The Best Practices and the Next Practices in Education:January 2012

Asia’s premier Monthly Magazine on ICT in Education

volume 8

I issue 01 I january 2012 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75 www.digitalLearning.in

The Best Practic Next Practices ines and the Education 7th year of publication

digitalLEARNING

volume

08

issue

01

ISSN 0973-4139 12

14

15

Dr Ajoy Kumar Ray, VC, Bengal Engineering and Science University

Revathi Srinivasan, Director & Principal, Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School

18

19

Manjual Shroff, Pro Vice Chairperson—DPS, Ahmedabad

Vandana Lulla, Director, Podar International School, Mumbai

20

21

22

Kartikay Saini, Chairman, Scottish High International School

Sreenarayanan P C, Director, Podar International School, Mumbai

Dilip Meha, Principal, Olive Green International School, Ahmedabad

28

29

30

Dr Akshai Aggarwal, VC, GTU

R P Gupta, Secretary, Primary Education, Government of Gujarat

Prof Sudhir K Jain, Director, IIT Gandhinagar

35

36

38

A Skilled India Prof S S Mantha Chairman, AICTE

16

Miles Ahead Sandeep Sharma, Joint CEO, SCOPE

The Classroom of the Future

Reforming the Educational Sector

On Way to Achieving Success

Education is a Recession free Industry

Technology Challenges and Digital Insights

Creating Innovative Models in Education

Our Children Need a Giant Leap

Supporting the Learners

Where Are We Going Next?

All is not well in Education

Fostering Creativity

The Concept of 21st Century Skills

Prof Paritosh K Banik, DG, PDPU

Prof Sridhar Iyer, IIT Bombay

39

40

42

G R Sivakumar, Principal, DPS,Surat

Dr Hasmukh Adhia, Principal Secretary, Education, Government of Gujarat

Professor M J Xavier, Director, IIM Ranchi

43

44

46

Dr Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM

Dr Bhavesh Patel, Director, Ahmedabad University

Effective Digital Education

Bringing Connectivity to Education Tiruchirappalli

The Backbone for Empowerment in Education Prof Z H Khan, Jamia Millia Islamia

The Side-effects of Digital Learninga

Integrating Curriculum with the Web

Taking Education Online

Expanding Role of ICT in Education Manoj Aggarwal, SPD, SSA, Gujarat

47

48

50

Dr Veera Gupta, Secretary, CBSE

Ceaser Disilva, Principal, SGVP International School, Ahmedabad

Brinda Ghosh, Principal, JG International School

Examinations through ICT

4

contents

JANUARY / 2012

Assessing our Students

Assessing Students Through ICT

editorial

>

Exploring new frontiers in education Wishing you a Happy New Year!

If the past is any guide, then the predictions for 2012 are certainly going to be wrong. Let’s face it: in years to come, education for millions of children will become a laptop, tablet and cellphone experience. The year 2011 saw India making a major push towards digitising education. In January 2012 issue of digitalLEARNING, we take a broad overview of the trends for ICT in the education space.

This issue is a compendium of thoughts expressed by the eminent leaders, thinkers and innovators who attended eINDIA 2011, the prestigious three day conclave organised in Gujarat. eINDIA 2011 was all about taking a multifaceted look at a set of ICTs that are changing the world in more ways than anyone of us could ever have foreseen. A large number of technology options for constructivist, meaningful learning have already become available; in times to come we can expect even better digital education products.

The world of technology is witnessing tectonic developments. Many panellists at eINDIA 2011 were of the opinion that we should choose our technology wisely, if we can. Through digital tools students can have access to all kinds of dynamic, interactive illustrations. This makes it easier for them to understand abstruse academic concepts.

Imagine a system that allows teachers and students to interact on social media.

Students might start receiving educational material on Facebook. The knowledge and growth potential are vast. The young generation is growing in a digital age, for them learning needs to be relevant, meaningful and fun. Allowing them to use social media tools to achieve learning objectives makes sense in the globally connected, digital world. digitalLEARNING began its journey seventy four months ago. In February 2012, we will be celebrating a momentous landmark - the magazine’s 75th issue.

And we assure you that we are going to do everything to make the 75th issue truly memorable. As usual we invite our readers to share their own thoughts, through blog comments at our website, on where they hope digital technology in education will go.

We look forward to your participation in our forthcoming issue.

Dr. Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@elets.in

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

5

inbox Advisory Board Prof. Asha Kanwar, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning Dr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, CEO, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI) Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Principal Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, Government of Karnataka Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira GandhiI National Open University (IGNOU) Prof S S Mantha, Chairman (Acting), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) President: Dr. M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief: Dr. Ravi Gupta gm Finance: Ajit Kumar dgm strategy: Raghav Mittal programme specialist: Dr. Rajeshree Dutta Kumar Partnerships & Alliances: Sheena Joseph, Shuchi Smita Editorial: Divya Chawla, Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Anand Agarwal, Pragya Gupta, Shally Makin (editorial@elets.in) Sales & Marketing: Delhi & ncr: Fahimul Haque, National Sales Manager, Mob: +91-8860651632, Jyoti Lekhi, Ragini Shrivastav, Rakesh Ranjan (sales@elets.in) Mumbai: Rachita Jha | Pune: Shankar Adaviyar Bangalore: Puneet Kathait | Hyderabad: Amit Kumar Pundhir | Ahmedabad: Sunil Kumar Circulation & Subscription: Jagwant Kumar, Mobile: +91-8130296484; Gunjan Singh, Mobile: +91-8860635832 subscription@elets.in Design & Creatives: Bishwajeet Kumar Singh, Om Prakash Thakur, Shyam Kishore Web: Ishvinder Singh, Anil Kumar IMG: Gaurav Srivastava, Prateek Mittal IT infrastructure: Mukesh Sharma, Zuber Ahmed Events: Vicky Kalra Human resource: Sushma Juyal Legal: R P Verma Accounts: Anubhav Rana, Subhash Chandra Dimri All India Distribution by: Ibh Books & Magazines Distributors Pvt. Ltd 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

6

digitalLEARNING

JANUARY / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

This ETD project is really helpful to reduce the expenditure of time, energy and money of the real researcher. It is a rich source of back references for the researcher. All research oriented academic personalities will get integrated by means of this project. It will influence all the readers to get them exposed in to the research work. I think quality wise improvement is not in our hands. It may occur little as far as my opinion - Gponmeni, via email, on Project Shodhganga: A National Repository of ETD This will be a noble and useful addition, as education needs to cater this area as well. Besides, large employment opportunities exist in this sector. With a boost in economic growth to the nation, it is imperative that appropriate education on financial and investment matters in secondary level should be introduced. Young minds are also receptive and if resilience towards taking challenge is built it would put the doldrums situation of the stock and share market in place. Big economic change can thus be anticipated - Jagdish Sharma, via email, on Investor Education to Join CBSE Curriculum AICTE should strictly monitor the Faculty-Student Ratio. Also focus on Quality Education and Content Delivery. Many institutions lack quality in all spheres of Technical Education. There is a need for single entrance test at National level rather than having State Level Tests.

Students and Parents cannot afford this many entrance exams. AIEEE should be extended to all states and should be made mandatory for all those who seek admissions to Technical Examination - Hemanta Naik, via email, on AICTE advances deadline for applying for new college I would like to know whether the programme impinges upon other classroom sessions and class schedules. This kind of a programme requires a lot of collaboration and interaction among students in school. How did the school tackle such issues? I can’t stop myself from wondering - Dr Ajitha Nayar K on the project ‘ The Success Story of MyEMO’ implemented by Scottish High International School I agree with the views and hope that the institutions would be able to bring glory back to the Indian education otherwise our knowledge economy will be collapsed - Prof Krishna Kumar on ‘Learning Can not be Confined to Class Rooms’ Is it possible to get these films/movies to showcase to the teachers and students in our schools so that best practices can be adopted and furthered for the benefit of student learning. Please let me know - Subroto Bhattacharje on ‘Bridging the Divide Inspiration & arguments for integrating arts & science teaching’

eindia 2011 report

What’s next? If we had a supercomputer that could dream the future, we would have told you about it at the eINDIA 2011

Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat inaugurating eINDIA 2011

India’s premier ICT event, which transpired in 14-16 December 2011, at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. While delivering the inaugural address, Shri Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat said, “In my mind, the letter ‘e’ stands for three things that should be in governance - easy, economic and effective. The state government has initiated recruitment process, bar coding of ration cards and computerisation of all the check posts on highways through e-Governance.”

With an eye on the present developments and on the innovations that we can expect in the future, a range of eminent leaders, thinkers, innovators and educationists, from India and other parts of the world, presented their cutting edge ideas on how advances in ICT will transform governance, healthcare services and education. eINDIA 2011 served as a vibrant platform for discussion and debate on the core issues that we, the people, face today. If India has to fulfil its dream of bringing more development in areas of governance, education and healthcare to all parts of the country, then more work has to be done on the technology front.

At eINDIA 2011, optimistic predictions far outpaced negative

8

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

• • • • • • • • • •

Speakers: 129 School Delegates: 459 College Delegates: 257 Participating Countries: 25 Sponsors: 26 Exhibitors: 47 Visitors: 5000 Nominees for eINDIA 2011 Awards: 149 Award Winners: 32 Hits on eINDIA Website: Above One Million (eINDIA.eletsonline.com)

ones. But the essence of what the speakers said was certainly not a wishful view that sees technology as a panacea. All the speakers presented views that were grounded in reality. Shri Narendra Modi struck a chord with people in all parts of the country when in the final lines of his inaugural speech, he said, “I believe that IT+IT=IT. In other words, Indian talent + Information technology = India Tomorrow. Thus our Indian talent will build the future of India with the help of IT.”

eindia 2011 report

Eminent Speakers @ eINDIA 2011

Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of IT, Government of India

ivan John Uy, Chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology, Philippines

Varesh Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Government of India

Ashank Desai, Founder and Non-Executive Director, Mastek Ltd

Ajay Kumar, Joint Secretary, e-Infrastructure/e-Learning Group, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India

Dr Ranjit Bannerji, CEO, Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority

P K Taneja, Principal Secretary and Commissioner, Public Health & Family Welfare Department, Government of Gujarat

Shiban Ganju, President of Atrimed Pharmaceuticals and Convener, iHIND

Nivedan Sahani, Vice President and Business Head, Tata Teleservices

Rajendra P Gupta, Chairman, Board of Directors, HIMSS Asia Pacific India

T S Y Aravindakshan, Lead, Public Sector Breadth, Microsoft

Jasvant Prajapati, COO, GVK EMRI

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

9

eindia 2011 report

eINDIA 2011

Glimpses

SS Mantha, Chairman, AICTE addressing the session

10

Veena Raizada, Next Education with Manjula Shroff, DPS

Revathi Srinivasan, Ajoy Kumar Ray, Sandeep Sharma, Srikant Bansal

S Athi, B V S Prakash, RM Bhatt, Z H Khan, Brinda Ghosh, Ashwani Duggal, GR Sivakumar

Dr Sridhar Iyer, Prof PK Banik, RP Gupta, Akshai Aggarwal, Sudhir K Jain, Rupa Chauhan, Irina Ghose

Manish Sharma, Ncomputing with Sanjiv Sharma, S Chand

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

eindia 2011 report

Beas Dev Ralhan, Manish Sharma, David Zeldin, Sanjiv Sharma, KJ Brar, Khozem Merchant

Engaged Participants

Peter Mozellius, MJ Xavier, Prafulla Agnihotri, Dr Hasmukh Adhia, Bhavesh Patel

Cultural flavour at eINDIA 2011 Awards Night

Shri Narendra Modi taking eINDIA 2011 round with Dr Ravi Gupta, MP Narayanan

Shri Ravi Saxena addressing the audience

Gathering at inauguration

Nikhil Gupta, Peter Mozellius, Ceaser Disilva, Brinda Ghosh, Veera Gupta, Jayanthi Ravi, Dr Tarulata, Manoj Aggarwal, KS Muralidhar, Rohit V Katira

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

11

skills training

A Skilled India Technical education plays a vital role in human resource development of the country

By Prof S S Mantha Chairman, AICTE | www.aicte-india.org

S

kill development in students is extremely important for a growing economy such as ours. Every student who goes through higher education will be well served if he or she acquires additional skills while completing their studies.

Skills lead to better employment opportunities. On the other hand, skills acquired by a student who does not go through formal education would provide a means of self employment and also a chance for employment in the formal sector.

India has several models in place for promoting vocational education. We do use many good practises in imparting such education, but the quality needs to be further improved.

AICTE is currently in process of developing a bridge between competence based skill modules and basic content modules. This is being done at both school and the university level, so that a child can choose a mode of education that is interesting to pursue.

Technical education plays a vital role in human resource development of the country. It creates skilled manpower, enhances industrial productivity and improves the quality of life. To achieve the goals of a knowledge economy, India needs a flexible education system geared to impart skills that lead to employability. Finding workers who are employable is a real problem. Employers need reliable, responsible workers who can solve problems and who have the social skills and attitudes to work together with other workers.

Employability centres on certain basic skills, which are

12

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job. These are the skills, attitudes and actions that enable workers to get along with their fellow workers and supervisors and to make sound, critical decisions. Unlike occupational or technical skills, employability skills are generic in nature rather than job specific and cut across all industry types, business sizes, and job levels from the entry-level worker to the senior-most position.

Our examination system often ends up bringing more mediocrity into a system. The industry would obviously employ the best of the lot, but the examination system often fails to project the best. This needs to change. The employment sector must be profiled to provide information on job opportunities in various sectors in terms of numbers and the projected growth. There is also a need to identify potential employers.

skills training

On Way to

Achieving Success The need of the hour for our country is to develop a workforce that is globally competitive

By Dr Ajoy Kumar Ray, Vice Chancellor, Bengal Engineering and Science University | www.becs.ac.in

I

n a growing global population that continually falls short of skilled workforce, we have to adopt best practices to promote skills training to the youth. There must be effective policy reforms to bring the aspect of quality in skills training. There have to be strategies for aligning education with employability skills. It is high time that the scholastic education system, the 10+2+3 model undergoes the necessary modifications to accommodate skill-based training programmes.

The need of the hour is to develop globally competitive workforce that can be absorbed in leading public or private organisations. Learning should be a collaborative and based on community approach. The content must be pedagogically effective and competent. Students should be able to mix and match what he or she wants to learn. The entire education system should be focussed on making the students turn into productive citizens.

It is surprising that a country like India, which recorded commendable GDP in the last years, has a jobless growth.

There is thus an urgent need to evolve a model of development that ensures employment growth, along with GDP growth. We

14

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

must encourage setting up of new vocational centres for the people in rural areas, so that migration of people to bigger cities can be checked.

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 contributed their mite in helping to take forward the university level education to working professionals.

Though many institutes provide quality education comparable to the best in the world, our institutes are short of facilities at all levels, be it in infrastructural or faculty, both in required numbers and quality. These problems needs to be resolved.

India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is very low. We need to expand everything from state universities to central and private universities. An all out effort to raise the GER is required. More universities should be allowed to come in and also act as competition to the local players, thereby upgrading quality of higher education. If we administer it properly and if we make sure that the right kind of universities come in, it will have a huge positive impact.

skills training

Our

Children

Need a Giant

Leap

The classroom should be as vibrant and playful for our children as the sports ground is for the sportsmen

By Revathi Srinivasan, Director-Education and Principal, Smt Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane | www.singhaniaschool.org

E

ducation is not about qualifications, it is about getting important skills for a productive life. The content of education and the way in which it is imparted might have undergone many changes over the centuries, but the aim of educationist should always be to instil virtue and wisdom in students.

At Singhania School, it is our endeavour to provide our students new opportunities through an environment that is positive, inspiring, challenging and stimulating. We want our students to follow their bliss and blaze new trails life. We wish to open many new doors for our students. There is certainly pride to be felt in the parents and teachers, who care, nurture and reassure the children so that they grow into mature, sensitive and responsible citizens of the country.

Singhania School with more than 5000 students seeks to grow like a temple of learning. The institution provides opportunities to the students for raising their intellectual and social potential.

Much of what we learn in B-Schools is about managing our life and the people around us. This institution also conceives the sports-ground as some kind of a classroom. After all, the skills of communication, agility, collaboration, critical thinking, strategic management, initiative, and decision-making all come easily to anyone in the field of sports.

Indian children are blessed with happy families and are well cared for. The guardians are often able to ensure that their children have access to good learning. Are the children able to take advantage of the backing that they receive from their parents? With the levels of intelligence and street-smartness

that our children display, it should be easy for them to invest their time on learning new skills. Learning to be self-reliant by fixing things in the house will help them in the long run for skilled labour is set to get very expensive in India. There is a concern over the cut-throat competition that students face.

Currently the Singhania School is offering students, a two day hands-on experience in a leading Mumbai based multinational company. By interacting with the company, children will learn about the way in which they will be expected to conduct themselves when they begin their career.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

15

skills training

Miles Ahead New initiatives in Gujarat can open doors to higher education for many students

By Sandeep Sharma, Joint CEO, Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English Education | www.scopegujarat.org

G

ujarat is home to the best higher education institutes in the country, namely the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad; Nirma Institute of Technology and Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information & Communication Technology. There are several outstanding research institutes: Institute for Plasma Research, and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL). Gujarat has recently passed the Private Universities Bill, under which private universities can be formed without passage of legislation in the state assembly.

The Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English (SCOPE) has been setup by the Government of Gujarat to build proficiency in English and thereby open new employment opportunities for the youth. The English language programme has been developed on the Common European Framework.

Level I to V of the SCOPE’s Programme will map the levels A1 to C1 of the Common European Framework. Out of which levels I, II and III will be available at all centres and levels IV and V will be available to the select centres. Levels IV and V will be launched after six months of the launch of the programme.

Each level covers the following learning areas: listening, reading, speaking and grammar. Within each learning area there are a range of online tools designed to provide students with the pedagogical support needed to effectively and

16

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

independently work in that learning area.

The assessment partner in this programme is Cambridge ESOL. Each year Cambridge ESOL exams are taken by over 1.75 million people, in 135 countries. They can help you gain entrance to a university or college, improve your job prospects and measure your progress in English. The Cambridge ESOL examinations are recognised by thousands of employers, universities and colleges, professional bodies and ministry and government organisations.

They are linked to the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) levels; Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and are the only certificated examinations referred to in the framework document as specifically linked to it by a long-term research programme.

They can open doors to higher education, improve job prospects and, because the qualifications are so well known globally, increase mobility.

Gujarat Technological University (GTU) has decided to open a club, under the moniker Universal Development of Integrated Skills through Higher Education (Udisha), which aspires to strengthen the bond between industry and colleges.

The Udisha clubs will help colleges develop understanding of the real requirements of the industry.

Moving towards digital classrooms

There were some students who stated that they learn a lot from their teachers, only a few of them seemed to have a preference for digital method of education. After all, our teachers are only too human, quite often we have cases where students have complained to their parents about the corporal punishments that they have suffered in class. When teaching is being imparted through digital interfaces, corporal punishments will naturally get avoided.

In last two years there has been a concerted move towards leaving behind the chalk and talk method of teaching.

Everyone has recognised the advantages that can be accrued when you move education into a digital environment.

Education is a Recession free Industry Our children are highly exposed to modern digital systems; they gain much knowledge from Google search and Facebook interactions

By Manjual Shroff, Founder and Pro Vice Chairperson— DPS, Ahmedabad | www.calorxdps.org

W

ith lot of new ICT technology coming in, education is now a happening industry. Education is being recognised an industry that offers lot of revenue. It is an industry that does not seem to be affected by the recession that affects other sectors. It is not impacted by the phenomenon like the rupee slipping in comparison to the dollar. The education sector can also benefit a lot if FDI is allowed. There is already lot of talk about allowing FDI in education space.

From chalk boards to digital boards During a recent session at two of our schools, we asked the students if machine would be better at teaching as compared to a real teacher. In a country like USA the answer to such a question would be a resounding “yes.” But this is India, a country where we still believe in the human element. We respect the institution of gurudeva. Hence we had a kind of mixed response from our students.

18

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Benefits of going digital Think of the entire data management, your student management, your fee management, the process of continuous evaluations, everything gets completely streamlined. The teacher is completely free to devote himself or herself to the exercise of creativity. The maximum standards in education can be achieved through a process of digitisation. The abstract difficult curriculum comes alive and becomes easier for the student to understand when there is multimedia way of teaching.

In USA almost 50 percent of the students do their higher education online. But in India the reach of online education is still quite small. What we are following is a system of blended learning, which incorporates aspects of both – the conventional as well as technological. We need more digitisation in the education space. It is lot easier to teach students when you are using the medium of videos and pictures.

Today students are highly exposed to technology. We like to call today’s students the Facebook generation. Now try to imagine how easy exchange of information between teachers and students can become if teachers started using Facebook.

Moving towards digital classrooms

Supporting the Learners

Digital education can be effective only if teachers can ensure that students pay attention to what is being taught

By Vandana Lulla, Director, Podar International School, Mumbai | www.podarinternationalschool.com

I

t is a fact that by the time they are 21, most students have been exposed to educational content that is more digital and less textual. The digitisation of the educational content has had a seminal impact on the learning preferences of the students. Why do students go to the web? It is difficult for people like us to find an answer to that question. It seems as if the teens are connected to everyone, yet they are isolated. They prefer to send emails to friends rather than talk face to face.

Students versus faculty Most of present day students are multi-taskers. Recently I was at a digital exhibition where I noticed a youngster, 11th standard student, who was using to the internet to create her own blog. She was editing, taking pictures, creating a movie and at the same time she was chatting. Most teens are like her.

They are doing so many things at the same time. They prefer to have the internet on and at the same time read.

The faculty is not prone to multi-tasking. They too are comfortable with modern digital technology, but they prefer to do one thing at a time. We are moving towards digital classroom, where there is striving for honour online. When students are multi-tasking, they often make mistake in their online conduct.

Perhaps teachers can control how students behave when they are online. As there is over-abundance of material in the online space, students can develop short attention spans. Teachers can help them in overcoming these issues.

Rise of digital tools Teachers using the digital medium have more instruction time, as all the notes and other material created during a class lecture can be saved and emailed. We have all kinds of digital tools for providing education. For instance, there is Virtual Lab, through which students can observe chemical reactions. The tool called Cyber Science is now being used by many teachers for bringing about an improvement in the quality of their teaching.

A large number of tools are available online to bring about an improvement in the quality of teaching that happens in our schools. Children use YouTube videos to interact with educational material. At times, they also upload projects that they have created. I believe that students should be encouraged to upload more of their stuff, as this will allow them to become more creative. Their thought process will become more streamlined. Also, there is no dearth of websites that offer free content for teaching.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

19

Moving towards digital classrooms

The Classroom of the Future What kind of classrooms are going to be there in the future?

Perhaps the answer to that question can be found in the present trends

By Kartikay Saini, Chairman, Scottish High International School | www.scottishigh.com

T

here is no dearth of technology in the modern educational space. You look around and you see a vibrant imagery of devices, systems, software and infrastructure.

There is so much around us that more often than not it is difficult for us to select the specific technological tools that are best suited to meet our needs. Selecting the right educational technology is an onerous task by itself. You have to do lot of research on not only the tools that are available, but also on the nature of your exact needs.

Facilitators of digital education The search for new technology has to focus not only on the students, but also on the teachers and the administrators.

Training sessions have to be conducted so that there can be a seamless integration of new technology into the classrooms.

Most importantly, there has to be a comprehensive change in our viewpoint and our philosophy of education. Teachers have to imbibe the art of becoming the facilitators of digital education.

Until teachers become the facilitators of digital education, all the interactive whiteboards, smart tools, cloud computing and educational software will not be of much use. The best practise in education is one that leads to inquiry based learning, research based learning. As we can see around us, the learner’s profile is changing. Even children of 8 to 9 years have started learning through digital tools. They are quite comfortable with computers, digital boards and software.

20

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

In fact, it seems as if teachers and the general classroom environment is way behind students when it comes to understanding technology. It has often been found that children are much closer to technology as compared to teachers. The problem is that teachers are teaching what they had been taught, whereas the students have moved far ahead. A better understanding between teachers and students is required. It is necessary that the teachers should be on the same technological wavelength as their students.

If we, as teachers, want our students to learn from us, we have to be prepared to learn from them. We can learn from our students about the ways by which technology can become the inseparable parts of our lives. Many students spend lot of time these days on the Internet, and on social networking sites. Perhaps teachers can use such sites to disseminate teaching material. There is so much that can be done. The bottom line is that new technology has made it imperative for teachers to make fundamental changes in the way they approach education.

Moving towards digital classrooms

Technology Challenges and Digital Insights Teachers feel a greater degree of motivation when they are teaching by the means of digital technologies

By Sreenarayanan P C, Director, Podar International School, Mumbai | www.podar.org

T

he digital system makes it much easier for students to develop the skills that they need to impart value to society. The students need to develop the original skills to solve all kinds of problems. In USA, lot of research has been done by universities to find out what employers are looking for these days. The main thing that they are looking for is that the future generation should be good communicators. If you have a good idea in your mind, but you are unable to communicate it effectively, then it is of no value.

So the students have to learn to think creatively, they must be able to challenge, debate, discuss, and be in a position to make all the crucial decisions. They should also have good planning and organisational skills, they should be able to teamwork. They have to be good at self management. Of course, they also need to be comfortable with using latest technology. It is our job to provide the technological and the educational materials that impart the student will all the necessary skills.

Equipping the 21st century learner To equip today’s learner with necessary skills we need to equip our curriculum with 21st century technology. How do you do that? How do you incorporate today’s technology into the curriculum? This is the biggest challenge that we have.

21

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

At Podar International School, we have managed to address some of these challenges. Few years ago, we replaced our blackboards with overhead projectors. We actually used to write transparencies, which could then be used for teaching in classrooms.

From transparencies we moved to having TV and computers in class. After that we moved on to flat screen computers.

Then came the interactive boards. Now we have students using laptops and iPads in schools. I am of the opinion that the iPad can prove to be a very valuable educational tool. But to make transition from the blackboards to the iPad, we need to have teachers who are adequately trained in the ways of using technology.

Of course, the modern digital technology also makes it imperative for schools to make changes in the curriculum.

The scope of education becomes much broader. Along with the teachers, the parents too need to be trained so that the child has access to best digital interfaces at school and at home. Digital technologies do result in distinct improvement in the quality of education that is being offered. We actually conducted a short-term experiment with two groups of students. One group was provided iPad, and the other was not. The performance of the students with iPads was much better.

moving towards digital classrooms

Things are changing very fast in the educational space; old technologies are transmogrifying into new ones, which promise better collaboration and connectivity

By Dilip Mehta, Principal, Olive Green International School, Ahmedabad | www.ogis.edu.in

Where We

T

hese days it has become fashionable for everyone to talk about ICT infrastructure, digital tools, software and things like that. Such systems have already made deep inroads in modern schools. But they might not remain popular in times to come, when we expect many of our teaching tools to shift into the cloud space. Even today institutes are making use of cloud space to enhance the scope of learning.

Movement towards cloud We can take it for granted that the cloud space is going to become much more important. Today we take copyright issues quite seriously, but in the cloud space copyright might not be applica-

22

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Are

Going Next?

ble. Teachers will be able to access all kinds of teaching material directly from the cloud space and incorporate it into their curriculum. Much of the content in the cloud can be free, but the premium content will carry a price tag.

When the courseware rests in the cloud, then it might become possible for the students to access these on a 24/7 basis. They can even remain in touch with their instructional material while they are at home. However, the success of the cloud based model and other newer systems of education will depend on the kind of technological choices that institutions make. The systems have to be easily usable and they have to be cost effective.

Evolution of technology At least in urban areas, the schools have reasonable budgets. They can afford to buy good ICT tools. But financial considerations should not be the only factor in deciding the kind of tools that schools should go in for. The first thing is to identify the need that a particular institution has, and then we have to go out and find the technological tool that will help us solve precisely that need. It makes no sense to go in for something that is almost two years ahead of its time. The technology implemented today should fulfil today’s need.

In two or more years our needs could have changed so drastically that we might need a different set of technological tools, which are not even available today, to fulfil those needs. We also can’t afford to ignore the fact that technology is evolving at such a fast pace that in two years of time we might have access to a completely different set of tools. The next generation is already immersed in software and gadgets. They know so much about new technologies that at times their knowledge is better than that of their teachers.

Tech companies that are into providing ICT based tools to schools and colleges have to contribute their mite by conducting workshops where teachers can be trained in the usage of new educational technology.

profile

MyClassboard Educational Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Head Office MyClassboard Educational Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Cyber View Towers,Vittal Rao Nagar, Behind image Hospitals, Madhapur, Hyderabad-500081,India Mobile : +91 9246477770, +91 9885678123 Landline : +91 40 65557770 Email : info@myclassboard.com Website : www.myclassboard.com Management Team CEO – Ajay Sakhamuri Head of Technology–Raveendra C A Head of Delivery–Gopi Kasu Contact Person for Clarification G.Ravi Babu - Head of Sales +91 40 65557770

Company Profile MyClassboard is a Hyderabad based education Technology Company established in 2007. With more than four years of experience in the education technology space, MyClassboard is the fastest-growing, most widely used Fully Online School Management System supporting more than 500 schools and 600,000 users across India and Africa. We have a well renowned name globally in the education sector, our various educational products namely www.usmleworld.com, www.collegetestprep.com, www.educus.com, www. myclassboard.com assist more than 2million students and educators worldwide.

Products and Services MyClassboard Fully Online School Management System is an out-of-the-box webbased School Management System that can be deployed on a Software as a service platform for single schools or groups of schools without the need for a great deal of configuration. The application has a vast amount of built-in functionality and can handle everything including student records, admissions management, elementary and secondary exam report cards, fee collections, daily and period attendance, timetable automation and scheduling, picture ID cards, budgeting and accounting needs, HR and Payroll, library, learning management, online examinations, transport management and much more.

january/ 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

23

policy matters

2011 - Year of

Reforms from MHRD The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has taken initiatives for reform in the education sector both at the school education level and at the higher education level

T

he Education sector in India is expanding rapidly to meet the increasing demands that result from rise in the Gross Enrolment Ratio.

Human Resource Development processes have gained high significance in India during the last few years. There is a need for expansion while ensuring excellence and equity. MHRD continues to face huge challenges. The ministry of Human Resource Development is seeking to reform in the education sector both at the school education level and at the higher education level. At the school education level, the implementation of the Right to Education Act (RTE) is the largest area of attention. At the higher education level, the reform is being driven by the process of legislation, which aims at putting in place a structure that will encourage autonomy and growth, with an adequate regulatory framework to check malpractices.

The National Commission for Higher Education and Research The Higher Education and Research Bill, 2011 was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 28th December, 2011. This Bill proposes to create a National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which will be an over-arching body to maintain and coordinate the standards in higher education in the country. The Bill seeks to promote autonomy of higher educational institutions and universities for free pursuit of knowledge and innovation and to provide for comprehensive and integrated growth of higher education and research keeping in view the global standards of educational and research practices. The Commission will facilitate determination, co-ordination, maintenance and continued enhancement of standards of higher education and research including university education, vocational, technical, professional and medical education other than agricultural education.

Progress under RTE Since the commencement of the RTE Act, 38,754 primary schools, 11,918 upper primary schools and 4,98 lakh additional classrooms have been sanctioned under SSA. On National

24

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Education Day (Nov 11), a year long community mobilisation programme was launched to generate awareness about the Act and the rights it vests in the people.

In another development in this regard, guidelines have been issued to exempt Madrasas, Pathshalas and other institutions imparting religious instruction from the provisions of Right to Education Act. There are about 3,000 vedic pathashalas (schools) in India and thousands of madarsas spread across country. Although the HRD ministry had earlier said these religious schools were not covered citing Constitutional safeguards for religious institutions, a decision has now been taken to insert an explicit provision in the RTE law to have clarity.

Entrance Exam Reforms The Ramasami committee, for a countrywide common examination for admission to undergraduate programmes in sciences and engineering, submitted its report, which was deliberated at the IIT council. The idea of reforming the

policy matters

examination process so that there is reduced dependency on coaching, the testing process is aligned to Class XII syllabus, and the multiplicity of tests is reduced, has been considered.

Weightage will be given to the marks obtained by a student in Class XII Board examinations after scientific statistical normalisation of the performance vis-à-vis the average performance of other students appearing in the respective Board examinations, whether CBSE or State Boards. There could be a single national examination to test for aptitude and advanced domain knowledge or for aptitude alone to supplement the weightage given to performance in Class XII. Six options were placed before the Council for consideration and views of the members were sought. Based on the views expressed, the report will be finalised by Dr Ramasami in a month. The report will also be placed before CABE and State Education Ministers for a final decision so that the new system can be put in place by academic session 2013-14. Later, in its meeting, the Council of NITs considered the proposal formulated by Dr T Ramasami Committee on Alternate System for admission to undergraduate programmes in Science and Engineering in the country as presented before the IIT Council and endorsed the same.

The CBSE, for the 11th AIEEE to be held in 2012 after the success of Online Exam on pilot basis last year, and to give students a flexible schedule of examination, has decided to conduct Online Examination from 7th – 25th May, 2012 in 22 cities. In these cities, the exam will only be in an online mode.

AICTE, in order to reduce the burden of students attending to multiple examinations, launches the first National level Common Management Admission Test (CMAT)-2012 and facilitates institutions to select suitable students for admission to all management programmes approved by AICTE for year 2012–13. This initiative has been taken to address the issue of physical, mental and financial stress being imposed on the students through number of entrance examinations conducted by the institutions for admission to Management Programmes in AICTE approved institutions based on relevant judgments in the Supreme Court.

IIT Reforms A Committee constituted under the chairmanship of Dr Anil Kakodkar, to prepare a roadmap for taking IITs to global excellence, was presented to the IIT Council. After detailed deliberations on the recommendations in which various opinions were expressed, the Council decided to constitute an Empowered Task Force for implementation of the recommendations for enhancing the autonomy of the IIT system with the intention of expanding the research output of IITs to produce 10,000 PhD graduates annually from around 1000 presently and increase faculty strength from around 4000 presently to 16000 by 2020. This would enable a large pool of researchers in technology to be fostered along with developing advanced technology manpower needs for promoting economic growth. The Council felt that a national benefit has to be derived from the investment through public

Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development launched ‘Aakash’, a low cost access cum computing device, in October. This device was also distributed among 500 children on the occasion

funds on each IIT student. Therefore, every student at the time of obtaining employment after graduation could enter into an agreement with the IIT for agreeing to pay back part of the expenditure made on him or her over a suitable period of time.

Students who do not obtain any employment or who proceed for a career in research shall not be expected to arrive at such agreement. In so far as modifications to the governance structure are concerned, the Council felt that the issue will be revisited in the next meeting. Each IIT was requested to prepare an accountability mechanism for regulating the exercise of administrative autonomy.

IIM Reforms Every three years there should be an external review of each IIM that could be discussed in the IIM-Council. This was decided in a meeting of the IIM council chaired by Kapil Sibal.

IIMs Calcutta, Lucknow, Kozhikode have put the annual work plan system and teaching requirements along with faculty peer review in place in different ways. In IIM Bangalore, the process of devising a faculty review system after consultations is underway.

In order to expand the search for management solutions in problems of relevance to the nation and society, it was felt that IIMs have to take the lead in conducting programmes and organise curricula in areas such as energy management, academic institution management, health management, agriculture management, etc. in the meeting of IIM Directors, it was decided to set up a Task Force for establishing the contours of such programmes.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

25

policy matters

First Indo-US Higher Education Summit in Washington Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, and the US Secretary of State, Ms. Hilary Clinton, launched the expanded U.S.-India Higher Education Dialogue as an annual bilateral event to map out strategies for partnership in the field of education between the two countries, in Washington, in October.

The two sides endorsed the resolve of the stakeholders from academia, government, and industry to take forward the following areas of consensus arrived at during the Summit:

Every student at the time of obtaining employment after graduation could enter into an agreement with the IIT for agreeing to pay back part of the expenditure made on him or her over a suitable period of time National Vocational Education Qualification Framework Vocational education has been an important area of concern in providing choices to youth for skills development in relation to the needs of the economy. The Coordination Committee set up by the Ministry, with the involvement of the National Skill Development Corporation and the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (an institution under the Planning Commission) has prepared a National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework. Round Tables in several sectoral areas (automobile sector, media and entertainment sector and communications and IT sector, in the area of hospitality and tourism and on infrastructure and construction sector ) have been held. Committees were constituted to define course curricula in these sectoral areas to dovetail with NVEQF. A committee of ministers of education of nine state governments, headed by the HRD minister of Bihar, Shri PK Shahi, was constituted to prepare a roadmap for implementation of the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework. The committee has submitted its report and it has been accepted.

26

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

International Conference on Education The Ministry of Human Resource Development organised a threeday International Conference on “Women’s Literacy for Inclusive and Sustainable Development” from 8th to 10th September. The President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil inaugurated the Conference. Fourteen countries including India participated in the Conference, essentially the participants were SAARC and the E-9 countries.

These list of countries include: Brazil, China,Indonesia, Egypt, Nigeria, Mexico, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan and Nepalbesides India.

The three-day Conference had sessions on subjects such as Centrality of Women’s Literacy to Inclusive and Participative Development, Emerging International Perspective on Adult Education and Lifelong Learning, Innovations in Design & Delivery of India’s Adult Literacy Programme and International Cooperation for Promoting Adult Education. An Outcome Document was put out at the conclusion of the conference.

For MHRD, 2011 was an eventful year, in terms of announcing new initiatives. With the introduction of National Vocational Education Qualification Framework, expectations from vocational streams for better output have grown. The Aaksah launch was a landmark achievement for the government to enhance the reach of education. However, it attracted criticism on the technology front.

Government will release an advanced version of Aakash Tablet after getting the feedback from countrywide users. In a young country like India demand for cheap tablets is expected to be high. The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has issued guidelines to all deemed universities regarding the regulation of their fees, faculty performance and compulsory accreditation. The important announcement was made in 2011 that the Higher Education and research bill will be passed in 2012 to establish an overarching regulatory body for university education, including professional, medical, vocational and technical education.

Are your students geared up Are Are your your students students geared geared up up Are your students geared up to achieve? totoachieve? achieve?

to achieve?

Learning is our most enduring activity. Throughout life, as we go to school, learn a musical instrument,master amost discipline or enhance our professional skills, we’re all perpetual students.

Learning Learning is our is our most enduring enduring activity. activity.

Throughout Throughout life, life, as we as go we to goschool, to school, learnlearn a musical a musical And it’s our collective achievement learners, thatprofessional makes skills, education the success. instrument,master instrument,master a discipline a discipline or enhance orasenhance our our professional skills, we’re we’re allkey perpetual all to perpetual students. students.

AndAnd it’s our it’s our collective collective achievement achievement as learners, as learners, thatthat makes makes education education the the key key to success. to success.

Learning is our most enduring activity.

Throughout life, as we go to school, learn a musical At Edutech, we’re focused on helping institutions at all levels drive learner achievement by instrument,master a focused discipline or enhance ourexperiences, professional skills, we’re allachievement perpetual students creating personalized and on engaging learning the kind that when achieved At Edutech, At Edutech, we’re we’re focused helping on helping institutions institutions at allatlevels all levels drivedrive learner learner achievement by by And creating it’s acreating our collective achievement aslearning learners, that makes the key toachieved success. on wide scale can bringand about big and measurable change in learning outcomes. personalized personalized and engaging engaging learning experiences, experiences, theeducation the kind kind thatthat when when achieved on aonwide a wide scale scale cancan bringbring about about big big andand measurable measurable change change in learning in learning outcomes. outcomes.

At Edutech, we’re focused all levels drive learner achievement So don’t waiton helping any institutions longer.at Contact us now andby creating personalized andwait engaging learning experiences, the kind when achieved So So don’t don’t wait any any longer. longer.

Contact Contact usthat usnow now and and get your students geared up to achieve! on a wide scale can bring about big and measurable change in learning outcomes.

get getyour your students students geared geared upup toto achieve! achieve!

So don’t wait any longer. Contact us now and Edutech provides Edutech Edutech provides provides get your students geared upClassroom to achieve! capture, control and response systems Learning Management Platforms Learning Learning Management Management Platforms Collaboration Tools Platforms

Classroom Classroom capture, capture, control andsolutions and response response systems system Digital language labscontrol & library

Collaboration Collaboration ToolsTools Solutions Testing and Assessment

Digital Digital language language labs labs & library & library solutions solutions Custom content development

Edutech provides Testing Testing and Assessment and Assessment Solutions Solutions

Custom Custom content content development development

Learning Management Platforms

Classroom capture, control and response syst

Collaboration Tools

Digital language labs & library solutions

Testing and Assessment Solutions

Custom content development

(T) +91 44 2833 0999 | info@edutech.com | www.edutech.com

INNOVATIVE MODELS IN EDUCATION

Reforming the Education Sector Instead of following the trends developed elsewhere in the world, we need to start creating educational products that others can use

By Dr Akshai Aggarwal, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat Technological University | www.gtu.ac.in

I

n Gujarat, the Gujarat Technological University (GTU) has a major role to play in the education space. GTU owns 95 percent of the total technology related seats in the state’s education sector. Hence any improvement in the quality of technology education being offered in the state must begin with GTU. Speaking about the entire country, there is no doubt that in the field of education we have failed to keep up with many other parts of the world. Till 1985 we were nearly at the same level as China, but we were far behind Japan. Now even China has raced ahead. Other Asian countries like Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea are also ahead of us. If other Asian countries can be home to many top universities, then why cannot we?

It is not as if we are not capable of being at the top of the educational space. There is no dearth of talent in the country.

Finances for setting up of educational infrastructure are also not that big a problem. Our students are quite intelligent. They often prove their intelligence when excel in foreign universities, and even in Indian universities.

28

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

The quality of our faculty is also quite good. However, it is true that the number of teachers is not enough to take care of the education necessities of all our students. In fact, in many western universities faculty of Indian origin is doing a remarkably good job. Indians are being prized as teachers.

Perhaps the problem exists in the Indian educational system as a whole. In our education system, it is not possible for the teachers to carve a niche for themselves and grow on their job.

It is also possible that we have lost our desire to innovate in the educational space. The Indian civilisation is one of the oldest. We have a long tradition of excellence in education. But now we have lost track. After independence we have had the green revolution, the white revolution and many other interesting developments. Unfortunately a similarly beneficent revolution has eluded us in the education space.

This needs to change. We need to focus more on education. We need to bring in innovation and focus on using modern digital tools. It is education that serves as the foundation for every other sector in the country.

INNOVATIVE MODELS IN EDUCATION

Creating

Innovative

Models in Education While digital learning cannot be a substitute for teachers, it can be used for expanding the reach of education

By R P Gupta, Secretary, Primary Education, Government of Gujarat | www.gujarat-education.gov.in In India there is a large rural population that lacks access to quality education. It is the primary task of responsible government to ensure that all the children in the country have access to minimum levels of education. It is to achieve this very aim that the Parliament has enacted the Right to Education Act. Since the passage of the act, it becomes our statutory responsibility to ensure that every corner of the country is covered by the elementary education system.

Higher education requires lot of investment from the government and from the industry. It also has a commercial aspect. You can’t leave the higher education totally on the government, but that has been the case in India to a large extent. In the private sector, the tendency is that a lot of people who have absolutely no interest in higher education, get into the space, and start institutions that often result in the creation of unemployable graduates. Lot of money gets wasted without any benefit to the student community or to the society.

Education through e-Governance In Gujarat, the e-Governance format has led to many improvements in education during the last three/four years. All examinations from SSC onwards have been taken online. We also have a system that uses the online medium to provide monthly feedback on students to their parents. In fact, any interested party can access the performance report of the children. They can also get the information on the education institutes available in any particular area. The education portal that the state is developing is geared to create more levels of interactions in the educational space.

The state of Gujarat envisions having all the classrooms in the state incorporated with technological hardware and software, so that the teaching-learning process can be improved. Most of our students in government run schools are from poor backgrounds and at home they might not have access to devices and even Internet. So it will benefit them a lot if they can interact with technology at school level.

The e-Governance system in schools envisages, computer education, a centralised educational material disseminated through e-learning, and online transactions between the various stakeholders.

We are not providing computer teachers to the schools. Our strategy is to provide trainers who can coach the teachers who are already employed in the schools.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

29

INNOVATIVE MODELS IN EDUCATION

30

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

INNOVATIVE MODELS IN EDUCATION

All is not

well in Education There is very little improvement that modern digital tools can bring into the field of education, if our philosophy of education is not right

By Prof Sudhir K Jain, Director, IIT Gandhinagar | www.iitgn.ac.in

W

hen I was a child, I went to a school called Dharamvati Veera Nursery School. Later on I joined the Raja Jwala Prasad Intermediate College. It was then a trend in small towns in India to name institutions after some reasonably wealthy philanthropist. Raja Prasad, the founder of the college where I studied, was an engineer from Roorkee.

He built huge canals at a time when the British were ruling the country. He received enough money from his British employers to become rich without having to resort to corruption of any kind. There was a time in India when it was possible for an honest person to become wealthy.

The point is that during the 1930s and 1940s people in the country were setting up educational institutes not for making money, but because they felt that this was the right way to deploy their wealth.

End of philanthropy in education In modern India a different sort of system has developed. The government started by saying that we will take care of everyone, and individuals need not worry about things like education. We created this system of “grants” to expand our college infrastructure. The government makes the investments in educational infrastructure and pays the salaries to the staff, the education system is heavily subsidised. But this has killed philanthropy. The practise of wealthy people contributing towards education has stopped. The money that the wealthy people have come to own, has started to move in a different direction.

Some of the famous universities in the country have been created by the government, but what has happened to these universities. Once they were at the top, but now their reputation has started taking a beating. The government pays the salaries of the professors and the administrators. If the salary is not enough, there are strikes. The focus of our education-

ists has turned towards making money, often at the cost of the education that they have to offer. The entire university atmosphere has started to deteriorate. Some private universities have come up. But as we do not allow profits to be made in the educational space, entrepreneurs use unethical methods to make money.

Opening ourselves to the world Is there any top ranking university in the world which does not have an international character? Can we imagine a university in the world that does not welcome international talent?

How many universities in India have International talent? But how many universities have the capacity to have an international faculty? In 1949, when Jawahar Lal Nehru decided that Thompson College at Roorkee will become an university, the first VC was Mr. Hart, who came from England. If you read the history of Thompson College, you learn that one of the reasons due to which Mr. Hart accepted the position was because he was assured of a higher salary. The thing is that India in 1940’s was able to have international talent in education because we were paying better salaries than anyone.

For that matter, Indian professors in England and America are making good income. Can we make it possible that more talented people start entering our education system? That is what I call “Next practice.” We need to get out of this mentality of closing the doors. People from around the world should be able to enter our campuses and indulge in exchange of new intellectual ideas. In the system of education you don’t lose ideas by sharing them. In fact, the more you share, the more you gain.

It is time we admitted the problems that we are facing. We must be able to say that “All is not well,” with the system of education that we have in our country.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

31

eindia 2011 awards awards

eINDIA 2011 Award Winners

Hall of fame OASIS receives the award for Best Government to Business Initiative of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

ICDS-GMIS (Geo-Graphical Management & Monitoring Information System for ICDS) receives the award for Best Government to Citizens Initiative of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

e-Governance of Mineral Administration (Geology and Mining) receives the award for Best Government to Business Initiative of the Year in the Public Choice Category

AISECT Financial Inclusion Model for Rural India receives the award for Best ICT in Financial Inclusion Initiative of the Year in the Public Choice Category

HORTNET receives the award for Best Government to Government Initiative of the Year in the Public Choice Category

32

digitalLEARNING

Online Scholarship Management System receives the award for Best ICT-Enabled eGov Initiative of the Year in the Public Choice Category

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Community Public Private Participation through Community Knowledge Centre Model receives the award for Best Telecentre Initiative of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

eGov Strategies and ICT enabled Initiatives at Chief Minister’s Office (IT), Gujarat receives the award for Best Government to Citizens Initiative of the Year in the Public Choice Category

eindia eindia 2011 awards

IKen Library receives the award for Best ICT Enabled Content for K-12 Education in the Jury Choice Category

Eureka.in receives the award for Best ICT Enabled Content for K-12 Education in the Public Choice Category

Integrated Housing Lottery Management System (IHLMS) receives the award for Best Urban ICT Initiative of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

TeachNext receives the award for Best Assessment Tool Providers in the Public Choice Category

Online Voting System receives the award for Best Urban ICT Initiative of the Year in the Public Choice Category

Extra Marks receives the Special Mention award for Best ICT Enabled Content for K-12 Education

Shodhganga receives the award for Best ICT Enabled Higher Education Institute of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

LK Singhania Education Centre, Gotan receives the award for Best ICT Enabled School of the Year in the Public Choice Category

Gulbarga University Library receives the award for Best ICT Enabled University of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

Lovely Professional University receives the award for Best ICT Enabled University of the Year in the Public Choice Category

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

33

eindia 2011 awards awards

Xcelerate receives the award for Best Open and Distance Learning Practices in Higher Education in the Jury Choice Category

LearningWare receives the award for Best Technology Solutions for Education Institutes in the Jury Choice Category

Community Development Programme using ICT: JNV DAVANAGERE receives the award for Best Technology Solutions for Education Institutes in the Public Choice Category

AMR APARD eLearning Project receives the Special Mention award for Best ICT Enabled Skills Development Initiative of the Year

DigiClass receives the award for Best Use of Technology for Teaching/Learning Practices in Schools (Private Sector) in the Jury Choice Category

SevenHills Health City receives the award for Best ICT-enabled Hospital of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

108 Emergency Response Service receives the award for Best Civil Society Development Agency Initiative of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

34

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Tripura Vision Centre Project receives the award for Best Govt Policy Initiative of the Year in the Jury Choice Category

3D Technology in Education receives the award for Best Use of Technology for Teaching/Learning Practice in Schools (General) in the Public Choice Category

INNOVATIVE MODELS IN EDUCATION

Fostering Creativity The infrastructure in various universities in India is good, but we need to make it even better

By Prof Paritosh K Banik, Director General, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University | www.pdpu.ac.in

P

andit Deen Dayal Petroleum University is only four years old, whereas Harvard University is almost 100 years old.

The practices that Pandit Deen Dayal Petroleum University has developed in last four years may not be the best, but they are highly workable. Right now the university has four schools. As the focus of the university is on oil and gas sector, two schools have been established – the School of Petroleum Management, and the School of Petroleum Technology.

The School of Petroleum Management offers post graduate diploma. And the School of Petroleum Technology offers BE and M-tech courses. As it is not possible for a university to be focussed solely on petroleum and gas sectors, it was decided that two more schools should be opened to cover other streams in the energy sector. So the third school started by the university is focussed on solar power. This is basically the way in which the university has expanded its scope.

The university started with faculties in three streams - Faculty of MGMT, Faculty of Technology and Faculty of Workers. There are plans to expand the faculty system further. For instance, we have the Faculty of Labour Studies, which is a new concept in India. In this course, students can opt according for educational material that is basically dependent on their own interests and skills. A student may have a combination like economics with environment.

The basic purpose of education is fostering creativity in the students. This is what the university is trying to do through the various streams of education. The infrastructure is already good, but we need to make it even better. If we go to the first 100 education centres in India, we will find that the infrastructure is already quite good. The Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University is planning to have more green areas in the campus.

Engineering labs are well equipped. There is also the plan to develop a solar power plant.

Many foreign students flock to the university under the student exchange programme. From the university, the first batch of students has been sent to the university in Houston and Oklahoma. A MoU has been signed with the University of Texas.

ONGC keeps coming to our campus on a regular basis. Remote centres are being planned in Gandhinagar and Surat.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

35

INNOVATIVE MODELS IN EDUCATION

The Concept of 21 Century Skills

st

In order to fully equip our students for the future, the key thing that the educationists require is quality content

By Prof Sridhar Iyer, Dept of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay | www.it.iitb.ac.in

O

n the Wikipedia page, we can find the complete prescription of 21st century skills as provided by the international body called UNESCO. The key thing is the concept of 4Cs - Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity. Unless our students have imbibed these 4Cs, they will find it hard to get ahead in life. What we want to do is to figure out a mechanism to inculcate all these 4Cs into the curriculum.

Rather than waiting till they reach the higher education level, students must start imbibing the 4Cs at an early stage, when they are at Grade 1. So we are attempting to look at what is being taught in computer science in the schools across the country. We found that most of the time, the textbooks available in the market are completely skill based. .

The inOPEN way A bunch of us sat down and wrote books, which are now being offered to schools through called ‘inOPEN,’ a company that we founded. The best thing is that most of the books are free to download from our website. In the last two years, the website has had about 10000 visits from over 100 countries.

So how do we achieve these 4Cs? This is something that you can find in our books. Often we have classes that are compartmentalised, so students are not able to take what they have learned in one class and go forward. What needs to be done is that the students must be allowed to keep revisiting the same theme in greater and greater detail as they move into higher classes. Then there is the aspect of thematic integration, which can come from localisation of the content so that students are able to relate to what they are being taught.

Finally there is the pedagogic strategy of what we call guided discovery. This is a system of tutoring, where instead of just standing in front of class and teaching, the teacher plays the role of facilitator. Traditionally it is the students, who put questions to the teacher, but in guided discovery system, it is the teacher who does the questioning and the students try to find the answers by their own means. So the process of education becomes a sort of dialogue between the facilitator and the student.

36

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

#6 June , Le Meridian, New Delhi

#5 June, Mumbai

April 2012, Mumbai

#4

#3 April 2012, Le Meridian, New Delhi

New Delhi

#2 16 March 2012, assocham

1 March 2012, The Claridges, New Delhi

#1

new year... new milestones Lets begin a journey of new opportunities

For Sponsorship Enquiries & Programme enquiries Jyoti Lekhi, jyoti@elets.in, +91-8860651634 Fahimul Haque, fahim@elets.in, +91-9873277808 Divya Chawla, divya@elets.in, +91-8860651643 Rachita jha, rachita@elets.in, +91-9819641110

Organised By

www.elets.in

leader speak national knowledge network

The Backbone for Empowerment in Education The objective of new developments in digital space is to make education available to every section of the society

By Prof Zahid H Khan, FTK—Centre for Information Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi | www.jmi.ac.in

Under NKN, approximately, 22000 colleges and 600 Indian universities are to be connected. While the universities will be connected with 1 Gbps capacity, the colleges will have 10 Mbps connectivity. The various applications under NKN are Countrywide Classroom; Collaborative Research; Grid Computing; Virtual Library; Sharing of Computing Resources, and e-Governance.

T

he National Knowledge Network (NKN) is a state-of-the-art multi-gigabit network for providing high speed connectivity to the institutions in the country. Presently NKN connects 510 educational institutions across India. The purpose of such knowledge network goes to the core of the country’s quest for building quality institutions with requisite research facilities and creating a pool of highly trained professionals. The NKN will enable scientists, researchers and students from different backgrounds and diverse geographies to work closely for advancing human development in critical and emerging areas.

38

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

ICT initiatives in education National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India that proposes to spend ` 4,600 crore on building the ICT infrastructure for higher education institutions. Out of the total budget, Rs. 2,000 crore is to be spent on e-Content development based on the syllabi designed by University Grants Commission (UGC).

There is a provision introduced by the ministry that any college and university can start or submit a project. The Ministry gives ` 7 lacs for a course of 40 hours that can be floated by any university and college. The beauty of this initiative is that none of the projects get rejected. The projects are accepted with few modifications. All the content is made available at the official portal - Sakshat. The contents are available free of cost in the wiki model. The university and college teachers have been assigned to create content.

National Programme of Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) has been started by the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) to make the content (audio, video, etc) available to the students in the higher education space. The objective has been to make education accessible to everyone one.

ict infrastructure

Effective Digital Education If used effectively, digital education can be used to transform students into independent individuals

By G R Sivakumar, Principal, Delhi Public School, Surat, Gujarat | www.dpssurat.net

A

s a school teacher, my prediction for the future is that the school children in our country in the next 10 years are not going to carry heavy bags. Instead, they will carry a piece of paper or glass. They will take down notes on their digital devices.

Perhaps they might also take audio recording of lectures or even video. Information will be available everywhere, so they will be constantly logged on to their email accounts.

National Knowledge Network (NKN) has started pushing in the direction of digitisation of education. We wish the Government had started from the bottom in order to build a stronger foundation. NKN should have been introduced at the primary school or secondary school levels, because that is where the foundation of the education is laid down for a child. Unfortunately, our primary education has a vacuum and this void cannot be bridged, unless we make efforts towards strengthening the foundation of the formative years of a child.

The three pillars of education are: pedagogy, psychology, technology. We are living in an era of digital renaissance. Some of the technology available to us today is engrossing. Our children are born in this era. We need to allow them to play with all kinds of technology applications. Some of the applications have transcended the level of interactivity. What are the best ways by which we can use technology to enhance pedagogical eloquence? The technology that is available to us today is a great tool. It can be a powerful aid to enable joyful learning to the students.

Now we have a scenario where vast numbers of books have been digitised. But we still need to focus on creating even more interesting and engaging content for our students. The world is evolving at a fast pace, so the nature of our educational content cannot remain static. The educational content also needs to keep evolving.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

39

tech trends in education

There is no denying that technology has made today’s generation smarter, but it might also have made them somewhat selfish

By Dr Hasmukh Adhia, Principal Secretary, Education, Government of Gujarat | www.gujarat-education.gov.in

The

Side-effects of Digital

Learning T

here is a reason for us to feel worried about the future of our students, our professors and our entire education system.

All of us are in favour of enhancing our education system with digital technology, but we also need to be aware of the fact that this technology comes with some side effects. The benefits are many. If implemented intelligently, technology can reduce the cost of education and make it possible for all sections of society to have access to high-quality educational services. But how are we going to deal with the side effects?

Education in cloud It is possible that by the year 2020, no student would have to go to school or college. The entire curriculum might be available on the cloud, which students might be able to access from the comfort of their home or even the playground. We expect broadband connectivity to become widely available by 2020. Earlier we had been thinking that a vast digital library of all the lectures will get developed, but now library is the not the point. Just about every

40

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

bit of knowledge that we have developed could become available in the cloud.

It is possible for us to imagine that the students will stop going to schools and colleges. The professors will be redundant. Why should the students go in for learning from a teacher who is a strict disciplinarian, when they can learn at their leisure from the cloud? We can imagine how boring life will become without the interactions that happen in school and college space. The student could lose all sense of discipline. He might start waking up at noon, and then tell his father that he has all sorts of things to do on the Internet.

Instead of using a curriculum developed by professional educationists, the students might start reading on basis of their own whims and fancies, “aaj main ye padh lunga , kal vo kar lunga.”

If this sort of a scenario comes true, it will be a tough challenge for us. The important point is what will we do with all the professors who have already been recruited. Many of them might become redundant when the students start relying on the Internet.

If you wish to offer Cogmed training in your school, Cogmed training in your area as a Cogmed Practice, function as a trained Psychologist for a Cogmed Practice or as a trained Cogmed Coach, please contact Pranjal Barma at pranjal.barma@pearson.com or on 080 4215 3437.

tech trends in education

Taking

Education Online

When we have a fully online system of learning, students will be able to access educational content without having to come to classroom

By Prof M J Xavier, Director, IIM Ranchi | www.iimranchi.ac.in

I

n places like Ranchi, the connectivity related infrastructure that you find in the top metros is not there. But even the smaller towns do not want to be left behind. That is why Ranchi has taken up distance learning in a big way. I am of the opinion that the classroom mode of teaching has now become obsolete. A blended method of teaching is a better alternative. Perhaps a modern Gurukula method where there is 24x7 teaching is a better option.

The social media has to be integrated with e-learning methodologies, so that the educationists can reach out to larger numbers of students. It is possible to have a system where students who cannot come to the class will be able to attend lectures while sitting in their hostel. We are expecting seamless connectivity between the college and the hostel through NKN (National Knowledge Network). Once NKN is in place, the teacher does not even have to come to the classroom. Perhaps even the students do not have to come. The teacher can deliver his lecture from anywhere, his office, his home, even from another city or abroad.

42

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

However, the problem with this system is that it does not create an opportunity for a personal interaction between the students and the teachers. Students can not just raise their hand in the middle of the lecture and hope to put a question to their teacher. It might be possible for a moderator, or a group of moderators, sitting somewhere in the NKN chain, to offer a kind of call centre facility. When students have doubts they can call up the call centre number and place their question. But the question might not be answered directly by the teacher; it might be some other expert who would do the answering.

Students attending from hostel, study centre and other remote locations will be provided with iPad kind of device that will be configured for receiving classes. Even when students are based in remote locations, bio-metric attendance systems and cameras can be used to capture their image to prove that he or she has actually attended the lecture.

With the launch of 3G services all sorts of possibilities have opened up.

tech trends in education

Bringing Connectivity to Education India is blessed with enormous technological talent; it is time for us to take advantage of this talent for bringing connectivity and efficiency in education Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM Tiruchirappalli | www.iimtrichy.ac.in

A

s These days it has become quite common for teachers to teach on VSAT. As far as I can remember I started using VSAT as a teaching tool in 2000-2001. This is an excellent tool, but it has some limitations. It is difficult to connect through VSAT when it is cloudy, stormy or when there is lightening. In such climatic conditions students and the faculty are unable to connect to each other.

These days many new technologies have emerged that are not impacted by the vagaries of weather. For instance, there

is the cloud space, which continues to evolve at a really fast pace. The need of the hour is to adopt these technologies for bettering the quality of education that is being offered in our institutions. The IIM Tiruchirappalli has its eyes set on many of these new technologies.

I believe in continuous education. There are so many students who aspire to be an MBA, either from the IIM or from any other institute, but they are unable to quit their existing job and attend classes on a regular basis. Perhaps the new connectivity systems can be deployed to make it possible for such students to fulfil their ambitions.

The system of connectivity needs to be strengthened further so that the students living in most far-flung areas are able to reach out to us and take benefit of the knowledge and certifications that we offer. The basic purpose of education will not be fulfilled until education can reach out to the masses. The IIM is ready to perform this task of reaching out, and that is why we are adopting latest technologies.

We are being making collaborative efforts with TCS and few other companies to find out how we can explore this medium of new technologies. The system should be reasonably low cost and provide seamless and efficient connectivity between faculty, institute administration, students, corporates, masses and basically the entire set of stakeholders who are involved in the process of education.

It is indeed true that it might not be possible to find a technology that is perfect. There are bound to be demerits in every system, howsoever well planned and technologically advanced it maybe. But we have to focus on the best of what is already available.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

43

tech trends in education

Integrating Curriculum with the Web The online space offers remarkable opportunities for developing new ways by which students and teachers can interact with each other

By Dr Bhavesh Patel, Director, B. K. Majumdar Institute of Business Administration, Ahmedabad University | www.bkmiba.edu.in

I

n the beginning many of us tended to be somewhat reluctant about bringing new digital technology into the education space, but this was primarily because of the opinion that a technological methodology of delivery might lead to lack of personal interactions between students and teachers. But the realisation soon took root that the digital medium offers several new opportunities for online and offline interactions. Instead of being connected in the campus only, students and teachers can interact at all levels.

Now it is a necessity to have digital mediums integrated with entire curriculum. We cannot do without making educational material available through online mediums.

So what we are basically having is a hybrid model of both online and offline methods. In higher education, we need to give more preference to online tools. This is because higher education students can have other commitments.

Their interests can be better served if they have round the clock access to their lectures and other course material.

Online collaborations in education open up a vista of new opportunities. Imagine the prospect of students from Japan, China and USA logging in for the same course while being situated in their own respective countries.

97.6 percent of all the educational institutions in USA offer online degree programmes. Such programmes are also available in many European universities. Perhaps we can think of these learning programmes as being mobile, but not in the same sense that the cell phone or the tablet devices are mobile. They are mobile in the sense that the teacher is mobile, the content is mobile, the learner is mobile and the devices that are used to engage with the content are also mobile.

For best results, the content has to be delivered in an easy to access contextual manner. There must be room for collaboration, feedback and reflection in the system. When there is online assessment, the process has to be transparent so that there is no scope for cheating. The number of Internet users is on the rise in India. Of course, the Internet penetration in the country is still considerably small as compared to what we have in other parts of the world, but there is a lot we can do to facilitate online learning.

44

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Innovative approaches in evaluation

Expanding Role of ICT in Education

Gujarat is making effective use of ICT based technologies to provide education to children all over the state.

By Manoj Aggarwal, State Project Director, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan | www.gujarat-education.gov.in

M

ore than 80 percent of Gujarat’s six crore population is literate. The state has about 78 lakh children in the age group of 6-14 years. As far as number of districts is concerns, there are 26 districts, 224 blocks, 19,776 villages and number of total schools is more than 40,000. Gross enrolment ratio is increasing and it is now close to 100 percent.

The gender gap in the state has narrowed as far as enrolment is concerned. Similarly, dropout rate for class 1-5 is now close to 2 percent; for class 1 to 7, it is around 8 percent. For more effective implementation of RTE, the Sarva Shikha Abhiyan (SSA) system in Gujarat is focusing on the PPP method of development. We are eager to tap into the expertise of the private sector. We are also taking the help of non-government organisations (NGO) for various needs.

Cutting edge ICT tools are being used to provide better primary education through the SSA. Currently Gujarat is using Geographic Information System (GIS) for school’s mapping. GIS mapping is helpful in providing neighbourhood school details to children in far flung areas. Systems like Migration Monitoring System are also being used to map the movement of children whose parents are always on the move. Broadcast of the study lessons through BISAG is also an important initiative.

ICT is also being used in various Quality Monitoring Systems and the Enrolment systems. The recruitment of teachers is being done online. High speed Internet connectivity to large number of schools has also been provided. Out of around 33,000 Governments schools, computer shall be provided to 22,000 upper primary schools. We will be using computer aided teaching learning which is interactive user friendly to improve the quality of education provided to children.

As quality check is a focus area. Every year, we organise a quality check programme known as Gunotsav. In this year’s Gunotsav, the Gujarat Chief Minister, various ministers, many IAS, IPS officers, and other senior officers visited various school for three days and conducted a survey of the school system. ICT technology is also being used for taking the attendance of teachers as well as students through biometrics.

46

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

innovative approaches in evaluation

Examinations through ICT

There is a need to evolve ICT based methodologies to resolve the myriad logistical challenges in the process of examinations

By Dr Veera Gupta, Secretary, Central Board of Secondary Education | www.cbse.nic.in

W

hile conducting exams we face problems that are purely logistical in nature. There are so many paradigms that are constantly evolving in the examination process that we have to keep coming up with new strategies. For instance, while conducting some major exams, we have to hire numbers of trucks for delivering the question paper to hundreds of examination centres.

We take all kinds of security measures during the distribution process, yet issues of leakage of papers often crop up. The collection of examination papers, and having them corrected lead to problems of their own. Storing the papers is also a big challenge.

ICT is a great help Last year CBSE tried the online system of examination for which four thousand students had opted. This year CBSE has provided the option of online examination to around one lakh students. When we use online test, many of the logistical challenges get automatically resolved to a large extent.

The issue of secure distribution of question paper gets eased when we have online exams. Chances of question

paper leakage also get minimised. Currently the process of online marking has been launched as a pilot project. We are developing a system where the answer papers can get scanned and be examined by two to three examiners.

If answer sheets are stored online the process of retrieval becomes much easier. Currently, we hire big buildings to keep examination copies, but with ICT our level of infrastructure requirement will come down to manageable levels.

The issue of the evaluation methods being used has often been subjected to lot of criticism. So far we are using paper and pencil test methods, in which only knowledge based questions can be asked. It is very difficult to ask applied questions using paper and pencil methods. With the help of ICT the evaluation system will be transformed, and applied and skill based questions can also be taken care of.

Then there is the last important aspect that is certification.

Examinations must lead to students being awarded a certification, which is a logistical exercise of large magnitude.

There have been instances of forgery in the past. So CBSE is trying to develop an academic depository of certificates in which CDSL and NSDL may become the vendors.

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

47

innovative approaches in evaluation

Assessing our

Students

The traditional system of examination based assessments is not enough for us to accurately judge the ability of the students

By Ceaser Disilva, Principal, SGVP International School, Ahmedabad | www.sgvp.org

Few questions that can help in making effective assessment strategy • Does testing help our students?

• Are students being measured correctly?

• Is the info biased?

• Is the test reliable?

• How are the scores interpreted?

E

ven though we are aware of the fact that convention practices do more harm than good we keep treading on the same beaten path. The real purpose of assessment is yet to be realised. We take assessment as a tool to judge the learning outcome and no attention is paid to judging a student’s ability. Our education system is so well organised that from kindergarten itself, we teach students how to tackle

48

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

examinations and get good grades. As a result most students get trained in examskills rather than in real learning.

There always are a few students who are unable to fit into the system.

Perhaps the education being doled out is too mechanical for them. We call these students “special.” We have faced such problems many times. There are many students in our schools who fail to perform. An analysing of their answer sheets shows that most of them are weak in basic skills. We placed these students in the SNC (Special Needs Students) category and we designed a special curriculum for them. We removed certain topics of the syllabus that they found difficult to comprehend and added topics that they were interested in.

Of course, we kept the parents of these students informed.

Initially some teachers were apprehensive about the project.

They felt that we were discriminating against some children.

But the benefits of the project started showing up in less than six months. The children in the SNC category came to the level of general students.

P U NG rchm a a I m h h H t COMI c 16 sso DEL a EW N

Following the success of 2011, eHEALTH once again presents Healthcare Leaders’ Forum Series 2012

coming up mumbai, june

• Create a vibrant platform for senior industry leaders to share business experiences • Provide opportunity of mutual learning among industry players • Showcase existing success stories and best practices in healthcare industry • Germinate new business ideas and winning strategies rends and analysis

• Current market opportunities of healthcare industry • Investment trends in healthcare sector • Policy initiatives and economic factors for success • Medical Devices and Technology • Emerging business models in healthcare • Human resource and workforce development • Future trends and analysis

hyderabad, august

• Government visionaries, Health secretaries • CXOs of healthcare organisations • Senior administrators, HODs and business managers of hospitals • Investors from private equity and venture capital firms • Vendors and suppliers of hospital materials, technologies, equipments and devices • Healthcare consultants and experts

For updates visit healthcareleaders.eletsonline.com

Innovative approaches in evaluation

Assessing

Students

Through ICT Assessment is a process of interpreting evidence on basis of which the teachers can decide where the learners stand in their learning

By Brinda Ghosh, Principal, JG International School | www.jgcampusindia.com

I

f we think of our children as plants, then we can say that a summative assessment of the plants is simply the process of measuring them. The measurements might be interesting to compare and analyse, but by themselves they cannot affect the growth of the plants. Formative assessment on the other hand is the gardening equivalent of feeding and watering the plants, and it is something that directly affects their growth.

Assessment for Learning (AFL) Much of what teachers and learners do in the classroom can be described as assessment, which seeks to find out where learners are with their learning, if they are lacking, then the way has to found to bridge the gap. So the first goal should be to discover how much the learners know. Summative tests are generally conducted at the end of the year. These are useful in providing overview of how the students are faring as compared to each other.

The results can also be compared from a year-to-year basis.

AFL focuses on learning rather than on teaching and it includes all learners in a culture of high expectations. It makes every learner special by making learning worthwhile and en-

50

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

joyable. It also enriches the learning experience. AFL is about teacher and learner recognising where learners are now, where they want to go and how to bridge the gap.

Role of ICT Modern ICT tools can also be helpful in enhancing the scope of education. As the iconic futurist Alvin Toffler has said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and re-learn.�

Digital education makes is easier for people to gain new knowledge. But even as we provide education to students today, we have very little knowledge of what the students will require twenty years from now.

Therefore the question that needs to be addressed is - what do our students need to learn today to be prepared for tomorrow? There has to be a shift from industrial mode of schooling to one that focuses on equipping students for knowledge economy. Our students must have the ability to seek, synthesise and critically think about the over-expanding volume of information that is now available in the world.

digitalLEARNING Presents

Blockbuster

th

issue February 2012 Exploring the Future of Education Featuring • School Innovators

• Higher Education Innovators

Round up of digitalLEARNING’s journey of 75 Months Insights from Leaders, Industry, Academia Interactions with thinkers, innovators, experts Tech Trends, Directions, Plans

• Vocational Education Leaders

• Industry Stalwarts

www.digitallearning.in

eindia 2011 awards Exhibition

eINDIA 2011

Exhibition

52

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

eindia 2011 exhibition eindia awards

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

53

event report

FICCI Higher Education Summit 2011

Strategies for

Expansion in Indian Higher Education

The three key parameters of effective education system in any country are access, equity and quality.

By Shobha Mishra Ghosh, Director, FICCI and Rajesh Pankaj, Deputy Director, Education, FICCI

Access The unprecedented growth in Higher Education during the past two decades has been due to public sector expansions during Eleventh Plan period, as well as private sector growth particularly in some of the large states of India. Today, private higher education accounts for about four-fifths of enrolment in professional higher education and one-third in overall higher education. In the long run, it is anticipated that the private sector investments will be much higher. According to FICCI-E&Y analysis, to achieve the 30 percent target GER by 2020 for an inclusive growth as desired by the government, about 25 million additional seats need to be created over the next decade. Assuming that the private sector would continue to account for 52 percent of total enrolment (as in 2006), Rs. 0.52 million crore per year investment is required.

Equity Equity or inclusion is the other issue that Indian higher education system is grappling with. Currently, the proportion of students availing scholarships is as low as 2 percent in comparison to 85 percent in UK, 77 percent in Australia and 50 percent in USA. Further, the interest rate on Education loans is as high as 11.75 percent in India as compared to 3.37 percent in USA and UK, 7.50 percent in Canada and 2.40 percent in Australia. Planning Commission in the Twelfth Plan has proposed a large scale expansion of financial assistance through several interventions such as creation of a credit loan guarantee authority to provide student loans and guarantees thereof, subsidy on interest loans, and student-driven scholarships. This would make loan availing process much easier for the students and they can make informed choices.

Quality The third and most critical aspect is ensuring quality in Indian higher educational institutions. It is paradoxical that not a sin-

54

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

gle Indian University features in the top 100 list of any of the ranking agencies, viz. Times Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao tong University Ranking and QS Asia. In certain quarters it is felt that ranking criteria used by all three ranking organizations are skewed towards the developed countries where the top world class universities like that of Stanford, Harvard, Oxford, etc have been in existence for hundreds of years, there is no denying that this myth has been broken by many Universities in South East Asian countries - University of Hongkong, Nanjing University in China, National University of Singapore, etc. all of which have emerged as world class institutions in just about a decade or more.

Some of the key elements that will contribute towards creating World Class Universities are elaborated below: • Studies clearly state that the autonomy and performance of universities are mutually exclusive and are logically interconnected. One needs to re-examine the existing governance models and strategise effectively to promote and achieve academic excellence. Setting up Internal Quality Assurance Cell within an institution to promote self-regulation mechanism in both public and private higher education institutions and universities.

• Mechanisms should be created to provide public funding to encourage both public and private universities/higher education institutions with potential to become world class. Both public and private sector universities should compete for public funds allocated for research, scholarships and grants to foster healthy competition in the sector.

• The skills and competencies need to be mapped and identified for correct leadership of higher education in the diverse and complex eco-system of India. Leadership should have a sense of focus, direction, understanding of the industry’s needs, ability to create conducive eco-

Conclave of Global Leaders in Education Thematic Sessions Confluence of Thinkers, Innovators, Experts Expositions on Digital Technologies Interactions with School and College Leaders

Awards: Recognising global innovation and excellence in education

Where Education Takes Centre Stage highlights • Power tracks on

> School Education

> Higher Education • Ministers’ Conclave • Secretaries’ Conclave • Industry Leaders’ Conclave • Education leaders’ conclave

For Sponsorship Inquiries: Fahimul Haque, E: fahim@elets.in, M: +91 8860651632 For Programme Inquiries: Sheena Joseph, E: sheena@elets.in, M: +91 8860651644

Organisers

www.worldeducationsummit.net

event report

Currently, the proportion of students availing scholarships is as low as 2 percent in comparison to 85 percent in UK, 77 percent in Australia and 50 percent in USA

system and deal with complex task of managing regulation. In today’s context, academic leadership is plagued by crisis of conduct. There is an urgent need to provide formal administrative training along with a code of conduct to the heads of academic institutions (Vice Chancellors, Directors and Deans, etc) without affecting their autonomous powers.

• It is widely accepted that one of the critical components in a world class university is the presence of an effective industry connect with that institution. This practice has a tremendous snowball effect in promoting quality assurance in the day to day functioning of the institution. Lack of appropriate Industry-academia linkages and engagements have been identified as one of the critical reasons for the lack of quality graduates in the country.

Against this backdrop, FICCI has initiated setting up of National Knowledge Functional Hub (NKFH), a hub and spoke model to facilitate quality graduates graduating from Tier II and Tier III Engineering colleges. NKFH is envisaged as a collaborative framework of academia and industry, focusing on specific industrial verticals. Leading industries and academic institutions in a region would come together to form a hub to facilitate mutually beneficial linkages. The hub would create and sustain a network of spokes with other industries and institutes in the region and would have the patron Institute and the Champion Industry. The NKFH would primarily work towards; • Creating a mechanism for sustained Academia – Industry

56

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

Linkages to ensure effective and efficient engagement for mutual benefits • Enhancing the employability of graduates through development of appropriate skills relevant to the Industry verticals • Aligning higher education, technical education and research with the current and future requirements of Industries Currently, FICCI is in the process of setting up a Governing Council for implementation of the NKFH across regions; in 2012, it proposes to set up 5 Hubs in the country in collaboration with patron institutions and champion companies.

All the above issues were discussed during the 7th FICCI Higher Education Summit 2011, a two day Global Conference, on “Strategies for Expansion in Higher Education in India” on November 11 & 12 in New Delhi supported by Ministry of Human Resource Development and Planning Commission, Government of India .Over the years, the Summit has grown in stature and has become international. This year it witnessed the participation of more than 650 Delegates, including 100 foreign delegates representing University Presidents and Deans from countries like Canada, UK, Scotland, USA, Singapore, Ireland, China, and Taiwan.

Exhibition at the conference was an additional attraction for participants to showcase their programmes and products to the school and colleges students from NCR region and the captive delegates.

More than 1000 students from Delhi and NCR visited the Exhibition this year.

There were 100 One to One interactions between foreign and domestic universities facilitated during the Summit.

This is not to deny the fact that the uncertain regulatory environment in the country has deterred committed private higher education providers to enter the sector and opened doors for fly by night operators that often maligns the entire private higher education sector. It is hoped that the Twelfth Plan will consolidate the reform agenda. There will be clear guidelines from government to facilitate inclusion and regulation. The most urgent need today is implementing the pending Bills in the Parliament. FICCI urges our political leadership to pay attention to this crying need as lack of reforms in higher education impacts the future of an entire generation of youth.

www.digitallearning.in is the oldest and leading source of information on ICT in education

on G t n e m m o C talLEARNIN i dig ries nts e sto t comm lished Bes be pub print will onthly in m ion edit

For the last eight years this website has been providing far reaching and incisive commentary on education space

latest news, articles, interviews and case studies at www.digitallearning.in One of the most visited sites by prominent stakeholders in the education community

eAsia report 2011

Asia’s Premier ICT Event Marks its Presence at Bangladesh www.e-asia.org

Honorable Prime Minister H.E. Sheikh Hasina Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Architect Yeafesh Osman, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology, Government of Bangladesh releasing a postage stamp on eAsiA 2011 to mark the 40th year of independence

The eASiA initiative was introduced to facilitate a common space for all the stakeholders allowing them to share their experience through face to face consultation, online consultations, discussions and communications. This forum provided an opportunity to reach out to the appropriate community with adequate knowledge resource materials. It became an effective forum for a quick knowledge exchange which would be instrumental in preserving and adding on to the knowledge as well as resources while keeping it dynamic in order to meet the changing needs.

58

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

eAsia report 2011

Chief Guest HE MD Zillur Rahman, Honorable President(centre), People’s Republic of Bangladesh Architect Yeafesh Osman, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology, Government of Bangladesh (left) and other dignitaries on the dais graced the occasion at the valedictory function

I

nformation and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have transformed the very concept of development and growth, bringing disparate communities together in virtual interactive communities of shared experiences and understanding. This revolution has shaped social changes that necessitate a rethinking of what it means to be part of a community since lack of access to the knowledge society invariably means exclusion from the social, economic and political decision-making process.

The 5th eASiA 2011 provided for a knowledge platform to gather thought leadersips, scholThe audience attending the inaugural function in the ‘Hall of Fame’, BICC ars, practitioners, policy makers and government functionaries, academia from across Asian countries and beyond to exchange, collaborate and become engaged in a continuing dialogue ultimately leading to appropriate, innovative and ground-breaking policy solutions. It provided for a platform for strategic knowledge building community aiming at developing, identifying, and sharing emerging practices on the integration of ICTs in various facets of growth and development in governance, education and health.

The 5th eASiA 2011 was organsied at Dhaka, Bangladesh to commemorate the 40th birth anniversary of Bangladesh and celebrating Digital Bangladesh agenda of the government from Architect Yeafesh Osman, Honorable State Minister, Ministry of Science and December 1-3, 2011 at Bangabandhu International Convention Information and Communication Technology, Government of Bangladesh Centre (BICC). Bringing more than 200 international leaders (left) felicitating Chief Guest HE Md Zillur Rahman, Honorable President, as speakers from across the globe, the event kicked off sucPeople’s Republic of Bangladesh january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

digitalLEARNING

59

eAsia report 2011

Key Sessions: Co-creation: Citizens in the role of service providers An appropriate Telecommunications Regulatory framework to maximize citizen’s benefits Telecentres Sustainability to bridge digital divide Cost effective Healthcare services using ICTs ICT enabled Future Classrooms to increase learning outcomes Redefining pedagogy: Teachers as mentors and guides ICT enabled Agricultural Services to be accessible, available and cost effective Application development for mobile platform Best practices in safeguarding digital content

Honorable Prime Minister H.E. Sheikh Hasina Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh attending the exhibition

Prime Minister (centre), Dr MP Narayan, President, CSDMS(left), Sajeev Wajed Joy, son of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (right) and State Minister (extreme right)

Prime Minister visiting the eAsia expo 2011

60

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

cessfully with the inauguration by Honourable Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The Prime Minster, in her inaugural speech, emphasised that the government wants to build the new generation as technology-friendly human resources by providing skills in ICT in different sectors of development such as governance, education, healthcare, agriculture, outsourcing, among others.

Releasing a postage stamp on eASiA 2011 to mark the 40th year of independence, the Prime Minister also highlighted the need for a global cooperation to build an eco system around the drive for ICT for Development.

In line with the four key strategic pillars of Digital Bangladesh vision, eASiA 2011 comprised of unique thematically inter-related conferences: Building Capacity, Connecting People, Serving Citizens and Driving Economy. The conference spanning over three days with more than 35 sessions, witnessed a footfall of more than 25,000 visitors and participants.

The exhibitions provided a great platform for knowledge sharing, showcasing projects, programmes and initiatives of government and private sector agencies and corporations, as well as for demonstrating innovative ICT products, solutions and applications for various domains, which were covered under the scope of the event. There were also pavilions of the countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, China and Japan along with two special pavilions from Nordic countries. eASiA 2011 Awards night was witnessed by the distinguished guests including the Honorable Minister for Planning and Honorable Minister for Science and Information and Communication Technology. The eASiA Awards were instituted with the primary aim of felicitating and acknowledging unique and innovative initiatives in the use ICT4D. The award categories were chosen in alignment with the five themes of the conference: Building Capacity, Connecting People, Serving Citizens, Driving Economy and Breaking Barriers. Among 38 finalists, 17 awards were given in the gala event held on the second day of the conference.

The valedictory session was presided by the HE Md Zillur Rahman, Honorable President, People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

product profile

Vivitek Introduces 2D to 3D Conversion Technology in India Vivitek’s line of projectors have in built conversion technology, which converts 2D content into 3D pictures, without the use of an external box

V

ivitek Corporation, manufacturer of innovative visual presentation products, has announced the shipping of its 2D-to-3D D5 series of projectors. The new D5 projectors, the D512-3D, D536-3D and the D538W3D, feature conversion technology that seamlessly take existing 2D content and convert images into 3D pictures, without the use of an external box.

The first in Vivitek’s line of projectors to utilise this built-in conversion technology, the D5 series takes standard DVD and Blu-Ray content (via HDMI) and switches it from 2D to 3D. The three projectors can also display 3D content from 720p/1080i at 50/60Hz and 1080p at 24Hz from 3D Blu-Ray players or other 3D sources, such as cable or satellite boxes.

62

digitalLEARNING

january / 2012 www.digitallearning.in

The D512-3D, D536-3D and D538W3D feature DLP and BrilliantColor

technologies for bright, digital images.

Add in high-efficiency lamps that last up to 4,000 hours (in economy mode), and the three projectors are an amazing lightweight, presentation solution.

Hemant Agarwal, Senior Director “This new technology represents a breakthrough for Vivitek. The 2D to 3D built-in conversion enables consumers to enjoy 3D content without needing to set-up an external box. These projectors offer great image quality and a variety of connections for multiple video sources.

We’ve packed a lot of features and technologies into the D512-3D, D5363D and D538W-3D projectors”

Specifications • • • • • • • • • •

Resolutions: D512-3D native SVGA (800x600) | D536-3D native XGA (1024x768) | D538W-3D native WXGA (1280x800) 2600 lumens (D512-3D) | 3200 lumens (D536-3D and D538-3D) 3000:1 contrast ratio Connectivity options include: HDMI, VGA, S-Video, Composite, RS-232, Mini-Jack audio-in, RCA audio-in Keypad lock feature to avoid accidental change to the settings Rapid on/off feature Built-in 1W speaker Enhanced color and display adjustments Weight 1.9 KG Price: D512-3D INR 37,950| D536-3D INR 53,130 and D538W-3D INR 57,684