Inspirational AI@class8:

Posted on March 28, 2019 by mmpant

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

About mmpant

Prof. M.M.Pant has a Ph.D in Computational Physics, along with a Professional Law Degree, and has been a practitioner in the fields of Law, IT enabled education and IT implementation. Drawing upon his experience in world class international institutions and having taught in various modes of Face-to-Face, Distance Learning and Technology Enhanced Training, Prof. Pant is now exploring the nature of institutions which will be successors to the IITs, which represented the 1960s, IIMs, which represented the 1970 and Open Universities which were the rage of 1980s & 90s. He believes that the convergence between various media and technologies would fundamentally alter the way learning would be created, packaged, and delivered to learners. His current activities are all directed toward actual implementation of these new age educational initiatives that transform education in the post Internet post WTO era.. Prof. Pant, has been a Former Pro-Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and has been on the faculty of IIT – Kanpur (the premier Engineering institution in India), MLNR Engineering College and Faculty & Visiting Professor - University of Western Ontario-Canada. He has been visiting scientist to research centers in Italy, England, Germany & Sweden and has delivered international lectures with about 80 papers published. During his association of almost 15 years with the IGNOU, Prof. Pant has served as the Director Computing and has been the Member of All Bodies (i.e. School boards, Academic council, Planning board, Finance committee and the Board of management). With his interest in Law, backed with practice of Law in a High Court, and his basic training in Science and IT, Prof. Pant has been particularly interested in the Cyber Law, Patent & trade mark issues, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues etc. and has been involved with many activities, conferences on “Law & IT” Prof. Pant is presently; • Advisor to Media Lab Asia - Chairman of working group on ICT for Education, chairman of PRSG handling projects on ICT for education. • Lead Consultant for an ADB funded project for ICT in Basic Education in Uzbekistan • Member of the drafting Group for India’s National Policy on ICT in education • Chairman of the group creating books for class 11 and 12 students on ‘Computers and Communication Technology’ appointed by the NCERT • Preparing a ‘Theme Paper” for the NCTE in the area of ICT and Teacher Training • Advisor and mentor to several leading Indian and Multi-national Companies in the area of education. Prof. Pant has in the recent past been ; • Member – Board of Management – I I T, Delhi for 6 years (two consecutive terms) • One-man committee to create the Project Report & Legislation for Delhi IT-enabled Open University • Advisor to the Delhi Government on Asian Network of Major Cities Project (ANMC-21) distance learning project in association with Tokyo Metropolitan Government. • Chairman Board of Studies, All India Management Association With his mission to create and implement new business opportunities in the area of e-learning & learning facilitation, Prof. Pant has promoted Planet EDU Pvt. Ltd., as its Founder & Chairman, along with a team of highly experienced and skilled professionals from Education & Training, Operations, IT and Finance.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply