The Ekalavya Effect: A Parable for Internet Learning

"If you are one in a million, then there are 2000 of you on the internet" -Anonymous

The Ekalavya episode in the Mahabharata is laced with jealous pupils (Arjuna) and harsh taskmasters (Drona). But for our purpose Ekalavya's autodidactic strivings are central - unable to secure direct tutelage under Drona, Ekalavya creates a clay image of his chosen teacher which inspires his daily practice and enables him to achieve inspiring feats of marksmanship.

I define the Ekalavya Effect as the global phenomena in which students of any persuasion set themselves up to become experts on a specific topic via an iterative process of remote learning.



YouTube is the new Google search and "how to" is trending skyhigh. People search for and find teachers for any imaginable topic on the internet, self-organizing into learning communities.

Here are just a few how-to videos about an arcane topic of interest to me - growing tomatoes using sub-irrigated planters:





So the periphery has become the center, learning is distributed and the experts might just be closer to you than you think. We are all Ekalavyas now. And the Dronas of the world are fiddling their thumbs.