This document discusses grassroots innovations for more inclusive education and development. It highlights several examples of frugal innovations from rural communities in India. It advocates for learning from all teachers - including peers, nature, common people, and unlearning inertia. The Honey Bee Network aims to repurpose inquiry, redefine accountability, and design new pathways forward by learning from grassroots innovators. It promotes cross-pollinating ideas through open platforms to cultivate diversity and distributed learning.

1. an initiative of

2. Learning to be Frugal, Flexible
and Nature-Friendly:
Grassroots Innovations for Inclusive Education and Development
Anil K. Gupta,
IIMA and Honey Bee Network anilg@sristi.org

3. How
educated
are we,
really?

4. Encounter with a shepherd in the desert
“How to trace your sheep
when they get mixed with sheep of another herd?”
The shepherd took a shodh yatra brochure from my hand
and said:
“To me all the letters on your paper look alike”

5. the teacher Within
the teacher Around (peers)
the teacher in Nature
the teacher among
Common People
Shodhyatra every summer, every winter

6. Frugality is to affluence what
wisdom is to knowledge

7. Learning to
unlearn

8. The Honey Bee Network
– Repurposes the inquiry
– Redefines the norms of accountability
– Redesigns pathways for the future
Honey Bee Network

9. Sounds of silence…
Repurposing the inquiry
– Asking questions about accountability towards oneself
– Share of private, common and public goods in one’s production and
consumption basket: portfolio of purposiveness
– Did we create any open source content for children, whom we love, in
local language
– Did we dispense with at least one need, living with less to have more

10. Why does
education
reinforce
inertia
and not
innovation
?

11. Social Inertia: why do certain problems
remain unaddressed persistently?

12. http://www.singingsandsbb.com/starfish-lg.jpg

13. Saga of the starfish
“What are you doing, trying to throw them back into the sea?
It are too many!”, exclaimed the lady on the shore.
“You cannot save all of them!” she insisted.
“True, but I can at least save this one”, said the man
while throwing it back into the sea.

14. Knowing
Feeling
doing

15. We know so much, feel only about a
little and act on even lesser

16. Learning from my naiveté, foolishness
“Why did you pluck this twig?”, asked Karimbhai
“But are there not so many of these „weeds‟ on the roadside?”
“Nature has never anything too many or too much”, he said.

17. From Inertia to
Institutionalisation
of Innovative Mindsets
Learning from Grassroots Teachers

18. Technology is like
words,
institutions are
like grammar
and culture is like
thesaurus
Meghalaya
Three pillars of sustainability

19. Institutional
heuristics
Creating
open source
standards
of excellence
Meghalaya

20. A public
innovation
for public use
Jharkhand

21. When things fill our mind,
thoughts don’t find much
place

22. Take home library in a box
by Pritiben Gandhi

23. « Postcard Project »
by Thakarshi P Kunbar
Solving problems with frugality

24. IGNITE
Learning from Creative Children

25. Arnab Chakraborty
Class 12, Kolkatta

26. NIF engaged a design firm
to develop a prototype
Shalini Kumari
Class 8,
Patna, Bihar

27. Blending of
Passion
Purpose
Performance and
Persistence
Through Platforms
SRISTI, GIAN, NIF, Techpedia.in

28. 1) Artefactual
as a simple replication of idea
2) Analogic
metaphor to inspire
3) Heuristic
as a model or principle
4) Gestalt
configurational level
institutions, technology, culture
Dimensions of learning

29. National Innovation Clubs
• Search: Celebrating the decade of innovation by scouting and
mapping the creativity and innovations in the hinterland
• Spread: Disseminating/cross-pollinating innovations across spaces,
social segments and sectors
• Sense and benchmark: Identifying the roots of persistent problems
and the mindsets that trigger their continued tolerance in society to
solve problems
• Celebrate: Recognising achievers in different social spheres

30. Shanu Sharma, Vardan, IITK

31. Image, Speech Recognition
and Speech Synthesis
For people with hearing and speaking disabilities
Saurabh Saket and Rahul Ranjan
Bhutta College of Engineering & Technology, Ludhiana

32. Has any big company
given you a fridge
also provides
hot water,
keeps food warm
and consumes
less electricity?
by Dhruv Mesana

33. Head load
carrier by
Raghunath
Lohar
« Vazra »

34. Lao Yang
Zhang Xingming
Wang Fuhe
Shan Dong Province
Shaanxi Province
Miyun County, Beijing
Bicycle hoe
Gopal Malhari Bhise
Ahmednagar, Maharashtra

35. Innovations and
Traditional Knowledge
Enterprise
Investment
Golden Triangle of Creativity

36. Distribute open source, multimedia, local language content
in every school
Have a wall with folk art in
every school
UnLearning inertia
Redesigning pedagogies
Celebrating grassroots
Creativity
Internalising a frugal future

37. Teachers learn from students
Children learn from four
teachers
Communities create open
source standards of
excellence, empathy, equity,
and efficiency…………
Authentic Leadership
through Learning to be
vulnerable
Role
Reversal to
role peripheral

38. Cross-pollination will cultivate diversity
Diversity will lead to pluralistic passions
Platforms for distributed learning which
is frugal, friendly and flexible
Dissolving learning costs across
civilsations through open innovation and
learning platforms such as the Honey
Bee Network
Cross-Pollination

39. Joy of Discovery
Creativity pervades
Innovation instigates
Knowledge humbles
Wisdom sustains
Creativity pervades
Innovation instigates
Knowledge humbles
Image: Eric Comstock www.ericcomstock.us
Wisdom sustains

40. – On halloween day, children will see pumpkins at home, to ward
off evil spirit, but in school they were taught, believe only in
rationality,
– How do they blend sacred and secular
– How do we respect diversity of cutlures, institutions and
technological approaches around the world to make our society
more creative, compassionate and collaborative

41. anilg@sristi.org