Knowledge is Sharing : August 2008 Issue

The monthly publication on ICT and Education

digitalLEARNING Volume IV Issue 8 August 2008 ISSN 0973-4139

Rs 75

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Knowledge is sharing

Let’s Make Education Accessible, Equitable, Relevant, and of Quality Interview: Smt. D Purandeswari PAGE 22

Improving Standard of Teacher Education with Technology Interview: Prof. Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui PAGE 28

Leader’s Speak Interactivity in Pen and Fingers Interview: Tarun Jain PAGE 58 India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education

eINDIA2008 Conference Special Issue

Your Say, Your Stake Policy Matters - PAGE 14

Interview with Terry Culver, Executive Director, Global Nomads Group page 53

Contents Volume IV Issue VIII, August 2008

Policy Matter

7

Smt. D Purandeswari

Prof. Mohammad Akhtar Siddique

Commentary: ICT in Schools - Glimpses from AFAR Utpal Mallik

Technology in 10 Infusing Schools - Challenges and Insights Annie Koshi Terry Culver

do we need a 12 Why National Policy on ICT in School Education Ashish Garg

Formulating a 14 India National Policy on ICT in

Corporate Diary

Higher Education

58

40

School Education

Positive Strokes Let’s Make 22 Centre: Education Accessible, Equitable, Relevant, and of Quality Interview: Smt. D Purandeswari, Minister of State for Higher Education

Maharashtra 26 State: Booting on to ICT@Schools

61 64 67 73

Programme Interview: Sanjay Kumar, Principal Secretary School Education, Government of Maharashtra

28

Interview: Prof. Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui, Chairperson, NCTE

Survey

in School Education: 36 ICT Tenders

42 New Communication

Technologies in Distance Education C. Jeba Kumar and Dr P Govindraj

Leader’s Speak Tarun Jain, Country Head, Hitachi Home Electronics Asia Raj Shah, Chief Marketing Officer, NComputing Shantanu Prakash, CEO, Educomp Solutions Ltd. Sridhar Rajagopalan, Director, Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd.

Innovation: Science Education- Today and Tomorrow Tangirala Vishal

75

Empowering Educators Raising High! Improving Standard of Teacher Education with Technology

Deepak Pental

78 79

Case Study: Resurgent Rajasthan - Intel Initiatives Acclerating Progress Innovation: e-Blocks - Learning English with Stimuli Innovation: Projectors With BrilliantColor Technology Juan F Alvarez

81

Innovation: SMART Board Interactive White Board - Built to Last Nancy Knowlton

University of Deli: Aiming at Global Standards Interview: Deepak Pental, DU Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University

Empowering Schools

48

Setting Quality Standards in Schools Interview: Meera Balachandran, Director, EQFI

Going Global

53

Exchanging Classrooms Interview: Terry Culver, Executive Director, Global Nomads Group

Power School

55

Breaking the ICE! Technology in JNV Interview: P Ravi, Principal, JNV, Karnataka

Regulars

84

Mark Your Calendar

News

32 34 52 70

India Asia World Corporate

All the articles are available online at www.digitalLearning.in

digital LEARNING INDIA Volume IV, Issue 8 | August 2008

President M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Group Directors Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor Assistant Editor Manjushree Reddy email: manjushree@digitallearning.in Research Associates Rachita Jha, Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Shilpa Sahay Research Assistant Angela S Nath Marketing Siddharth Verma (+91-9811561645) email: siddharth@digitallearning.in Sales Executives Rudra Ghosh, Fahimul Haque Subscription & Circulation Lipika Dutta (+91-9871481708) Manoj Kumar (+91-9210816901) Sr Graphic Designer Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Graphic Designers Om Prakash Thakur, Chandrakesh Bihari Lal (James) Web Zia Salahuddin, Amit Pal Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digital Learning G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA 201301, India Phone +91 120 2502181-85 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLearning.in digital LEARNING is published in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies.

Owner, Publisher, Printer, Ravi Gupta Printed at Vinayak Print Media E-53, Sector 7, Noida, U.P. and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida,| UP Digital Learning Vol 4 Issue 7 July 2008 Editor: Ravi Gupta

Editorial Knowledge is Sharing...

There is a need to develop a broader view of knowledge for dealing with the way in which new digital trends influence the underlying conditions in schools, universities, pedagogy and subjects...

Digital Learning India 2008 conference aims at stimulating discussions on the latest advances in e-Learning, new applications of technology, new approaches to education.

As Socrates famously said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living,’ our Digital Learning India convention, coming after a year along with eINDIA2008, seems as good a time as any to pause and reflect.

This special issue of Digital Learning, to be released at the conference, highlights whether a broader view of knowledge and the digital revolution can generate new ways of how we perceive technology within a new educational reform, particularly in India.

The focus is particularly angled towards the implications this may have for developing new practises for teachers, students, service providers and for the community at large.

To be successful, the synergy approach requires that the education community design new tools for the users whose feedback from concrete user scenarios is analysed throughout the process. Diverse users force the designers and service providers to really listen to their feedback while creating functional educational tools. The special issue in an effort in this regard. We have tried tracking important directions in educational research and have also tried to provide an overview of studies, commentaries, opinions, etc highlighting the multiple relationships between technological and educational approaches.

We have also tried to contextualise the themes of the conference in this special edition.

If it fails to be regarded as a description, then we hope at least it can be regarded as one possible understanding of the context.

We would like to thank all the speakers, conference chairs, the reviewers, and each and every member associated with our annual ICT for Education event. Our special thanks to all the experts and policy makers who have contributed to this special issue.

Happy reading!

Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in

MESSAGE

Several steps have been taken to expand the horizon of education, starting from the primary education to higher learning, at the government level, at all the stakeholder level.

While we fail to distinguish between the use of new technologies for teaching and learning across the whole gamut of education and ICT as a subject, it has now become obvious to be critical about the emphasis being put on just one area. Doing away with it will entirely miss its relevance for all disciplines as it is now being regarded as a new literacy.

Everyone gears up for this new digital revolution, where e-Learning replaces the tried and tested didactic methods that have been used successfully since the advent of formal education.

Ministries around the world are largely working on how to bring in true ICT literacy by making learning accessible anytime, anywhere.

It has been tough for everyone including ministries so far to assess the actual impact of using digital technology and communications tools. Digital Learning Special issue aiming to provide a broad spectrum of all such shortcomings and the inroads to overcome is certain to bring in new hope in this direction.

I am happy to note that CSDMS is organising eINDIA2008 conference with a key focus on ICT in Learning, Governance and Health issues. I am glad to note that the issues around ICT and Education are being discussed in great detail. These deliberations are important for growth of usage of ICT in our educational systems from schools to colleges. I am pleased to see that my ministry is actively participating and supporting this path breaking event. I wish this event a great success.

I am also pleased to note that 'Digital Learning', India's first monthly magazine on ICT in Education is bringing out a special issue on the occasion of eINDIA2008. I wish this magazine all the success too.

(D. PURANDESWARI) MOS-HRD (HE)

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ICT in Schools

Glimpses from Afar

Utpal Mallik [utpal.mallik@gmail.com], Head, Department of Computer Education, National Council of Educational Research and Training

From leaders in the government to leading pedagogues, all face decisions as to why and how to integrate ICT (read computers and the allied technologies) into education of children. The decisions are not easy, because choices are complex and demanding and the impact of the technology on education is open to debate. Research says little to guide decision-makers. To make the matter further complicated, the technology keeps changing.

Social scientists acknowledge the changes that are taking place towards a global, knowledge-oriented economy. There is no general agreement on the pace at which these changes are taking place, but people do agree that the knowledge society - or at any rate, the information society - is here.

South Korea, among the Asian nations, made the clear statement that the goal of its ICT in schools is ‘adapting education to the information age’. The rhetoric that curriculum reform should make use of the technology, to prepare the present and the coming generations for the information age, is also the rationale for new mechanisms for lifelong learning using information technology to bring about changes in the content, process and outcome of education.

This article is a cursory glance at the school ICT programmes in 35-odd randomly selected countries to note the variations in policies and practices and is an invitation for policy analysts to explore ‘what’ is happening to technology-mediated educational processes, ‘where’, ‘why’ & ‘how’.

The available policy statements from different countries converge on two prominent themes, namely, ‘ICT skills for all’ and ‘ICT integration to enhance the teaching-learning processes’. The latter often gains support from the assertions that integration of the new technology calls for Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

a new pedagogy and that the new pedagogy is emerging.

Within Asia and the Pacific region, advanced countries like Australia, Singapore and South Korea have policy goals linked with overall national ICT policies – introduce ICT in education to contribute to the knowledge society for economic development, fostering creative industrial manpower, bridging the digital divide and promoting equity in access. All these countries have revised their curricula to make ICT an integral part. Delivery of education is increasingly online. Delivery of teacher training too is rapidly going online. Training of teachers also develops the skills in putting the classrooms online, developing websites and concern for digital rights management and copyright issues.

These countries are also ahead of others in the region in terms of evaluation and monitoring of their practices. Malaysia has done a number of experiments with ICT in school education and is better known for its Smart School Project. With the best of the available technology infrastructure, Smart Schools are to promote individual abilities by offering a broad-based curriculum for all with multidisciplinary subjects that are vertically integrated. China, Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and India have national ICT policies and master plans for applying and testing various strategies but have not fully integrated ICT within education. Then there are countries like Myanmar, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan and Pacific Islands, either with national policies but not enough resources to implement them, or without policies, yet running pilot ICT projects in schools.

ICT skills for all The basic skills keep changing as the technology changes. Programming skill,

which was a major goal in the 1880s, is no longer a goal in the majority of countries, except Bulgaria, China Taipei and the Russian Federation. During the last 10-15 years, there has been a clear shift in the meaning given to the concept of ICT skills for all. In the early 1990s, computer skills were taught in courses that focused on the use of general purpose software, like the ubiquitous office suite. Today, the focus is also on the use of the Internet and the WWW in assignments and tasks performed inside and outside the school.

Teaching ICT skills separately, independent of what they are taught for, is more prevalent in Asia than anywhere else. In most Western European countries and in the United States, ICT skills are taught as part of other school subjects. In the UK, ICT as a discrete area of study is embedded in other subjects and teachers of noncomputer subjects share responsibility for teaching basic computing skills.

Technology integration into curriculum is gaining popularity as the desired model for computers in education. Most countries have policies or policy statements that require the use of ICT to be integrated in all subjects, but those with decentralised education, like the US, have realised those policy goals to a greater extent than others.

In Central and Eastern Europe, where the education systems are rigid and under centralised authorities, the picture is less encouraging.

Policies on ICT as a school subject are prevalent in certain regions of the world.

Almost all Central and Eastern European countries, save for the Slovak Republic, have separate ICT courses as part of their secondary school curricula. The list of countries also includes Bulgaria and China Taipei, where computer science and related courses are elective subjects at the senior

secondary level. The use of ICT as a medium for teaching and learning of other subjects is also part of the national policies in these countries but has not been implemented due to various constraints.

ICT integration to enhance teaching-learning process The curricular context of ICT integration is implicit in the policy statements in many countries, which is reflected in statements like, “ICT should be part of students’ everyday learning” (Iceland), “application of ICT in the whole learning process” (Lithuania), and “use of ICT in essential learning areas to enhance learning” (New Zealand). ‘ICT in education’ policies of Catalonia (Spain), Germany and Singapore are clear in that ICT is seen in these countries as facilitator of the emerging pedagogy which has the potentiality to make learning student-centred and more engaging. However, boldness of the policy statement does not make its implementation less difficult or problematic, as has been experienced by France, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, the UK and the United States.

The emerging pedagogy is a more rational approach to information society than the traditional pedagogy, but it calls for changes in all components of the learning process.

Some innovative practices across the globe make curriculum changes aim at developing skills important for information society, make learning meaningful to students, cross boundaries of traditional subjects and change assessment practices. Such innovations are rare. Few of these have succeeded in breaking down the school wall to the outside world or in making learning independent of time and space.

High expectations from multimedia, or the Internet and the World Wide Web have not been realised in practice, take any country in the world. Yet there is stubborn optimism that the technology would increase student-centred teaching and students’ skills in problem-solving, in measuring and controlling events, in doing investigations and in constructing knowledge.

Communication and collaboration between schools is a remarkable feature of ICT use in education in Europe. European

national networks play a role in distribution of educational information and also in promoting connections between schools, teachers and students. School networks in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and The Netherlands are for schools to communicate and engage in collaborative activities. The Swedish Schoolnet is a website for teachers, useful for integrating technology in the classroom. In Denmark, Sektornet connects majority of schools to the Internet. On the Dutch Kennisnet site, each user from the school community can construct a website with materials that could be of use for others. Australia, where there are many schools located in remote and isolated territories, has established networks to connect schools.

Staff development Adoption of emerging pedagogy is linked to staff development. In several countries, there are ‘benchmarks’ or ‘ICT driving licenses’, which list ICT competencies for teachers. These benchmarks indicate the teachers’ readiness to change their practices.

The priority given to staff development varies in different countries. Two extreme positions are illustrated by New Zealand and China Hong Kong. The former is the singular example where professional development of teachers has been consistently high on the agenda for educational ICT for the last fifteen years or more. Schools seek funding for the infrastructure only when they produce strategic plans that meet the criteria established by the government.

A significant component in that plan is the provision for teacher empowerment.

Contrarily, in China Hong Kong, only 4% of the ICT budget is allocated to staff development and the major share for building infrastructure.

Leadership is important to support introduction of ICT in schools. Cyprus, Germany, Singapore and New Zealand have special arrangements for the professional development needs of principals.

Singapore implements its “Principals First” programme to make school principals among the first to receive professional training.

The increasing presence of ICT in schools in many countries has led to the emergence

of new roles and functions for professionals in the school sector, which are usually not carried out by school teachers.

In more affluent countries, this has evolved into the provision for a computerrelated personnel structure in the school system for technical support and coordination.

China Hong Kong and China Taipei attach much emphasis on developing teachers’ skills in using ICT and the abilities to create multimedia courseware. In systems where ICT across the curriculum has recently started, and the ICT infrastructure in schools are relatively low, as in some Eastern European countries, the focus is more on technical skills. By contrast, in Western Europe, and the Czech Republic, European Computer Drivers’ License is the benchmark for teachers’ ICT competencies for teaching. In the US, preparing teachers means helping them construct their own understanding of how to teach with, not just operate, technology. Finland locates its in-service teacher training within a nationwide Information Society Strategy and in developing knowledge and skills to reform pedagogical practices, “especially with regards to collaborative teaching and learning, networking and team work”. Finland anticipates that “the information society, the genesis of a digital and global economy, and the development of the media require substantial changes to the culture of work and professional competence”. Professional development for teachers is organised within this broader context.

The lesson There is no single or universal formula when it comes to applying ICT in education nor a piece of advice that can be directly applied without considering each country’s priorities, long term budgetary prospects and commitment. Crafting a new future for, and with, the emerging information society, through achievement of new curriculum goals via emerging pedagogical practices, is the job before educators. The national policy in any country must have a built-in implementation plan and a sound evaluation strategy. Clear achievement standards and performance indicators will provide accountability. At the end of the day, the policy is judged by results, not intentions.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

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Infusing Technology in Schools

Challenges and Insights Annie Koshi [koshi2000@yahoo.co.uk], Principal, St Mary’s School, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi

The nation as a whole is looking at a variety of methods to educate the children of this country. Technology has slowly but surely in the last decade or two made deep inroads into the field of education especially in main stream, urban schools. Once considered the strong point of private, elite, city schools, technology now finds a place in Kendriya Vidhyalayas, Navodhya Vidhyalayas and even in local government schools. With the advent of NGO’s into the education system in India, an IT led revolution in the way education is transacted in rural schools, adult literacy programs and vocational training institutes is in force.

NGO’s backed by IT related business houses feel that the sure shot way of imparting education on a large scale is through the use of technology. The lack of well trained, educated teachers in both rural and urban areas is also a reason for agencies to see IT as an alternative to teacher led education.

It is imperative that we understand the demands that are placed by children on a comprehensive education program before we look at the benefits and challenges of introducing technology into schools.

Most importantly it is necessary for us to understand the enormous role that communication and interaction play in the growth and maturity of young children. In this day and age where technology driven innovations such as mobiles and games have only served to isolate children, we need to take into serious account that physical, mental and emotional development are the cornerstones of an all round education.

People and organizations that look to introducing technology in schools are faced with the great challenge of retaining the personal touch of teachers while reducing the relative alienation

10

and isolation of the world of technology.

The need to develop responsible citizens of tomorrow is yet another dimensional requirement of education. Mental and emotional literacy and basic education are required for people to manage their daily lives and participate in the democratic processes; vocational skills enable participation in the economy; and higher education enables Indians to play a more effective role in the global knowledge economy and international affairs. Given this insight, the challenge to technology is to find a way to address these various issues.

India has one of the largest networks of schools in the world. During the last six decades the system has grown manifold in size both in terms of institutions and enrolment. With the thrust of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan the nature of the Indian education system has shifted from a system for the privileged to a system of mass education. But while we may use the term mass education, as educationists we need to be aware of each individual and his/her unique gifts and challenges.

The importance of inclusive education has been reiterated often enough in various national and international documents.

“Regular schools with inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, building inclusive societies and achieving education for all.” Salamanca Statement(UNESCO 1994) Inclusive education takes care of the various dimensions of emotional, mental, psychic and physical by getting children to interact with a diversity of abilities.

Technology that recognizes difference and celebrates it would be hugely

beneficial to schools with an inclusive profile. Reducing the reach and scope of technology to only children with typical abilities will not only be discriminatory but also unconstitutional.

Another consequence of the expanding system of schools, with ever increasing enrolment and acquiring of mass character, is the increase in the complexity of school management. While the system demands new knowledge and skills from the teacher and head teachers it also demands greater capability at the school level to respond to the emerging diversity in the student population and among those entering the teaching profession. In effect, changes in the characteristics of the system have made the role of the school teacher and the school management system even more critical than what it was earlier.

In the struggle to use and to infuse technology, there has been an overemphasis on merely building teachers’ technology skills. Yet knowing how to use a computer does little to guarantee the successful infusion of technology into the teaching and learning process.

Teachers must be offered training in using computers, but their training must go beyond that to the instructional strategies needed to infuse technological skills into the learning process in classrooms. The use and abuse of the internet and how to tackle it is another crucial area that teachers need to be trained in, provided that the government is able to get an efficient system of internet connectivity in place. Broadband service should not be a luxury. It should become a basic part of the infra structure of education since it could decrease inequality in a country where huge disparities exist in the dissemination of knowledge.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

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Why do we need a National Policy on ICT in School Education?

Ashish Garg [ashish.garg@gesci.org], Country Programme Director - India, Gesci

Most developing countries do not have a concerted Policy on ICT in School Education.

The reasons can be many; they have decided that they do not need a separate Policy on ICTs in Education, already have an IT policy with sections on Education or have a Telecom policy which has references to both IT and Education.

The mere establishment of a written national ICT policy for School Education has value in itself, even though it is quite clear that ICT policies do not and cannot exist in isolation.

They have to take into account a range of other policies and existing frameworks such as education policies, information policies, trade and investment policies, and cultural and linguistic policies. At a minimum, it conveys the message that the government is progressive and intends to pursue the utilisation of ICT in society seriously. Governments, because of their inevitable role in policy making should assume a leadership role in the implementation of ICTs in schools. They must aspire to become role models by putting policy into practice and creating sustainable mechanisms to keep the policy updated and dynamic, so that it can keep pace with the fast changing technology in the business world.

That is the ideal situation; the truth is that ICT evolution will take place ( as we have seen) with or without a systematic, comprehensive and articulated policy. While there is no denying that some good will come out of the process, it is also a fact that it will inordinately delay the journey, cause huge wastage and leave out large tracts of communities that can most benefit from the use of technologies.

So why do we need a specific Policy on ICT in School Education? While there can be several reasons for this, some of the most plausible reasons are: 1. A National Policy on ICT in School Education will enable the country’s government and its people to develop and participate in an “envisioning exercise” that provides a prelude to where we are headed with all this investment. It will help channelize government funding and the tax payer’s money into sustainable mechanisms of educational development which are likely to benefit generations of school goers.

2. A National Policy on ICT in School

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3.

Education will perforce have to provide a linkage with the country’s National Education goals and enhance existing education policies and frameworks.

Traditional education delivery mechanisms are not meant to suddenly encourage incorporation of technology tools. Deep rooted, systemic changes have to be made so that the country’s education system can adopt and adapt to new age technology tools. This requires thorough assessment of the existing systems and a clear understanding on the capacity to which they can adapt to change. The policy development process, if it is an open one, will throw up all these challenges and seek to address these issues. Failure of most ICT pilot programmes to mainstream, scale up or sustain is caused by the single factor of not being linked to the over-arching, larger educational priorities of the country. For eg; The IT Action Plan of the Government of India ( 1998),the Education Policy (1986 and subsequent amendments) and the National Curriculum Framework ( 2005) provide recommendations for what should be happening in schools, making generous provisions for promotion of ICT in schools. However, these recommendations are less likely to be implemented unless supported by a policy defing a robust implementation strategy.

It therefore calls for a strong marriage between the IT Policy, the Education Policy and the National Curriculum Framework(2005) A National Policy on ICTs in School Education will encourage new technology tools to be used in teaching and learning. This will help in knowledge creation and knowledge sharing among key stakeholders and community of practitioners. ICTs are all about new collaborative learning tools and having free and open access to information.

Undoubtedly, technology can succeed in influencing outreach, access and creating new tools for learning and teaching, but these are less likely to emerge on their own without the support of sustainable frameworks and policies.

& Company , the essence of the challenge is to transform today’s fragmented, supply-driven, largely uncoordinated pilot efforts for ICT in education into efficient, demand-driven, coordinated end-to-end systems implemented by strong partnerships involving all key players.

There are more reasons too for developing a National Policy on ICTs in School Education, some of which are elucidated below : A national vision on the use of ICTs will provide the country with much needed direction, focus, guidelines and aid to prioritize the initiation and implementation of ICTs in Schools. This will result in huge savings as large school groups (and even State school education departments in the present scenario of centralised decision making) can leverage economies of scale in their purchase of hardware, software and content. Specific norms and standards can be created for development and use of curricular content, Teacher training on ICT and for student assessment.

When large school groups take a collective decision, it is more likely to be governed by real need rather than by professed need articulated by corporations and businesses that have access to the ministry. These decisions are also more likely to involve communities of parents who are professionals and who can provide unbiased advice on most things the schools wish to purchase.

ICT is developing fast and most technologies can be harnessed to address endemic issues of access, equity and quality. Delay in adapting to ICTs can cause loss of precious time and deprive many school-leaving teenagers the possibility of exploring new career options that require a good understanding of technologies.

There are more reasons yet, all of them supporting the need for an “end to end framework” or a comprehensive National policy to guide the use of ICTs in Schools.

Reference 1.

`Capturing the Promise of a Global e-Schools & Communities Initiative’ – report by Mckinsey

According to the feasibility report by McKinsey

& Company to the UN ICT Task Force.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

ICY L O P RS E T T MA

India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education Expanding the multi-stakeholder perspective

Ministry of HRD Govt. of India

How do teachers, administrators and policy makers feel about their experiences with technology? Is there a balance between teaching about technology as a subject, and as a tool for learning? Has the technology integration proved financially, technically and administratively sustainable over time?

In continuation to our discussions on formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education in India, and our attempt to make the discussions more wide, open and collaborative, we are producing the discussions that the UN Solution Exchange (www.solutionexchange-un.net. in\en) Community members have reflected on the key thematic pillars like ICT Infrastructure, e-Content, Capacity Building, Innovation and Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, Quality in School Education, and Public Private Partnerships in a series. In this issue, we are presenting a part of the discussions happened on the issue of Public Private Partnership. The July issue of Digital Learning has produced the e-Discussions of the UN Solution Exchange Education and Development community on the e-Content.

As we know, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (www.education.nic.in), Government of India, has already initiated the process to formulate the ‘National Policy on ICT in School Education’. The Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (www.gesci.org), a UN ICT Task Force founded organisation, along with Centre for Science, Development, and Media Studies (www.csdms.in) provides strategic assistance to MHRD in the preparation of this policy.

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August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Public Private Partnership Five queries were posted on the issue of Public Private Partnership(PPP). Four responses were received from both the ICT for Development and Education communities of the UN Solution Exchange.

Queries Respondents How should the public-private partnerships be effectively built for enhancing proper usage of ICT tools in school education?

List out the different models of PPP that have been tried addressing the specific aspects of efficient implementation of ICT in school education delivery systems.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of such associations? How do these partnerships differ from vendor-client relations?

Can learning outcomes of children be enhanced using the PPP model in delivering ICT tools for school education? How does corporate experience on delivering quality education address this aspect?

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• •

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Anindya Kumar Banerjee, Panchayats and RD Department, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata Gurumurthy Kasinathan, IT for Change M V Ananthakrishnan, Developmental Infomatics Lab, KReSIT, IIT Bombay, Mumbai Madhusree Banerjee, Independentant Consultant, New Delhi

Are there any examples of PPP in Vocational Education, and the key challenges faced?

Four responses were received on the theme of Public -Private Partnership.

Anindya Kumar Banerjee, Panchayats and RD Department, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata

‘Rapid change in technology has to be utilised by all stakeholders to get the best delivery mode’ It was discussed earlier as well that choosing the variable stakeholder will mean a great ‘CAUTION’ since they will be responsible for the ‘most difficult’ portion of the entire process of ‘educating’ the students without vested interests. The PPP partner should have certain skill sets like: 1. The partner should have been in the education sector for at least 5 years 2. The partner should have an employee strength to match the project size and a ‘reserve bench’ to fill vacancy at short notice 3. The partner should have BOD or head of the project from the education/academia so that its easy to ‘communicate processes’ 4. The partner should deposit a written assurance that they would re-invest at least 10% of the earnings from the school in preparing School Databases for teachers, students and it means not only infrastructure but software, multimedia presentations, etc.

From my personal experience, the current scenario has changed only a bit since early 1990s when PPP began in Madhya Pradesh, where I used to live, by AISECTBhopal. Other states in South India and also the East followed with tie-ups with educational organisations like NIIT, Aptech, etc but they could not make ICT compulsory till now at most places. Hence earnings have deteriorated as a PC cost has come down drastically. A local unemployed youth invests in a cyber cafe which he/she Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

uses to train the school students at half the cost, hence the school loses students to these cafes which charge less and give more training.

Advantages of PPP: • Employment opportunities for many unemployed IT trained youth, • Computer Education at young age lays a good foundation for the students for higher education • Computer has been used by teachers to make their job easy by avoiding the writing hassles (result preparation, notifications etc) • Used for school management system software • Internet has enabled more general and basic knowledge • Education due to e-content has given a good impetus to students ability to retain things for longer duration Disadvantages: • Good faculty members do not get paid in accordance with the industry as it is not a compulsory subject • School teachers often disapprove and advice students not to join computer courses fearing loss of students in tuition classes in summer • School teachers on government payroll are getting less amount of salary than these private trainers • Exposure to radiation as specifications are not followed in the absence of a policy or improper updation of technology 15

PPP will definitely help enhance the capabilities of students as private trainers always have a fear of losing job and hence outperform.

a few schemes to attract PPP to collaborate with the governments for creating and running primary schools – in rural, as well as urban areas.

The quality standards have to be set by the policy makers and reviewed every three months initially or six months at the maximum or else rapid change in technology will never be utilised by the stakeholders to get the best delivery made.

I, or maybe other members in this forum, are perhaps unwilling to buy the argument that the private players are interested only in the urban areas. I have been a consultant to such an organisation which works 85% in the rural areas of West Bengal.

‘PPP in vocational education’ There are many such PPP cases in Vocational education at the university level but none so far at the school level as the education system in India is not similar to the US/UK system where more stress is laid on hands-on, rather than, textual learning.

But if we can do this, then we will definitely find that the maximum drop out rate of 92% from schools is by the age of 14 years, ie Class 8-9-10. Also, there is a need, which Jayalakshmi has correctly pointed, for establishing vocational senior secondary schools, but not at the primary level of course. However, here is the catch. Almost all of the dropouts get funneled into vocational education that guarantees skills development and ensures employability. This is a non-existing sector in India. http://www.bwpat.de/skope/ppps/11_planas. pdf can be viewed for a presentation pdf. It is a foregone conclusion that the government machinery is incapable of meeting the demand for newer schools. In fact, even the old and established schools need a fresh bout of professional management. I wish that the Finance Ministry announces 16

Imagine, we need at least 3000 – 4000 new schools every year for the next decade and a half, at least. This is after counting all the schools that the state governments across the country plan to set up. Needless to say, the task is humungous and needs to be actioned, now! In China, for example, there are 50,000 vocational senior secondary schools. We do not have even one in India! Correcting this anomaly is long overdue. My sincere wish was the Finance Minister makes it mandatory for each school in the country to offer vocational training courses after school hours (5 -7 PM).

As a pilot, about a 1000 odd government schools could be selected per state, and supported by the local ITI/Polytechnic college to offer these courses to the youngsters in the local community. Financial support, technical expertise, certification from DGVT, scholarships, industry tie-ups and placements for certified students could form an integral part of the scheme.

If required corporate or even technological institutions could chip in their best.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

There should also be some PPP venture into programmes and funding to create centers of excellence in the area of teacher training. The few centers of excellence such as the CET, RTI, etc., need to be upgraded and funded to become the fountainheads of educational leadership. We need principals, district education officers, curriculum leaders etc, in thousands. Our focus on building institutions, which will lead to this capacity building that is directly linked to the nation’s growth, must be understood by the people up there making policy for our future generation. A major issue is absence of good quality teachers in technical institutions like engineering colleges (private one’s).

PPP, in creating the vocational training capacities, needs continued acceleration. The employability figures in the country look gloomy. Young India is devoid of appropriate livelihood and this poses a potential social danger. My work with both IL&FS ETS Ltd as the project manager for the Tata Motors project in Singur, Hooghly district, West Bengal and with P&RD Department in West Bengal has exposed me to the basic issue of livelihood and vocational courses would definitely help.

The scheme to bring more of it into play through PPP needs a greater thrust. The PPP for the entire set of 1600 ITI could be completed in the coming fiscal year itself instead of dragging it over the next two-three years. Also, the programme to create a new breed of modern ‘ITI’ (Industrial

Training Institutes) through PPP needs closer monitoring and financial incentives for better execution. It is a tough task…. but, we are in desperate times as far as employability is concerned, right?

‘We can also think of opening up the FDI for education’ FDI in education is a sensitive subject to a diverse group for varied reasons – politically sensitive to some, sheltered for too long and hence scary to others, sheer inertia to a few more, and so on. However, my view is entirely different and might sound contra-intuitive, too. I see opening up of education sector as a strategic intervention to gain competitive advantage in today’s’ knowledge world. If you look into the NeGP then the recent Capacity Building project is going to create wonders by promoting building and replicating CHAMPIONS accross the length and breadth of the country in a few years of time. Hats of to the team at MIT, DIT under Sri. Chandrasekhar.

KPO: India, from being a knowledge consuming nation, must now dream of becoming a knowledge creating one. For that, each one of us needs to have the best people working in schools, colleges, universities, research labs across the four corners of the country. The best of global institutions and their finest brains need to be attracted. We are uniquely positioned to be doing that today. We must not miss this opportunity while formulating a policy for MHRD, Government of India.

Gurumurthy Kasinathan, IT for Change

‘PPP needed at the implementation level’ To my mind, a separate theme of ‘public private partnership’ is not very relevant to an ICT in education policy. This issue may come at the implementation level where efficiency considerations may demand outsourcing some activities, for instance, technical support. But this is not a central issue in the policy, and in any case private contracting of services and/or equipment is already done by all public institutions.

domains as well, under the belief of ‘needing technical expertise’, which we need to analyse. In the light of above, I will suggest we add ‘the policy making process’ itself to the themes we need to discuss. It ought to be a separate vertical of discussion here.

On the other hand, what is problematic is that under the guise of PPP, business actors are at times given an important role in policy making even when they have direct business interest in the concerned areas. It is obvious that a drug pricing policy should not be directly influenced by a pharmaceutical company. To have software and hardware vendors’ working within ICT in education policy structures is quite dangerous, and can distort the very structural basis of the policy as it can impact its specific aspects towards their own business interests.

Vendor driven policy seems to be an issue not only in the education sector, but in ICTD related policies in other

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

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M V Ananthakrishnan, Developmental Infomatics Lab, KReSIT, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

‘PPPs should be effectively built for enhancing proper usage of ICT tools in school education’ The essential pre-requisites for a purposeful PPP, based on my experiences, are: a) A public system • that is fair in achieving its objectives • that has planned out its modus operandi in letter and spirit • that has the plan ready for implementation once the finances/resources are made available • that has the system in position to get going • that has tested out the modus operandi on a small scale and is sure of its successful duplication • that has a back up mechanism to continue in case of depleted resources from the private partner • that has the belief and motivation in whatever they plan and do b) A private party • that has the honest desire to further the cause of the objectives set by the Public system • that has the know-how to execute the project • that has the essential person-power to assess the viability prior to participation • that has the person-power to add value to the project • that has person-power to actively participate in the implementation phase • that has the necessary mechanism to periodically evaluate the progress • that has the necessary corrective measures in case of any deviations • that ensures that there is a periodic evaluation every six months even after the completion of the project • that sees the benefits to society much beyond its CSR

‘Forming tie-ups like Government-Private Institute-NGO’ The advantages and disadvantges of such tie-ups like between Ministry of Information Technology, Govt of India., IIT Bombay and Vigyan Ashram (NGO) are as follows: a) Advantages: • The NGO becomes the point-of-contact on a regular basis • The NGO is familiar with the local language, the school administration and the relevant issues • The NGO is able to effectively test out and transfer the models/prototypes developed by the IIT Bombay • The NGO facilitates the effective dialogue between the 18

•

IIT Bombay and the school(s) The NGO helps the IIT Bombay in identifying the particular person(s) from each school for regular liaison

b) Disadvantages • Issues on identifying the appropriate technology • Pressure to apply existing technologies (not concerned about the end users sometimes!)

• Pressure to market its own products (which often are ‘misfits’) • Desire to employ its own people on the project • Tendency from the employees to show allegiance to the NGO and not the Project Manager • NGO-selected employees behaving more as reporters rather than ‘change agents’ • Discords between the NGO and the IIT-B on implementation issues…very often resolved. c) Difference with Vendor-Client Relationships • It is not a product but a service

• • • • • • • •

It has no expiry date It calls for a perfect relationship The student is the ultimate customer It calls for an emotional relationship It means ownership on the part of both the parties involved It calls for a sustained follow-up…ideally life-long!

The relationship has to be more of a nurturing and remedial nature There is no modular approach in Education…it is continuous!

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

‘PPP in delivering ICT tools for enhanced learning of children’ • • •

•

•

Enhancement is possible by using ICT to disseminate the best of teaching and instructional resources This approach is best suited for our remote rural schools IIT Bombay has successfully implemented such an experimental study in six rural schools in rural Maharashtra (with NGO Vigyan Ashram in Pabal) The students have been very positive to this methodology (as seen in the rural school in Pabal area) as observed over a period of almost one year The website address is http://www.eshikshak.it.iitb.ac.in

b) Corporate experience in delivering quality education • Corporates have experience in conducting need-based training for their new employees • Corporates have experience in conducting continuing education programmes for their existing employees • Corporates have their training and education programmes…following quality standards as per ISO and SEI-CMM • The programmes have definite objectives which ensure the desired results post-training.

• Corporates suitably add the practical and down-to-earth components…sadly missing in the college degree courses • Corporates can work back from the degree courses to the high school courses/subjects to determine what should be initiated in the school curriculum. This would ensure that the students are project-ready on completing their respective degree courses • Corporates can accordingly advise the high school boards and university boards of studies • Corporates can depute their staff (with a flair of teaching) to handle classes in the third and fourth years of the Degree courses, where electives are taught and essentially need practical applications in the industry • Corporates could take the entire responsibility of the final year project work, right from defining the problem to testing and implementation…to ensure that the project outcome adds value to the company’s line of business and ensures ROI on the investment in terms of stipends/ scholarships

Madhusree Banerjee, Independentant Consultant, New Delhi

‘PPP model: A brilliant way to make children computer literate’

I agree with the observations that are made by Ms. Anjela Taneja. She has brought up very vital issues and pointed out to the dismal conditions of school infrastructure in our country.

However, I would like to bring to notice of the group on the ‘Hole in the Wall’ Project by NIIT. This is a brilliant way to make children computer literate. Of course it would cost Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

money and the investments for this will be much more per school, than what is there at present. It is here that the Public Private Partnership model would come in and help in filling the gap. I am giving the link of the project for more details: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/ 19

Monitoring and Evaluation Four queries were posted on the issue of Monitoring and Evaluation. Three responses were received from both the ICT for Development and Education communities of the UN Solution Exchange.

Queries Respondents What are some of the monitoring and evaluation tools available (share experiences, or case studies) for state governments or central government to measure overall achievement levels of schools and students with respect to use of ICT in school education?

•

• At the school level or children’s level, what can be the most useful M&E methodology for assessing the learning outcomes, and how does that help to encourage introspection, self-assessment and promote dialogue among stakeholders including the local communities for improvement of learning outcomes?

•

Anindya Kumar Banerjee, Panchayats and RD Department, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata Gurumurthy Kasinathan, IT for Change M V Ananthakrishnan, Developmental Infomatics Lab, KReSIT, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

What are some of the key evaluating parameters that must be applied to monitor the effective implementation of the policy on ICT in school education?

Are there benchmark criteria and tools that we can learn from other country experiences?

Anindya Kumar Banerjee, Panchayats and RD Department, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata

‘RBM, the only way to evaluate performance of schools and students on ICT’ I think that RBM (Result Based Monitoring method) framework is the only correct way to measure performance as it will involve all the stake holders to freeze a policy to ensure peek and lean performance and the methodology to measure the same and once frozen all stakeholders have to perform in accordance to the Roles and Responsibilities fixed in the RBM Framework. An MIS may be prepared by the policy makers which can be tailored by different governments in their own perspective without changing the basic framework.

‘Key evaluation parameters to monitor effective implementation of ICT policy in schools’ Please refer these websites for key evaluation parameters to monitor effective implementation of ICT in school education: http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/accountability/Docs/ ICT%20report%20FINAL.pdf http://www.eei.gov.eg/M&E%20files/2942_file_M_E_ICT_ Education_draft_WSIS_optimized.pdf 20

http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.9.html A report from World Bank: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/ EXTERNAL/ TOPICS/ EXTEDUCATION/ 0, ,contentMDK:20264888~menuPK:6176 10~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:282386,00.html August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Gurumurthy Kasinathan, IT for Change

‘Monitoring & Evaluation should be within the domain needs and priorities’ 1.

Supply side based development models which are based on centralized designs and make ‘top down’ assumptions of people (‘teachers are resistant to change’, or ‘lethargy of management’) have been tried several times and have not been found to be successful. While ICTs actual present possibilities for ‘demand led’, decentralized design and participatory implementation and an ICT in education policy should attempt to capitalize on these possibilities within the domain needs and priorities.

Hence, a ‘monitoring and evaluation’ theme that does not situate itself on the needs for professional development of the teacher based on principles of autonomy and agency (elaborated in the NCF on Teacher Education) can end up emphasizing centralized databases that seek to ‘control’ teachers work based on quantitative assessments of

2.

children performance, which can be counterproductive to meaningful education.

This is not to deny the importance of ‘infrastructure’ or ‘content’ or ‘capacity building’, except to state that these perspectives appear to reflect an dominant ‘ICTD’ kind of thinking which is mostly or ‘supply based’. “We have ICTs so let us see what we can do with them”. Such approaches do not proceed from the identifications of the objectives to be met, or critical challenges to be faced, from the respective domain’s perspective. They seek to thrust some overarching technological world views on development domains whose enormous contexts and complexities, challenges and goals are not given the prime positions as drivers of the policy.

M V Ananthakrishnan, Developmental Infomatics Lab, KReSIT, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

‘Suitable evaluation team to be drawn’ I am not aware of any tool that monitors or evaluates in the real terms of the outcomes of ICT implementation. In fact, there seems to be no process to see the sustainability, once the project period is over.

• I happened to attend a meeting on CSR practices in industry recently in Mumbai. What was surprising was NO corporate followed up in subsequent periods/years to see whether their efforts were sustained/improved upon/ losing colour • The UNIDO representative indicated that the UNIDO Questionnaire had no component for evaluating the sustenance of the quality once the main project duration was over I feel there has to be a large independent body of intelligentsia composed of teachers, social workers, past students, parents, reps from the education departments of states/centre and end-users. Suitable evaluation teams could be drawn from this body and asked to visit schools to • Review the state of ICT in schools • Assess the effectiveness of ICT aided school teaching • Understand the issues impeding the use of ICT • Evaluate teacher performance vis-à-vis ICT implementation • Ensure that the school authorities provide all facilities for the successful incorporation of ICT in the teaching and learning strategies • Take to task all erring parties (school, teacher, student, parent) • Suggest measures to reduce the problems and increase the performance through ICT-based methodologies • Involve the local communities in (a) localization of the content and in (b) coordinating field visits to explain real applications of theoretical scientific principles.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Some of the key evaluating parameters, according to me, are: Are the ICT-based methodologies in sync with the existing traditional teaching?

• Does ICT facilitate the teacher in teaching better?

• Does ICT help in explaining abstract concepts?

• Does ICT make learning more exciting?

• Does ICT prod the student to know more, beyond the classroom (say through internet)?

• Does ICT make the student understand better and recall lessons taught during his absence or in manner alien to him/her?

• Does ICT make learning more participative and encourage group learning?

• Does ICT support interaction?

• Does ICT ensure continued progress through enhanced learning?

• Is the ICT-based solution a text-book page turner and contains too much of textual content?

• Is there an excess on animations and cartoons?

• Are the animations too trivial or too complicated?

• Have the ICT-based solutions been field-tested with students and teachers and school boards…before release?

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VE I T I POS OKES STRENTRE C

Let’s Make Education

ACCESSIBLE, EQUITABLE, RELEVANT, AND OF QUALITY

Smt D Purandeswari Minister of State for Higher Education, 22

Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Q As the Minister of State for Higher Education, how do you view the higher education policies and practices in this country?

Higher education has expanded many folds since the time we attained independence in 1947. Post independence, there were about 20 universities and 500 colleges, while today there are over 400 universities and 20,000 colleges. Even the number of faculty has increased from 15,000 to 5,00,000 plus. The Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education, or rather in education, has also risen from 1% to around 10-11%. But this should not make us complacent. There are challenges to be addressed and hurdles to be crossed in making education accessible, equitable, relevant and of quality. I think these are the core aspects which need focused attention.

Q Please elaborate on these core areas and how Ministry of HRD is trying to address them.

When it comes to accessibility, particularly since 2004, we have been trying our best to ensure that every child is able to access education and resources should not be a constraint. We also want to take education closer to the marginalised sections of society, particularly in the rural areas. Private players have definitely played their role in this, but yet there are disparities, like geographical, inter-university, inter-disciplinary, etc.

Talking about geographical disparity, take the case of technical education. Technical education has seen a spurt in South India due to private players coming in much earlier, than in North India. There is also an inter-university disparity in terms of accreditation process as not every university has subjected itself to it, especially with the mushrooming of institutes of higher education.

The inter-disciplinary disparity emerges because there is not much awareness about certain disciplines, for example, civil engineering. Two-three years back there was not much rush for the stream. But today, there is so much emphasis on infrastructural development, but complete dearth of civil engineers.

As far as relevance is concerned, there is a gap between the market requirement and what our universities and institutes are offering. However, we are trying to address it by opening a dialogue with the private sector and stressing on their participation in the curriculum framework.

When it comes to quality, infrastructure is a major aspect that needs to be looked at. We are trying to bring in as many colleges under the University Grants Commission (UGC) funding by giving incentives to state government to upgrade them. Quality-wise there is a shortage of good faculty in both the central as well as state universities, which poses a major challenge. Not many young people are interested in research nowadays or pursue MPhil or Phd since there is lucrative pay outside the teaching profession.

We have taken some measures to address the shortage of faculty by increasing the superannuation age from 62 to 65 years. Faculty can also be appointed on a contractual basis till the age of 70 years provided they are fit to fulfill their Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

obligations. In western countries, particularly, you will find teachers as old as 75 years.

We also have the faculty Early Induction Programme, initiated by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), wherein adequate support is given to those graduates who are interested in pursuing research. We have also increased the number of the Junior Research Fellowships and Senior Research Fellowships and also the grant given to them.

So UGC and AICTE have been taking various measures to lure young graduates into research and thereby the teaching profession.

Q What is the role of Public-Private Partnership here?

Today, our country spends about .81% of its GDP on research and 80% of it comes from public sector. However, in a country like India with geographical and demographic challenges, it is not fair to lean on the government every time. We would like the private sector to play a responsible role and supplement the efforts of the government.

India’s Gross E in education nrolment Ratio is target is to ra 10-11%, the is end of the 11 e it to 15% by the th Five Year Plan

The Ministry of HRD is looking at PPP, particularly in vocational education and setting up of polytechnics.

To come up with a policy on PPP, the government needs to take consensus of various stakeholders. We have opened a dialogue with the private sector and are also in consultation with the state education ministers to see how we all can play our role in PPP.

Q What is the level of support provided by Ministry of

HRD to the states?

The Centre has always been supportive of the state governments. For example, elementary education is completely a state subject. But in it we have the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and the Mid-Day Meal scheme for schools, which are centrally supported. Infact the states are asked to submit proposals to the Centre, which are normally accepted, unless there is misutilisation of funds.

As far as higher education is concerned, UGC, which is a statutory body under the central government, has been 23

supporting the state universities. So there is no way the government of India is shying away from its responsibility.

Here, I must emphasise that though India’s public expenditure in higher education has increased to 6% of the GDP, unfortunately we have seen an increasing expenditure from the Centre. Earlier, the ratio of government-state expenditure was 20:80, which has now increased to 24:76. This needs to change and states need to shoulder more responsibility.

Q What are the reasons for India still lagging behind in ICT integration?

Although Edusat was a very good beginning in that direction, we do agree that ICT has not been used to its full potential.

People talk about US$100 laptop, but do not realise that US$100 means spending INR 5000 per child. With infrastructural problems like power supply, trained manpower, etc, glaring in our face, our priority should be to put the

The Ministry of HRD is looking at PPP, particularly in vocational education and setting up of polytechnics

Q What role do you foresee for ICT in education?

India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio in education is 10-11%. But if you take developed countries like US, Canada and European countries, this ratio is 40 to 60%. In developing countries, the ratio is 21%. The international average is about 23% and for a country to be economically stable we need to have a gross ratio of atleast 20%. Even China has a ratio of 15%. Keeping this in mind, the Planning Commission of India has kept a target of raising the Gross Enrolment to 15% by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan. I think, ICT has a greater role to play against this backdrop, as we are looking at reaching remote areas and marginalised sections of society. And ICT definitely provides the kind of space for learners who want to pursue education at their own pace and convenience.

Integration of ICT in education is therefore a good opportunity for both the country, where focus is on increasing the gross ratio; and learners, who can pursue education anytime anywhere.

24

infrastructure in place before latching on to such schemes. I don’t think any other country, except for China, faces the kind of challenges we have in terms of demography. We need to holistically keep our challenges in mind before formulating a policy.

Q What is the message emanating from Ministry of HRD for stakeholders in the education sector?

Ministry of HRD would definitely like to make quality education accessible for each person and child in the country. And as we know education is what ultimately decides the position of a country in the comity of nation, so our effort should be to make our country a knowledge based society. And that is what the HRD ministry is aspiring for. So I wish and hope that all stakeholders play their role in supporting and supplementing the efforts of the government.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

e tiv s i s po oke strstate

Maharashtra BOOTing on to ICT@Schools Programme

Q Schools are now envisioned to improve the quality of education delivery through Central scheme ICT@Schools. What is your vision for bringing technology in schools in Maharashtra?

Technology should be used in the social sector such as health and education to accelerate the achievement of

education and health objectives for India. Technology as a tool has found its application in all the sectors. In education it can act as an aid for education management of resources such as school information database to deliver informed decisions. It is a powerful tool for bringing access to education direct in your homes through distance learning. It will be key realising our goal for bringing educational opportunities for each child. We had implemented the scheme in 500 schools in Phase-I and plan to cover more than 1000 schools in the next phase. We are also targeting on the drop-out students segment to be included in the education environment through ICT and distance learning by strengthening the informal education 26

Teachers are the hardware of education delivery system, we need to invest in them to achieve education goals, says

Sanjay Kumar, Principal Secretary School Education, Government of Maharashtra

programmes. Our vision is to empower the students with knowledge, by going beyond installation of hardware and software peripherals in schools. We are in the process of developing our website to be a one-stop on all information relating to education in the state.

Technical Committee comprising of representatives from the Department of IT, Department of Finance and Department of School Education to pool in our expertise and build a robust plan.

Q Have you formed a technical

need to survive in the digital age. How does the scheme help in delivering critical skill sets to students and teachers?

ICT literacy includes both understanding and usage of IT for classroom teaching and learning. We have set up computer labs in schools to help students familiarize with technology, along with prescribed curriculum and syllabus for each class. Similarly for teachers we conduct regular training programmes

committee for monitoring and implementation of the scheme?

ICT in school education cannot be implemented in isolation, its roll-out needs co-operation and collaboration between Departments within the Government. We, in Maharashtra are planning for bringing ICT in School Education in a planned and holistic environment, we have hence built a

Q ICT literacy is now becoming a

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

on subject studies and pedagogy to understand and effectively adopt IT in their respective subjects. The prime aim of the training and capacity building programmes is to eliminate the fear of computers and familiarize the teachers with the basic know-how of IT. The reduction in fear factor directly translates into greater adoption and usage of technology-aids in classrooms.

Q The scheme is run on a Build-

Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) model. How has the state government implemented the model in Maharashtra schools?

We brought out tender inviting companies for implementing the scheme under the BOOT model in 500 schools, as a pilot test. NIIT bagged the contract and has set up labs with installation of 10 computers in each school including hardware and software for conducting classes, alongwith training programmes for teachers. The pilot is still on-going, and the response is enthusiastic as the students and teachers are learning new tools for teaching and learning. The pilot is still on-going.

Q What are the challenges in adopting BOOT model for implementing ICT in schools?

The Challenges in the BOOT model are mainly three, the first and foremost is breaking the psychological fear of technology by the teachers. There scheme needs more investment and focus on teacher training and change management for teachers and schools.

As the teachers are the implementers of ICT in classrooms and they need to be well-trained and confident in using technology. The second challenge lies in maintenance and upkeep of IT infrastructure especially when implementing the scheme in rural areas, as there is power shortage and lack of technically skilled staff. We do have provision of generator back-up under the current BOOT model by NIIT in each school under the scheme.

Lastly, the biggest challenge lies in implementing the scheme beyond mere installation of IT peripherals and equipments. The state government aims to deliver not only computer literacy but also improving the overall delivery of education system in Maharashtra. We do not see the scheme

in isolation to other education initiatives in the state.

Q What are the future plans and projects for ICT in schools in Maharashtra?

We are working towards digitization of the entire state school education process. In this we have currently identified, three main focus areas; firstly we aim to bring in technology in recruitment of teachers, we aim to bring in online examination for teachers as done for GRE testing. This would enable candidates to take examination online. Teachers are the hardware of education delivery system, we need to invest in them to achieve education goals. Secondly we are planning for bringing in EDUSAT for teacher training programmes, with a range of subjectspecialized programmes for teachers.

Lastly we are giving emphasis on informal mode of education delivery through distance education and peerto-peer learning. IT can bridge the education divide that exist between the urban and rural areas, by providing an opportunity for anyone to learn and be educated.

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Digital Learning magazine CSDMS, G-4 Sector 39, Noida 201 301, U.P. India Tel +91 120 250 2180 to 85 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLEARNING.in Web www.digitalLEARNING.in Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Now on the STANDS

27

g rin e pow tors m e uca ed

Raising High!

Improving Standard of Teacher Education with Technology

Prof. Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui Prof. Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui took over as the new chairperson of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in June this year. As the Dean and Professor at the Faculty of Education, Jamia Millia Islamia, he was instrumental in integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) practices in teacher education programmes. He acquired his academic qualification in Education and Commerce from JMI, University of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh University and University of Leeds (UK). Prof. Siddiqui has 30 years experience in teaching and research in the field of Education and specialises in education of minorities and marginalised groups and educational administration. With the new role at NCTE, he now brings his expertise in addressing the gap areas and issues of integrating ICTs in teachers’ capacity building. Digital Learning finds more...

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August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Q What role does the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) play and how do you align your role with it?

Before NCTE was formally set up in 1995 by an act of Parliament, NCERT played the role of imparting teacher education for over 20 years. There had been a long pending demand for a separate regulatory body by educationists who wanted teacher education to be accorded a professional status. So the Council was set up.

The idea was to help raise the standards of teacher education and through this to improve the quality of education at the school level. So by way of improving the level of teachers through various tools, norms, standards and regulations, etc, the idea was to improve the standard of education and also provide a kind of leadership to researchers by granting recognition to innovations carried out in the field.

With the government focusing on the Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan programme for the universalisation of elementary education, there was a huge demand for trained teachers. This led to mushrooming of teacher training institutes all over the country. So NCTE was primarily engaged with the task of granting recognition to these institutes, provided they fulfilled certain norms and standards.

Once this was effectively done, the professional and academic dimensions started receiving attention. We have a massive set-up of administrative staff in every region across the country, but we have a constraints of academic staff.

We need to have professors, readers in our team who will be engaged in some goal oriented research activity. However, the Planning Commission has asked us to prepare a proposal where they can provide us some academic support.

Q What more perspective do you see with the kind of priority given to teacher education in the 11th Five Year Plan?

The 11th Five year Plan is need based and comes with an understanding of the emerging global, economic and Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

educational perspectives. It is very conscious of the fact that if we as a country, want to engage our people in these perspectives, there is no other way except to strengthen our education supply, provisions and most of all the quality, not only at the school level but also the higher education. And in pursuance of this understanding, the 11th Plan attempts to very consciously devote lot of resources at all levels of education.

Besides this, way back in 1987, the Government of India had launched a very important scheme called Strengthening and Reorganisation of Teacher Education (SRTE), a centrally funded scheme. The government is thinking of strengthening and upgrading this scheme in the 11th Plan.

Q Please elaborate on this SRTE

scheme.

Through this scheme, which came up in 1987, the government was to provide the teacher education institutes (of course identified institutions for elementary and senior secondary teachers training) with central support to strengthen their human and infrastructure resources. It was also decided that one elementary teacher training institution will be opened in every district to cater to the primary teachers demand of the district – a self contained institution which will also provide some in-service training to teachers round the year.

Then good teacher training institutions numbering 250 will be identified from all over the country and they will be provided grants to appoint more people and to strengthen their infrastructure.

Furthermore, nearly 50 institutions will be identified from across the country, which have very good track record, and will be further strengthened to develop them into Institutes of Advanced Studies and Education. These institutes will be regularly given grants for strengthening their infrastructure and organising inservice training round the year as per the requirement.

The government got this scheme evaluated as to how the 50 schools have been performing successfully, and if not what have been its drawbacks and in the

light of this evaluation what can be done to improve it further.

Q Can you shed some more light

on the evaluation carried out with the scheme? Is this part of the institutional mapping scheme being carried out by NCTE? No, this evaluation is different from the institutional mapping being undertaken.

This evaluation was carried out to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of that scheme. The assessment took into account various factors like their functioning, performance, the experiences gained and expectations from the scheme, how the DIETS are working, etc. So the central government formed a Teacher Educational Resource Group (TERG) that has already conducted this survey all over the country on behalf of the MHRD. TERG was a centrally funded project, set up within the NCTE, and submitted its report to the government.

The institutional mapping will be a year-long project, to be taken up on a large scale. The demand for teachers has led to mushrooming of teacher training institutes. But what we need to see is that there is an even distribution of institutes across the country. So we had approached the Planning Commission with a proposal for mapping the teacher educational institutions in the country to see which areas are lacking, so we can give a thrust to those areas. The proposal has been accepted by the Planning Commission and grants have also been released for the project. So very soon we are going to launch the project.

Q Do you also evaluate curriculum for teacher training?

At NCTE, we frame the curriculum for different teacher education programmes like primary teacher education, secondary teachers programmes, physical education programmes, etc and insitutes are free to adopt that framework. Of course, we say that the framework is for one year and there are norms related to that framework which have to be followed. For example, we say the institute has to appoint certain number of faculty, etc.

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Q Is ICT a part of this curriculum framework provided by NCTE? ICT, infact, is part of the teacher training curriculum and we are, on a very large scale, now trying to ensure that teacher educators at different levels – elementary, primary, etc – are

in-service teachers, the skills acquired by them are in turn transferred to wouldbe teachers.

gher Andhra Pradesh Hi on ssi mi Com Education atory nd ma it de ma s ha cher for around 500 tea to tes titu training ins ng ini tra ICT te incorpora ng ini tra ir the in if programmes. This, tes, sta er oth replicated in gap the kle tac us p will hel ation egr int ICT in as are to a cer tain extent

empowered with ICT. This would help them integrate ICT in their teaching, which will help in not only training the would be teachers in a better manner but also help the future teachers acquire the ICT skills. Working in this direction, NCTE inked an MoU with Intel (Intel Teach Program), through which Intel is helping NCTE organise regular training programmes for teacher educators.

Q Please elaborate on the

partnerships with Intel for teacher training institutes.

The curriculum for this Intel training is finalised by INTEL itself in collaboration with the NCTE. The number of workshops to be held are finalised keeping in view the requirements of the institutes. Right now the focus is on secondary education, but we are slowly going towards elementary education as well. Number of SCERTs and more than 50 universities or colleges under those universities have been covered and this shall gradually improve. The Intel team is continuously working for spreading the reach of the programme.

Under this programme, they train some master trainers and these trainers, in turn, train other teacher educators in the respective institutes. Although it is for 30

YOUR SAY

Intel has developed the basic curriculum for teacher educators, a kind of training manual, which has also been evaluated.

To facilitate this training further, Intel has also got this curriculum translated into 7-8 Indian languages and work is on for further translations.

Q In your view, how can we address

the gap areas to tackle the scarcity of teachers equipped with ICT? The main issue with integration of ICT is that capacity building in ICT is not uniform because of various constraints – technological, resources, etc. A more concerted effort is needed to tackle this.

For example, in a novel step, the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Commission has made it mandatory for around 500 teacher training institutes to incorporate certain element of ICT training in their teacher training programmes. This kind of move, if replicated in other states, will help us tackle the gap areas in ICT integration to a certain extent.

Infact, NCTE is planning some action on these lines. We are laying down norms that each teacher education institute must have computer labs with a given number of computers, Internet connectivity, trained ICT professional, etc. What we need to do is to equip all the teachers in an institute with ICT skills. Only then can we effectively talk about ICT integration at the teacher level.

I was in receipt of a copy of Digital Learning magazine May issue 2008. I liked your editorial on ‘Teaching and Learning at a Distance’ very much as it is most releant in the context of ICT and education today.

The articles of Prof.

Rajshekharan Pillai, V.C. IGNOU and Reaching the Unreached with e-Learning is also very interesting and educative.

Hope, your magazine will be real leader in the field of ICT and Education.

I assure you of best of my co-operation.

J K Palit President Bihar Educational Development Society Member, Executive Committee, National Literacy Mission Authority, Govt. of India

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

News india HRD proposal to universalise secondary education

With the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) clearing the proposed Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) recently, the way is cleared for the launch of a mission-mode exercise to universalise secondary education. Union Human Resource Development Ministry will now place the proposal before the Cabinet. Designed along the lines of the ongoing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to universalise elementary education, the RMSA seeks to make secondary education ‘available, accessible and affordable’ to all 15 and 16-year-olds by 2017. Another target of the RMSA is to ensure universal retention by 2020.

The estimated cost of the RMSA has been fixed at INR 42,705 crore in the 11th Five Year Plan. Of this, INR 34,164 crore will be the Centre’s share. With the road map to universal retention being chalked out till 2020, the total spill-over beyond the current Plan will be in the range of INR 54,000 crore.

DU tie-up with CII for professional skills Delhi University has joined hands with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to provide professional skills to college students and address the skill shortages faced by the Indian industry.

The partnership is aimed at providing industry endorsed professional skills through a six-month certification 32

programme under the aegis of School of Open Learning and DU. There would be separate courses on IT and automotives.

More than 200 students have applied for the professional skills project, an MoU for which was signed between DU and CII in March.

The objective of this partnership is to bridge the demand-supply gap for skilled workforce. The course curriculum has been developed in consultation with industry and would be delivered using methodologies like case studies, interaction with domain experts, case simulation and a two-month internship programme with industry.

NCERT gets EduSat hub to boost teachers’ training

In an effort to facilitate better teachers’ training programmes across India, a ‘mini hub’ has been set up at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for dissemination of information via Edusat. NCERT Director Krishna Kumar inaugurated the hub set up by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and said that thousands of teachers will benefit with the training provided through EduSat. The move would enhance the NCERT’s efficiency and effectiveness to reach out to its target audience base. Earlier, NCERT used to depend on ISRO’s hub at Ahmedabad to air its teachers’ training programmes. Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) Joint Director Vasudha Kamat said the mini hub will help them set up direct link with 100 Satellite Interactive Terminals spread across the country. With the increase in the bandwidth, in addition to the 100 CIET centres, about 120 centres from the Consortium of Educational Communications (CEC) will be operative through this mini hub.

UP ITIs to be ugraded into centres of excellence Sulabh International to set up world’s first Sanitation University

Internationally acclaimed for its sanitation movement, Sulabh International will soon set up a Sanitation University in Gurgaon, Haryana. The land for setting up the proposed university has already been acquired in Gurgaon and other formalities for making it operational are in the process.

One of its kind in the world, the Sanitation university will be a deemed university and will be structured much on the pattern of London School of Economics. To come up in the next five years, it will be an institute that will impart education in cleanliness — environmental, health and societal.

The institute plans to offer post-graduate programmes in various courses of sanitation to science graduates.

Uttar Pradesh government has decided to upgrade 125 out of 258 state-run Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) into centres of excellence in order to create a workforce with specialised skills.

The upgraded ITIs will be different from the conventional ITIs in respect of curriculum, duration of training, trade testing and certification. These ITIs will cater to specialised skill requirement in different sectors of industrial activity.

The ITIs provide technical training to those who have passed Class 10, offering diplomas for one- year and two-year courses. The upgraded ITIs will offer specialised training and courses in various sectors, including IT, automobiles and transport. For promoting technical education and job avenues, Uttar Pradesh has already undertaken an ambitious project of setting up 250 ITIs, covering every block of the state, through public-private partnership. To help it in establishing August 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in

ITIs, the state government has sought inputs from a British consultancy agency.

Web Resource Center inaugurated at Patna Women’s College

take advantage of expertise at GM’s manufacturing facility in Halol in Gujarat and the GM Technical Centre in Bangalore.

three years ago, Haryana today boasts of 52,000 seats. ‘Our aim is to take this number to one lakh by 2010,’ Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.

The company would also upgrade the existing infrastructure at the institute and assist in providing other courserelated facilities. Minister of State for Industries Saurabh Patel said the programme would help provide skills required to ensure that Gujarat remains a favourable destination for domestic and foreign investors. The company would also sponsor trainees as apprentices in the organisation.

An additional 50 private engineering colleges will be added this year to the current 62 engineering colleges in the state. The largest of these additions are likely to take place in districts like Faridabad, Sonepat, Panipat and Gurgaon. Hooda said the state government has increased budgetary allocation to the Education department from INR 16 billion in 2004-05 to INR 32 billion this year. The government would also open a ‘Rajiv Gandhi Education City’ this year at Kundli, which will be modelled on Oxford University. It has already earmarked 2,000 acres of land for this education city.

Nagaland varsity-IIITM-K link to boost education Bihar Information and Technology Minister Anil Kumar inaugurated the Web Resource Center of the Computer Application Department at Patna Women’s College, calling the move ‘very progressive that would go a long way in educating the girls of Bihar’.

Urging other colleges in Bihar to emulate Patna Women’s College, Dr Kumar said such efforts were highly commendable and helped bridge the gender divide that exists in the state and other parts of the country.

The Web Resource Center includes 40 computers and offers broadband Internet connectivity while also providing most popular software titles for the students.

The Center is also directly connected with the University Grant Commission (UGC), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Gujarat ITI students to receive training from GM India Gujarat government has signed a MoU with General Motors India to train students of the Tarsali Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Vadodara.

According to the agreement, GM India would develop and provide technical courses on automotive technology for Tarsali ITI students. The courses would leverage GM’s global resources and Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Nagaland University and Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management of Kerala (IIITMK) have been linked through India’s longest terrestrial connection over the Indian Railways optical fibre cable (OFC) network for enhancing technology education in the state.

Launching the terrestrial link, Minister for Development of North East Region (DoNER) and Panchayati Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar said it was the first formal Education Grid between two academic institutions located in two of the farthest states of India.

The link will connect several premier institutions and extend the Education Grid to every village of the north eastern Indian state. With this, the state government plans to launch several open supported technology enhanced education programmes at all levels to reach quality education all over Nagaland. The link will be a principal driver in building the national education grid connecting universities for resource sharing, content, content generation on their core competence, e-Learning, teleeducation and universal certification.

Haryana to give a boost to technical education Haryana government has decided to increase the technical education seats from the existing 52,000 to one lakh by 2010 to establish the state as India’s show window for technical education.

From 33,000 seats in technical institutes

Ban foreign education franchises: DEC

The Government of India is likely to pass a law banning educational institutions in the country from opening franchises abroad for running distant education courses. The Distant Education Council (DEC) has advised the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) to stop such practices.

Several educational institutions, mainly private ones, are opening their franchises abroad. This is a bad practice and DEC is against it, Council Chairman V N Rajasekharran Pillai said. DEC is not against opening of new institutes

by Indian institutions. But giving permissions to a local party (abroad) affects the quality of education, he said. The council has asked the MHRD to incorporate all these ‘points and concerns’ in a proposed Bill on Distance Education pending before it.

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News Asia Open University Malaysia goes international With a delivery system based primarily on Information and Communications Technology, the Open University Malaysia (OUM) has ventured into the international arena. The first open and distance learning University in Malaysia is now providing consultancy and training services on e-learning to countries like Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.

Malaysia allocates RM 3 million for visually impaired students Malaysian government is allocating RM3 million for providing visually impaired students access to Information and Communication and Technology (ICT) facilities. Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said although the allocation is meagre the government would consider reviewing the amount if needed. The grant will be used to close the digital divide between those with visual impairment and others by using the latest technologies available and improving teacher training and infrastructure.

For this purpose, it recently launched OUM International as its brand name and focus point for its international endeavours. OUM International will be the reference point for all international contacts with OUM as well as the unit responsible for conceptualisation of projects to meet the needs of international clients.

The first incarnation of GDLN Indonesia was the linkage between University of Indonesia to three regional university centers - University of Riau, Udayana University and Hasanuddin University.

34

Quality science education a must for prosperity in Bangladesh Bangladesh has no alternative to using science education as a tool for improving the living standards of the people and for dealing with economic and environmental challenges it faces, experts at a roundtable on ‘State of Science Education in Bangladesh’ have said.

Indonesia expands Global Development Learning Network Indonesia’s Ministry of National Education has opened up its ever expanding Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) to the world, in an ambitious effort to bridge the knowledge gap and bring Indonesia closer to the world through video-conferencing technology.

GDLN Indonesia began as a modest network of four universities in 2002 with support from the World Bank.

Through a strategic merger with the Indonesia Higher Education Network (INHERENT), the network now covers over 220 public and private universities and can also tap into distance learning opportunities from anywhere in Southeast Asia.

rehabilitated over four years. During the current school year, 20 classrooms in the regions will be built and 54 will be renovated. Funds will also be allocated for improving infrastructure in schools.

Speaking at the 12th World Conference of the International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairments, the minister also launched the Education for All Students with Visual Impairment Global Campaign.

US pledges $2.5M for classrooms in Mindanao The United States has pledged a $2.5million bilateral aid package to build more classrooms and rehabilitate old school buildings in Mindanao in Philippines as part of USAID funded project Education Quality Access to Learning and Livelihood Skills (EQuALLs). The aid agreement was signed by US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and Petron Development Foundation chair Nicasio Alcantara.

Under the package, 120 classrooms would be built and 480 more would be

Science textbooks need to be simplified, teachers’ salaries need to be raised, and science graduates need to be motivated to become teachers, said speakers. They also suggested introducing a terrestrial television channel broadcasting educational programmes, to reduce students’ dependence on private coaching centres.

Intel launches skoool.ph in Thailand Intel Technology Philippines, along with the country’s Education department have announced the availability of the Philippines’ version of the skoool educational website (http://www.skoool. ph). skoool is a free online platform to help teachers and students learn key concepts in Mathematics and Science.

The Philippines version of the skoool. ph contains locally relevant educational content, which was finalised by the Bureau of Secondary Education (BSE) after evaluating the contents of skoool. com, originally developed by Intel Ireland. Only those lessons were selected that aligned with Education department’s curricula for high school levels.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in

vey r u s

ICT in School Education

Tenders

he Eleventh five year plan is mooted as ‘National Educational Plan by the Prime Minister with allocation of over 19% of the gross budgetary support for the sector.

Secondary education will be the new thrust area in education in the Eleventh Plan -- with the government now flushing out its mid-term review suggestion to universalize secondary education on lines of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. The government is looking at investing at least Rs 50,000 crore in the sector that has been traditionally neglected. In the XIth plan, the government has budgeted Rs.411 billion to set up ICT labs for computer-aided learning and Edusat centers for distance learning programs. The government has also proposed Rs.310 billion for the National Skill Development Programme in the plan period, for training through virtual centers. The future ICT investments in schools will focus primarily on procurement of ICT infrastructure for schools and colleges, teacher training/capacity building and online admissions and school administration.

T

In the education sector ICT can provide a practical and enabling solution for improving the quality of education. The advents of highly responsive networks of information and knowledge and rapid development of new software, hardware and other channels of communication have presented real opportunities to creatively solve deficiencies within the educational system. The education and training segment has witnessed a rise in the number of private players offering education technology, training and services. The market is open to competition with emergence of national and regional e-learning companies offering myriad technology solutions 36

and training services as a package to educational institutions across the country.

There is lack of expertise in the government and educational institutes to implement the ICT projects, today partnerships are the new mode of quality education delivery using ICT in India with private companies, NGOs, International organizations and institutes. Implementation of such large scale hardware provision and connectivity is possible through networking with relevant institutions and agencies for expertise, and up scaling strengths.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan: The Centre introduced IT in schools as a tool to achieve the mission of Education for All under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA). The state government education departments and educational institutes have adopted the tendering process for procurement of hardware, software and other IT peripherals such as EDUSAT for implementing ICT projects and programmes under the Build-OwnOperate (BOO) and Build-Own-Operate and Transfer (BOOT) models as a public-private partnership venture. The process of ICT installation in schools began with the CLASS project under SSA for elementary education and currently most of the ICT infrastructure in schools is through SSA funds.

Tenders under SSA invite companies to bid for IT hardware and software installation for computer-aided learning alongwith consumerables such furniture and stationary, teacher training and an instructor. The maintenance and upkeep is included to be undertaken by the selected bidder for 3-5 years. The programme usually involved setting of computer labs in schools and imparting

basic computer operations to students.

Some schools installed EDUSAT for educational programmes.

ICT@Schools: The success of SSA computer-aided programmes in elementary education resulted in scaling-up of ICT in schools through ICT@Schools programme launched by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) as an umbrella scheme designed for overall development of schools as smart schools installed with ICT peripherals including hardware, software and trained teacher faculty. The states government and August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

educational institutions broadly focus on the following criteria in a tender: • ICT Infrastructure: Hardware, Software, connectivity, furniture etc.

• Digital Content based on the school curriculum • Faculty Staff and Teacher Training • Maintenance and recurring costs • Power Back-up Case Study: Madhya Pradesh ICT@ Schools Programme: The state announced its tender this year for Computer Education in schools for ICT Hardware, software and manpower for maintenance and training to be installed in its government schools based on build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) model for five years. The Request For Qualification (RFQ) details out the ICT infrastructure and faculty requirements to be met by the bidder. Some of the important criteria include: • Connectivity: Minimum Internet Connectivity of 256kbps • Hardware: Madhya Pradesh tender included A LCD monitor 17”; key board; one overhead DLP projector (2000 Lumen), one multi function device [MFD] with a laser printer mouse; computer table and chair.

It does not specify any hardware specifications.

• Power Back up: It may be a combination of UPS and solar panels or UPS and DG set etc. The cost of operating such equipments factored in while submitting the bids.

• Capacity Building: To provide two faculties (three in case of 50% extra seats) to each of the schools who will be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the facility and also teach the students and train the teachers in understanding technology. The faculty must have any one of the following qualifications include BE Computer Science/IT, BCA or higher O level certification of DOEACC, PGDCA • Software and Content: Content to teach basics of office software and programming to the students teach subjects through computers [Computer Aided Learning].

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

SCHOOL ICT INFRASTRUCTURE

Himachal Pradesh: The state government laid down the following ICT equipment specification in its tender to equip each school with branded machines. a) One Server computer: - Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E4500, Intel G31/Q33 Chipset, 1 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD, 15” Color Monitor, COMBO Drive , FDD, LAN Card, USB Optical Mouse,USB Keyboard b) Client Computer:- Intel Dual Core Processor E2160, Intel 945 G/ G31 Chipset, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD, 15” Color Monitor, COMBO Drive, FDD, USB Optical Mouse, USB Keyboard with proper Networking for sharing files, Internet and Printer. Printer Dot matrix (24 pin 136 col., 360cps). One printer for every 4 computers shall be provided by the

•

•

Multi Media Content: Develop rich multi media content for students in Hindi and English, which present complex subjects in an easy to understand format. The content will be evaluated by a team of experts of the concerned subjects and will be accepted only after it has been approved by the team. The bidder may be required to quote Computer Aided Learning software as a separate item.

Out-Of School Students: The bidder would be entitled to levy charges from the out of school users of the facility before and after the School hours.

However, during the School Hours the students will be using the facility without paying any charge.

implementation of ICT in each school under BOO and/or BOOT model. To be eligible for pre-qualification and short listing, an applicant usually has to fulfill the following criteria common to most of the state bids: • Past experience in executing projects: The tender eligibility requires the company to have executed at least 1 – 5 projects of similar nature in preceding 5-10 years. The experience requirement ensures effective implementation of the project in prescribed time-

Assessment Criteria

The tenders on ICT for schools are divided into two sections, firstly a technical bid that details out the ICT hardware, software and faculty benchmarks, this is followed by a financial bid quotation of the overall costs for the installation and 37

•

•

frames. Manpower Infrastructure: The bid in few cases outlines number of professionals such as in Himachal Pradesh wherein the applicant company was asked to have a minimum of 50 professional in ICT based education on its role to be eligible to qualify.

Association with a major Hardware and Software manufacturer: Some states build piecemeal partnerships with leading IT companies for hardware or software. The bidder hence has to incorporate the existing IT components. The Applicant Company must have association with one of the major Computer Hardware and Software Manufacturer to be eligible to qualify.

Financial Capacity and Turnover: It is usually stated that the applicant

shall have a minimum average net worth 10 – 20 crores in the past 5-10 years to be eligible to bid for the project or the applicant company should have a minimum average turnover of Rs. 10 crores from execution of education based projects in the preceding three years to be eligible to bid in the tender.

This eliminates local players to participate in the bid; they have local advantage of knowledge and relevant content but lack the financial capacity to reach the scale of operations. Hence it results in only the big and leading ICT in education companies to apply and compete in the bidding process.

Online Admissions

SCERT, Pune, Maharashtra The state has proposed to make all teacher training courses online, the first step in this effort is announcement of online admission process for D.Ed course from 2008 by Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research (MSCERT). In its tender it required companies to developed a 38

centralised admission process for D.Ed examination, SCERT hence emphasised local software firms with experience and expertise on software and data entry of admission forms. MSCERT decision for local software firms within Pune provided them a cost and service advantage.

Curriculum and Syllabus

Department of School Education, Haryana is doing progressive work in integrating ICT in Haryana schools.

The state has initiated a Comprehensive Computer Education Project to integrate and leverage ICT for achieving education goals. The state hence invited tenders for curriculum design agency to design ICT course for students on industry inputs. It also laid down the certification requirements and develop a effective course delivery mechanism along with capacity building of teachers, principals and officials connected with implementation of the programme.

The tender is very comprehensive in its outline as it also enlists monitoring and feedback regarding programme implementation.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

her n g i h tio a c edu

University of Delhi

Aiming at Global Standards Q What is your vision for quality of higher education in the University of Delhi?

My focus, as the Vice Chancellor, has been to plug gaps in the existing system – ranging from basic amenities to better science labs. This is different from going in for a complete overhaul of the existing system itself. There is huge scope of improvement in the existing set-up itself.

Deepak Pental Dr Deepak Pental is a professor of Genetics and Vice Chancellor of the University of Delhi since 2005. He is also serving as the Director, Centre for Genetic Manipulation of Crop Plants. Prior to taking over as the VC, Dr Pental served as the Director of university South Campus for five years. A noted scientist, he is also an elected member of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Sciences and Indian Academy of Sciences. Dr Pental has coordinated two major national programmes on ‘Development of Transgenics in Major Crops’ and ‘Functional Genomics in Plants’, besides penning 61 publications on genetic manipulation of plants.

Ever since taking over as the Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr Pental has been instrumental in introducing many amenities in the University to attain global standards like better science labs, innovative project on life-long learning, introducing elements of ICT in the system, tie-up with the industry for skill enhancement courses, etc.

In an interview with Digitial Learning, Dr Pental shares his vision for improving quality of education in the University.

40

I had been associated with the administration of the South Campus of University of Delhi for close to five years. Therefore, I am well aware of the needs and functioning of the academic and teaching systems.

During this period a number of changes were made to graduate courses, for instance the course for Bachelor of Commerce was changed for the first time in 40 years.

I think the single most important vision should be to attain global standards. Our universities should be the best that is there in the world and nothing less. It maybe tailored for the needs of students in terms of background and regional specificities, for instance if environment is being taught, examples would have to be from the country the student is located in. For this we will have to train the teachers and students.

Improve infrastructure, like libraries, laboratories. Create best and most recent syllabus.

The Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL) is one such project August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

and already INR 20 crore have been invested in getting the latest equipments for the initiative and more is being planned.

Q

What is the role of ICT in delivering quality education in India?

Information and Communication Technology can be one way of improving quality for systems that have already attained certain level of standard. But for those who have not, ICT could be a lifeline for higher education. But here I must add that to have the desired impact it has to reach a substantial threshold, beyond one school here and there.

Taking technology to those who are totally deprived of it is going to make much bigger difference than to those who are already in its ambit and being taught well. I feel that the government has to take it up in a big way and they need to use it for teacher training.

We may not be able to reach every student, but we can definitely reach every teacher. With the ILLL, we are set to play that role and grow into it. It will take us couple of years to get into that role but we have made a good beginning already.

and access to online resources, libraries and material being prepared by the ILLL. In fact we are also contemplating on the idea of live lectures that will make available online the best faculty from rest of the world and our own. We will not make this one way exchange, it would be interactive with questions and answers through video conferencing.

This will take standards to a new level altogether.

Q How has been the progress with

imparting ICT skills to teachers and faculty in the University?

There is a lot that needs to be done on this front. On a practical level we need a proper space and system to organise trainings. The current computer facility has very little space. Teachers need to be trained into ICT content making. For this we have teamed-up with open universities to share and exchange ICT skills. But one must appreciate the fact that these changes are time consuming and involve some major changes in attitudes as well.

Therefore the impact will be slow in taking affect and we will have to keep at it.

Q How is it being realised in

Q Please tell us about the

University of Delhi?

As you cannot write without a pen, one cannot access global knowledge sources without computers. It is a tool that needs to be provided to each college first. We have the largest collection and subscription to e-journals in the country today and colleges are accessing it.

University’s association with CII on professional education?

We are running a number of skill enhancement courses in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). These are in field of retail, medical transcription, marketing, insurance, banking and accounting, etc.

These are in a nascent stage and not being run from the colleges, though it may happen in due course. Though these are short-term courses, we are thinking on taking them further.

Currently we are looking at increasing our bandwidth as each and every college in the university is utilising connectivity.

But the bandwidth cost is proving prohibitive. At present we have a bandwidth of 30mbps but the university is too huge a place to cater with this.

So far as the focus on ILLL is concerned we are currently focused on developing material and developing online content.

In terms of future plans, every college will be provided with better connectivity Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

We are also discussing a three-plusone kind of arrangement in graduate degrees, where apart from three years of knowledge development, teaching will also be followed by a year of skill development.

Associated with this, we are also contemplating a university placement cell in collaboration with the CII.

New Initiatives Institute of Life Long Learning Set up in 2007, the goals of ILLL include training of teachers, development of eLearning material and delivery system, development of courses, curricula, content etc., building up resource base of updated information through varous training courses Skill-enhancement courses DU has signed an MoU with CII to offer short-term courses in high demand sectors. The objective is to provide employable skills to undergraduate students and to provide skilled manpower to the industry.

The six-months short term courses will be initially offered to students in the automobiles, retail, and IT/ITES sectors and would subsequently be scaled up to healthcare, biotechnology and media. e-Learning Portal The e-Learning Portal is a forum for various on-line courses and other support material for regular courses of the University as well as for teachers and students for academic exchange.

Faculty members can also initiate courses by sending an email with all the details to webmaster@du.ac.in and/or director@ducc.du.ac.in. These courses are also accessible to the public.

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vey r u s

New Communication Technologies in

Distance Education

C.JEBA KUMAR [jebagrdcs@yahoo.co.uk], Research Scholar And Dr.P.GOVINDARAJ, Prof. & Head, Department of C ommunication – C Manonmaniam Sundaranar University

A

ccording to Everett Rogers (2003) the perceived attributes of innovations are: Relative advantage (how the innovation is perceived to be an improvement), compatibility (consistency with existing experience, values and needs), complexity (perceived difficulty in understanding and using an innovation), trialability (the degree to which an innovation can be experimented with), and observability (how visible the results of an innovation are to others).

Each of these five very useful concepts can be seen to have an ‘‘external’’ dimension that can be measured and quantified, and an ‘‘internal’’ dimension, the perception, that is relative to the individual. In order to distinguish clearly between these two dimensions as well as to bring out the complexity 42

The new technologies are facilitating learning to different groups scattered at different locations, helping them in accessing the course content online. The implementation of e-learning can be understood in terms of the diffusion of technology, a process that involves not only logical reasoning, economic considerations and technical skills, but also, and perhaps decisively, the sentiments and frame of reference of the teachers, students and decision makers who are to be the end users

of introducing ICT solutions in a learning environment, we have chosen to combine diffusion theory of analysis of the observability on how these new information technologies are effectively used by the end users.

Despite this new trend a very few research has been done on the impact

this new change has brought in meeting student’s learning needs and expectations, and learner’s ability to use these technology effectively, during their study. This research will focus on the types of types of Physical learning environments or resources learners use for online studying. Here a physical learning environment is defined as the August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Ad Mimio page 43

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

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place or physical surroundings where a student can gain knowledge or skills either by themselves, or by interaction with a teacher or other students.

Objectives of the study Following broad based objectives were derived for his study.

• To identify the types of physical learning environments and resources used by the students.

• To analyze the theory and practice on the use of online teaching and learning.

• To inform the course designers and teachers to apply appropriate

How often they have participated in different learning environments? The types of resources they have used in their previous study. Responses are collected on a four point likert-type scale ranging from –Never, Sometimes, Often and Always.

The second section sought students demographic information including the number of courses the participants had undertaken previously an online component and their previous level of education etc.These were used as variables such gender, age, income, education, occupation, personal access,

Section-2: 1. Student demographic information 2. The course the participant is undergoing, e.g. Distance mode or regular mode.

Study sample A particular cohort of participants were selected who were pursuing various courses offered in distance mode where online component is mandatory and students who where doing their course in regular mode. The data is collected from the students who have online component mandatory for their study.

The study sample is collected from

Shows the participants break down of the study sample Full Sample 100 students Respondents 35 students Group

Male Female Mature Age 30 + Under 30 Distance Education Students using ICTs Mode Regular Students

•

Number of Students

% of group Total

Number of Students

% of Respondents

% of group Total

87 13 10 90 17

87 13 10 90 17

28 7 7 17 17

80 23.5 23.5 56.6 48.5

32.18 53.8 70 18.8 100

28 7 7 17 17

83

83

18

18

20.2

18

teaching strategies and students support systems to meet the needs and demands of students.

To inform the appropriateness of the physical learning environment as an important component in the design of course materials and support systems to meet the needs and demands of students.

Methodology The main aim of the study is to assess the place or physical surroundings where a student can gain knowledge either by themselves or by interaction with teachers and fellow students. How the students use the internet resources for their learning purpose. The research is done by using a survey technique. The survey is divided into two sections.

The first section asked the participant (Both distance education/Regular) questions relating to the types of information gathering techniques used for their study.

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frequency of computer use were included in the questionnaires.

% of full sample

selected students who have some prior knowledge of ICTs and computer literacy.

Components of survey questionnaires Section-1: 1. Questions relating to the types of information gathering techniques used used.

2. How often they have participated in different physical learning environments 3. Types of resources they have used in their learning process.

The study was conducted in Chennai on Distance Education Students of Symbiosis, GNIIT, IGNOU Students for whom Online Component is Mandatory. Majority of the course materials used by these students are online or web based. As the questionnaires were send to the mailboxes of the respondents we were able to get only 17 participants.

Learning environment (in percentage) sample size – 17

At Home In Class Room In a Lecture Hall At My Place of Work In a Computer Lab At a Friends Place

Never

Sometimes

Often

Always

2 55 45 28 50 62

8 23 45 53 25 25

40 12 5 9 15 7

50 10 5 10 10 6

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Use of online communication by distance education students (17respondents)

E- Mail Bulletin Board Chat room

Never 5 12.5 50

Sometimes 25 44.5 37

Often 35 15 5.5

Always 35 28 7.5

Use of paper based resources by online distance education students(17 respondents)

Never Sometimes Often Always Textbooks 0 9.1 36.1 55.5 Printed study Guide 4.5 18.2 31.8 45.4 Handouts provided by 28.2 35.5 18.2 22.7 lecturer Library resources 13.6 35.5 18.2 22.7 Use of ict resources by students as percentage - 17 respondents

Never Online course materials 4.5 Electronic Library Access 10 URL Links to Resources 9 On Line Grade Checking 9 Online Tests Quizzes 0.0 Online assignment 0 submission Online Search Tools 0 The samples were also selected from some of the Regular College students who were pursuing there higher studies in college for whom the necessity of using online resource is more for their study. This is also done by sending the questionnaires online. Of this we were able to get 18 participants of the expected 83.

The variables used in this study were gender, age and mode of study. Data from the spread sheet were analyzed using Microsoft excel. The Table I shows the participants breakdown of the sample. We had 35 respondents of the total sample of 100. Of the 35 respondent 17 students were students for whom the online study component is mandatory.

Learning environment The usual assumption with distance education students is that they learn at home with material provided Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Sometimes 4.5 45 28 37 32 27.5

Often 41 30 35 28 37 32.5

Always 50 15 28 26 31 40

15

30

55

with their educational institution. In this study 90% of the respondents indicated that they often or always study at home.Students have also indicated that they do study at their place of work, in the library, or in computer Lab.

Online communication The main components of online communication are text based, E-

mail, bulletin boards and Chat rooms. This table shows the usage of online communication by students as percentage.

The results shows that most of the students use E-mail often for their study, most of them hardly prefer chat, sizeable proportions are using bulletin board.

50% of the students have never used chat rooms for their study.

Use of paper based resources by Online Distance education students Most of the online distance education provide following course materials for the study of the students, Textbooks, Printed Study Guide, Handout provided by lecturer and study resources. This table shows the frequency of use of paper-based materials by online students.

The results of survey indicate that more than 90% of the respondents preferred Text books always. Majority of respondents were not interested in the Handouts provided by the lecturers.

Usage of ict resources by students The results indicate that all respondents at some stages of their learning have used online grade checking, at some stages of their learning. When using online course materials over 90% have indicated that they often and always use online search tools. Electronic Library access is however not used as frequently with only 15.0% indicating that they always use this resource. This survey

The types of physical learning environment the students preference can be analyzed by in this table

Regular Students Online students Learn by Yourself 50 40 Learning in tutorials 35 38 Learn with a friend 8 8 Learning through self help group 2 8 Learning in front of class by giving 5 2 presentation Learning through videoconferencing 0 1 session 45

Use of ict components-comparison between regular and distance education students

Never Sometimes Distance Regular Distance Regular

OnlinCourse materials E-mail Online Forum Chat Room Electronic Library access URL Links to resources Online Assignment submission On line search tools

4.5 5 14 50.0 10 9 0 0

indicates that ICTs were very well used by the students.

Interactive components such as quizzes and online tests are widely used by the students. Nearly 70% of the respondents preferred using online quizzes.

Also around 75% of the respondents were using internet for submitting the assignements. Also around 65% of the students always used URL links for their study purpose. The access to electronic library is very poor as the data indicates nearly fifty percentages of the students hardly use these resources.

Preferred learning environment The preferred learning environment of the regular students and the online students can be compared in this table Both regular as well as distance education students prefer to study among themselves, similarly most of them prefer using tutorials.

Preferred physical learning environment are quite same for both distance learning students and regular campus based students. None of the regular students preferred to study using videoconferencing session.

Use of ICT ComponentsComparison between regular and distance education students This table shows the comparison chart of the regular and distance education students More than 50% of the students don’t prefer using online chat for their 46

38 9 25 45 9 0 5 0

4.5 25 45 37 45 28 27.5 15

Often Always Distance Regular Distance Regular

50 54 61 45 68 47 50 27

studying purpose. Online search tools were often used by both regular and distance education students.

E-mail is preffered by both regular and distance education students. Online digital library is accessed by very few regular and distance education students this is explicit from the data collected from the sample.

Discussion The results from the study show that for the majority of respondents learning is done at home with either paper based or web based materials.

It will also appear from this result that use of online resources tends to be mainly for assessment related tasks and to a lesser extent for online resources associated with the delivery of course content and reference materials.

The physical learning environments and resources used by distance and regular students were somewhat same.

The result of this study shows that there is limited use of online resources. The results from this study suggest that regular students in this study favour independent study over other form of study.

With the range of communication options available the distance education students learning through online mode tend to most often use e-mail with the results showing nearly double usage of that of regular oncampus students.

41 35 19 4.5 30 35 32.5 30

6 25 12 4.5 17 42 25 47.5

50 35 22 7.5 15 28 40 55

6 12 2 5.5 6 11 20 25

On the other hand there was limited use of a chat rooms and discussion forums.

It is difficult to say whether the design and development of online courses enable students to more fully integrate with their online environment or the entire range of online components were available for use.

Recommendations IT has been shown that the physical learning environments of distance students are not all that different from those used by regular on-campus students.

Unexpected results from this study are that distances students’ needs are apparently appear similar to that of the on-campus students. This is both in relation to resources and communication needs.

Both distance and on-campus students in this study made a made selective use of online resources.

Both group indicated that most of their study was done at home using paper based or web based materials.

Students are able to use ICT’s; there is need by course designer’s and developers to maximize its potential for learning purpose.

The results from the study suggests that more research needs to be done to more fully understand the environments students use for their study to make online course maximize student study needs and demands.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Interactive Response System

g rin e pow ols m e cho s

Setting Quality Standards in Schools Meera Balachandran The Education Quality Foundation of India was founded in 2007 by Dr Anjlee Prakash with an aim to set quality standards in schools and help them achieve better levels of quality in terms of infrastructure, teaching methods, content etc. It has approached the issue of quality keeping in mind the specific needs of the Indian school system.

Meera Balachandran, Director of the Foundation, shares with Digital Learning the goals of EQFI and the crucial need for quality mapping in schools.

Q What are the goals that drive EQFI? India has achieved a fair degree of literacy. But there is hardly much focus on quality in schools. Although we have been able to spread education through programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in far flung and remote areas, the time has now come to review the situation. The focus should be not just on quantity, but also quality of the content. It is in this direction that EQFI is working - towards setting quality standards in school education. Through our pilot project, we have conducted quality mapping in some private schools and given them a detailed feedback.

Our organisation does not follow a prescriptive approach where a school 48

is graded or ranked; but a constructive one where we identify the school’s weaknesses and strengths and tell them what their opportunities of improvement are and how they can proceed. We also help schools with their progress in transformation.

Q Apart from private schools, which

other schools have EQFI touched upon?

We recently signed an MoU with 367 Navodaya Vidyalayas for conducting their quality mapping. To begin with, workshops will be held for principals for introducing them to the organisation’s mission. The entire process will be three-year long, during which we will measure their improvement. We do not

have grading system, but an indication is provided to the schools as to what scoring band they will fall in, i.e. whether it is between 65 to 70% or 75 to 80%. Ultimately, we would like all schools to take initiative in the process and ensure quality themselves.

Q What parameters are followed for measuring quality?

EQFI has developed certain quality assurance criteria and guidelines. We have a ‘Quality Assurance Criteria in School Education’ document which is customised according to the schools. For example, the Navodaya Vidyalayas are residential schools for rural children. So we have customised the document so August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

that we take into consideration the rural background of children, teachers, to go ahead with the study. Different schools have different sets of problems and therefore have to be studied accordingly.

While mapping quality, we take into consideration leadership quality, knowledge management, student stakeholder focus, and address issues like what are the systems in place and what is the level of technology usage in teaching and school administration.

Are the schools really catering to the satisfaction of the students and parents, etc. Usually schools are judged purely on academics, but we feel the need to go beyond that because academics, although important, is not the only measure for testing quality. When we take up results, we take up every area such as extra-curricular activities, innovation in schools, creativity, etc -

Q Are there plans to cover boards like the CBSE, ICSE? EQFI started off in July 2007. Our aim is to cover as many schools as possible.

Right now we are planning to go to the states so that we can make quality assessment for schools at the block and district levels. We will also plan to look at private schools ultimately. We have started with Navodaya Vidyalayas, but there is a long way to go.

Q What aspects are taken into

consideration while evaluating schools?

Normally, one would think of infrastructure, but that is only a part of the evaluation. Other aspects are also taken into consideration, like financial resources, allocation of resources, etc.

There may be schools with minimum infrastructure and no modern facilities, imparting really good quality education.

We try and give equitable importance to

EQFI is w orking - to w quality st andards i ards setting n school Our organ educa is a prescrip ation does not follo tion. tiv w school is e approach where gra a construct ded or ranked; bu ive one ta

everything that contributes to the overall success of the institution.

A lot of research has gone into achieving this set of generic criteria. We have heavily relied on a document called ‘Malcolm Baldrige Standards of Quality for School Education’, which is used extensively in the United States.

We have also consulted other sources such as UNICEF, Singapore schools and contextualised their experiences to suit Indian scenario.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

all the aspects contributing to quality. We include technology as a very big parameter for quality mapping.

There are questions on how they use technology in data management and analysis, classroom transactions, etc. This will also encourage schools to take the evaluation more seriously.

Infrastructural resources are important but what is most important is that the transactions in the classrooms are

interactive and qualitative and if they aspire to integrate technology, the situation becomes ideal.

Q What has been the response to evaluation from schools as well as government bodies?

We have started a pilot project for some of the private schools, which is for free. It will take some time, but we hope that more schools will open up to us and the idea of quality evaluation, like the NVS. We also hope to get KVS in the loop, followed by the state schools. States like Gujarat , Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are already working towards raising educational standards.

As far as government is concerned, we have got a positive response. There have been consultations with the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and they have liked the concept of a neutral, external agency conducting such an evaluation which will provide them with an unbiased and critical perspective.

We are hopeful of expanding this to the states very soon.

Q Apart from the evaluation, what

other projects or initiatives have been undertaken?

We have initiated a big project called ‘Citizenship Project’, where we try and spread awareness among children regarding civic issues and also take their assistance wherever required. This is originally an American project called ‘Project Citizen India’, and we started it in 2005 with 11 schools. Now we have about 252 schools all over India, including rural schools. Children take up all sorts of issues like adopting a monument, looking after senior citizens, looking into the government policy on street children. We also have a tie-up with Kazakhstan to train their people for this project. We have also linked up with the University of Indiana, Iowa, where our teachers will receive training.

Almost 3,000 teachers have received training in the Right to Information.

Other initiatives are also on the anvil, like the study of the Constitution of India. We also showcase our activities annually in September. In 2007, a 49

village school from Andhra Pradesh won the prize for their outstanding work on construction of proper toilets in their village. In other cases, children made an entire village smoke free and even adopted a monument.

Q What is the conducive atmosphere for implementing ICT in school education?

What is important is not how many computers a school has, but their utilisation and access. What is the level of ICT usage by the faculty in making the content better and interactive.

I have used web quest, which is very much in use in the US from primary to senior secondary school level. I also developed a web page to teach children English and relate it to art and literature and thus make it interesting. The idea is to use digital content in an innovative way to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

When we talk about the government, we are looking at accessibility which needs to be ensured. That is why we have programmes from Intel and Microsoft, etc, which show how ICT can be integrated in teaching.

Ramjas school was the first one to set up Intel lab. Technology empowers and keeps one connected with the rest of the world.

Q What are the main challenges that come in the way of implementing these technologies?

One of the biggest challenge is that most of the teachers are yet to accept ICT as a supporting tool. So whenever the topic of ICT training is raised, many of them consider it as an extra burden, coming in the way of syllabus.

Very few teachers realise the efficiency and organisational element brought in by ICT. Teachers also feel insecure because children use this technology with much ease and are better informed than them in many aspects. But instead of considering technology as a threat, one should consider it as a support system. Technology can never replace teachers because the human element is irreplaceable.

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Another aspect is the mushrooming of coaching centres, due to which a kind of ‘de-schooling’ is happening. Many students in class XI and XII only come to school because of the attendance, which is very low. Other challenges include outdated technology, labs, lack of infrastructure, etc. So there is a long way to go before we integrate ICT into the education system. We need to archive all the best practices and teaching. A lot of planning and sharing is important. Schools are still closed communities, we need to develop open mindsets and start believing in open communities.

Q What is the role of PPP in the

current scenario?

EQFI is a good example of PPP where we ask the government schools to allow us to do their quality mapping and Educomp helps us with funds.

The quality mapping should now become a movement and people should not just view it as a policing agency and feel threatened. They should rather look at it as a reflective exercise towards bringing quality into education. The implementation of ICT and its integration in education will be enhanced via the PPP model.

Q As a former principal and educationist, please comment on the current education scenario?

I have been a principal for nearly 33 years (1974 to 2008) and have seen lot of changes in the educational landscape.

I would regard most of these changes as positive. Children have become far more questioning and knowledgeable, but unfortunately, the education system has not grown to meet that kind of expectations and demands. Although we have included technology and several new subjects in education, the system and teachers need to change.

YOUR SAY

eINDIA2008 is a wonderful platform for all the thought leaders to showcase what their companies and organisations have produced, for the government to discuss various policies and for others to increase their awareness of the developments unfolding in the educational sector.

Shantanu Prakash CEO Educomp Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

The role of the teacher becomes further indispensable because she/he also acts as a monitoring element ensuring that students are taking the right path.

Children are our future and we need to take the responsibility - of raising them to become responsible and well-rounded individuals - very seriously.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

News world North Carolina adopts Blackboard for higher education The University of North Carolina and the North Carolina Community College System have signed an agreement with Blackboard to deploy the company’s electronic learning platform across 68 individual campuses. With this, the campuses will be able to share courses and learning materials with one another. The platform will also allow four of North Carolina’s historically black campuses to form a consortium and gain expanded access to electronic learning tools.

Blackboard also announced a similar deal with New Mexico, in which all of the state’s public K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and adult education centers would migrate to Blackboard.

HotChalk launches MyDesk education portal

for meaningful learning. Leveraging the safe, protected and collaborative learning and e-mentoring tools available through ePals, Kenyan students and educators can connect with classrooms in 200 countries and territories, conducting cross-cultural exchanges, language learning practice, and project-based collaboration to build the 21st century skills. ePals offers a large and diverse online learning community, a safe environment and a set of collaborative learning activities and projects that are grounded in best practices. It has also partnered with National Geographic to bring rich digital content to its site.

Abdul Waheed Khan awarded ‘Honorary Fellow’ of COL Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, has been awarded the title ‘Honorary Fellow’ of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in recognition of his outstanding contribution to distance education. The award recognises Khan’s leadership in improving access to quality education and training using new information and communication technologies.

HotChalk, an online education resource to connect teachers, students and parents, has announced the addition of MyDesk, a K-12 education resource featuring news articles, product updates, tips and blogs for educators, administrators and technology coordinators. This expansion provides practical resources and best practices from education experts and is now a critical element of the HotChalk Learning Management System.

As the Assistant Director-General, he is responsible for driving UNESCO’s programmes and activities aimed at empowering people through the free flow of ideas and access to information and knowledge. From 1998 to 2000, Khan served as Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University.

He was also Chairman of the Distance Education Council of India.

MyDesk aims to help teachers do what they do best: Educate. It is a community for teachers: a repository of practical resources and best practices, and a place for colleagues to connect to debate key issues and share expertise.

A total of 57 programmes in technical colleges and polytechnics have been reviewed under the first phase of the

Kenyan ministry to use ePals to connect schools Kenyan Education ministry is planning to connect Kenyan schools and educators with schools around the world through ePals, a global network 52

UNESCO-Nigeria project reviews 57 curricula

UNESCO-Nigeria project for the revitalisation of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE). One of the unique features of the revised curricula, which have been made available to stakeholders, is the incorporation of ICT and Enterpreneurship Education.

An estimated 8, 650 staff in the polytechnic sub-sector have been trained as part of the project’s continuous staff development and capacity building activities.

Phase II of the project, which has been approved by the government, will lay emphasis on supporting the efforts of the Education ministry in enhancing the TVE system to meet the socio-economic needs of Nigeria in the 21st century.

South Africa needs more universities

Mergers between black and white universities in South Africa to transform higher education after apartheid have been ‘difficult and messy’ and distracted attention from expanding student numbers, the country’s vice-chancellors believe. The country will need at least six more universities to raise participation in higher education from the current 15%, said Roy du Pré, Vice-Chancellor, Durban University of Technology and spokesman for Higher Education South Africa.

The mergers reduced the number of universities from 32 to 23. At the same time real terms funding per student in South African universities has fallen though the student numbers have risen considerably. Some vice-chancellors are attracted to the idea of a separate ministry for universities and research along the lines of the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (Dius) in England.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in

ING GO BAL GLO

EXCHANGING CLASSROOMS

Terry Culver In an exclusive conversation with DigitalLEARNING, Terry Culver, Executive Director, Global Nomads Group...

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

53

Q Give us a broad outline of the projects of the Global

Q What issues/concerns do you address in the education

Nomads Group.

Global Nomads Group (GNG) is an international NGO that delivers interactive educational programmes for students.

GNG does this in two ways: (1) Global Virtual Classrooms, where students learn about and discuss subjects with their peers from around the world in live, facilitated lessons via videoconference; and (2) Videos and learning content on a variety of subjects relevant to teachers and students. All of GNG’s programmes are directly linked to school curricula and education standards, and provide lesson plans and training to teachers. Programmes covers a range of topics like civics, social and global studies, geography, world history, science, politics, and 21st Century skills. In the course of participating in GNG’s programmes, students learn about each other and their cultures, and become aware of global issues. In short, we bring the world into the classroom.

sector through your project?

I think first and foremost, GNG helps young people understand global issues and how it affects their daily lives. GNG also helps young people from around the world speak to each other and learn together. This is an effective strategy for learning a range of subjects, including social studies, geography, science, history and politics. It also helps students develop a global perspective. GNG’s programmes are in general based upon child-centered and project-based learning, global citizenship, & development of 21st Century skills.

Q What are your plans for connecting young people around the globe? How do you make it happen?

During the 10 years that Global Nomads Group has been operating, we have run programmes in more than 40 countries and reached over 1 million people. As a result, GNG has developed a solid knowledge base about interactive, ICTbased education, and about how young people become global citizens.

We are now building on this expertise to engage more students and schools in more effective ways. Interestingly, we have found that as a result of the live nature of the programmes, the academic topics become more relevant to students’ lives, and even moderately interested students become active in the classroom. We have also found that students are eager to learn about their peers in other parts of the world over sustained periods. So we have begun to increase the number and diversity of interactive programmeme offerings, to develop long-term connections between schools.

We make these connections happen by constantly adding schools to the GNG network all over the world, by developing innovative and relevant programmes for classrooms, as a fully integrated part of the curriculum. These programmes are also aligned with education standards.

During th e 10 years that Globa Nomads G l roup has been oper ating, we have r un progra mmes in more than 40 c ount ries a nd reache over 1 mill d ion people

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Q What is your vision for expanding global collaboration? How do you see the ‘eINDIA’ forum giving a platform for this vision?

We have mapped out a plan to do more of what Global Nomads Group does well: that is to help young people learn about global issues and their peers through interactive, international dialogue. We are doing this by increasing the number of programmes and by developing long-term programmes with schools in specific countries including India and the US. We are also keeping the programmes cost-effective.

Q What are the challenges in accomplishing the objectives of the project?

The biggest challenge is ensuring that the programmes are relevant to teachers and students in different parts of the world. So we spend a lot of time listening to teachers, educators, decision-makers and students, and we are constantly learning.

There are also technical challenges, particularly when GNG runs live programmes via Satellite link from areas with limited connectivity. But we are committed to providing innovative programmes, and often the best ones take place in remote areas. For example, from October-November 2008, GNG will help organise a series of videoconferences with scientists on an expedition in Antarctica about climate change. This will be a fascinating way to learn about how and why one of the coldest places on earth provides clues on global warming.

Q Please shed some light on your partners/supporters, at the government, private sector level.

GNG has been fortunate to have a group of terrific partners for many years. One key partnership is with Polycom, which creates videoconferencing hardware and software. More than this, Polycom has a strong and long-term commitment to improving education, which we have found to be very helpful.

Are there any upcoming educational programmes that might be of interest in the education community in the Asian region?

GNG is currently developing the ‘Virtual Classrooms Initiative’ for schools in India and the US to have an ongoing virtual exchange. I believe the time is right for such a programmeme, and there would be significant benefits for students in both the US and India.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

er w o p ol o h sc

Breaking the ICE!

Technology in JNV P. Ravi, Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Shimoga, Karnataka

Q What have been your experiences in introducing ICT in your school?

Though our school, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), is equipped to implement ICT in education, introduction to communication technology for our students happens only after they join here, as 75% them come from rural areas. They are also not very conversant with the use of English language. Thus use of technology in the teaching process comes as a big challenge for our students, who are introduced to it in the 6th standard.

Our experience has shown that these students are not handicapped by their lack of exposure to technology, if their specific needs are kept in focus while introducing technology in education.

Our students have a fast learning curve and use these tools very judiciously.

Although computer aided technology was introduced way even before 2001, clarity on its use and integration into education had been lacking. This was mainly because of lack of training among teachers and an attitudinal aversion towards technology in the existing mindset.

Q How did you break the ice with teachers towards acquiring ICT skills?

Initially, only a few teachers showed interest in using ICT. But the group grew bigger with time. Once, as the principal, I picked up some skills

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

myself, the ball was set rolling for others to do the same.

has become a way of life and they are setting new trends among their peers.

It is important to start by setting an example and with my continuous pursuance teachers were motivated to start using technology in education in 2003. They were provided exposure through trainings and encouraged to participate in competitions, like the ones held by Intel and Microsoft.

Our school is also involved in an Oracle project called ‘think.com’ and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) project ‘shiksha’ and Intel ‘Teach to future’, including others.

The training on project based teachinglearning by Intel helped our teachers to participate in the Intel Award for Best Integration of Technology in Education in the year 2004.

Our teachers and students bagged awards for Best School for Integrating Technology, Best Teacher for Integrating Technology and Best Student Project.

This motivated many students and teachers towards using technologies. In the subsequent years we bagged many more awards.

With consistent effort, we bagged the Computer Literacy Excellence Award 2005 at the national level and the cash prize of INR 8.5 lakh was used to upgrade infrastructure in our school and motivate teachers to use technology in day-to-day teaching.

Improvement in the Internet connectivity has enhanced the technology atmosphere in our JNV. In fact, for some teachers technology

Q How would you describe the

current level of expertise among the teachers?

Presently all our teachers are computer literate and half of them are actively using it in their day-to-day teaching. In the beginning some of them did not fully understand the manner and extent to which technology needs to be used with the result that a few students developed hatred towards technology aided teaching. Some teachers just started showing films on the subject matter and felt it will take care of the teaching process. They failed to understand that technology can only supplement and complement them in teaching. However, timely guidance and discussions with teachers improved the situation.

So, the head of an institution can bring about a transformation with regular guidance to tech-savvy teachers. As a academic supervisor, he/she should regularly monitor the technology aided classes and have review meetings to improve it. If technology implementation is properly monitored, it is a powerful tool to bring change in the learning environment.

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Q How did the school adjust to the change in terms of schedule, curriculum, teachers training, etc?

Computers were available by the year 2001, but both teachers and students were scared to use the computers and lacked confidence. Exposure to basic training programmes gave

dependent on ready-made CD contents.

But slowly some teachers became independent and started customising content by using Internet resources.

Irrespective of their subjects, all teachers started using technology. Technology empowered the teachers and also helped them in their professional growth.

it is not th e difference subject that makes in the use a of techno the techn ica log the teach l knowledge and in y. It is er t ter interestin hat makes the less est of ga on more atmosphe nd thus creates a technical re in the s chool them confidence and set a new trend among teachers. Initially, I encouraged few teachers to use technology and developed them as a core group to implement the technology in the school, which has slowly roped in the rest to adapt to the changing environment.

School level training was arranged for the teachers by allotting special slots in the timetable, called TAL (technology aided learning) periods to make them comfortable with technology. No restriction was placed on their frequent use of computer labs. Staff meetings would be held to highlight TAL classes while discussing the benefits of the same.

Teacher were encouraged to give more technology aided assignments, specially browsing information through Internet, etc. Work done by students and teachers would be periodically showcased to motivate others. All this slowly improved the percentage of use of computers in the teaching process.

Q Would you like to share examples of direct use of technology? How was content created and what kind of software applications were used?

In the initial stage, teachers were 56

So it is not the subject that makes a difference in the use of technology. It is the technical knowledge and interest of the teacher that makes the lesson more interesting and thus creates a technical atmosphere in the school. So as a head of the institution, Principals must ensure that regular training /input should be given to the teachers to upgrade them technologically.

Q Please tell us about the new

pedagogical ideas introduced in the school to promote technology enabled education.

While insisting for the use of technology among the teachers, I have also taken care to provide necessary infrastructure in the school. After setting up a multimedia room with LCD projection facility, there is an increase in the frequency of teachers using technology and it is fruitful. Rather, some of the teachers have created good e-Content for their syllabus and started using regularly.

Encouragement on the part of management has motivated few teachers to the level of bagging national level awards in technology use. Moreover,

the image of the teachers has improved among their colleagues and parents and students. Thus technology empowers the teacher professionally as well as personally. There is also a marked improvement in the learning environment and students’ participation has also increased.

Q What has been the impact of this

technology enabled teaching and learning process on your school?

As any other technology, computer technology is not an exception to misuse. In an effort to ease their work, some teachers started using ready-made educational CDs on the subject contents.

This developed an aversion among the students and did not bring the desired results in teaching with technology.

But when used properly, technology has the tremendous potential to strengthen learning. For example, technology aided projects or assignments develop creativity in the students and help sustain their interest in the subjects.

Computer labs should be made accessible to both teachers and students.

Of course some percentage of misuse will be there. But that should not deter people from using it sincerely. In fact in the initial stages, I strongly reacted to any case of misuse and blocked the facilities for many, which hampered the technology implementation and lead to under utilisation of the facility available.

As a head of the institution, one needs to play a balanced role in handling such situations, keeping in view the benefits of technology implementation.

In our school teachers and students can use the computer lab for coursework, with adequate monitoring. Periodical counseling and discussions in the morning assembly and in staff meetings has improved the situation. Any exemplary work done by students or teachers are discussed and appreciated in the morning assembly, which has helped set a good trend.

So it is the duty of the management in the school or organisation to regularly train the teachers and also guide them in using technology in a judicious manner.

This will go a long way in helping students learn with more clarity.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

C orporate Diary | Leader’s Speak

Duo-WhiteBoard

Interactivity

in Pen and Fingers

Tarun Jain The cutting edge Hitachi StarBoard products, which promise to transform the digital learning environment and set new benchmarks, include a suite of interactive whiteboard technologies that helps make teaching and learning both exciting and effective.

Tarun Jain, The Country Head, Hitachi Home Electornics Asia (S) Pte Ltd discusses more...

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August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

C orporate Diary | Leader’s Speak

Q Tell us about Hitachi’s foray as a provider of educational solutions.

What all services are available under its educational solutions? What is the latest on this?

The focus of Hitachi’s interactive educational solutions is going to be its interactive whiteboards – Hitachi Starboards. Hitachi Starboard technology is a world leader in the interactive learning domain and is sold in over 80 countries around the world. Hitachi Starboard technology is delightfully easy to use, amazing durable, incredibly fast and offers convenient versatility in applications.

Hitachi StarBoard technology comprises full sized StarBoard FX Series as well as the compact Interactive Panel (StarBoard T-17XSLG) and the Bluetooth Pad (StarBoard BT-2G) which facilitates multi-user operation to promote group participation and customized Starboard software that makes digital learning easy and fun.

Hitachi also offers extensive and customised training for StarBoard users.

The latest features of the StarBoard series include: StarBoard FX Series Interactive Whiteboards: • The Hitachi StarBoard is not your typical fragile interactive whiteboard as it employs Infra Red and Ultrasonic technology in a clever manner. The biggest advantage of Starboard is that it is made without embedding and wires or any such material in the board itself. This allows the board to be more durable – so durable that even in case the board surface is damaged the board will continue to function • Hitachi StarBoards can be used for remotely / conference between two StarBoards, i.e. one presenter can be in one city and the other in other city and with the help of an internet connection the 2 starboards can be connected so that whatever is being done on one of the StarBoards is replicated on the other board. This takes long distance learning and video conferencing to the next level • Hitachi StarBoards now offer the Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

•

• •

feature of writing over the top of programs to highlight and annotate points Hitachi StarBoards now offer the feature of viewing and navigating the Internet from the whiteboard.

Surf and display websites which the entire room will be able to see Display movie files or DVD’s from the PC Work on word processing documents, spreadsheets, design projectors with your colleagues.

Can be connected to video conferencing systems.

FX-Duo Interactive Whiteboards to be launched later this year: • The DuoBoard is the world’s only pen driven interactive whiteboard that you can also operate with your finger. The DuoBoard employs CMOS technology. Its hard surface

Q What are the market prospects for your products in India/Asia? And whom do you cater to- schools or colleges?

We are looking at school, colleges and professional institutes like IITs, IIMs, etc. and corporates. The Indian market is still nascent but extremely promising.

This year we expect the Indian market to post approximately 250% growth over last year. Such high growth rates are expected to be sustained in the coming years as acceptability for the technology increases exponentially due to the ICT eco-system in education evolving rapidly in India. Hitachi is looking at capturing approximately 25% market share in the interactive whiteboard category.

Q Don’t you think, with the kind of

technology and educational solutions like whiteboards, Hitachi is eying

Hitachi is looking a tc approxim ately 25% apturing m interactiv e whitebo arket share in the ard categ ory makes it unbreakable and multiple users can work on it simultaneously. This makes it perfect for group training and educational games.

Interactive panel (StarBoard T17XSLG): • This compact StarBoard which has a 17 inch LCD display screen offers features of a StarBoard in a compact form that can be hand held and carried around easily.

Bluetooth Pad (StarBoard BT-2G) · Hitachi FX Series Starboard can be linked to up to 10 Hitachi StarBoard BT-2G notepads through blue tooth to allowing for a multi-participant interactive session.

only the upmarket private schools?

Are you also looking at government schools and schools in the rural areas?

Hitachi StarBoard technology is very competetively priced and is a technically advanced value-for-money product. The value of Hitachi StarBoards is being realised by all educational institutions – private and government. To ally better with the needs of the government sector HCL has been given the rights to sell Hitachi StarBoards to government institutions through DGS&D. In fact there are orders already placed by many government schools for Hitachi StarBoards. Of course, the market is still nascent with lot of untapped potential.

We are however hopeful that, with product demonstrations and education, all educational institutions – private 59

C orporate Diary | Leader’s Speak and government - will soon realize the educational value proposition offered by StarBoards which are proven to provide high ROI.

Q The tie-up with academia

Cambridge University Press speaks one story of market penetration of the company. Whether there is also attempt to tag along government initiatives, for running ICT initiatives in schools/colleges? Is there any other kind of partnership story, at any level, with any stakeholder of education community?

With Starboards we are targeting both government and the private sector.

To ally better with the needs of the government sector HCL has been given

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the rights to sell Hitachi StarBoards to government institutions through DGS&D. We are looking to rapidly and actively ally with other leading education solution providers who can integrate the Hitachi Starboard as part of their differentiated and high-value added solutions to educational institutions.

Q How do you rate Hitachi’s

educational solutions in the international market? And how sucessfully have you positioned your solutions and services in the domestic market, in the interactive whiteboard segment, in particular?

Hitachi is a world leader in interactive whiteboard technology and is renowned for the highly innovative solutions

it provides as part of its StarBoard suite. We are now entering the Indian interactive whiteboard market in an aggressive manner and hope to capture approximately 25% of the market by end of this year. Hitachi’s unique suite of interactive whiteboards offer an unmatched combination of durability, mobility, interactivity and ease of use. For example the Hitachi StarBoards are the most durable interactive whiteboards. Also the FX-Duo interactive whiteboard, to be launched later this year is the first of its kind to accommodate finger and pen usage. For the benefits they offer, Hitachi interactive whiteboards are cost effective and deliver high ROI on investment.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

C orporate Diary | Leader’s Speak

NComputing: Revolutionising

Affo r d a b i l i t y

Raj Shah Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

As Chief Marketing Officer of NComputing, Raj Shah leads the company’s marketing and business development efforts. He brings more than 20 years of business management experience spanning start-ups, growth stage companies and F500 corporations. Prior to NComputing, Shah was the CMO of ClearCube Technology, pioneer in PC blade computing systems.

He was also the co-founder of SiteStuff, a leading e-Procurement service for commercial property management firms. He also served as a senior manager at McKinsey & Company, where he helped Fortune 500 clients in the technology, consumer goods, retail and manufacturing sectors improve their operations, marketing, and organisational effectiveness 61

C C C CC C CC CCC CC CC CC CC CC C CC CCCC CCC C

Q Please give us a business overview of NComputing and its offerings for education sector.

NComputing’s mission is to enable everyone in the world with access to computing at an affordable cost. Our solutions are based on a simple fact that today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of their capacity. NComputing’s virtualisation software and hardware tap the unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple users. Our virtualisation software is loaded onto a standard Windows or Linux PC. Each user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and highly reliable NComputing access device. The device itself has no CPU, memory, or moving parts so it is easy to deploy and maintain. Till now, over 7,50,000 NComputing seats have been sold to 20,000 organisations to slash their computing costs as much as 70% and electric consumption by 90%.

If there is any country in the World that understands the power of education and computers – it has to be India In the new economic order, it is very important to equip children with information and communication technology skills. So there is an urgent need for schools, colleges, universities and training institutes to have computer labs or computers in classrooms so that students can learn about computers and also use computers to learn more about other subjects (for example science and maths) through e-learning programmes. However, almost all educational institutions have limited funds for computer equipment. This is where we come into picture. We enable them to use their existing budget and stretch it so that they can double or triple the number of students who can have computer access at the same cost. In addition, since our devices are so small and produce virtually no heat or noise, they are perfect for a classroom or a computer lab where students are clustered together.

Q How does NComputing make computing truly accessible and affordable?

According to Gartner (technology consultancy firm) figures, 850 million people around the world, mostly in developed countries, have access to computing. But there another billion people in the world who want computing access, but can not afford it. They cannot afford to spend INR 20,000 on a PC, but can spend INR 4,500, which is the cost of our solution.

Picture a school in India wanting to set up a 30 student computing lab. Either it can buy 30 PCs with peripherals. Or it can purchase four PCs and 26 NComputing access devices for a fraction of the cost and energy usage. Over the four to five 62

year useful life of a PC, the school will only have to manage four PCs instead of 30. When its time to replace the PCs, the school will have to replace just the four PCs instead of 30 as the NComputing devices and peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse) can be continuously used.

Q In what ways can technology in education help bridge the digital divide? What is NComputing’s role in it?

One of the root causes of the digital divide is the nonaffordability of the standard PC technologies in developing nations. Our model revolutionises affordability. Take a look at Macedonia, a relatively poor country by Western standards. In 2007, its government decided to improve the living standard there, for which they had to join the digital economy. This meant that every student coming out of the school system had to be computer literate. But Macedonia could not afford to give every child a laptop – it would have cost over US$ 80 million dollars! So they turned to NComputing. By connecting 1,60,000 NComputing devices to 20,000 PCs, Macedonia is now able to provide 1,80,000 computer seats – enough for every single school child in Macedonia to have a computer on their desk. This is a great example of bridging the digital divide without breaking the bank.

If there is any country in the World that understands the power of education and computers – it has to be India. It’s just that most schools and state governments can not afford to make wide-scale computing an affordable reality. With our expansion in India, we are now working with several state governments to deploy NComputing solutions.

Q Please elaborate on your solutions for schools. Till now how many countries have adopted them. How have these schools benefited from these solutions?

There are a million public schools in India, and the vast majority of them can not afford to provide their students with sufficient number of computers. Our solution enables a school to set up a 40-seat computer lab for less than the cost of 10 stand-alone PCs. We are growing rapidly worldwide, mostly in developing nations like India, Brazil and China. Over the next five years, the growth of computing will be in the emerging and under-served markets. Emerging markets are well known – these are the countries where PC penetration is still less than 300 per 1,000 population. For example, countries like India, China, Brazil, Philippines, and Russia. What is also interesting (and often overlooked) is what we call ‘underserved’ market. For example, in the United States, most public schools only have 1 PC per 5 students. So there is still a large need for additional computing – if only the cost was more affordable. So we see tremendous opportunity to bring affordable computing to the hundreds of millions of students around the world. At the last count, NComputing products have been deployed in schools and universities in over 80 countries.

August 2008 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

C C C CC C CC CCC CC CC CC CC CC C CC CCCC CCC C NComputing’s vir tualisation software and hardware tap the unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple users

In India, a wide variety of state government initiatives are being carried out to bring computers into the schools.

We are actively working with companies like NIIT which has a dedicated K-12 computing services unit to bring our solution to the schools.

Q Are there any plans to target government schools, and schools in poor localities, rural areas?

Yes. Much of our success is in remote and rural areas. We have deployments in remote parts of India like rural Assam for example. One of the key challenges in rural areas is the lack of reliable electricity. In some cases, power is only available for few hours a day. With NComputing, power consumption is reduced by 90% because NComputing devices only use 1 watt of electricity compared to 110 watts for a desktop PC. So it requires smaller UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) and generators than usual.

Q Are there such offerings for the higher education sector as well?

Absolutely. Colleges, universities and training centers all need affordable computing in their labs and classrooms and NComputing solution is a perfect solution. They get the same benefits that a K-12 school would get. Keep in mind that NComputing works in both Linux and Windows environments and can take advantage of standard applications.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Q How do you rate NComputing in the international as well as the domestic market, in terms of its penetration and acceptance?

NComputing products are used by millions of people in over 80 countries, so we are already a global company with operations around the world. In the Indian domestic market, we are seeing installations throughout the entire country.

We have deployments in schools, colleges, training centers, factories, hospitals, government entities and businesses.

Q Are there any plans for further

diversification?

We are well diversified already in terms of the number of countries and sectors we are engaged in. But we also recognise that there are additional ways our core technology can be used and are actively pursuing them. For example, we already know that with the rise of the Internet, access to entertainment and content has already moved into the ‘cloud’. In the coming years, much of computing applications and processing will also move to the Internet, so the only device people will need is a way to access the Internet. Think of the possibilities if hundreds of millions of home and business users can get a full computing experience with just a TV/monitor, keyboard and a cable connection!

YOUR SAY

I, on behalf of my whole college thank you with your whole team, for giving place our school in your prestigious magazine.

This will encourage our students,teachers,paren ts and each one who is related with our school and Dept. of Education in UTTRAKHAND,the higher officials specially. By giving place our activities in your magazine, your magazine has proved the real value of PRINT MEDIA,specially when our school is in deep remote area , facing the problem of suitable plateform to share its’ ideas with outer world. Please convey thanks and all regards to each of your officials.

J P dobHAl Asst.Teacher Govt.Inter College DUDHALI

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Establishing

Edupreneurship

Shantanu Prakash Shantanu Prakash setup Educomp Solutions Limited, India’s first school centric education solutions company in 1994, a few years after acquiring an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Notable amongst his innovations include ‘teacher-led’ content system called SmartClass which dramatically improved learning effectiveness in classrooms, development of India’s largest K12 Content Library with over 8000 topics of 3D content, India’s first structured pre-school learning system called Roots 2 Wings, and MathGuru to dramatically simplify access to qualitative Math help. Educomp group serves over 15,000 schools and 7 million learners and educators across the world. In an interview with Digital Learning, Shantanu Prakash shares more of his thoughts and views...

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August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

H

e likes to devote most of his time to entrepreneurial pursuits and does yoga and meditation in spare time. His ultimate desire is to attain self-realisation.

This was, probably, instrumental in veering him away from the safe option of a campus placement at Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad where he had just completed a programme in business administration. ‘I finished my MBA and offers started pouring in from various sectors. However, at that time, I wanted to contribute to the nation’s development and at the same time create a business entrepreneurship.

After a lot of soul searching, I decided to enter the field of education. If you look at our country’s educational landscape you will notice a paradoxical situation. Our educational ecosystem is very vast with 420 million students who go to school and 5 million teachers. On the other hand, the educational sector is an under-performing and underresourced area. The United States spends US$ 7,000 on each child’s education, an annual amount to educate an entire Indian village. In India, considering the limited resources that are divided among 200 million students, coupled with high expectations that characterise any middle class family, education is one wealth they treasure. So given this paradox, I decided to invest my energy in this under-developed sector and set up Educomp in 1994-95.’

‘In the initial days, we used to go to schools and install IT labs, train instructors and create the curriculum.

So in a way we revolutionised the use of technology in education. Slowly we moved on to developing content and now we have a very large library of content for K-12 with over 8000 topics.

The reason we chose technology is because of its scalability.

Our objective is to produce better learning outcome among the students. A good teacher who has the ability to inspire students can produce good learning outcomes and excellent students.

However, there is a paucity of really good and inspiring teachers and that is where technology comes in. Technology allows you to combine best practices and make it accessible to a large number of students. In India particularly, the challenge is about size verses resources and technology is the crucial equalising element that can bridge disparities and other inequalities.’

The growth value in any enterprise comes from being a pioneer. Today if any company wants to get into technology in education, they will find Educomp already established in the field. ‘That is how we built a niche for ourselves. When we started out, no one had explored this sector. We developed a model that was accepted and kept on changing and redefining it as we reached the current state of what is known as Smart Class which reaches one million students and 1,000 schools.

We also stepped on foreign lands. Today we are the largest company in South East Asia and also one of the leading Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

companies in the US. We recently entered into a business relationship with Learning.com and acquired 51% stake in the company. Now Educomp works with seven million students and 15,000 schools. It took us 15 years to reach this stage and the growth has been very interesting and progressive. We were pioneers even when we started.’

The Educomp story has been one of innovation. The innovation cycle works in the following way: You first identify the problem; then you identify a unique differentiated solution; and then create a business model that will solve the problem and also prove to be profitable.

Finally you scale it up to make it a mature and marketable product. ‘That is how we started the Smart Class and Mathguru, which today has 50,000 subscribers and in the years to come it may grow to 500,000 subscribers.

Mathguru is a unique product because content over broadband is still in a stage of infancy in India and the Internet penetration is very low.

In India there are approximately 2.6 million broadband connected homes compared to China, which has 80 to 90 million. Supplemental education is a US$ 5.3 billion market in India and this market is extremely fragmented. We are the first company to start a structured, organised, branded supplemental education product in the market called Learning Hour. We also started the Millennium Learning System which is like an educational operating system for a school. The intellectual property behind the brand was the simple idea that school curriculum should be integrated.’

Today the source and method of teaching is extremely fragmented. There is no uniform model about how different elements such as teaching, curriculum, sources and methods will work together. For instance, Educomp has published more than 40 books of its own. These are related to digital content and teaching plan, which is a very significant development. So if a teacher has to teach the Unitary method in Maths, it is prescribed how to introduce the subject, how to conduct exercises in class, how to divide the class into groups and how to evaluate the group exercises, at what time to bring the Smart Class into the lesson plan and also what homework to give. So it is a complete script and a faculty guide. This standardisation and streamlining of processes is crucial when one is managing hundreds of schools.

‘Earlier when a teacher would change, the whole system of teaching and learning would change; if the principal changed, the whole school system would change. The whole idea of streamlining process and providing standard content in the form of the Millennium Learning content is that, every student gets standardised and assured quality of education. Thus from 65

being ‘person centric’, we are now on our path towards becoming ‘process centric’. The school takes responsibility for providing quality education for the student. Earlier, there used to be such insensitivity towards children who had difficulty coping with the subject matter.

India and so pays lot of attention to the rural sector. ‘About 35% of our revenue comes from rural areas. We are the only company that has developed content in ten different languages. We have an entire division that works solely in education and technology in rural India.

The whole idea of process streamlining and providing standardisation of content in the form of the Millennium learning content is that, every student gets standardised and assured quality of education. Thus from being ‘person centric’

If a child is not doing well, then the school should claim responsibility.

Out target is to set up 150 Millenium Schools in the coming three to four years. Currently we have seven schools running - one in Chennai, two in Bangalore, one in Noida, one in Mohali and one in Gurgaon.

Educomp also has new projects on the anvil. It has now entered the zone beyond K-12 and has a joint venture with Raffles Education Corp., a private player in the Asia-Pacific region. This joint venture is a very significant move towards higher education. Educomp works with seven million students, many of whom have passed out of school and are now at crossroads. So we have programmes that cater to them also. We have products right from primary schools till the higher education stage.’

Educomp is one of the companies that believes in the potential of the rural 66

Personally, I feel that rural India offers more potential than urban India because students in rural India have a lot of thirst and enthusiasm to learn and they value all the things that they do not have.’

The size of the company determines its growth. Educomp now comprises 4,000 employees worldwide and has presence in the US, Canada, Singapore, Sri Lanka, apart from India. ‘By March 31, 2008 , we had closed at a consolidated revenue of INR 282 crore.

For the next year, our target is close at INR 570 crore.’

Educomp also believes in healthy competition. ‘Right now we have monopoly in several products in the market, but I am sure there will be more players in the times to come.

And it will be really good for the education sector. Pace is very important in India where development is slow.’

YOUR SAY

Since the Indian market is still nascent product display and demonstration becomes critical. Fora like eINDIA provide an ideal platform to do this. This year we plan to showcase and provide demonstrations for our cutting edge products like the FXDuo among others. We are also keen to strike alliances with other players with whom we can synergise with in the e-Learning eco-system.

Tarun Jain Country Head, Hitachi Home Electornics Asia (S) Pte Ltd

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

‘Is There an Ideal Learning Rate for Students?’ Q Tell us about the concept behind setting up of Educational Initiatives, tracing the journey from setting up Eklavya School to a private company.

After working with IBM for twoand-half years, I left the job to start Eklavya School, Ahmedabad, in 1996, along with the two colleagues (who later co-founded Educational Initiatives with me), Venkat Krishnan N and Sudhir Ghodke.

For five-and-half years till 2001 we ran Eklavya School and Eklavya Institute of Teacher Education. In the teacher training programme we had a format in which the teachers were supposed to spend alternate days in schools observing and teaching children. Through this experience we came across some important facts that later on became the foundational principles of Educational Initiatives.

One of them was that rote learning had become the prime method of teaching and learning in our schools.

Other was the disinterest of people with the talent and qualification to transform education, to actually become teachers and do something.

Problems such as these were common in schools across India. We felt that education was not being tackled systematically and scientifically enough.

Sridhar Rajagopalan Answers, Sridhar Rajagopalan, Director of Amedabad based Educational Initiatives Pvt Ltd that plays a pivotal role in the pursuit of improving quality learning...

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

It was then that we felt a need for a tool that could actually show in terms of concrete data that the children were probably not learning with understanding. We wanted to work for the education system as a whole (private schools, government schools, at a national level, pool and increase 67

knowledge, do research in this area) rather than simply develop a few institutions.

In 2001 we set up Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd. with the objective of focusing more sharply on learning and how to improve the quality of learning.

The flagship project of Educational Initiatives has been and is ASSET, a diagnostic test to find out ‘how well our children are really learning’. This test has been developed after researching textbooks and curriculums extensively in India and about 7-8 countries abroad, based on which a list of scholastic skills and methods to test these skills (and not simply rote or textbook learning) have been developed.

Q Please comment on the school education scenario

in our country. What, according to you, are the issues plaguing classroom teaching in schools today?

Due the widespread practice of rote based teaching and learning the school education in India has substantially transformed into a rote learning system, which assess a child’s memorizing skills much more a foundational understanding.

The phrase “Learn by heart” has become so ingrained in the system that it is difficult to diagnose where it actually starts.

The Board exams only reinforce this type of system. One of the factors also responsible this is that the education system is not able to attract good quality teachers, who hold a much deeper understanding of a child’s understanding. A reason for this lack of talented teachers is the fact that the financial returns are not as good as other professions, but at the same time the education system fails to inspire talented individuals to get out of comfort zones and take up the task of renovating the system.

Q Tell us about assessment tests for schools. Please give

details like its benefits, how it is carried out, and how many schools are using this; also share with us some of your experiences with schools and children.

We want to create a system where children are learning with understanding. ASSET is an instrument through which we show schools and parents that what children are learning is something they cannot be happy about.

The tests use multiple choice questions to test a student’s understanding of concepts. The findings are mapped on to spreadsheets telling the school how its students performed in concepts of a particular subject compared with schools tested in the rest of India. Schools — and more importantly, teachers — then get help and training to change their method of teaching. The schools get detailed data on where students are going wrong, backed by teacher training as part of the package. Schools that want more specialised subject-wise training are charged.

We are clearly seeing an improvement in performance among schools that we have been working with for some time.

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ASSET, conducted for classes 3-10, assesses students’ comprehension in Mathematics, Science and English; Hindi and Social Studies are optional tests. This year, students from more than 2,500 schools across the country will take the skillbased diagnostic test.

One of our interesting findings has been that students, who sometimes are labeled as weak or insincere, do very well in ASSET. Once, such a student topped his school in ASSET (which was an opener for his teachers). This points out a fundamental error in our education system. We also find that students can memorize, but don’t comprehend well.

We believe that ASSET has been able to set the people, especially those involved in the education field, thinking.

With the kind of benchmarking and concrete suggestions we provide we feel we have been able to make a dent in the current education scenario.

Q Tell us about the offerings for teachers. How can it

be used for enriching teaching in schools? How many schools have approached you for the teacher assessment?

Please share with us some of the projects undertaken and experiences therein.

EI believes in maximising the potential of Principals, Teachers and Learners in schools. EI’s programmes focus on helping schools change their classroom practices, which in turn enhances student achievement. One of our guiding

for ducted n o c , T es ASSE assess , 0 1 3 ion classes rehens p m o c ’ ts e studen , Scienc s c i t a hem d in Mat indi an H ; h s i l g tional p o and En e r a tudies udents t Social S s , r a e his y 0 tests. T an 2,50 h t e r y o count r from m e h t s s acro ed schools ill-bas k s e h t e will tak t stic tes diagno principles is to transform the teacher into a “reflective practitioner” who is herself a “thinker” and “learner”.

EI sees teacher training as the best way of synergistic experience between its own team of professionals and school teachers.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme (TEEP) is an organised study of teachers in action in the classrooms, based on subject knowledge and classroom transactions, thereby providing them a profitable period for learning and development. The focus is on teacher growth. It helps teachers understand their strengths and weaknesses in a classroom situation. In this programme, trained and experienced experts visit classrooms and carry out teacher observations.

Experts help the teachers by giving real time feedback on the various aspects related to classroom pedagogy and building a classroom that maximizes learning.

Over the last 3 years, 15-20 schools across the country approached us for the same. We have worked with 9 schools in this programme.

Q What, according to you, are the reasons for poor performance in government schools?

I would say government schools are caught in a vicious cycle of bad reputation and bad results. Due to past records which are not very impressive, people who are more serious about education and can afford private schools’ fee structures are averse to the idea of admitting their children to government schools. So the government schools generally have children from families which lack the required level of interest and commitment. Also the focus in government schools is more on mechanical learning than actual understanding, which results in reduced interest and the desire to learn. Teachers sometimes though well qualified, usually have low impression of what students can achieve.

Systems to ensure accountability of government teachers (whether they are present and doing their work responsibly or not) are also weak. The current state of government schools is more because of this combination of unfavourable factors.

Q Are there any other projects being undertaken with

other agencies, other than schools? If yes, please share with us some of the interesting projects. What about tie-ups with other companies for extending its reach?

Educational Initiatives, has worked with organizations such as United Nations Children’s Fund, Azim Premji Foundation (named for the founder of Wipro Ltd) and more recently, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google Inc. In May, Educational Initiatives signed a contract with Google to conduct a study to gauge levels of student learning in classes IV, VI and VIII in 21 states to identify learning gaps. We will also be working with the Royal Government of Bhutan, to assess student learning and teaching over the next five years.

Q Please elaborate on your new learning solution for kids

-- Mindspark. What are its salient features? How is it different from other programmes in the market?

Mindspark is a computer based adaptive self-learning programme. It is a learning system that allows the student to Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

construct her own learning – at a pace she is comfortable with. It is an interactive system, where the student is not learning passively by listening to someone, or viewing ready-made solutions, but learning interactively by answering questions of progressively increasing complexity levels.

At the heart of Mindspark is the theory that students learn best when they control the pace of learning. There have been several successful experiments worldwide on this. Mindspark is a genesis of various such experiments. An intelligent computer system uses a complex adaptive logic to decide what problem to serve up to a student next, based on her response to the current problem and problems answered earlier. The system is also able to identify when a student needs help to understand a concept and proceeds to give her explanations that will help her move ahead.

An int ere been th sting findin g has at stud ents, w someti h mes la beled a o are insinc s ere weak o r Once, s , do very wel l in AS uch a stu SE his sch ool in A dent topped T. SSET. to a fu This p ndam oints e n educat tal er r ion sy o r i n our stem

Mindspark is based on the following foundational principles: • Every child learns at her own pace – there is no “ideal” learning rate for a given age group.

• Effective learning takes place if the material presents a challenge that is just above the cognitive level of the student.

• Frequent exposure to appropriate learning material enhances learning.

• Learning through drill alone - without understanding - is not learning.

• Though individual variations exist, there are universal patterns in learning – and these patterns can help children learn better.

Tell us about this shift from assessments to learning solutions. Are there more such solutions on the anvil?

To us, Mindspark was not an expected decision but a logical movement possible due to the vast data collected over the years. We expect Mindspark to be equally successful in generating data that will give us more insights about learning and will turn out to be just as revolutionary as ASSET. There are no other new solutions currently on anvil.

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C orporate Diary | News RapideL-i introduces MS Powerpoint converter RapideL-i, the internet-based rapid e-Learning tool has been upgraded to include a new feature to convert MS Powerpoint slides into e-Learning. This feature allows users to import static Powerpoint presentations into RapideL-i and, at the click of a button, convert the presentation into a SCORM complaint eLearning course. It also allows users to add pages created using RapideL-i into the converted course.

CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS Educomp, Designmate alliance to bring digital content to private schools Educomp has entered into a strategic alliance with Designmate for marketing its international award winning product Eureka.in to private schools. Educomp has bought 5000 licenses of Eureka.in and exclusive rights for all private schools in India. Designmate will directly market Eureka to government schools and home markets.

Eureka.in is a 3D animated product for learning Science and Math at school level. It consists of 5000 topics for classes 1 to 12 and has already been installed in more than 1400 schools. Educomp’s engagement with Designmate and the addition of Eureka software in its repository of digital content for private schools makes it the largest provider of digital content in this space.

Eureka.in has bagged the Worlddidac Award 2008 for its innovativeness and high potential to improve teaching learning process. The award will be given away to Designmate in an official ceremony on October 28 in Basel, Switzerland. The product has also been adjudged as ‘Outstanding example of e-Content and one of the winners in the e-Learning category’ by the World Summit 2007 at Venice, Italy.

This easy-to-use feature will immensely benefit users who currently have some part of their training material in Powerpoint and wish to convert it for deployment on an LMS. Moreover, RapideL-i enables value additions to these converted courses by providing ready to use, customisable players/shells which can be tweaked to suit one’s branding needs.

Nortel equips NERIST in Arunachal with wireless connectivity Nortel has equipped the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), a university in Arunachal Pradesh, with its wireless mesh and WiMax solutions to deliver wireless connectivity across the university’s two campuses in the mountainous area. This is also expected to provide complete mobility for its students and staff.

Users at both the campus sites can access the institute’s network infrastructure using the Wireless Mesh network solution, unifying the two campuses by a single secure network that can be accessed from anywhere in the university. The solution opens up 70

ProEd and Data Train Australia tie-up brings e-Learning to mainframe education in India

ProEd Training, Bangalore based leading provider of IBM mainframe training and related solutions in India, has announced its partnership with Australia-based Data Train to make available globally accepted e-Learning curriculum for mainframe education. The new approach will significantly increase the productivity of mainframe professionals in the country by having them quickly trained besides complimenting blended learning strategies in mainframe education.

Vijay Kumar, CEO, ProEd Training said Data Train’s e-Learning enabled worldclass IBM mainframe courseware will change the way mainframe learning has been practiced in India till recently. The current (instructor-led training) approach has constraints when applied to a geographically dispersed workforce whose requirement for skilling is constant. Besides, the time tested courseware from Datatrain ensures that learning imparted is highly relevant to IT companies who are constantly striving to increase the billable hours.

Everonn partners with HP govt for IT in schools Everonn Systems India Limited has signed an MoU with Himachal Pradesh to implement IT education in 793 government senior secondary schools across all 12 districts of the state.

The project involves setting up of computer labs and supply of IT hardware, software and other accessories for computer systems for providing IT and IT based education and also full time certified IT instructors in each school. The project will be implemented in BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) model for a period of four years. Work on the project has already commenced and is expected to benefit around 60,000 students in the state.

Everonn has worked with the governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkand, Goa, Andaman and Assam to offer IT and computer aided education in schools.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

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C orporate Diary | News opportunities for educational techniques like video conferencing, tele-classrooms, webcasts of lectures for distance learning, and mobile desktop/laptopbased video conferencing. Students can access resources wherever they are instead of having to go to a central location, like the library or computer center.

quality education through innovative teaching material and classroom processes. The promoters of Bharti and its associates have committed a corpus of INR 200 crore for the Satya Bharti School programme’s roll out across the country.

iQ Academy Washington launches statewide virtual school for students

Intel announces education plans for Palestine Intel has announced key initiatives in Palestine, including expansion of the Intel Higher Education Technology Entrepreneurship Program and the launch of a new multi-core computer lab at Birzeit University.

As part of its education initiative, Intel will develop a new multi-core computer laboratory at Birzeit University to enhance skills and aid programming knowledge targeted toward multicore platforms. It will also offer its global programme on technology entrepreneurship curriculum and training to five Palestinian institutions and plans to sponsor a business plan competition for students to strengthen entrepreneur initiatives in the country. The company has also started work with the country’s Ministry of Education on a detailed multi-year plan to provide the Intel Teach Program in Palestine.

Microsoft to give R750 million software to SA govt schools Microsoft will supply productivity and server software worth about R750million to 26,000 government schools in South Africa, bringing modern information and communication technology to more than 11 million school students. A three-year agreement 72

was signed in this regard, renewing the company’s original software donation agreement signed in 2002. Through this the country’s Education Department hopes to widen the reach of ICT and see more students leave schools being computer literate.

Under the programme, teachers are being trained to be computer literate and ready to integrate software in the classrooms. Each of the schools that participate in the programme will receive free licences for a range of software, including Microsoft Office 2007, Vista Business, Visual Studio Pro, Exchange Server, SQL Server and Microsoft Encarta multimedia encyclopaedia. In addition to teacher training, the company is committed to helping schools increase access to technology and build strong infrastructure that supports learning as well as administration of education.

Bharti Foundation to open 500 schools for underprivileged

Bharti Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Bharti Enterprises, will open 500 primary and 50 senior secondarycum-vocational training schools for underprivileged children across rural India under its Satya Bharti School programme.

One such Satya Bharti School was inaugurated by President Pratibha Devisingh Patil at village Lordi Dejgara in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The Foundation’s flagship programme is aimed at benefiting over two lakh children across the country by giving them access to

iQ Academy Washington has launched its online school for all students in grades 7-12 and is enrolling students statewide for the 2008 academic session.

This unique education option provides high-quality, tuition-free education, small group instruction and one-onone feedback from certified teachers -- all conducted online using a laptop provided by the school. Students can excel at their own pace and work with Washington-certified teachers who are specially trained in online instruction.

Students will receive individualised attention and participate in dynamic student discussions online.

KarROX launches third IT empowerment scholarship in Nigeria In its quest to create a pool of well informed and learned ICT professionals, karROX has launched its third IT empowerment scholarship in Nigeria for the third consecutive year with an investment of N100 million.

Under the scholarship, training will be offered on various software, networking and security modules with multiple platforms and technologies offered by ICT world leaders like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, CompTlA, Sun Microsystems and others. The scholarships conducted in year 2006 and 2007 had received an overwhelming response with 60,000 students applying for it, out of which 12,000 were selected to complete specialised courses on ICT. The scholarships are given on the basis of applicants’ performance in the qualifying test. Up to 100% fee waiver, along with job assistance, is offered to those selected.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Science Education

Today and Tomorrow Tangirala Vishal, Head Technology Department, Everonn Systems India Ltd. Science today is taught in an abstract manner in most schools across India, primarily using the Rote method of instruction and to a certain extent Apply and Understand method of instruction (Anderson’s Taxonomy), which

will be better served by a broader vision of education, wherein teachers use different methodologies, exercises and activities to reach all students, not just those who excel at linguistic and logical intelligence.

essentially are lower order learning skills. From cognitive research done around the world, it is found that the rote method assimilating knowledge is actually counterproductive to learning.

When we look closely at the human learning pattern, we humans learn by relating to different things and events with respect to what is being learnt.

Putting it simply, learning the unknown happens with relation to the known. The learning process is further strengthened by reinforcement. Furthermore from the theory of Multiple Intelligence in Education, traditionally schools have emphasized the development of logical intelligence and linguistic intelligence (mainly reading and writing). While many students function well in this environment, there are those who do not.

Gardner’s theory argues that students

The process of relating to from familiar concepts/events/things and reinforcement actually helps in effective learning. Science should be taught as something which is very much part of everyday life, for e.g., like showing the child the science involved in pulling water out of a well, or every day examples about the levers etc. This aspect was found to be critical in learning the fundamentals of science, and this would lead the child to start thinking more analytically.

Further, an essential part of learning science comes from experimentation, which enables the learner to actually comprehend what he has learnt earlier in a clear and precise

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

manner.

Coming from the above, the use of multimedia resources in teaching science would actually overcome the abstractness of science teaching to learners. This would inculcate in the learner development of their higher order learning skills. In fact, Educational research has shown that information should be encoded both visually and auditory. When learning with multimedia, the brain must simultaneously encode two different types of information, namely an auditory stimulus and a visual stimulus. One might expect these competing sources of information to tend to overwhelm or overload the learner. This perhaps would be the case, if it were not for how working memory works.

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) suggested working memory has two somewhat independent subcomponents that tend to work in parallel. This allows us to simultaneously process information

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coming from our eyes and ears. Thus a learner is not necessarily overwhelmed or overloaded by multimodal instruction.

In studies undertaken by Mayer and his colleagues testing Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory, along with multimedia, they repeatedly found that students given multimedia with animation and narration did consistently better on transfer questions than those who learnt from animation and text-based materials. That is, they were significantly better when it came to applying what they had learned after receiving multimedia rather than mono-media (visual only) instruction.

These results were later confirmed by other groups of researchers.

Everonn’s products today are making Education more meaningful using multimedia as a Teaching aid, thereby providing learners with a wholesome learning experience (developing both lower and higher order learning skills).

Features of Everonn’s products (www. classontheweb.com, i-Schools, vSchool etc) can easily be mapped to the Cognitive Taxonomy Circle diagram.

Currently the Creative Head at Everonn Systems India Ltd., Tangirala Vishal is a graduate in Engineering from Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology, Osmania University.

He started his career path as a graphic designer, and moved on to become Research Engineer in International Institute of Information Technology in 2002. At the Institute, he got various opportunities to design interactive multimedia modules on Mathematics and Science. He further moved on to start his own firm ‘Kriative Media’ where he has executed many noteworthy projects for major corporate like Krebs Biochemicals, Ferro Grenn Technologies, Banaras Beads Ltd, Poovaya & Co. In 2007, he joined Everonn Systems India Limited as its Creative Head. A major contributor to various creative endeavours at Everonn, Vishal heads the animation team responsible for developing multimedia content as well as research on multimedia content development. Vishal has coauthored various books and also presented papers on using multimedia as a tool to impart school education.

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YOUR SAY

eINDIA2008 is a platform where stakeholders actually come and voice their views and concerns. I Would look at it as an oppourtunity where the government also comes to know of these concerns of people and stakeholders. This would bridge the gap between government and stakeholders.

Whenever there have been seminars and conferences like this, we have been sending our representatives or if possible we have been going ourselves to know what is hapenning and what needs to be done.

Smt d Purandeswari Minister of State for Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

August 2008 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Resurgent Rajasthan Intel Initiatives Accelerating Progress

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rom landscapes to lives, everything is changing in Rajasthan. Radiating unparalleled energy and optimism, the educational reforms in the state have gone a long way in driving social and economic progress. The Intel Initiatives with the state government have made it possible to accelerate this vision of 21st century education.

This transformation has been more revolutionary in the backward villages of Rajasthan where technological literacy has helped villagers deal with social and community problems like education and health, breaking social paradigms set for centuries. These bold initiatives and concerted efforts have opened up avenues and opportunities for growth, prosperity and self reliance, especially for women of the State.

Today the sand of the desert glows, rich, not with the color of the traditional past but the shining present.

Bharatpur, the premier Jat state in Rajasthan, is dotted with marvelous remnants of its royal past. Today, this historically rich but economically backward district is witnessing radical changes in its educational system. Through the Intel initiatives introduced in Aroda, a small village in Bharatpur, the poor farmers of the village see a brighter future for their children.

Education was not one of the topmost priorities in the village. A child at home meant an extra pair of hands to help in the fields. The transformation came about when the government school teachers were trained under Intel Teach.

Using technology as a platform, (survey, rallies, door to door campaigns etc), these teachers brought about a change in the thought process of the villagers by making them aware of the benefits of education.

Laxman Singh, an Intel trained Master Trainer and his students, undertook a project where they created awareness on how an educated child could change the future of his entire family.

Their project not only motivated the elders of the village towards the necessity of education but also attracted more children to enroll in school.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Dungarpur district is the stronghold of the Bheels of Rajasthan. Predominantly tribal and extremely orthodox, their history of occupancy in the Aravalli’s ranges back to 4000 BC. Their thinking - seeped in superstition and orthodoxy - had over the years reduced it to an illiterate tribal community.

Parshant Joshi and Jitesh Pandya, two teachers in the Government Upper Primary School Sanchiya, Dungerpur, trained on the project based learning concept under Intel Teach, started an educational project focusing on how to get rid of the evils of superstitions.

This age old orthodox way of thinking, they felt, was a hindrance to the development of the community. The Master Trainers are working to make the community literate so that they leave behind their superstitious practices and adapt new ways of life.

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Yogita Joshi and Kushal Gamot are students of the upper primary government school in Vassi Khas, Dungarpur district.

They have made their school, village and family proud by being the first ever merit holders from their small village in the district level exams.

Thanks to the Intel Teach Program which their teachers were trained on, the students of the school were introduced to the Encarta edition on the computer.

They were taught to use it for their projects, to add to their knowledge of topics in science like cell division , digestive system etc. and to increase the gamut of their education system.

Yogita, student of Upper Primary government school of Vassi Khas

The students inculcated the Encarta in their school routine.

This extra effort showed in their work when both Yogita and Kuskla became the first students from Vassi Khas to have attained a merit rank in the District Level board exams for the 8th standard.

The story of success for this village school does not stop here.

The Intel Initiatives taught the students how to explore, to work collaboratively and to acquire skills for the 21st century.

The result was that the school got better results than ever before and shone in the district for getting 100% pass percentage in the district level exams.

Yogita’s father, a humble man who runs a general shop in the village has tears of happiness in his eyes.

‘I have dreams for my daughter. She has outdone her brothers and we hope to see her do really well in the future. Maybe one day she can get a job also.’

This is the changing face of Rajasthan. Literacy amongst women has gone up by 30% since 1981.The Intel Teach initiatives of Rajasthan are creating a youth who is geared to meet the demands of the 21st century and can look forward to new vistas of employment and opportunity.

Through these projects the teachers are training their students to understand the cause and effect relationship between progressive thinking and social and economic development.

Vassi Khas, also a village in the district of Dungerpur, has high fluoride content in its drinking water which is far above the ‘safe for health’ parameters. Fluoride, is a toxin with a rating slightly higher than that of lead and appropriate warnings have been issued by the government.

The students will analyse and work collaboratively to find out what can be done to safeguard health, using methods which are cost effective and can save lives.

Even though this poor rural community suffers from various kinds of water related diseases, illiteracy makes them ignorant to the dangers they face or to home based solutions they can find to their problem.

Sudhir Bhargav, Principal Secretary of School and Sanskrit Education, Government of Rajasthan, very aptly sums up the contribution of Intel when he says: ‘The Intel Teach Program has not only made many of our teachers computer literate but also made them ambassadors of using technology for improving the delivery of educational services as well as to enhance the learning level.’

Giri Raj Singh, a teacher in the government school of Vassi Khas, has trained under the Intel Teach Program and plans to involve his students in a health based project which focuses on the dangers of excess fluoride in water.

By tapping into the children’s interest in their community while developing their skills with creative technology driven projects, Gir Raj Singh is working innovatively to bring about development in his backward community.

For more information, visit: www.intel.com/education/in .

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August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

e-Blocks

Learning English with stimuli

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uman beings have been learning foreign languages for a very long time. Many find this task effortless and enjoyable whereas for others it is filled with frustration, anguish and annoyance. To help master a foreign language, numerous methods have evolved, many of which have come and gone. What is needed is a technique which is based on supportive scientific research, indicating how best to instil linguistic knowledge and to facilitate the use of the to-be-mastered tongue. In this context, an innovative product has been developed by Positivo Informatica, which goes by the name of e-Blocks, a programme for teaching English to children between the ages of two to ten years.

What is unique about this method is that it encourages people to utilise multiple senses simultaneously, promotes co-operative learning and makes use of a well established pedagogical principle in the field of education called “learning by doing.” The e-Blocks system consists of a software package, a sensory panel with 15 pockets, plastic blocks with various colours, letters, shapes imprinted on them, flash cards and reproducible activities, teachers’ guides with audio CDs. With the help of visual and auditory stimuli, children are introduced to letters, words and sentences. Children are then required to make a response based on the learning activity selected by the instructor. They are asked to make their responses by inserting the blocks into the pockets of the sensory panel. The programme then evaluates the students’ responses and provides immediate feedback to the students.

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Afterwards, at the end of the learning session, the programme generates a detailed performance report including numeric scores, and identifies areas in which improvement is needed. e–Blocks makes it possible for students to learn individually or to work together collaboratively in groups of up to 6 persons. If the latter option is chosen, the programme requires students to consult one another before responses are made, which makes learning exciting, enjoyable as well as informative for every one involved. e-Blocks was developed based on scientific knowledge in the fields of linguistics and cognitive science. It is used in numerous countries in the world. It has won several awards including the World Summit Award (WSA) in 2005 from the United Nations for the best e-learning solution in education. According to the WSA, e-Blocks is a perfect blend of technology and content which is what differentiates it from all other methods available for learning English as a language. Besides accumulating its multiple accolades, e-Blocks system has also received support from scientific research inducted in the field itself. For example, in a study conducted in the California public school system, the effectiveness of the e-Blocks methodology was evaluated by an independent company, Educational Support Systems Inc. The results of this investigation indicated that students who came from Spanish speaking homes and used the e-Blocks system scored significantly higher on the variables of letter naming, phonetic segmentation, oral reading fluency and retelling fluency compared to the control group consisting of non e-Block users coming from Spanish speaking homes.

Further research is being continued to investigate to what extent e-Blocks is successful in assisting students to master English easily and effectively.

Based in Brazil, Positivo Corp was established in 1972.

Today, it is the market leader in education, as well as information technologies. It has a wide distribution network all across the globe and thousands of schools use Positivo’s educational tools.

In India, Virtual Edutechnica Private Limited, Ludhiana, is the exclusive distributor of the e-Blocks programme.

August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Projectors

With BrilliantColor Technology Juan F Alvarez, Business Manager, DLP Products, Texas Instruments Inc.

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ith the proliferation of digital photography, consumers are capturing thousands of memories in digital media. Most of these memories remain in the PC, but consumers want to share them with their families on the big screen. One of the challenges that consumers have is to precisely reproduce those captured moments on a large screen projector. Texas Instruments introduced BrilliantColor technology to provide DLP projector brands and end users with a broad set of tools to better represent those unforgettable moments. In Q2 2008 80% of DLP projectors sold incorporated BrilliantColor technology.

The most important tools encompassed in the BrilliantColor technology suite are: • The use of multi-primary colors including yellow, cyan and magenta to expand the viewable color space • Lamp pulsing • Colour correction • Circuits and software algorithms ported from DLP Cinema applications Multi-primary colour processing – BrilliantColor technology starts with RGB (Red, Green, Blue) video colour support like other technologies, such as LCD and previous generations of DLP projectors. Then it adds CMY (Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow) colour processing and white is added in some cases to increase white level. These additional colours offer the capability to represent a desired colour output at higher brightness. The results of such an innovation are colours that are closer to real life than ever before. This innovation is somewhat similar to how computer printers evolved not long ago in which they added multiple colours with seven or more inks when consumers started to demand better colour photo printing. In addition to an image that more accurately represents the source material, BrilliantColor technology gives manufacturers more flexibility to fine- tune their desired colour palette. Figure 1-1 below shows how having twice as many colours from which to choose allowed Mitsubishi to emphasize green in one model while InFocus chose to more closely match Rec 709.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

Lamp pulsing -- Lamp pulsing allows manufacturers to pulse-width-modulate (PWM) the lamp at different frequencies to allow for a broad set of pre-configured selections without losing colour fidelity. In simultaneous RGB systems, brightness can only be emphasized by loss of bit depth and reduced system efficiency. By design, simultaneous RGB systems cannot support lamp pulsing given that lamp pulsing requires each colour be pulsed at a unique frequency in a unique time allocation. On the other hand, lamp pulsing in sequential colour reproduction such as that found in DLP systems enables emphasizing different level of brightness on each source (RGBYCM). The average power of the lamp is maintained by shifting the proportions of energy between various colours.

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It is now possible to boost certain colours to achieve unique looks for various applications while de-emphasizing other colour sources. Figure 2-1 illustrates how lamp pulsing can generate various colour preference modes without impacting the overall power of the lamp. The black line in Figure 2-1 represents the brightness of the lamp over time as it aligns with the appropriate point in the colour wheel.

• Colour correction – BrilliantColor enables an extended list of options to manufacturers and end users. Colour correction algorithms enable more flexibility at the manufacturer level by providing a broader set of configurations without sacrificing power and fidelity. Manufacturers can now offer a wider array

of pre-configured image options. End users have a broader set of tools to adjust colour to their liking. It is now possible to change pre-configured settings and adjust colour fidelity for primary and secondary colours within those settings, to suit their personal requirements. End users can select from a richer set of options closer to a professional display system. In fact, a BrilliantColor enabled projector, can support over 250 unique configurations.

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Circuits and software algorithms similar to those in cinema applications -- DLP Cinema technology is incorporated into 98% of the digital cinema projectors worldwide. DLP Cinema offers tremendous colour flexibility by providing 3-D lookup tables and colour correction help systems. Similar circuits and algorithms are now available in BrilliantColor projectors to expand the options for colour optimisation.

In summary, BrilliantColor enables a much broader set of options for manufactures and end users to adjust colour to their individual needs. There are projectors in the marketplace that supports up to 10 different pre-configured modes

without impacting average lamp power or colour fidelity.

Other technologies which use just RGB only support a few modes with a direct impact to brightness and colour fidelity.

In addition, end users have more options for configuring primary and secondary colors while RGB projectors support adjustments to primary colours only. Having a BrilliantColor projector empowers the end user to fine tune colour preferences and truly bring those memories back to life on the big screen.

EDISTALEARNING, A QAI Venture Responding to the demand supply gap in industry, and with the intention of building capacity and capability, QAI, along with internationally renowned guru, Dr. Roger Pressman, have launched an online curriculum EdistaLearning to address the enormous need for anytime, anywhere, high-quality and cost effective training.

EdistaLearning is QAI’s education and training initiative and the exclusive platform that brings together subject experts and QAI’s consulting and training experience. The online curriculum facilitates knowledge, competence and skill creation in the domains of Software Engineering and Quality Management. It has over 45 e-Learning courses spanning across 13 domains such as Software Engineering, Testing, Estimation, Project Management, Quality, Configuration Management and many more. It’s online content is available to both individuals and organizations.

EdistaLearning brings learning to people rather than bringing people to learning. Several organizations in India and overseas have already subscribed to tens of thousands of licenses and are saving costs and significantly reducing cycle time.

EdistaLearning provides opportunities of a complete Career Path, Management and Performance Tracking of workforce and above all, homogeneity of content so that everybody speaks the same language.

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August 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

SMART Board Interactive Whiteboard

Built to Last Nancy Knowlton (NancyK@smarttech.com.), President and Co-CEO, Smart Technologies Inc.

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ust how long will a SMART Board interactive whiteboard last is a question that many educators ask. Most people budget for a three-to-five year useful life for projectors and PCs and expect about the same for the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. There are a number of things that you should know about our product.

Software Upgrades A substantial amount of the utility of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard is derived from the software.

We provide free, online upgrades to the SMART Board software, so no matter when you bought your SMART Board interactive whiteboard you will always have the same, most up-to-date functionality as someone who purchases today.

This is particularly important for school jurisdictions, because there is never a financial decision to make about upgrading.

Just download it and go.

Hardware Warranty

The warranty is a full five years, including electronics, cables and surface. There’s no small print to trip you up should you Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 8 August 2008

ever need warranty support. (Of course, the warranty does not cover abuse or deliberate damage.)

Useful Life We are often asked about the useful life of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. There is a calculation that can be made

to provide a theoretical answer, but that’s all it would be. The reality is that SMART Board interactive whiteboards that were sold and put into use eight, ten and fourteen years ago are still in use today. With the free software upgrades, they are every bit as good as new product currently shipping from our assembly plants.

Construction of the Whiteboard The SMART Board interactive whiteboard features a very simple construction which makes it extremely reliable once it is installed in a classroom. There are two sheets of resistive material, stretched over a large, flat surface and separated by a small air gap. When you press on the SMART Board interactive whiteboard’s surface, the two resistive sheets touch and an X,Y coordinate is registered.

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The surface material of the whiteboard is a hardcoat poly-ester which is extremely durable. It doesn’t wear out.

The surface material keeps its tension over time because of the way that the SMART Board interactive whiteboard is assembled.

There are four pens/styluses that are provided with each SMART Board interactive whiteboard. There is nothing special about these tools – they are simply pieces of plastic that serve as visual cues as to their function. With the intelligence built into the pen tray (optical sensors detect a tool selection), all of the styluses could be removed from the pen tray and the interactive whiteboard would still function.

Simply place anything (a business card will do) in the pen slots and it will function as usual.

Quality is Built In SMART takes great pride in designing and building a quality product. One of the biggest compliments that we receive from our customers is about the reliability that they experience with our products in their classrooms.

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We received our ISO 9001 registration in 1996 and we have been successful in maintaining that registration ever since.

Our systems are solid, and our practices are sound.

Growing Library of Education Resources Beyond the software and hardware, there is a large and growing library of classroom-ready, teacher-prepared materials to go along with the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. And the best part – they’re free on http://www. education.smarttech.com

Getting Better with Age There really aren’t many things that get better with age, but we’d like you to think that’s exactly what happens with the SMART Board interactive whiteboards that our customers own. Not only is the hardware durable and reliable, the fact that our customers can download the latest version of the SMART Board software means that you get new features and functions as they are added to the product.

Now, that’s built to last.

Nancy Knowlton is the President and CoCEO of SMART Technologies Inc., the worldleading supplier of interactive whiteboards.

Nancy’s husband and co-founder of SMART, David Martin, is the inventor of the interactive whiteboard category. Together they have built a company that is focused on delivering easy-to-use, yet feature-rich collaboration tools including the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. Nancy can be reached at NancyK@smarttech.com.

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Mark Your Calendar august International Conference on Learning and Teaching 4 - 5 August 2008 Putrajaya, Malaysia http://web3.tarc.edu.my/v1/tic/index.htm

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Announcement UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education: Call for Nominations ‘Digital Opportunities for All: Preparing Students for 21st Century Skills’ is the theme of the 2008 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of ICTs in Education.

Funded by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the US$50,000 prize is given to two winners every year for activities that demonstrate best practice as well as creative use of ICTs to enhance learning, teaching and overall educational performance.

Submissions for candidature must reach UNESCO via the governments of Member States, in consultation with their UNESCO National Commissions, or by international non-governmental organisations which maintain formal relations with the Organisation.

Deadline for Submission The deadline for submissions is August 31, 2008. The prize money will be equally distributed to two winners at an award ceremony on January 14, 2009 at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

For furter information visit http://www.unescobkk.org/ index.php?id=6800&tx_ wecknowledgebase_pi1[tt_ news]=1083&tx_wecknowledgebase_p i1[backPid]=6771&cHash=4bb 94c74c3 April 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

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