How is ICTisation of Education negotiated among all stakeholders? : March 2007 Issue

The monthly publication on ICT and Education for Asia and the Middle East

March 2007

ISSN 0973-4139

Rs 75

Subscriber’s copy not for sale

Volume III Issue 3

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Promoting E-learning in Pakistan PAGE 19

Hera ldin Chan g ge

How is ICTisation of Education negotiated among all stakeholders?

Digital LEARNING Asia 2007 gives a call to action

Podcasting in Classrooms PAGE 37

Leaders’ Speak Supam Maheshwari CEO, Brainvisa Technologies PAGE 27 FORTHCOMING EVENT

30 July - 3 August 2007 Pragati Maidan New Delhi

Digital Learning Power School Awards 2007 PAGE 39

Contents Verbatim

Volume III Issue II1, March 2007

“If you have an Apple and I have an Apple, and we share it with each other, each goes back with one apple. Whereas if you have an idea and I have and idea and we share it with each other, each go back with two ideas.” George Bernard Shaw “Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” Will Durant “We must never cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.” T. S. Eliot

Cover Story

Rethinking the Asian ICT and Education Agenda

Corporate Diary

Leaders’ Speak

Workshop

Supam Maheshwari CEO, Brainvisa Technologies, India

Partnership in Learning

Euro-Indian ICT Coperation Initiatives in Progress

Learning Centre 16 Aforvirtual Tsunami Affected Students D M Surya Mayandi

Country Focus

Promoting E-learning in Pakistan

Regulars

Strategies and Challenges Zainab Hussain Siddiqui

School Track

37 Research

Learning Object Recommender System for Personalised Learning Zainal A. Hasibuan

Podcasting in Classrooms Paviter Singh

M-Learn

Mark Your Calendar

SmartChecker M. Mustafa, M. Yazid and W. Aezwani

News

29 31 36 44

Corporate India Asia World

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

India’s Plan for Education 2007-2008 Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Mid-day Meal Scheme: Increase in allocation for school education by 35% from INR17,133 crore to INR23,142 crore, of which INR10,671 crore for SSA, provision for strengthening of teachers’ training institutions to be increased from INR162 crore to INR450 crore with 200,000 more teachers to be appointed and 500,000 more class rooms to be constructed. Mid-day Meal Scheme to be provided INR7,324 cr; children in upper primary classes in 3,427 educationally The INR 6.8 trillion backward blocks to be also covered; transfer to Indian budget 2007 Prarambhik Shiksha Kosh to increase from INR8,746 cr to INR10,393 cr; provision for secondary education to Indian Finance Minister double from INR1,837 cr to INR3,794 crore. P Chidambaram presented INR 6805.21 Means-Cum-Merit Scholarships: National Meansbillion annual budget cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme to be introduced to arrest drop out ratio; selection through a national test for the year 2007-08 from among students who have passed class VIII; each focusing on education, healthcare and affirming student to be given INR6,000 per year; 100,000 scholarships to be awarded every year; a corpus fund commitment to increase of INR750 crore to be created this year, and augmented spending on the social infrastructure. by a like amount annually over the next three years. Vocational Education Mission: An initial provision of INR50 crore proposed for beginning work on a Vocational Education Mission; approach to be based on public-private partnership.

The Finance Minister has promised to recruit two lakh more school teachers and construct five lakh more Upgradation of ITIs: 1,396 ITIs to be upgraded into classrooms during 2007centres of excellence in specific trades and skills under 08 as part of the public-private partnership; Government to provide government’s decision financial assistance by way of seed money; an interest to give primacy to the free loan up to INR2.5 crore to be granted to each ITI school education. for upgradation and revision of courses; INR750 crore set aside for this purpose.

digital LEARNING invites authors We invite editorial contributions from our readers in the field of Digital Learning. While no guarantee is made or implied, we will make every effort to incorporate all views and experiences in the relevant issues so as to better serve the ICT and Education community at large. Note that contributions may be edited for space and/ or clarity. Unconsolidated manuscripts and artwork will not be returned. Please be sure to read and follow the Editorial Guidelines available at http:// www.digitallearning.in/editorial.asp All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Digital Learning G-4, Sector-39, Noida, India Tel +91-120-2502180 to 85 Fax +91-120-2500060 Email info@digitalLEARNING.in 4

Next issue: e-learning in higher education

School Education and Literacy • INR 10671 crore for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan • INR7324 crore for Mid-Day Meals Programme • INR1305 crore for the scheme of Universal Access and Quality at Secondary Stage (SUCCESS) • INR275 crore for setting up Special Navodaya Vidyalayas to cater to the needs of children from the weaker sections of the society. Higher Education • INR2124.77 crore for University Grants Commission- includes an allocation of INR 576 crore for implementation of the recommendations of Oversight Committee • INR2928.97 crore for Technical Education, including INR2122 crore for implementation of the recommendations of Oversight Committee • INR451.80 crore for National Mission on Information and Communication Technology in keeping with the recommendations of Oversight Committee More to Budget estimates 5% duty to all research institutions Additional cess of 1% on all taxes to fund secondary and higher education Expansion of capacity by 54% for reservation for socially and educationally backward classes March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

digital LEARNING Volume III, issue 3 | March 2007 President M P Narayanan Editor Ravi Gupta Editorial Consultant Jayalakshmi Chittoor Sr. Assistant Editor Rumi Mallick Sub Editor Manjushree Reddy Marketing Siddharth Verma +91-9811561645 (India) email: siddharth@csdms.in Circulation Lipika Dutta (+91-9871481708) Manoj Kumar (+91-9210816901) Designed by Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Web Zia Salahuddin Editorial and marketing correspondence digital LEARNING G-4 Sector 39 NOIDA 201301, India Phone +91 120 2502181-87 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLEARNING.in Group directors Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Printed by Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India digital LEARNING does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. digital LEARNING is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.

Editorial A clarion call! Global trends over the past several decades have profound implications for educational reform and the use of technology there in. The convergence of these trends has created significant opportunities and also enormous challenges. New knowledge and the use of new technologies have resulted in a way of living, which was unimaginable few decades ago. These converging trends have put tremendous stress on educational systems responsible for preparing society for the future with change. In the face of these trends, countries are confronted with the need to rethink their educational systems in order to prepare the community for the global progress, and to assure that the community will benefit equitably from this growth. To participate in this change and growth the education community needed to respond to an unbounded 21 century skills to use their knowledge to think critically, to collaborate, to communicate, to solve problems, to create, and to continue to learn. A major focus of this magazine is on the same, the change and growth process that talks about the utilisation of responsive and localised ICT for the empowerment of education communities. Now is the time to think about the future. Now is the time for breakthroughs! This issue of the magazine has been able to gather some such breakthroughs as the outcome of the provocative report of the Digital Learning Asia 2007 conference happened in February in Malaysia. The report is meant to inspire the entire education community to rethink and revitalize the Asian ICT and education agenda available so far. Time is right to enter a new phase in the integration of ICT in the Asian society. We have moved away from a technology-push approach and have emphasised the importance of now better reaping the benefits of ICT. Today, we are better connected than ever. But how can we use these connections to reach our goals? How should we transform the processes of production and distribution of knowledge and ideas to embed ICT in an effective way? How can we make a successful transition to a network economy and a knowledge-based society? We have presented this report to start the discussion about the future of Asian ICT and education agenda. It is necessary to take account of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paradigm and proven best practices in an international setting to achieve the best results in the future. We are sure that this issue will be insightful and raise crucial questions that need to be answered to mainstream ICTs in education in all spheres of life.

Ravi Gupta Editor Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in

digital LEARNING is published in technical collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in)

ÂŠ Centre for Science, Development and DigitalStudies Learning Media 2006| Vol 3 Issue 2 February 2007

Cover Story

Rethinking the Asian ICT and Education Agenda

The conference venue

Digital Learning Asia 2007 6-8 February 2007 Putrajaya International Convention Centre, Malaysia

10 sessions 55 speakers 20 countries (as part of the eAsia 2007 that brought together 700 people from more than 50 countries)

One ObjectiveICT and EducationOpportunities for Digital Asia Several approaches- online and offline discussions, paper presentations, plenary, round tables, interviews, and many more

ASiA 2007

a study on the Asian minds on education technology, a reference note towards policy level preparations, and an approach for the development of the education community. 6

March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

ICT is undeniably a crucial tool for education, and the economy. Its contribution is proven not only by many recent academic studies but also by the experiences of the past years that shows the fast rise of digital learning and ICT based industry and the economy. ICT based education however has changed over the last few years. The awareness has grown that best results with digital learning are often not achieved anymore by quick and radical new approaches but by well conceived processes with a clear eye for tangible and measurable results. There are several Asian countries that have made enormous progress in this arena. Some have completely outpaced others on particular areas and have become global leaders. There are many chances for Asia, ICT still has much more in stock for digital learning to rule the roost. Many new market segments will probably see a big growth, such as the content market and the creative industries. A leading position in these new growth areas is crucial, if Asia wants to play in the first league of productivity, combined with a strong policy system. Digital Learning Asia 2007 seconds this approach of exploring all those chances and opportunities leading towards a Digital Asia.

Ravi Gupta sharing the objectives of the conference

Digital Learning Asia 2007, which was a part of the three days umbrella event eAsia 2007, was the culmination of five months of planning and collaborating among CSDMS, Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications, Malaysia (KTAK) telecentre.org, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and key partners like, Microsoft, Nokia, SEAMEO, National University of Singapore, Universiti Technologi Mara, University of Uttara Malaysia, and several others to bring together the key stakeholders from Asia and beyond. The Digital Learning Asia planned as a consultative forum for discussion and collaboration was designed to engage the participants representing organisations involved in or interested in ICT and education activities in and around Asia. Digital Learning Asia 2007 bringing together the thought leaders: Sanjay Kumar, CEO, GIS Development, Walter Fust, Director General, SDC, Dato’ Dr Lim Keng Yaik, Minister of Water, Energy and Communications, Malaysia, R Chandrasekhar, Additional Secretary, Govt of India, M P Narayanan, President CSDMS, Dato’ Dr Halim Man, Sec. General KTAK, Malaysia, Richard Fuchs, IDRC,Canada, Dato’ Dr Nordin Kardi, VC, UUM, Malaysia and Ravi Gupta, Director, CSDMS (from left to right) Inaugural address by the convener Ravi Gupta Vincent Quah, Microsoft Asia Pacific (right) among others The journey starts: The Minister of Water, Energy and Communications, Malaysia accompanied by others to join the conference

Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

Digital Learning Asia 2007 is the third in the series of such consultative forums organised by CSDMS in Asia. While for some participants this was the first time, they met the Digital Learning community at large, for many, it was a place to meet old friends, make new acquaintances and forge news partnerships. The three days of the forum saw participants engage in several planned and adhoc discussions on the way forward for the ICT and education community in Asia. 7

Breakthrough! Cognitive gaps among different stakeholders in ICT in education continue to be an area that needs attention. The call is for strengthening of cooperation and linkages between educational institutions and organisations across the globe. Governments need to form smart partnerships with vendors and non-profit organisations to help bridge the digital gap between students from urban and rural schools. Dedicated classroom technology has to be promoted rather than moving from one classroom to the other as practiced in several countries. Leadership within the schools has to be emphasized. Recognising, training and supporting teachers who are champions within the schools system will be a boost to promote digital learning.

The first day plenary of eAsia conference set the stage for the next two days of consultation on telecentres, eGovernance, Digital Learning, eHealth and mobiles for development. While the Minister of Energy, Water and Communications (KTAK), Malaysia talked about the value addition that a comprehensive policy environment brings to national development, he also emphasised that while the country is surging ahead with IT enabled growth processes, it also needs to review and rework its focus human resouce development that could drive the knowledge economy. The Minister insisted that there is a need to focus attention to sustain, strengthen and value-add to the existing initiatives in human resouce development. While M P Narayanan and Ravi Gupta, the President and Director of CSDMS highlighted the vision and the key objectives behind the eAsia conference, Water Fust, Director General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), R Chandrasekhar, Additional

Secretary, Department of Communications and Information Technology (DIT), India and Akthar Badshah, Senior Director, Microsoft USA also reiterated that the way forward for ICT4D in Asia was to collaborate and strengthen the

The inaugural day saw a key session by the Government of Malaysia on Malaysian ICT vision that included key experts from KTAK, and Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The Global Knowledge Partnership had put together a plenary session drawing expertise from Microsoft, Ministry of Communication, Government of India, Omar Dengo Foundation, Costa Rica, EPFL, Switzerland, Foundation ChasquiNet, Ecuador, Community Informatics Research, Network, Training and

The first day saw the launch of the telecentre magazine, a joint initiative of CSDMS and telecentre.org. Richard Fuchs, Regional Director, South-East and East Asia, IDRC, Walter Fust, SDC, Akhtar Badshah, Microsoft spoke about their association with CSDMS and their vision for the magazine on telecentres, volunteering their support for the magazine. Ravi Gupta, Director of CSDMS explained that the magazine on telecentre has been conceptualised as an interface between telecentre leaders, knowledge providers, and decision-makers, providing up-to-date information on developments in the telecentre movement, networks, and service providers.

initiatives through renewed partnerships and sharing of expertise. The first day also saw the launch of the ITU-Universiti Uttara Malaysia partnership on Asia-Pacific Centre for

Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it grand! The cultural show hosted by the Ministry of Tourism, Malaysia

Excellence for Rural ICT Development. The Minister along with Datoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Dr Nordin Kardi, Vice Chancellor, Universiti Uttara Malaysia inaugurated the launch.

Development, Canada and Friday Solutions, India. The session hosted by Walter Fust was framed around experiences of multi-stakeholder partnerships and addressing three key questions of poverty reduction, scaling models and government policy involving multi-stakeholder partnerships. As a part of the overall eAsia themes, the Digital Learning Asia 2007 conference took prominence due to the importance of ICT-enabled learning in an increasingly knowledge driven global economy. In the next two days of the conference, the participants tried to learn about experiences that have enabled change March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Breakthrough! conducive to the new environment of knowledge society as the instruments to bridge the knowledge and education divide. The purpose of this conference was to identify new ICT and education related questions, roadblocks, progress, and debatable issues, and to provide new impetus to the digital learning discussions. The conference saw participation from education ministers and education managers in government, senior policy makers, administrators, academics, school heads and teachers, curriculum specialists, industry representatives, and education consultants. The sessions began with a visioning process setting the stage for the

Continuous professional development of teachers is very important to ensure that they are being updated with new ICT tools and innovative teaching methodologies. There is richness of content available for schools to purchase and use, and governments should seriously consider whether there is any need to do in-house development of materials for schools. There is a need to reveal and revise the mode of assessment, and set mechanisms within the evaluation system that are representative of the changed environment.

societies and governments for globalisation and the information and communication revolution, this plenary session showcased some emerging application areas and the new potentials of ICTs that can bring in dramatic changes in learning and

‘Educators must change - it is often in the winds of change that we find our true direction. Educators are the digital immigrants who have slid into the digital age, but are still doing most things in the old way, where as the students are the digital nativesfluent in the digital language and applications.’ Dato’ Haji Yusoff bin Harun, Director, Educational Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia

participants to learn, share, network and identify collaborators. While infrastructure is critical, going beyond it and looking at process, content and teachers capacity building were identified for national programmes, keeping in mind the importance of comprehensive policies.

eventually in the economic and social development. Dato’ Haji Yusoff bin Harun, Director, Educational Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Malaysia, who

believes that what is important is not the technology but the people, broadly presented the ICT in Malaysia’s policy and in Ninth Malaysian Plan. He also gave a picture of major ICT in education projects of Malaysia like Smart school project, SchoolNet, Computer Labs, Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English, Educational TV, school access centers, etc. The Malaysian experience of shifting gears, and framework for leadership provided the first opportunity for Digital Asia to start the journey towards change. The Malaysian experience went beyond the school aspects, with the representative from the Department of Higher Education under the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia putting forward some future development plans like the 4G mobile, Next Generation Network, National Broadband Master Plan, IPv6, use of open source software, etc. that can be adoptable by others striving for development in the context of digital opportunities. The participants also

The second day began with the plenary session titled ‘ICT in Education: Opportunities for Digital Asia’. The forum participants learnt about national level ecosystem of ICT-enabled education. Understanding the fact that the developing countries are facing today the challenge of preparing their Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

At the Gala Dinner

Harry Kwa, Director of Education, Microsoft Asia Pacific, Microsoft ‘What we need to look for in Asia are…learning devices! More collaborative scenario! Communication alternatives! More softwares! Localisation! Training! Leveraging best practices! Support from all stakeholders!’

Johanna Liukkonen, Industry Marketing Manager, Nokia Corporation, Finland explained the Bridgeit programme, a unique multi-sector collaboration initiative between Nokia, UNDP, the International Youth Foundation and Pearson, that uses mobile technology to deliver digital multimedia materials to teachers and students, and active in the Philippines with plans to expand to other countries cited a good opportunity in this direction. She also furthered this text2teach attempt with her firm belief in ‘global effort local flavour’. got glimpses on the use of ICT in Distance Education, Malaysian Research and Educational Network (MYREN) experirnces. universityindustry partnership in promoting ICT in education showed some related challenges of benchmarking and compliance with industrial requirements, challenges of inter10

ministerial collaboration, and private sector participation.

work wonders only if supported by purposeful end-to-end policy.

With the scope of varied digital opportunities available or can be made available in learning, the hunt for the best of technologies and best of practices intensified in the following session ICT in education: Theory and Practice that resulted in a number of shared experiences on what exists, the availabilities, preparedness, various practices and the shortfalls on the front of ICTs and education influencing the education system of many countries.

Zainab Hussain Siddiqui, Sr. Asst. Director (Programmes), COMSATS Headquarters in Pakistan discussed on status of e-learning in Pakistan by citing a case-study: Alliance Française Islamabad and COMSATS’ french online and informed the participants that government policy and initiatives in Pakistan is in the process of taking a big stride in e-learning.

MyGfL (Malaysian Grid for Learning), a national e-Learning initiative by National IT Council (NITC) and undertaken by MIMOS Berhad to promote and support the lifelong learning agenda in Malaysia reflected some very useful pilot observations and outcomes. Dr Norrizan Razali, Senior Manager, Smart School Department, Multimedia Development Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDeC) spoke on optimising digital content in classrooms by demonstrating the Malaysian Smart School experience. The challenges with digital content this flagship project of Ministry of Education experiences can be a lesson for others. Pedagogical aspect in digital content encourages teachers to adopt only. Teachers and students find cosmetic aspect attractive; and although cosmetic aspect is attractive, teachers are not compelled to use the digital content. Other challenges include the curriculum-based and exam driven content, and some technical challenges. Dr Ashish Garg, Programme Coordinator, India, Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) founded by the UN ICT Task Force, pointed out that adhoc policies that never have explicit connection with the national goals and visions often hamper the ICT in education process. She emphasised that all the best education practices with ICTs can

The next session on e-learning practices for K-12 education identified Dr Norrizan Razali, MdeC, Malaysia, Agnes Ng Sook Fei, MIMOS, Malaysia, Dato’ Haji Yusoff bin Harun, Ministry of Education, Malaysia, Dr. Ashish Garg, GeSCI, India, and Zainab Hussain Siddiqui, COMSATS, Pakistan

Talking about ICT in education theory and practice

some key issues in an international comparison of e-learning approaches, discussed some interesting scalable models of learning environment, and how to design and implement change management at a school level. Dr Azian T. S. Abdullah, Director, SEAMEO RECSAM, Penang, Malaysia put forth the RECSAM experience of promoting Science and Mathematics Education in the Southeast Asian Region. Models of SEAMEO Young Scientists (SSYS) Congress, the main objective of which is to encourage R&D in science and technology among youths, SEAMEO Mathematics Olympiad (SEA-MO), the objectives to discover, encourage and challenge of mathematically gifted secondary school students, Science Across the World/Science Across Asia Pacific (www.scienceacross.org) targeted mainly for students aged 12 – 17 years to introduce into science education and ways of life and March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

national traditions of students in different countries, provided some scalable aspect in the global arena. Will Glennon, an entrepreneur and attorney from the Philippines who has built an International network for connecting students worldwide, The Global Classroom Connection, gave a broader aspect of e-learning starting from b (book)-learning. A lesson can be taken from this project that is built in partnership with government and teachers; the network of classrooms around the world where students are in regular, robust direct and Col. K J Singh, Designmate, India, Chee Mew Leng, National University of Singapore, Will Glennon, Global Classroom Connection, Philippines, Dr Azian T. S. Abdullah, SEAMEO RECSAM, Malaysia, and Anju Visen-Singh, Smart Technologies Inc., Canada

Chan Foong Mae, Ministry of Education, Malaysia, while chairing the session

On scaling models of e-learning for K-12 education:

Dr Azian T. S. Abdullah ‘Science and Mathematics teachers must know how to make the lessons challenging and interesting.’

enhance the opportunities for students to develop competencies necessary for transition to the real world. She discussed the evolving role of the instructor in translating the philosophy of constructivism into practice in a fast-changing technology-based learning environment. The session also observed the very effective classroom learning implications of SMART interactive whiteboards that offer features like handwriting recognition, lesson recording, on-screen keyboard, spotlight tool, and many more. Anju Visen-Singh, Manager, International Marketinger, Smart Technologies Inc., Canada took the session on technology tour through the innovative SMART white board. She informed that 450,000 SMART Board interactive whiteboards are installed in classrooms worldwide by January 2007.

With the obvious impact of digital technologies in education getting interactive communication with their clearer with all the previous peers in other countries. discussions, the panel from National University of Singapore (NUS) looked Chee Mew Leng is a Senior Lecturer out to engage the audience in a (in Teaching) in the discussion about the Management & impact of digital Organisation technologies in the Department/Human Asian region. The Resource discussion Management Unit, predominantly NUS Business revolved around the School, National challenges of Dr Milagros Rivera, National Univeristy of University of providing media Songapore while moderating the panel Singapore discussed discussion on ‘Digital technologies for literacy in development: Reassessing the Asian experience. technology in developing countries The panel constituted of the lecturers in NUS- T constructivist model T Sreekumar, Sun Sun LIM, Dr. Cho Hichang, and the experience of of learning in order to and Liew Halycon the National Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

University of Singapore as an entrepreneurial university. There emerged a number of methods of re-skilling educators to adopt roles of an administrator, facilitator, technical support and evaluator, to build buy-in and ownership qualities among educators and motivate them to spearhead the ICT-based education process. Many models and practices of teachers’ training and capacity

…In my opinion, it is worth in future to bring together in separate sessions more fundamental themes, arrange some combined sessions where more theoretical issues could be illustrated by case studies as their exemplifications, and to introduce other case studies at the exhibition, poster and stand-by sessions where the authors could share experience and communicate with public more freely. To my mind, the themes of the conference were rather advanced and prospective. Following the discussion at my session, I would like to suggest for the next Conference a special session (possibly as a Round Table discussion) devoted to research in methodology of Knowledge Societies, open content, e-learning, etc. – Valery Meskov Unesco Institute of Information Technologies in Education, Russia

...Event was good in general. Liked interaction with ministers and VIPs and demos. All in all, we will consider participating again. More exposure on the telco side ensuring relevant participation can be considered a change for future. – Team Nokia

I found the people very interesting, sometimes informative.The most useful portion for me was frankly the networking, not the presentations themselves…The world has moved on and so too the conference need to move on to offering panel discussions on the more controversial issue emerging (for example “Why is digital utilisation so low if we all know it is useful and important?” –Will Glennon, GCC, Philippines

Dr Azizah Abd Manan, the representative from INTAN Malaysia gave a perspective on enhancing human capital through e-learning through Malaysian public sector elearning project, an initiative identified in the Public Sector ICT Blueprint 2 formulated by the government under the Ninth Malaysia Plan to support life-long learning and to improve delivery of generic courses for government servants.

It would have been nice to have some exciting/controversial sessions on day one. I enjoyed the experience and the interactions with colleagues from industry/NGOs and government. This avenue where we can all converge is very important because otherwise we tend to stick to our own “kind” and there is little cross-ferlitization otherwise.

The session also saw an Indian experience through DOEACC Society under Dept. of Information Technology, Govt. of India that has over 900 centres with 10 centres of its own, conducting programme “Training of Trainers in e-learning” to propagate the knowledge on elearning and its applications among teachers at its Aurangabad and Kolkata centres.

– Milagros Rivera, NUS, Singapore

The other Indian case of Green Teacher online, an ICT enabled

The conference was good. I think you should look at having a smaller panel, giving each speaker more time to share their insights and knowledge to ensure that the audience actually learns something from what is being shared. – Anju Visen-Singh, Smart Technologies, Canada

building were assimilated and also deliberated on the best strategies for facilitating the teachers’ seamless progress from the traditional role of an instructor to the new role of a facilitator of learning.

Vincent Quah, Director, Public Sector Programmes, Microsoft speaking on collaborative spaces for teaching and learning

in-service Teacher Training in Environmental Education is the first inservice teacher training through open and distance learning in India that offers an e-learning The panel discussing on educating the educators: Meghana Gaonkar, Centre for tool for Environment Education, India, Chong Yaut Lee, Lily, National University of Singapore, teachers in Dr Azizah Abd Manan, INTAN, Malaysia, Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach, IDRC, India, Vincent Quah, Microsoft, and Indrajit Bhattacharya, DOEACC Society, India South Asia, provides

teachers an opportunity of being trained in environment education at their convenience. A social space in online forum was also suggested that represents a major transformation in teaching and learning practices. A study suggested that users who experience a sound social space will participate actively, deriving enjoyment in their learning. Whilst learning hinges on a sound social space, critics noted that online group participation is not the only way to engage in learning. Having sustainable e-learning strategies driven by some visions of how e-learning will support education in achieving its goals by adding value, the need is now for right infrastructure, delivery mechanism, technical support and implementation strategy that are crucial, especially in the sector of higher education. A panel discussion session deliberated on the key challenges and effective strategies for e-learning for higher education. A national digital learning environment for higher education is one that integrates individual elearning environments, integrates individual information systems, stimulates cooperation in learning, R&D and collaboration, and provides the environment that encourages synergies. In the context of Malaysia, some expectations were put forth for the university to change from a system of teaching supported by learning resources to one of learning resources supported by teachers. That are• Ministry of Higher Education will need to develop the strategies and master plan • Develop policies and guidelines for universities • Develop framework for resources sharing • Open-technology platforms • Building virtual distributed repositories • Adopt standards for interoperability March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Breakthrough! Multi-channel delivery systems must be adopted. Quality of digital content for higher education should be assessed with respect to their ease of use, use in open technology platform, interoperability. Online forums have to be promoted for peer learning and collaborative learning for teachers. There is a call for more documented research on how children learn better using ICT, with reference to learning styles, multiple intelligences, and brainbased learning. Content management system needs to be appropriately amalgamated with learning management system for workflow of developing e-learning content and having intermediate quality checks during the development processes.

• • • • •

Web-based digital learning services Build national level metadata repositories for LO Develop/adopt national content standards Develop content management tools Improve ICT infrastructure

A picture of e-learning at OUM was framed which is a unique combination of methodologies to enable effective learning for working adults. A picture of Electronic Supported Distance Education System in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) was also presented that helps adults who had earlier missed the opportunity for a higher education to qualify for a degree. The session received a new perception of classroom learning for higher education through Augmented reality that can be the next wave to revolutionise teaching and learning

systems and managing e-learning environments, showcased some new concepts like serious games pegagogy, Web 2.0 development models, customisation tools, and its 3D virtual world learning potential. The potentials of a Learning Object Recommender System for personalised learning also showed another aspect of the learning systems with respect to SCELE (Student Centered E-Learning Environment), which is the LMS, used at University of Indonesia.

The session titled ‘online courses and distance education: challenges and practices’ collected some good case studies on pedagogy challenges like that of the Indian Sphere Project that aspires towards low cost Optimising the potential of e-learning in higher education: or open source learning Dr Posiah Mohd Isa, I-Lec, UiTM, Malaysia, Prof Rozhan Mohammed community focused solutions Idrus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, David Asirvatham, Multimedia to directly meet the learning University, Malaysia, Dr Zoraini Wati Abas, Open University of Malaysia, and Jayanthy Maniam, Sunway Univ College, Malaysia needs at the grassroots levels. And the case of designing a model for developing virtual universities in Iran through real time interaction. Video placed some points of privileges and see-through setup for Augmented shortcomings of virtual university. Classroom Learning combines realtime integration of The Chairperson: Clotilde Fonseca, Distance education in graphics, text, Executive Director, Omar Dengo Foundation, Costa Rica relation to IP law, and sound, images and the legal obstacles to force feedback with capacity building too real environment, were analysed that enhancing a addressed the proper person’s perception role of copyright of the world. marking an interesting distinction between Copyrights and The other session discussing on Copywrongs. content development, learning

The exhibition saw the participation of over 50 exhibitors from the government, private sector, universities and research organisations all around the globe

March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

The session came out with can also create proposals likethe out of • hosting a round table school discussion of distance innovative educators from culture developing and amongst Prof. Tan Anuwar Ali, Vice Chancellor, developed coun-tries children in Sri Open University, Malaysia while chairing the session emerging learning to construct the Lanka, a spaces and processes questions for a country where qualitative and less than 5% quantitative survey get the chance about the general to enroll in concerns of distance educators Higher education. • based on the questions developed by the round table, Orrawin Mekpiroon, a researcher representing National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), Thailand discussed adaptive module for LearnSquare- a learning navigation based on link hiding technique. Saminda Premaratne from University of Colombo School of Computing put forth his research findings Saminda Premaratne, Hanan Ettaher Dagez, David Wortly, of collaborating educational Mohd Zakaria, Orrawin Mekpiroon videos with presenter there should be a social science profiles for effective content-based research group help us take the video retrieval. survey and analyse the data • and to use this information to Mohd Zakaria from GoUF Bangladesh develop model laws for discussed programmes learning from developing nations adaptable to ActionAid. the needs and capabilities of local communities. Hanan Ettaher Dagez representing University Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar) Emphasising more over the diverse in Malaysia talked about the mind active learning processes the map learning approach for e-learning session, ‘Emerging learning spaces environment using SCORM and processes’ attempted to standards. illustrate the underlying assumptions of the emerging learning processes The final session was a space to through use of different spaces that researchers exploring ideas using a advocates the use of online mix of research methods and collaborations, forums, etc. for disciplines that brought together learning. The session saw the research, action research and case process of building a Virtual Science studies in order to assist in the Learning Centre (VSLC) for High transfer of best practice, the School Students in the Tsunami development of policy and the affected regions in a Southern creation of theory. Indian district. We have initiated this report to The session also realised that a start the discussion about the singing competition in a TV channel future Asian ICT and education Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

agenda. Now it is time for breakthroughs. This report is meant to inspire all the stakeholders to rethink and revitalise the Digital Learning Asia 2007 agenda, which was successful in listing out a number of breakthroughs that the developing countries may wish to achieve as the mark to attain. We would like to stimulate a debate on all the issues of the report as a basis for the renewal of the process, so that we can prepare the blue print of the agenda in queue. Let the developments provide us with the opportunity to move forward with the stimulating growth and competitiveness of ICT and education. All the presentations made in the conference are available online at www.digitalLEARNING.in/DLasia

You all have deserved national award for holding conference of high order on themes of current interest. It is one of the best forum that I have attended in the recent past. I have great appreciation for the meticulous planning of the organisers in bringing the topclass keynote speakers, excellent panelists and speakers from reputed Government, Civil Society Organisations and academic institutions. There is a beautiful mix of speakers from corporate, government department and NGOs. – Dr Suriya Myandi, Annamalai University, India The themes chosen were good and cover many aspects of digital learning. The valedictory session was good and should continue. It would be a good idea to get someone to give his/her views on the different parallel sessions instead of summarising/listing down all the outcomes of the different sessions from the various chairs. For example, people like Vincent Quah could be asked to give his views on the overall session on Digital Learning. Dr Azian T S Abdullah, SEAMEO RECSAM, Malaysia 15

Partnership in Learning Dr M Suriya Mayandi [DRMSURIYA@GMAIL.COM], Annamalai University, Tamilnadu, India

A Virtual Learning Centre for Tsunami Affected Students

The article presents the Virtual Science Learning Centre (VSLC) model setup by Annamalai University for strengthening and popularising science information and education among rural youth and school students in Cuddalore district in the Southern Indian state Tamilnadu. Although several remarkable achievements have occurred in the sphere of science education system in India in the last decade, studies have reported that polarisation exists between the urban and the rural students, and situation is still worse in the case of girl students in the rural set up who would like to start their academic pursuits as the first generation candidates. In an attempt to address this, VSLC promotes the capacity building, confidence building and the personality development of the rural youth especially the young girl students. It builds a “Partnership in Learning” (PiL) Programme between the university and school girl students community through telecentres and web portal.

Building a synergy between community, university, industry and high school system

here is a growing tension among majority of the rural students in not being able to cope with the expected level of mastery in certain core subjects like Science, Mathematics and English at the HSC examination levels and also to prepare them for the entrance examination in order to get access to institutes of higher education of some order. “Partnership in Learning’- is an attempt of Annamalai University in Southern India to address this problem statement, the goal of which is to design and develop the ICT based Information Support system to enhance the skill and expertise of High School Students (10+2) in the Tsunami Affected Regions of Cuddalore district. It is intended to deliver science Educational contents based on their curriculum, through 16

various network delivery channels. It is proposed to mobilise the existing learning resources and to customise the pedagogy with the support of voluntary work from the university academic community along with the district administration and corporate. The purpose is to tailor-made the contents to suit the requirements of student from different socio-economic communities.

The aim of this project is to establish a twinning programme between the university and the rural schools surrounding the university in order to strengthen the university-community learning centre activities with the sole motto of empowering the girl students belonging to the deprived and downtrodden communities in the rural regions who cannot afford to continue their school education. The objective is to build a university based online-support system through special coaching to the girl students pursing higher secondary education at Cuddalore District in Tamilnadu. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

The reason for choosing this particular region can be explained by the fact that it is one of the 13 districts in the state of Tamilnadu (World Bank Report) where the gender gap is prominent in the higher secondary schools. Out of the 1,13,268 students enrolled in 97 schools in Cuddalore District, the gender ratio is about 65:35. As HSC is considered as a stepping-stone for pursuing higher education and employment, the Government of Tamilnadu is taking measures to provide free education to all girl students. Priority is given to the SC/ ST students and those who are ‘single child’ in their families. However, there are a number of exogenous and indigenous factors like the availability of schools within neighborhood, the quality of teachers, the level of motivation and coaching, family support and the prevailing social norms still have not allowed many of the girls to take school education seriously at their young age which leads to a social malady later. To bridge the urban and rural divide and to offer the urban educational facilities to the rural students many efforts have been taken by the Annamalai University. One such effort is to build an Internet-based learning resource centre at the University as part of the community-university extension activities. The high school girl students in the rural regions surrounding the University will be the targeted beneficiaries through this pilot programme.

The project aims at building a university centered-village community network that promotes the capacity building, confidence building and the personality development of the rural youth especially the young girl students who have limited opportunity to inte ract with their peer-groups. It will encourage girls to take up Science, Mathematics and technical subjects. students who have limited opportunity to interact with their peer-groups. It will encourage girls to take up Science, Mathematics and technical subjects.

Annagaram, Nallure, Vridhachalam, Kammapuram, Panruti, Keerapalayam, cuddalore, Kurinjipadi, Parangipettai and Mel buvanagiri) of Cuddalore district in Tamilnadu.

This aims at building a “Partnership in Learning” (PiL) Programme” between the university and school girl students community-based telecentres will be established by the university that has to run on 24X7 hours basis via a web portal using the cutting-edge technology of the broadband satellite.

Course design

Methodology Secondly, the project aims to uphold the ideals of the President of India in bringing the urban learning facilities to the rural students and to be a partner in the “Mission 2007” agenda of the nation. The project also aims at building a university centered-village community network that promotes the capacity building, confidence building and the personality development of the rural youth especially the young girl Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

The Centre will design the courses to update with new syllabus framed by the government of Tamilnadu through the e-learning tools in the subjects are Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Science and Technology and English. Coaching by the well-known language with students’ favour of used by Internet and handling e-resources for enhancing their learning skills.

Identification of target population

Lesson material

The AUWTC will be identifying the higher secondary girls students in the age group of 15-18. Priority is given to the SC/ST students and those who are ‘single child’ in their families. Then the Centre will collect baseline information about the target population in 13 blocks (viz., Kattumannar koil, Kumarachi,

A team of women volunteers at Annamalai University representing students and research scholars attached with the department of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Science & Technology and English will be engaged to develop a webbased tutorial materials for the higher secondary girl students in their 17

Multi-channel delivery mechanism It is proposed to adopt a satellite digital network and cable TV network for the transformation of course materials. A ku-band satellite channel at a speed of 6 Mbps will be established at the Information Technology Training Centre (ITTC) at Annamalai University to ensure real-time course delivery to the local virtual science-learning centres in the selected villages. The courseware also will be transmitted through the local cable TV network. By the end of 2006, it is proposed to establish a minimum of 13 virtual science-learning centres in each blocks. By using a variety of network-based and more traditional distance-education tools, each course involves learners in both independent and group learning activities. Electronic communication occurs between geographically separated learners in using a range of technologies including computer conferencing, audiographic conferencing and web-based delivery. The choice of technology will be based on the subject matter. For instance, application-sharing whiteboards will be preferred to teach Mathematics to show the working of the equations in realtime. Learners at any site can see on their screen what someone at another site writes, and they can also write on, change and augment what has been written by others. The ITTC centre will be fully equipped to provide online teaching, and also online monitoring of the students performance through email.

regional language and also in the multimedia form.

Strategies It is proposed for creation of Virtual Learning Center in each block in selected district. The web based learning setting supports question and answer, online discussion, bulleting boards, web courseware download and e-mail communication, thus supporting real time and non-real time interaction on the Internet. Face to face tutoring is made available on the weekends at all local learning community centers in the respective villages. The strategies will also include online learning resources covering (i) their lesson materials in the simulation and multimedia forms, (ii) question banks, (iii) text books and audiovisual resources (iv) CDs in the various subjects and (v) CAI (Computer Assisted Instruments) course ware. This project will illustrate the responsibilities of the universities to (re) build communities, responding to local needs and expectations especially in the areas of capacity building and upskilling the youth. It will also showcase how the technology can be used as a strong catalyst for improving the academic interaction freely, openly, in many different ways between student communities in the universities and in the rural regions which would lead to a lot creativity and innovation in the field of STEM.

The project identifies three phases: Phase-1 (Pilot Phase) to develop the content, build the partnerships, arrange the availability of the existing delivery channels in one selected village, and perform a proof-of-concept study for the implementation of the computer network link. Phase-2 (Trial Phase) - During this phase, the content and the computer-assisted learning will be introduced into three selected villages. Phase-3 (Roll-out Phase) This stage will master the connecting of individual villages to the learning network. 18

Dr. Suriya is currently working as a Senior Professor and Head of the Department of Library and Information Science at Annamalai University. She is the elected member of the Board of Director of International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists Canada, Indian Ambassador to the Association of Computing Machinery-Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chapter, President of Indian Association of Women in Information Technology, Secretary of WIT Research Forum and the Director of the Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Training Centre in ICT at Annamalai University. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

India's Premier ICT4D event 30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India www.eINDIA.net.in

eINDIA2007 unites seven specialised conferences and exhibitions

ommun ty Rad o

The National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is a comprehensive programme designed to leverage the capabilities of ICT to promote good governance across the country. The Indian economy is growing at a steady rate of 8-9%. For this growth to be sustainable there is a need to increase efficacy of business processes especially those directly controlled by the government. The eGov track of the eIndia2007 aims to bring together key stakeholders to forge the path to good governance for citizens and businesses in India, ensuring cross-pollination of information & knowledge across socio-economic and geographic boundaries.

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While India has made huge strides and has been a key player in the Information technology revolution, vast digital divide still exists that inhibits a sustained all-inclusive growth for the society. India is bracing itself to catalyse the potential of ICTs in all spheres of development and creating opportunities for private investment and initiatives to supplement its development. In this immense growth environment, there is also a need for strategic planning, knowledge sharing and collaborative vision building between the government and the private sector to leverage the country’s growth potential and steer the country to lead the knowledge revolution. eINDIA 2007 is an inclusive, consultative and constructive ICT for Development forum – the largest and only one of its kind in India – promoting and propagating the use of ICT4D through its seven seminal conferences. Through its seven different but interrelated conferences namely, ● egovIndia2007, ● Digital Learning India 2007, ● Indian Telecentre Forum 2007, ● eHealth India 2007, ● mServe India 2007, ● Community Radio India 2007 and ● eAgriculture India 2007 the conference will address the issues of digital divide and identify and explore opportunities for Digital India.

India is trying to achieve the 'Education for All' goal in one hand and investing in building infrastructure and initiating programmes to build a world class human resource capacity on the other. The National Knowledge Commission has emphasised the need for extensive use of ICTs for 2007 research, collaboration and university networking for building ICT skills, sharing education resources and reaching the un-reached in higher education though distance learning. Digital Learning India 2007 will take on the existing debates and provide a platform for all stakeholders to deliberate on the issues of enabling and strengthening capacities to achieve the national goals of education.

INDIA

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INDIA

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With the launch of a national programme, 100,000 Community Service Centres, the Indian telecentre movement is at a vibrant stage of development, with the key stakeholders representing government, private sector and civil society besides donors being engaged in fulfilling the aspirations of the grassroots community to join the knowledge economy. Second year in the series of annual consultations, the Indian Telecentre Forum 2007 will provide the platform to take stock of what has happened. The Forum will shape the way forward for the telecentre movement within India, and for creating an example for the world to learn from.

Telemedicine has been a technological takeaway for the developed countries. Defined as the use of communication networks for the exchange healthcare information to enable clinical care, it is increasingly being viewed as a tool for improving care and enhancing access to healthcare. Telemedicine helps to connect remote rural hospitals/health centres to super specialty hospitals located in the cities and helps patients in remote and rural areas to avail timely consultations from specialist doctors without the ordeal of travelling. eHealth India 2007 will deliberate on such initiatives and many other excellent though scattered efforts in this field and bring it together to form a conduit of critical information.

INDIA

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ommun ty Rad o

INDIA

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The Indian telecom sector after liberalisation has shown tremendous growth with its growth rate being one of the highest in the world. The mobile phones apart from bringing in the aspect of mobility in connectivity have an inherent ease in terms of usage unlike computer-based connectivity, which requires people to be literate and e-Literate at the same time. In a nation plagued by connectivity lapses, mobile technology may well emerge as the key to bridging the digital divide. mServe India 2007 will showcase the immense potential of mobile technology in the implementation of existing and future m-Government, m-education, m-agriculture and other applications.

Amongst all the broadcasting media in India radio has the highest penetration and thus makes it the media which can reach the rural and remote areas servicing even the unlettered and illiterates. Realising its potential in November 2006, after seven long years INDIA of lobbying by groups like the Community Radio Forum, that the government finally 2007 accepted to make changes in the Community Radio Policy, to allow community based groups to set up their own radio stations. Community Radio India 2007 will bring together key stakeholders on a common platform to take the community radio movement in India to the next level.

e-Agriculture India 2007 will explore the opportunities of how ICTs can be used to improve the lives of the rural communities. Timely information on weather, disasters, improved agricultural practices, commodity prices and market information would greatly benefit farmers directly to minimize the risks and provide opportunities for enhanced incomes while cutting out high debt servicing costs, and taking informed decisions. The impact is felt directly with improved incomes and savings, access to services and valuable connections with stakeholders. The Universities, policy makers, development specialists and NGOs working for the farmers’ interests would explore the current developments and scalability of experiments.

www.eINDiA.net.in

i4d Film Festival “A picture speaks a thousand words”… The audio-visual medium is obviously an extremely powerful tool that can change the way global dialogues take place. The first attempt of its kind in this arena, CSDMS will bring together over 50 films at the upcoming eIndia2007 forum. The features, long and short, will be gathered from around the world through the well-established networks that we already foster. Grassroots representation from not only India but around the world in the various cinematic forms will constitute the world's first ICT4D film festival. The film festival will cater to all sections of the ICT4D domain.

Interested persons are requested to visit our website at http://www.eINDIA.net.in/films to download the application form and guidelines. All submissions will be reviewed by the festival committee. Please be advised that we do not return VHS tapes or DVDs. We will contact those film-makers whose films/videos are accepted to participate in the festival. For any further enquires, please contact Sulakshana Bhattacharya at sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in or call at +91 98119 25253.

Call for Proposals for Special Sessions/ Workshops@eINDIA2007 CSDMS would like to invite you to co-host a session/workshop under the umbrella of eINDiA2007 Criteria for Participation ● The activities of the co-hosted sessions/workshops should have direct links with one of the six tracks under the eINDiA2007 banner (i.e e-Governance, digital Learning, eHealth, Telecentres, m-services, Community Radio and e-Agriculture) ● The responsibility of the content and conduct of the session will remain with the organisers of the session ● The submitting organisation must have a proven track record in delivering major impact on ICT4D issues.

The following entities can submit proposals for co-hosted sessions/workshops: ● Government Agencies ● International Inter-governmental Organisations ● Bilateral & Multilateral Development Agencies ● NGOs/Civil Society Organisations

How to submit a request Any organization interested in co-hosting an event must submit a request at sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in attaching a detailed description of the proposed event, including its thematic focus and the planned speakers/presenters.

Past Sponsors and Exhibitors

empowering education... enabling careers

Sida

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), G-4, Sector - 39, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phones: +91-120-2502180-85 Fax: 91-120-2500060

For any information/enquiry contact Sulakshana Bhattacharya Tel: +91-9811925253 email: sulakshana@eINDIA.net.in

www.eINDIA.net.in

CORPORATE DIARY | LEADERS’ SPEAK

A Mind for Globalisation with Localisation Supam Maheshwari CEO, Brainvisa Technologies, India I never give up, I strive for excellence through constant learning, creativity and innovation,…with such values, there is no wonder if Brainvisa, one of the fastest growing learning companies based out of US and UK envisions to be the world’s favourite learning solutions company. Consistently providing services and solutions since 2000 being located at Jersey City, Atlanta, Seattle, Pune, London, Sydney, the company has developed over 3000 hours of e-learning for its clientele spread across US, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. And headed by the CEO Supam Maheshwari, one of the chief architects of the Brainvisa vision owes every innovation of it to the significant global experiences of this man. Supam, an Engineer and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad brings in a wide array of experiences from companies like Vivendi and Pepsi. Digital Learning finds out more about his efforts at Brainvisa towards helping businesses around the world to improve efficiency and effectiveness by designing and delivering learning solutions. What are the service and product inclusions of Brainvisa’s domain of operation? Could you elaborate on the kind of e-learning activities or applications Brainvisa is engaged in? Our Offerings span across training consulting, curriculum design, learning solutions identification, development, implementation, delivery platforms and measuring learner’s performance for a wide range of verticals. Our end objective always Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

remains to improve the learners’ performance, be it academic or professional. What is your view on the e-learning market in India, in terms of size, services and level of achievements? The Indian elearning market is still in a very nascent stage. Globally, the e-learning market is about 30 billion US dollars, out of which India has an insignificant share as of now. There is

no formal report on the Indian elearning market size, but our estimate would be less than 250 million USD considering even captive needs of large Indian corporates. However, the e-learning market is poised to grow very rapidly in India. Due to a huge talent shortage, training departments have lately been given due importance and serious money is being budgeted for in-house development as well as industry and academic institution tie-ups for 27

CORPORATE DIARY | LEADERSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; SPEAK bridging this gap. A big investment towards innovation and new indigenized product development is required to cater to Indian markets like retail, insurance etc.

educational services to South African market. Could you throw some light on how different or similar are the Indian e-learning initiatives and the foreign ones?

education, corporate learning etc). How immerse are your learning solutions for those markets and which sector do you think will see the maximum growth in next few years?

How meaningful have been the domestic market opportunities for you?

Well, our product RapideL has created waves the world over. We have received a large number of enquiries from various parts and hence we have appointed various resellers to provide local presence. We have recently signed up with resellers in UK, Portugal, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Australia, and Switzerland. Our direct custom learning solution services however are focused for the USA, UK, UAE and Australian market where we have our local offices.

Brainvisa builds and will continue to build learning solutions for all these categories. In my opinion, the category growth is more country specific. Currently, there is a large demand and supply gap in the corporate training market in India. K12 and higher education market are lagging but has the potential be the largest growth segment in years to come. In developed economies, corporate training market will continue to grow faster than K12.

Our offices are located close to our customers as it gives us a chance to learn their business problems more like their employee rather like an external vendor, and this enables us to

What have been the critical roadblocks for you in this sector?

Although in our journey so far, we have not focused towards the domestic market, lately, we have seen a sudden potential for growth of eLearning in India. To tap this potential, Brainvisa has innovated a product called RapideL, a rapid eLearning tool which has proved to be a boon to the Indian training community. We have also invested in vertical specialisation to tap verticals like aviation to begin with. There are significant opportunities for innovating and building products around insurance, retail and many other booming sectors.

Building deeper, integrated partnership with clients take

Mid March this year, RapideL will raise the bar of training development to provide support for the much needed, pedagogically sound, Adaptive Learning Techniques. RapideL will now provide support for building simple branching courses using an intuitive interface to build the branching logic. It will also provide interactive and non-interactive flash templates for creating the branched course. RapideL enables Instructional Designers and SMEs to author content in basic MS-Word authoring interface and create engaging eLearning courses in Flash. RapideL 3.1 comes with inbuilt robust project management capabilities such as online review mechanisms, issue tracking and the ability to publish web versions. What needs to be done to promote elearning in India?

work closely to serve them beyond their requirement.

A huge e-learning funding initiative from the Government could propel the looming domestic talent shortage. This kind of concept prevails in countries like Australia where the Government has budgeted and pays for professional re-skilling. Also, large Indian universities could follow the path of University of Phoenix to again propel good e-learning initiatives. Such large initiatives usually require government or large private funding.

How do you see the global market for e-learning?

Very recently Brainvisa has made a partnership deal to extend the

Your services cover a diversified sector of the market (K-12, higher

Globally, even today, 25-30% of a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s training blend is eLearning and the remaining is predominantly Instructor Led Training. Global companies budget 3-4% of an employeeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual salary for training. With the gradual shift towards elearning in overall training spend, we feel e-learning has a long way to go.

enormous amounts of time in the industry. Our most critical and the biggest road block has been to try to reduce this time-frame. We can work with a client on any spoke of this wheel to begin with, and would like to transition it towards completing all spokes of this wheel and meet our objective of building a long term partnership. As the CEO, where do you see Brainvisa five years from now? Size does matter. Five years down, we plan to be one of the most dominant players in the learning industry globally. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

CORPORATE DIARY | NEWS PRODUCT

PARTNERSHIP

EZ Vidya launches Chrysalis software for schools

i-flex builds DSS for education department of Indian State i-flex solutions, banking software maker has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian State Government of Karnataka to build a Decision Support System (DSS) for the state’s education department.

Chennai (India) based Company, EZ Vidya has launched ‘Chrysalis’ a comprehensive computer science curriculum for classes I through X with an objective to replace the conventional textbooks and classroom learning. The curriculum is aimed to make students ‘IT-capable than just ITliterate’. A typical classroom module from Chrysalis will encourage students to create multimedia packages on general topics. EZ Vidya has partnered Wipro in “teacher empowerment programmes” across the country. The company has also brought out a multimedia CD title ‘Thiruvalluva Ula” for the Azim Premji Foundation. The students will use sound and animation files in the module to create presentations.

IBM to break language barrier through MASTOR IBM has been experimenting with the translation and speech technology through its prototype software, dubbed Multilingual Automatic Speech-to-Speech Technology or MASTOR. Through MASTOR, translation can be done in real time. IBM wants to explore market opportunities where demand for language translation technologies are is high, including medical facilities, law enforcement, banking and travel. IBM is also planning to bring this technology to use in e-mails. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

i-flex’s Center for Business Intelligence (CBI) is developing the DSS in two phases. The company has developed the DSS, which is helping the Karnataka State Quality Assessment Organisation (KSQAO), a part of the Department of Education in analysing the quality of education of around 19 lac children in 41,000 schools of the State. The Chief Minister of Karnataka, H. D. Kumaraswamy, has launched the ‘Karnataka Schools towards Quality Education’ programme on the basis of i-flex’s DSS. i-flex is also planning to work with the Policy Planning Unit and e-Governance unit of the Education Department. DSS system shares the information on the assessment with all stakeholders, parents, teachers, communities and political representatives, to enable collective efforts to work towards quality education in the State.

Motorola signs MoU with IIIT-B in India on wireless solutions Motorola Inc. has signed a comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) to research solutions in India. This joint venture will develop cutting-edge technology innovations

and solutions, conduct research programmes and work on projects in designated fields of science and technology. This partnership will also enable Motorola to effectively utilise the results of the research efforts aimed at developing innovative wireless broadband solutions for emerging markets like India.

NIIT ties with IBM for research programmes in India The National Institute of TechnologyKarnataka in India has signed two MoUs with IBM for research and academic collaboration.

Under the first MoU, NITK, IBM’s Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) will develop technologies and capabilities of common interest and engage in collaborative research. IBM will support NITK students and faculty to do their research in the areas of automatic computing, grid computing, deep computing, life sciences, databases and web services. Under the second MoU, corporate and institution will work together to create an ‘IBM Open Power Systems Laboratory’ for students and faculty of NITK.

STMicroelectronics ties with Indian institutes to set up research labs STMicroelectronics has tied up with BITS Pilani and IIT Delhi to set up research and innovation lab in BITSPilani and IIT Delhi in India. 29

CORPORATE DIARY | NEWS The main objective of the partnership is to provide VLSI designing and embedded systems knowledge among students by undertaking research projects with involvement of faculty, students and ST representatives. The research area would be focused on analog and mixed-signal design in the area of VLSI, image speech pattern recognition, sensory organ modeling and digital data protection in algorithm research, along with generic IP blocks for embedded solutions. ST’s lab would be equipped with necessary hardware, software tools and reference boards and technology parameters for successful execution of projects identified areas.

QUT partners with Microsoft to set up e-research centre Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia has partnered with Microsoft to open e-research centre. A US$2.13 million international eresearch center will help scientist to measure climate change and assess the health of ecosystems. The new Microsoft QUT e-research centre, will enable scientists to spend more time discovery and invention by automating the data processes that are necessary to their research. Microsoft Corp., QUT and the Queensland Government jointly fund the virtual lab.

PROJECT Intel launches second phase ‘Intel Teach Programme’ in Morocco Intel Corporation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Education of Morocco to develop the second phase ‘Intel Teach Programme’. This professional developmenttraining programme will provide appropriate information and communication technology, teacher 30

Excelsoft sets e-learning subsidiary in Hyderabad in India Excelsoft Technologies, Mysore based e-learning solutions provider announced that the company would set up its subsidiary in Hyderabad, India.

training, relevant content and connectivity in the North African curriculum. MoE Morocco and Intel will train 3000 of the education preservices teachers by using the localised Moroccan version of the Intel Teach training manuals. As a part of Intel’s World Ahead Program, the company is investing more than US$1 billion worldwide in a broad new programme. The main aim of Intel Teach Programme is to help students develop the thinking skills they will need in order to participate and succeed in a knowledge-based economy. The programme also incorporates use of the Internet, Web page design, and student projects as vehicles to powerful learning.

The new subsidiary called Huper LDT will focus on corporate e-learning solutions and develop instructionally designed content. Huper LDT will create Simulations and mobile platform based content for crosssection of corporate employees including senior management, project managers, new entrants and sales force and marketing professionals. Huper LDT will also provide the backend development for creating animations and provide e-learning content to the Middle East countries. Huper LDT has signed a deal with US based company, Xora to provide consulting services in the area of performance oriented curriculum design. Xora is a solution provider for tracking workforce through the mobile phones.

VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS FOR INDIAN COMPANIES Indian companies are busy taking lessons from the US$21 billion global e-learning industry. While some have already gone past the preparatory stage, others are all set to catch a piece of the action. Infosys, which employs about 66,000 employees located across 36 centres worldwide, uses e-learning extensively to provide corporate training to its employees. About 30-35 per cent of the learning in Wipro happens through e-learning. 24/7 Customer, a BPO firm operating from half a dozen centres across the country aggressively uses e-learning solutions to train its employees. According to industry estimates, since e-learning provides a higher level of interactivity and personalisation for each of the trainees, the retention of knowledge after the training programme is about 25 per cent higher for e-learning as compared to a classroom-based training. Besides, the web-based training programmes also help enterprises to train their employees any number of times. Usually, there is a 30 per cent saving from an e-learning programme over the conventional classroombased learning. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Chennai engineering college to get digital library

News INDIA Govt. works with B-schools for e-Governanace projects The Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India, will receive consultancy services from premier management schools like the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon for accessing its eGovernance projects. The DIT has identified 200 to 300 eGovernance projects for external evaluation, which will include computerisation of land records, registration, income tax, commercial taxes among others. Institutes like IIM-A and MDI, Gurgaon, will be associated in a knowledge partnership and will take up roles of project leaders and validate the DIT’s eGovernance projects.

Chennai based Salem Government College of Engineering, will soon get a digital library to access vast collection of e-resources on various subjects. The library would be subscribed to the Indian National Digital Library in Engineering Sciences and Technology (INDEST), All India Council for Technical Education consortium to get access to the e-resources. The total investment on the project is around INR 2 million. Students would be able to access about 170 online journals through the consortium. The college has already networked the departments functioning in various blocks. The server at the digital library will also be brought into the network, enabling the students to access the resources through computers in their respective departments. A few computers will be installed in the library building also.

Indian students use Internet radio to stay connected

IISc, Bangalore offers US$100 laptop for Sakshat portal

Students at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad have found a new way to be connected with their faculty and teachers through Internet Radio on the campus.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, India has designed a prototype laptop for US$100 for recently launched Sakshat, the one stop portal on education. IISc Bangalore has come with a prototype design for the laptop that all have in mind that currently costs US$100. Massachusetts Institute of Technology has offered a laptop for US$150 for the Sakshat programme.

Haryana State Govt. promotes soft skills in schools Haryana State Government has launched an ambitious programme named, “Development of Soft Skills” for its schools and college students. This programme is based on EDUSAT platform to provide information about IT and BPO sectors. The government has already invested INR 4.7 million at the school level, while INR 1.5 million is provided for college level students. Initially the scheme has covered 10 schools in each of the eight districts namely Gurgaon, Faridabad, Rewari, Rohtak, Sonipat, Panipat, Panchkula and Ambala. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

The institute is using the local area network (LAN), which has the bandwidth of 100Mbps in the campus. The total investment to set up a radio station is around INR 55,000 with a personal computer, a headphone and speaker set. Currently, there are more than 50K Radio Stations, which are broadcasting over the Internet. According to Bhuvana Ramalingam, Director communication, ISB, e-radio encourages students to exchange information on varied areas, discuss issues and keep everyone informed on the companies, which come to the campus.

Meanwhile, the ministry is planning to create virtual laboratories and a virtual technical university to combat and mainstream the battle to bridge the digital literacy gap. Major institutions, including IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Bombay are involved in the project. IIT Delhi will anchor virtual labs, while IIT Kharagpur will anchor cognitive learning and the virtual technical university and IIT Bombay will provide robotics for this project. IGNOU will provide online courses, while NIOS will offer online-testing on demand. 31

Read newspaper on mobile phone

Pressmart, a subsidiary of Bodhtree Consulting Limited, and IMImobile, has announced the availability of mPaper, making newspapers available for Indians to read on mobile phones. The mPaper technology will enable newsreaders to read and access their favourite newspaper content, while they are traveling also. The mPaper

technology also allows user to use features like archives and options to search and save news reports and it would be available on monthly subscription. Pressmart is a new media delivery partner of leading newspapers and magazines published in over 15 languages across 21 countries. IMImobile is a next-generation end-to-end enabler of Mobile Value Added Services (VAS) for mobile operators, media companies and enterprises. Pressmart will provide mPaper facility in 9 major newspapers of India, including, Hindustan Times (Mumbai and Delhi editions), Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad and Chennai Editions), DNA, Indian Express, The Asian Age, The Financial Express, The New Indian Express, The Telegraph and Pioneer.

Sarva Shiksha spending on right track! Spending on the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flagship elementary education programme, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan at the end of December 2006 accounted for 70% of its annual allocation. In the first nine months of the current fiscal, nearly INR 10,000 crore of the budgeted INR 13,750 crore has been spent. The Human Resources Development ministry hopes that the good show will result in increased allocation for the forthcoming fiscal. This fiscal, the programme has already utilised 75% of funds available, which is a little over INR 13,000 crore. For the first nine months (April to December) of the last fiscal, the all India spend was 54.2%. Assam and Orissa, which continue to be areas of concern, have shown an increased utilisation of funds. Tamil Nadu, which had performed poorly in the quarter ending September 30, has improved on its expenditure. It may be recalled that Tamil Nadu, which has traditionally been one of the better performing states, had slowed down due to management problems and local body elections, which meant that funds couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be disbursed. From the current year, the Punjab government has taken over the responsibility of paying salaries to teachers. This would mean that a portion of the SSA funds earmarked as teacher salaries would remain unutilised. The SSA has earmarked the percentage of funds that can be spent on each component-salaries, civil works, etc. For the forthcoming fiscal, the programme will be given INR 8,000 crore, which with a 50:50 ratio would mean that the annual budget for the programme - Centre and state share put together - will be INR 16,000 crore.

IGNOU launches smart card system for Indian students

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is planning to launch a smart card system for Indian students. IGNOU will give the smart card system to each student, which will carry information on admission, projects, assignments, attendance, practicals and semester results. The card will help students to keep record on their study activities. Each student would be issued a smart card with a unique password, which can be used by specified computers having the software to read the data. IGNOU has already issued 100 cards on trial basis.

Cambridge College plans to launch e-learning centre in Mumbai Cambridge College is planning to launch e-learning centre in Mumbai. The college will establish the centre with the association of Indian Universities. The idea is to provide the opportunity for higher education to the workforce there, plying them with the skills needed to join the ever-growing international business world. The centre will provide education and training in leadership, entrepreneurship, and international trade and practices. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Research Zainal A. Hasibuan [ZHASIBUA@CS.UI.AC.ID], University of Indonesia, Harry B. Santoso [HARRYBS@CS.UI.AC.ID]

Learning Object Recommender System for Personalised Learning

Learning process includes three components- they are students, teacher, and learning materials. From teacher’s point of view, teaching is an activity to deliver information and skill to students with some goals to be achieved. From students’ point of view, learning is an activity to acquire information from teacher to achieve goals set by the teacher. Students with their prior knowledge acquire new information from teacher. Here, social constructivism paradigm can help students learn collaborative and sharing knowledge each other. Basically, knowledge, which is needed to be achieved according to the course, mainly does not get influenced by how many Learning Objects (LOs) the students have read, but how relevant Learning Objects that have retrieved and learned. Student who has high prior knowledge according to the course, need LOs that is different from other

student who has low prior knowledge. Hence, personalisation features are needed which adaptively facilitate student in monitoring their learning progress and provide any resources or learning material that suitable to what they need. This personalisation feature implemented in the e-learning system developed in Faculty of Computer Science (Fasilkom) University of Indonesia (UI) has been named SCELE.

The Existing System: SCELE, LONTAR, and LOM Faculty of Computer Science (Fasilkom), University of Indonesia (UI) implements LMS called Student Centered E-Learning Environment (SCELE) for e-learning which is developed using enterprise resource

This is always assumed that students have the prior knowledge to any course. However, in reality it is not always the case. Hence, Learning Object Recommender (LOR) is needed in order to enhance quality of discussion in building new knowledge by improving student’s prior knowledge. This research In the University of Indonesia in line with the running system, Student Centered E-Learning Environment (SCELE) is built based on open source LMS, Moodle. SCELE is integrated with digital library system called Library Automation and Digital Archive (LONTAR) and Learning Object Manager (LOM). LONTAR can handle resources sharing and LOM manages resources, like upload, search and update resources. From Social Constructivism’s perspective, SCELE has features to facilitate discussion among students and teachers (instructors). Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

planning approach. SCELE is developed based on open source LMS, Moodle. Moodle’s main features support SCELE, such as communication tools synchronous (chatting) and asynchronous (news and discussion forum), user management, assessment, and also course management. Moodle has been so that it can meet the studentcentered learning model requirements. The works are development of space for integrating course graph and assessment graph, integration LONTAR digital library, and integration of Learning Object Manager (LOM) module to SCELE. Student-centered learning paradigm has been adopted through SCELE as an attempt to change old learning paradigm, which focus on teacher to focus on student. According to R. Cannon in Guide to support the implementation of the Learning and Teaching Plan Year 2000, ACUE, The University of Adelaide, 2000, definition of studentcentered learning is: “Student-centered learning describes ways of thinking about learning and teaching that emphasise student responsibility for such activities as planning learning, interacting with teachers and other students, researching, and assessing learning.” By using this approach, it is believed that student can meet new learning experience and can exercise active and collaborative learning. Goals of teaching-learning activities especially in higher education are not only knowledge transfer, but also the 33

“…any entity, digital or non digital, which can be used, re-used, referenced during technology supported learning…Examples of learning objects include multimedia content, instructional content, learning objectives, instructional software and software tools, and persons, organizations, or events referenced during technology supported learning.”

Graphical user interface of SCELE

development of analytical-thinking (soft skill), that are very useful to face and solve the complexities of real world problems. The idea of student-centered learning is not limited to campus-based teaching and learning but it can be extended to distance learning. Overall, establishing studentcentered, e-learning systems for distance learning will improve the quality of education, at the same time as increasing the possible number of students’ participating in higher education. In order to accomplish such objectives, digital library application LONTAR and LOM module are integrated.

LONTAR: Library automation and digital archive Digital library is a system, which has various service and information object to support users who need the information object. The information object can still be a book or paper, but the metadata is formatted electronically which can be accessed through digital devices. Digital library feature is integration of LONTAR digital library into e-learning system, SCELE. By using this feature, users can search documents in the library.

Learning Object Manager Learning Object Manager (LOM) is a feature used as repository of learning materials (LOs) which has upload, 34

Architecture of Learning Object Recommender Based on the existing curriculum and analysis on SCELE, Learning Object Recommender’s architecture has been designed that focus on prior knowledge assessment. Writers propose four main components: Prior knowledge assessment engine: This function is used for generating instrument of assessments, such as pre-assessment, mid-assessment, and final-assessment. An assessment contains several questions related to the course and type of assessment. Records of students’ performance: Used to collect all results of assessment; then the data of all assessment for each student can be analysed for tracking student’s learning progress. Measuring student’s learning progress can be done by comparing results of assessment. LO repository: Used to manage LOs after creation and manage their version. LO recommender: This function used to provide LOs for students based on result of assessment.

download, and searching facility. The definition of LO from Learning Technology Standards Committee Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, is:

LOM’s main page consists of search facility (Cari LO) and viewer facility (Tampilkan LO File). LO searching facility offers searching’s category to be selected by users, they are searching based on title or description. LO viewer facility can provide LO based on subject, sorting by, and sorting technique. In order to upload new learning object (LO), users can choose their file by selecting LO’s source: (a) File –his own LO or (b) Link to LONTAR – LONTAR’s LO. Edit Folder is used to add new subject folder. Integrating SCELE, LONTAR, and LOM into one system is similar to the idea of having ERP system. Having only such system is not enough to support ideal teaching and learning processes that take various levels of prior knowledge to a course. Hence, now follows an additional feature, LOR that enables to support personalised learning.

Personalised learning at Fasilkom UI Fasilkom UI has around 800 students for bachelor, magister, and doctoral programme. The curriculum shows that in bachelor programme, from 72 courses (except thesis, seminar, and special topic), one course needs five prerequisite courses, seven courses need three prerequisite courses, 16 courses need two prerequisite courses, 30 courses need one prerequisite course, and only 18 courses do not need prerequisite course. In magister programme, from 21 courses, all of them need prerequisite course to be taken by the March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

students (eight courses need two prerequisite courses and 13 courses need one prerequisite course). Prior knowledge helps students to process new information in learning process. Information about student’s prior knowledge will be used as an input to LMS to map prior knowledge level of each student and give suggestion about what kind of topic to be reviewed and learned to activate and improve prior knowledge. Students’ prior knowledge can be same, almost same, or significantly different. Explicitly, various level of general prior knowledge among

not depend on the quantity (amount of the LO), but on how relevant LOs are for each student. Student with high prior knowledge related to the courses followed, need LOs, which are different to student whose prior knowledge status is middle or low. The point is each student need personalization feature in selecting learning materials. Relationship between personalisation and learning material has been identified where personalised e-learning allows reuse of learning materials in different contexts, personalisation can take place at a LO level where the look and feel of he LO is customisable to

learning contents are organised for different types of students. Personalisation also determines learning strategies on information-push (IPush), information pull (I-Pull) and blended learning. This learning object recommender system is type of I-Push where LOs are selected based on prior knowledge status and provide to the students, but in SCELE itself students also can select any LOs they need. This research needs 3 (three) types of data, they are: • Data 1: Learning Objects as materials for testing the system • Data 2: o Instrument of pre-assessment o Instrument of mid-assessment o Instrument of post-assessment • Data 3: o Result of pre-assessment. o Result of mid-assessment and mid-examination. o Result of final-assessment and final examination.

Towards better LO recommendations

Graphical user interface of LOM

students can be identified through assessment. It is not only conducted in early semester but also can be done in the middle of the semester to view the student’s performance of learning. Learning objects are important component in online learning besides discussion activity. Knowledge to be acquired by students actually does Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

satisfy the needs of the students, also personalisation can occur while learning materials are selected and

Main implication of this system modeling is the importance of existing students’ prior knowledge to be explored by three level of assessment; they are pre-assessment, midassessment, and final-assessment. These assessments are strongly assumed more effective to track student performance. LOR provides service by giving suggestion about LOs, which are needed by each student based on their prior knowledge in each level. Main contribution of this preliminary research is focus of personalisation based on students’ prior knowledge and develops mechanism to track students’ performance based on three types of assessment outside midexamination and final-examination.

Zainal Arifin Hasibuan is an academic staff at Faculty of Computer Science University of Indonesia, lecturer at Master of Information Technology program University of Indonesia (MTI UI). Highly involved as IT consultant in some national IT projects in Indonesia, Zanial has bachelor degree in Statistics from Bogor Institute of Agriculture and master degree in Information Science from Indiana University, and PhD degree in Information Storage and Retrieval System, Indiana University.

News

Intel strengthens aid in Philippines to improve education

ASIA Google to open Singapore R&D

Internet search company Google Inc. plans to open a research and development center in Singapore, its first in Southeast Asia. Google’s research centers outside of the United States typically focus on adapting its products for local markets, but are also involved in developing new offerings and finetuning existing ones. Three of its eight research and development centers around the world are in Asia.

Intel, an international computer processor and solutions developer intends to intensify its programmes to help integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in the Philippine educational system. In its CSR 2006 year-end report, Intel Philippines highlighted three banner programmes, namely: the Intel Philippines Science and Engineering Fair (Intel Ipef), Intel Higher Education Programme (Intel HEP), and the Intel Teach Programme (Intel TP). Intel Ipef is a nationwide competition on research and development involving students. The company will select top six entries that will compete in the Intel international science and engineering fair in May, which is expected to involve 1,300 entries from 40 countries worldwide. The Intel HEP aims to improve the university curriculum, and research

Brunei teachers win global tilt

Oracle has launched its online community learning system ‘Think.com’ to connect schools across Sri-Lanka. Think.com is designed to connect students around the world and engage them in collaborative, project-based learning using technology. 36

RIHS ties with IGNOU to offer academic programmes in SriLanka The Regent International Institute of Higher Studies (RIIHS) of Sri-Lanka has partnered with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), India to offer its academic programmes in Sri-Lanka from January 2007. IGNOU will prepare a comprehensive set of modules for the distance learning system and provide to students. The “IGNOU-RIIHS partnership” allow students to pay their course fees as per the SAARC norms on a semester basis. A sufficient number of contact sessions for each course and other required services including effective counseling are to be provided by the RIIHS during weekends. and Microsoft under the flagship Partners in Learning (PiL) programme.

Brunei’s representatives to the Microsoft Regional Innovative Teacher’s Conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia won first and third places. The event is a worldwide initiative to empower schools to increase student learning through teacher development and leadership. It was organised in partnership with UNESCO Asia Pacific

Oracle’s Think.com connects schools of Sri-Lanka

and development. Intel TP intends to teach educators how to effectively use personal computers in the classroom. The program has trained over 74,000 teachers in the country and over four million worldwide.

The representatives were Cikgu Hj Yussof bin Hj Metassim, Sr. Education Officer from the ICT Dept., Ministry of Education, Cikgu Mohd Zamri bin Hj Ismail of Sayyidina Hasan Secondary School and Cikgu Ismail bin Hj Julaihi of PAP Hjh Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah Secondary School.

Oracle’s Think.com will provide a safe environment for both students and teachers to collaborate to make learning more interactive and fun. Teachers and students from member schools can enter this password-protected learning community. Currently, the Think.com is available in 8

different languages across 26 countries. Oracle has successfully implemented Think.com in Sri-Lanka and Pakistan. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Podcasting in classrooms Henderson Secondary School, Singapore Things are changing around us at a phenomenal pace in the new era. Today our students carry mobile phones, which are packed with a wide array of functions, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, and MP3 players that are of the size of our index finger. One of the reasons we as educators need to change how we teach is because everything else around us has and we are desperately playing catch-up! In order for our education institutions not to be left behind, we need to stay relevant. At Henderson, it is realised that in order to continue engaging our students effectively a transformation would need to take place. One such transformation involved experimenting with podcasting in the classroom. More experiences from Paviter Singh, Head, Humanities in Henderson Secondary School, Singapore.

Power S c h o o l What is a podcast The first time our teachers heard the word podcast, they had no idea what it meant. The word is a blend of two terms, iPod and Broadcast. Contrary Why use Apple technology? When we started this project with our students at Henderson Secondary School in Singapore, many teachers were skeptical. The students were very keen but the teachers needed to

be convinced. Change always requires us to move out of our comfort zone and embrace something different. We led by example. Leadership is an essential component of change management and we are fortunate at Henderson to have a supportive Principal and Vice Principal who gave us their wholehearted support. With their help, we went ahead with the podcast project. Our colleagues,

School Tra ck along the way, realised how great an impact our lessons were having on the students and it was not long before more teachers were enquiring about podcasting and if they could learn how to create their own podcasts. Over the course of 2006, the number of teachers who use Apple technology and are now creating their own podcasts has grown from one to eight. These eight teachers come from three different departments; namely English, Humanities and Aesthetics. Some of these teachers have been in the education service from between two to twenty years. Some are young, eager and quick learners while others are older, still eager and determined to learn fast. There is therefore no truth behind the tale that ICT is led by the young and innovation should be left to the fresh graduates.

The background to the project At the heart of our podcast project was a deep desire to get our students to participate in our Social Studies lessons. We realised that the levels of motivation were dropping, students were not bringing their books and some were even dozing off during our lessons. We wanted to create lessons that would excite and engage our students. At the same time, we were acutely aware of the call to re-look, review and revisit our pedagogy and teaching practice coming from our Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

Progress with the project The project that began focused on one topic in the Social Studies syllabus. The topic that was selected was one which students dreaded studying and occupied more than thirty pages of the textbook. It had multiple case studies and involved several events and names.

Prime Minister and Education Minister in the form of two initiatives, Teaching School, Learning Nation and Teach Less, Learn More. Podcasting was one approach to addressing our challenges.

Beginning with the end in mind One of the aims was to introduce a holistic approach to the teaching of Social Studies. We realised that many students did not do well in Social Studies because they had a poor command of English. Therefore any attempt at improving their scores in Social Studies had to begin by addressing their English ability. This is where podcasting was an excellent approach. Creating a podcast required students to first come up with their own script. Although they could search the Internet, locate resources and adapt from what they found, students would need to be able to pronounce what they chose to include in their script. This forced them to understand and learn the meaning of new words and phrases on their own. Students also had to take digital photos that corresponded with the words they were saying. They could then add hyperlinks to their research websites and or PDF files for reference. We were also mindful of the different learning styles of our students. Usually our lessons and teaching programmes might not catered to the 38

kinesthetic and visual spatial abilities of our students. This needed to change to accommodate how best our students learnt. Podcasting was interactive. Students needed to search for resources on the Internet, discuss with each other what to include, take photos, read out loud, be expressive, listen to their recordings, listen to music and at last pull all of these together into a podcast.

Students Perspective Podcasting is so much better than doing PowerPoint presentations! It’s more interactive. I get to record my voice and even insert pictures. It’s almost like creating my own documentary. – Joseph Ang (Class of 3E1, 2006) Podcasting is immensely interesting and help me to improve my knowledge of technology even further. I felt like a TV documentary producer editing the sound, pictures and adding in jingles and stingers. I was surprised that it was so easy!. –Eveline Tanaka (Class of 3E2, 2006)

At the beginning, students were briefed on their lesson objectives that were: to form their own opinions and perspectives; to present their findings in an innovative way and to take ownership of their own learning After the briefing, students were grouped into teams of two. They then had to select their project title and begin research. In order to prevent students from being buried in, they were given a set of guidelines as to what they needed to look for. The entire set of briefing slides were put online. These can be viewed at http://www.pavitersingh.com/ humanpod The set of guidelines as well as a template for students to use in coming up with their script was also put online. The project website was created so that students could refer to the material and resources at any time without having to approach the teacher. This was one way in which they were encouraged to take ownership of their own learning. Once students completed their research, they needed to sign up for “time slots” to record their scripts. To get around this, we arranged for 3-4 teams of students to use the computers at any one time after official school hours. We explained to the entire class how recordings were created using Garage Band (a programme in iLife 06) and let them experiment and do it on their own. This autonomy was a test for the students. They were being left on their own and needed to fulfill a task, which had set them. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Once the teams had done their recordings, these were saved as MP3 files. It was only then, during the next session that the entire class gathered to compile their digital images, hyperlinks and audio recordings to form a podcast. This session took between 1-2 hours. The final products are available online and have become a resource for other teachers and students who study that topic. After the project with one class, the same project was repeated with other classes and a total of 150 students went through this programme.

Teacher Created Podcasts The student podcast project was so successful that my students asked me to podcast my lessons and makes them available as revision notes and study guides. Taking up their suggestions, I created, close to 50 podcasts of Social Studies lessons, which are available, online for all students and teachers to download. I am glad to say that more than two hundred students have visited the website and downloaded these podcasts.

Podcasting in English and Art! Since the Social Studies Podcast project, the English and Art teachers in our school have begun to create their own podcasts of lessons and are using these as teaching resources to be shared among teachers. According to them, it helps to ease the preparation load as well as guides beginning teachers who might not be as familiar with regards to the teaching methodology. Paviter Singh is the Head of the Humanities Department at Henderson Secondary School. He is the only Apple Distinguished Educator in Singapore for K-12 and has been working not only in his school but also with other schools (both high schools and middle schools) in Singapore to introduce podcasting into the curriculum. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

Digital Learning Power School Award â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;07 Do you know a school that takes the advantage of innovation and technology, and brings out the best in its students and teachers? Do you know an exceptional teacher shows unwavering commitment to excellence and innovation and inspires his/her students to make significant academic gains through education technology, and inspires others to develop as effective educators? If you do, take a moment to nominate this school and the teacher for the Digital Learning Power School Award 2007.

Info-centre private, must be India domicile entity serving the Indian education community. An innovative ICTenabled learning programme/ must be fully operational in the school that the teacher represents at the time of application submission An innovative ICTenabled learning programme/ must be fully operational in the school that the teacher represents at the time of application submission.

The award: Nominations due by 30 April 2007 (Refer to our earlier announcement in the January issue of Digital Learning print magazine, also available at http:/ /www.digitallearning.in/magazine/ jan07.pdf) The Digital Learning Power School Award provides a means for sharing innovative classroom strategies and the techniques of talented and innovative teachers and schools across the wider education community.

Eligibility : The school- government or private, must be serving the Indian education community. The teacher -either government or

The entries are to be evaluated by an eminent jury panel to zero in on the winners in the two categories-Digital Learning Power School -Digital Learning Power Teacher

Apply now Hard copy or email submissions are acceptable. All documentation relating to this application must be forwarded to: Digital Learning Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies G-4, Sector-39, Noida, UP, India Website: www.digitallearning.in or email: info@digitallearning.in

For other details about nomination and the award process and to download the application form, please visit www.digitalLEARNING.in

Learning Curves Adventurer opens first Antarctic education base

Shiskha India portal helps students in making their concept easy

The adventurer Robert Swan has opened the Ebase on 24 February in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Bellingshausen what he says is the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first online education center in Antarctica that will offer children a real-time glimpse of life on the ice.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has developed a collaborative e-learning system and portal under its initiative Shiksha India, which will help Indian students to search assistance on difficult topics.

The EBase (Inset: Robert Swan)

Swan, who was the first person to walk unassisted to both the North and South poles, hopes to use the small center, built on the Russian base on King George Island, to teach children about climate change and what they can do to protect the planet. The unmanned base, measuring 40 feet by 10 feet, is built from recyclable material and runs on wind and solar power. Fitted with a camera on the roof, it will beam live images of its surroundings to a website that also offers educational material for teachers to use in class. He believes actual images of the snow-capped terrain coupled with messages about how climate change is affecting Antarctica will encourage children to take a more active interest. Over 20 teachers have been working together to prepare a relevant curriculum that will be showcased on this website as part of the ongoing EBase project. The goal is to be completely operation in 2008. 40

The portal, www.eshikshaindia.in can be accessed by anyone free of cost. It will equip schools with e-learning facilities to help students understand difficult concepts better. The portal is basically designed for students aged between 12 years to 17 years on subjects like physics, biology, chemistry, english and geography. It will also contain other languages, including hindi and tamil. Shiksha has developed the ready content, which offers e-tools and e-resources as well as other software that teacher can use to create her own online course for students. The portal will work on the lines of operating system Linux, where students and teachers can contribute matter on topics. It functions like Wikipedia in the sense that teachers and students can collaborate with each other; add to the already existing data using the wikiengine called mediawiki.

The ResearchBased Computer Lab

Twenty years into the technology revolution, we still see little credible evidence that the purchase of equipment pays handsome dividends when it comes to student scores, yet the spending continues without the investment in professional development that might make a difference. Courtesy: http://www.fno.org March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

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M-Learn

SmartChecker

Tracking Student’s Class Attendance Using Wireless PDA M. Mustafa (mustafaman@kustem.edu.my), M.Yazid (yazid@kustem.edu.my ), University College of Science and Technology Malaysia, and W. Aezwani (wanie7194@yahoo.com.my), Cybernetics International College Of Technology, Malaysia

SmartChecker is the innovative platform that integrates mobile technologies into teaching and learning environment for the particularly tracking and monitoring of student’s class attendance. SmartChecker, exploits the use of personal digital assistance (PDA) to provide mobile and instant graphical display. It also furnishes reports and progress tracks for determining student class attendance baselines, and improves the quality of monitoring and data captured technique, data-driven decision making and school accountability.

When Kamri, the head-teacher of class 5 AMANAH in Kompleks Gong Badak Primary School in Malaysia just finishes the morning session and is rushing to have a meeting with the headmaster, he suddenly sees Aminah, Asri’s student in 5 SIDIQ, is crying in the corner. “What’s up?” But Aminah refuses to say a single word. Kamri is in a hurry to the meeting, so she quickly takes out the SmartCheker. “Aminah is crying in the 3rd floor corner”, she marks down the message and then transfers it to Asri. SmartChecker retrieves all recent information relating to Aminah from the school database, and starts to analyse if Aminah has been behaving atypically for a period of time. Now Kamri has arrived at the president’s office, where the school master is evaluating his performance. The headmaster turns his attention to the PDA screen that is now showing a system generated alert together with the ranking variation graph of the student. “I think we should pay more attention to him. He was our best student, but now I am a little disappointed about his performance in the past two months based on his attendance. SmartChecker alerted me last night, telling me his overall performance is atypical these two months, and we should find out what is wrong with him.”

Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

Why SmartChecker useful in school environment? SmartChecker is a mobile student performance monitoring system using wireless mobile handheld devices like PDAs that facilitates real-time access and analysis of the formative and summative performance data of students graphically. At the same time it supports performance prediction based on the heuristic information, and facilitates the improvement of the quality of teaching, learning, datadriven decision-making, monitoring and school accountability. In our work, the Data source of SmartChecker the SMM (Sistem Maklumat Murid) system, which is an online school management system and a city-wide learning data archive for all school students in Malaysia maintained by the Education Ministry. SMM maintain the student learning data for all the primary and secondary schools, storing the learning records and personal information for about all students in primary, secondary schools, as well as teaching staff.

Framework for SmartChecker The pilot project will help determine and confirm the following issues before developing full scale data collection software around the PDA: 1.Real-time or Batch data exchange: Is real-time sending of information to the main server really needed? How much traffic in Kilobytes will be generated? How much will that cost? Will real time information exchange help in data collection monitoring? Will daily batch information interchange suffice, or should the enumerator in the field be connected to the main database all the time and perform all information update on it directly? 2.Synchronization with main database: Will the main database be MySQ L? How will the mechanism of integration between received data from PDA, if in batch mode, occur with the main database? 3.How well will the adopted PDA perform in the field: Will the battery be enough? How will recharging happen? Is the PDA easy to use? What will be the optimum procedure to follow for its use in data collection? Will the PDA memory be enough to handle the client-side application and data storage (if batch mode is used)? Three major technical issues needed to be addressed in any PDA system development: (a) Multiple user environment - how to categorise users into different groups with different information needs. (b) Data privacy control - how to ensure data can only be seen by the right person, and prevent from the man in the middle attack. (c) Interface designs- how to show a large amount of graphs and information efficiently and ergonomically on a very small screen.

Multipurpose functionality for school and teachers In a school environment, there are two distinct user groups: school administrator and teachers. SmartChecker is composed of two distinct parts to serve the needs of the different groups. SmartChecker provides global views and analyses of the school performance for this group of users. The main focus is to enhance the school accountability, and to access the school continuous improvement data. Based on the quantitative analytical results, SmartChecker helps to develop teacher professional programmes that would have a quick effect in the classroom and in student monitoring. Basically, two levels of analysis results can be presented for the administrator level users. The analysis for this group is focused on the attendances scores. There are form level analysis and class level analysis. At the form level, the mean, standard 42

Data encryption protocol for SmartChecker

deviation, and other statistical factors of the attendance results can be shown graphically and compared across years. The trends of the attendances scores of a form or the whole school can also be visualized graphically. At the class level, statistical factors of each subject within each class will be presented, which helps to facilitate the performance assessment of the students.

Data privacy control Due to the inherent data privacy concern, it is important to protect the data in SmartChecker at three levels. (a) Physical security: Protecting the

device from loss or theft, and preventing access to the device operating system (OS) and the SmartChecker application if the device does fall into the wrong hands. (b) Data security: Ensuring that if the device does fall into the wrong hands and the OS is accessed, the data stored in the device cannot be accessed. (c) Network security: Preventing eavesdropping during data transmission between the device and the system server. RSA is the most widely used algorithm for public key encryption, and is believed to be secure given sufficiently long keys. Here we modify the classical protocol to take into account of the limitations of hand held devices. March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

SmartChecker report and alert system

Three-tier architecture

The idea of this protocol is to use public key encrypting data files on server before transformation, and to decrypt by the private key stored on the PDA. Different from the classical RSA, this private key is further encrypted by a session key, keeping it from being disclosed.

System architecture and implementation

Application tier Application tier consists of web server and application logic for data monitoring. The logics and rules are separately stored in the files using Web scripts. These logics and rules are properly interfaced with the

SmartChecker consists of the following main functions: Querying of data in a city-wise learning data management and archive system such as the Malaysia SMM system, and facilitating comparison of data scattered across multiple databases, generate and display the results of formative assessment and summative assessment in different graphical formats, like bar-chart and scattered diagram. Users can simply navigate and hyper-linking through different graphs and data points to gain a thorough understanding of each studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class attendances, from the

Users can simply navigate and hyper-link through

different graphs and data This system was developed using points to gain a thorough three tier architecture understanding of each that has been chosen for monitoring of studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class attendances, system using Internet from the detailed scores, technology. This architecture provides comparison to the average greater application to the overall ranking, scalability, high flexibility, high perform trend analysis by a efficiency, lower set of pre-determined rules. maintenance, and reusability of components. In this design, each tier main Web server in this tier. In the can be run either on a separate current development of monitoring machine or on the single machine. It system, Apache Server has been used improves system processing as performance. These tiers do not Web server. necessarily communicate to physical locations on different computers or Data tier networks. A typical three layer architecture is divided into Client or This tier concerns with persistent presentation tier, Application tier and data usually stored in a database or in Data tier. permanent storage. MySQL database has been used to store the Presentation tier entire studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class attendance data collection by wireless PDA via This tier enables user to interact with online application. The major the database through the web benefits of three tier architecture browser in a user friendly manner from are reusability, flexibility, remote location or using wireless manageability, maintainability, device like PDA. and scalability. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

Interface Design

detailed scores, comparison to the average to the overall ranking, perform trend analysis by a set of predetermined rules. The prediction modeling is conducted according to the trend analysis, and instant alert will be pop up. The alert consists of the detailed information of an atypical student who may need special care, on-site input of additional formative assessment data by teachers.

Mustafa Man is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology in University College of Science and Technology Malaysia.

News WORLD Over 400 000 learners to get free education in Africa Over 400 000 learners in Mpumalanga in Africa stand to benefit from the government’s “no-fee schools”. This is apart from the introduction of ICT in public schools that has received impetus by the launch of the provincial ICT Strategy. Currently the province had 983 “no-fee schools”. School principals are not allowed to charge school fees in these schools. The government would enroll 26 000 participants in the Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) courses in the 2007-2008 financial year, at the cost of R90 million. A total of 45 public schools in Mpumalanga have each been allocated 25 computers for the introduction of an ICT laboratory.

USA Government gives funds for videoconferencing in schools USA Government agencies are giving funds to put video conferencing system in schools. The Rural Development under secretary Thomas Dorr, has given US$25,853,991 funds of 103

Futurelab offers learning via mobile phones in UK Futurelab, an education innovator has published a new handbook for students of United Kingdom, which will allow students to use mobile phones, PDAs and pocket PCs for learning. Handhelds-learning with handheld technologies is packed with practical advice and is a must for any school or local authority considering using mobile devices for learning. The handbook is a result of 2-year research programme, involved 26 schools across two local authorities. These handheld devices have the potential to enable personalised, collaborative learning, and facilitate new relationships between teachers and pupils as well as between home and school.

Word Bank report: Nigeria not utilises e-learning programmes The World Bank report shows that Nigeria is not utilising e-learning methods for effective and coordinated delivery of programmes. According to the Bank report, distance learning is widespread at the time of the report but it not coordinated and limited to tertiary education programmes. Although many universities have developed the e-learning programmes, yet they have not utilised e-learning programmes properly. Under this report, only few ICT opportunities in teaching curricula existed as well as little development of ICT-based teaching and learning resources. distance learning and telemedicine to provide educational and medical services to citizens of 38 states.

Developing nations to test US$150 laptops From Brazil to Pakistan, some of the world’s poorest children are to peer across the digital divide in February reading electronic books, shooting digital video, and chatting with classmates online. Founded by Massachusetts Institute of Technology academics, the nonprofit ‘One Laptop per Child’ project plans to roll out nearly 2,500 of its US$150-laptops to eight nations in the month of February. State educators in Brazil, Uruguay, Libya, Rwanda, Pakistan, Thailand and possibly Ethiopia and the West Bank will receive the first of the machines in February’s pilot.

Learn English grammar via mobile phones The Mennonite Centre in United Kingdom is one where students are using mobile phones to learn english language. Students are using mobile phones to download english grammar lesson and answer series of multiple choice, true or false questions. Athabasca University, a long-distance post-secondary school, created the cellphone lessons for those wanting to learn english as a second language (ESL). Students from anywhere in world can learn english grammar, through their cell phones. 44

February 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Workshop

Euro-Indian ICT Coperation Initiatives in Progress The two workshops organised in January 2007 by the Euro–India ICT Co-operation Initiative (www.euroindia-it.org) in Pune and Hyderabad focused on the growing opportunities for Indians to participate in European Research funding and to strengthen Indian participation in Framework Programme 7 (FP7), Europe’s main instrument for funding research, running from 2007-2013. The workshops leveraged off the success of three earlier Euro-India ICT Cooperation workshops held in Bangalore, Mumbai and Kharagphur, bringing together European and Indian players in the arena of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

Over 15 speakers from leading IT enterprises, research organisations, and experts from European funded projects provided a first-hand look at European projects, challenges, solutions and new ideas. European Experts explained the inner workings of EU-funded research projects with a practical guide on how Indians can get involved in successful funded international research projects. IT specialists shared their extensive experience in collaborating with Europe, highlighting the benefits of joint co-operation and underlining the multiple opportunities for Indian organisations through joint EU-Indian projects. They also spoke on multilateral cooperation in RTD from an Indian perspective and providing experiences with Europe and related projects. Digital Learning | Vol 3 Issue 3 March 2007

Euro-India workshop in Pune

Now is the time to act. • Inform your European contacts that you are interested in participating in EU Framework Programme 7 project proposals • visit IDEAL-IST (www.idealist.net) to view Partner Searches in order to discover a European consortia that is seeking your expertise, • inform us at info@euroindia-it. org that you are active in pursuing EC funded project in order for us to assist and support you The Euro-India ICT Co-operation Initiative is now organising workshops in Kanpur and Chennai in India on 27 and 29 March respectively, offering Indians an opportunity to understand how to collaborate with European entities on competitive Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) projects funded by the European Union and inform them how to get involved in European funded projects. India is already recognised as an ICT

powerhouse in the global marketplace, here is an ever-important opportunity to open the doors to the international arena of research and innovation. The workshops will allow participants to have a comprehensive understanding the new Framework Programme 7 (2007 – 2013), covering ICT domains, the international cooperation objectives, instruments and funds to engage in research projects alongside European partners. Experienced European Experts will share their know-how and explain the inner workings of EU-funded research projects, which will serve as practical examples on how to get involved in international research projects. An open Q&A and Networking opportunity will be available to consult the panel experts. For more information on the EuroIndia ICT Co-operation Initiative and future workshops in Chennai and Kanpur in March 2007 visit www.euroindia-it.org. 45

Mark Your Calendar

LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Award 2006 winners announced

march

Distribution of the Year - Ubuntu (26.44%)

International Conference and workshop on e-Learning strategies: Edutainment 2007 12 - 17 March, 2007 Bangkok and Surin Island Thailand http://www.elearning.dusit.ac.th/

Research-Based Creative Teaching Strategies 19 - 20 March, 2007 Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States http://www.bobpikegroup.com

TxDLA: Discover the Treasures of Distance Learning 27 - 29 March, 2007 Galveston, Texas United States http://www.txdla.org/conference/2007/index. html

april 2nd International Conference on Engineering Education & Training, ICEET-2 9 - 11 April, 2007 Kuwait City, Kuwait http://www.iceet.org

Learning Impact 2007 / Summit on Global Learning Industry Challenges 16 – 19 April, 2007 1601 Bayshore Drive, Vancouver, BC, Canada http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact/ agenda.html

Schools Reform Conference: Challenges and Aspirations 17 - 19 April, 2007 Dubai, United Arab Emirates http://www.fedu.uaeu.ac .ae/PDF/Conferencebrochure-E.pdf

Interactive Mobile and Computer aided Learning 18 - 20 April, 2007 Amman, Jordan

http://www.elearningguild.com/pbuild/ linkbuilder.cfm?selection=doc.1242&templateid=3

LMS 2007 12 – 13 April, 2007 10999 W Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89135

http://www.esstt.rnu.tn/utic/tica2007

Database of the Year - MySQL (61.68%) Office Suite of the Year OpenOffice.org (89.79%) Desktop Environment of the Year KDE (56.58%) Video Media Player Application of the Year - mplayer (41.93%) Video Authoring Application of the Year - Kino (27.81%) Audio Media Player Application of the Year - amaroK (57.07%)

The Higher Education Summit 2007 Synergies through Partnerships in Higher Education 26 - 27 April, 2007 New Delhi, India

Audio Authoring Application of the Year - Audacity (67.07%)

http://www.ficci-hen.com

Messaging Application of the Year - Gaim (51.52%)

may StudyWorld 2007 11 - 12 May, 2007 Berlin, Germany

SOLSTICE 2007 - Researching eLearning for Innovation and Development 11 May, 2007 Lancashire England, United Kingdom http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/SOLSTICE/ conference2007

http://www.lms2007.com/

The First International Conference on Information and Communication Technology & Accessibility 12 - 14 April, 2007 Hammamet, Tunisia

Browser of the Year - Firefox (74.61%)

http://www.imcl-conference.org

http://www.studyworld2007.com

eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 10 – 13 April, 2007 Boston, MA, USA

Live Distribution of the Year Knoppix (26.22%)

12th International Conference on Education - ICE2007 21 - 24 May, 2007 Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam http://www.ubd.edu.bn/news/conferences/12ice07/ index.htm

Multimedia Utility of the Year - K3b (69.51%)

Window Manager of the Year Fluxbox (21.44%) IDE of the Year - Eclipse (34.47%) Mail Client of the Year Thunderbird (52.74%) Text Editor of the Year - vi/vim (38.42%) Graphics Application of the Year GIMP (65.60%) Security Application of the Year nmap (20.94%) Windows on Linux App of the Year - Wine (50.10%) Web Development Editor of the Year - Quanta (36.34%) Shell of the Year - bash (89.45%) For more, visit http:// www.linuxquestions.org/questions/ forumdisplay.php?f=76 March 2007 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

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Meeting Creates Understanding

Understanding creates Networking. Networking creates Experience. Experience creates Knowledge. Knowledge creates Technology. Technology creates Convenience. Convenience creates Well-Being. Well-Being creates Feeling. Feeling creates Motivation. Motivation creates Participation. Participation creates Meetings!

30 July - 3 August 2007, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi www.eIndia.net.in