The Continuity of Learning : Where does quality stop for Undergrads?

(Disclaimer :This article is neither a judgement on anyone's achievements or laurels nor it is a commentary on naysayers shouting at the laurels, small and big. This article is written with sole purpose of helping UG students to maintain quality of learning)

Introduction :The modern day Student of IT and Computing is being made available with choices of all kinds by various stake holders of variety . The abundance of free MOOCs, free tech providers, "poachers" under the garb of free of learning, technology "caregivers", mentors and "Self Learners motivation" is a heady cocktail of things going wrong easily. In a branding world, where everyone who is on social platform is looking for a confirmation bias and online approvals , it is a unique situation for every individual to be in, in modern times. While every student these days wishes to be best in terms of technical knowledge, the challenge lies in taking right decisions at right time and following the best path , especially when students are grappling with time and stress of short term career goals. In words of famous french personality, Rochefoucauld, Francois de La (1613-1680), - "The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it", become very relevant. The lines I quoted mentions men but it can be easily said, in the same vein, for women . Men in that quote is metamorphic, incidentally. So let me rephrase it - "The glory of great humans should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it".

Problem Statement : The present day student is challenged by aspirations she possess and different attractions which are available. The glory that we talk about in the quote, in section above, can be different for different individuals.In absolute terms glory for a UG student of IT or Computing,would be a summation of following components: quality of technical learning, prowess to solve problems, invocation of critical thinking on demand and perseverance.This GLORY is very hard to come by for simple reason that all these components are conflicting with each other by very basic nature of it. For example, perseverance is to stay put for the long haul and problem solving skills guarantee a fix, to the problem in a finite time . This dichotomy exists for other components of GLORY as well and amongst each pair.

The Way Forward: I could have easily named this section as solution to problem statement but haven't named it so, on purpose and soon you will discover why! Each component of GLORY has it;s own demands and let's discuss it thread bare.

Quality of Technical Learning : Technology is an evolving phenomena and later you start learning it , the mass of existing technology that is present at foundation becomes bigger, hence the amount of knowledge that needs to be acquired to float through the inertia, becomes size able. This can overwhelm the student and can lead to easy fallout as size of the body of knowledge is big enough to begin with. So, if any UG student is coming through the process of acquiring basic knowledge from a technology area via a long haul , make no mistake, he is worth the effort and deserves a pat on back.

Coming back to basic question of quality of learning, it is a legitimate expectation by society to evaluate learning done by a student from a qualitative perspective. Quality is not a certificate that society can issue to a student and neither it is reflected via the size of learning one has done. So demonstrable applicability of the learning that one can produce is a clear determinant of quality and logical mind must accept it, if this aspect is visible.

Prowess to solve problem : Modern world calls this as Problem Solving Skills which has been coined as Prowess to solve problems. Prowess when spoken in a battle scenario can be equated to bravery. I would call it as as expertise. Expertise can be acquired by prolonged engagement with problems that exist in breadth of technology area by applying the depth of learning one possess. So Prowess has a clear defined path to go for understanding breadth and apply depth of your knowledge.

Invocation of critical thinking on demand :Critical thinking skills can be groomed by falling into a situation( call it falling into a soup !) and then overcoming the challenges to recover one self from the situation by using objectivity, rationality and reasoning. Technical problems demand critical thinker's hat to be worn on demand.For this hat to be available , a UG student has to submit himself to activities that include framing question's with following phrases(not only limited to these) : a. What is it that I don't see? b. What if this is not solved? c.Who is saying it? d. What else can be done?

In essence Why,What,How ,Where, What if .... these words have an immense power. UG students must make this debate as part of their daily routines and critical thinking hat would be available for you, woven in finest of the fabric and most favorite color of yours. Now that you have it, wear it on demand!

Perseverance : In oxford dictionary the word is classified as Noun. The meaning of this word is as follows ," the quality of continuing to try to achieve a particular aim despite difficulties ". a long meaning indeed. A single word does not exist for person who perseveres in dictionary. Eureka , Is this a warrior? well well, Definitely,Yes!

Conclusion : So to conclude, my advice to young UG students is to maintain a DIGITAL LOG of their daily progress for a prolonged period of time as it will definitely inculcate a sense of perseverance. To showcase quality UG students have to connect dots of knowledge to make the applicability of the learning evident. General awareness levels about a technology area, in which UG student wishes to be proficient, have to be nurtured and role of teacher/mentor becomes very evident.A thumb rule : Awareness is derivative of ratio of versions of technology available and known to you. On demand critical thinking will be possessed when the question will as stated as follows : "For your information, May I ask you a question?".....and surprisingly, it does not have a what,how,where in it. and the last one: Warrior.... Go kill the naysayers!

and one last word about the second part of the title of this article, Let me tell you, #Learningneverstops

<GLORY WILL BE YOURS>

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