group instruction  that is as effective as a 1-on-1 education, articulated by Benjamin Bloom in 1984 as the 2 sigma problem. 

Sir Anthony Seldon in his book suggests how teaching will be transformed by AI over the coming decades:

1: Preparation of material will be done by ‘Curation specialists . . whose job it is to work with AI machines to author and identify the most appropriate material for particular student profiles.’ p.189

2: Organisation of the learning space: ‘Separate classrooms will disappear in time and replaced by pods and wide open, flexible spaces which can be configured for individual and flexible collective learning. Sensors will monitor individual students, measuring their physiological and psychological state, picking up on changes faster and more accurately than any teacher could.’ p.191

3: Presentation of material to optimise learning/deeper understanding: ‘The flexibility of visual representation with AI allows material to be presented to students which renders much teacher exposition redundant.’ p.192

4: Setting assignments and assessing/self-assessing progress: ‘Advances in real-time assessment enabled by AI will virtually eliminate this waiting period [the time lag between students being assessed and them receiving feedback on their performance} and ensure feedback comes when most useful for learning.’ pp.194-5.

5: Preparation for terminal examinations and writing summative reports: ‘All this will be swept away by AI. . . . In its place will be attention to continuous data reporting, and real time feedback that will help students discover how to learn autonomously and how to address any deficiencies on their own.’ p.196

Some of the recent AI powered tools that can help manage the diversity in a class are: speech to text can be used to create the text script of every lecture taken by a teacher with perhaps enough text analysis to aid comprehension, permitting learners to spend the class time trying to comprehend the lecture rather than making notes. 

Automatic real time machine translation can help all those learners who are challenged by the language of instruction in the class, and this AI enabled tool can be a great equaliser. 

AI will change however the job of the teacher forever. By supporting teaching in all their five traditional tasks, AI will usher in the biggest change the profession has ever seen.’ p.206. Interestingly Seldon recognises that remote teaching is a distinct possibility: ‘Imminent advances in virtual technologies will mean too that teachers no longer have to be physically present to offer their services.’ p.206

While not using education as a context, a recent 2019 book by Richard Baldwin with the title “ The Globotics Upheaval: Globalization, Robotics and the future of work” draws attention to this possibility of Remote Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Disruptively transforming the ……

The US President’s executive order on AI: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-maintaining-american-leadership-artificial-intelligence/

issued on February 11th 2019, at section 1(c) states :

1(c)  The United States must train current and future generations of American workers with the skills to develop and apply AI technologies to prepare them for today’s economy and jobs of the future.

This has been in response to China’s aggressive push to lead in the AI space by 2030, for which in addition to R&D, patents and implementation, China has brought AI education into Schools as well. 

While planning to flourish and prosper in the 4th Industrial Age, it is important to keep the following aspects of the transition: 

1: From scarcity and stability of information/knowledge to an overwhelming abundance in quantity and an exponential growth rate

2: From using technology for scaling to using technology for personalisation with space shift, device shift and time shift

3: From grading to a Bell curve to guidance for continuous improvement and achieving mastery learning 

4: From age and stage specific learning to lifelong learning, with AI enabled recommendations for what is worth learning at any point in life

5: A complete transformation of the educator profession. They will ‘educate’ humans and ‘train’ software. 

6: AI awareness should be a citizen movement much like mobile usage was earlier. 

7: While at School, there is a six month program “ Learning to Learn AI” for students at classes 11 and 12. This is available from July 2019 for both boys and girls. It comprises 24 modules, each of which can be transacted over a week using Whatsapp on mobiles. 

8: Schools, communities and families can set up “ AI experience centres” with infrastructure and resources for hands on learning. Popular devices such as Raspberry Pi, Amazon Deeplens and Intel’s Movidius Neural compute  stick …..

9: The pedagogy of learning AI at School builds upon the work of Sugata Mitra observing the self-learning abilities of children when provided opportunities for exploration now called “SOLE” for Self-Organised Learning Environment. 

10: This mission of bringing AI to Schools is driven by a community of committed School teachers seeded at NCR-Delhi but expanding to a Pan India Forum. The teacher model is inspired by an idea proposed by Sir John Daniel almost 2 decades back. We are doing short intensive face to face sessions followed by online support for continuous development. 

Teaching Artificial Intelligence at School: The why and how? 

The discourse on AI and allied technologies has moved away from whether it is friend or foe to vying for a leadership position. 

Vladimir Putin on September 1st 2017, in an open lesson of 45 minutes spoke to an audience exceeding a million children, and told them that “the future belongs to artificial intelligence,” and whoever masters it first will rule the world.

While there is competition between nations on the number of patents they have in the field, and the number of AI professionals they have, China has made a strategic move of a massive teaching of AI to its School students. 

Canada has also created an AI curriculum for its School students delivered online. The US also has a program aimed at School children and Finland has created an AI awareness program open to anyone anywhere. 

Sir John Ziman began the Preface of his well known book “ Principles of the Theory of Solids” (1964 edition),with the following opening lines:

“ The frontiers of knowledge ( to coin a phrase) are always on the move. Today’s discovery will tomorrow be part of the mental furniture of every research worker. By the end of next week it will be in every course of graduate lectures . Within a month there will be a clamour to have it in the undergraduate curriculum. Next year, I do believe, it will seem so commonplace that it may be assumed to be known to every schoolboy.”

Those words are squarely applicable today to the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,and it is now reasonably clear that our school children must be acquainted with the key concepts and aware of  the latest tools in the field of AI. 

The mobile revolution has convincingly demonstrated that this nation can use self and peer learning to adopt mobile and web technologies. Awareness, adoption and internalisation of AI should also be a people’s movement. Already there are a number of Smartphones which have AI chips in them, and in the foreseeable future we may expect AI empowered mobile phones to be ubiquitous. And with devices such as Amazon Deeplens and Alexa, the use and applications of AI will become commonplace. 

We, a group of School teachers teaching Physics, Mathematics and Computing in association with some University academics and industry practitioners have created a complete ecosystem for a massive AI awareness that could with the support of informed parents, passionate teachers and motivated learners prepare our young to play an important role in the 4th Industrial Age driven by Artificial Intelligence and allied technologies of AR, VR, Blockchain, IoT, 3D printing…….

We have developed a 6 month program that is designed for all students of Class 11 and 12 to start exploring the field of  AI.

In keeping with the spirit of the 4th Industrial Age, it is delivered on mobile Smartphones, encouraging self-directed learning spirit of a lifelong learner, consensual learning, non-linear learning and badges for credentialing. 

The program is named : “Learning to Learn AI/ML”. 

The purpose of this program is twofold: one to introduce the young to the emerging field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and the other to guide them to become more aware self-learners who can continue to learn more about the field. The teaching-learning model is a combination of Flipped Learning and heutagogy with the goal of ‘playful exploration’ of the field. 

Please watch this video on YouTube on the same topic : https://youtu.be/55BTXGpR4Bs

We have developed a list of 24 topics, structured as 6 groups/clusters) with 4 topics each; and one week devoted to each topic. 

The first cohort is planned to run from July 2019 to December 2019. After that a new cohort will be created on the first Monday of every month. 

This is an intensive academic program that a student covers in 24 weeks and is meant for high ability and highly motivated learners. Not meant for the faint hearted struggling with the regular mandated course load. 

Teaching coding ( in Python) is not included here as there is already a course dedicated to this in the curriculum. 

Cluster 1: Foundations: 

Module 1.1: Why Learn AI ?

Module 1.2: Smart Learning 

Module 1.3: Computational Thinking 

Module 1.4: AI and the future of work in the Gig economy 

Cluster 2:  The Landscape of AI 

Module 2.1: The Turing test: Meaning of narrow AI and AGI 

Module 2.2: Swarm Intelligence 

Module 2.3: Rule based expert systems 

Module 2.4: Other emerging technologies: 3D Printing, Sensor Technologies, IoT, Blockchains, AR/VR 

Cluster 3: Mathematics for AI/ML: 

Module 3.1: Mathematical Modelling 

Module 3.2: Linear Algebra 

Module 3.3: Calculus for Machine Learning 

Module 3.4: Bayesian Machine Learning 

Cluster 4: Machine Learning Basics: 

Module 4.1: Learning algorithms 

Module 4.2: Decision Tree Learning 

Module 4.3: Classification 

 Module 4.4: Regression 

Cluster 5: Deep Learning: 

Module 5.1: Neural Networks

Module 5.2: Basics of Neuroscience 

Module 5.3: Artificial Neural Networks 

Module 5.4: A survey of current applications of Deep Learning and future trends 

Cluster 6: AI applications: 

Module 6.1: Image and  Object recognition and manipulation 

Module 6.2: Speech generation and recognition : chatbots 

Module 6.3: Recommendation Engines  and Predictive Models : fake news 

Module 6.4: AI and ethics 

AI will be an integral part of our children’s future. The term AI may sound scary, with its possibilities of massive job losses and due to association with killer robots in science fiction. Another misconception is that AI is too complex for schoolchildren. But for digital natives born in the 21st Century it may not be so. 

There are several benefits of teaching AI to school children. It fosters computational Thinking as a Complex Problem Solving skill, promotes data proficiency and incites and instigates questions about our humanity. 

About a hundred years ago, while creating the BHU, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya expressed his views on technical education in the following words: “Even if we begin to-morrow the Technical Education of all the youth of twelve years of age who have received sound elementary education, it will take seven years before these young men can commence the practical business of life, and then they will form but an insignificant minority in an uneducated mass. It will take fifteen years before those children who have not yet begun to receive an elementary education shall have passed from the age of 7 to 21 and represent a completely trained generation; and even then they will find less than half of their comrades educated.”

I am sure he would be delighted to see today’s School Children learning about Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, 3D printing, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Deep Learning, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

It is sometimes said that the best time to learn AI was 5 years ago. The second best time is now. So let’s not wait further; let’s get started.