Education: the teacher inside the DVD.

In my humble opinion, India is a poor nation with limited resources to help the millions who need education and training. Therefore, India should encourage people who want to get an education to help themselves. That is, self-help.

For generations we all have been taught by teachers inside the classroom. With the advent of computers, this is changing. DVD’s are replacing teachers in the classroom. There is the classroom teacher in the one hand; and now there is the teacher inside the DVD in the other hand. The classroom teacher and the DVD teacher are not the same. The classroom teacher teaches everything just once. The DVD teacher is better because you can repeat the instructions from the DVD any number of times. And as you keep rewinding and replaying the instructions in the DVD, it is almost impossible not to learn. Thus the educational DVD caters to both fast learners and slow learners; and all you have to do is to keep rewinding and replaying the DVD educational material.

Some time ago I bought CD’s from learnkey.com. in USA. Learnkey.com produces CD’s with educational material. It is excellent. The learnkey.com teacher is inside the CD. When you buy the CD, you have the teacher with you inside the CD or DVD. To my knowledge this is the best way to learn. Learning from the CD or DVD is the best way to learn. This may be the wave of the future. Again, as you keep rewinding and replaying the instructions in the CD, it is almost impossible not to learn. So the advantage is that educational CD’s and DVD’s can be rewound and replayed any number of times; and thus not learning from CD’s and DVD’s is almost impossible.

In sharp contrast, the classroom teacher teaches everything only once. On Monday the teacher will teach chapter one, on Tuesday chapter two, on Wednesday chapter three and so on. While the classroom teacher is teaching, some students are paying attention, some students are not paying attention, and other students fall asleep. This is because in a classroom all the students are not the same; and they are not the same because they are all at different levels of development. Some students are slow learners and others are fast learners. However, if you have the teacher inside the CD or DVD, then the teacher becomes your own personal property; and since the teacher inside the CD or DVD is your own property, you as a student can rewind and replay the lectures numerous times until you understand it thoroughly. This is self-help.

Also, we live in a world where employers want employees to be trained before they are hired. We live in a world where co-workers would not train new workers; co-workers are jealous and uncooperative and would be reluctant to train other co-workers. Co-workers would prefer to keep their skills and experience to themselves. Thus a new worker would have to find ways to train himself. Going to college may be unaffordable to a worker. Therefore, a worker has to buy teacher in CD and teacher in DVD and train himself.

In the Hindu context, the relationship between CONSTANT REPETITION and LEARNING cannot be denied. This is the age of enlightenment for us Hindus. In the Hindu context, learning is self-realization and is within the self because god is within the self. I am god, you are god, and everybody is god. For example, let’s take the mantra. The constant repetition of the mantra helps to steady the mind. Constant repetition of the mantra will eventually make the eye lids shut and the person will go inward. Constant repetition of the mantra will eventually make the eye lids shut and the person will go into a meditative state. This is the nature of the mind. We Hindus have to deal with the mind as it is. We Hindus have to deal with the mind as we know it to be. As Hindus, our knowledge of the mind is backed up with a few thousand years of research work. Sleeping and dreaming is a part of learning. When the mind gets full, it goes into sleep mode and through dreaming it processes all the data and turns it into information; and for Hindus the processing of data and turning them into information is a part of self-realization. Sleeping and dreaming helps to turn data into information. This is learning. We are Hindus. The relationship between constant repetition and learning is part of Hinduism. Practice makes prefect. Now it is for you to apply constant repetition and learning in today’s world. Now it is for you to apply constant repetition and learning to CD’s and DVD’s.

And now for your role, Sir. I guess your role is to influence entrepreneurs in India to produce teacher in CD and teacher in DVD in a wide range of subject matters. This may be the new wave in learning.

Perhaps the government of India should maintain a website with a collection of educational CD’s and DVD’s. This collection of CD’s and DVD’s should cover every subject of the average school and college curriculum. These CD’s and DVD’s can be either bought through mail order or downloaded.

If the federal or state governments of India are reluctant to maintain a website with a collection of educational CD’s and DVD’s for downloading, then I suppose somebody else should do so because it would benefit students enormously.
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In a society, those who are at the top of the socio-economic ladder are often those who have been trained by the best teachers in the nation; and the best teachers are often out of reach to the have-nots. We must find ways to level the playing field. So teacher inside the DVD may be useful.

Teachers are not all the same; some teachers are better than others. Students are not all the same too; they are all at different levels of development. Teachers are as varied as students. No nation in this world can claim that all its teachers are competent. If they are, then auditing would become unnecessary; and there have been cases in this world where attempts have been made to conceal the findings of auditors. The lack of transparency is a world-wide phenomenon and we may never achieve a world order that is fully transparent. The true state of affairs may never be known; and this is not an Indian phenomenon but a world-wide phenomenon. If you actually think that the top government officials in India know what all the Indian teachers are doing all the time, you had better guess again. Where does this leave the students? It leaves the students with insurmountable problems. If the students are going to wait for the whole of India to change for the better, then they are going to wait for ever. It is better for the students to engage in self-help. This is why I emphasize self-help. The students should rely on teacher inside the DVD for education. This is self-help. For a Third World nation like India which is trying to enter developed nation status as soon as possible, a good education for its children from competent teachers is a must; and competent teachers can be found inside the DVD.

Even when you watch the teacher inside DVD, at some point, you may fall asleep. Don’t worry. You are not missing anything because you can always rewind and replay. If you do fall asleep while watching the teacher in DVD, after you wake up simply rewind and replay the DVD. If you have the teacher inside the DVD, then the teacher becomes your own personal property; and since the teacher inside the DVD is your own property, you as a student can rewind and replay the lectures numerous times until you understand it thoroughly. As you keep rewinding and replaying the instructions in the DVD, it is almost impossible not to learn. So the advantage is that educational DVD’s can be rewound and replayed any number of times; and thus not learning from DVD’s is almost impossible. Some students would need 5 rewinds and replays to achieve a thorough understanding, some students would need 10 rewinds and replays to achieve a thorough understanding, some students would need 20 rewinds and replays to achieve a thorough understanding, some students would need 30 rewinds and replays to achieve a thorough understanding, and I think I would need 50 rewinds and replays to achieve a thorough understanding. The important thing to remember is that eventually every student would achieve a thorough understanding of the subject.




Sometimes you see in the newspaper a photo of a politician giving the best teacher award to a particular teacher. Let us pause and think about it. The politician is giving an award to the teacher. But does it give maximum benefits to the people of the nation? Probably not. Both the politician and the teacher would be satisfied with the newspaper publicity they get. But what do the people get? Not much. We have to find ways to make the award winning teacher to bring maximum benefits to the people.

The award winning teacher can teach only one class at a time. Let us name the teacher as Mr.A. Since Mr.A is a good teacher, we have to find ways to multiply Mr.A. We should persuade Mr.A to teach; and have his teaching to be videographed; the videograph should be turned into DVD; and numerous copies of the DVD can be made and distributed to the students. So, by using DVD’s, we have multiplied Mr.A and distributed his teachings to the maximum number of students. Only if Mr.A allows himself to be videographed is it worthwhile giving Mr.A a best teacher award. The best teacher award is not for anybody; the best teacher award is for those teachers who allow themselves to be videographed.

If I were a politician I would refuse to give the best teacher award to any teacher who refuses to videograph his teachings so that it can be distributed to students.

If teacher inside DVD is available to Indian students, it would offer the students an additional means to get an education. Human beings are diverse and learn in different ways. Some prefer to learn from books while others prefer to learn from educational DVD’s. A well diversified dissemination of education to the masses would be the best bet. Given human diversity it would be unwise to depend on any one way to disseminate education to the masses; a multi-pronged approach would be better.

The advantage is that with educational DVD’s you can get self-paced learning. Using the play, step forward, step reverse, pause, stop, increase playback speed, decrease playback speed, time stretch clock, fast rewind and fast forward, previous chapter and next chapter buttons, you can indeed go at your own pace.

Perhaps the government of India should maintain a website with a collection of its best teachers in DVD’s. This collection of DVD’s should cover every subject of the average school and college curriculum. These DVD’s can be either bought through mail order or downloaded.
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I happened to see some video footage on a temple in Kerala. A temple in Kerala gives text books and informative brochures as the offering to devotees instead of sweets as the conventional custom. The temple is located close to National Heritage Centre, Thrissur, Kerala. These are the kind of people that I respect as they merge education and religion. I would hope that people who have books would donate it to temples so that they may be recycled.

Hinduism is evolutionary and espouses everything from idol worship to polytheism to pantheism to spirituality. There is a need for Hinduism to reinvent itself in order to remain relevant. There is a need for Hinduism to merge religion and education. As India’s school going population increases, some of the school goers may detach themselves from the temple as they attach value to education. The school goer will only be attached to the temple if there is reason to be attached to the temple. May be merging education and the temple may make the temple more attractive to the school goers.

Let us take the case of Hindu devotional DVD’s. A producer makes the DVD to be sold for profit. A DVD can contain a movie or devotional songs. After the producer inserts the movie/songs into the DVD, there may be additional space inside the DVD. In the additional space, the seller may insert other video footage called BONUS MATERIAL. So a DVD comes with a movie/devotional songs and bonus material. The next question is what is contained in the bonus material? I guess the producer/seller can insert anything he wants into the bonus material. Often times the producer inserts video footage about how the movie was made into the bonus material. Some times there are interviews with the movie stars in the bonus material. So the bonus material can contain anything from how the movie was made to interviews with the movie stars, etc.

Now for the role of the buyer. A market economy is composed of buyers and sellers. All 6.5 billion of us are buyers and sellers; but at any given time you are either a buyer or seller. You are the buyer because you buy the DVD. If you buy the DVD, then you get to watch the movie/devotional songs and bonus material. If the bonus material contains video about how the movie/song was made, it is not of importance to you. If the bonus material contains video footage about interviews with the movie stars, it is not of importance to the viewer. However, if the bonus material contains video footage about math lessons, physics lessons, frequently asked questions in exams, computer use lessons, etc. then it may be of use to you, your children, and grandchildren. So don’t you think it is better for the seller/producer to insert educational material into the bonus material before selling the DVD to the buyer? You as a buyer should refuse to buy DVD’s that do not contain educational material in the bonus material.

We have to find ways to put religion and education together. If we can find ways to put religion and education together, then we may be able to attract the school going younger generation. So we have to use Hindu devotional DVD’s to spread religion and education. We also need to preach the importance of education to our youth. All the DVD producers in India have to do is to hire some of the best teachers in India and videograph their teaching. The video footage can then be inserted into the DVD’s as bonus material; and this is the two-in-one DVD, giving both religion and education. I do not think that these DVD teachers have to be paid because the publicity the teachers get by being in the DVD will open up other opportunities for the teacher. For example, there may immediately be an increase in students who would want to take private tuition from this famous teacher whom they have seen in DVD.

It may even result in increased sale of the DVD. The people will buy the DVD for two reasons. Some will buy the DVD for devotional songs, and others will buy the DVD for education; either way, the DVD producers get paid.


Who decides what is to be inserted into the bonus material? I guess in a market economy the buyer can have it his way. It all depends on how united the buyers are. If the buyers are disunited then they cannot achieve much. If the buyers are united and insist that they want educational matter in the bonus material, then I am sure that the seller/producer will comply. If the buyers refuse to buy DVD’s without useful bonus material, then the seller/producer will definitely try to satisfy the buyer. Buyers should also boycott retailers and wholesalers who sell DVD’s with non-educational bonus material. It is better for the buyer to insist that the bonus material be of educational matter because it is of benefit to you, your children, and grandchildren. It all depends on how united or disunited the buyers are.

The advantage is that with educational DVD’s you can get self-paced learning. Using the play, step forward, step reverse, pause, stop, increase playback speed, decrease playback speed, time stretch clock, fast rewind and fast forward, previous chapter and next chapter buttons, you can indeed go at your own pace.


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Always love your mother.*Be altruistic.*Always buy packaged goods with the name of the producer on the package*Always buy from supermarkets and chain stores*Support teamwork, team spirit, and team based problem solving.* Learn Judo, Karate, Aikido, Jujitsu. Tai Chi, Yoga and walk for fitness.* Yoga is about the chakras, and achieving self-mastery and samadhi and achieving full 100% Godhood. *All 6.5 billion of us can return to full 100% Godhood* I would recommend that the best preparation for our youth would be the military experience. Yes, an experience in the military service would do our youth some good. You should have a life of duty. Your duty to yourself. Your duty as a husband. Your duty as a wife. Your duty as a parent. Your duty as an employee. Your duty as an employer. Your duty as a taxpayer. Your duty as a voter. Your duty as a teacher. Your duty as a student and so on. * Engage in sports and exercise.* Be a profit-maker.* Do not give away goods, services, or ideas free of charge; and do not take goods, services, or ideas free of charge.* Self-defense is an inviolable human right.* Always use condoms* All 6.5 billion of us Gods are both buyers and sellers; but at any given time you are either a buyer or seller* All 6.5 billion of us are Gods and can return to full 100% Godhood through self-improvement*One way to engage in self-improvement is to try to never to repeat your mistakes*Your divine powers within you are your natural powers within you*An economy is composed of areas of surpluses and areas of shortages; when there is a surplus it is time to move to an area of shortage; ideally there would be no shortages and rationing in this world*