Dinner Table talks with Prof. MM Pant:
Learning through conversations at the dinner table is not often acknowledged as learning, except perhaps for the English tradition of attending 12 dinners before being called to the Bar.
In the present age of information explosion and the imperative of lifelong learning, leveraging conversations over dinner as a learning opportunity is a good idea. This concept of dinner table talks is an example of such a learning experience, delivered as an a-synchronous session with WhatsApp. In the post-Covid era, a dinner table talk can be held in a dispersed mode with participants literally from anywhere on the globe.
A set of 20 topics have been identified that will be covered every month, over 4 weeks, 5 days a week from Monday to Friday.
The consolidated list :
1 : What is worth learning?
2: Becoming better at becoming better
3 : Leading a long fulfilling life
4 : Flourishing and thriving in the 4th Industrial Age
5: The coming Quantum Revolution
6: Why learn Physics?
7: Why learn Chemistry?
8: Why learn Biology?
9: Why learn Mathematics?
10: Why learn Computers?
11: Why learn Literature ?
12: Why learn History ?
13: Why learn Economics?
14: Why learn Psychology?
15: Why learn Philosophy?
16: Anticipating the future
17: Complexity and Emergence
18: An information-centric view of the Universe
19: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
20: Why become a Solopreneur ?
These topics as well as the content within a topic will continuously evolve in light of newer developments.
The duration of each of these WhatsApp chat sessions is about an hour, structured as segments that can be perused in about 10 minutes each. Each segment will have content in the form of text, images, short audio/video clips. They may sometimes have links to content that may take longer to peruse. Ordinarily the sessions will begin at about 8pm. A notification to that effect will be sent to the group at about 10 minutes to 8pm.
There is no fee for joining these sessions and all these sessions are completely free for all learners. One can choose to join a specific topic of one’s choice or register for the entire set.
Every summer millions of students moving from class 10 to class 11 make choices for the subjects that they will be studying for the next 2 years. The NEP 2020 encourages the learners to not restrict themselves to traditional courses and combinations, but explore choices based on their interests. But who informs the prospective learner about what are the features and attributes of different subjects, that make it worthwhile to learn them. I have identified 10 topics that may be labelled “ Y learn X ?”. These are listed at numbers 6 to 15. While they may be immediately of greatest use to children at class 10, it will help others as well including parents and senior students planning their higher education.
For further information, please send a WhatsApp message to Prof MM Pant at +919810073724