Jul 11, 2020
Author: Omar Hafiz
“How many of you have used a computer?”, Shoaib Dar, a mechanical engineer and Teach For India Fellow asked a class of 30 students during a Grade 7 Geography class at a government school in Maharashtra in 2017. Just 7 students (with only 1 girl included) raised their hands! It shocked him as computer literacy was not only a key educational skill of the modern world, but it was also an important part of problem-solving and innovative designing. A few years later, on July 12, 2020, Shoaib, now the CEO of Pi Jam Foundation had a different question to ask. “Are you Creators or Consumers of Technology?”, he asked a gathering of more than 80 youngsters from the Kashmir Education Initiative (KEI) during his webinar, “Creative Possibilities of Technology”. The energetic audience comprised of several engineering enthusiasts and problem solvers, who were keen to make a difference in society using their academic skills and technological aptitude. Shoaib spoke about how technology had crept into his life early on when he would break apart objects only to touch and inspect their parts and assemble them back again! He encouraged the budding engineers and solution providers in the audience to be similarly curious about the world around them so that they could identify nagging problems locally and create solutions using out-of-the-box thinking and the power of technology. He gave the example of a middle school digital project that Pi Jam had facilitated to trace potholes in a town in Telangana through data analysis. The project had helped in preventing accidents and developing solutions with the local authorities to address the pothole problem and build better roads. He motivated the youth to similarly spot ‘problems’ in their vicinity- ranging from air pollution to deforestation. He spoke about how during the Corona pandemic times, the students, aided by the Pi Jam Foundation had developed a digital game called the Game of Corona, an interactive adaptation of Snakes and Ladders to educate the masses on the dangers of Corona. He emphasized how the youth too could spread awareness about key issues by designing their own games and animation stories using Scratch programming blending the best of art, creativity, and computer science. He asked them to adopt a problem-solving cum enjoyable approach to studying and focus on the process of learning rather than to attain the end goal of marks. He also busted the myth that technology was an expensive and inaccessible affair. Revealing the secret behind the name of his organization Pi Jam, he recalled how their pilot project had started off by installing Raspberry Pis, smaller computers costing as low as Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000. He added that there were several free tools and courses available that could make learning and practical application of technology easier. Towards the end of the session, he even posed a Digital Riddle to the students, asking them to solve the problem of the ‘Sheep and the Lions Crossing the River’. The goal he said was not to find the right solution but to experiment with different ways to solve the problem. He was delighted to see the majority of the students getting enthusiastic about their responses and confidently brainstorming to find a solution to the problem. He stressed that it was this kind of logical and innovative thinking that was the need of the hour in the educational system in the country. He applauded the bright potential of the students gathered and offered mentorship to them. The end goal was for Kashmir to produce some amazing creators and inventors, who could build a better world of tomorrow.