During my recent field work in India, I was impressed by the depth of social understanding by common people I met in the villages. Often, their views on the society were more sophisticated than many works I read in the academia. This has made me question not just what we learn in the social science disciplines, but also how we learn. I feel that the process of disengaged reading comfortably away from the hustle-bustle of the society compromises our learning. I have been thinking about how we can “teach” social sciences better and this talk by John Seely Brown was stimulating.

Brown talks about the use methods of learning that involve less of instruction and more of tinkering around with critical inputs from instructors and peers. He points out to a range of exciting education technologies & practices that will help students not just to know [the social sciences] but also to be [social scientists]. This hour long exciting presentation entitled, “Teaching 2.0 – Doing more with less by John Seely Brown” is well worth a watch.