That I may serve~

Being a faculty in a university for me rhymes with the single concept of Service.

Service:

And, in service I uphold the service to students, university and to the community:

To students: As a faculty member, one embraces the choice to serve the students through inclusive, interested, and engaged pedagogy and involved mentoring. A faculty member is in a unique position to directly influence the future of our world and I uphold the service of allowing, encouraging, and helping growth of students as being the fundamental duty of any faculty member. 

To University: The university environment provides fertile ground for advancement of society and as a faculty member the service definitely includes service to university and its smooth functioning. As I have learnt with my interactions with Graduate Student Assembly at Virginia Tech, luncheons with Board of Visitors and interaction with Dean of Graduate School Dr. DePauw, the university officials and their motivation are quintessential for the university to thrive and create a learning environment. A faculty is obliged to serve the institution that serves, allows, and mentors the faculty itself.

To Community: Community through its million direct and indirect means affects and causes the university environment to exist and thrive. Service to presently existing community is as much as a faculty duty as is preparing the future community. Through her outreach efforts, her modeling of ideals that she upholds and respecting that she also represents the university, the faculty member is responsible for contributing to the society, from which the future springs,  and in where the present resides.

The three virtues that I would strive for as a faculty member wannabe are:

Advancement: 

When I ascribe the duty and expectations on (me as) a faculty member to help prepare a sustainable tomorrow, as she serves the present, I fully comprehend the need of the faculty member to be at the leading edge of the latest developments in her field of expertise and interest. And, with this comes the responsibility of staying abreast and aware of latest research, advancement, tools, technologies, and ideas that can help her serve the students, university, and the community better. 

To me faculty member is a lot more than a long standing product and part of a legacy rich institution. She is in charge of being aware of the change, embracing and finding opportunities in change, instead of choosing the state of denial.

Inclusion:

To me a faculty member epitomizes the term 'global citizen' and is a person who embraces, values, and respects diversity in all its forms. In doing so she actively models inclusive practices.  In an increasingly globalized economy and with increasing hopes of a truly globalized world, inclusion is an ideal worth striving for. 

Dissemination:

A chief difference between an expert, scientist and a faculty member, in my mind, is that latter has strong intentions to disseminate knowledge and understanding. Outreach efforts, engaged pedagogy and mentoring are few very powerful tools through which a faculty member reaches out and participates in dissemination. Being a faculty member to me implies embracing that all sciences and human understanding is our collective property and whenever appropriate, it is faculty duty to disseminate the information and understanding. 

I believe that our society always has had the potential to live outside the very confined walls of awareness and understanding, best described by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in following lines:

"Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward ... into ever-widening thought and action" 

As a faculty member wannabe, I want to participate in building a world that the Rabindranath Tagore's lines above describe.
When I recognize a potential for good, I want to allow the potential bloom. And, this does include guiding it and nurturing it. And, when I see a change that is either inevitable or has potential for good of planet, I will allow the change to be, nurture it and help it be aware of its own value and potential.

The Power of Teaching~

Reflecting back on the entire semester of GEDI and PFP classes at VT, I sense that my intention and attitude towards teaching have elevated from the desire to help others (students) find beauty in engineering in a way that I have found, to something even higher. And, that something higher is ineffable enough for me not find a noun suitable for it. I can try adding adjectives to what teaching means to me right now: a purpose for my awareness in this lifetime, something more akin to worship and the journey to higher self.

In My Past-Life

(Pre GEDI and PFP life): I have been a self-studying self-built person for most of my life. Most teachers in my undergraduate education to me were like the priest in a temple/church/mosque/anything-else to whom I pay respect and pretend to listen. My real spiritual development happened outside the holy-moly walls of the pious shrine/building. 

That is how most classes were for me- I attended them (mostly).  I tried not to sleep. I pretended to listen when awake. I tried not to read something else. (Facebook etc were not the thing yet.) I freaking tried all of that above. My real learning happened when I pored into books in my hostel room, in library, in the park, in our athletics stadium.

And, that is exactly the reason why for a long time I have held teaching as a pious profession. My belief has over time reinforced itself with the plethora of note-reading, no-eye-contact-please teachers that I have had. The more my teachers  performed  sadly in their theatrics and interest in teaching, the more convinced I became. 

The reason for this reverse reinforcement was this: It appalled me that the beauty I find in subjects is something that most of my class will probably never experience, because most of them need teachers to show them the beauty. 

So, I would take time and teach my classmates. And, the fire (and the zeal) built on itself.

This Life:

Now I am almost towards the end of this wonderful GEDI and PFP experience. My intention for teaching has risen over the desire to share the beauty as I perceive it to instead waking the genius in my students (and not transferring to them my genius image of the subject.)

I am thrilled. I am inspired. The power of teacher is not only in showing students what the subject is and how freaking exciting and beautiful it can be, but also in awakening the genius in our students. It is in helping them be more self-aware. To help them come vis-a-vis to their self-potential and self-inspirations.

Teachers are powerful. They have this magic wand that they can use to make the future stronger. They instill seeds in their students. (Seeds of what, everyone in the class chooses.) They sit in positions where they can make great service to society as they try to live with high ideals (/model them.) Think Henry L.I.V. Derozio.

Teach, Prey, Love:

In most Indian systems of philosophy the teacher (Guru) is often referred to as a blessing or someone above God. In fact there is a beautiful couplet translated as:

"Guru and God both are here, to whom should I first bow
All glory be unto the guru, path to God who did bestow"

Oh my gawdliness! I can not wait to get the chance for waving my wand in a formal setting! 

Contemplative Practices Part 3 (Engineering and Science Higher Ed)

Last weekend, we had a wonderful conference at Virginia Tech, 'Contemplative Practices for a Technological Society'. Here is summary of my notes that pertain to including contemplative practices in higher ed (engineering and science only) from that conference:

(Note: I am in process of writing down all my notes from this conference in a separate blog and will share it here in this post, in this space, as soon as it is ready. This conference was indeed an overload of wisdom, precious tools and experiences!  Bliss!)

In Engineering Curricula:

1. Dr. David Levy, Univ. of Washington, of  "You're distracted! This professor can help" fame was one of the invited speakers and panelist for this conference. He is incorporating mindfulness in his students by helping them be more aware of their behaviour and efficiency as they multi-task through a course that he offers.

( Fellow GEDIs, remember the test that Dr. SF made us do in our GEDI class on multi-tasking? 'write series of unusual numbers {subtract 7 from 100 and so on...} and answer questions based on what she was reading at the same time?)

Well, when Dr. Levy realized the subtlety of multi-tasking and task-switching, he plunged into researching ways to increase productivity and wellness as we continue to switch tasks rapidly. He found his answer in using techniques like meditation, being mindful, having more self-awareness. 

He shared his story that when he left his thinking-intensive job and came over to academia, he realized that he was not really thinking deeply, (the way he did in his previous job.) Thereupon, started his journey onto finding task-switching as a challenge and mindfulness as a tool. 

He designed and conducted a study (snapshot on left) that showed subjects were more efficient/productive, less stressed, happier at doing a secretary-sort of high-stress work, which was designed to demand intense task-switching, when they were trained in mindfulness.

Here was a scientific proof for what many people already preached and practiced  Dr. Levy then went ahead and devised a course for helping students become more mindful of their activities. (More about this course, and its story here. It is definitely worth reading + I am ensuring that I do not reiterate what has already been written there, despite being talked about at the coference.) They observed that when people are mindful, they are less likely to be distracted by interrupting emails, focus longer, are happier with their work, and more productive.

2. Dr. Roop Mahajan, Virginia Tech, held out a visionary challenge to engineering education

system. He emphasized on the role that contemplative practices play talked about completely transforming engineering education by offering degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mindfulness, or XYZ engineering and Mindfulness. He took the example of Mechanical Engineering and laid out a curricula for Mechanical Engineering that was actually in compliance with ABET and was flexible to accomodate each student's interest. Wooh! Imagine Department of Civil Engineering and Mindfulness!

He emphasized how companies too realize that there productivity depends a lot on how focussed and well their employees are. He justified that such an engineering degree would be a cutting edge sword for any university that takes the lead and starts offering them.

The discussion then went onto stress that Univs offer experience that MOOCs dont. And, it is high time that mindfulness is added that experience!! 

3. Diann Brei, Design Science, Univ of Michigan: Dr. Diann started with admission that she wears too many hats and believes that she does not practice mindfulness. However, she is convinced that Tree of Contemplative Practices and practice it.
mindfulness is important and has the potential to be very useful for her students, and so she does introduce her students to contemplative practices and infact, one of the assignments they have is to pick one activity from the tree and practice it.

As Program Chair of Design Science centre at University of Michigan, she ensures that mindfulness is practiced in there. 

One extremely striking practice that she talked about and is proud of is bringing in liberal arts and science together. She talked about how every science/engr. based research group under the wing of Design Science has at least one 'arts' graduate student. This has to her experience blown off the perceived limits of creativity and has enriched the experience of everyone in Design Science!

This is all for now! In Part 2, I will share my notes of contemplative practices in higher ed that are not limited to science and engineering!

Namaste!

Wish we had a shout-out forum~

Twitter style or FB style for our PFP class!

Here is a conference/workshop thingy that I found and I want to share with our awesome PFP and GEDI classmates! (Following our energy-filled discussion in last PFP class.)
This workshop also introduces the full-of-mind techniques into and for higher-ed and other professions.

http://www.cpe.vt.edu/cpts/schedule.html

Disclaimer: This is not a blog entry. It is just me shouting-out from my isolated (and connected) satellite tower. The view from here is beautiful btw! (Wherefrom is it not?)

Emphasis, Directive, Apathy, and Hope

In our last class, we travelled over to three utterly different and beautiful countries: El Salvador, Ecuador, and China.

What a beautiful trip it was!

El Salvador has a remarkable UN
Development Index  record for South America

What strikes me most is how the government emphasizes so well on primary education in El Salvador! Wow! Hopefully soon they will have their citizens well-equipped to accept and find information and knowledge. Government ensures that students are well cared for at least until the 'highschool' equivalent exam.

 The Biodiverse Ecuador!

I continued with amazement how Ecuador's government is so eager for stepping up to provide world-class vocational and college education. Their emphasis on training teachers and researchers from abroad, providing free college education based on merit- blew my mind away!!

The key phrase that is on my mind for these two beautiful nations are: Emphasis on Education on Primary and College/Vocational Level. They are doing their best in providing the facilities for their citizens to make use of opportunities and even create new opportunities.

 And, then we travelled off to China. China the majestic with a long standing history! Image of an extremely competitive and fiercely directed education system came on my mind as our colleague (Juan Ma) described the education system in China.
The state decides when students sleep, the states decides how many students go into engineering and how many into other streams. The key phrase for me was: State Directed Education.

and the Formidable economic giant of China!

The state perhaps takes on a very active and important role in imparting higher education! I am amazed at how involved the state is! With such a huge country, I can only try to imagine what humongous infrastructure they must have built to make such state directed education a reality! Woah! Woah!

 Golden Temple, India: A much complicated system

Today, hopefully, Sabithulla and I, (me/myself/mine??) will take the class for a tour to India and our educational system.
What scares me most is talking about what I have experienced, through me, my friends, people whose stories I have heard, read, and google! Apathy! Goverment apathy when it comes to emphasizing adequately on universal education. Apathy when it comes to directing education and enforcing standards. Apathy when it comes to the future of our youth!

Yet, on paper we are an amazing educational system! We have a vast net of very accessible universities, and free universal education for kids. I do not have answers to questions I ask myself about our education system. It is extremely daunting for me to face the class today as I present our highly divided (economically, regionally, socially) education system.



Yet, within this painful disparity, I have often found hope! Like islands in vast lost ocean ride! Like oasis in desert- a mirage come real- in form of students from extremely poor background (poverty beyond what words can do justice to) in one of our internationally esteemed technical colleges, with merit-cum-means scholarships.
Hope in form, of those multiple holes-in-the-walls that are busy allowing children to educate themselves. And, stories these students tell when they have done beyond everyone's (anyone's) wildest dreams:

Hope, the sweetest of all~

Dancing Science and My Experiment with it ~

Ever since the 'communicating science' class in PFP course, I have been trying really hard to write blogs for communicating the science we do in our lab at VT.

I found some super-creative, engaging, and insightful instances of science well communicated:

Computational approaches in high-throughput proteomics data analysis

My Experiment with Dancing:

Here is my attempt to explain the major stuff we do in our lab group: 

Whenever we do any of these things- drink, eat, sleep + everything else that we do in between drinking, eating, and sleeping,  we affect ourselves and our planet. 

In our lab, we try to measure the effects of our actions on our environment. We hope that we will be able to catch a potentially detrimental action much before the damage is irreparable.

Years ago, a man-made chemical called CFC was promoted as the coolest invention ever. It actually was used in refrigerators to help keep them cool. We were very excited for using and exploiting its benefits!

In fact, we were so excited that we forgot to breathe, step back, and enquire if this new chemical CFC is damaging our environment. 

Eventually, we did realize that we were fast losing a protective layer in our atmosphere. This protective layer (also known as ozone layer) is the layer that blocks sun's harmful rays and saves higher life forms from damage. We did find out that CFC, our awesome man-made chemical was responsible for depletion of this beautifully protecting and natural layer in our atmosphere.

Sadly, it is almost too late for us to repair the ozone layer within our life-time. 

So, we in Pruden lab at Virginia Tech, very carefully monitor man-made chemicals that include anti-biotics, and their effect on environment. We hope we will not make an avoidable CFC-type mistake again.

Mine, Your and Other English-es

I was browsing through the multi-lingual world of internet, looking for the 'correct way' of pronouncing some English language words. What 'I' (believe that I) found is the following:

Basically, there are two ways of pronouncing most English words 'correctly'. One is the way some Britons do, and other is the way some United States of America-ns do. 

Now, I would happily give leeway and polite authority to Britons, as they sort of taught the language to the 'commonwealth' and can be attributed as being the leading cause for the wide-spread use of English language today. 

Dear USA-ans - (Is it fair that there is no unique, easy to say- way of referring to citizens of USA? Even Venezuelans are Americans in a way- their continent is also America, albeit a bit 'South') - so, USA-ans lead us in all ways in our universe. And, they definitely do so, when it comes to the 'correct' way of pronouncing English words. 

In an alternate reality:

On this truly democratic (and truly biased alternate) earth:

Being more than one-third of human population, Chinese and Indian pronunciation are the two widely accepted as standard pronunciations of English language.

(I wish to clarify that this is merely a hypothetical drama/imagination to highlight the absurdity of trying to correct individual accents, instead of recognizing the amazingly diverse heritage that we are creating/have created!)

The Tower of Babel

"The conventional wisdom of the Tower of Babel story is that the collapse was a misfortune... the weight of many languages that precipitated the tower's failed architecture. That one monolithic language would have expedited the building and heaven would have been reached. Whose heaven, she wonders? And what kind? Perhaps the achievement of Paradise was premature, a little hasty if no one could take the time to understand other languages... Complicated, demanding, yes, but a view of heaven as life; not heaven as post-life."

- Toni Morrison's Nobel Lecture 

Whose heaven, she wonders?

Wow! 

We do need to take time to understand each others' perspectives. As scientists we need to understand public opinons and make our science more accessible to them! Or, as this study on public understanding of our nanotechnology revolution laments- the gap, between scientific community and public that uses this science, will keep on growing.

Our Tower of Babel:

Our civilization is undergoing technological revolutions. One of the very well studied revolution - the industrial revolution gave us, among many other things- lots of wicked problems. Our solutions of today become problems for tomorrow. 

Given this grim situation, public reaction and (mis-)understanding of science have served as both a huge impetus and rate limiting step in advancement of science. In most of the cases we can trace back the poor communication on behalf of scientists and very effective communication on behalf of pseudo-scientists as the cause behind public misunderstanding of science. (More on scientific blogging here.)

Few examples where lack of effective communication between scientists and public are leading to undesirable consequences: 

a) Genetically Modified (GM) Foods- There are few incidences of GM foods that are indeed harmful for health and or environment. And, these few lone incidences have led to such a huge scare for GM foods that even the GM foods that are healthy and economically + ecologically feasible and could have done wonders for humanity were removed from market. Some countries went as far as to even ban any kind of GM foods and seeds. 

b) Anti-biotic Resistance (ABR):  Here, science has failed to create enough scare. Create scare!? Wow! That is quite an evil intention! But we do need it! Given the rate at which we continue using antibiotic laden soaps, cleaners, creams, some of which might very well be cancer-causing, is alarming! We need people to stop using Triclosan laden soaps etc. We need to stop overusing antibiotics! 

c) Stem Cell Research: Millions of lives can still be saved and many more can be made better if we encourage stem cell research. As scientists we have failed to convey how stem cell research can actually be not anti-life. 

Our current challenge is to communicate scientific advancements with everyone effectively and avoid the failure of our civilization's attempts in making tower of babel for reaching heaven.
This should start from our schools. We should learn to be better teachers. Here is a wonderful example:

Personal Challenge:

Learning from the resources for our PFP class (thanks!) I am inspired to take up this personal challenge-
I will blog about research in our lab in as simple and creative way as possible and request my colleagues, (who are expert in our field)  to read it and rate it on scientific accuracy. Now here is the tricky part- I will meanwhile encourage my colleagues and friends from other fields (including my colleagues in the PFP and GEDI classes) to read it too and rate it on how interesting it was and how much they believe that they understood.
It is an exercise that might just 'change my life' as Dr. G put it in our GEDI guest lecture class. Wait for it, dear readers, my second blog on my research is coming!

Bringing Trust in Classrooms

On Freedom and discipline:

Wow! It is student vs. teachers now! State legislatures want to protect student's ideologies. Teachers may want to question it.

But, is the teacher still a 'teach'er if she is not adding to  students' perspective or intellect or is not encouraging an environment conducive to arguments and contests on different theories?!
(I think that such a teacher is reduced to a speaker, who just speaks without contributing.)

The choice of adopting an ideology is the individual's right, but it is teacher's duty to help contesting different ideologies. Informed decisions, anyone?

Then there is 'pettifogging' over what constitutes as appropriate teaching and topics for a class. This debate automatically calms down, in my head, when the teacher decides that the sole purpose of her teaching is to have efficiently taught her subject of expertise to her students. This sole purpose of efficient teaching is bound to take up so many resources that the teacher will hardly have any resources left for conducting irrelevant discussions in the class.

The risk that the teacher might misuse her position in the class, for example we have the teacher in Brevard Community College, who imposed her political inclination on her students, automatically vanishes as every working moment for the teacher is spent in helping her students do their best in the class!

Drawing the Lines:

Ideally (in my head) the teacher would facilitate both the learning and un-learning of every one in the classroom. Learning and un-learning require challenging our current understanding. Of course, there is no growth without change in dimensions and morphology of our perspectives.

It would be ideal to have a middle ground where the teacher is not 'indoctrinating' because everyone in the class room has a mind- open to challenge, bare for discussion, and ready to be hurt - in the process of learning. And, this includes the teacher's mind.
This way the teacher will not be guilty of imposing her philosophy (because she also contested her own ideology) and at the same time would have challenged the students to step outside their boxes and appreciate diversity

Hand in hand- Trust, openness, and enquiry: 

A wonderful blog discussing the merits of educating students abroad 'Becoming a Student in your own Classroom'  gave me my new fav catchline- "become a student in your own classroom".

Learning, that brings along with it changes in perspective, knowledge, and /or belief system, is a very sensitive process. It is remarkably inconvenient and is seldom painless. As such for a successful teacher-student relationship, there must be trust that encourages everyone in the classroom to be open to being hurt in the process of learning and un-learning.

(Here is an example of experiences that can lead to dramatic breaking down of such trust.)

Ideally, teacher would trust herself and her intentions enough to welcome criticism and encourage students to question everything. Students would return the trust by being open to critiquing whatever they have already learnt and welcoming new learnings.

Young student learning to write 

Effective learning will not be possible without both students and teachers understanding their freedom to participate in discussions in an academic setting and be heard.  So, although debatable (+ I hope we will discuss this in PFP class today), it will be helpful to assure teachers that they can express their personal opinions and thereafter initiate meaningful discussions.
From Statement on Graduate Students handout- 'Moreover, because of their advanced education, graduate students should be encouraged by their professors to exercise their freedom of “discussion, inquiry, and expression.'

Shouldn't this be true, for everyone, in any classroom?

Teacher, are you ready?

"When the student is ready the teacher appears." 

And, so goes an Indian saying.  Or did we get it all wrong?

In this paradigm the absence of a formal educator is not an acceptable excuse. When one is ready to learn, learning is found, and the teacher appears. The onus is on students, and the role of teacher is clearly undefined.

( In a teacher-deprived society I admit it helped me navigate through education system of our rural pocket in India. )

But, now the tables have turned! I am trying to fit into the shoes of a teacher. And, man! It IS a difficult pair of heels to wear! There are so many inconvenient questions to ask- Will I be able to become a good teacher? Would it be the glassy stare or the precious awe that I will see on faces of my students?

Worse still, what if I continue lying to myself and believing that I am a good teacher as I turn blind to the glassy stares?

Eventually students will lose their innate desire to be 'ready' to learn because there are no 'teachers'.

Once upon a time ...

Remember the tale of those legendary people (-whose stuff is made of legends- and) who got their first email address when they reached a university. I am one of them.

I am taking the risk/liberty/whatever - of giving out this tmi on our blog to make a point. And, that point is this- for a very long time I stuck in my comfort zone, still aiming to 'teach' as I refused to acknowledge that the lives of my future-students is tremendously different from the life that I had. Inertia is so convenient (and this is the point) and I am guilty of it.

Now, this GEDI and PFP change is forcing me to shake-off all the notions I have held golden about education system.


Here is an existential crisis-  For am I still a 'teacher' when my students are not learning anything from me? The very identity of a teacher is a function of effective transfer of skills to the students. So when my students fail to learn, it is me who fails to teach. And, I am reduced to a 'zombie' lecturer- who speaks when no one is listening! Wow! Teaching is difficult!

All my hopes for my bewildered self stem from what Dr. Gardner Campbell said in our GEDI class-
" When you are confused, you learn. "

I am confused and it is time when the teacher-wannabe learnt about her students!

For when the teacher is ready, students appear!