The monthly publication on ICT and Education RNI No. UPENG/2008/25311
digitalLEARNING INDIA
Volume IV Issue 11 November 2008 ISSN 0973-4139
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Higher Education in Malaysia: Quality e-Learning on High Dr Raja Maznah Raja Hussain PAGE 8
Digital Divide Data: Cultivating Human Capital in Cambodia and Laos Interview: Mai Siriphongphanh PAGE 22
Leader’s Speak One Laptop Per Child in India: Fostering Learning Learning Interview: Satish Jha PAGE 28 India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education: Capacity Building of Schools and Teachers in ICT
Policy Matters - PAGE 36
Technology in Podar International School page 40
Its time to look back and step forward
Volume V Issu e 1 January 2
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Celebrating it s
3
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Anniversary in
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digitalLEARNING
Contents Volume IV Issue XI, November 2008
Cover Story
Corporate Diary
8
25
Higher Education in Malaysia: Quality e-Learning on High Dr. Raja Maznah Raja Hussain
15
Tracing e-Learning Initiatives in Malaysian Schools
28
Project: Intel Initiatives in Tamil Nadu: Project Based Learning Sustains Community Health Leader’s Speak One Laptop Per Child in India: Fostering Learning Learning
Interview: Satish Jha, President and CEO, OLPC India
31 Development Agenda
22
Digital Divide Data: Cultivating Human Capital in Cambodia and Laos Interview: Mai Siriphongphanh
Product: Saba Software
Policy Matters
36
India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education: Capacity Building of Schools and Teachers in ICT
School Track in Podar 40 Technology International School, Mumbai: A motivated leadership building creative spaces Interview: Dr. Vandana Lulla, Principal & Director, Podar International School
Research
46
Unleashing the Strength of Universities in India Abirami Devi & Dr.M Shailaja
Regulars
49
Mark Your Calendar
News
17 20 21 34 48
India Asia Malaysia Corporate World
All the articles are available online at www.digitalLEARNING.in
digital LEARNING INDIA Volume IV, Issue 11 | November 2008
President M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Group Directors Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor Assistant Editor Manjushree Reddy email: manjushree@digitallearning.in Research Associates Rachita Jha, Dr Rajeshree Dutta Kumar, Shilpa Sahay Research Assistant Angela S Nath Marketing Siddharth Verma (+91-9811561645) email: siddharth@digitallearning.in Sales Executives Rudra Ghosh, Fahimul Haque Subscription & Circulation Lipika Dutta (+91-9871481708) Manoj Kumar (+91-9971404484) Sr Graphic Designer Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Graphic Designers Om Prakash Thakur, Chandrakesh Bihari Lal (James) Web Zia Salahuddin, Amit Pal Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digital Learning G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA 201301, India Phone +91 120 2502181-85 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLearning.in
Editorial Malaysia leapfrogging on ICT Coinciding with its first major push for implementation of Information and Communication Technology in education, Malaysia’s unique ability to have been able to leapfrog from an agrarian to high-technology manufacturing economy was receiving laurels from Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs (The Geography of Poverty and Wealth, Scientific American, March 2001). Seven years on, Malaysia continues to lead SouthEast Asian countries in being able to address the demands of a region that is marked by high-level of competitiveness in terms of new and better tools and technologies for doing businesses and manufacturing. Such a transformation is a precondition for regional economies, industries and enterprises to take full advantage of the significant opportunities of a global economy, which is largely knowledge-based, digitally linked and highly competitive. In this backdrop and also in lines that Digital Learning team will oraganise the eAsia 2008 Conference and Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, host by the Ministry of Energy, Water, and Communications, Government of Malaysia, from November 11-13, in this issue we look at Malaysia’s tryst with introduction of e-Learning in schools that highlights the success so far and the challenges of moving to the next phase of integration. We also look at higher education in the context of e-Learning through a study of IHEs to find gaps that are being addressed to synergise economic growth with manpower needs of a knowledge economy. There is a new focus on bringing ICT to rural areas through initiatives such as tele-health, e-Learning, and webenabled teaching, in the second phase of expansion of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to be completed by 2010. Talking of addressing the twin needs of strenghtened economy and education, we also bring you a special interview of how ICT is being used to generate employment and educate poor youth in Cambodia and Laos. Having said this, we hope our readers find this issue engaging enough. We also wish our readers and contributors a happy festive season. And hope to see you all in Kuala Lumpur!
digital LEARNING is published in technical collaboration with Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies.
Owner, Publisher, Printer, Ravi Gupta Printed at Vinayak Print Media E-53, Sector 7, Noida, U.P. and published from 710, Vasto Mahagun Manor, F-30, Sector - 50, Noida, UP Editor: Ravi Gupta
Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in
November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
ER V O C
RY STO
Higher Education in Malaysia
Quality e-Learning on HIGH
Dr. Raja Maznah Raja Hussain (rmaznah@gmail.com), Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Malaysia has taken massive strides in creating ICT infrastructure for its Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the recent years, but a lot more is needed for capitalising on these investments, according to a study of top institutions in this Southeast Asian country
P
reparing and managing eLearning is a complex process that needs a radical shift from change management to strategic planning, argues Raja Maznah Raja Hussain from Department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology , Faculty of Education , University of Malaya , Kuala Lumpur. 8
This article that emerged from the study carried out in six higher education institutions (HEIs) earlier was a graduation-level project on strategic planning by students in the Masters of Instructional Technology Programme. The basic methodology used for this study involved visits to selected institutions, discussions with the
individuals responsible for e-Learning, analysis of policy documents and inferences from the institutions’ websites and learning management systems (LMS). The initial phase of pursuit of eLearning project for most of HEIs by the way of acquisition of adequate November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
shortcomings related to planning and implementation of the teaching and learning component of e-Learning.
Lack of a strategic plan for e-Learning
The Multimedia University (MMU) in the year 2000 formed an Instructional Designers (ID) team to be the bridge between the content experts and IT experts while developing an in-house Learning Management System (LMS) ICT infrastructure to offer a good eLearning platform to students, has seen massive investment in the past five years. Millions have been spent to not only develop IT infrastructure but also e-Learning delivery and management systems in HEIs. The second phase of e-Learning development in Malaysia by the way of integration of ICT with the teaching and learning processes saw focus on following elements: • The institution’s strategic plan for ICT use in teaching and learning. • The specialised centre that translates the plans into reality and coordinates the strategies for eLearning success. • The right combination of human resources balancing the academic know how with technology savvy. • Sufficient infrastructure to enable the e-Learning platform. • Staff development plans and strategies to encourage the adoption of IT for teaching and learning. Most public universities in Malaysia Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
have had ideas for ICT integration back in the year 2000 itself. These included e-Learning, online learning, web-based learning to be implemented either through a specific centre or department and a specific plan related to e-Learning. The study, however, revealed that the current status of planning for e-Learning has found that most institutions have yet to draw a strategic plan specifically for use of ICT in teaching and learning as per Institute of Higher Education Policy (IHEP) benchmarks laid out in the year 2000 . These benchmarks include institutional support, course development, teaching/ learning, course structure, student support, faculty support, evaluation and assessment. Using the benchmarks and Kaufman’s Organisational Elements Model (OEM) it was found that though most HEIs have adequate e-Learning infrastructure there were major
Though most of the HEIs covered in the study do have plan documents reflecting ICT planning, but these are mainly related to acquisition of ICT infrastructure. However, plans for ICT teaching and learning, course development, course structure and assessment are not articulated. In fact, some of the plans are still in the minds of people in charge of managing the e-Learning. In other words, at best the plan seemed to be still on the drawing board. The plans that were seen with these institutions talked on the decisions on what percentage of the course would be delivered online or what trainings the lecturers/teachers would have to go through to convert the content for online delivery.
Approach to e-Learning is sporadic The institutions covered under the study gave an impression that the decision on the use of e-Learning was taken by the management, mainly because everyone else is doing it. It is believed that in order to compete with other HEIs, individual institutions were forced to offer e-Learning as an alternative or as an add-on to their present face-to-face delivery mode. Since the infrastructure and the learning management systems (LMS) are readily available the more ready the HEI to embark on e-Learning. Several approaches were observed on how HEIs went about doing e-Learning. e-Learning is still driven by the IT industry. Initially in some HEIs (the early adopters), the approach was to convert the face-to-face lecture materials to digital content, where the lecturers suddenly found themselves forced to be involved in the writing of lecture notes to be digitised for online access without
the help of experienced instructional designers. Most of the materials that were posted were not pedagogically sound. They were merely information which can be considered as content. The institutions were quick to realise that e-Learning is about students learning. Instructional Designers (ID) were then brought into the picture about three years ago.
Instructional Design for e-Learning, as a field is still new in the country. The IDs were hired to train the content developers on the importance of designing instructions to help learners learn. The Multimedia University (MMU) in the year 2000 formed an ID team to be the bridge between the content experts and IT experts while developing an in-house LMS. MMU has now established a dedicated center to take care of the Internet based programmes. Similarly, the Open University Malaysia (OUM), when it was established in year 2001, started with plans for 10
Accreditation of the e-Learning programme is a hot issue which was debated at great lengths
e-Learning and a special outfit the Center for Instructional Design and Technology was established, to enable the development of both digital and print based contents. Similarly, the country’s first Virtual University (UNITAR) when it was established in 1996, also set up a content development department to develop digital contents.
Nascent e-Learning leadership
Although, Malaysia has a Virtual University, a Multimedia University, and an Open University, best practices are yet to be established by them. In the 2004 Asia Cooperation Dialogue:
Workshop on e-Education held in Kuala Lumpur, the need for a regional e-Learning body was discussed. This body would play the role of the leader in e-Learning research, drawing up guidelines for accreditation of eLearning programmes, and strategies for e-Learning implementation in the region. Accreditation of the e-Learning programme is a hot issue which was debated at great lengths. Although the interest in e-Learning especially in the informal education is prevalent, however, the public is still unsure of the worth of the certificate obtained through e-Learning. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
Lack of skilled and experienced faculty Outsourcing e-Learning content development can be very expensive. In most HEIs training and supports are usually provided in house for the lecturers to develop the content and to use the new e-Learning facilities. Involvement of academic staff in the development of e-Learning vary from one institution to another.
The problem of communication was also found to exist at the organisation level, whereby strategic intention of the senior management is not made clear to the eLearning project members. In most cases e-Learning responsibility is given to the IT experts who are responsible to set up the infrastructure and to purchase or build an LMS. Education experts are often not consulted at the initial decision making stage. Thus, the approach to e-Learning tends to be technocentric. This is still happening in many HEIs where the person in charge of e-Learning is an IT expert, not an Instructional Technologist. But that practice is being changed where Instructional Technologists are
now involved in the decision making, either as an instructional designer or a trainer in the e-Learning projects or heading a center for e-Learning development.
Insufficient funding Some institutions have invested substantially on e-Learning, results of which are yet to be seen. The investments have largely been in the infrastructure and the purchase or development of the LMS. While other institutions have to work with a limited budget allocated for the development of teaching and learning materials, outsourcing of e-Learning content development and training of lecturers to use e-Learning.
Developing courses by lecturers for on-line delivery is still an option in most institutions. Lecturers are often reluctant to embark on the development project themselves, due to time constraints and lack of expertise in courseware authoring (Raja Maznah, 2000a). eLearning content development in most HEIs institutions is a duty required over and above other regular duties to be carried out by the lecturers often with technical support provided by the institutions. The technical support may come from specialised centers dedicated to content development or from IT departments. The specialised centre’s hire IT experts, Instructional Designers, Web specialists and graphic and visual artists.
Conclusion Although e-Learning is here to stay, quality e-Learning requires teamwork at all levels in the organisation and individuals involved. Adopting quality e-Learning is a further step towards realising the vision of technology, ie, to serve lifelong learning and a knowledge based society. By incorporating the online feature to a university’s conventional mode of teaching, eLearning has the potential to create powerful learning environment that enriches the traditional teaching and learning.
About Author Dr. Raja Maznah Raja Hussain is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology, Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Malaysia. She graduated with a PhD in instructional systems technology from Indiana University. Her research focus is on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and the pedagogy of engaging learners in a technology rich learning environment. She is currently the Director of Academic Development Centre responsible for supporting academic staff at the University of Malaya. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
11
ORY T S ER L
O COV SCHO
Tracing e-Learning Initiatives in Malaysian Schools
I
n Malaysia, e-Learning is largely used only for distance learning programmes at the university level or twinning programmes offered by private colleges along with foreign institutions. The need for integrating ICT in education to prepare Malaysian students for a fast evolving knowledge based economy finds mention in the Vision 2020 document, which was announced by then Prime Minister Tun mahathir Mohamad in 1991. As a result of this, computers and broadband access was introduced in schools. The very first reference to e-Learning was made way back in 1999 in the government Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC Malaysia) blueprint for Smart School Flagship Application. The blueprint talked about e-Education initiatives in other countries, particularly New Zealand. In a benchmark study conducted in 2003, New Zealand was identified as one of the countries whose ICT-led education was closest to Malaysia’s educational system. Taking a cue, the Malaysian government has worked towards leveraging the power of technology to lay a foundation for a new era of ‘anyone, anywhere and anytime learning’. Supporting national policies have been formulated from time to time to emphasise the government commitment on strengthening ICT in education.
State e-Learning initiatives Among the major inititatives undertaken by the Malaysian government to boost e-Learning include projects like Malaysian Smart School, MySchoolNet, Penang 12
Globally, the education sector has seen a shift from black boards to white boards with marker pens over the decades. But a much more powerful change in the last decade has been the emergence of class rooms without walls, with the rise in internet connectivity and the phenomena of online learning or e-Learning. Though this model has become something like a norm in the developed parts of the world, Europe and United States, countries in other parts of the world are just about making a foray into this new realm of possibilities. In this article we look at Malaysia’s tryst with e-Learning as an alternative to traditional teaching techniques at the school level e-Learning Community Project, and KPerak e-Learning Cluster Project.
Malaysian Smart School In order to reinvent the country’s educational system and enable students to become lifelong, self-paced and self-directed learners, the Malaysian Smart School was launched in 1997as part of the MSC. To capitalise on cutting-edge technologies and jumpstart its deployment in schools, a group of pilot schools was picked up in 1999 that would serve as the nucleus for the
eventual nationwide roll-out of the concept. The pilot project test-bedded the Smart School Integrated Solution, which comprised the following components: • Browser-based teaching-learning materials (and related print materials) for Bahasa Melayu, English language, Science and Mathematics; • Computerised Smart School Management system; • Smart School technology November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
infrastructure involving the use of IT and non-IT equipment; Local Area Networks for the pilot schools, and a virtual private network that connects the pilot schools; and • Support services in the form of a centralised Help Desk, and countrywide service centres to provide maintenance and support. The project ended in December 2002, with 88 networked schools throughout the country, 1494 courseware
like web hosting, email, and electronic discussions, and the website hosts the homepages of around 100 schools.
MySchoolNet MySchoolNet website was set up by the Ministry of Education to provide links to educational information nationwide. The key feature of the website is the interactivity that it offers Malaysian school students to communicate with students in other countries.
A Smart School Qualification Standard (SSQS) was introduced in 2006 to measure the use of ICTs at the 88 smart schools. The schools were graded on their ICT strengths and given a star rating from one to five stars titles for Bahasa Melayu, English language, Science, Mathematics, a computerised and integrated Smart School Management System, a Help Desk, and a Data Centre, and trained administrators, teachers and IT coordinators from all the pilot schools. A Smart School Qualification Standard (SSQS) was introduced in 2006 to measure the use of ICTs at the 88 smart schools. The schools were graded on their ICT strengths and given a star rating from one to five stars. By 2010, the project is to be extended to all 9000 schools in the country under the Smart School Integrated Solution (SSIS).
Penang e-Learning Community Project The Penang e-Learning Community Project (SIPI) was initiated in 1997. Managed primarily by the Science University of Malaysia, this stateinitiated project spearheaded the development of web presence, webbased services and collaborative web-based tools for the purpose of providing necessary information to the educational community in Penang state. The project provides services Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
K-Perak e-Learning Cluster (KPEC) project Launched in March 2007, the threemonth pilot KPEC project was designed to provide professional development for teachers and build e-learning capability in a cluster of five selected schools in the state of Perak. The aim was to enhance the capabilities of teacher and equip them with such skills as to integrate ICT in teaching at both primary and secondary levels. The initiative, managed by New Zealand-based Innovation New Zealand Education (iNZed) group, offers both face-to-face capacity building and online support to bridge the digital divide. Inschool facilitators provide ICT training to teachers at five Malaysian schools and also provided professional development for identified teachers from the selected schools (‘mentor teachers’). Teaching and learning content is made available to teachers through the project website, which features an interactive forum. Through this capacity building process, teachers are guided in creating ‘virtual field trips’, which emphasise student participation and collaboration both between the cluster schools and with schools in New Zealand.
Under the initiative, an assessment rubric has also been developed which is used to measure the achievements under the programme. In its quest to turn Malaysia into a scientific, progressive and developed nation by 2020, there have also been endeavours from the government to use e-Learning to foster an interest in science as a subject among students. Through a remote or virtual laboratory, master teachers can reach the entire school population in Malaysia and provide students an opportunity to acquire scientific knowledge and skills and also practice them.
Malaysian Grid for Learning The Malaysian Grid for Learning (MyGfL) is another national initiative undertaken by MIMOS Berhad to provide systems and tools to enable and support e-Learning activities for lifelong learning and also bring together all relevant players (learners, enablers and providers) to participate in the overall e-learning value chain and be part of the national learning grid. The MyGfL also strove to develop e-Learning standards to ensure conformance and adoption of best practices in e-learning content and systems and also encourage sharing and development of local/indigenous content. Cikgu.net is one example of projects under MyGfl, which is maintained by Jaring, a subsidiary of MIMOS Berhad. Launched in March 2000, Cikgu.Net is an education portal with contents in Bahasa Melayu. The portal has attracted thousands of registered users and some 120,000 visitors. Using Malay language as a teaching medium, the portal has managed to establish a firm compatibility between itself and the country’s educational system. The strong backing it has received from Sultan Idris Teaching University (UPSI), Pearson Education Malaysia, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Malaysian Institute of Language and Literature) as well as other large organisations has made Cikgu an important contributor to Malaysia’s education sector. 13
Role of private sector in fostering e-Learning The entry of private sector has also given a huge impetus to e-Learning in Malaysian schools. Although a strong push from the Ministry of Education has been a significant element in the country’s e-Learning initiatives, the design and development of these initiatives has been carried out through a collaboration of private corporations. This has ensured that every primary and secondary schools are provided with similar infrastructure and services, thus enabling a greater sharing of the eLearning content created by the teachers and students across Malaysia.
Smart Utusan Education Portal
and solutions to improve learning capabilities and scores. The programmes offered conform to the syllabus set by the MOE and cover the following subjects: Bahasa Melayu, English, Mathematics, Science, Mandarin language, Mathematics and Science in Mandarin, and Geography.
Edubestari.com Offered by Prism Vision NetworksCorp, Edubestari.com was one of the first portals to cater to the needs of both the teaching as well as learning community. Its conducive and interactive learning environment offers up-to-date learning material, which is in line with MOE’s syllabus. The advantages of Edubestari. com include a virtual learning and monitoring system, easy access of
material for children, one stop centre for entire information on educational materials for students, and integration point for teachers, parents and students. Intel’s World Ahead Initiative Intel Corp and the IT wing of the Education ministry - Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan (BTP) – have been working together to improve e-learning in schools nationwide. This partnership, which comes under the chipmaker’s World Ahead Initiative, involves the implementation of the 1:1 (one-to-one) e-learning model where students are each given a speciallydesigned RM 1,050 notebook computer called Classmate. Under the programme, which was kickstarted in April last year, 10 urban and rural schools in peninsular Malaysia are participating. The programme will be monitored by officials from BTP every three to six months to see whether the students are receiving any benefit from the computers. The project will run for three years, during which BTP and Intel will look at the impact of computers on students. Malaysia is the third country in the world to implement this e-Learning model, the other two being Nigeria and Brazil.
Challenges and Issues Involved Although the lure of Internet based learning is undeniable, rapid changes
The Smart Utusan Education Portal has been set up by Utusan Melayu Berhad. This educational gateway attracts an average of six million visitors every month and contains teaching and learning material for all levels of school education. Within the portal, students can get access to the past year’s national examination questions; and teachers can view interesting teaching plans for mathematics and science subjects. There is also an interactive forum for visitors to share their thoughts and cyber chat, try the e-laboratory or play games. Schools can also publish their web ages.
In.trique Learning Module In.trique is a complementary schoolbased learning experience which provides users complete learning control 14
November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
National Education Blueprint 2006-2010
Transforming Education The emphasis of the National Education Blueprint 2006-2010 this year has been on new initiatives to prepare a platform for the transformation of education in 2010. These include implementing pilot projects at the preschool and primary school level; a national assessment system; and technical and vocational education. The blueprint has announced about a new curriculum at primary school-level which would be introduced in 2010 to make it more holistic and less examination-oriented for pupils. The new curriculum will be based on six key areas which were communication, spiritual attitude and values, humanitarianism, literacy in science and technology, physical and personal development. The emphasis in Years One and Two would be on ensuring that pupils master reading, writing and arithmetic. Reasoning skills, scientific and ICT knowledge, and nurturing creativity would also be stressed. In Years Three, Four, Five and Six, the emphasis would be on acquiring more complex skills and knowledge. As of June this year, 2,263 preschool classes have been set up to benefit 56,575 pupils. In line with the plan to have preschool classes at each national school, another 704 preschool classes will be opened in 2009. The ministry will also transform technical and vocational education to make it more relevant and attractive to students. Six strategies have been introduced, which include introducing a skills 15 Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
stream for those in Form One, strengthening the technical and vocational curriculum, increasing the involvement of professional bodies and industry and adding five new vocational schools in the five economic corridors. A new assessment system has been piloted in 50 primary schools since June this year. The main aim of the
Under the Blueprint, the Government has increased promotional opportunities for teachers and improved training programmes. A total of 32,234 promotional posts for graduate and non-graduate teachers for the whole country have been created for 2009. Based on projection, there is also a need for an additional 13,297 teaching
transformation was to make learning fun and to move away from an examinationoriented environment.
posts for secondary schools and 19,807 for primary schools until 2012. As of June this year, 9,503 posts have been approved for secondary schools while the remaining posts will be requested through next year’s budget expenditure. Cluster schools have been defined in the Blueprint as excellent schools within an existing grouping, and each is supposed to be a role model for other schools.
Of the 17,356 development projects planned for the five-year period of the Blueprint, 4,280 projects have been completed and another 5,026 are in the process of being constructed. Of the 320 action plans drawn up, 235 (or 73.43%) have achieved their targets. There are now three core sectors ‘Policy and Education Development, Education Operations and Professional Development’ after the restructuring which has already taken effect.
The schools can apply for funding of up to RM500,000 to carry out various projects, and must also identify niche areas (curriculum and non-curriculum) that they want to focus on. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in 15
teachers focus on active pedagogies and interactivities and thereby profit from the whole range of new multimedia possibilities. However, content developers must be aware that the medium itself is no guarantee for a fascinating result. It is also important to have both a vision on the objectives of e-Learning packages that are to be produced and clear views on technical standards and computational resources of the students. Not all contents are suitable for e-Learning. In addition, the construction of interactive graphs and complex animations is time consuming and costly, and should hence be efficient over in-class lectures.
Challenges like infrastructure, content and teacher education pose real problems in effective use of e-Learning in schools and so it can rightly be called in its infancy stage
Regular training programmes for teachers and school administrators need to be held to update them on teaching methods and IT competencies. Moreover, instructional methods that work for students sitting in a science laboratory may not reach students at the far end of a cable line. Measures also need to be taken to address the reluctance of students and teachers to use new technologies as this would lead to wasting of investment. Teachers also need to be trained in the creation of electronic teaching materials.
Conclusion in the sector require that educational institutions in Malaysia review their technological status from time to time. Challenges like infrastructure, content and teacher education pose real problems in effective use of e-Learning in schools and so it can rightly be called in its infancy stage. Even though the government is giving priority to Broadband connectivity and PC penetration to ensure maximum reach of Internet, financial constraints and geographical locations have made it difficult for many schools to access high speed bandwidth. Hence prioritising infrastructure rollout and its upgradation is essential in aiding successful implementation of e-Learning. 16
Online content poses another basic building block for e-Learning as students must be able to access library materials, newspapers, relevant educational information and much more online in the native language as well as English. Availability of rich online content makes informal Internet learning possible and contributes to structured elearning programmes run by schools. By keeping censorship and regulation to a minimum, the Malaysian government has considerably supported the creation and dissemination of content and also encouraged schools, libraries and industry players to increase online content. e-Learning is a natural way to make
Malaysia’s vision of achieving fully developed nation status by 2020 and of becoming a competitive player in the global knowledge-based economy has made integration of ICT an absolute necessity. Although the government recognizes e-Learning as a wondrous tool in improving education and ensuring our students’ competitiveness in the era of globalisation, future developments call for more coordinated efforts from the government agencies and industry players.The content development industry needs to bring in more creative innovations to keep pace with new trends and fast changing technology. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
News india UGC accepts pay hike, along with high teaching standards University Grants Commission has accepted the report of its Pay Review Committee after making some minor changes in its recommendations. Acknowledging that Readers in colleges/universities could have got a better deal, UGC made some changes in the pay band. It also emphasised that after the pay hike, universities will have to ensure high teaching standards. The recommendations will now be sent to the Ministry of HRD, which will consult the Finance Ministry before accepting the recommendations. The UGC committee has recommended a minimum of 70% salary hike along with a host of increments and allowances to teachers. At the entry level, an assistant professor (earlier called lecturer) would get at least INR 5,000 more than a newly recruited IAS. The pay hike will be made effective from January 1, 2006. The committee has also recommended annual increment of 3% of the basic salary with compounding effect.
National Literacy Mission programme restructured The Ministry of Human Resource Development has redesigned the National Literacy Mission (NLM) to infuse new enthusiasm into it and check the declining rate of literacy. The
restructured programme will be known as ‘Lok Talim’. Taking inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Nai Talim’, the new name represents India’s composite culture as it is a combination of Hindi and Urdu words. The programme is likely to be implemented with the funding earmarked for Adult Education in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Also physical structures will not be separately set up for the programme, it will use the existing primary school buildings or primary health care centres to conduct classes. There is also a provision of residential camps of four months duration for adolescents and weeklong residential camps for 10 months for self-help groups and panchayats to manage the programme.
DU teachers mull over semester viability
IGNOU conducts communicative English training for master trainers The Indira Gandhi National Open University’s Distance Education Programme ‘Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan (DEP-SSA) will hold workshops for master trainers in communicative English from October 16 till February 18 next year. Workshops are being held at Kerala, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhubaneshwar and Bangalore. The DEPSSA training module has been designed for resource persons who will tutor basic teachers and trainers working at the grassroot level. The workshops are aimed at enhancing the resource persons capacity in communicative English so that they can effectively impart training in English language to the trainers. The module has been enriched with such features as pronunciation, understanding and articulation of the language.
Primary education index highest for Kerela
Following the DU Academic Council’s decision to obtain the views of teachers before introducing semesters at undergraduate level, teachers in colleges are weighing the viability of such a system. Though many see hurdles in the system and an increased workload, some do agree that semesters will have more benefits for students if the university provides sufficient logistical support. S K Chawdhury, who teaches English at Shri Ram College of Commerce, explained that ‘a semester system is desirable as it would help integrate DU with other places making exchange programmes with foreign universities possible’. Another teacher from a North Campus college believes that semesters will allow more number of papers in the course if exams are conducted every six months. However, he also added that teachers might oppose the new system as it would cause loss of time.
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
Kerala is ranked first among the 21 major states in the latest composite Education Development Index (EDI) prepared for the primary and upper primary levels of schooling for 2006-07. Delhi comes second, followed by Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka in the report, which was released by Ministry of HRD. The report on the EDI was prepared by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), based on the District Information System for Education (DISE), a comprehensive database on elementary education in India. The indicators used in computing the EDI included access, infrastructure, teachers and outcome. In the broader sense, 23 indices were used like number of schools per 1000 child population, average student-classroom ratio, pupilteacher ratio, gross enrolment ratio and gender parity index. Bihar and Jharkhand are ranked 35 and 34 in the index with an EDI as low as 0.321 and 0.381 respectively. 17
Internal Assessment moderated in top DU colleges to bring parity
The strategy to work hard for internal exams and score high marks has backfired for many Delhi University students. In a move meant to bring parity among colleges, the university has moderated the internal assessment marks of its students. So students in top-rung colleges like Sri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Sri Ram, Jesus and Mary College and St Stephen’s have lost marks. Teachers across colleges are also questioning the basis on which marks have been moderated and have called for scrapping of the assessment. ‘The university initially said there has to be parity between internals and theory paper. But now marks of all the students have been moderated irrespective of their performance,’ said Jyoti Darbari, HoD, Mathematics at LSR.
deteriorating due to a decline in the flow of funds to the education sector. There is an acute shortage of Government schools along with trained and motivate teachers, especially in the rural areas,’ the study said. The study also suggested that the state governments need to spend more for maintenance of the existing infrastructural facilities.
remote controlled; computer controlled robotics and speech-controlled robotics. ‘Speech Control’ was an important aspect of the workshop, where technology that allows for controlling robots via spoken commands was showcased for the first time.
Topperm launches interschool online quiz
India’s 34-year nuclear isolation has ended. Following the nuclear deal with France and United States, educational institutions in the country are gearing up to address the needs of the manpowerdeprived energy sector. Delhi University has already launched a three-year M.Tech course in Nuclear Technology this academic year. The Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, too, is planning to introduce a two-year course on similar lines.
Curriculum-based TV channel, Topperm has launched a nationwide inter-school online quiz contest - ‘Be a Winner@ Topper’ for students of 9th to 12th standards. Four subjects including Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology will be covered in the contest. The winner from each standard will receive INR 1 lakh as scholarship. The schools represented by the winners will be awarded a ‘Topper Experience Lab’.
Robotics Workshop at Tech Institute
The Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (NSIT) in Dwarka organised Robokriti, a series of robotics workshops in collaboration with Technophilia Solutions, in Delhi on October 4 and 5.
‘The educational infrastructure at the primary and secondary level is 18
The IITs at Kanpur and Mumbai have been running such a course for a long time, but the response was tepid. ‘The nuclear sector was confined to government set-ups such as the Department of Atomic Energy, where salaries were measly. But with the sector opening up to private participation, we expect the demand to rise,’ said Professor Sanjay Dhande, director, IIT Kanpur.
Add-on courses for students of Pune university
Decline in spending on education by states A recent study by the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PHDCCI) has revealed that the spending on education by various state governments has been declining over the last 12 years. The state governments’ expenditure on education has dropped to around 18% of the total expenditure in 2007-08 from 20% in 1995-96. The inter-state differences in the per capita education spending are also widening. The percapita fund flow to education in 2005-06 was INR 483 in Uttar Pradesh, INR 487 in Bihar, INR 1,034 in Maharashtra and Kerala and INR 1,777 in Himachal Pradesh.
Varsities to now teach N-lessons
The University of Pune, along with Global Talent Track, announced a programme offering college students add-on courses that will help them understand the requirements of industry and make them ‘industry-ready’ when they graduate.
Similar workshops were organised in Gwalior, Indore, PEC Chandigarh, Dehradun, and ITM Gurgaon between September and October. The workshop focussed on four kinds of robotic technologies: wired robotics, i.e. robots controlled through switches; wireless robotics, where robots are
The programme will be initially rolled out in 100 colleges affiliated to the university and the number of students expected to enrol is 30,000, Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav said. It will offer orientation and training in the information technology enabled services segment that needs human resources in huge numbers. These will include banking and financial services, insurance and retail, Jadhav said. November 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in
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News asia Asia Online named finalist in Red Herring’s Top 100 Asia Awards
Asia Online, a firm that is dedicated to eliminating information poverty by bringing world’s knowledge to every person through its unique online Translation Technology Platform, has been shortlisted in the 2008 Red Herring Top 100 Awards. Established in January 2007, Asia Online had already made a big impact on the global market. In April 2008, the firm unveiled its powerful online Translation Technology Platform that uses advanced artificial intelligence to not only translate over 200 languagepairs, but also learns from humans as they proofread and edit documents.
Philippines DepEd heads SEAMOLEC governing board
relevant to the Philippine setting.’ The mission of SEAMOLEC is ‘to serve one million clients by 2010.’ It is currently developing a network called SEA EduNet for sharing open educational resources and building online learning communities among Southeast Asian educators.
Intel empowers education week with added knowledge & technology
Intel EM Limited, in collaboration with the Secondary Education Modernisation Project of Sri Lankan Ministry of Education, has donated Classmate PCs and a Wi-Fi Zone to Dharmaraja College in Kandy. The Classmate PCs were handed over to the school by Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha who also felicitated over 100 Master Teachers trained under the Intel Teach Programme.
The event was held as part of ICT Day, a feature of the Education Week celebrations of the Central Province, which commenced with Teachers’ Day on October 6, 2008. On ICT Day, students learned the importance of ICT, job opportunities in the sector, and workshops held at district level.
Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) Technical Service Director Mari Paul Soriano was recently appointed as chair of the Governing Board of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation – Regional Open Learning Center or SEAMOLEC. The Indonesian-based center of excellence has recognised his role in accelerating DepEd’s computerisation programme and the provision of ICT infrastructure for digital literacy.
Pakistan to provide free IT education in government schools
The DepEd Chief said that Soriano’s appointment is ‘a boost to education, and will help make the regional center’s educational programmes more
Raja Riaz said the government would facilitate free IT education by setting up computer labs in 4,574 secondary schools. He also said that the government
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Pakistan’s Senior Provincial Minister Raja Riaz Ahmed has said that the government has launched an educational development programme to improve infrastructure facilities for raising the standard of education. The government plans to provide all the required facilities to promote primary and secondary level education at government schools.
had allocated a sum of Rs 2.5 billion ($53.2 million) for the improvement of government schools, and a total of Rs 1 billion ($21.3 million) for maintaining these schools.
Schools in Nepal demand roll-back of education tax
The Institutional Schools’ Association Nepal (ISAN) has submitted a sevenpoint memorandum to the Nepal’s Ministry of Education, demanding the government to roll back the decision to impose 5% education service tax (EST) on schools. The ISAN said that the provision of education service tax was against the ‘Education For All’ slogan of the government and Interim Constitution2006, which advocates free education as the fundamental right of all Nepali citizens. ‘By introducing EST, the government is legalising the commercialisation of education sector, which means that the government is trying to escape from its responsibility of providing education to its citizens,’ the memorandum stated.
Bangladesh wins 6 Manthan awards
Bangladesh has won six prizes in the prestigious Manthan Award for best ICT and digital content development in South Asia. UNDP sources said among 13 categories, Bangladeshi organisations got awards in five- e-culture and entertainment, e- enterprise and livelihood, e-government, e-localisation and m-content. The award winners are Unnayan TV and Youth Voice (e-culture and entertainment), Jeeon-IKB (eenterprise and livelihood), VoteBD.org (e-government, Hoimonti (e-localisation) and Cellbazaar (m-content). Of the 32 awards in 13 categories, India bagged 22, Afghanistan one and Sri Lanka three. November 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in
News malaysia Malaysia succeeds in building good educational model: UNESCO
JD Edwards Application Management Services, Oracle Applications Implementation Services and Additional Strategic and Functional Consultancy Services. ‘The Asia Pacific region has significant growth potential for 2008 and beyond for Business Process Outsourced (BPO) or ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) LMS systems,’ said Henry Barenholz, VicePresident of Commercial Affairs at Quistor International.
KL varsity to open branch in Saudi Arabia Malaysia has made significant progress in the education field over the years and earned international respect for successfully establishing a commendable education model, UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said. ‘We are happy that there has been very good progress in the area of education in Malaysia and the strong leadership of the minister (Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein)’ he said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has proposed that history be made a compulsory subject in primary schools to instill a love for the subject in the young. ‘There is a need to learn from history, otherwise we are likely to repeat the same mistakes,’ he said at the opening of the Malaysian Historical Society’s RM20 million Wisma Sejarah. A Malaysian firm will be cooperating with one of Saudi Arabia’s largest conglomerates to set up a university in the oil-rich nation. The university will be a branch of the newly-established Asia e-University (AeU), a Kuala Lumpurbased collaborative university ratified by the 30 Asia Cooperation Dialogue countries.
Quistor’s portfolio includes offerings such as BPO e-Learning Platform and Services, Content Management,
The IT Academy programme is expected to benefit thousands of Malaysian college students by enabling them to experience real-world challenges in a classroom environment. Through this, training institutions will be able to link their curriculum to the working world, enabling students to acquire new technology skills.
Make history compulsory subject in primary schools: PM
Quistor strengthens presence in Malaysia
Quistor, a provider of hosted and fully managed eLearning Solutions for regional and global institutions, has opened its first Asian office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a bid to further expand its sales operations in the Asia Pacific region, and support new customers.
graduates, by collaborating with local universities to provide IT training and certification. Twenty-eight universities and colleges in the country have signed up for the Microsoft IT Academy programme, including 22 institutions that joined the programme in the last two months, Lutz Ziob, general manager of Microsoft Learning, said.
House of Advanced Quality Ltd (HAQ) and AeU have signed a MoU to establish an AeU branch in Dammam next year. HAQ is a joint venture between TQM Consultants Sdn Bhd and Saudi Arabia’s Abdel Hadi Abdullah AlQahtani (AHQ) group.
Microsoft initiative to help unemployed IT graduates
Microsoft has introduced an initiative aimed at helping Malaysia grapple with the growing problem of unemployed IT
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
The prime minister also suggested making history a more exciting subject for students and hoped that the Education Ministry would look into strengthening the existing curriculum for the subject. Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said adding extra subjects in the primary school curriculum required an in-depth study, for example, the availability of teaching staff and any possible impact it would have on other existing subjects.
SMS for status of education loans, says MAMPU
Students will be able to check the status of their education loans and arrears with the National Higher Education Fund via SMS by the end of october. A statement from the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) said the updates will be available once the SMS number 15888 is keyed in. 21
ent m op a l e Dev gend a
Digital Divide Data
Cultivating Human Capital in Cambodia and Laos to Australia to attend business school, hoping to cultivate skills that she could bring back to Laos to alleviate its poverty. In business school, she encountered the theory of social enterprise, and identified the model as what Laos needed to jumpstart its economy. Upon her return to Vientiane, Mai sought out Jeremy and DDD, then in its embryonic stages in Cambodia and looking to open an office in Laos. Mai recognised this nascent model as the perfect platform through which to effect the change she knew was needed. Jeremy too shared the same inspiration: he saw the potential for social enterprise as a tool to cultivate the human capital in Cambodia and Laos. From his childhood in Montreal as the son of a Holocaust survivor, through his education at Harvard and MIT Sloan and his work with McKinsey, Jeremy looked for a way to apply his business management skills to a meaningful cause. On a vacation to Angkor Wat, he was struck by the juxtaposition of internet cafes and English schools with the devastating poverty on the streets. With the eye of a business analyst, he recognised that the region had the same surplus of inexpensive labour that made India and China outsourcing stars, but none of their access to the global market. Jeremy felt that this work could be the heart of a social enterprise which would help southeast Asians break their cycle of poverty.
Digital Divide Data is the product of the collaborative entrepreneurial efforts of Mai Siriphongphanh and Jeremy Hockenstein. Though from dramatically different backgrounds, Mai and Jeremy are united in their passion for effecting social change through DDD.
Taking a significant risk, Jeremy left a lucrative career as a consultant to establish DDD in 2001.When Mai joined Jeremy at DDD, she took this spirit of leadership even further by strengthening DDD’s social mission to focus on human development. She refined DDD’s social enterprise model, re-innovating it as a mechanism for training a new corps of leaders. By weaving personal development and leadership training into DDD’s mission, Mai and Jeremy have created a sustainable social enterprise that serves as a vehicle for human resource development.
Growing up as a young Laotian woman in a traditional family, Mai challenged the status quo all her life. She survived the country’s oppressive communist regime of the 70s and 80s, and pursued education defying her father. Later on, she moved
In an interview with Digital Learning, Mai traces the vision of DDD, its activities and how it is successfully bringing about a transformation among the youth in Cambodia and Laos.
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November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
Please introduce us to the core idea of Digital Divide Data. What was the vision and objective behind its establishment? Digital Divide Data (DDD) bridges the divide that separates young people from opportunity in Cambodia and Laos by providing disadvantaged youth with the education and training they need to deliver world-class, competitively priced IT services to global clients and acquire the essential business skills that help them break the cycle of poverty. We are an innovative, internationally acclaimed non-profit organisation that operates with a strong business model and has already generated more than US$ 2.5 million in revenues. Our focus on economic sustainability allows us to reinvest our profits in social and economic programmes that deliver lasting change for our employees and their communities. Over the past seven years, we have trained more than 1000 people with marketable skills, and more than 200 of our staff have graduated from entry-level jobs to employment opportunities that earn them six times the average income in Cambodia. What challenges did DDD initially encounter in the days following its set-up? Our most challenges are how to move away from commodity work such as basic double entry to a higher-value work with high quality but can still be done by low-skilled people and how to develop and upgrade our local managers’ skills and knowledge to support our ongoing success and expansion. The other challenge is how to set up sustainable sales function in the US and Europe. In the last seven years since DDD started functioning, what are the changes that it has brought about in the lives of people associated or working with it? In the past seven years DDD has been delivering the essential education, an invaluable first-job experience in the global economy, essential income, and management training that equips our staff with marketable skills. The most Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
important element of the DDD model - the empowerment of individuals and the shaping of leaders - is the hardest to quantify. What we have instead are stories: Naleak came to DDD’s Phnom Penh office disheartened; born disabled. She had only two fingers on each hand, barring her from better-paying office jobs. At DDD, she learned to challenge what others told her about the confines of her disability. She received the same training and attention as each of her peers, and within months became the fastest typist in the Phnom Penh office. Heng grew up in relatives’ homes in Phnom Penh. Her father, a cigarette smuggler, was shot and paralysed when she was only 13, forcing her to skip school in order to sell bread in the
opportunities. By focusing on young, ambitious individuals from the poorest and most underserved segments of the population - orphans, rural migrants, formerly trafficked women and the disabled - DDD aims to maximise its social impact. Prior to their employment at DDD, young disadvantaged group join the DDD programme for 3-8 months to develop basic computer and English skills; they improve their typing speed and accuracy, are schooled in commonly applicable software, develop problem-solving skills, and practice their skills on closely simulated DDD jobs. Upon completion of the training period, students who meet DDD’s standards are hired to join the organisation as entrylevel employees.
Over the past seven years, we have trained more than 1000 people with marketable skills, and more than 200 of our staff have graduated from entrylevel jobs to employment opportunities that earn them six times the average income in Cambodia market. Unable to afford university tuition, Heng sold rice to support her family until a friend told her about DDD. She worked at DDD for two years, developing technical skills and simultaneously earning her bachelor’s degree in computer science, one of the only women in her field. She now works as a master trainer of teachers in Cambodia, passing on her expertise to others. Every one of our employees has a story like these. While DDD’s figures point to our success, it’s in these private triumphs that we take the most pride. Apart from employment, what kind of training is provided to these youths? DDD recruits disadvantaged and disabled youth in Cambodia and Laos lacking educational or employment
These employees split their days between on-site training and further education. They work six hours a day on actual client projects, closely mentored by experienced managers. To simultaneously foster these individuals’ broader potential as leaders, all employees are required to attend regular internal training workshops that focus on personal development and career management. Employees spend the rest of their days at school, earning their degrees in three to four years. This education is funded by matching scholarships from DDD. To monitor their progress, employees meet regularly with HR consultants, who help them define their career goals and identify the appropriate educational track to reach 23
them. While some graduates are promoted to senior positions within DDD, most look for work outside of the organisation. How are DDD’s professional standards looked at in the sector? How is it seen by other companies in the field? DDD graduates or those who have completed DDD work/study programme are extraordinarily successful: the average graduate earns an average of six times the average annual income in Cambodia and Laos. DDD business and socially responsible culture has taught and equipped its employees with business disciplines and values that enable them to do their jobs professionally and ethically. The average time each individual spends at DDD before graduating is about 3-4 years. How well are the youth employed and trained by DDD prepared to look for opportunities in the job market? DDD has a graduation programme which assists its employees throughout the job hunting process, getting help writing their resumes and cover letters, interviewing and networking skills, and navigation of the local job market. It is said that commercial investors are wary of funding organisations driven by a social mission. Has DDD ever encountered such a problem? No, actually commercial investors do not only donate to help fund us on
region and also South Asia? In the next five years, DDD plans to expand within Cambodia and Laos and throughout the region. We plan to open new offices in both Cambodia and Laos, extending our reach to target a more rural population. In addition, we plan to establish an office in Vietnam: we choose Vietnam as our next site because of its proximity and its parallel need for equilibrium change. With the addition of these three offices, we estimate that we will have approximately 2,000 employees. Using this venture to refine our mechanism of expansion, in the next ten years DDD hopes to capitalise on the interest it has generated to develop a network to perpetuate its success worldwide.
DDD graduates or those who have completed DDD work/study programme are extraordinarily successful: the average graduate earns an average of six times the average annual income in Cambodia and Laos business investment cost, but also help us to shape our strategy to achieve long term sustainability. Are there plans to expand DDD’s activities to other countries in the
DDD recruits disadvantaged and disabled youth in Cambodia and Laos lacking educational or employment opportunities who join the DDD programme for 3-8 months to develop basic computer and English skills; they improve their typing speed and accuracy, are schooled in commonly applicable software, develop problem-solving skills, and practice their skills on closely simulated DDD jobs 24
What are the issues peculiar to education in Cambodia and Laos? Why are these countries still lagging behind in education, compared to other countries in the region? There are many reasons behind the low quality notion of Cambodia and Laos’ education system. Firstly, teachers have been extremely underpaid, particularly, in the rural areas. Secondly, the teaching skills and metrology used are still very traditional which are teaching people to memorise and obey, not having the kids to think logically and challenge. Thirdly, most families in rural areas neither see the benefits of having their children, especially, girls to further education nor understand the connection between education and social mobility since the area they are living lack of general world knowledge, business investment and employment opportunities. Young women are usually encouraged to get married in their early ages and serve their husband. Young men and women in poor families are usually pushed by families to drop their school to find work in factories, labour intensive job or some kind of jobs that do not need much investment to help them earn their immediate income to support their daily livings. These are the cycle of poverty that people are stuck and find it hard to break unless there is an opportunity like DDD to be given. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
Intel Initiatives in Tamil Nadu
Project Based Learning Sustains Community Health Intel initiatives like technology supported Project Based Learning, under the Intel Teach Program in Tamil Nadu, has brought about a silent revolution in community health in Mannargudi taluk of Tiruvarur district. A group of students of Panchayat Union Middle School from Needamangalam block of the taluk have successfully launched a community campaign on ill-effects of mosquito coils. With the aid of technology, they conducted awareness programmes for their community members by giving presentations and distributing flyers and brochures.
All this time a mosquito coil was kept burning in his room to keep the mosquitoes away.Until they learnt that mosquito coils while keeping mospquitoes at bay, also release high levels of Carcinogens (cancer causing agents) due to their pesticide composition. Approximately, one coil releases as much particulate matter as 100 cigarettes, depending on the brand.Somu’s parents were aghast. They had literally exposed their son to passive inhalation of highly toxic fumes. Somu was now hospitalised with doctors diagnosing it as Allethrin poisoning (through coils). Regular exposure to coils meant the potential ill-effects could be dangerous and long term.
It all started when a cousin of one of the students fell seriously sick. Suffering from consistent cough, convulsions and a splitting headache, Somu’s face was a picture of agony and pain. Perplexed by their son’s distress, the parents ran from pillar to post wondering what had happened. Was it dengue or the pollution? They approached various doctors, who subjected Somu to all kinds of medical examinations.
Seeing his cousin in a bad state, the student struck an idea to spread awareness among the community regarding the ill-effects of exposure to mosquito coils. He approached his teacher Manimegalai K, who had trained under the Intel Teach Program. She wanted her students to do a project, through the aid of technology. The key being an issue that would have an impact on the community.
Intel® Teach Program
So the students chose the topic ‘Harmful Effects of Mosquito Coils- an Eye-Opener’. Ms Manimegalai divided them into groups. While one group searched the Internet for more information on Allethrin poisoning, another group researched on the alternatives for mosquito coils.
The Intel® Teach Program is a professional development program that helps classroom teachers effectively integrate technology to enhance student learning. It is the most successful professional development program of its kind. In India, the Program has impacted over 9,45,500 teachers across 15 states governments , 2 Union territories, 55 teacher education universities, 8 SCERT’s and Central govt relationships like NVS, KVS & NCTE. Brief Update for Tamil Nadu: • Program Started in: October 2004. Partnership with SSA, Directorate of Teacher Education Research and Training (DTERT), Madras University, NKT University & Chennai Corporation. • Professional development programs imparted to over 44000 teachers across government and private schools; 7166 Teacher Educators and Student teachers. • Intel and SSA have jointly developed guidelines to enhance school curriculum through Technology Supported Project Based Learning Evaluation of impact of Program reveals that: • 68 percent principals mentioned that the use of computers in the teaching has a positive impact on the teachers, students and overall functioning of the school • 88 percent students who have been exposed to CAL mentioned that they enjoy this usage of technology and more lessons should be taught using the computers
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
The students wanted to reach the maximum number of people, so they made presentations and conducted awareness programmes, where flyers and brochures were also distributed. The project was also exhibited at the school level and now they will be participating in the district level competition for further outreach and impact. Based on the extensive research, the student also prepared a medicated coil with Neem, Tulsi and Turmeric, along with leaves of Nochi, Thumbai and Aadaa Thodai. The coil was distributed in their locality and it received a positive feedback. Ms Manimegalai has also written to President of India Pratibha Patil and state Health minister requesting them to personally take up this issue. The effort of the students also made it to the local newspapers. The project has been a success as students are encouraged with their ability to sustain a community campaign and parents are happy to have a safer alternative. Meanwhile, completely cured now, Somu is also back home. 25
Walking firm for Seamless
IGNOU VISION : Targeting paperless administration and education delivery, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is fast turning towards Information Com
programmes today can be pursued online and a few more are in the offing. Says Dr CG Naidu, Professor incharge of the IGNOU New Schools division, “Our ultimate objective is to
The study materials are gradually being transformed in virtual format. In day to day administrative work effective ICT is being pursued. The experience of learning virtually through the emerging technologies is completely new in India. The IGNOU’s forte at education delivery modes is now through Internet, radio, television, mobile phone handsets and satellite. Print medium is now merely a supportive one. The ICT at the IGNOU is constantly taking new strides. As today’s world has certain distinctive characteristics like greater inter-connectivity through Internet, ever-growing flow of information, shrinking time and eclipse of geographical boundaries, rapid fall in costs of communication, computing, increasing tele-connectivity has been seen. Availability of satellite technology and unprecedented penetration of the World Wide Web have already turned the world into a global virtual village. The IGNOU has already installed dishes in 30 regions at various locations. The regions are Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Cochin, Dehradun, Delhi-1, Delhi-2, Gangtok, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, jaipur, Jammu, Karnal, Khanna, Kohima, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Ranchi, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar. India today is considered a powerhouse at ICT skills. Among the country’s universities, the IGNOU has taken lead in promoting, supporting and engineering innovations in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and education system in the entire length and breadth of the country. It is building capacities at continual search for novelties.
National Centre for Innovations in Distance Education (NCIDE)
The IGNOU has created the NCIDE to nurture inquisitive minds to explore the ODL systems. The goal is to provide seamless education across various levels with cost efficiency at operations borderless access to quality education. Recently, the NCIDE has developed Innovative Multiple Media Package for the IGNOU School of Health Sciences. Multiple innovative media packages are being created for MBBS graduates to educate about Childhood Illness, Maternal and Child Health. The packages include interactive multimedia CDs, e-learning tools like chat forums, discussion sessions and audio-visual conferencing. Below is the graphic presentation about how does it work. With the School of Sciences, the IGNOU’s NCIDE has developed laboratory experiments through computer mediated simulations and demonstrations.
As NCIDE envisions, a Virtual Laboratory (vilab) will provide innovative and timely solutions to problems of science students in the ODL system. Students will be able to practice and perform laboratory experiments from remote locations through browser or offline multi-media CDs. The problem of students in the North East part of the country is fast being solved through cooperation between NCIDE and the Educational Development for the North East Region Unit (EDNERU). The programmes are being disseminated through Edusat which now has a hub within the IGNOU headquarters campus. The simulative practices apart, programmes are also carried out through two-way audio and video modes which eventually offer virtual classrooms. Even basic vocational programmes in floriculture and computer literacy programmes are offered. The booming e-Learning market world over predicts an upward swing with more and more institutions, organisations and individuals adapting to this mode. In a presentation, ‘Reaching the Unreached with e-Learning’ IGNOU Professor Uma Kanjilal, the director of School of Social Sciences, concluded, “The power of e-Learning lies in its potential to provide the right information to the right people at the right time and place. With the ICTs, the delivery of educational programmes has witnessed a paradigm shift from print based teaching-learning to e-Learning.”
IGNOU Vice Chancellor Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai explains, “We need to look towards developing new models for designing relevant curricula, teaching and training materials, novel universal teaching aids and new models of teaching and examining students. The new IT-enabled systems allow experts, teachers and students to comment and discuss text books, link supplementary material for further studies, share lectures, exercises, assignments and tests.”
Access to Teaching Aids The IGNOU is fast evolving a system in which every teacher is able to access teaching aids developed anywhere by anyone. These systems will provide flexible ways to teach students who are socioeconomically troubled. Such systems would also produce competent teachers in the long run. The IGNOU provides multi-channel, multiple media teaching-learning packages in form of self-instructional print and audio/video materials, radio and television broadcasts, face to-face counselling/tutoring, laboratory and hands-on experience, video conferencing, interactive radio counselling, interactive multimedia CD-ROM and internet-based learning. Apart from the print-based self instructional material, the educational programmes are reaching over five million homes through the Gyan Darshan Channels, via the DTH (Direct-To-Home) platform and webcasting.
s Borderless Edutainment
mmunication Technology (ICT). Computer is the future tool for education and responding to the call strongly, the IGNOU is evolving itself into a virtual campus. Scores of academic o take all programmes online, as future tool for education is the ICT.”
The University is now gearing towards the development of interactive multimedia content and learner support through web-based platforms. Education has become truly democratized with Web which gives information access to users from any part of the world, emancipates and empowers force facilitating self-publishing, knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer networking. It has now shifted from being a medium, in which information was transmitted and consumed, into a platform, where content is created, shared, remixed, repurposed, and passed along. In the same spirit e-Learning has moved from being merely a content repository and emulating classroom teaching to more dynamic concepts of Social Networking, Do-It-Yourself (DIY), Personal Learning Environment (PLE) and Mobile Learning.
Planning’ (ERP) has come up which integrates all processes at the organizational level. The ERP integrates several data sources and processes of an organization into a unified system of back-end database to store data. The IGNOU has also embarked on an initiative to adopt ERP to enhance individual competencies to strengthen capabilities. The move will help to get consistent and integrated data to all concerned.” The ERP will be extended to IGNOU’s 2,053 study centres, 62 regional centres and concerned service divisions. Currently, as the first step, ERP programmes
New ideas are converted into innovative practices through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) mechanism. The NICDE has equipped the DEI with state-of-the-art systems. These would not only address emerging issues of research and development of ICT-enabled distance education, but also will provide support for individuals, institutes, organizations wherever integration of technology with research will be possible. The DEI hosts a highly interactive Virtual Environment to enable budding innovators, researchers and experts come together to discus, design and develop live projects in a simulated environment.
A few major initiatives have been taken in IGNOU recently. It has created a national digital repository branded as ‘eGyanKosh’, an e-Learning platform for Library and Information Virtual Education, called ‘LIVE’, PAN- African e-Network and a one-stop education portal of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) titled as Sakshat.
eGyanKosh: A national digital repository of learning resources eGyanKosh is an effort towards developing a national digital repository of learning resources. It addresses a problem dogging intelligentsia over the years as a vast amount of self-instructional materials, audio and video programmes were generated by the ODL institutions of Peoplesoft and Oracle back-end processes for HR, in the country. Huge wealth of structured knowledge is finance, works, purchase and inventory departments National IT Network for Education available which was very difficult to access and reuse. have been taken up. In the second phase, the ERP The IT-based collaborative network, therefore, has This resulted in duplication of efforts in developing cover will be extended to communicate and retrieve become the buzzword in the IGNOU world today. learning materials and wastage of valuable resources, Says Professor VN Rajasekharan Pillai, “Technology information online. besides restricting the use to the registered programme requirements of realising these collaboration network specific audience only. Some like the audio visual targets are two: (a) hardware and software infrastructure programmes would not even reach the target audience. Distance Education Incubator (DEI) for developing proper contents and making them Apart from investment of a huge sum, the audio visual One of the most innovative helplines which the IGNOU available across the nation, (b) similar infrastructure programmes stored in analogue form had a limited life has created is the DEI. It provides technological and for collection and analysis of data from sources span. Keeping these issues in mind, eGyanKosh was intellectual assistance to different stake-holders at their across the nation. The result from the first will assist nascent stage of ideation. initiated by IGNOU to store, index, preserve, teachers, students and educationists to distribute and share the digital learning improve quality of classroom instruction e-Learning has moved from being merely a content resources developed by the ODL institutions at all levels. That from the second will in the country. repository and emulating classroom teaching to help administration boost its operational more dynamic concepts of Social Networking, efficiency.” Reports Dr VSP Srivastav, IGNOU Computer Do-It-Yourself (DIY), Personal Learning Environment Division chief, “With advancement in IT, an The IGNOU is steadily marching towards (PLE) and Mobile Learning improved ICT tool ‘Enterprise Resource these goals.
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One Laptop Per Child in India
Fostering Learning Learning http://www.laptop.org
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he US –based One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation is planning to distribute thirty lakh XO laptops among the children entering schools by the end of 2009. Its ultimate mission is to ensure that all school children in the age group of five and 12 in India are able to engage effectively with their own personal laptop, networked to the world, so that they, their families and their communities can openly learn and learn about learning. The OLPC has just set up its India office in New Delhi. OLPC India aims at creating educational opportunities for India’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. Its eventual goal is to integrate the quality of the next generation of India’s work force with the global needs. Through its XO laptops it has devised one of the most innovative and cost-effective ways of spreading learning and imparting skills that can make India an important pole of the digital global order. OLPC is funded by a number of sponsor organisations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, Microsoft, SES, Nortel Networks, and Red Hat. Each company has donated two million dollars. Microsoft is contributing through its features that are fitted into the XOs. XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, and complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital. Extensively field-tested and validated among some of the poorest and most remote populations on earth, constructionism emphasises what Papert calls “learning learning” as the fundamental educational experience. A computer uniquely fosters “learning learning” by allowing children to “think about thinking”, in ways that are otherwise impossible. Using the XO as both their window on the world, as well as a highly programmable tool for exploring it, children in emerging nations like India will be opened to both illimitable knowledge and to their own creative and problemsolving potential. XO, OLPC believes, is not a computer but an education tool, not a laptop project but a learning programme. XO laptops 28
have been specially devised by keeping the Indian conditions in mind. Each set consumes just 1 watt of power, has a screen that is visible in sunlight, can be dropped by a child without damage, is resistant to water spilled on keyboards, is a dual boot system with Windows XP preloaded and MS Office access and has several programmes that are open source based that kids typically enjoy and has been localised for various regions of India. All course contents and books used in India’s primary schools can be fitted easily in these laptops in local languages, with the effect that students will get the study material absolutely free. These laptops can impart learning even in those schools that do not have proper buildings. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
Each XO costs approximately INR 12000/- per set. It can cost INR 5000 each if demands in India can scale up the demands. Given that it comes with Microsoft Windows and Office pre-loaded along with many other features, XO comes almost free. Its gains are in the variety of open source applications that come with it, along with wikipedia that is also pre-loaded. The OLPC project is drawing a good response from all over the world. It is already a success in Latin America and some African countries such as Libya, Nigeria and Rwanda. Nearer home, it has been received warmly by Pakistan and Nepal. In India XOs will be distributed among all primary school children in phases. OLPC is soliciting support from the central and state governments, industrial houses committed to social responsibility and various foundations. Satish Jha, the President and CEO of “OLPC India” talks more about the educational tool. A former Editor with The Times of India and the Indian Express Groups in India, Satish is a member of the UN-GAID (United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development), Special Advisor to the Kofi Annan Center and co-chairs the World IT Forum (WITFOR)
With the emergence of low-cost PCs and laptops, do you believe the time for low-cost computing has arrived? We have brought the price down quite substantially, making the idea of a $100 laptop conceivable. That effectively took a “0” away from the cost and offers an opportunity to extend the frontier of computing to the next billion folks across the globe. Though the new XO costs $200, it probably has the features that may be hard to package in a conventional laptop that costs ten times more. It also focused on children as distinct from office, taking computing outside the four walls of an office room or a class room. XO is fit to use for learning under a tree as well. All that contributes to lowering the cost of computing and we believe that we are headed towards an era of ubiquitous electronic access to knowledge. Can the computing price be lowered further? Surely. The price of computing will continue to fall but our needs will Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
continue to grow for more computing power as well. In some ways, the conventional laptop costs the same today as it did 20 years ago. A Toshiba laptop in 1988 was for about $1000 and a comparable one today, though a lot more powerful, costs much the same. But technically comparable computing power can be purchased for as little as $50 or less. So, much depends on how we view it. OLPC is an education project, not a technology project. Could you tell us a little more about that? How is this laptop’s architecture relevant and appropriate to the use in education? XO has been designed as a tool for children to learn with an underlying constructionist pedagogic model as distinct from the conventional “instructionist” model that our generations grew up with. It is an inviting tool that attracts children to play with it, making learning fun. Though it has the power of a conventional laptop and a lot more, it is used by children to enjoy learning , making them feel like who they are- children who will grow
up to be adults rather than treating them as dwarfed adults, as will be the case if they were to use a PC that is primarily designed for the office work. It has no moving parts, is shock proof, water proof, dust proof, has a sun-readable screen and takes just 1 watt of power. More importantly, it uses open source technologies that allow children to be creative at their pace. Can you tell us about the differences technically between the Classmate/ tablet PCs and the XO? XO is designed as a laptop that meets the needs of the children. Classmate model is more along the lines of a PC for children. XO is for outside the building as much as inside and adapts to the need of the disadvantaged and is meant for any environment. I understand Classmate is for environments that are meant for it. How would you gauge the success of the OLPC so far? What is the acceptance percentage in India? There are few products that may claim reaching out to a million users in the 29
first year of their launch. OLPC has reached as many in twenty countries. We have just started our operations in India and hope that India will be the most creative and ubiquitous user of XOs and in the next few years every child in India will have access to screen based learning. As of today, though, Nepal has purchased close to 10,000 XOs against virtually none in India. However, given that every fourth child lives in India and the way we have evolved in the past couple decades materially and experientially, I look forward to XO being a tool of choice for Indian children. There was a big debate happened with the Goverment of India rejecting the idea for the country and now government is busy working on a similar but a really low cost device for the kids. How has been your preparation aftermath to reach out to the children in this country- in a true sense of one laptop per child? I would think that the country is better off using the technologies that are available now than creating a new
should take it to the market. Some other governments want to try it out. Corporate India is keen to support it in its own way and I hope there will be a momentum to use this opportunity for the good of our children who will shape the India tomorrow. You certainly don’t want to be in a situation where you’re sending one or two machines to children in an area. You want to send them to an entire class or school. What is the strategy? Yes, that is one of the key values that we emphasise. We want every child in a school to have an XO. We will approach schools rather than children; Institutions rather than individuals. Everyone can connect to us. But to keep the cost of reaching out to a minimum, we would like to take the institutional route. Children are naturally excited about accessing the Internet, but in a country like India, that access is expensive, particularly in rural areas. How do you think that problem could be solved? XO makes that access affordable. It comes with mesh networking built in
We will approach schools rather than children; Institutions rather than individuals. Everyone can connect to us. But to keep the cost of reaching out to a minimum, we would like to take the institutional route
technology that may or may not happen and in the meanwhile, a generation or two may have been deprived of the learning experience that was both possible and affordable. Of course, various experiments and initiatives to lower the cost of computing further must go on as long as they are not at the expense of the current generation. We are taking the approach to be “inclusive” and are trying to reach out to everyone who may benefit from it. The Finance Minister Chidambaram advised us that we have a great product and we 30
and that allows an XO to communicate with another XO even without an Internet. If a Server is connected to Internet, that can bring it to all the children as needed. However, most of the knowledge they need can be stored on servers. It comes with Wikipedia preloaded. So we have tried finding ways to address such issues and are always open to finding better ways to do what we do. In India, how are you prepared to face the probem of power? In computing devices, people don’t trust
on the battery life as well. Do you think power is the central problem in portable devices, or are other aspects (ergonomics, display, software cost, environmental impact) more important? XO can work on power, battery, solar power, a hand crank as an accessory and we can address that question according to local needs. XO is the product of taking a holistic view of what children need to learn, power being one of them. How would you compare the responses for the device in India in comparision to Latin America and Africa? So far, the rest of the world has been far more responsive at the government level. However, I have not met one person in India who is not excited about the possibilities with XO. Even those who rival us, like XO to a level of excitement about it. Can you elaborate on your partners in India? We are developing various partnerships with corporations, non-profits, NGOs and prominent citizens and also approaching various state governments as well as the central government. What is the future, do you think, technically in such low cost laptops? What will our computing devices look like in five years? What will the classrooms look like in five years with such devices? You may want to wait for the next generation XOs. They are going to be simply mind-boggling, even for the tech savvy folks. Clearly, introduction of technologies will change the way we learn, just as it has already changed the way work in most organisations. What is that educational objective that you wish to achieve with this in India? Our goal is to let everyone, particularly the disadvantaged children of India and the world, learn as well as anyone in the world can, with a little they can afford. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
SABA SOFTWARE S
aba is the premier Human Capital Management (HCM) software and services provider, using a people-centric approach to increase productivity and performance. As a trusted partner, Saba has enabled the Aligned Enterprise for over 1,100 customers in 150 countries by providing an integrated people management system to continuously align goals, develop people, improve collaboration and increase visibility into organisational performance. Saba customers include ABN AMRO, Alcatel, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, BMW, Cisco Systems, Continental Airlines, DaimlerChrysler, EDS, EMC Corp., Ford Motor Company, Honeywell, Kaiser Permanente, Medtronic, Procter & Gamble, Telecom Italia and VERITAS Software. Saba was founded in April 1997 and went public (NASDAQ: SABA) in April 2000. The Company is headquartered in Redwood Shores, California and has sales operations, local alliance partners and customers in more than 26 countries worldwide.
Product and Technology Leadership Saba’s comprehensive suite of enterprise learning management, performance management, content management, collaboration and analytics solutions enable customers to improve organisational performance by aligning, developing and measuring the performance of people across the extended enterprise. Built on an open, scalable and configurable J2EE technology platform, the Saba enterprise platform rather than spending valuable time and resources on customisation, can be tailored to meet customer needs through administrative options and business rules. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
Industry recognition Saba has received industry recognition for its solutions, and recently was named again to the leader quadrant position in the Gartner 2004 e-Learning Suite and LMS “Magic Quadrants and was named as a leader in the 2004 METASpectrum report on Learning Management Systems.
Customers Saba’s customer list includes over 10% of the Global 500, and all of the “big 3” auto manufacturers. Three nations have adopted Saba technology and solutions: Norway, the Netherlands and Scotland. Among the Global 2000, Saba customers include Alcatel, Anheuser-Busch, Cisco Systems, Continental Airlines, DaimlerChrysler, EDS, EMC Corp., Ford Motor Company, Honeywell, Kaiser Permanente, Medtronic, Procter & Gamble, Telecom Italia and VERITAS Software.
http://www.saba.com/products/index.htm
Saba Learning Suite
Bringing Learning 2.0 to the Enterprise By taking a strategic, disciplined, enterprise-wide approach to aligning, managing and measuring learning and development initiatives, organisations ensure that their people have the right skills and knowledge to perform at their best. Saba Learning Suite is the most comprehensive solution available to address the strategic mandates of the learning organisation–to deliver effective formal and informal learning that is tied to clear business outcomes and strategic human capital management initiatives. With Saba Centra, Saba Learning Suite is the learning suite from a single company that addresses the full continuum of learning – formal, informal, self-paced, live, and a blend – to provide seamless and truly effective learning.
What industry analysts say Saba Named Leader in Forrester’s Enterprise Learning Management Suites Wave Report Based on a 90-criteria evaluation, Saba Learning received top scores in collaboration, corporate strategy and market presence.
Saba Identified as an LMS Market Share Leader Bersin & Associates, in their “2008: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends, and Vendor Profiles” report noted Saba Learning’s... •
“Saba is a strong pure-play provider with large global implementations. The vendor is on the cutting edge of the latest LMS innovations with its efforts in informal learning and knowledge centers. Saba has a robust corporate strategy with well thought-out plans for expansion and growth.”
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Ability to scale to support 10,000+ learners spread over multiple countries and continents Provides global sales & service operations Largest average implementation size of any LMS vendor Competitive on-demand solution
- Claire SchooleyForrestor Wave: Enterprise Learning Management Suites, Q1 2008 31
Saba Performance Suite Saba Performance Suite is a powerful solution that offers the ability to track and manage the performance of both individuals and organisations, enabling organisations to close the loop between overall strategy and individual accountability. Saba products can be installed on premise, hosted by Saba, or provided as a convenient Saba OnDemand service. Saba OnDemand offers the shortest implementation times and provides all the support for hardware, network, database and security administration, application installation, and upgrades. Saba Performance Suite Features • Set and manage goals and objectives throughout the organization • Manage performance planning processes such as balanced scorecards, performance plans, development plans and MBOs • Manage a more strategic performance review process
Saba Compensation Suite Benefits •
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Link base and variable compensation and rewards directly to measures of success Drive improvements in performance and productivity Create compensation plans and programs based on informed workforce plans Empower managers and compensation planners with decision support Empower employees to provide input into their compensation options
Saba Centra Suite Saba Centra is an online learning environment that combines a highly interactive virtual classroom learning, e-meeting, and web seminar platform with a learning content management system to deliver optimal blended learning. And, Saba Centra extends Saba’s learning management platform to include real-time training and collaborative sessions–all from a single vendor.
Saba Centra enables globally dispersed employees, customers, and partners to learn, interact and exchange knowledge online in real time. Advanced desktop application integration supports high-end user adoption across global enterprise deployments. Users need only a web browser to attend a seminar from anywhere, even over low-bandwidth connections or through corporate firewalls and proxy servers. Deployed in 1,000+ organisations worldwide, Saba Centra is built for the enterprise and has an advanced architecture that is scalable, secure, and reliable. Fault-tolerance, redundancy, and three-tier design ensure maximum up-time.
New features in Centra 7.6 include Centra Recording Studio – Provides on-demand access to knowledge through an intuitive application that will enable subject matter experts and business users to quickly create, manage and publish professional-quality, rich media content online of offline.
Saba Centra is used for... Live, structured virtual classes that are structured and replicate the physical classroom experience
Self-service emeetings that enable collaboration in an unstructured, informal learning environment
Large-scale web seminars held when formation meetings are required
Self-paced training that lets learners use recordings to tap into the learning that goes on in virtual classrooms, emeetings and web seminars
Saba Compensation Suite The Saba Compensation Suite is an innovative compensation and rewards solution that that utilises information from the talent lifecycle to improve both employee engagement and retention and drive better business results. With Saba, one can establish compensation and rewards process that goes beyond simple pay-forperformance, focusing instead on making compensation decisions an integral part of a rich workforce plan that takes into account both organizational needs and individual talent metrics. 32
November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
Saba Talent Suite Benefits Features
Benefits
Create and manage detailed talent profiles of the people in your organization
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Establish and manage talent pools for succession and/or career development
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Foster the growth of key talent through proactive development and collaboration
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Surgient Virtual Labs Extension – Provides hassle-free hands-on
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
Understand the bench strength you have in critical positions Mine your internal talent for future leaders Mitigate risk by identifying flight risks and talent gaps Minimize the risk of departures through proactive planning Improve employee engagement and retention by providing opportunities for advancement Enable more efficient knowledge transfer and improved access to experts and mentors Mitigate recruiting risks and costs by developing talent internally Leverage spending on learning and development to close talent gaps
training through extended lab support from Surgient’s Virtual Training Lab
Management System (VTMS). Users will be able to access live enterprise applications for hands-on learning— removing the need to install and manage software on-site. Business Application Integration – Provides access to Centra from everyday business applications, making it easy to collaborate and share information directly from the desktop within the context of day-to-day work. Enhanced Browser and OS Support – Provides support for Firefox 2.0 for the Mac and Microsoft Windows Vista that will enable anytime, anywhere access to Saba Centra.
Saba Talent Suite Saba Talent Suite is a solution that provides the ability to track and manage processes that relate to the identification and development of talent across the organisation.
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LearnHub launches free CAT community for IIM aspirants
Windows Vista and Office 2007 Suite. The solutions also conform to the guidelines of the ‘National Curriculum Framework 2005’. As part of the offering, the benefits of the NIIT Mind Champion Academy will also be extended to schools.
Generating interactive display through the ‘Many Eyes’
LearnHub.com, an online social learning network, has announced the launch of free CAT community on their website. Learnhub.com is a centralised online education destination for teachers and learners, launched by Canada based eLearning company Savvica Inc in which Indian education content providers Educomp Solutions has a majority stake. LearnHub.com has added a Common Admission Test (CAT) community to its list of free test preparatory resources. Available at http://CAT.LearnHub.com, it is a repository of original and valuable study material. The focus is on the development of sound concepts, clearly elucidated by examples. The courseware is further supported by the world’s largest free collection of questions, including full solutions and forums where the right approach to problem solving/concepts are discussed.
NIIT launches comprehensive ‘NIIT eGuru’ solution for schools Global talent development corporation NIIT has launched a spectrum of products and solutions for next generation schools under its ‘NIIT eGuru’, in collaboration with Intel and Microsoft. The solutions comprises interactive classrooms for teachers, ‘Math Lab’, and ‘IT Wizard’ for students, and an ERP solution for school management ‘Quick School’. While the ‘Interactive Classroom’ solution is based on Intel technologies and architecture, the ‘IT Wizard’ curriculum is based on Microsoft’s 34
Scientists at the Watson Research Centre of IBM in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have created an experimental website ‘Many Eyes’ (www.many-eyes.com), where users can upload the data they want to visualise, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. These might range from maps of relationships in the New Testament to display of the comparative frequency of words used in poltical speeches. The site, created to help people publish
and discuss graphics in a group, is the brainchild of IBM researchers Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda B Viegas. The Many Eyes site that began in January 2007 offers 16 ways to present data, from stack graphs and bar charts to diagrams that let people map relationships. TreeMaps, showing information in colourful rectangles, are among the popular tools.
NComputing Inc to provide PCs to AP schools A Silicon Valley company is claiming a major victory in its efforts to sell computers to schools that might otherwise be enticed by low-cost laptops such as the green-and-white XO from One Laptop Per Child or Intel’s Classmate PC. NComputing Inc. has announced it would be providing computers in 5,000 schools in Andhra Pradesh. The deal is expected to benefit
1.8 million students in the state due to the special software they use. . California-based NComputing Inc. uses a technology more common to server farms than rural schools to slash the cost of operating PCs. It is called virtualisation – a layer of software that lets many ‘virtual’ computers run simultaneously on the power of a single souped-up desktop. In Andhra Pradesh, the government will install 10,000 computers and turn each into five virtual PCs.
Tata chairman gifts US$ 50m to Cornell University Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata has gifted US$ 50 million to Cornell University, his alma mater, an endowment considered ‘one of the most generous ever received from an international benefactor by an American university’. The gift will help recruit top Indian students to the campus and to support joint research projects with Indian universities in agriculture and nutrition. The gift from Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic organisations run by the head of the business conglomerate Tata Sons, will allow Cornell to establish and expand partnerships with Indian scientists and build on its strength in applied agriculture research. The donation will also be used to set up a scholarship fund to bring more Indian students to the university.
John Wiley & Sons Inc,Texas University tie-up for digital content John Wiley & Sons Inc. and the University of Texas at Austin have announced a partnership in a pilot project to license Wiley’s digital learning materials to students directly via the University. The materials November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
include WileyPLUS, an integrated suite of teaching and learning resources, featuring an online version of the textbook, homework management tools, an online gradebook, interactive tutorials and simulations, as well as image libraries. The primary goals of this pilot are to improve the teaching and learning experience for students and faculty, while reducing the costs to students. Scheduled to commence in spring 2009, the multi-year pilot will give students enrolled in particular courses access to download a digitised version of the
print textbook they may otherwise have purchased. In addition, students may be given access to the WileyPLUS version of the textbook, which has been enhanced with tools that benefit both the student and the professor.
Michael Golden new Corporate VP of MS Education Products Group Microsoft Corp. has appointed Michael Golden as corporate vice president of the Education Products Group. In the new role, Golden will report to Anoop Gupta, corporate VP, Microsoft Unlimited Potential Group and Education Product Group, Technology Policy and Strategy. The newly created role is designed to fuel and to drive forward Microsoft’s global vision in terms of education. According to the software company, Golden will be responsible with bridging the gap between Microsoft’s technology and scholastic systems worldwide. Most recently, Golden was senior VP of marketing and strategic planning at Pearson School, a global leader in educational publishing, assessment, information and services. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
Microsoft research into using games to teach middle school students Microsoft is teaming up with a consortium of universities to study how best to use computer games to teach middle-school students math and science. The interdisciplinary research project will involve New York University and a consortium of other institutions — the City University of New York, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Parsons the New School for Design, and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Columbia’s Teachers College and NYU’s Polytechnic Institute are also involved. In middle school, many students become discouraged or uninterested and pour their time into gaming. ‘We think gaming is our starting point to draw them into math, science, and technologybased programmes,’ Ken Perlin, an NYU professor of computer science added. The research will be called the Games for Learning Institute and will have a US$ 3-million budget for its first four years. Half of the money will come from Microsoft, with the balance put up by the universities.
First North African nanotech centre by IBM The Egyptian government and IBM Research have entered into a partenrship to establish the first North African nanotechnology research centre in Cairo, beginning January 2009. Egypt’s Information Technology Industry
Development Agency (ITIDA) and Science and Technological Development Fund (STDF) signed the three-year partnership agreement with IBM. Joint investments will be in the region of US$ 30 million. Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education Hany Helal said the IBM deal was important for implementation of Egypt’s science and technology strategy. Partners in the centre, Cairo University, Nile University and IBM, will collaborate in the areas of simulation and modelling software, alternative energy sources and energy recovery for desalination.
Educomp Solutions acquires Takshila Management Services Educomp Solutions, education solutions providers, has acquired 51% stake for an unrevealed amount in Takshila Management Services. The company participates in building high quality schools in Tier II and Tier III cities across India. According to reports, Educomp Millennium learning system shall be used in all the ‘Takshila Schools’ as an integral part of the academic system. Sources said Takshila Management Services proposes to build three schools in Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Ahmednagar (Maharashtra) and Gaya (Bihar) to be ready for the coming academic fiscal by June 2009. The company has also intended to set up further 25 schools over the next couple of fiscals.
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ICY L O P RS E T T MA
India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education Capacity Building of Schools and Teachers in ICT
a Report of the Round table discussion The critical factor in the successful integration of ICT into teacher education is the extent to which the teacher educators have the knowledge and skills in ICT integration. A well-conceived and sustained programme of professional development is, therefore, required, to enable the teacher educators and master teachers to develop these skills. This may require development and revision of existing teacher training curriculum guidelines for pre-service and in-service teachers. This brings to the front some of the very pertinent questions like• What are the methods of skilling and re-skilling educators to adapt and to adopt to the changing faces of technology? • How can educators be guided on effective use of these new tools that focus on learning activities, rather than content delivery or general learner management? • How to build buy-in and ownership among educators and motivate them to spearhead the ICT-based education process? In order to find out appropriate answers on these above questions which can be suggested for the formulation of the Indian National Policy on ICT in School Education, Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) alongwith Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) as a core facilitating partner organised a national level Round Table discussion and consultation on Capacity Building of Schools and Teachers in ICT under the aegis of Ministry of HRD, Government of India, in New Delhi on September 30, 2008. Digital Learning Team of CSDMS captures the proceedings, discussions, and recommendations of the capacity building session of schools and teachers in ICT... 36
November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
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he discussions in the Round Table revolved around the questions mentioned above where the participants exchanged their views and expert comments and tried to reach at compiling some guidelines and recommendation points for the purpose of drafting the ICT policy in school education. Shri Arun Kumar Rath, Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and delivered a key note address to the august audience. He suggested to address a broader set of issues related to teachers’ recruitment and training in a time bound manner. Shri. S.C. Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Mr. Jyrki Pulkkinen, Executive Director, Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) were among the distinguished guests and speakers. Shri Rath and Shri Khuntia presented the perspectives, challenges and measures taken by the Government on ICT integration in education in the country. Shri Khuntia expected that the forthcoming policy on ICT in school education will address various issues related to capacity building adequately. He felt, with enhanced use of ICTs, school education will make a paradigm shift.
The participants were engaged in intensive discussion on various critical issues related to capacity building of teachers and schools and raising several pertinent questions. Participants shared different perspectives, experiences and feedback. The discussion led to a better understanding on the issues related to professional development of educators on integrating ICTs in the teaching and learning processes. A set of recommendations emerged out of the discussion.
The participants urged to deal with the issues of motivation and morale also. The need was felt to enhance the role and participation of State Government agencies and institutions like State Council Educational Research and Training. Post training follow up with the teachers and providing one laptop per teacher was recommended by Dr S N Uma of NIIT. The group discussed that all school teachers should be skilled and re-skilled from time to time with content available in local languages. Vineeta Dixit, CEO of SW Applications emphasised that digital divide is about access to and familiarity with technology. A teacher friendly software is required for training teachers in using information and communication technology. There is a lack of infrastructure and capacity to optimise the ICT tools to achieve educational objectives. Dr Prabhjot Kaur, Principal M V College of Education suggested that B.Ed courses should include and increase ICT in Teacher Training. There is a need to allow space and flexibility for the teachers to discover and explore the possibilities of integrating ICT in education. Prof Marmar Mukhopadhyay, Director, Educational Technology Management Academy also brought up to the group that there should be a model based on case studies of teacher training across the country. There should be effort to build and bind motivation for training of the teahers in education process. Some pertinent points were raised by Prof MM Pant, Former Pro Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU who reiterated that there is a need to develop mechanism of teacher training and delivery of interactive content; sharing e-Content and sharing experience in web 2.0, emphasising learning over content delivery and metrics of learning as a process.
Annie Koshi, Principal of St.Mary’s school suggested the need to define the objective of education and role of ICTs in education. It was argued that different levels of education require different sets of action and strategy. The need was felt for understanding the skills required by teachers for integrating ICTs in education and was reiterated by Dr Anjlee Prakash, CEO, Learning Links Foundation.
Discussion also covered the issues of training, content, language, infrastructure, access, educational management and monitoring and evaluation. Prof. Siddiqui summarised the discussions and recommendations made by various participants. The Round Table discussion ended with a Vote of Thanks by Ashish Garg, the Country Programme Director, GeSCI.
Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui, Chairman, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), moderated the discussion session and highlighted in his talk the need for continuous capacity building of teachers. He informed that NCTE has initiated the process of developing a draft National Policy on Teacher Education. Mr. Pulkkinen shared the global vision and GeSCI’s experience on providing guidelines on effective capacity building mechanisms for teachers and schools in several countries. He urged for developing an understanding and consensus on role of ICT in education and skills required by the teachers.
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
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Recommendations
A.
The issues therefore are not of training or capacity building in the regular sense, but that of teacher empowerment. This requires that existing teacher training curriculum be modified to match the efforts made by the ministry to set up technology enabled environments in schools. Therefore, teacher training curriculum for government and private colleges should undergo a mandatory change with immediate effect. NCTE can take a lead in providing direction on this.
B.
In Service teachers need to be introduced to technology tools, so that they may be able to use them easily. This will require regular training. There is a need for regular skilling of teachers: on using ICT resources to create and manage a learning environment, training in delivering an “engaging and interactive� learning experience, training in creating high quality sharable e content and an immersion experience in creating web 2.0 tools. These opportunities need to be built in within the academic calendar and substantiated with awards and certification to motivate teachers in learning and equipping themselves with these skills. .Heads of schools will also benefit from learning the use of technology in schools, they can provide a clear and effective direction in planning and administration.
C.
Pre-service training courses (B.Ed.) and their curriculum should be equipped with adequate e-learning component and must have provision for equipping prospective teachers in the use of technology resources in class room teaching. The national policy may prescribe a leadership role for NCTE, SCERT and other state government agencies to help in the development of relevant curriculum.
The Teacher training curriculum in the country does not acknowledge the new age environment in schools and classrooms. There is a wide gap between the curriculum taught to teacher educators and the reality that exists in schools. With the exception of a miniscule percentage of well equipped schools, all the other schools are grappling with chronic issues
of proper school buildings, teaching materials, shortage of teachers, absenteeism of teachers, severe drop out rates of children, lack of proper sanitation and drinking water facilities are just a few of the problems. The teachers in our government schools play multifarious roles; trying to deal with these issues and several others. In such a situation, we have a new pressure point and that is introducing ICTs in the school. Teachers technically trained on traditional methods of lesson delivery cannot be suddenly expected to turn into technology wizards and churn out lessons by the hour. This needs a well thought out plan of action on skilling and re-skilling teachers across the country and has to be continuous. 38
Emphasising learning over content delivery is to be focused. Developing new learning metrics to measure student learning should be undertaken. The current system of evaluation of student learning does not allow creativity, innovation and research, which are important tools for life long learning. Learning mechanisms that promote mastery or deep learning, facilitate personalised learning based on learning styles and meta cognition can be adopted if teacher training curriculums accept new age technology tools to assess and evaluate student achievement on the basis of learning and not rote memorization. Train teachers to encourage cooperative and team learning environments. Efforts have to be made to create a pool of effective master trainers. There should be a mechanism for scaling up the quality of training to reach the approximately seven million teachers across the country to integrate ICT in education by developing models based on case studies, experience sharing and by organising discussion groups (online and offline). A.
Relevant education bodies may be mandated with the task of developing separate ICT enabled course November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
curriculum and e-content for different levels of school education- primary, upper primary, secondary and upper secondary. B.
Multiple mechanisms for teacher training can be used such as: face to face workshops, self learning and distance learning. Edusat can still be used effectively. Keeping in view the accessibility issues of the country, Radio and television should be used for both teacher training and delivery of lessons.
Digital divide is about access to, and familiarity, with technology. Teachers should have assured access to technology and resources. Provision of One Laptop per Teacher (OLPT) should be made on a permanent basis. Computers are to be provided for staff rooms in each school. Infrastructure is an important point of intervention to bring ICT in schools. There is a need to look at appropriate software, tools and mechanism that are teacherfriendly and meet their needs in local circumstances. There is a strong need to develop minimum standards for Instructional Design competence, standards for deployment of ICTs in teaching. These minimum standards can guide educators on effectively and innovatively use the new technology tools that focus on learning activities, rather than content delivery or general learner management. Along with these, minimum standards for student evaluation and for maintenance and management of ICT systems should also be developed. In this regard, an open ended approach may be preferred to encourage innovative outcomes. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
Public Private Partnership can be encouraged to meet several gaps within the existing infrastructure and for scaling up measures. Motivation in teachers is of paramount importance and there is a need to allow space and flexibility for the teachers to discover and explore the possibilities of integrating ICT in education. This will ensure buy in and ownership of educators in integrating ICTs in education. The trainings and performance may be linked with incentives like promotions, awards, etc. This will enhance the morale of teachers and ensure their ownership in the change process. 39
Technology in Podar International School, Mumbai
A motivated leadership building creative spaces
Power School
P
odar International School ranked fourth amongst the best schools in the western zone, is a model school in ICT implementation with latest technology for an overall improvement in delivering quality education to all its students and nurturing an interactive teachinglearning environment. The school is an example of pro-active leadership to break the rules of traditional archaic methodology of delivering quality education. The transformation has been possible under the guidance of a motivated and enthusiastic school management which believes, it is time for introduction of technology 40
tools for students and teaching aids for teachers in classrooms.
New age classrooms: Nurturing students for 21st century The school has been techno savvy right from start. There are no Blackboards in the classes. The school boasts of an interactive whiteboard in each classroom - a facility for all students, from kindergarten to senior secondary classes. The StarBoard, an interactive white board allows students and teachers to make notes, save lessons plans, conduct assessment tests and deliver class presentations. The school has installed Visualiser, in all
School Track
the science labs. The tool enlarges and scales up the specimens with magnification power upto 200% the original size. It aids in teaching science concepts that require attention on minute details and makes subject live and interactive. The ICT lab has computers and laptops for all students to learn and research on assigned topics. The library has a workstation with 150 computers with WiFi connection. The teachers regularly use them to research on their subject and get information on their assigned syllabus. The school has had a robust school information management system for the past four years and has all its students-teachers records on electronic format. The school has recently launched SMS systems for parent-teacher interactions, wherein the parents are informed about the attendance and performance of the students’ alongwith regular SMS alerts of circulars. The Interactive Whiteboard ‘Starboard’ has transformed the way students learn in the classroom at Podar School. Its presence in each classroom gives each student access to the latest technology in learning using technology. Young students enjoy drawing activities and confidently make their presentations on the software. As the software can directly link up to the Internet, so the teachers open the wide world of information on line using images and videos to explain difficult concepts of science and other subjects. They then save their work reports, assignments and projects on the Starboard, as the November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
software has the option to folder the entire syllabus and curriculum that is to be taught for a particular class. The advantage of the repository lies in the ability to upgrade the teaching resource material each year. This also eliminates the loss of teaching resources if a teacher becomes absent or leaves the school, as the new teacher can just reach out to the relevant folders and start from the same point where the previous teacher had left. This saves a lot of time for the teacher and the school in delivering classes. The whiteboard also provides the facility of paper-free tests and assignments using the software, as the students respond to each question using a remote control and the software captures their answers and evaluates them at the end of the test. This feature relives the teachers of checking answer sheets - a paperless assessment methodology is done in each classroom. The school has been conducting the School Council elections on
Starboard in the recent past. The candidates are introduced along with their photographs and the voting happens using the remote control, the software then processes the data and generates results. The technology component has been
a facility offered by the school since its establishment, with computer labs since its initial years backed by an equipped IT support team. So whenever the monitor doesn’t power up, the teacher need not push the panic button…help is just a phone call away.
New Age Tech-Savvy Principal Digital Learning Magazine caught up with the driving force behind the success and accolades of Podar International School, an energetic new age techno-savvy Dr. Vandana Lulla, Principal and Director of Podar International School. Dr. Vandana Lulla holds a Doctorate Degree in “Managing Learning Disabilities using Technology”. She has introduced laptops for teachers, children in the school; successful implementation of Interactive Whiteboards in all classrooms and along with a student response system. An educationist and thought-leader in modern and new age schooling systems, she is one of the very few Principals to get the concept of classrooms of the future implemented in schools. Dr. Vandana provided complete turnkey solutions for implementation of ICT in the school. The school environment has imbibed IT in almost every component of teaching, learning and administration. She wants to act as a catalyst and metamorphosise a learning society, to provide a foundation for life long learning, to develop our students as autonomous learners and dreams to empower her students and teachers to become global citizens. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issu 11 November 2008
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What was the driving force to bring ICT tools in teaching-learning environment of Podar International School and break away from the traditional mode of education? It was my dream many years ago to explore how I can help students in India by providing them access to quality education at par with global standards. My yearning is to make a substantial contribution to education in order to enrich its quality. I foresee generation after generation reaping the benefits from quality based education. Some years ago, I was visiting a school in Israel and the kids were doing an activity on their computers. A little five year old student asked me, do you want to see how you would look five year hence, and he had my picture on his computer. He had a web camera attached to his computer and had
I was awarded by Intel and I presented a paper in Tokyo, Japan on IT in Education and saw that their schools had a variety of educational technology, but the kids could not go to websites that were in English. They used touchscreens in classrooms. When I came back to Podar, I pursued the technology in classrooms and my management at Podar believed in my dream and he found out about Interactive boards. We started out with installation of four interactive boards, and toady we have close to 40 Interactive boards - there is one in each classroom. We then did a research with Intel on two classroom environments to explore how technology improves the performance of students in a class. We took two classrooms in the school, used technology in
We started out with installation of four interactive boards, and toady we have close to 40 Interactive boards – there is one in each classroom clicked me when I had entered the classroom. He had worked on the picture on some software and had changed my features and I looked and smile at him and as I didn’t understand much of technology in those years. He then again asked if I wanted to know how I would look 10 years hence, I agreed and then he punched few buttons on his keyboard and made me look a litter older and he put some white hair and changed on my features. It was amazing to see how the five-year old child worked on the computer with so much of ease and familiarity with technology. This was in 1992, when I had visited Israel to present a paper on ICT in education, and the incident made me think if the young kid can befriend IT, the tool can do wonders when it reaches a larger audience and students can do wonders. That was the challenge that I took from there and always my keen on how I can use IT in education so that our teachers can teach better and our students can learn better. 42
one class and conducted regular classrooms in the other. The class that used technology performed better than the one that did not use. That was another research that I had presented to Intel. The topic of my research for my doctorate degree was on managing children with learning disabilities using IT to improve their performances. I had 30 case studies; these students came from top schools of Mumbai and were refused education. I used technology to teach them and all of them earned a distinction in their board exams. So, that’s the difference that technology can make in a classroom. People call me a tech-savvy principal, always with a laptop, as I feel that it is something that will keep me updated. As if are not updated then you are outdated. Kids today are extremely fast-track, they know more than the staff, so the staff needs to be updated. We therefore make it a point to organise regular teacher training courses. We had
two experts from a reputed school in Australia that has adopted technology in their curriculum and classrooms for several years now and have mastered the knowledge and skills of using ICT in classrooms. They trained our teachers on podcast and its applications. How have you empowered the teachers with capacity building activities and build their skills to build an effective teachinglearning environment using ICT tools? We created awareness programmes for teachers and then trained them on the IT tools and software. We gave them laptops with updated software that were to be used in the classrooms. We have also given them free Internet connectivity at home. On continuous bases we honour them with awards on annual day such best teaching practices, best teacher using IT. The first action I took was to remove the whiteboards from the classrooms, so the teachers had to use the Interactive Board, making sure technology can be best used in the classrooms. For me, the child is at the centre of the learning programme and producing able world citizens is my goal. What has been your strategy on financial and budget planning for IT infrastructure in the school? We budgeted very well the IT expenditure planned over a period of years, and it was not brought in one year the entire technology. We brought few computers in the ICT lab in the first year, then we brought fours whiteboards followed by another four whiteboards, so gradually we have installed the whiteboards in all classrooms so we have an annual budget. We then brought the visualiser for the science labs. Where do you see Podar International in the next five years? We plan to be completely online and so in the future we plan to become a virtual school. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
We plan to be completely online and so in the future we plan to become a virtual school
Prema Mathew, Executive Coordinator How has Interactive Whiteboard changed the classroom environment and teachinglearning dynamics for students and teachers? Starboard has the facility of folders where our curriculum and syllabus for each class is there, and we can plan the lessons. The teachers plan the lessons in a very systematic way and improve the content on a regular basis. The Internet adds an additional dimension for the teacher and student to go beyond textbooks and opens a whole world of information of them to explore topics. It fuels lot of interaction and its features motivate them to come up with their answers and Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issu 11 November 2008
use it and hence make the class very interesting for them. It also saves a lot of time for teachers to complete their syllabus as the Interactive board makes most of the class activities paper-less, as the teacher and kids can just save the notes on the software. We also have quizzes and multiple choice tests that be held on the Starboard. It is subject dependent and we try to use the board judiciously so that the writing skills and other skills of the students are not affected. How has the school motivated the teachers to use technology in classrooms? If you force or dump anything on the teachers, there is bound to be resistance and apprehension amongst teachers to use it in their
classes. At Podar International, before introducing any new concept of teaching or adoption of new tools in classrooms we conduct extensive training programmes for the teachers by experts from the field. When the Starboard was introduced, we had held week long training from the manufacturers who came to India to train our teachers to use it. Then it becomes easy for them to adopt them in the classes. We at the management and the department heads are motivated and enthusiastic in using IT in classrooms, so even a new teachers joins who might have the conventional set of mind, but when she sees 75% of teachers motivated it becomes easier for her to bring about an attitude change. Even the elderly teachers are motivated seeing other teachers and they learn amongst themselves and share ideas. We have incorporated use of Interactive Board in the teaching system, such as submission of lesson plan and presentations by teachers as a soft copy, so it becomes a need for the teachers to know and use IT in their teaching process it finds faster acceptance and adoption by the teacher. Education must be suited to the needs of the individual. We believe that for this, curriculum must be thought - provoking and relevant. Interactive boards add research skills and hands on experience for teachers and students who are central to classroom dynamics. 43
CH R A E RES
Unleashing the Strength of Universities in India
Abirami Devi (abirami@everonn.com) Dr.M Shailaja
Everonn Systems India Ltd, Chennai
The literacy level in India is better compared to other countries in the world. The reason for the growth of literacy is because of the umpteen numbers of various types of Colleges and Universities offering different kinds of education in various fields beginning from Medicine to Engineering to Astronomy and Forestry. Although there is plenty of Colleges and Universities offering higher education opportunities, but still the number of students who register for higher education is very less. The reasons could vary from economic pressures, higher costs, geographically dislocation to pursue courses of their choice, to name a few. Information & Communication Technologies are excellent systems to increase participation of students in Higher Education. Hence the researcher approached the respondents in various colleges and universities to collect information on their interest in bringing in linkage between all the universities and also on the emerging challenges.
I
nformation & Communication Technologies are excellent systems to enhance the quality of education provided in every country today. Higher Education for many students in India is still a dream as it’s not with in their reach both economically and geographically. A survey has been conducted to study the following onbjectives. 44
Objectives: • To list the advantages of an Universal University • To identify the challenges involved in creating an Universal Universities ICT is a boon which enables the educators to take the education within the reach of the students. The main objective of this article is to bring
in linkage between Universities and challenges involved in creating an ICT University. This inequality can be reduced to greater extent with ICT in Universities and all the students will get the opportunity to do what ever course they prefer, from where ever they are and this disequilibrium can be slowly removed from our country’s education system. November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
S.No State
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
No. of Universities
Jammu Kashmir Himachal Pradesh Punjab Uttaranchal Haryana Rajasthan Gujrat Madhya Pradesh Bihar Jharkhand West Bengal Meghalaya Assam Arunachal Pradesh Nagaland Manipur Chhattisgarh Maharashtra Orissa Goa Karnataka Andhara Pradesh Kerala Tamil Nadu
3 3 5 28 5 11 9 18 18 0 14 1 6 1 1 2 0 24 5 1 16 20 8 21
Review of Literature Hoffman (2001) suggested that successful implementation of ICTs need to address five interlocking frameworks for change: the infrastructure, attitude, staff development, support (technical and administrative) and also sustainability and transferability. The success of ICT solely depends on the Technology, Attitude shift in Educators and Students, Competence of Educators and Students in teaching and learning through technology. There are different kinds of ICTs implemented at teaching and learning such as tele and videoconferencing and e-Learning tools. These products can be used in education for different purposes. Some of them help students with their learning by improving the communication between them and the instructors (Valasidou and Bousiou, 2005). The article aims to examine how familiar are the faculties and students in colleges and universities with the ICTs use and what are the skills that are required for both. The research conducted also aims to identify the merits and challenges of bringing in linkage between the universities. The Indian Institutes of Technology are in talks this year with US-based Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
Carnegie Mellon University to set up a Virtual IIT. To be set up at a cost of over INR 15 billion over the next three to four years, it will enable aspiring IITians and engineering students who could not make it to the premier engineering institutes of technology to bag an IITequivalent degree online. The IITs plan to shortlist around 50 national-level engineering colleges to set up wellequipped laboratories where students taking online courses could go for practical sessions. The IITs have already discussed this idea with some leading Indian IT companies that are willing to support this initiative. To begin with, the online National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning course content that the IITs deliver currently on the website http://nptel.iitm.ac.in could become the base for Virtual IIT. The IITs also plan to make the courses available on Google and You Tube. This set the tone for this study. There are many studies conducted in the past years concerning ICTs usage in education. According to Dorup (2004) the majority of medical students in Denmark had access to computers at home as well as used e-mail and the internet regularly. Only a few students prefer not to use computers at home. Finally, the research revealed that students believe that the use of ICTs cannot replace the traditional teaching activities but it can be easily used as a supplement to enhance quality. (Journal of Business Case Studies – March 2008 Volume 4, Number 3 30) Another study, conducted by Siritongthaworn et al (2006) examined the e-Learning technology implementation of universities in Thailand. According to the findings the students were used to instruction in the structured format due to the traditional norms of education. The key issue for Thai universities is to persuade students and instructors to use ICTs effectively and motivate them to integrate them to the learning and teaching procedures respectively. This research brings out the fact that though the motivation levels are high in both the Indian educator and learner, the hesitation is due to lack of exposure to various aspects of ICT.
The list of essential skills set for both the teacher and the taught has been highlighted in the findings. In terms of gender Gay and Blades (2005) recommend academicians and course administrators to pay more attention to the use of ICT’s resources as a major component in classroom teaching. Females, to a larger degree than males reported that they had access to a computer off campus. The present study shows a reversal of trends with regard to gender opinion, in the Indian context. Another survey conducted by Schumacher and MorahanMartin (2001) argued that females are less experienced with ICTs and are more likely than males to have negative attitudes towards computers. Furthermore, male students prefer to study courses that require computer use more than female students and show interest in programming and game playing. They are also more experienced at the ICTs use than girls, apart from e-mails where no significant differences were reported. Moreover, Shashaani (1997) examined some males and females about their interest in Internet use and discovered that there was a great difference on the interest level between the two groups. Male respondents showed to be more interested in internet services and use than women. Our research corroborates the above study. Similar results about the Internet and computer usage between males and females were revealed by other studies as well. Although women and men show little difference in general attitudes toward Internet, there were many differences toward Internet searching and usage. Ford and Miller (1996) suggest that women are more likely to report significantly greater levels of disorientation and disenchantment in relation to Internet, compared to males. MorahanMartin (1999) found that women college students get internet access less often, spend less time online and don’t surf for different purposes as often as men. This study brings to fore the fact that the above findings are due to socio-economic factors. 45
Research Methodology The sample of the research was chosen from the undergraduate students in Loyola College, MCC, MOP Vaishnav College, Ethiraj College, Presidency College, D G Vaihnav College, University of Madras, Anna University, Dr. MGR University, & Annamalai University. The research sample consisted of 50 faculty members’ (40 Male Faculty members & 10 Female Faculty Members) working in colleges and 4 Universities and 500 students (300 male student & 200 female students) of local institutions and administered questions related to ICT in Universities.
Findings & Discussions
The common advantages specified by the faculty Members and Students have been collectively given below: With ICT, in Universities, students must gain some or all the advantages given below. • Choice of their subject/degree • Geographical/economical advantage • better/more individual feedback • more flexible timetables • better managed contact with staff • more/better information on their courses
• •
•
• •
• •
•
in teaching to reduce timetable constraints closer and more fruitful contact with individual students or groups better methods of presenting difficult or rare materials and locations ability to construct a wider range of learning opportunities to enhance their courses medium term savings of time and/or money improved opportunities for sharing resources within and between universities enhanced status for teaching activities better management of students with more heterogeneous backgrounds or provision of remedial materials global exposure
86% of the University representatives expect, and say that they will promote, significantly increased use of ICT in learning and teaching, and bring in linkages between Universities within the next five years. According the officials, Nothing is Impossible and with due support from the heads of various departments, Directors, Registrar,
This research brings out the fact that though the motivation levels are high in both the Indian educator and learner, the hesitation is due to lack of exposure to various aspects of ICT • •
• •
• •
access to collateral knowledge bases as and when needed a wider range of learning opportunities which better suit a variety of learning styles an overall enhanced quality of educational experience enhanced self-esteem and employability through a broadened skill set improved personal lifelong learning strategy enhanced peer base
With ICT, in Universities, faculty members must gain some or all the advantages given below. • greater flexibility of time and place 46
Controller of Examination & Vice Chancellor this dream can be made a reality in not too distant a future. 81% of the teaching fraternity seeks the following support from Government and officials of the Universities to fulfill this dream project of linking the universities for common good: • electronic resources should be structured so as to support the student’s view of the institution, namely its courses and learning support environment (library, Registry, Director of Studies system etc) • all courses should draw upon undergraduate ICT competencies in pursuit of learning objectives, for
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
example by exercises in electronic data manipulation in the context of teaching statistics, use of word-processors for drafting and revising texts, expecting on-line bibliographic database searching for essay references all courses should present key information on-line (generally on the Web) so as to maximise any time, any place access by all staff and all students in all their courses, students should be able to interact with the course organizers, teaching staff and course administrators through email or electronic conferences, not as an alternative to appropriate and necessary face-to face contact, but rather to optimize the value of such contact, and to provide quick answers to simple but important questions with a minimum of delay and inconvenience every course should maximise its provision of online learning opportunities, such as exercises and assignments delivered and returned entirely electronically, on-line data searching, retrieval and manipulation tasks, digital videoclips, computer simulations. These will be integrated into courses and feature in assessment. Courses will actively seek and review pre-existing computer-based learning materials (if any) before considering creating their own. The Universities can share the course content according to their area of expertise. These like minded universities should support and extend their tutorial and seminar discussions through appropriate use of asynchronous electronic conferencing facilities. University regulations for conduct of exams will have to be amended to accommodate this change in all courses of all the universities. All faculty members should be able to present computer-based materials in face-to-face sessions in teaching rooms equipped for this purpose 17% of the teaching community does not support this idea. Majority of this percentage have had November 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in
•
•
nearly three decades of teaching experience. The major ares of concern are They have managed to satisfy the needs of their students during their long tenure without the help of ICT. Their perception subscribes to the fact that the student’s demands have to be met at a local level rather than at a global level.
The survey gave us the following inputs which is the concern of the respondents with regard to the challenges in implementing this project: • The initial cost involved in bringing in the linkages between universities is envisaged to be too high. • Initially there may be an apprehension towards understanding the technology. • Cost involved in training is also going to be very high. • Cost of training includes cost of training the trainers, students, training the content developers, content reviewers etc.
Suggestions
Certain Skills set identified by the respondents to be essentially acquired by the Students and Faculty members to make effective use technology are as follows: ICT skills which the University will regard as core for all categories of students, undergraduate and postgraduate, will be: • ability to use a wide range of the features of a modern word processor and presentation manager and to create and update their own database of references • ability to use computer-mediated communications (CMC) • ability to access and make effective use of both local and distant library
•
• • •
and bibliographic reference sources ability to retrieve and critically evaluate specific information from the World Wide Web ability to design and mount simple web pages ability to manage the interaction between all of these activities understand how to manage independent learning using ICT amongst other methods, so as to be better prepared for lifelong learning
ICT core skills are exactly as for students plus these teaching-specific skills for Faculty Members: • ability to use electronic management tools such as WISARD, NESI which provide information across the intranet • Familiarity with LMS • ability to use electronic discussion conferences, mailing lists etc to facilitate group as well as 1:1 communication • understand how to use ICT to enhance the quality of courses on which they teach • Although many Faculty Members already have such skills, it is essential to ensure that all faculty members’ reaches confidence in the core set. • Sharing the expenditure and expertise among the Universities will make it less expensive and easy. • There has to be a pool of reserves collected from all the universities so that they can have common contribution for common benefits. • With proper training they will be close to the technology and understand that ICT is user friendly This study made it clear that more than 60% of the students were generally favourable to ICTs usage in Universiites.
Furthermore, 72% of male students showed more interest to use ICT’s and 55% of women students showed more interest to ICT based education. Based on the findings of the research it is recommended for the academic and administrative faculty members of the Universities and colleges to motivate students to use ICTs in order to support their studies, to begin with. This can be achieved from the side of the administrators by facilitating students to have Internet access off campus and help them with trouble solving. The academics should integrate ICTs in their teaching methods and persuade students to use computers by writing assignments or searching the Internet for information for the modules. Moreover, the ICTs use is very important for the students after finishing their studies. The ICTs knowledge can help students at their working environments at the future and gives them competitive advantage comparing to others who are not familiar with computers. As far the students are concerned they will get their choice of the University and courses. This idea of introducing ICT in Universities and linkages between Universities has been appreciated by students and faculty members. The idea of removing the inequalities in education that’s existing now due to various geographical, social and economic conditions and bringing in equality in education is well received by all the students and faculty members. Their only concern is ICT in education should not make their education an expensive affair.
About Authors Dr Abirami is a Senior Manager with Everonn Systems India Ltd., Chennai, which is provides VSAT teaching for both school and college. Her responsibilities are to develop content for various Finance courses that is for colleges and train the faculties for delivering the finance content. Earlier, she was working as a Regional Coordinator, Research Initiatives, ICFAI National College, Regional office, Chennai. Dr.M Shailaja is presently working as Assistant General Manager, Knowledge Resource Development & Research, Everonn Systems (I) Ltd., spearheading the content development for various college courses using different delivery platforms. He was also a content developer with Aspire Learning Systems, developing content for professional entrance examinations. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 11 November 2008
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News
had budgeted R123,4-billion for education during 2008-09. This would increase to R137,6-billion for 200910, to R152,3-billion for 2010-11 and R165,9-billion for 2011-12.
world College affordability to be studied across Pennsylvania
Harbinger Knowledge Products shortlisted for e-Learning Awards 2008
College affordability will be the focus of five public hearings across Pennsylvania. The Higher Education Council under Pennsylvania State Board of Education said it is seeking testimony from students, parents,
college officials and others about the challenges of paying for rising college costs. The council also wanted to know how students might be able to obtain a degree without taking on massive debt. Officials say Pennsylvania college students graduate with an average of almost US$ 23,000 in student loan debt.
Higher ed task force in Kentucky Saying that no one in Kentucky with the drive and ability to succeed should be denied access to college because of cost, Gov. Steve Beshear formed a 25-member task force to study affordability of higher education. The group will produce two reports with recommendations for Beshear. The first report, due by January 15, 2009, will look at ways to reduce costs associated with college. The second report, due in September, will take a broader look at the long-term issue of how best to create stable state funding for public higher education.
Harvard tops Times Higher Ed list of 200 universities America’s Harvard University topped the list of top 200 universities of the world by Times Higher Education-QS University Rankings, followed by Yale University from US. Universities of 48
Harbinger Knowledge Products has been shortlisted for eLearning Awards 2008, in UK. The shortlisting is under ‘Best Learning Game, Simulation or Virtual Environment’ category.
Cambridge and Oxford from the UK were ranked third and fourth. In addition, nine institutions from Asia, including three based in Hong Kong, were included in top 50. British universities slipped down the ranking with Cambridge and Oxford losing ground to Harvard and Yale. India’s two Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT Delhi and Mumbai) have been ranked 154 and 174, respectively in the list. On the other hand, China has as many five universities in top 200.
SA allocates more funding for science, engineering
An increasing proportion of higher education funding in South Africa was being spent on science, engineering and technology, with the improvement of education remaining a mediumterm spending priority, according to the National Treasury’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement. Graduates in the fields of science, engineering and technology had increased from less than 24,000 in 1999 to 35,000 in 2006. Meanwhile, government would increase its average yearly spend on education by 10,4% over the next three years. The Government
The primary objective of the eLearning Awards is to recognise real excellence in the eLearning industry. Harbinger’s short-listing is for ‘Clinical Challenge’, an innovative online learning project with Philips Healthcare, pioneering gaming in healthcare education. The objective of Philips was to create a learning environment that would leverage cognitive benefits of gamebased learning, in a manner that is costeffective and rapid to build.
Campus technology key factor while selecting college by students: Study Campus technology is a key factor students keep in mind while selecting a college or university as they consider it critical for their professional development. Yet higher education institutions on the whole aren’t keeping up with student needs in this area, according to a new report released by CDW Government (CDW-G). ‘While students are incorporating technology into nearly all aspects of their higher education experience through laptops, the Internet, social networking sites and online course management, the on-campus technology experience is not keeping pace,’ said Julie Smith, director of higher education for CDWG. ‘We do see, however, that colleges and universities recognise campus technology can offer a distinctive competitive advantage as they seek to recruit and enroll the best and the brightest students. As a result, institutions are upgrading their campus technology and its integration into the educational experience a priority,’ she added. November 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in
Announcement
Mark Your Calendar november Knowledge Frameworks for Enhanced Performance 17 November, 2008 Sydney, US http://www.pics.com.au/workshop.php?coursename= Knowledge%20Frameworks%20for%20Enhanced%2 0Performance
UOC UNESCO Chair in E-learning Fifth International Seminar: Fighting Against the Digital Divide Trough Education 12 - 14 November 2008 Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain http://www.uoc.edu/symposia/unesco2008/eng/index. html
E-Learn 2008 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education 17 - 21 November 2008 Las Vegas, Nevada, United States http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn
4th International Conference on Information Technology & Multimedia 18 - 19 November 2008 Kuala lumpur, Bangi, Kajang, Malaysia http://metalab.uniten.edu.my/~icimu2008/
december ASOCIO ICT Summit 2008 9 -12 December 2008 Hong Kong http://www.asocio-ictsummit08.hk/
11-13 November 2008 Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.e-asia.org
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 4 April 2008
INNO Design Tech Expo 10-13 December 2008 Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center http://innodesigntechexpo.hktdc.com/
World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference: Education (WIPC:E) 7- 11 December Melbourne Australia http://www.wipce2008.com/
2nd International Conference on Adaptive Science & Technology (ICAST’09) 14 - 16 December 2009 Accra, Ghana West Africa http://www.edictech.com/ICAST09/index.html
january 2009 e-CASE 2009 --- International Conference on e-Commerce, e-Administration, e-Society, and e-Education 8 January 2009 Singapore http://www.e-case.org/2009/
e-Technology 2009 --- International Conference on e-Technology 8 January 2009 Singapore http://www.e-case.org/eTech2009/
National Award for Women’s Development through Application of Science & Technology Organiser: Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. The award which is announced every year has been instituted to recognize the contributions of individuals/institutions who have worked at the grassroot level for women’s development through application of science and technology. The award is open to resident Indian citizens and institutions registered in India only and having a minimum of 10 years experience and outstanding contribution in researches, design development, adaptation or application of science and technology at the grassroot level for women’s development. Employees of Department of Science & Technology and individuals/ institutions that have received this award earlier are not eligible for consideration. Nomination for the Award can be made by Vice Chancellor of Universities, Directors of R&D institutions, Heads of science based voluntary organizations, Secretaries of S&T departments Secretaries of State Departments/State Councils for S&T; earlier winners of this award. For more details, visit the website www.dst.gov.in or www.scienceandsociety-dst.org
6th Conference on e-Learning Applications 10 January 2009 Cairo Egypt
All nominations typed on plain paper in the format given in the website with enclosures should be sent to:
http://www.aucegypt.edu/ResearchatAUC/conferences/ elearning/Pages/default.aspx
Head, Science & Society Division, Department of Science & Technology, T Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi – 110 016.
I- LEARN FORUM/RAC 2009 19 January 2009 PARIS France http://www.ilearnforum.eu/
Last date for receipt of nominations: November 30, 2008.
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