“Learning Techniques Should Help Pupils Explore their Interests”- Mustafa Syed, DILA Facilitator

September 9, 2014

Mustafa Syed, a facilitator at the Designing Innovative Learning Applications Workshop, tells us how his own dismal experience with the traditional education system imbued him with the passion to use technology and innovation to make education more effective and interesting.

Q: Where are you from and what have you studied so far?

I’m from Wah Cantt and I’ve done my BSc in Electrical Engineering from Air University. At the moment I’m enrolled in the MS Innovative Educational Technologies program.

Q: What attracted you to the field of Innovative Education Technology?

My experience of being taught was quite terrible from the beginning; I remember that we students were punished for not performing well in class. As a child, I used to be weak at mathematics   and was punished for this. Eventually, this demotivated me so much that I flunked in the subject. After doing my BSc, I realized that I needed to do something to address the difficulties I had experienced as a student at all stages of education. This is why I opted for the MS ITE program; it has really been a turning-point in my life and I am deeply passionate about this field.

Q: Is there any defining moment or event that has shaped your experience in this field?

When I joined the MS ITE program, we were taught a number of courses across many disciplines, including psychology. I developed a deep interest in cognitive psychology, which looks into how the brain works and had a detailed talk with my psychology instructor on this topic. At the end of the conversation, my instructor told me that I was actually a psychologist who had just happened to study electrical engineering! This experience further strengthened my belief that we need to design learning techniques which help people explore their interests and equip them to strengthen their best abilities.