editorial
Redefining trends in education
Advisory Board Prof. Asha Kanwar, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI) Shri Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Department School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira GandhiI National Open University (IGNOU) President: Dr. M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Ravi Gupta Managing Editor: Shubhendu Parth VP - Strategy: Pravin Prashant Editorial Team: Dr. Prachi Shirur, Dr. Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Divya Chawla, Sheena Joseph, Pratap Vikram Singh Sales & Marketing Team: Debabrata Ray, Arpan Dasgupta, Bharat Kumar Jaiswal, Anuj Agarwal, Fahimul Haque (Mobile: +91-9873277808), Rakesh Ranjan (sales@elets.in) Subscription & Circulation: Gunjan Singh Mobile: +91-9718289123 (subscription@elets.in) Graphic Design Team: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore Web Development Team: Zia Salahuddin, Amit Pal, Sandhya Giri, Anil Kumar IT Team: Mukesh Sharma Events: Vicky Kalra
The current trend in education has seen a leaning towards upgrading and updating knowledge and ideas to face increasingly demanding job requirements. Technology enabled centres have helped in taking forward university level education to working professionals as well. Many working professionals are pursuing one-year executive MBA courses in correspondence with a variety of top universities understanding the growing demands of the market today. We, in this issue, have highlighted some of those modern trends and technologies that would enable the workforce to enhance their business and managerial skills. Simultaneously, the education technology world is seeing incredible opportunities in the K12 and higher education sector. Technology enabled learning has now drawn nearly 200 players in the online tutoring space in India. Further, huge potentials are also foreseen in the online test preparation sector. Besides, numerous institutions are taking up new age teaching techniques through the implementation of m-Learning in their courses. m-Learning, as the name suggests, is about learning from mobiles and it takes place at any place devoid of the absence of the traditional pen and paper style. Although it has gained a steady momentum outside India, but our nation is no longer behind them. Various institutions across India have gradually taken up this upgraded technology and showing enough progress in education. With mobile penetration spreading to innumerable geographical areas, it only needs to be seen how m-Learning is going to be used to transform education and reach in India. On the policy front, the government of India has unequivocally emphasised on measures to drastically improve the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education and promoting innovations in the sector. As a corollary, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has given a go ahead to corporate agencies to set up engineering and management institutes. This is a welcome move and would help meet the higher education needs of the growing youth population and thereby increase the GER. Some related trends have also been the setting up of an independent statutory council for distance teaching and learning that has been recommended by the MHRD. The steps seem relevant in wake of the mushrooming number of higher education institutes and resultant takers for the same. The regulation will help create and maintain certain quality standards in the sector. With the growing concerns and involvement of the government in the Higher education sector, we are proud to bring together a comprehensive platform for deliberating on key issues in the sector. The digitalLEARNING Higher Education Summit will witness participation from key education stakeholders and leaders to provide realistic recommendations for implementing various best practices drawn from the participating higher education institutions. We look forward to seeing you there!
Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLearning - G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA 201301, India, Phone: +91 120 2502181-85, Fax: +91 120 2500060 Email: info@digitalLearning.in digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS). Owner, Publisher, Printer - Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media D-320, Sector 10, Noida, U.P. and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta
Dr. Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@digitallearning.in
digital LEARNING FEBRUARY 2011
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