DL March 2016

ASIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S PREMIER MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION

VOLUME 12

I ISSUE 03 I MARCH 2016 I ISSN 0973-4139 I ` 75

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TEACHING UNDER n o i t a m r o f s Tran With a great deal of transformation happening in classrooms, schools and systems, the way students are imparted education is undergoing a sea change. This is leading to the need of new pedagogies in teaching and learning in educational institutions across the globe.

Dissecting the

EVENT REPORTS

UNION BUDGET

for Education 2016-17

18 FEBRUARY

WES Special VOLUME 11 ISSUE APRIL 2016 2015 VOLUME 12 ISSUE 03 04 MARCH

Event Reports

COVER STORY Teaching Under Transformation

World Education Summit 2016

School Leadership Summit 2016

Start-up

Mission Quality Education

Budget Commentary

Dissecting the Union Budget for Education 2016-17

Interviews

28 30

Unni Krishnan Gaurav Savita Koroth Jhunjhnuwala Venkat

Dr PT Vasudevan

Co-founder, Foradian Technologies

Interim Provost & VP Academic Affairs, UNH

Director, S Chand & Co Pvt Ltd

Principal, Bombay Cambridge School

March 2016 / digitalLEARNING

ASIA’S PREMIER MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON ICT IN EDUCATION Volume 12

Issue 03

March 2016

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dr Ravi Gupta EDITORIAL TEAM EDUCATION Managing Editor: Raghav Mittal Senior Assistant Editor: Nirmal Anshu Ranjan Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma, Aamir H Kaki Senior Correspondent: Manish Arora SALES & MARKETING TEAM: digitalLearning Project Manager: Seema Gupta, Mobile: +91-8860651643 Product Head: Fahim Haq, Mobile: +91-8860651632 Assistant Manager: Mayank Sharma, Mobile: +91-8860651645 SUBSCRIPTION & CIRCULATION TEAM Manager Subscriptions: +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in DESIGN TEAM Creative Head: Pramod Gupta, Anjan Dey Deputy Art Director: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur Senior Web Designer: Shyam Kishore EVENT TEAM Manager: Gagandeep Kapani ADMINISTRATION Head Administration: Archana Jaiswal EDITORIAL & MARKETING CORRESPONDENCE digitalLearning – Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd: Stellar IT Park Ofﬁce No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Annexe Building, C-25, Sector-62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600, Fax: +91-120-4812660, Email: info@elets.in digitalLearning is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd in technical collaboration with the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS). Owner, Publisher, Printer - Dr Ravi Gupta, Printed at Vinayak Print Media, D - 249, Sector-63, Noida 201 307.UP and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida, UP and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30 Sector-50, Noida, Up

Editor: Dr Ravi Gupta All rights reserved, No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic and mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage or retrieval system, without publisher’s permission.

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March 2016 / digitalLEARNING

Editorial Learning Goes Glocal The frontiers of mind have never been constricted by the limitations of geographies and governments. Inquisitive observant ones have thereby been venturing out in the incessant quest for acquiring knowledge, experiences and learnings from across the globe, even much before the advent of the digital era. The age-old mantra of “Let noble thoughts come to us from all directions” would not have found a profound invocation at this important juncture in human evolution which is armed with the power of ICT which enables anytime anywhere connectivity in wide vivid variety of ways which are enriching & enguling. World Education Summit, Dubai 2016 was one such endeavor in this relentless efforts at digitalLEARNING to provide an exposure platform between the educational ecosystems of India and the UAE. You shall ind an eclectic commentary on what all transgressed at this global extravaganza inside. The zeal and zest with which the Knowledge & Human Resource Development Authority of Dubai is steering through the enterprise of education is strikingly marvellous which our Ministry of Human Resource Development needs to take cognizance of in the backdrop of an otherwise non-appealing budget presentation having scant appreciation of empowering India’s demographic dividend reaping the beneits of ICT. The journey from Sanchar Bhawan to Shastri Bhawan still remains a bumpy one. You may ind inside an analytical commentary on the Union Budget on Education which has tried to invoke queries from a irst principles approach. The ield of education is replete with global experiments. Our lead story this month brings forth an interesting compilation of emerging teaching-learning pedagogical initiatives from far and wide. The School Leadership Summit, New Delhi witnessed a large number of stakeholders from the ield of Education who shared their best practices. For the beneit of our readers, we have pieced together an emphatic gist of the same in this issue. digitalLEARNING has also embarked upon an ambitious nation wide survey to ind out the top brands in Engineering Education. This effort would supplement the ongoing exercise under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in a big way. At a time when India is marching ahead in her journey to acquire her footprints on the economic frontiers, empowering educational enterprises need to be a top priority. While we are still watching for substantial happenings in the domain of education, the edupreneurs are looming large on the horizon by their sheer commitment and singular focus despite all odds. digitalLEARNING is convening a number of privileged forums and think tanks both nationally and internationally to discuss, deliberate and catapult the enterprise of education. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and colorful Holi, a festival which somewhere reverberates the innate intrinsic spirit and striving at digitalLEARNING which has been furthering the cause of all-round education in the digital era.

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

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Cover Story

With a great deal of transformation happening in classrooms, schools and systems, the way students are imparted education is undergoing a sea change. This is leading to the need of new pedagogies in teaching and learning in educational institutions across the globe. Aamir H Kaki of Elets News Network (ENN) delves into the transformation happening in the education space, what’s triggering it and why there is a need for redesigning learning-teaching pedagogies

TEACHING

Under Transformation

he digital revolution is sweeping across our work spaces, organisations and almost every sphere of our daily life. This revolution is already in the developed world and is fast making its presence felt in the developing world, too. In fact, it is transforming the way children and young people play, access information, communicate with each other and learn. It has also transformed most of the educational institutions in terms of teaching and learning in classrooms. This transformation is leading to the need of new pedagogies in teaching and learning in institutions across the globe. Now, people are spending more time, money and resources on education than ever before. An individual’s educational attainment is vital to her/his success in life, yet a large number of mainstream educational institutions across the world exist there, which are obsolete now—as they were designed to fulil the requirements of the erstwhile mass-production industrial era—and where the focus is on supericial knowledge of content that is measured through traditional examinations. For at least a century now, teaching strategies advocated by John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori and Lev Vygotsky are starting to emerge and be embraced. Earlier, the conditions for their ideas to take shape and ﬂourish did not exist. But today, there are signs of a changing order; a strong undercurrent of transformation is there, leading to powerful teaching strategies being implemented both in regular schools and in fairly traditional public education systems. They are emerging almost as a natural

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consequence of student-teacher alienation, on the one hand, and growing digital access, on the other. What’s Triggering the Change? The digital era is changing certain fundamental aspects of education. It is changing the traditional role of teachers and textbooks as the primary sources of content knowledge. Digital access has made it possible for students to apply their solutions to real-world problems with authentic audiences well beyond the boundaries of their schools. This is the real potential of technology to transform learning – not to facilitate the delivery and consumption of knowledge, but to enable students to use their knowledge in the world. For over a century, a set of pedagogies reflecting the priorities of the Industrial Age has been embedded in the process of imparting mass education. The hallmarks of these pedagogies are found in teacher-controlled learning where deconstructed and reconstructed information is presented to cohorts of students in standardised classroom settings. Changes in society, student expectations and technological advancements are motivating innovative educational institutions and faculty and instructors to re-think pedagogy and teaching methods. There are several factors at work here: Knowledge-based society: Continuing development of new knowledge is in focus, making it dificult to squeeze all that learners want to know within the limited time period of a particular course or educational programme. This means helping learners to manage knowledge — how to ind, analyse, evaluate and apply knowledge, as it is constantly shifting and growing. Emphasis on skills: There is an increased signiicance of skills or applying knowledge to suit the demands of 21st century society. Skills such as critical thinking, independent learning, knowing how to use relevant information technology, software and data within a ield of discipline and entrepreneurialism have gained importance today. The development of such skills requires active learning in rich and complex environments, with plenty of opportunities to develop, apply and practise such skills. Student expectations: Today’s students have grown up in a world where technology is a natural part of their environment. Their expectation is that technology will be used where appropriate to help them learn, develop essential information and technology literacy skills, and master the technology fluency necessary in their speciic subject domain. Technological development: Recent developments in technologies, such as smartphones and tablets, have given the learner much more control over access to and creation and sharing of knowledge. This empowers learners, and innovative educators are inding ways to leverage this learner control to increase motivation and relevance for them. Moving Beyond Connecting The old teaching-learning pedagogies are no longer relevant in the 21st century, as they ignore the capacity for learning to take place in both physical and virtual learning environments. To embrace new opportunities, there is a need of new pedagogies which can reflect a bold and creative commitment to relevance and quality learning and teaching. However, a supporting pedagogical framework must go beyond connecting educational institutions and providing tools for students and teachers. It has to be built on the

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relational nature of learning and be relevant to all those interested in learning in today’s world. Effective teaching will always be relational. However, in a virtual learning space, the role of a teacher will be to guide students in making the connections to resources, ideas and people, instead of depending on teachers to provide them. Therefore, there is a need to teach higher level thinking skills and develop key competencies using technology to prepare students for the future. Alongside this, there is a need to rethink ideas to make learning systems organised, resourced and supported. A future-focused and personalised approach towards learning allows students to take control of their own learning, which means students can understand how they learn, own and drive their learning, and become co-designers of the curriculum and their learning environment. The new and emerging pedagogies require students not only to create new knowledge, but also to connect it to the world, using the power of digital tools to do things that matter beyond school. A great deal of transformation is happening already in classrooms, schools and systems. Some of them are quite exciting, but we really don’t know much about how they work as a whole. Now, what exactly do these pedagogies look like in terms of teachers (teaching) and students’ (learning) roles? How do we know that these new roles and practices work to achieve new learning outcomes? Why and how do they expand across whole education systems? These questions, among many others, often permeate campus conversations, conferences, and discussions. Through collaboration and the intentional infusing of technology into informal learning spaces, we can invent the pedagogies for future teaching and learning. To focus on exploring answers to above questions and beyond, mining for insights that can lead to more effective implementation and rapid expansion of the emerging pedagogies, we take the views of educational experts, principals and heads of educational experts and other stakeholders. The impelling exhortations and case studies shared by these experts bring greater precision and clarity to our quest to examine the “Emerging Teaching-Learning Pedagogies”. n

Cover Story

Digitally Awake

GENERATION Rashmi Malik Principal, Delhi International School, talks about the digital solutions that are transforming the education and pedagogies they are following at the School

As the world is becoming digitally-enabled, schools cannot be left behind. Smart boards and smart classes are the backbone of teaching-learning in almost all progressive schools in the world. The main challenge everywhere is to bring teachers to a level where our digitally-awakened kids already are. At Delhi International School (DIS), all the classrooms are smart class enabled and teachers trained in digital communication. Having all latest equipment is as important as making teachers understand what it is to be ‘thinking digitally’ for their classroom deliverance. Many simple changes in daily school life brought wonderful results in digitisation of pedagogy without formally training the teachers. Sharing below a few of those: u Handwritten instructions/reports are not allowed, teachers and stu-

dents have to type in appropriate software and mail to persons. This made everyone, including Hindi/Sanskrit teachers, learn IT skills through peer support. Creating report for self after getting pointers helped teachers to train students in their respective subject related reports. u IT classes for students have one simple introduction of a software and the assessment of learning is done through a project done on the software related to their other subjects. u PTM scheduled almost every month and teachers are supposed to showcase the class and school’s academics and activities through a self created presentation. Most of them take help from students who in turn train teachers in various ‘effects’ and photo edits for highlighting the events of classroom and the process creates a wonderful collaborative learning environment in classrooms. The presentation is made at a meeting a day before PTM for approval, and the style of presentation helps everyone understand the different ways and in turn they are empowered to train kids as well to research and present their ideas in various areas. u Every lesson plan is created keeping the digital content availability and requirement for explanation of the same in best possible way, the plans are discussed in departmental meetings which has subject teachers from the entry level class to class XII. These meetings have been very successful as it leads to mutual cooperation amongst the entire team and upgradation of everyone on the same level in respective subject. u Flipped classroom is the concept which everyone is talking about today. It cer-

tainly is the need of the hour but has to be understood completely and thoroughly before jumping on to. We have taken this slowly but steadily in the classrooms so that teachers and students should not feel jittery. We have begun with various clubs and house projects through ﬂipped learning wherein the selected batches work under the supervision of teachers concerned, the researched content and assessment of the same is being done on smart boards. We allow students to bring their laptops to work on various projects. Teachers of senior classes have started using WhatsApp groups with their students for sharing the academics-related messages and contents with restriction of having academic coordinator in the group, who reports to me about all the activities. u Whatsapp groups for the management level as well as with team are also in place wherein all the circulars and notices are updated instantly. Digital world is fascinating but only if used in correct way, with clear focus on imparting immersing learning experience with everyone aware of pros and cons of misuse. It really feels nice when a ifth standard student is researching on a global warming project at home and discussing his/her indings in the class with probable solutions for the same. This is exactly what today’s education needs, the learners need not only focus on the facts but should be able to understand, think critically and look for solutions whether it is for their academics or their life. The digital era is here to stay and so are our value systems, which when combined with intelligence will take everyone forward with conidence to make this world a better place. n

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Cover Story

Preparing Learning Communities for ST

21 CENTURY Rohan Ganeriwala

Co-founder, Collegify, shares his views on the opportunities digitisation presents in education, and the need to prepare the teacher and the learner for 21st century challenges

The 21st century presents an exciting array of limitless opportunities for both the teacher and the taught. Welcome to the knowledge-driven world, where the key to success is inextricably linked to the spread of Information Literacy and subsequent establishment of knowledge banks. Teachers, needless to say, ought to be able to mould their students for accessing information through various electronic and print sources optimally, in evaluating information critically and applying the same, with precision and originality. In the demanding knowledge-based economy, teachers should also inculcate in their students the drive towards seeking knowledge based on well-researched and validated information. In other words, beyond gaining understanding of existing facts, students should also develop simultaneously, the capacity to rise above the mundane, and instead aim towards innovation rather than replication of existing ideas.

Media and Information & Communications Technology (ICT), propelled by the Internet, have a pivotal role to play in the dissemination of learning. Teachers should be adept in using multiple media, such as text, video, audio and animation, to facilitate effective teaching and learning. Advancement in digital technologies has integrated multiple media using graphical and interactive interfaces. This necessitates new literacies and terminologies to decipher, interpret and communicate using visual imagery such as icons, along with interactive modes, such as the technology applied in touch-screen smart phones and interactive smart-boards. Multicultural literacy effectively amalgamates the domains of culture and languages, as well as the ways in which multisensory data (text, sound and graphics) integrate language, subject matter and visual content. As teachers today reside in diverse societies and teach in myriad settings, multicultural literacy presents a dynamic, meta-framework with the potential for integration across curricula and geographical borders. In the 21st century learning environment, teachers must be able to support learning communities that empower students to network, collaborate, share best practices

and seamlessly integrate new-age skills into the classroom. This, in turn, will enable students to learn â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;experientiallyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in relevant, real world contexts (e.g., through project-based or applied work). Teachers should also be able to provide access to state-of-the-art learning tools, technologies and resources, thereby expanding the learning environment to community and international settings, both face-to-face as well as virtually. The 21st century curriculum research demonstrates that effective pedagogy in the 21st century needs to take on a symbiotic stand, reaching out to learners, and enabling them understand how to access, absorb and synthesise information. The aim is to provide a plethora of opportunities for the application of these skills across a global dashboard of content areas and for a competency-based strategy to learning. Today, teaching and learning in a world without borders presents both challenges and rewards â&#x20AC;&#x201C; education is empowerment in the truest sense, and the deeper it penetrates, the faster will a more equal and harmonious global society emerge. It is time we apply technology to bridge gaps in an otherwise highly fractured world. It is time we unleashed change. n

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Cover Story

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Facilitating Collaborative

PEER LEARNING Giles O’Neill Manager, Education in Ireland, presents his views on the role of teacher and learner, education practices in Ireland and creating new pedagogies

The young people in our education system today were all born in the digital age. They are at ease with technology and moving between different forms of communication. The way in which they learn is very different to that before the digital age. Pedagogies have changed rapidly in the past 25 years and will continue to develop. Learning environments are now rich in multimedia. The rise of online learning, webinars, video lessons and peer learning has meant that educators can teach from anywhere and so students can learn from anywhere. Teaching requires increased ﬂexibility. Relying solely on traditional lectures – where information is delivered to a large group of students at a set time per week – is being replaced by the blended learning approach. Rote learning is certainly a thing of the past. Blended learning combines lectures with online learning and lab time. Group work is given to working on assignments and effectively applying learning outcomes. Technology is used to facilitate collaborative peer learning via online forums. Learning outcomes of blended learning have shown to be more valuable that tradi-

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tional approaches. Blended learning also allows the educator more time for oneto-one mentoring and coaching. The focus is not on what you know, but how you are able to apply what you know. This is particularly evident at higher education level where graduates seek smooth transition into the workplace. A particular feature of the Irish higher education system is that alongside our universities, we have a network of institutes of technology (IOT). The IOTs are renowned for the level to which learning is practical and applied to emerging technologies and industries. Incubations centres to foster creativity and innovation ideas are a key feature of these institutes. Roles & Practices in Ireland Ireland has a longstanding history of providing quality education and learning outcomes that are very much applicable to the real world. Creativity and innovation have been important drivers of Ireland’s transformation into a high-tech, knowledge-based economy. This includes innovation at all levels of the education system. In particular, Ireland’s higher education institutes pride themselves in developing employment-ready graduates. According to the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report, Ireland is now

the second most entrepreneurial country in Europe, with increasing numbers of people, especially women, starting new businesses. Ireland has the fastest growing economy in Europe. Also, it was recently revealed that our oldest university, Trinity College Dublin, has produced more entrepreneurs than any other university in Europe in the last ive years. The Universities Report from VC irm PitchBook showed that Trinity produced 114 entrepreneurs and raised $655m in capital between 2010 and 2015. Expanding Education Systems The skill of critical thinking is key element of innovation. Young people need the freedom to explore ideas and question norms, in order to foster creativity. This skill of critical thinking needs to be developed within the education system from an early age. Young educators today were themselves children of the digital age and are likely to experience a system of blended learning. These young educators can play a signiicant role in developing new pedagogies to inspire creativity and innovation. New approaches can integrate digital tools that can, not just impart knowledge, but also help students apply that knowledge to the world around them. n

Cover Story

Tech-Aided Interactive

TEACHING A Murali Mukund Chairman, Jubilee Hills Public School, Hyderabad shares case studies on the Emerging Teaching-Learning Pedagogies in the School

Jubilee Hills Public School (JHPS), one of the pioneers in India to set up digital technology as early as 2006 with I-Boards in all the classrooms, takes various steps to ensure that innovative teaching is incorporated into the teaching

and learning process. JHPS is also one of the few schools that have a state-of-the-art audio visual studio where lessons are recorded and streamed to the students at home to complement classroom and ﬂipped learning. The period duration of 55 minutes with 20 minutes allocated to technology usage also gives a clear demarcation for interactive teaching and technology usage, living up to the school’s motto of ‘Tradition with Technology’. In JHPS, blended learning is done in two ways: u Lab Rotation Model u Flipped Classroom The case studies of some concepts are presented below: Computer-Class IX: Visual Basic Programming - Lab Rotation Model: Teachers introduced designing of the basic programming, with a session in the lab where students designed, developed and solved real-time problems. English-Class V: Blogs were created and an article was uploaded for students to identify the various tenses. This article was also a sample for students to write one on their own. Students researched the Internet on leaders of India and wrote an article on their favourite leader. Teacher corrected the irst draft on the blog and students

critiqued each other’s work. Science-Class VIII: Topic: “Reaching the age of Adolescence” Pre-learning: A slide from YouTube was watched at home. In the classroom, a group activity of illing in the worksheet and collaborated teaching by the students was successfully implemented. Mathematics-Class V: Decimals: Overview of fraction through a video to be watched at home and activity sheets to be illed. Assessment was done in the classroom through a pictorial representation of decimals. Social Studies-Class III: Students collaborated with Class II students of Propel Montour Charter School, USA. The students in America were learning about India. Information was given through Facetime and Skype video conferencing. Our students also learnt a lot, as they themselves had to research about India to be able to help the American students. Through all these modules, it was observed that the performance showed a marked improvement of student learning from 60 per cent to 80 per cent. Though it is often said that use of technology reduces family and social interaction, it was observed to be the reverse as teachers and parents became involved in the research and helped students soar to success. n

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Cover Story

Digital School

INSIDE A SCHOOL Dr Niyati Chitkara

The year was 1992. Students were sitting in their class and waiting for their teacher to start with a new chapter. They were sitting there without having any previous knowledge of the topic and without doing any prior research regarding the topic. Their sole source of knowledge and information were their teachers and books. It is 2016 today — the era of Generation Z learners. There are again students sitting in a classroom but they are not waiting for a teacher to introduce a topic to them. They are already engaged in a webinar and having deep discussions regarding the topic with students from a school in Dubai, university students sitting in Vancouver, Canada and supported by an industry expert, sitting in England. Along with the teachers and the books, these students have also become a source of knowledge and learning. These students are inventing, inspiring and creating new concepts during their school years itself. They are undergoing online courses as part of their curriculum, they are interacting with students from different countries and breaking all boundaries as far as learning is concerned. Therefore, the Learning Pedagogies have evolved accordingly to cater to these students at Chitkara International School. Since inception, our focus has been on building a world-class school that offers a blend of nationally and internationally-acclaimed educational

Principal, Chitkara International School, speaks about the school’s focus on technology and the teaching-learning pedagogies to suit the needs of current generation opportunities. Our school has been developed on the format of industry to kindergarten education, rather than K to 12 education ﬂow. Our vision is to take a hand, open a mind, touch a heart and shape a future. We aim at creating DNA of research scholars in varying ields that can further multiply and add value to the world. To embed this in every Generation Z learner and create different DNA altogether and further multiplying it to serve the mankind is clearly the mission of our school. Technology is one of the major tools that have helped us in fulilling our vision and mission. Ofice of Online Support Services at our school was created to instill useful technologies into the school system — be it in proper organisation and planning of processes, eficient communication between various stakeholders, 24-hour redressal of parent queries or training the teachers to use technology in the most effective and eficient way in the classrooms, diagnostic and scientiic assessments and just-in-time feedback to the parents. In classrooms, we take the help of technology in providing personalised learning. Our students undergo a variety of courses through MOOCs. They are given various assignments throughout the session, but it is left to them how they want to undertake them. One

may give a video presentation, one may give a live project or it could be in the form of a mind map/ﬂowchart. Technology has assisted us in giving freedom to the learner to choose the way he/she wishes to learn. We extensively use technologies like ERP system, Google Classrooms, Google Earth, Edmodo, Skype Sessions, TED Talks, Webinars and iTunesU in our school on day-to-day basis. These tools have helped us tremendously in better functioning and also, eficiently imparting learning to our students. We have witnessed increased levels of participation and interest shown by the students in the learning processes. Technology has also helped us in creating a better and strong bonding between all the stakeholders. Through our school’s ERP system and a userfriendly mobile App managed by the Ofice of Online Support, the parents are more involved and connected with their child’s education. With a click of a button, they can communicate with the teacher, management, access their child’s topic-wise diagnostic assessment and keep updated with daily learning activities undertaken in the class. Using online polls, we take parent’s opinion in various decisions on school’s functioning, be it in deciding the agenda for summer camps or participation in international conference. n

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Technology Making

LEARNING INTERACTIVE Vittal Bhandary CEO, Little Elly, briefs about a case study on implementing technology in the school and how technology is adding new dimensions to education The foundation of a classroom has traditionally been content and pedagogy, and technology is strengthening this foundation today. As the world has advanced technologically, teachers have the advantage of a variety of media through which they can deliver learning. The collaboration of technology in education has added a new dimension of interest in the classroom. The introduction of technology in education makes learning more interactive and interesting for young minds and also helps in honing life skills that will be invaluable in a rapidly changing world. Technology has also changed the attitude of the society and the people living in it. As an educationist, I have been dealing with parents for many years. The current set of parents I interact with in my school, expect information, which ranges from academic records to event calendars, to be made available at the swipe of a inger. To keep pace with the growing demands, we have introduced innovative methods of educating students, viz., ICT-enabled classrooms, blended learning programmes and integrated solutions. With technology, the classroom is a

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happier place. Students are excited about being able to use technology and thus be are more prepared to learn. The teacher, in turn, becomes the encourager, advisor, and coach. I would like to share a case study in our school. Over the past few months, Ms Sharada, our Mathematics teacher, has been using the smart board combined with the Math Lab. For the irst time, she witnessed all her students actively participating and engaged in problem-solving. All the students were able to learn what they needed to at their own pace and in a way that held their attention and interest. This was what she had to say, “Traditionally, teaching was limited to my knowledge and exposure which I would share with my class. Now, it is exciting for me as well, since I am able to reinvent myself as an educator. The ﬂexibility and adaptability of technology allows me to think about teaching in various ways and with other content than I had before and focus on speciic learning outcomes.” I believe a perfect blend of traditional pedagogical approaches and technology in education is the way to move forward. n

Cover Story

Encouraging Creativity and

SELFEXPRESSION Hazel Siromoni Managing Director, Maple Bear, presents an account of the different innovative pedagogies and programmes at the school

The Maple Bear Early Childhood Programme is modeled upon current

Canadian early childhood practice. The programme is designed to educate the child as a whole - physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Integration of subjects in thematic way provides a rich and stimulating programme that encourages creativity, imagination and self-expression. A priority of the child-centred programme at Maple Bear is Language Arts. Language Arts involves the areas of listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing and representing. Children will be taught how to listen carefully and speak ďŹ&#x201A;uently. They will learn how to read and will also develop a love of reading which is a skill for life. Reading is an enabler that opens the door to all learning. Child will, in this way, gain conidence and acquire the skills required to become a lifelong learner. Writing is a process that is on a developmental continuum from the early stages of simply scribbling to being able to write complex sentences and express ideas. Children will be carefully guided and encouraged to make progress along this continuum. Viewing and representing means learning the techniques and conventions of visual language to become more conscious, critical, and appreciative readers of visual media, and ultimately become more effective creators of visual products. In Mathematics, the Maple Bear pro-

gramme provides children with many opportunities to develop and strengthen their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, and calculating simple addition and subtraction problems. Children will explore and learn about shape, space, measurement, patterning, and data management. The Maple Bear Science programme has been designed to take into consideration the developmental stages of pre-school children. At this young age, children require many experiences that are essential for enquiry-based learning. In Social Studies, children will be guided to make sense of the world around them and their community through opportunities to explore, observe, and ind out about people, places, technology and the environment. The result of this is for the child on what is taking place in a Maple Bear classroom is: u English language learning in an immersion environment; u Inquiry-based teaching-learning is taking place through questioning, observing, investigating and doing; u Focus on higher order thinking skills - Thinking v/s Memorising; We are encouraging time to practice skills, important occasions to learn to work independently and cooperatively as well as allowing time for reďŹ&#x201A;ection.n

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Churning Out

DIGITAL CITIZENS Lakshmi Kumar Director, The Orchid School, shares the challenges in imparting new-age education and the approach of the school towards overcoming those

Today’s learners need extensive knowledge of the world, the skills and dispositions to engage with people from many cultures and countries. Keeping this in mind, The Orchid School, Pune, has embarked on a path of imparting education for the 21st century learners. We responded to this challenge through a three-pronged approach: Systemic changes: For anything to change,

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the larger eco-system must be readied – as a school system, we put all the administrative and academic process digital and online. Be it admission process, teacher recruitment drive, lesson plans, parent– teacher communication, student performance report, teacher performance appraisals, ICT-enabled, blended learning in classrooms etc, we built our system, tools, and IT infrastructure that would facilitate our initiative to go digital. Apart from going green and saving paper, the school became ‘modern’ for the right reasons. Stakeholders could access information anytime and from anywhere. These crucial processes are open and transparent. This transformative, technologyenabled process has given us an edge – that is cost effective, reliable and time–eficient. People Changes: Most teachers have not experienced learning, much less teaching, in environments, especially when facilitated through technology. Induction and orientation programme for all new recruits begin with an intensive training for all the digital demands that lie ahead for their role. Service staffs too are given lessons on computer literacy so they can access their mails, enter data in the ofice, manage security systems on line and keep track of

processes relevant for each role. Our students have been the most inspiring role models, enablers and teachers for us in this endeavour. With smart boards installed in classrooms, this learning was not an option. Moreover, all lesson plans had an embedded aspect of online resources, YouTube, TED Talks, Khan Academy Lessons, Teacher Page, Google‘s Education Apps and Resources etc, which are mandatory. Learner-centric changes: Judicious choice of technology, matching age with appropriate technology and providing suitable technology are some of the on-going debate and discussions we have with our students. We believe that it is crucial for students to be able to navigate the digital world around them without fear. Our role is to help students make sense of the deluge of information online — to learn what to trust, what to dismiss, how to be safe surfers and how to be able to ind the relevant information that exists in the ininite number of Google searches, with speed and accuracy. More importantly, our role is to prepare our students on how they can enrich and contribute to the online global community, to be responsible digital citizens and culturally competent person. n

Cover Story

Grooming Students for

FUTURE Kavita Sahay Director - School Operations and Academics, VIBGYOR High Group of Schools, briefs about the pedagogies and models followed at VIBGYOR to make students future-ready There is an augmentation in the ield of knowledge globally; information is available at the click of a mouse. What students essentially need are key skills to use knowledge and the accelerating technology to face the challenges in a iercely competitive world. Hence, we need to redeine our approach to teaching-learning and realign existing pedagogies. We, at VIBGYOR High, view knowledge as a whole and encourage students to integrate their learning of different disciplines and develop the essential skills of the 21st century. Corresponding to this belief, our educational philosophy is based on the holistic principles of learning where the emphasis is on the overall development of the child: intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The pedagogy of ‘Integrated Learning’ is the core of our educational programme. Based on the Gestalt principles of learning, it brings together diverse disciplines in order to help students establish connections between subjects and perceive knowledge as a whole. Our curriculum is designed to incorporate three dominant models of integrated learning. Our activities are based on multiple disciplinary learning where the unit under study is analysed from the perspective of different disciplines. For instance, while studying RK Narayan’s ‘Malgudi Days’ as a part of literature,

students are also taught the history of freedom struggle, investigate the background against which the book is written, cartography and caricature styles of the illustrator RK Laxman. Another model of learning that cuts across curricular domains is interdisciplinary learning that emphasises on certain crucial abilities and vital skills that are transferable across disciplines. Learning activities include group activities that foster skills such as Collaboration and Collective Intelligence; and independent learning activities that promote Self Direction and Initiativeness. Inquiry-based learning and technology-led research promotes key STEM skills such as problem solving, analytical thinking and the ability to work independently. We also provide students with transdisciplinary learning opportunities such as VIBGYOR High Model United Nations, Student Teacher Exchange Programme (STEP) and Europe Meets India (EUMIND). These activities not only help them in applying their knowledge and skills in a real life context but also ingrain in them cross-cultural sensitivity, broader worldview and social responsibility. The students connect with their counterparts from different countries and undertake collaborative study on globally signiicant themes. Our schools are a mini replica of the world, where students are groomed to be productive future global citizens..n

March 2016 / digitalLEARNING

Cover Story

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DIGITISING the Learning Experience Rachna Pant Principal, Ramjas School, presents an insightful case study on the outcome of implementing digital initiatives in the school and learning. It eventually brought students, parents and schools closer as they shared a common goal. Reservations & Observations Initially, there were niggling doubts and apprehensions in the minds of all stakeholders. Ramjas School has taken up several unique and pilot projects. One is being Hewlett Packard - NETA - computer aided (digital learning of Maths & Science). A one of its kind project in India. HP-NETA has been running for two years and met with success. Ninety students were handed a laptop, each along with six teachers. The project trained these teachers to disseminate Maths and Science through computers. The teachers were digitally-enabled and the school provided high speed internet for all the students to aid them in this endeavour. Since, we are viewing the impact of this case study with a global dimension in mind, the following points emerged as fall out.

Principal â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Staff Apprehension regarding ability to run it successfully, support it technically as well as in person. The problem pertaining to accommodating students in classes to enable it to happen as it required section and time table adjustment. There were worries regarding safe and right use of the internet - putting checks in place and offering guidance. Questions regarding content delivery as per standards required and capability of being able to cope with any other eventuality were some of the reservations that we had.

Impact Exposure to digital world - learning through technology which is an essential requirement for present era. They came in contact with new styles of pedagogy and learned to adapt. Achieved parity with schools across globe as this project is also being run in two other schools, one in the USA and the other in South Africa. They learnt responsible use of technology and internet and became adept at imbibing through different mentors and technology. Parents involvement was enhanced. They were excited and willing to monitor the Internet usage

Students The students were assailed by several misgivings. To begin with, they wanted to know if they would be able to do it. They were over excited about free internet and less supervision. some of The challenges faced by the students were: Distracted due to free access to internet coupled with a different style of teaching; the dificulty in shifting from traditional to a digital method; challenge of device

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compatibility; interference of ilters placed with work; time lag in Internet connection while testing and delay in assessment submission. Parents Parents had misgivings about access to the internet and their ability to monitor it. The distraction it could prove to be. Whether, it will be substantially better than traditional method/style. To be responsible for the laptop and ensure its safety. Finally, if it would accrue any beneit or translate into better learning solutions. Success After running the project and tackling each problem as it cropped up, we felt that we are getting better each day in ire ighting and dousing. All the hiccups were taken in our stride and we emerged successful and wrote a new chapter in digital/technology-based learning. We now have a class which is cyber secure, knows safe internet usage, is net savvy, better exposed to new pedagogy, in sync with changing global culture and times, a strengthened teacher, student and parent bond and a sense of achievement in having overcome all the setbacks. We are sure, it will have a far reaching effect on their growth and its reverberations will be felt throughout their life.n

Cover Story

Building Stimulating

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Ramesh Batlish Centre Head, FIITJEE Study Centre, Noida shares his views on the teaching-learning pedagogy followed at the institute

Ideal education is one where one does not have to make choices: between academics and extracurricular activities; learning and remembering; and most importantly, between enjoying education and not being stressed by it. Ideal teaching methodology is one with a holistic approach that is comprehensive so that there is no need of any supplementary support services. Where the goal is to enable a student deliver his best without getting stressed during the pursuit of a good performance. Where the extracurricular activities are in consonance with the overall objective of wholesome education – making students ready for global careers as well as enabling them to conduct their lives in a much desired, honest, ethical and truthful manner. Total success of a student would be based on his active participation in a class by encour-

aging teacher-student questioning and interactive discussions. Making students imbibe the fundamental of subjects is of utmost importance that would enhance the overall logical thinking and IQ level of the child that is necessary for his overall personality development. This is an era of cut throat competition where lakhs of students every year compete for the limited seats at Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for IITs and other renowned engineering institutes. In such case, they require exceptional guidance from specialised experts. There has to be a fair balance between theory and practice. Students’ needs today are much different from what they were 20 years back, with competition increasing manifold. Given the limited amount of time and unlimited study material at their disposal, specialised mentors need to provide the right guidance on what to study, and where to give more attention. Early start increases student’s conceptual knowledge of Science, Mathematics and other ields by analysing and understanding the day-to-day occurrences and phenomena from fundamental principles. This way they are able to naturally raise their IQ with-

out stress of fear of failure which is necessary for competitions in entrance examinations as well as in life. Programmes need to be specially designed to hone the skills of students with unique teaching in class, pattern proof study material, regular quizzes and mock tests, followed by their test analysis to overcome their weak areas. In order to provide right guidance to students, FIITJEE has a very stringent process of selecting their faculty who undergo strenuous training programme. The aim of the training is to ensure that each and every faculty member is absolutely thorough in his/her subject and proicient in all such activities which assist in imparting sound training to young aspirants preparing for various entrance examinations. Training is also aimed to imbibe FIITJEE’s culture, traditions, systems, values, ethics, mission and vision in the faculty members besides awareness of individual roles and responsibilities towards the organisation and related personal growth. The need, today, is to build a conducive and stimulating learning environment that ensures the overall development of a student to help them blossom into ideal human beings.n

March 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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he Robomate+ platform is a step in achieving this ideal. It seamlessly connects students, teachers and parents on a single platform to deliver a holistic learning experience. It gives the student the freedom to determine when and where the learning will occur. Through a series of comprehensive tests embedded in the Robomate+ platform, the student not only gets accustomed but also attains expertise in answering a wide range of questions with an 8-10 per cent grade enhancement. This is the beauty of the Robomate+ platform, with the unique blend of in-class and at-home teaching the child has the freedom to learn when he wants to using a tablet or mobile. Teachers can adopt a focused approach in the classroom depending on the student performance in tests to improve classroom delivery. Teachers can make an easy transition from their existing teaching methodology to the ďŹ&#x201A;ipped classroom way. This enables a massive reduction of up to 50 per cent in the lecture duration. For the parents, they can monitor the real time progress of the students. Test scores, tests attempted/not attempted, lectures viewed/not viewed by the child is visible to the parent on the platform. The platform now has over 200,000+ students and 1500+ teachers using it and is an ideal it for any school which is interested in enriching their classroom experience. n For more information on Robomate+ you can drop a mail to robomatesales@mteducare.com or call the Toll Free number at 1800-267-6622.

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Budget Commentary

Dissecting the

UNION BUDGET

for Education 2016-17

Every year, the ritual of presenting the proposed expenditure pattern for public welfare across governance thematics are presented on the last day of February. While the major spending patterns catch the attention of one and all, the deeper drilling of the budget documents is seldom done beyond the oficial annals. digitalLEARNING thought of diving deep and picking up some of the salient pointers and patterns from this cumbersome document which retains its most sought after status. Hope our readers would ind this effort worthwhile and would ind it thought provoking

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BENCHMARKING

Operating Costs of Educational Institutions In an educational market, where the enterprise of education across the spectrum remains a not-for-proﬁt entity, it becomes imperative to note down the diversiﬁed spending benchmarks which the Government keeps itself for running its very own institutions.

Digital India e-learning

`3.45 Crore is the cost of operating a Kendriya Vidyalaya The 1100 odd Kendriya Vidyalayas teach somewhere to the tune of 11.21 lakh students and are allocated a budgetary support of `3795.47 crore. The cost of educating a single student thereby comes out to be `33,857. `4.13 Crore is needed to run a Navodaya Vidyalaya The government has allocated `2471 crore to run the 598 odd Navodaya Vidyalayas across the country. `73 lakhs is the cost of running a school by Central Tibetan Schools Administration `151 Crore is needed on an average to run each of the Central Universities `55 Crore goes to the Government run/aided 25 Deemed to be Universities

Public Spending on Higher Technical Education Follows a Geometric Progression Interestingly, the various genres of Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) are laid out in a funding matrix which follows a kind of a geometric progression. Lowest in the precedence deck is the set of IIITs. If the public allocation of `267.50 is considered as the base X; the next cluster of institutions namely IISc/ IISERs having an allocation of `1142.52 qualify to fall in the 4X funding bracket. The next in the hierarchy the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) with their funding allocation of `2629.95 somewhere touches the 8X envelope and the top of the league the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) with their royal `4983.71 get into the 16X bracket. In a nutshell the IIITs:IISERs:NITs:IITs follow a funding ratio of 1:4:8:16 which is nothing but the elementary geometric progression. Whether this was well thought through by the number crunchers at Shastri Bhawan or it simply fell into the natural pecking order, our analysts can’t speculate beyond.

`35 to 61 Crores needed to run a Specialised Institution of National Importance While National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai receives a grant of `35 crore, the SLIET, NERIST, NIFFT and CIT Kokrajhar combo receives a collective provision of `244.58 crores making the average funding to the tune of `61 crores.

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Technology-enabled learning has become the hallmark of progressive and modern education at all levels. The extent of public spending made in this area paves the path for due technological adoption across layers and levels of the vast educational ecosystem. Interestingly, due to various reasons the spirit and mechanisms of leveraging the beneits of technology are largely absent in the government blueprint for this iscal. It would certainly be a lost opportunity in ushering the era of Good Governance across Indian Academia.

School Education misses Digital India Bandwagon Can the ambitious mandate of educating the billion plus nation be effectively accomplished by a meager budgetary allocation of `1.5 Crore towards Digital India e-learning initiative in the school domain as mentioned in Section 9 of the Notes on Demand (51) for Grants, 2016-17? It’s another matter that the same head in the Notes on Demand (52) for Grants, 2016-17 concerning Higher Education adds up a total of `552 crore, which has a major component reserved for the National Mission in Education through ICT carrying an allocation to the tune of `200 crore. Was there a real need to put this marginal component under the ambit of Digital India e-learning?

Duplicity of Heads & Clutter of Objectives in the allocation of `552 odd crores The sub-heads under the head range from as broad as National Mission in Education through ICT and setting up of virtual classrooms and MOOCs with an allocation of `200 crores and `75 crores, respectively. Interestingly, there is no mention of the ambitious satellite learning programme CEC under the aegis of UGC, which was set up with similar objectives. The handsome amount of `4491.94 would be incorporating a signiicant sum to this vast establishment. The 100 odd crores allocated to IGNOU could have been clubbed to create a seamless Open Learning Ecosystem. e-Shodh Sindhu, National Digital Library and INDEST seem to be different names for a similar objective. The need for trifurcating the funds for a common goal is nowhere pressed upon.

Budget Commentary

POSITIONING & CLUSTERING OF BUDGETARY HEADS The delineation of the various budgetary heads exhibit the top level understanding of the direction of the department at large. At places, the same seems to have missed the right mark signalling a signiicant deicit of direction which eventually translates into lesser than expected outcomes. Here are some of those which have somewhere missed the shot. Statistical & Public Information System divorced from Planning & Administration: `15 crore allocated under Strengthening of Statistical & Public Information System, head number 6.04 inds mention under the Digital India e-learning component, while there is a separate Head No. 14 namely Planning, Administration & Global Engagement which receives a handsome amount of `109.59 aimed to fund the operations of NUEPA, NIRF, Governance and Accreditation Systems, etc. Statistics & Public Information System remains an integral part of Planning & Administration.

Reduced importance of Global Engagement At a time when the entire focus of Government of India is to attract foreign investors to Make in India, Global Engagement at MHRD has been relegated to a pariah status. It has simply been clubbed with the routine head of Planning, Administration & Global Engagement. Also putting the Planning, Administration & Global Engagement on number 14 in the precedence order and juxtaposed between IIITs and Assistance to various institutions say a lot about the understanding matrix at Shastri Bhawan.

AICTE Fails to make its Relevance Felt Out Despite being the apex statutory body mandated to undertake

the proper planning and coordinated development of the technical education system throughout the country, it inds mention under the Assistance to Other institutions Head as 15.03. It could have been a part and parcel under Planning, Administration Head sitting alongside NUEPA and other key planning thematics at the helm of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Higher Education shouldering the burden of some 10,000 technical institutions across the country.

The Legacy of Copyright Management rests with MHRD While the entire regime of managing and monitoring Intellectual Property Rights rests with the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the budgetary allocation and thereby the administrative control for the Copyright Board and Copyright Ofice rests with the MHRD along with the mandate of promoting the same.

Setting up of Inter-Institutional Centres, Creation of Excellence Clusters & Network, Establishing Alliances across Institutions This dominant head no. 17.02 under Demand note 52 gets a whopping sum of `1 crore. Positing it under Research & Innovation makes it all the more interesting. What would be accomplished out of this paltry allocation remains to be seen.

TRIVIA

Secretarial Expense of Higher Education is 16 times higher than the School Education The Department of School Education and Literacy has got a total budgetary allocation to the tune of `43,554 of which a mere `7.42 crores has been allocated to Secretariat-Social Services. On the other side, Department of Higher Education has got a budgetary allocation of `28,840 crores of which it consumes a whopping `95.99 crore as Secretariat - Social Services. What makes this striking difference is to be investigated and inquired but this is certainly a major striking aspect hidden in the ine lines of the budget document. The cost of administering Department of Higher Education is 16 times higher than that of Department of School Education & Literacy.

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MHRD Government of India

Ministry of Human Resource Development

One-third of Literacy Budget goes in feeding the Students `9700 crore is spent on Mid-Day Meals while Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan gets `22,500 crore.

Skill Development Retains its footprints in MHRD Despite having a sprawling Ministry of Skill Development, `164.86 would be spent under the aegis of MHRD. This component and the corresponding administrative assets could have been moved to the newly constituted ministry.

Dwarfed down National Initiatives with a paltry allocation of `1-2 crore The raison d’être of according the title of national initiatives while allocating a paltry sum to the tune of `1-2 crore looks interesting. What would this amount accomplish in the domains of National Initiatives on Sports & Wellness, National Initiative on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Higher Education and national Initiative to Foster Social Responsibility? These National Initiatives could have otherwise been merged with their corresponding line ministries for an effective utilisation.

Grants for Book Promotion Activities & Voluntary Agencies in `2 lakhs A magic operational formula should be existing at the Ministry which facilitates the Grants for Book Promotion Activities through Voluntary Agencies. Item 3.09 in Demand 52 really looks astonishingly striking.

Housewife’s Budget: `1 lakh of Other Items Item 3.16 allocates `1 lakh for Other Items. This certainly calls for a serious review.

Eating into the mandate of Ministry of Culture & Home Languages are certainly a way of bonding and uniting a nation state. They are an integral part of culture as well. However, should the promotion of Indian Languages be a mandate under MHRD whose core focus need to be learning and research in language which probably is being covered under the huge budgetary allocations to the institutions of higher learning. Shouldn’t this be bifurcated within the Ministry of Culture & Home? A handsome amount of `432.78 crore compounded with that of `57.30 crore grant to National Book Trust for book promotion would help the budgetary allocation of Ministry of Culture touch the 3000 crore mark.

Research & Innovation at par with the Initiative for Excellence in Humanities and Social Sciences

The quantum of funds allocated for the speciic purpose of driving Research & Innovation falls in the same order as that of striking excellence in the domain of Humanities and Social Sciences. While the former gets an allocation to the tune of `236 crores, the latter bags a booty of a little less than `270 crore.

National Research Professors Surprisingly, there is an interesting scheme at MHRD which intends to develop a cadre of National Research Professors within a budgetary allocation of `1.3 crore. Since when this allocation got into and why this continues would remain an interesting ask.

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Research & Innovation Focus @ MHRD While a whopping amount of `30,000 crore has been allocated to line ministries (DST, DBT, DSIR, DAE, DoS etc) dealing with irst hand research & development in speciic areas, MHRD’s share to the tune of `236 crores under that head looks strikingly insuficient. Neither it takes up the mandate of a particular area of research, which is domain speciic, nor it creates a seamless framework for research assimilation and continuance. n

Interview

Simplifying Life of

EDUCATION PROVIDERS With a vision to deining the future of education through innovative EduTech solutions

Unni Krishnan Koroth co-founded the Foradian Technologies. He talks to Elets News Network (ENN) about Foradianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision, journey, solutions, initiatives, unique proposition, future plans and much more

What is the vision of Foradian Technologies? Foradian builds educational software to simplify the life of institution administrators and teachers, so that they can focus on the most important thing: educating the children. We are bridging the digital divide in education by offering Fedena Core as open source and selling premium product and services at affordable pricing. With many players in the EduTech space, what is different about Foradian Technologies? The EduTech space is an unorganised market with lot of noise. We are differentiating on three things: w Quality of product, quality of code and user experience; w Delivery mechanism and automat-

March 2016 / digitalLEARNING

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Bissell, MD of FabIndia. One of our earliest implementations of Fedena Project ‘Sampoorna’ is still one of the biggest and successful implementations of Student Information System on eGov level. Last week, we released Fedena 3.5 with lots of new enhancements. We are excited about what lies ahead of us.

ing sales and aftersales through a pure SaaS strategy; w Long-term strategy – We built Foradian to the present level with minimum resources by believing in a long-term strategy. We will be here for the next 10+ years. So we are not in a rush. How do the solutions offered by Foradian simplify the life of institution administrators and teachers? Our product Fedena provides userfriendly dashboards with login access for teachers, non-teaching staff, students, parents and management personnel of an institution. The various modules available in Fedena facilitate all the processes of an institution, from admission of new students to generating transfer certiicates when students complete their studies. Fedena has modules to manage Timetable, Attendance, Examinations, Gradebooks, Campus News, Hostel, Library, Transportation, School Calendar, Events and much more. It has a fullﬂedged Human Resource Module to manage the payroll and employee pay slips. The Finance Module helps you to

Fedena: All-inone Software to Manage Schools and Colleges Fedena has everything an institution will ever need - gradebook, parent teacher collaboration, attendance, fee management and 50+ feature rich modules. This software can automate everything, generate insightful reports, make better & faster decisions. Used in 200+ countries, it is also available in Spanish, French and 18 other languages.

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

One of our earliest implementations of Fedena Project ‘Sampoorna’ is still one of the biggest and successful implementations of Student Information System on eGOV level. Last week, we released Fedena 3.5 with lot of new enhancements

plan and allot different fee structures to students. Fedena is also an excellent collaboration tool having Task, Discussion, Poll, Blog and Video conference plug-ins. There is an internal messaging system within Fedena, but you can also integrate it with external communication tools like email and texting. To ind out more, one can try the free demo available at www.fedena.com. Foradian Technologies, being the startup at that time, was behind creating ‘The Rupee Foradian’ font. How is the journey since then? What are the achievements in terms of innovation? We had a really long, challenging and satisfying journey till now. We were listed in Deloitte Fastest Growing 50 Technology Companies of India for the past two years. We secured an angel investment of $2 million from William

What are the future plans of your company? Are you planning to launch any new products? Other than Fedena, we have launched Uzity — a simple learning management platform. We don’t have plans for any other products at the moment. We are learning and improving our existing products and services, based on the feedback we receive from our customers. How technological transformations and innovative learning tools can change the education landscape in India in the coming decade? Technology will work as a catalyst in transforming education landscape of India as well as world. One of the biggest trends is more and more millennials (born after 1980s) are coming to the leadership, administration and teaching roles of educational institutions. This is going to be a game changer. With the help of different innovative tools, the leadership will transform the way kids learn and teachers teach. Another mega trend is the millennials becoming parents and sending their kids to school. These parents are also tech-savvy and will play a key role in achieving this vision. Being the leader of the company, what are your professional achievements and priorities you set for the future? Our key priority is to keep doing things that are working for us. Over a period of time, we have established some really good organisational habits, like constantly releasing new versions of Fedena based on customers feedback, and balancing the need for customisation with the challenges of scale. We have a strong focus on running a business that is proitable and growing in revenue year-after-year. Majority of our customers are from outside India. So we will continue our focus on international markets.n

Interview

Attuned to Changing

EDUCATION TRENDS Established in 1939, S Chand Group is one of the oldest Indian textbook publishers and exporters, and largest publishing and education services enterprise.

Gaurav Jhunjhunwala

With seven decades of experience in the education ield and several irsts to its credit, how has been the journey for S Chand Group from print to digital times? Being the youngest generation of the S Chand legacy, the move towards digital empowerment has been a personal mission of mine, and has been extremely challenging and rewarding, at the same time. We have adopted a two-pronged approach to the digital transformation by incubating some ventures within our own company, and making minority investments in others. So far, we have invested in a tablet LMS company, a home tutor discovery platform, a STEM and Augmented Reality Toy company and an online test preparation platform. This strategy has worked well for us and we will continue to look for good companies in which we can invest and help to grow. Being a gen-next leader, how do you see the paradigm shift in the education and learning space? I foresee various shifts happening in the learning space as a new generation of teachers and learners are entering the classrooms. Firstly, educational products and services are moving from a one model to the next one, like one teacher attending to the learning needs of 30-40 children in a classroom to one-toone model. This would be largely due to the

Director, S Chand & Co Pvt Ltd, shares with Aamir H Kaki of Elets News Network (ENN) about the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey, philosophy, vision, innovative products and digital learning solutions proliferation of technology, such as smart phones and tablets, coupled with adaptive learning software, which allow children to spend more time brushing up on the areas and concepts which they are lacking in. Secondly, a large number of startups are cropping up in the education space, giving competition to the established players. This will force education companies to start paying attention to what the students actually need, rather than telling what is right for them. What is the idea, philosophy and vision behind DS Digital Pvt Ltd? Our vision is to use technology and various media available to help teachers and students in their pursuit of learning. We engage with schools to facilitate effective teaching and impact learning outcomes. Since learners are increasingly using technology, it provides us an opportunity to help teachers and students ensure better learning not only through books but also audio-visual and experiential learning.

A number of pioneering products has been launched under the umbrella of DS Digital Pvt Ltd. Can you detail those? S Chand Group with licence of HMH, the biggest US publication, has launched a number of pioneering products under the umbrella of DS Digital Pvt Ltd to empower teachers and students by using technology to its fullest potential. DS Digital provides schools, teachers and students interactive e-learning solutions comprising digital classrooms, tablets, interactive white boards, labs, assessments and cloudbased solutions. This is supported by a strong professional development practice wherein we have trained more than 10,000 teachers in India and abroad, in CCE and other areas. With nine national and four international awards, we are one of the acknowledged education partners in India. DS Digital focuses to empower teachers by using technology to its fullest potential. How it is helpful for students? Does it

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eliminate the barriers of classroom teaching? An important and often ignored factor for success of technology in schools is enabling and facilitating teachers to use technology in an easy and effective manner. In case teachers can see how it can make their teaching better, and help students learn better, they are willing to use it. However, this requires consistent efforts to train them on how to operate it with ease. Students in a class will gain only if digital content is meaningfully embedded in the lesson plan followed by teacher in the class. So, digital content solutions are effective tools, which teacher-students can use to enhance learning. What your core values of ‘Knowledge, Innovation, Learning’ are all about? The means of education have changed over the years, but the end has remained the same – Empowered Minds, which can evolve, sustain and fulil the everchanging needs of society. Our entire group is driven by our mission to be India’s leading knowledge corporation. Given the dynamic and fast paced nature of the world today, if we are not constantly innovating and learning, then we will be left behind by new ideas and new approaches to teaching and learning. How do see the market in educational technology and e-learning solutions in the coming ive years? u Fast penetration and explosive growth of mobile devices, lowering hardware prices and improving connectivity will fuel the growth of digital content consumption. This is bringing the complete bag, including books, assessments, videos, online resources, etc., in a single device in student’s hand; u Increasing trend of online videos through YouTube and large screens of smart phones have been a facilitator for digital learning; u Most of the exams for selection to top higher education institutions and jobs/services are becoming online. This is a big inﬂexion point for preparation for such exams to become digital; u In tune with the global trend of continuous upgradation in skills and knowledge, more and more working people are enrolling for

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

In tune with the global trend of continuous upgradation in skills and knowledge, more and more working people are enrolling for various courses. Given the time and commuting constraints, online learning becomes the medium of choice for most of such people. So, MOOCs will play a very important role in people upgrading their skills on continuous basis

various courses. Given the time and commuting constraints, online learning becomes the medium of choice for most of such people. So, MOOCs will play a very important role in people upgrading their skills on continuous basis; and u Education apps and games will become important means to engage learners. Moving forward, artiicial intelligence and virtual reality will further help in making content

more user need speciic, and create enhanced learning experiences. How do you see the market for digital learning solutions in tier II-III cities? As access to Internet becomes more widespread, we are seeing a new wave of learners from tier II-III cities accessing content and learning material through their smart phones. Our group has recently launched ‘myStudygear’, a K12 learning app on Android and iOS, wherein students can access assessments, eBooks and digital content such as videos and animations – all completely free of cost. While we have many users from cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, it’s got good traction from tier II-III cities. What are your professional achievements and priorities you have set for the future? I am very proud of the fact that today S Chand has put together one of the strongest and most talented teams in the Indian education industry. We have undergone major transformation in the past couple of years having attracted international investors, acquired a number of companies and hired top talent. More than any one individual, if it weren’t for our team, we would not be in the strong position that we are in today. As we look towards the future, we would continue to push for growth in the publishing space, but we are also putting a lot of focus on the digital and services verticals. We want to play a role at every step of a student’s development, right from KG all the way through to help them get a job when they graduate.n

Interview

Adapting to Changes to be

FUTURE-READY Savita Venkat Principal, Bombay Cambridge School (BCS), believes that skills-based education and adapting to the changes taking place around is a lifelong learning. She tells Aamir H Kaki of Elets News Network (ENN) about the changing education scenario, need for teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s training, technological transformation in education, BCSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; initiatives and tie-ups with international institutions and more

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How do you see the education scenario in India as compared to other countries? The education scenario in India is still traditional in tilt, as compared to other countries. Syllabi and institutions in the country are even now catering only to knowledge development rather than skill development or application of skills. In other countries, skills and their applications are woven into the syllabi, which train students to apply what they have learnt in real life. It is a lifelong learning. The 21st century skills in education are already being applied in other parts of the world. In India, the awareness has begun now. In recent years, there has been a positive shift in the outlook on education. The 21st century skills, skill-based education, career-focussed education, vocational training and application of skills, along with life skills, are being looked at to play a major role in education now. A lot of discussions are also happening at the statutory level in this area. Surely, there will be a major shift seen and then the Indian education system will be a pioneer in balancing emotional intelligence. With BCS in education for more than two decades; do you see any paradigm shift in education and learning space? Bombay Cambridge School is a pioneer in education. It constantly studies the changing dynamics of the world and keeps introducing the new trends in its way of imparting education. This empowers students with latest tools, helps build their conidence and motivates them to apply the skills learnt in day-today life. The school has achieved several milestones through initiatives, such as introduction of computers, having a care centre with experts in counseling and remediation, imparting life skills, physical safety modules, technologydriven classrooms, collaborative teaching-learning methodologies, research, and project-based learning and self-assessments, along with successful concepts. We have also ensured 100 per cent participation of students in the events of the school, helping them explore their unique talents, giving all an opportunity to understand themselves without getting into comparisons and one-upmanship through no-

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

In recent years, there has been a positive shift in the outlook on education. The 21st century skills, skill-based education, careerfocussed education, vocational training and application of skills, along with life skills, are being looked at to play a major role in education now

competition policy in the kindergarten and primary sections. These all have led Bombay Cambridge School to inculcate in education an emotional and spiritual intelligence, apart from intellectual development. Thus, 21st century skills, vocational skills and career-oriented education are moulded into learning as inclusion of different paradigm changes taking place across the education spectrum. How, according to you, educators/ teachers need to change themselves to become future-ready? Educators and teachers need to always be aware of the winds of change, need to be tech-savvy, bring in the human touch, ensure an attitudinal shift, understand child psychology, learn skills on handling today’s student and have a vision. The educators must realise that they are the change-makers to the society. Whatever students learn in schools today will become part of the society. So, teachers have to be sensitive to the needs of the futuristic society and bring about change in the education system carefully. With changing education dynamics, how important is teachers’ training with regard to nurturing students? Teachers’ training is highly impor-

tant. Schools need to invest regularly in training of their staff. It prepares the teachers for the changing trends in education. Trainings related to technological advancements, understanding students’ mindset and sound critical thinking are absolutely required. Teachers also need to be trained to keep a balance between a scientiic temperament and a spiritual mind. The 21st century skills and ASK training are a must for teachers. Schools must facilitate these training. One of the key factors of a quality school is a welltrained and well-equipped staff. How technological transformations and innovative learning tools can change the education landscape in India in the coming years? Large classrooms and teacher-student ratio can be made productive by fully using technology in the classroom and bringing in transformation and innovative learning tools like virtual ield trips, worldwide experts in classrooms, webinars, presentations, TED talks, online evaluations, mobile apps for learning, etc. Internet can facilitate quicker and faster learning and make research effortless. What are the future plans of your school? Are you planning any tieups with international institutions? The school has tie-ups with international organisations and institutions. International student-teacher exchange programmes are already going on. The school is planning to have tie-ups with international universities and seeking memberships of international organisations that are catering to technology, globalisation and international collaborations. The school is also planning to be a Microsoft centre. We are already certiied by the World Education Foundation (WEF), the UK. Extending oneself in education is a continuous process, which the school always believes in. The memberships with COBIS and CIS are on the anvil. Exchange programmes with Spain, sports representation to different parts of the country, participation in youth programmes, and MUN programmes internationally are being planned for the next three years. Currently, the school participates in HMUN, NASA trips and British Council programmes.n

Interview

Shaping Competent

PROFESSIONALS with Values Prof O R S Rao Vice Chancellor, ICFAI University, Jharkhand, in an interaction with Elets News Network (ENN), talks about the University’s journey, mission, courses offered, placement opportunities for students and more

When was your University established? ICFAI University, Jharkhand, was set up in 2007 as a self-inancing (private) University, under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956, after approval from the Jharkhand State Government. It was approved by UGC in December 2009 and classes started in 2010. Why drove you to start the University in Jharkhand? Ranchi is one of the best places for school studies, though a number of students tend to go to other states for higher/professional studies, as they feel the quality of education is better outside. Therefore, we wanted to offer quality education at affordable cost in Jharkhand, so that students can study locally. Please share the mission of your University. ICFAI University is committed to grooming students into competent professionals with values, as we believe competency and character are essential for a person to be successful and happy in life. What courses are offered at the University? We offer UG, PG and Ph.D courses in Engineering, IT and Management. These include Diploma in Technology (Polytechnic), BBA, BCA, B.Com (Hons), B.Tech, M.Com, MBA and Ph.D in Management (Part-Time). What is unique about your courses compared to those of other universities? Curriculum of all of our courses is latest and updated every year as per the industry requirements and technological developments. Besides

knowledge, we focus on imparting requisite hands-on skills to our students through live projects and internships. Our students are groomed not only to take up jobs in corporate organisations but also to become entrepreneurs, depending on their interest.

keeping in mind the requirements of working professionals, who want to pursue doctorate without leaving their jobs. They only need to attend mandatory Course Work for two weeks at the campus. After that, they can work under the guidance of supervisor and co-supervisor at their own place.

Which all branches of B.Tech you have courses in? We offer B.Tech in Civil, Mechanical, Computer Science, ECE and Mining. With several mining industries in Jharkhand, it offers excellent job opportunities for Mining graduates. That’s why we started Mining as a branch in B.Tech. We are one of the few institutions offering Mining branch in Jharkhand.

How has been the placement record? Our alumni have been working in sectors like IT, Telecom, Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing, Government etc., and reputed companies like Cognizant, HCL Technologies, Microsoft, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, LIC, Cadbury, Hindustan Unilever, Pepsico, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Steel, Indian Army, Ranchi Mahanagar Nigam, Jharkhand Police, etc.

What about your B.Com (Hons) courses? We offer B.Com (Hons) in three disciplines – Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Computer Applications, and Finance & Accounts, to make the students employable in BFSI, IT and Corporate sectors. Students can pursue higher studies in M.Com or MBA. All students of B.Com (Hons) undergo summer internships. We also offer placement assistance. What is different about your Ph.D programme in Management? Our Ph.D programme is designed

Do you offer any scholarships? All the students domiciled in Jharkhand State get ‘domicile’ fee concession. Besides, students are awarded Merit Scholarships in irst semester (up to 50 per cent of semester fee), depending on marks in qualifying examination and subsequently on the basis of merit in semester examinations. In order to encourage girl students to pursue higher education, there is Special Merit Scholarship for Women, which is ive per cent higher than the one for men.n

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digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Interview

Education Beyond

BADGES & CERTIFICATES Dr PT Vasudevan Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), shares about the education scenario in India, UNH’s degree programmes and initiatives to promote Indian student’s participation, in an interaction with Aamir H Kaki of Elets News Network (ENN) What are the focus areas of your visit to India? Prof Jordan Budd, Dean of the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Law School, and I are visiting a number of places in India to promote UNH and to make it an attractive destination for Indian students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition to the Intellectual Property Law (ranked top 10 in the US), UNH offers a slew of career-oriented degree programmes in business, engineering and liberal arts. The University offers more than 100 majors taught by internationally-recognised faculty. The University has a strong undergraduate research focus, along with an Honours programme. It also offers a wide range of internship opportunities, study abroad options and national exchange experiences. Other noteworthy programmes include Space Sciences, InterOperability Laboratory, Marine Sciences and Ocean Engineering. How do you see the education scenario in India as compared to the United States? The US still boasts of the world’s best higher education system. The decentralised nature of the US higher education gives universities the ﬂexibility they need to excel. The US has no central ministry of education that can dictate curricula, and hence students have a variety of options and can design their own major. Universities can innovate rapidly and come up with new pedagogical methods. Diversity in course offerings is a big strength in the US education system. Last but not the least, international students provide a different kind of

diversity and contribute greatly to the education system. How technological transformations and innovative learning tools can change the education landscape in India in the coming decade? Many scholars believe that universities should not be quick to embrace disruptive innovations that essentially give students badges and certiicates. We should instead capitalise on what we do well, which are the scholarly interactions between students and faculty. Creation of knowledge learning occurs in research universities like the University of New Hampshire. Technology cannot be a substitute for direct interaction of human minds. Content delivery is not the issue since students everywhere are adept at inding information on the ubiquitous Internet. What is critical is engagement and active learning. Well-designed technology-enhanced active learning can improve learning gains signiicantly. Learning experience needs to be enhanced by evaluating and scaling high-impact learning innovations across courses and disciplines.

What steps are you taking in promoting the participation of Indian students in UNH? We would like to attract more students from India, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We also realise that a number of students are unable to attend US universities due to inadequate preparation. We recently started a Pre-Master’s Programme (PMP) through Navitas. PMP is a two-semester programme designed for students who have completed a Bachelor’s degree but need additional academic support to gain entry to UNH’s graduate degree programmes in engineering. We expect Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will be the most popular subject areas for Indian students. The initial focus of the PMP is on these two programmes that are well connected to UNH’s InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). The UNH-IOL tests networking and data communications products. At the UNH, we have a new MS degree in Analytics, which is a very attractive degree programme. Other new programmes include Ocean Engineering, Bioengineering and MS in Public Policy. We will also offer a new minor in Brewing Science in 2017. n

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Event Report

A Global Congregation for

Education Fulillment & Future The UAE has emerged as a major education hub in the recent years. The leading and major universities, higher educational institutions and schools groups across the world have their campuses in the region. Taking the cognizance and signiicance of the region as an important eduDESTINATION, Elets Technomedia has convened the 6th edition of World Education Summit 2016 in the city of Dubai - known for its luxury shopping, ultramodern architecture and a lively nightlife scene. Elets News Network (ENN) shares a brief and real-time report of the WES 2016, with the views and thoughts presented by the distinguished personalities from the government, corporates, heads of educational institutions

SESSION plAN wes.eletsonline.com

Event Report

DAY 1

PLENARY SESSION

Welcome Address

Keynote Address Return on investment in education is 15-20 per cent. Education business is a business which is inlation and recession proof

Mark Beer, OBE, Chief Executive & Registrar, DIFC Courts Dubai International Financial Centre

Special Address

Happy kids learn better, retain information longer, are more creative and able to solve complex problems more effectively

Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors & Director General, Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)

Change is always dificult but we have to adapt to change. There is no perfect method, but we can persuade, inluence or force to bring the change.

Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan International Group of Institutions

KHDA Roundtable

Education is creating the platform for creativity and innovation, and bringing people from different parts of the world to Dubai

Kalthoom Al Baloosh, Executive Director, KHDA

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Delegates at WES 2016

490+ ATTENDEES FROM 7 COUNTRIES Partners

Higher Education Participants

100+

School Education Participants

150+ Delegates

200+ 39

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Government Functionaries

25+

Event Report

DAY 1

SCHOOL EDUCATION Unveling the Special Edition of digital LEARNING Magazine

Emerging Paradigm

If we provide data and information that helps in decision making, it will support what they (schools) do in classrooms

James Neill, International Director, GL Education

Expert Talk

Discipline, respect of the parents and teachers are the basic elements we have to teach to the children

Dr. B.R. Shetty, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Indian School

Knowledge Sharing principalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Roundtable Interaction

Teachers training must become an essential and critical component of any education engagement

Farooq Ahmad Wasil, CEO, Goldline Education

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SCHOOL EDUCATION Enlightening Talk

Knowledge Sharing principalsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Roundtable Interaction

Blended learning is student centered, personalised, lexible, masterybased, multimodal, engaging, current and diverse

Cody Claver, Vice President of International Business Development, Panshopic Learning

Churning Churning School of the future is about lexible workspaces, without classrooms, where students spend most of the time in independent learning

Ken Jones, CEO, Al Dhafra Private Schools

Churning Technology is an enabler but we need to adopt it in terms of what is applicable to us from school-toschool and campusto-campus

Kamal Gupta, Chief Operating Oficer & Regional Director M. East, Global Schools Foundation

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It is important that creativity, critical thinking and innovation must be nurtured

Poonam Bhojani, CEO, Innoventure Educational Investments LLC

Event Report

DAY 1

SCHOOL EDUCATION

Executables

The main challenge for us as an investor is, the education is a non-proit activity, in most of the countries

With rising middle class population, there is a huge demand for private education sector

Imad Ghandour, MD, CedarBridge Partners Fahim Muscatwalla, Director, Abraaj Capital Limited

Executables Power Talk There are lot of opportunities for investment in education sector in the UAE region. There is a bit of competition as well, therefore establishing initially is a challenge

With a diverse Diaspora in the UAE region, it brings interesting competitive knowledge scenario in the education system

Basem Abu Dagga, Founder and Executive Director, Learning Curve Holdings

Sailesh Iyer, Director, Dubai Operations, Kalorex Group

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PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION Insights

Insights We emphasise that physical, emotional and cognitive learning can be stimulated in the child, along with the mother, at a very early age

Pallavi Rao Chaturvedi, Founder & Director, Brainy Bear Preschools & Activity Clubs

Insights I think it helps every institution to have any quality framework whether it is ISO, EQFM, etc. Most nurseries in the UAE do follow the EYFS framework

Ms. Vandana Gandhi, Founder and CEO, British Orchard Nursery

Strong visionary leadership, qualiied caring teachers, dedicated & well trained support staff, is what makes a great pre-school

Roshi Tandon, Managing Director, Chubby Cheeks Nursery Group

Insights

We call our learning methodology as ACTIVE learning: Paying Attention, Creativity Quotient, Accepting Technology, Violence (managing childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s behaviour), Emotional Quotient

Swati Popat Vats, President, Podar Education Network and Director, Little Wonder Nurseries, UAE

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Event Report

DAY 1

HIGHER EDUCATION Learnings The idea of MOOCS is at the heart of the University and founded for the promotion of education

Chris Cobb, Pro Vice Chancellor, Chief Operating Oficer and University Secretary, University of London

KHDA ROUNDTABLE

We are taking into consideration Dubai needs and goals, and the vision in terms of 2020 Expo. We now allow certain campuses to offer speciic programmes for Dubai

Nitesh Sughnani – Senior Manager, Quality Assurance – Universities and Colleges Agency, KHDA

KHDA ROUNDTABLE We, at KHDA, encourage new and innovative approach to higher education and try to develop a landscape that is accessible to everyone

Wessen Rawazik – Director of Higher Education, Regulations and Permits Commission, KHDA

Participants sharing their knowledge at KHDA Round table

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SCHOOL EDUCATION Emerging Ideas

Emerging Ideas

The region needs world-class universities to be able to compete globally in STEM

Bjorn Kjerfve, Chancellor, American University of Sharjah

Emerging Ideas

The branch-campus model facilitates every university to bring in best practices from all across the world, and share it so that every other university will absorb

Dr. Narayanan Ramachandran, Pro Vice Chancellor, Amity University, Dubai

We are fortunate to work in three segments of formal education - skill development, vocational training and schools Siddharth Chaturvedi, Director, AISECT University

Demonstration on Examination Systems Examinations have seen a diverse evolution, from the ancient tradition of riddle based evaluation of competencies to continuous data driven assessment of learning outcomes

Mithun Nair, Business Analyst, Orion India Systems Pvt Ltd

digitalLEARNING / February 2016

Event Report

DAY 1

HIGHER EDUCATION Convergence

Institutional lexibility and ability to change are the major factors that make academic institutions competitive

Dr. Nabil Ibrahim, Chancellor, Abu Dhabi University

Convergence

Liberal education is when a student comes to study engineering, he/ she should also be exposed to the study history, arts and literature because thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what makes a full rounded person

Eric Kamal Hilgendorf, Associate Dean, New York University, Abu Dhabi

Convergence

The two words that have given Canadian Education System its backbone are strength and validity

Dr Karim Chelli, President, Canadian University Dubai, UAE

Convergence

Dubai is strategically placed as an education hub. The entire structure of excellence has played to the advantage of having Dubai as our choice to establish a campus in the region

Randa Bessiso, Founding Director - Middle East Centre, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Dubai

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HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education experts on emerging ideas

Demonstration

In-Depth

Technology is not the end but it is just a means to provide the necessary information to the students

Sumit Shukla, Senior VP, MS Dynamics Practice Head, Apar Technologies

In-Depth The campus should be a total simulation of the business world so that when students walk into the corporate door, they come with the business appropriate paradigms

Dr. Amanda Nimon-Peters, Dean, Hult International Business School, Dubai

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

International students can not only promote country economy but also its social culture, diversity, political democracy and international trade and cooperation

Professor Abdul Sattar Ahmad Al-Alusi, President & CEO, Emirates College for Management and Information Technology, UAE

Event Report

DAY 1

HIGHER EDUCATION

Experiments

Values & Branding in Education In India, the unique thing we have is the advantage of demographic dividend. Here you need to address the education in terms of the changing patterns of the preferences in education

Dr Phani Kishore, Special Secretary, IT Electronics & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh

Tete-a-Tete

Media libraries are more than public spaces imparting knowledge and to democratise information and knowledge

Pedro Sebasti達o Teta, Secretary of State for Information Technology, Coordinator of Executive Committee REMA, Organization:Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology, Angola

The institutions can enhance the education experience by talking about real world skills

Prof Christopher Abraham, Head Dubai Campus, SP Jain School of Global Management

Engaging the global audience

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DAY 2 Morning Deliberation

IT and innovation can enhance the learning and business by attracting the students to an institution, but it cannot replace the use of the human mind

Dr. Antony David Miller, Faculty of Humanities & Business, Skyline University College

Insights

325+ Re Tweets

500+ Likes

300+ EDMs 1Reach lac+

5Postlac+ Reach

WES 2016

SOCIAL REACH 49

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Technology may be the solution or may not be the solution but what is important is end objective. If you want to create an education ediice, these things may play a part not the entire game

Chandreshekhar DP, COO, Jain Group Of Institutions

Event Report

DAY 2 Insights

Inclusive education can be considered a pathway to attain social inclusion. It focuses on well-being desired for all citizens and the quality of democracy and social participation we wish to pursue

Rita kaul, Director and Principal, The Millennium School, India

Insights

Special Talk

We have to provide a bridge between education, industry and social life. We can merge all the three into single curriculum and provide a eco-friendly education system to our society

Ashok Kumar, Board Member, Himalayan University, India

Tea Break The main purpose of education is to change the behaviour of a person in a particular way to equip them for the next stage of life. And in order to learn, we have to remember what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re being taught Dr. Vicki Culpin, Global Dean of Research, Hult International Business School

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Panel Discussion

Panel Discussion Any science when it comes to human fulillment or it reaches to human being it becomes an art. Education is something where one size does not it for all and it has to be blended with both science and art disciplines

Linking schools and universities with industry is a must. Otherwise the cycle will be broken and you will end up with students with a degree and they spend a year to ind a job

Professor Yousef Al-Assaf, President, Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai

Dr Sarita Sahini, President and CEO, The College of Fashion & Design, Dubai

Panel Discussion Our way of study is demonstration based. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t tell students what to do, we do it in front of them. The teacher repeats the demonstration visually until the students understand

Panel Discussion With the advent of technology, there are two major challenges for an academic institution are: to get quality faculty and to attract & hold the students in the classroom

Denis Ravizza, Founder, CEO and Managing Director, ESMOD International, Dubai

Panel Discussion The transnational education cannot be seen from unilateral perspective. It has to be a bilateral educational relationship in which higher education provider and the programme have to deeply understand the environment in which they develop Nisrine Abiad, Director, University Saint Joseph, Dubai

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Professor Ranendra N Saha, Director, BITS Pilani, Dubai Campus, UAE

Event Report

DAY 2 Review Special Address

The UAE is gaining the importance of being education destination in the region

There is a fundamental shift in the education system. In the previous system, the exams are to ind out what people didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know, so they failed. But now we trying to ind out what people know. Barry Winn, Vice-Chancellor, Sohar University, Oman

The Bigger Picture The elementary teachers impact the children at formative stage, where original learning happens. Therefore, we have to provide training to the teachers at the elementary leve

K.Lakshmi Rao, Academic Director, Jain Group of institutions

Dr Ayoub Kazim, Managing Director, Dubai Knowledge Village (DKV) and Dubai International Academic City (DIAC)

Valedictory Address ICT is playing a crucial role in education. In National Education Policy of India, there are 32 items and out of which 20-25 items can be addressed through ICT

Diptiman Das, CMD, EdCIL, India

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In-depth Research training is important element of any UG or PG programme. Research is what attracts quality staff to Higher Education

Professor Ammar Kaka, Head of Campus & Executive Dean, Heriot-Watt University, Dubai, UAE

Trends

As part of globalisation, we should reach students where education needed and provide teaching opportunities. In return, universities would beneit from transnational education by internationalising the curriculum

Expanding the Frontiers

We have taken signiicant measures for teacher education and deployment in Sri Lanka

Ismat Abu Shihab, Director of MENA Regional Ofice, Dubai, University of Bradford, Dubai, UAE

Trends

Hon. V Radhakrishna, State Minister of Education, Sri Lanka

Individualism is the thing of the past. The whole world is collaborating. Everybody can learn from each other and work together. This is the future trend and we have to achieve it

Barry Winn @barry_winn Met old friend Prof Khalid from Uni Wollongong formerly @UniofBradford in Dubai for #elets_wes @ Soharuniv

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

Nikhil Aggarwal, CEO, Innovation Society, IT Electronics & Communications Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh

Event Report

Awards

Her Excellency Shaikha Dr. May Al Otaibi receiving award from Dr. Ayoub Kazim and Hon. V Radhakrishna

Awards

Atul Singh receiving award from Dr. Ayoub Kazim and Hon. V Radhakrishna

All the awardees

Delhi International School, New Delhi, India; Bahrain Bayan School, Bahrain; The Millennium School, Noida, India; Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Academy, Mumbai, India; Dr K N Modi Global School, Modinagar, India; Central India Public School, Nagpur, India; NPS International School, Guwahati, India; Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Mumbai, India; Indus Global School, Mandi, India; The Orchid School, Pune, India; Global Indian International School, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Jain Toddlers (A JGI Institution) India; Blue Bird Senior Secondary School, Aligarh, India; EduCommerce Technologies Pvt Ltd, India; Lifeboard Edu Solutions Pvt Ltd, India; LTT GLobal Communications Sdn Bhd, India; Apar Technologies, India; Manipal Integrated Services, India; Shri Ram Group of Colleges, Muzaffarnagar, India; K L University, Andhra Pradesh, India; Sri. Koneru Satyanarayana, President, K L University, Andhra Pradesh, India; Shree Balaji Institute of Professional Studies, Nagpur, India; Dr K N Modi University, Rajasthan, India; Global Indian International School Pte Ltd, Singapore; Ryan International Group of Institutions, India; Vikrant Group of Institutions, Indore, India; Himalayan University, Arunachal Pradesh, India; Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chennai, India; Preschool Spark, India; Sona College of Technology, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India; Brainy Bear Pre School and Activity Club, India; Bharath University, Chennai, India; Little Wonders Nursery, Jumeirah; AISECT University, Madhya Pradesh, India; Dr C V Raman University, Chhattisgarh, India; Sh Santosh K Choubey, Founder, Aisect University & Dr C V Raman university; Late Shri Brahm Dutt Gulati, Blue Bells Group of Schools, India

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Thank You We wish to express our sincere thanks for all the sponsors, exhibitors, participants & individuals in making World Education Summit, Dubai 2016 a humongous Success!

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Event Report

WES GLIMPSES

Delegates at registration desk

Selie time at WES

Delegates at an interactive session

Exhibitors at summit

Workshop on using data to support teaching and learning in schools

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Dr Abdulla Al Karam mingling with the inquisitive participants

Exhibitors brieing about their solutions

Education for Human Fulillment

Participants sharing views about WES

Dr Abdulla Al Karam visiting the innovative product displays

Creating an Educational Ecosystem for Generating Capital Investments in an ever growing Multi Cultural Globalised Enviroment

digitalLEARNING / March 2016

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Best Minds in Education

UNDER ONE ROOF The 3rd edition of School Leadership Summit (SLS) 2016 organised by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd on February 18, 2016 at Le Meridien, New Delhi, saw a gathering of the most inluential leaders from education space. The Summit was attended by principals, academicians and heads of schools from across the country, who discussed and shared ideas on diverse topics in school education. Elets News Network (ENN) brings to you in pictures SLS 2016, and the views and thoughts presented by the distinguished personalities at the summit, in a nutshell

he topics as diverse as The Future of Education, Teacher Training, Best Practices in Schools, Managing Students in Digital Age and Sports Education were in focus at the 3rd edition of School Leadership Summit 2016, held on February 18, 2016 at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi.

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The day-long conference was segmented into various sessions, tailored to give the audience an all-round perspective of the issues surrounding the current education scenario and what would be the future of education. In the irst session on â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Future of Educationâ&#x20AC;?, Amol Arora, MD, SHEMROCK & SHEMFORD Group of Schools

Event Report

Dr DR Saini, Principal, DPS, RK Puram, New Delhi

Dr T Venu Gopal Rao, CEO, Fusion International School

presented a compelling presentation on “Is your school future ready?” He compelled the audience to think by putting questions: how new age educators would look like; how educators need to change to become future ready and with many other thought provoking questions. He stressed on the need to implement technology in schools in order to prepare them for the future, not only in learning but also in teaching. He said, “In order to be future ready, the process of education in schools should be changed. If technology going to replace the teachers then it should be. If you want to incorporate technology in your schools then it should be reﬂected in the school infrastructure.” In the Second Session, Dr T Venu Gopal Rao, CEO, Fusion International School, Hyderabad and Lt Col (Retd) A Sekhar, Principal, Atul Vidyalaya, Valsad, presented their views on on the “Importance of Teacher Training, Nurturing School Leaders - The Future Visionaries.” While sharing his experiences, Dr Rao stated that the process of imparting education has changed a lot in the last few decades. He said, “Earlier, the focus was just on imparting education but now the education is outcome-based. In the past, the education was teacher-centric but now it is learner-centric. Therefore, there is a need for teachers to become high level knowledge workers.” He mentioned that, to be future-ready, teacher training is important and we need to nurture school leaders. “We need to nurture the teachers and school leaders so that they can deine school’s educational goals,” said Dr Rao. To present people’s perspective on the topic, Lt Col (Retd) A Sekhar initiated a cross interaction with the audiences. He put questions among the delegates like what type of teacher training do we require to get what we want, how many hours of training does a teacher require, etc. The entire gathering was wholeheartedly involved in the conversation and stressed on the need of training the teachers to make them future ready. Col Sekhar said, “Teachers and school leaders like to follow compliance, that is, they want to follow a particular process and time table. Therefore, the training should be to facilitate and ease them.”

Exhibitors at the Summit

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Representatives of fecilitated schools, featured in the ‘Best Schools of India’ digitalLEARNING survey 2015 “The concept of teaching is slowly changing and there is a need to nurture the school leaders to prepare them for the future. As parents are a vital part of children’s education, parental understanding is an area where teachers need to work hard,” he added. The Session on “Engaging and Managing Students in Digital Age: Transforming Classrooms into Learning Places” saw a few interesting industry presentations on digitisation of education in this technologically advanced age. Amit Jhamb from Pearson India gave an interesting presentation on the “Learning Process in this Digital Age” and how it is transforming the classrooms. He briefed about the innovative solutions of Pearson India that are catalysing the education space. Anand Kumar, Techno-Commercial Head, Radius Systems Pvt Ltd, briefed about the role of digital solutions in transforming the learning places. He presented a captivating presentation on “Apple in Education”, which teleported the audience into the future of learning places where the innovative technological solutions are easing the education process for all the stakeholders - schools, teachers, learners and parents. The delegates witnessed a special workshop on “Is your Child Ready to Face the World?”, by Prof Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director, Apollo Hospitals Group. Sharing his personal experiences about his little son, Dr Sibal, explains the psychology of the children and how their little thoughts need to be handled with care. He presented a few live examples that helped in understanding the children and to know if they are ready to face the challenges and competition in the outside world. The Session on “Sports Education: Usage of Team Building” touched the unique role of sports education in a student’s life. Dr DR Saini, Principal, Delhi Public School, RK Puram, New Delhi presented some thought provoking views on the importance of sports education. Dr Saini said, “Pursuit of excellence is most important to be successful in life. Not only mental but physical itness is vital for better performance. Therefore, coordination of mind and body is important for better performance and to succeed in life.” In addition, the conference witnessed presentations from industry people on innovative and new solutions in the education space. Behram Mohta, CBSE Academic Head, MT Edu-

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care, Associate Business Head, Robomate+, gave a presentation on “Robomate: A Revolution in Learning.” In his presentation, Jasvinder Singh, CEO, Words Worth, briefed about the “Digital Language Labs for Educational Institutions.” Naresh Duble, Head - Education and Healthcare Business, Armstrong, delivered a presentation on “Acoustic Solutions for the Leaders of Tomorrow.” Divya Lal, COO, Educomp Solutions Ltd, in her presentation on “New Era of Educomp: Solutions for Mobile Generation,” gave an overview about innovative solutions of Educomp. Dr M Ponnavaikko, Vice Chancellor, Bharath University, Chennai obliged the summit with his gracious presence and presented special awards to the top eduPRENEURS for their contribution in the ield of education. The summit also marked the felicitation ceremony to felicitate the schools featured in the “Best Schools of India” ranking survey conducted by the digitalLEARNING magazine. The welcome address was delivered by Seema Gupta, Project Manager, digitalLEARNING magazine and Raghav Mittal, Managing Editor, digitalLEARNING magazine hosted the event. The summit witnessed the presence of more than 300 delegates representing schools from all across the country. All in all, the summit provided a wonderful opportunity to delegates and stakeholders in the ield of education, across India, to be a part of the knowledgeable and thought provoking exhortations and to network with their counterparts. n

Dr M Ponnavaikko, VC, Bharath University (3rd from left) giving away special eduPRENEUR Award

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Innovative Best Practices in School Education The Summit also witnessed a roundtable discussion on “Sharing Best Practices in Managing and Operating Schools” where the entire gathering of principals and heads of schools participated and shared the best practices they are following in their schools. During the discussion, some really innovative best practices and pedagogies came to light. Some of the best practices are shared below:

We have streamlined the process of school administration. There is a straight line between the head of school and teachers so that they can communicate without any hurdle. We have no principal cabin so that teachers and students can easily approach the principal

VINESH MENON

Dy Chief Executive Oficer, Global Discovery Schools

In addition to education, we focus on grooming children’s personality through extra curricular activities by organising art and literary fests. Besides, we stressed on teacher’s training to keep them abreast of the children’s behaviour and to make them future ready

KRIT SERAI

Principal, Satluj Public School, Panchkula

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We provide a realistic environment to students through cultural convergence of city and rural areas. We visit and conduct surveys of the surrounding areas to understand the ecology of the place and conduct parent-teacher partnership programmes to understand the children’s psychology.

DR RAJESH KUMAR CHANDEL

Principal, Gyan Ganga International School, Jabalpur

As parents play a pivotal role in a child’s education, we give monthly presentation in front of parents on the child’s progress and education. We also do parental counselling to make them aware about the psychology and the interest areas of children

Our school endeavours to inspire and empowers students to be critical thinkers and productive members of an ever-changing society

DR VANDANA GHOSH

ANJNA SETH Director, Holy Heart Presidency School, Amritsar

Principal Shri Ram Centennial School, Agra

As technology is vital in today’s time, we practice the pedagogy of lip classrooms, to make the students learn anytime, anywhere. We also provide entrepreneurship programmes to groom them into future leaders

SANGEETA SAXENA

Principal, Chiranjiv Bharati School, Gurgaon

Our focus is on science education to ready the students for the future. We follow the process of helicopter parenting so that parents are able to pay attention to their children’s experiences and problems

In our school, we follow innovative approach for subject learning. We make the student’s learn through visual medium in the classroom by way of pictures of answers, PPTs and music

DR SUNITA VASHISHTHA

RITU MEHTA

Principal, Central Academy, Jaipur

Principal, GD Goenka Public School, Bhiwadi

Our philosophy is “be good, make others good.” We do regular child performance review and peer performance review to ensure proper development of children and to ind out academic aberrations if any. These reviews are shared at the end of every month with the parents

PROF (DR) SATYABRATA MINAKETAN Chairman, ODM Educational Group

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Event Report As we have to deal with small children, we use innovative ways to make them learn and for their overall development. We focus on rhyme-based learning so that children can learn in a playful manner. We believe in linking education to practical thinking

KAVISHA KHURANA VIJ Director, The Chintels School, Kanpur

Our school’s main focus is on innovation and science education. We impart education to our students using innovative techniques and have developed science parks to make the students learn in real environment

Our school believes in the concept of collaborative learning, so that children can learn or attempt to learn together and capitalise on one another’s resources and skills. We also focus on critical thinking and diversity

CDR VK BANGA

VINEETA MITTAL

Principal & Chairman, The Mann School, Delhi

Principal The Millennium School, Gurgaon

Apart from education, we believe that life skills play a vital role in a child’s development. We encourage artistic students to take part in plays and other extra curricular activities.

In addition to education, our goal is to make the students become good citizens as they are future of the society. We make the students aware of constitutional fundamental rights and duties

PRATIMA SINHA

SHUCHI GOYAL

Principal Gurgaon Valley School, Gurgaon

Principal Meridian School, Hyderabad

We provide counselling and guidance to our students as well as teachers. To facilitate this, we have student resource centre and teacher resource centre. To recognise the achievements, we also give commendation cards for their outstanding performance

RAMA DATT

Principal, Sanskar School, Jaipur

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Start-Up

Mission

QUALITY EDUCATION

In order to connect parents with teachers and students while also safeguarding everyone’s privacy and to make quality education accessible, Eckovation came into existence, shares

Ritesh Singh CEO of Eckovation with Elets News Network (ENN)

Why prompted you to launch the initiative? I am from a Tier III town – Chhapra in Bihar. Although I was an average student during school, the coaching I received in Kota helped me crack IIT-JEE entrance exam. When I came to IIT, I interacted with other students on a sustained basis. I was quite shocked at the quality of education that they had access to in their cities. Lack of quality education implies denial to equal opportunity and traps economically disadvantaged people in a vicious cycle. I always wanted to make quality education accessible even in places where only minimal infrastructure exists. That’s how Eckovation came into being. What was the most challenging part of setting up your company? The most challenging part was identifying critical issues and itting solutions that could directly impact quality of education. Before we inalised the concept of the product, Akshat (co-founder of Eckovation) and I travelled across the country and researched the market for almost a year. We irst explored MOOCs, but they were cumbersome and required a lot of self-discipline on the users’ part. Next, we thought of providing data analytics through an ERP system that monitors a child’s performance and equips teachers and parents with suficient data to improve a child’s performance by inding gaps, weaknesses and

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strengths. But looking at the size of a normal classroom, the actual implementation seemed extremely dificult and would have required greater efforts from the teachers instead of simplifying their lives. We also did a pilot study with 30,000 students across four cities to understand the gaps. We observed that parents are not in the loop, when it comes to classroom teaching. The turnout of parents for PTMs is a mere 15-20 per cent. This needed to be ixed. So, we decided to build a product that brings together all actors of education – parents, students, teachers and school administration. Eckovation not only helps connect parents with teachers and students while safeguarding everyone’s privacy, but it also connects students to teachers who are willing to transfer knowledge beyond their classrooms. What are the major beneits for institutions/individuals adopting your solutions? Eckovation has something to offer to everyone. Since communication is the heart of education, institutions are using it for school-level and classroom communications. We recently launched “I Teach India” campaign that urges individuals to create groups and teach subjects of their choice. Since users are the best

judges of quality, the algorithm allows penetration of only high quality groups, thereby ensuring quality. Who do you see as your target audience? How are you reaching out to them? Everyone who falls in the category of an educator or a learner at any point in their lives is our target audience. Our best outreach is through network effect. However, we also engage with our audience on social media and traditional media. How much competition do you have to face, and what is the biggest hurdle you came across? In terms of competition, there are quite a few international players, however, none in India so far. Also, our biggest challenge is limited smartphone penetration. But, we are quite hopeful looking at the rate at which it’s growing. This has inspired us to innovate and feature the SMS integration technology on the mobile and web platform. Where do you see your company in 5 years time? We want to help set the standard for quality education in the next ive years and be present in everyone’s smartphone as app, if they want to learn anything. We aim to reach 1 billion users by 2020.n

Product Launch

Konica Minolta

LAUNCHES CLOUD-BASED EDUCATION ERP Konica Minolta, renowned for its worldleading technology, launches education ERP software platform to be used conveniently in schools, colleges, institutes, universities and training centres. Elets News Network (ENN) reports on the launch of the product

Yuji Nakata, MD, Konica Minolta India

onica Minolta, renowned for its worldleading technology, for integrating and expanding imaging needs from input to output, launches educo ERP software platform, that promises to empower education, on February 10, 2016 at New Delhi. While speaking at the launch, Yuji Nakata, MD, Konica Minolta India said, “Konica Minolta is in the process of transforming itself from a manufacturing company to a Customer Process Centric company. We are constantly looking at opportunities to add value to the core processes of our customers. We are celebrating this year as “The Year of Synergy” where we want to harness all our capabilities to deliver new value to our customers. Educo ERP is an ideal it for creating new value.” He further adds, “Educo ERP will help in the process of Digital India through its cutting edge technology. Educo ERP will enable institutions in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities at minimal cost and simple

requirements of internet connection and a browser. Educo ERP has been conceptualised and developed in India and will address all core processes of the education boards in India. The need of private and public sector engaged in delivering education has been covered.” Educo ERP is a user-friendly ERP solution platform, designed speciically to be used conveniently in schools, colleges, institutes, universities and training centres. Educo ERP provides access to information anywhere anytime on any device to administrators, teachers, students and parents. Educo ERP supports multiple languages for its userfriendly interface that can be used by anyone easily.

Educo ERP provides access to information anywhere anytime on any device to administrators, teachers, students and parents. Educo ERP supports multiple languages for its user-friendly interface that can be used by anyone easily. In the progressive ield of Education, educo ERP promises to bring a refreshing change and set high standards to empower the educational institutions in becoming a speedy, user-friendly hub for delivering humane education eficiently. Educo ERP is affordable to cater to the requirements of any institution of any size any structure be it Schools, Colleges, Universities, Online, Schools, Group of Institutions Preschools and government institutions.n

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