Using a minimal set of materials and an innovative methodology, a community-based multi-grade education program, popularly known as "School-in-a-Box", has over the last two decades spread to tens of thousands of schools in India and other countries in the world. My presentation will use the School-in-a-Box model to explore the re-envisioning and design of authentic learning environments. I suggest that as educators, the challenge which confronts us, is not primarily a shortage of economic resources but is rather a demand upon our imagination and ability to radically re-envision learning environments. This is an invitation to think of school "outside-the-box". In sum, I claim that the central issue in education is not one of equal access to predetermined learning opportunities and assessments but a set of dynamic concerns about the nature of learning, for whom, with what objectives and in what context.

The presentation will have an interactive component using video footage of a school-in-a-box classroom in rural India and hands on activities for further inquiry and analysis.

A brief bio of Gopal Krishnamurthy.