ICT in Education Policy : September 2006 Issue

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

Volume II Issue 9 September 2006

ISSN 0973-4139

www.digitalLEARNING.in

ICT in Education Policy A Need, Challenge, Revolution or A Balancing Act?

ICT policy for education A Tale of Two Countries PAGE 8

The price of good policy Calculating the Total Cost of ICT4E Ownership PAGE 28

‘We are not in a policy vaccuum’ S C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India PAGE 22

Bringing People Together and Aligning Effectively is Important Astrid Dufborg, Executive Director, GeSCI PAGE 14

Dream to Reach all of India... Interview with Minja Yang, UNESCO PAGE 32

Empowering Rural Children Through Technology

Computer Aided Learning Computer Education Program Teacher Training Mathemagic Lab Kit Multimedia based content in Regional Languages

Bridging the

Digital Divide

Educomp Solutions Ltd. 1211, Padma Tower-1, 5 Rajendra Place, New Delhi - 110008.

Phone: 011-25755920, 25753258 Fax: 91-11-25766775, Web site: www.educomp.com, Email: education.ict@edumatics.com

Contents

Verbatim

Volume II Issue 9, September 2006

It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time — for we are bound by that — but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.

T.S. Eliot Education should consist of a series of enchantments, each raising the individual to a higher level of awareness, understanding, and kinship with all living things.

Author Unknown Education is the best provision for old age.

Aristotle A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops.

Henry Adams

Overview

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ICT and the Third Revolution in Education Policy

School Track

44

Open Source Software for Schools Knowledge Bank

Patti Swarts

Upfront Cover Story

8

ICT policy for education

14

A Tale of Two Countries Alfred Ilukena

Insight

28 Calculating the Total Cost of The price of good policy

Bringing People Together and Aligning Effectively is Important Astrid Dufborg, Executive Director, GeSCI

22

ICT4E Ownership Alex Twinomugisha

‘We are not in a policy vaccuum’ S C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, MHRD, Govt. of India

32

Knowledge and Education to Glare in Every Hinterland of India Minja Yang, Director, Unesco, New Delhi

India Statescan and ICTs in schools 36 SSA Still Miles to Go...

Regulars

16 25 40 42 46

News India News Corporate News Asia News World Mark Your Calendar

Acknowledgement The Digital Learning team acknowledges the support ® provided by the members of GeSCI both in India and in Ireland.

We are also grateful to the contributors from GeSCI who have brought in a rich experience in policy making to the readers of Digital Learning.

*Cover image inspired from Diplo Foundation’s Calander 2006, illustration by Chandrakesh Biharilal (James)

digital LEARNING is accessible on the web. Link up to www.digitalLEARNING.in

digital Learning invites authors We invite editorial contributions from our readers in the field of Digital Learning.

While no guarantee is made or implied, we will make every effort to incorporate all views and experiences in the relevant issues so as to better serve the ICT and Education community at large.

Please be sure to read and follow the Editorial Guidelines above. Note that contributions may be edited for space and/or clarity. Unsolicited manuscripts and artwork will not be returned.

Editorial guidelines Digital Learning contains articles and features on the theme of “ICT and Education” and related issues. Authors are requested to follow the following guidelines while sending their articles to Digital Learning. a. Articles should not exceed 2,000 words. For book/ website/ conference reviews, the word limit is 1000. Longer articles will be considered only in exceptional cases. b. Articles/ reviews can be sent through email as an attachment or through post, typed in Times New Roman, 10 point. c. Relevant figures/ tables/ photographs should be sent. Hard copies of submitted photographs should be of high quality in a recommended size of 5 inches by 7 inches. Soft copies of imagery should be scanned at 300dpi at a minimum width of 4 inches. d. Passport size photographs and brief biodata of the author(s) must be enclosed with the article. e. For bookshelf contributions, please mention the title, name of the author/s, publisher/s, year of publication, price, number of pages and a high quality photograph of the cover. Books on Digital Learning related themes published from the year 2000 onwards are preferable. f. We are keen to cover conference/ workshop/ seminar reviews. Please mention the theme, venue, date, and name of the organiser, if you are reporting about an event. Please send photographs of the conference/workshop/ seminar. The conference held in the past two months of the forthcoming issue will be preferred. g. The Editor reserves the right to reject, edit and adjust articles in order to conform to the magazine’s format.

All correspondence should be addressed to: The Editor, Digital Learning G-4, Sector-39, Noida, India Tel +91-120-2502180 to 87 Fax +91-120-2500060 Email info@digitalLEARNING.in

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September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

digital LEARNING Volume II, issue 9 September 2006 President M P Narayanan Editor Ravi Gupta Editorial Consultant Jayalakshmi Chittoor Sr. Assistant Editor Rumi Mallick Sr. Research Associate Manjushree Reddy Research Associate Sanjeev Kumar Shrivastav Designed by Bishwajeet Kumar Singh Web Zia Salahuddin, Ramakant Sahu Editorial and marketing correspondence digital LEARNING G-4 Sector 39 NOIDA 201301, India Phone +91 120 2502181-87 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLEARNING.in Group directors Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar Printed by Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India digital LEARNING does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. digital LEARNING is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided. digital LEARNING is published in technical collaboration with GIS Development (www.GISdevelopment.net)

Editorial ICT in Education Policy: Isn’t it a task of building Rome again?

Is there a big deal of difference if we used the word “in” instead of “and”, when we talk about the linkages between information and communications technologies on the one hand and education on the other? In October 2005, we organsed the first conference on Digital Learning India, trying to figure out from the participants’ experiences of what makes an ICT in Education programme different from and ICT and Education programme. What we learnt and understood in that journey, was exciting and opened up a whole world of case stories, experiences and interventions, all over the world.

A year from thereon, we are ready to be face to face with a stronger delegation of specialists who will be focusing mainly on policies, lessons learnt from the experiences, and with a special focus on schools. Given the high investment costs required to introduce ICTs into schools, it is important for countries to learn from the experience of others to make good decisions and to avoid repeating the errors of others or losing opportunities.

Namibia emerges as one of the leading countries in this domain, that have made systematic policy making, strategizing and implementation. The pathway was not all that simple. But the processes that have been set in motion, are very much replicable, especially in countries with similar challenges and constraints. Be it Turkey, India, Australia, Philippines or Thailand, many ICT and Education projects and interventions have created a ripe environment to embark on a policy making process, that can be set in motion.

Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), an International body, set up by the UN ICT Task Force, has embarked on a mission to enable south-south sharing of experiences, learning, and facilitating policy formulation, transfer of knowledge and skills and advocating for an effect ICT in Education Policy.

We hope that the readers of Digital Learning magazine will benefit from the select analytical articles, and experiential sharing of policy making and tools to enable effective policies, which are presented in this special issue of the magazine. The resources provided in this issue are open for discussions, and can be translated into programmes that will enhance Learning objectives, and not just be mere technology interventions. They can be a useful guide for decision makers, both at the provincial level and at the federal level.

We also look forward to welcoming you in New Delhi at the second Digital Learning conference from August 23-25, 2006. For those who cannot make it, do check out our website, and look out for the next issue, which will be a conference special.

Ravi Gupta Editor Ravi.Gupta@csdms.in

© Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2006 Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

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Overview Patti Swarts [INFO@GESCI.ORG], Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), Dublin

ICT & the Third Revolution in Education Policy

T

he advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is often described as the third revolution in the dissemination of knowledge and in the enhancement of instruction.

The first revolution being the invention of written language and the second the development of movable type and books (The ICT in Education Tool kit for Policy makers, Planners and Practitioners, UNESCO Bangkok).

ICT is a powerful tool which has the potential to transform the educational opportunities and life chances of all students, including those who are normally excluded by virtue of their special circumstances and special educational needs. ICT can break down some of the barriers that lead to underachievement, student disaffection and educational exclusion. If used 6

appropriately it can also improve the quality and consistency of instruction by providing an enabling environment for both students and teachers to access information and resources. However, technology must be the ‘servant of educational practice and not its master’ (Becta).

Why have an ICT in education policy?

It is well-known that education development succeeds or fails on the basis of the nature and quality of educational policies and strategies and sound and sustained implementation practices. As rightly pointed out by UNESCO Bangkok, introducing ICTs into the teaching and learning process is an innovation often requiring radical change in the way in which schools operate.

The provision of technology alone will not optimally harness the potential of ICTs to improve access, student achievement and the transformation of teaching and learning. To take full advantage of the different technologies and to direct their maximum use for the benefit of all students, there needs to be a clear framework which sets the scene and provides the enabling environment for technologies to be integrated, deployed and used to their fullest potential. The ICT in Education Policy can provide such a framework.

What is the purpose of an ICT in education policy?

A policy serves a political or organisational purpose in setting priorities and providing direction, guidelines and strategies to deal with a specific problem within the system. As such it encompasses the September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

vision and provides an institutional master plan for what needs to be achieved within the overall political, economic and social context. While the policy serves a number of other purposes as well, the main purpose is to focus interventions on educational and learning objectives and on student needs and student achievement. In addition to student needs and student achievement, the policy can address the following issues: • provide clear political direction • set priorities for the sector e.g. with regard to needs, goals, levels, resources, timelines • provide a basis for better informed and improved decision making, and therefore a more strategic approach to a complex issue • provide a coherent framework for ICT interventions in education relating to curriculum integration, deployment of hardware and software, training of users at all levels, and standards to achieve systemic and institutional impact • map out how and where ICTs fit in the system and how they can be optimally utilised to address institutional needs and meet institutional requirements • highlight the benefits and challenges of ICTs and how to engage and deal with them in a systematic manner • prevent disjointed, uncoordinated, fragmented and wasteful purchase, deployment and use of ICTs.

Important considerations for a sound policy formulation process From the work done by UNESCO Bangkok for the development of The ICT in Education Toolkit and from the experiences of a number of countries, the following elements are necessary to formulate a sound ICT in Education policy: • consultative and inclusive process bringing together key stakeholders to carefully consider Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

To take full advantage of the different technologies and to direct their maximum use for the benefit of all students, there needs to be a clear framework which sets the scene and provides the enabling environment for technologies to be integrated, deployed and used to their fullest potential

•

•

the opportunities, challenges and implications of the intended policy combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches taking into consideration the broader landscape and contextual factors while cognisant of the needs expressed at lower and decentralised levels ownership by key stakeholders since they had participated in the formulation

•

country (and state) specific in nature with realistic and achievable targets.

The above elements illustrate the need to identify beforehand (and even during the process) who (e.g. groups, institutions) will participate in the process, what processes would be involved, what resources would be required, what information is already available and what is still lacking, and what the timelines are.

Currently Education Specialist at GeSCI based in Dublin, Dr Patti Swarts supports GeSCI partner countries by providing strategic advice and sharing knowledge on issues of concern, particularly as they relate to technology and education. She also engages with international networks, agencies and institutions in support of GeSCI’s work. Prior to taking up her position at GeSCI, she worked as Under Secretary: Formal Education and member of the Executive Management Team in the Ministry of Education in Namibia. She held several senior management positions in the Ministry of Education, among which was as founding Director of the National Institute for Educational Development and Head of Teacher Education. Her background is in teaching (both at school and college levels), research and educational management.

She contributed to a number of publications on educational matters and published articles in international refereed journals on teacher education and educational management. She made presentations at various international conferences in Africa, USA and Europe. She holds a PhD in Teacher Education from the Oxford Brookes University, UK.

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ICT policy for education

Cover Story

A Tale of Two Countries Alfred Ilukena Ilukena, Under Secretary of Education, Namibia

Policy makes the fundamental difference regarding how countries are able to take advantage of the technical opportunities available to them and exploit them for good.The issues of sustainability of good policies and a progressive process for evolving policy are therefore of paramount importance. ICT Integration in education is a complex process and all education stakeholders require clear guidance as to what is expected of them throughout this process. Namibia’s ICT Policy for Education that has lead to the creation of an implementation strategy, in turn lead to the first step towards providing such guidance to countries like India who are on the making of purposeful ICT Policy for Education.

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September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

I

CT can light up learning, empower communities, and unlock social development. It can reach to the remotest areas, the most challenged education systems and make transformative advancements on a national scale. But it can only work such wonder to the extent that it is predicated on end-to-end policy. Otherwise it is fragmented and lacking creating schools with expensive equipment but no technical support, or content without connectivity, trained teachers but no infrastructure. Or it is unequal and limited coverage in certain regions, others going without. Poor planning defeats the potential of ICTs before they are even applied to real life situations.

The decisive issue in ICT in education then is good policy. India and Namibia, the world apart, vastly different in terms of scale and population density have in common that they are both countries embarked on the making of end-to-end ICT policy for education. As India draws up its national framework document, and embarks on a course of formulating comprehensive ICT in education policy, it is worth noting some of the lessons and guiding principles of the Namibian experience – gleaned from its own process of national ICT policy making.

Namibia’s ICT Policy for Education has lead to the creation of an implementation strategy and this in turn lead to the development of a framework for implementation and engagement. Currently, the ICT and Education Policy Steering Committee, with over 70 members, represents nearly all directorates within the Ministry of Education, as well as a wide-range of private sector, civil society, and donor partners. The steering committee is supported at the day-to-day level through the Ministry of Education’s Project Management Office for ICTs in Education.The Project Management Office assists the steering committee’s Working Groups, which are organised around each component of the framework for implementation. More and more, the Working Groups are becoming the decision making bodies of the Steering Committee, with each working group making recommendations for their areas of expertise and the Steering Committee reviewing these recommendations for endorsement. Here the head of the steering committee, Alfred IIukena, with Todd Malone shares secrets of Namibia’s policy success.

No More Islands Implementing National ICTs in education policy:The Namibian case At the turn of the millennium, national information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education projects or organisations could not be found in Namibia. Within three years, nearly a dozen projects and organisations had begun to pilot ICTrelated activities. These included ICT deployments, curriculum development, content deliver, teacher training, educational management, technical support, and connectivity.

During these early days, projects and organisations operated independently, as islands of activities and interventions.

Project managers and organisations could attempt to align ICT activities to the Ministry of Education’s overall education goals, but little guidance was available regarding the actual form of implementation for ICTs in education. Technology platforms varied dramatically from one school to the next. ICT-related curricula were virtually non-existent. ICT-based Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

content, if available, was haphazard and almost wholly imported.

Training programmes were developed based on trial and error. And affordable connectivity and technical support for ICTs was no where to be seen. As these islands of activity increased, the Ministry of Education was unable to ensure that the projects and organisations were working in line with the Ministry’s educational goals.

While the scene described may appear unfortunate, on the contrary, the use of ICTs in education in Namibia was extremely new and these projects and organisations began to form a collective set of local experiences, highlighting what worked and what didn’t. Eventually, Ministry officials, ICT project mangers, and NGO leaders, came together to share experiences and coordinate the ICTs in education sector. Thus, the ICT and Education Steering Committee was formed.

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Currently, the ICTs in education sector in Namibia exists as a multifaceted environment with a number of different players. Each stakeholder, based on their mandate, applies pressure to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry, in turn, responds by applying pressure back on the sector. With the development of the ICT Policy for education and the comprehensive implementation plan, the ICTs in education sector in Namibia has a consistent forum to work together and engage all public, private, and civil society partners

Around the same time the Ministry decided to update their ICT Policy for Education. As one of their first tasks, undertook to update the ICT Policy for Education to reflect the comprehensive nature and opportunities presented through the use of ICTs in education.

After nearly a year and half of discussion and input from sector partners, the ICT Policy for Education was completed and launched. The policy, while simply a document, represented the development of a medium for exchange and debate. The Steering Committee, by leading the policy creation process, became the forum for all things ICT in the education sector. This policy development process evolved from a revision of the existing policy into a strategy for sector-wide educational change through the integration of ICTs for teacher training, classroom learning, and educational management.

As this process took shape, a framework for engagement for all 10

partners, and thus a framework for change, emerged.

ICTs in education: Implementation and engagement A comprehensive framework for implementation must consider a widerange of factors, stakeholders, and approaches. Based on the wide-range of experiences in Namibia, the ICT and Education Steering Committee began working with the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative in early 2005 and, slowly, an implementation framework began to emerge.

The resulting framework for implementation, which forms the basis of the Ministry’s implementation plan for ICTs, consists of nine key components. These are: (1) educational objectives, (2) project management, (3) infrastructure readiness and platform deployment, (4) curriculum development, (5) content availability, (6) training and usage support, (7) educational

management, (8) maintenance and technical support, and (9) monitoring and evaluation. Each component is described in the Ministry of Education’s Implementation Plan Guide for ICTs in Education as follows : At the centre of the entire process are the Educational Objectives, which must drive the whole initiative. These are then followed by Leadership, to be provided by the Ministry of Education, and the development of a Project Management Office that oversees the day-to-day management of the initiative. Next are the actual components of the ICTs in education initiative (Deployment, Curriculum Development, Content Availability, Training and Usage Support, Educational Management, and Maintenance and Technical Support).

These are the activities that must be implemented at the educational institution level. Finally, enveloping the entire process must be a comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation process.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

The framework highlights key issues which must be addressed for successful implementation. Physical infrastructure must be in place in the form of power, buildings, and, ideally, telecommunications. Appropriate curriculum must be in place for basic ICT literacy skills, for the integration of ICTs across subject areas, and for ICT as a subject in itself (e.g. computer science). Content must also be available to support the delivery of each of these curricular areas.

Training programmes must be implemented to address the ways in which the curricula and content are to be implemented. Educational management at school, district, and national level must be aligned and implemented for the ready exchange of information for planning purposes.

All hardware, software, and personnel must be appropriately supported

ICTs are introduced and utilised for the education sector.

By focusing on actions instead of institutions, the framework can be used at all levels as implementation plans are debated, drawn up, and executed. For instance, central policy makers and planners can employ the framework to consider high-level educational objectives for the sector, such as “improving maths results for girl learners” or “improving attrition rates”. These are sector-wide educational objectives which then drive the deployment of ICTs, development of curricula, etc. At another level, each educational institution can determine their specific educational objectives and then develop various components of their institutional implementation plans.The framework of engagement ensures

The framework is meant to reflect a comprenehsive solution for implementation of ICTs across the education sector

through centralised and on-site support. And all of this must be monitored and evaluated regularly to make suitable adjustments.

The framework is meant to reflect a comprehensive solution for implementation of ICTs across the education sector. One additional benefit of utilising this framework is that, based on the comprehensive nature of the solution, the framework doubles as a “framework for engagement” for all partners to critically influence the ways in which Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

that everyone at all levels considers the full implications and requirements for the implementation of ICTs.

An example: Project management and leadership The implementation framework, in serving as a framework for engagement, creates competing demands on organisations within the ICTs in education sector. Currently, the ICTs in education sector in Namibia exists as a multifaceted environment with a number of

different players. Each stakeholder, based on their mandate, applies pressure to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry, in turn, responds by applying pressure back on the sector.

The framework helps guide that pressure such that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. In the past, the pressure generally originated from outside organisations and often the Ministry took some time before responding due to the uncertainty of partners’ roles. More recently, this has shifted whereby outside organisations make demands on the Ministry and/or the Ministry makes demands on organisations.

For instance, the ICT and Education Steering Committee determined that the ICT solution deployed to schools must include educational content for use by teachers with learners. The educational content was expected to cover at least maths, science, and English for grades 8-12, since these were deemed priority areas. The Steering Committee tasked their Content Working Group to evaluate educational content packages.

The Working Group in turn looked to National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), which is the Ministry’s curriculum and professional development directorate and thus responsible for content evaluation. The working group also requested assistance from the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative to assist with the development of an e-content evaluation tool since NIED had little experience with the evaluation of digital content.

GeSCI developed the tool in close collaboration with the Working Group and NIED. The tool was then reviewed by the Steering Committee, with extensive input from members who regularly work with content, curriculum, and/or training. After the evaluation tool was revised, the Working Group identified subject area specialists from NIED to conduct the e-content evaluation.

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But, given that educational change happens in myriad, competing ways, it is likely that the “messy, contentious” nature of the ICTs in education sector in Namibia is an asset since the framework for implementation and engagement provides the unifying theme for the sector.

The team evaluated content which was recommended by Steering Committee members for use in schools. Once the evaluation was completed, the results were compiled by the Working Group and shared with the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee reviewed and endorsed the results of the evaluation. And in the end, a collection of e-content packages was identified for inclusion with all educational deployments.

This example, as presented here, looks rather straight-forward. In actual fact, it was a messy, contentious process which continually required the leadership and support of the Ministry of Education. The Ministry, as the head of the Steering Committee, continually pushed NIED to ensure the review moved forward. GeSCI was

reminded to ensure that a widesection of stakeholders reviewed the evaluation tool. Steering Committee members had to be asked repeatedly for recommendations for content packages. And, in turn, Steering Committee members from NGOs and other training organisations pushed the Ministry to ensure the evaluation was transparent and consistent. It was no easy feat. But in the end, the results of the evaluation were such that the Steering Committee was confident that they could stand by their endorsement.

Conclusion Namibia began with competing visions for the ways in which ICTs should be utilised for educational change. It can be argued that a unified vision continues to elude the sector.

Overall, the ICTs in education sector in Namibia has moved from donordriven projects to a Ministry-led, sector-wide initiative. Going forward, the Ministry and the Steering Committee must continue to bring in additional partners to ensure all targets can be met. For example, connectivity can only be expanded in an equitable, affordable manner by aggregating demand across all educational institutions and thus the telecommunications providers must be brought on board.

With the development of the ICT Policy for education and the comprehensive implementation plan, the ICTs in education sector in Namibia has a consistent forum to work together and engage all public, private, and civil society partners. Given the wide range of views for the sector, this is no easy task. This, in turn, ensures that in the ICTs in education sector in Namibia, all partners are connected to one another and, more importantly, there are no more islands.

A full version of the article appears at www.gesci.org

Alfred Ilukena is Under Secretary and Chairperson of the ICTÂ Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education of Namibia. Prior to this assignment, Ilukena served as Director of the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED), a national body that mobilises resources to improve the quality of education through innovative curriculum development, research in education and training, and by linking the Ministry of education to the local community and Namibia to the international community in these fields.

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Image- Astrid

Bringing People Together and Aligning Effectively is Important GeSCI works at the local, national, and international level to support, to create, and to implement strategies to harness Information Communications Technologies (ICTs) for education and community growth. Astrid Dufborg, Executive Director, GeSCI, while speaking to Digital Learning elaborates these works and contributions that

Astrid Dufborg is the executive

touch to the belief that ‘Education changes life’

director of GeSCI since March 1, 2006. Before joining GeSCI, Dufborg worked as an Ambassador and ICT Adviser based at the Swedish UN Mission in Geneva, where she led the Swedish work within the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). She also represented Sweden at the UN ICT TF. Prior to that she what for the Swedish international Development Co-operation Agency (Sida) and was stationed in four African countries over a ten-year period. Her last positions at Sida were Director for the Department for Infrastructure and Economic Cooperation, and Assistant Director General.

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? Why was GESCI created?

The power of harnessing ICTs for development and the improvement of people’s lives is clear and urgent. In education it is particularly clear that ICTs, applied inclusively and imaginatively can act as catalyst in failing education systems in the developing world – and help unlock the creative potential of entire societies. Over the last number of years thousands of diverse, small-and medium scale projects and pilot projects aimed at exactly this harnessing of ICTs for social good, have been implemented and are leaving their mark worldwide. Though their individual results may be small in face of the magnitude of the global education crisis, the difference they are making to individual classrooms and communities is at times astonishing.

Sweden, Switzerland, and Canada, established the concept of the Global eSchools & Communities Initiative.

Taking up the challenge of the Millennium Development Goals, GeSCI’s purpose is to support stakeholders in the development of comprehensive strategies for wholesystem deployment of ICTs in education. Now an independent Notfor-profit organisation with a secretariat in Dublin, GeSCI believes that the missing links can be made visible and joined-up in the ICTS for development chain, by convening comprehensive multistakeholder partnerships at local, regional and national level – anywhere there is a demand - and creating end-to-end, holistic strategies and implementing them in a sustainable, collective manner.

? How does GeSCI approach the field of ICT Education?

Over all, these pilots show that ICTs are improving education. Implicitly they also show that up-scaled end-toend strategies could ensure such improvements are made all the more immense and wide-reaching in effect.

In this context, in 2003, the UN ICT Task Force, promted by Ireland,

Our imperative is to respond to the needs of real people – and real gaps in educational strategies and community development. Therefore we try to bring all stakeholders to the table in a collaborative way, and to complement and coordinate existing efforts already September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

underway. We look to understand the context and then clearly articulate where we can add value. Typically our value is inherent in our ability to bring stakeholders to the table, build and implement a plan and to mobilise resources to do so.

We are working to varying degree with such stakeholders in Namibia, India, Ghana and Bolivia. All four countries have in common a demonstrated readiness to take on ICT in education strategies in a comprehensive and national way and believe in the importance of ICTs and the potential for greater impact.

? You’re obviously very passionate about the potential of this initiative.

Why? There’s a huge gap between policy makers and practitioners. You can bring people together but you cannot align them effectively. People are saying: we should do this, or that, but there is no understanding in the middle – no interpreter between the two. That’s one of the reasons that GESCI was established – to act as the interpreter, the facilitator.

? You say the goal is to “raise education standards.” What do you mean by that?

One of the things we mean is directly contributing to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The primary education goal is a huge one.

The statistics speak for themselves: around 370 million school-aged children are not in school, not even near a classroom; sixty-seven per cent of the illiterate adults in the world are women. If we can lower those numbers, we’re doing something right. Traditionally ICT in education has tended to be technology led. In putting the educational cart before the technology horse so to speak, we mean to make a further impact on education standards. ICTs can be hugely beneficial to learners and teachers across the curriculum, but the key is strategic, goal-orientated Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

and well-planned intervention.

Where we achieve this, educations standards will rise.

? GeSCI is considering a role in Teacher professional development.

Why is this?

It is teachers who shape the future through their work. They are multipliers, authority figures and agents of socio-economic change that must be empowered. Therefore, they should have all available tools at their disposal, including the full range of information and communication technologies - not just the Internet, but also standalone computers, radio, TV and telephones. However, in order to provide them with the skills they need to become facilitators of learning, to improve their own effectiveness and to insure that the ICTs that are finding their ways into schools in the developing world are put to good use, teachers urgently require training in ICT. However, it was recognized that educators who had been trained in ICT often abandon their teaching careers for jobs that pay better salaries - a form of teacher brain-drain.

New models of capacity development of teachers and administrators are key to the success and sustainability of education strategies and to a systematic approach in the use of ICT for education.

? What are some of the major achievements of GeSCI in terms of policy and implementing strategies to harness ICTs for education and community growth?

There have been several so far, but I’ll just mention three. One is the central strategy called ‘complete or end-to-end system’ that guides all of our work, and provides a model approach to development. By this, we mean programmes that are comprehensive, demand-driven, capable and efficient, and coordinated. Another is our work in Namibia, where we are working closely with the Namibian government, and other stakeholders, to implement a national ICT in education plan. A third is our work on developing practical knowledge tools for policy makers and practitioners, such as studying the costs of benefits of various technology options for education.

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News INDIA

Java and can be used on any platform like Windows or Linux or Solaris.

e-Tool to be used across India A revolutionary e-Learning tool called LearnITy, could soon be used across India and could help bridge the growing gap between skills availability and requirement.

LearnITy, which is keyed to global standards, has been developed by a team of researchers at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University in collaboration with an American university. As many as 21 of India’s centres of excellence, both academic and research, are already using this e-Tool. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is using it to support the project assessment of EDUSAT, India’s satellite built exclusively for education. Sun Microsystems and IBM too have begun using it.

Through LearnITy the student answers the questions online and gets to know within 10 minutes if he has achieved the level of knowledge required. The LearnITy assessor is

JNU all set to march towards electronic age Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is undertaking an e-Governance project to digitalise all the processes and procedures related to administration and admission.

The project is partly funded by the UGC and about Indian Rupees 9 million has been set aside for this project. This e-Governance focused project is aimed at improving the productivity, adapta-bility and overall effectiveness of the university.

Chennai-based Accel Icim Frontline Limited has been engaged to develop the software-based solution and applications to suit the specific administrative and academic needs of JNU. While Accel is going to provide the applications, Wipro has been appointed as the consultant. The company will also train JNU officials to ensure optimum usage of the technology on a long-term basis.

Intel, NIIT, MP Govt. to launch ICT enabled education in schools The Madhya Pradesh (MP) government, the MP State Electronics Development Corp., Intel and NIIT have launched an initiative to revolutionise the Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled education in government schools in the state government schools.

Named ‘Gyanodaya’, the Government hopes to extend this initiative to students across all strata of the society.

As part of this initiative, NIIT will deploy ‘eGuru’, its most popular and widely accepted virtual computer based teaching solution, besides providing faculty and teacher training and courseware. In this project, Intel is introducing a specially designed ‘robust’ computer that can work for up to six hours even without electricity, and also the company will provide necessary infrastructure in schools.

Microsoft Imagine Cup: India team bags prize Microsoft Corp on 11 August announced the winners of Imagine Cup 2006 in Agra, after intense competition among finalists chosen from a pool of more than 65,000 students from over 100 countries. India’s Team Avengers comprising Mohit Bhargava and Mitushi Jain bagged the 3rd prize in the Interface Design category.

The team from Italy won the ‘Imagine Cup-2006’. The winning team walked away with a cash prize of USD25,000. The second place in the category was bagged by Brazil and the third place was taken by Norway.

The Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s premier competition for technology students, provides a forum to encourage creative and technological innovations among university students worldwide. A total of 181 students from 72 teams representing 42 countries were ultimately selected to participate in worldwide Imagine Cup finals in six categories.

The winners include Poland that took all the three positions in the Algorithm category. The Short Film category saw Canada taking the first place followed by Poland and US, while Brazil won in the Interface Design followed by China and India. In the last category Project Hoshimi (Programming Battle), France won the competition followed by the Republic of Serbia.

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September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Mainframes: The Resurgence in Server Computing For universities and students the System z program provides significant benefits like:

Of those 90,000 mainframers that IBM thinks are out there in the world, a relatively low portion of the population is in their 20s and 30s. But, this portion of the mainframe employee pool is growing. IBM is estimating that by 2010, about 25 percent of those 90,000 people who work on the mainframe, that is 22,250 people are going to retire. IBM needs to replace these experts, many of whom have unique skills that are not easily duplicated.

This is why IBM has pledged to work with schools to reach a target of 20,000 mainframe-literate IT professionals in the market by 2010. This is why IBM is working on making z/OS and z/VM, the System z offering of IBM, which are easier to manage, by adding automation features and by moving system administration functions to a graphical user interface that is more familiar to computer users today.

IBM is funding course work to educate a new generation of IT administrators that can handle the vendor’s zSeries line of mainframes. That’s an interesting change from the last 20 years of IT education, during which the majority of curricula focused on the personal computer and the desktop, the Java programming language and Windows and UNIX operating systems. IBM’s Academic Initiative zSeries lets students play with and learn more about operation and maintenance, and offers students and professors hands-on access to the zSeries mainframe, curriculum and industry experts.

Without developers knowledgeable in maintaining the mainframe operating system, companies may opt for the smaller Unix or Windows-based systems.

That is why IBM is banking so heavily on its Academic Initiative zSeries program, which lets students and professors go back to the roots of computing and play with a zSeries mainframe. There’s also a need for languages that students are more familiar with, such as C++ and Java, and operating systems such as Linux and Unix that run under zOS, IBM’s mainframe operating system.

The System z offering of the IBM Academic Initiative provides colleges and universities with educational resources to enhance the IBM System z skilled resource base and help students develop practical skills that enable them to find good jobs quickly upon graduation.

Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

•

Stronger relationship with businesses

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Access to industry technology experts

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Faculty training on latest mainframe facilities

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Comprehensive curriculum to meet market needs

•

Experience and career opportunities for students

A significant benefit for members of the System z programme of the IBM Academic Initiative is the free use of a z/OS mainframe (Knowledge Center) system for education and research. Professors and students get ID’s on the system, allowing them to explore and learn on a real mainframe environment. A system programmer and an administrator are available to assist in the process.

Mainframe (Knowledge Center) activity in the 2005 academic year: •

150+ participating schools

•

1,000+ instructor and student accounts

IBM brings career opportunities in mainframes to educational institutions and students. The pendulum of decentralised servers that defined the computing revolutions of the 1980s and 1990s is swinging now back toward the centralised systems, getting young people who know what a mainframe is, interested in cultivating a career on the mainframe. While there could very well be a shortage of mainframe experts in the coming years, with IBM there might be enough techies in emerging economies in India, China, Eastern Europe, and several other areas of the world to make up the difference.

Today Colorado State University uses its access to the System z mainframe’s Linux partitions to train its students. The z Academic initiative is completely online driven programme, where interested universities can enroll online, and after verification by IBM are provided their own Linux server (Virtual) one of the hundreds running on a single System z mainframe on which they can develop their projects.

IBM is now working to replicate this model of z Academic initiative in India to allow similar facilities to create a hub of development on System z. Today the new System z runs Java and Linux making the mainframe one of the most open environments which allows unparallel scaling within the one machine, security at the processor level and also replicated to data that is stored and legendary reliability typically measured in years between unplanned outages.

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Advertorial

Teaching children with help of laptops

Digital Knowledge Centre’ at Anna University

The Pondicherry Multipurpose Social Service Society (PMSSS) has taken measures for connectivity with the help of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to cover 20 hamlets affected by the December 2004 tsunami in Pondicherry, Cuddalore and Karaikal regions. The ICT facility was funded by the U.S. based Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Twenty information centres in each of the villages had been set up, with necessary infrastructure like computer, scanner, public address system and telephone connection with broad band facility.

Children coming in the age group of 35 years would be given joyful learning with the help of laptops.

Anna University, Chennai in Tamil Nadu has joined hands with its alumni group to set up a new state-of-the-art ‘Digital Knowledge Centre’ costing INR70 lakh at the University Library building.

Blackboard patent may hit e-learning in India

The Digital Knowledge Centre, for which the alumni donated INR 2.5 million for basic infrastructure and the University gave INR 4.5 million for purchasing the computers, has a browsing centre with provisions for around 46 users. The Centre’s content section has a server room, UPS room, and a content development room with scanners, digitisers and computer systems. This facility will helps the students, researchers and faculty to keep themselves updated with the latest developments and providing them an access to the Internet.

US-based Blackboard, has been granted a patent for technology used to deliver Internet-based education and support. The patent is already applicable in US, New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. The patent is now pending in other countries including India.

SAP India ties up with IIMB

Even as lawyers at NIIT are studying the fine print of Blackboard’s patent, industry experts say Indian companies enrolling US-based students for their e-learning programmes need to watch out. Any infringement of Blackboard’s patent may invite a suit running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Indian companies feel the patent can cover only specific systems and there are many avenues to deliver elearning without infringing on Blackboard’s patents. Since Blackboard’s patent is specific to its methods, it won’t affect popular tests like GRE and GMAT, they say.

SAP would supply study and teaching materials to CERP, which provided a stepping stone for eGovernance. IIMB was actively working towards creating a platform for cost effective implementation of eGovernance, which could usher in competitiveness and good governance. The major focus of the tie-up was to create flexible platform to disseminate knowledge in education system. Many governments in Asia, including Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and some North Asian countries, had successfully adopted the SAP e-Governance platforms.

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SAP India and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore have entered into an Memorandum of Understanding to work together.

Under this MoU, SAP would support IIMB’s Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning (CERP), whilst IIMB’s faculty would collaborate with SAP in the creation, sharing and dissemination of knowledge on eGovernance.

E-learning, e-education top winning categories in Manthan-AIF Award 2006

Digital Empowerment Foundation, in Association with American India Foundation felicitated the winners of the Manthan-AIF Award 2006 (http:/ /www.manthanaward.com/) on 5th August in New Delhi. Webel Mediatronics Limited, the West Bengal based organisation pioneer in the development of integrated system for education of people with visual impairments bagged the Manthan-AIF 2006 award in the eLearning category.

Webel Mediatronics extends solutions in disseminating Braille education in vernacular languages.

After successfully implementing these systems at around 110 schools in 22 states all over the country, WML has been able to provide necessary infrastructure to the blinds schools to develop unlimited reading material in Braille for visually impaired community.

Designmate, the company responsible to converted the text books into colourful 3D animated movies with interactive games and puzzles and thereby bringing a visually interesting learning experience, got a winning slot in the e-education category. StudentIndia. com, a dedicated information site for students based in Maharashtra also became the winner in the eEducation category.

The nominations and winning list of the Manthan-AIF Award 2006 included 216 valid nominations; 14 categories; 32 winners; 5 special mentions, and 4 appreciations for community radio initiatives.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Right to Education Bill

Can there be a silver lining?

T

he government in India, which was to table the Right to Education Bill in recent past in Parliament, will now ask the states to implement their own laws to guarantee all Indian children free and compulsory education. Reasons cited for killing off the proposed law and the dreams and hopes of 170 million children going to school in India are lack of funds, political considerations and pressure from the private schools.

What is the bill about?

The Constitution (86th Amendment) Act 2002, enacted in December 2002 made free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for all children in the age-group 6-14 years by inserting a new Article 21A in Part III [“Fundamental Rights”] of the Constitution. The Article 21A reads “21A. Right to Education – The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6-14 years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.”

It also says, the government schools shall provide free education to all the children and the schools will be managed by school management committees. Private schools shall admit at least 25% of the children in their schools without any fee.

The text of the entire bill can be read at: http://educationforallinindia.com/ RighttoEducationBill2005.pdf

Why is the Bill important?

The bill legislates provision of free and compulsory elementary and secondary education; Provides for a school in every neighborhood; 20

Voices over the retreat Outraged by the washing away of the Right to Education Bill by the government, several activist groups are up in arms. Under the aegis of People’s Campaign for a Common School System, several leftist groups and individuals have petitioned the prime minister on the issue. Protest rallies on the monsoon session of Parliament, call for more voices, filing petitions, etc are the still continuing efforts to make the government bow before the power of the people.

A month long campaign across India by CACL ‘Enact Right to Education Bill, Now’ - Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) observes a month long mass campaign across the country demanding for Enactment of the Right to Education Bill soon. This campaign was started on 24 July and will culminate on 23 August 2006 with mass gathering at different State Capitals. The month long campaign was aimed at building a strong public opinion through Rallies, Dharanas, Protests, Signature Campaigns, meeting with peoples’ representatives, submit Memorandums, etc. Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) is a national network of over 6000 anti child Labour groups, women groups, academic institutions, media agencies, child rights and human rights organisations, student volunteers and eminent citizens.

Provides for a School Monitoring Committee; Mandates that no child in the age group 6-14 shall be employed.

The stumbling blocks The current expenditure on primary education is nearly INR 460 billion; if the government enacted the law it would have to allocate INR 360 billion extra towards it.

Another reason is opposition from India’s private school lobby. The Bill proposes to stop the contractual appointment of teachers in schools. It also proposes 25% reservation for poor students. The educationists feel these provisions are not going down well with some organisations.

The outburst Educationists, child rights activists, and other campaigners who are

disappointed at the burial of the long-awaited, landmark Bill, refuse to gulp the reasons given by the government. At one end government appears ready to allocate funds to creating additional seats in higher education institutions to accommodate its reservation policy, but at the other end it cites lack of funds for elementary education- something indigestible that provides fuel to these caretakers of education and society for the current outburst.

Six years after the Constitution was amended to make education a fundamental right, the government will now pass the model Bill on to the states. The government has circulated a Model Right to Education Bill 2006, asking all state governments to enact their own laws conforming to its broad parameters.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

‘We are not in a policy vaccuum’ In conversation with Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India India has been a major learning seat in the world for centuries. While it has some of the best educational centers and institutions in the world, it still has to deal with challenges in its primary education, strive to reach 100% literacy, and struggle to bring in any innovation to the whole education system. For the country the need of the hour is to try integrating ICT in the existing education scenario to catalyse the change process and to reduce the skew in education and knowledge dissemination. Ministry of Human Resource Development in India while implements the central government’s responsibilities in educational matters, also coordinates Information and communication initiatives that are geared towards development of the education sector. Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, in a face-to-face conversation with Rumi Mallick of Digital Learning shares more of such responsibilities, challenges and visions, which are part of the country’s attempt to give a new dimension to development through education with innovation.

? What is the most pressing educational challenge India is facing?

The current challenge to education in our country is three fold that of access, equity and quality. At the level of secondary schooling, only about 40% of the children with the age group of 14 to 18 are in school.

Access to secondary education is not available everywhere in the country; there are still pockets and long distances that need to be covered.

Secondly, every section of society needs to be equally represented in the educational system, where they participate equally- this is still not addressed in India. The isadvantaged sections also need to be brought into the education sphere. The enrollment rates of girls are much lower than the boys and physically disabled section is also not represented well.

Then of course quality of education is a major challenge, which needs to be addressed on a priority basis. All the three aspects are interlinked.

If there is no quality then parents will 22

feel discouraged to send their children to schools. So when they feel that after this much education, their children are not well qualified to enter in a job market, they would rather send their children to the job market without education. That is why quality is important. If quality is good then of course participation rate will improve.

? How have we progressed in last 10 years?

We have progressed to a large extent.

More students are in schools in numbers and also in terms of percentage. But it is not satisfactory.

We need to insure this at the very first stage that everybody from standard one to eight aged six to thirteen should be in school. Actually it is desirable to extend it till the age of 16 so that from class 1 to 10 they have skills to enter in the job market. Now the challenge is to bring it to a kind of satisfactory level. At first stage we are hoping that by 2010 most of the children up to 14 years age are in the school and after that we have to concentrate on secondary stage.

? The status of the teaching profession has plummeted in all regions of the world. What are the current measures the ministry has undertaken to keep this fraternity motivated and to build their capacity as well?

This itself is a societal problem and it is not only seen in India, but is a problem for several other countries of the world too. This is because of salary differentials in between this sector and the private sector. Right now the economy is in boom and there are alternate employment opportunities available; hence we do not see many people in the teaching profession. But at the same time there are people who are interested in teaching. The motivation has to come from society, appreciating the decision of person who chooses to teach and adopt this profession that helps the next generation. There is also a need for the teachers to continuously upgrade their skill through training programme and our responsibility is to give them other facilities and amenities that helps them in teaching.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

So, ICTs can provide an opportunity for the teachers to upgrade their skills.

? Information and Communication Technologies are supporting many of the recent gains in education worldwide. Do you believe in the context of India, ICTs have any real potential to transform education?

There is a tremendous role for ICT in education everywhere and India is no exception. The problem in India is that when we talk of ICT infrastructure we find schools do not have a room for computers and many schools do not have electricity, telephone connections, etc. However all this will not only be possible but will be essential in few years from now because we have to adopt technology to keep up with time and without ICT we will be left behind. So it is not to choose between ICT and no ICT but to equip ourselves such that we make the best use this technology in education.

? What initiatives has your department taken to integrate ICT in schools (in secondary education)?

We have from time to time started different initiatives, there was a class programme earlier and there was a satellite and computer literacy programme, now we have reformulated the scheme called ‘ICT in schools’ where we give assistance to the centrally sponsored schools and government aided schools which are equipped with infrastructure and the learning material. In this scheme, one, we focus on teaching computers to children and second, use computers as an aid in teaching and also for self-learning. Now the results have started coming, but in a small way. About 500 schools in a year are able to access this scheme, and we have a long way to go. We have about 100000 secondary schools in government and government aided sectors and we Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

? Under this scheme, is there any Ideally every school from standard one to twelve should have the adequate numbers of computers but because of resource constraints we had failed to prioritise this. Now we have one programme for secondary and higher secondary schools, which is the ‘ICT in schools’ programme, where we feel that computers can be used in a big way

have to scale it up so that all schools can avail this facility.

Ideally every school from standard one to twelve should have adequate numbers of computers but because of resource constraints we had failed to prioritise this. Now we have one programme for secondary and higher secondary schools, which is the ‘ICT in schools’ programme, where we feel that computers can be used in a big way. It provides an aid in teaching particularly hard subjects such as science, languages and mathematics.

Through animation, science and geography can be made more interesting, that is why ‘ICT in schools’ programmes has been started. At the same time we also understand the implication of teaching children in schools. The secondary schools are easier to manage because there are 146 thousands schools in the government and government aided sector where as primary school it is even larger numbers. Since ideally we should cover all the schools, several elementary schools are also being targeted under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiayan (SSA), are being assisted with computers.

Over a period of time we have to look at the pupil-teacher ratio in availability of computers.

central learning content that is being prepared or is the learning content being initiated at state level?

Under this programme we have asked the state governments to make use of funding to develop the content or procure already developed content.

Generally in states, contents are generated in SCERT (State Council for Educational Research and Training), but it varies from state to state. We have not emphasized that there is only one kind of content that could be taught in schools and some flexibility has been given to the states to innovate. Otherwise there will be no innovation at all. We are looking at the process where some model content can be developed but we do not want uniform content all across the country, because content should be area specific and hence the state governments will be encouraged to take the initiative in this regard.

Several states have made good progress in creating content through some parallel schemes, which are run by state governments, for example, Government of Karnataka Rajasthan and Uttaranchal. They have developed good content and most of them in their local languages, which is distributed among the schools.

Sometimes school teachers themselves develop content which is helpful in teaching.

? In this whole programme of ‘ICT in schools’ what do you think is the real challenge in terms of scaling this ICT in education programme?

One challenge is that of teachers’ skills and motivation to use ICTs. We need every teacher to be trained and use ICT for teaching. For this, we need to have a massive programme to retrain teachers. At the same time during their pre-service training they could also be trained in the use of ICTs. We are going to implement a small pilot project with the help of UNESCO where we would like to introduce new curriculum in 23

pre-service training so that new teachers can be trained.

fully ICT-enabled in next five years, but we would definitely like to make a dent in the next five year plan that starts from next year, where at least secondary schools, should be provided with adequate infrastructure so that ICTs can be used in education.

? Please let us know a little more on this new curriculum? Is it still in the planning stage?

Some curriculum development has already taken place, but it has to be looked into in a more comprehensive manner. Teacher training syllabus is not the same everywhere in the country; it depends on which university the college has an affiliation. We will have to take a comprehensive view so that it becomes a part and parcel of the curriculum. In fact, many of the training colleges also vary in having adequate amenities. Some programmes have to be done so that these colleges themselves can have ICT infrastructure.

? Several countries have ICT policy and ICT in education policy and the policy status is already quite developed though not established, notably in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. What is the status or the scope of such a policy in India?

Such a policy would be relevant but at the same time it is not as if we are in a policy vaccuum. There are policies, each state government here has got an IT policy and a part of policy would be how IT can be used in education. All these policies have something mentioned on education. We can bring out all that and put it at one place, which will have focus and thrust on ICT in education so it will be worthwhile to work upon that.

? Some private companies are providing their financial and practical support in the realisation of the infrastructure requirements for education. Please elaborate on such idea of partnerships. How do you envisage involving such private companies in other areas of education system as well?

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? In your role as Joint Secretary of We need every teacher to be trained and use ICT for teaching. For this, we need to have massive programme to retrain teachers. At the same time during their pre-service training they could also be trained in the use of ICTs. We are going to implement a small pilot project with the help of UNESCO where we would like to introduce new curriculum in pre-service training so that new teacher’s can be trained Such partnerships are most welcome and private sector has a big role to play. If India is recognised in the field of software today it is basically because of the private players, particularly in those situations when private players are providing infrastructure or acting as service providers. There is a huge scope from private players.

? In which time frame do you think most Indian schools be sufficiently connected and equipped with ICT tools to carry out ICT-enabled teaching and learning activities?

We still have 60% of students outside the school at the secondary stage. We cannot say only ICTs or getting children back to school will help achieving ‘ICTs for all’. I do not visualise that every school will be

Secondary Education, Ministry of HRD, what do you feel should be the most critical steps that your department should take to achieve the goals and objectives of education in India as well as connecting the country’s human resource to the knowledge society?

The purpose of education is to develop the intrinsic personality of every human being and of course another very important purpose is that education should enable person to be gainfully employed. The main goal is the personal development of a person so that education becomes really purposeful and people feel that by being educated they have added value to life. The Department would like India to be an educated nation.

We are a very large country with a huge population so this formidable task has to be accomplished.

There is a role for ICT to play at plus-two stage (standard eleven and twelve) also, because this is a stage which bridges between school education and higher education.

We would like children to diversify to vocational fields so that if the need arises, they can go for employment after plus two and later when they feel like, can come back for higher education.

? What education event in your lifetime would you consider as a milestone for your country?

When you see every child from the age group of 6 to 16, that is from class 1 to class 10 is in school and 99% of children of that age group are in school, that will become the milestone for the country. We are in the right direction now.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

News

CORPORATE InstaBook gears up to promote literacy through digital library The Internet-based InstaBook Corporation (www.instabook.net) has announced a new digital library initiative. It claims that it can promote literacy around the world.

In association with the Project Gutenberg Consortia Centre and other organisations, instabook.net says it has created a new service geared to take a wide range of books to libraries and other non-profit organisations.

Visitors to the instabook.net website can download for free any of nearly 100,000 titles and have them printed on demand if they have access to an InstaBook Digital Library. Users can install an InstaBook Maker in their premises by paying the manufacturing cost of the equipment.

Yadavpur University bags award from HP Hewlett Packard has announced that Jadavpur University, Kolkota in India has been awarded ‘Technology for

Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

Teaching’ Grant to transform the way subjects are taught on its campus.

The university will receive approximately USD70,000 worth of technology such as HP tablet PCs, external storage and optical drives, wireless networking cards and printers, as well as a stipend for staff to work on the projects, which have to be completed in 15 months. HP will help Jadavpur University establish a mobile learning (m-learning) centre where students taking M. Tech. course in Distributed and Mobile Computing can access content using hand-held computers. The University already has a digital library, and a content management and development system using an mlearning authoring tool.

Brian League launches an e-Learning tool Brain League has launched Value intellectual property rights (IPR), an eLearning tool that helps knowledgedriven organisations in sensitising their entire employee force on various aspects of IP. Brain League is an IP service company incubated out of the N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial

Learning at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. The company has tied up with Edutech, a provider of enterprise-wide knowledge solutions, to offer Value IPR. The tool can deliver the IPR eLearning modules to as many people within the organisation as required.

Reliance ties up with Asianet to offer m-content Reliance Communications is partnering with Malayalam satellite television company, Asianet Communications, to offer Asianet’s content on mobile phones. Both streaming content and video clips from Asianet would be available on Reliance Mobile World, the data service platform of Reliance Mobile.

The popular Asianet programme Munshi will be available as a video clip, while news bulletins will be available as streaming content and also as video clips. Reliance users across India can access this new service. Streaming content is currently available only on select Nokia mobile phones, while video clips of news and other programmes are available on all Java-enabled phones.

Indian multinationals adapt e-Learning to train their workforce Indian multinationals are increasingly adopting e-Learning practices to train their workforce, globally.

Apart from being highly interactive, these programmes help break geographical barriers to include a larger workforce, at a time when domestic companies are increasing their global footprint through acquisitions and partnerships. The Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd is designing new programmes on e-Learning and job valuation based on its core group values.

Automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra is in the early stages of providing eLearning through a knowledge management network that spans China, USA, Middle East, South Africa, Australia, Latin America and Spain. The new elearning training programme will allow employees across the globe to choose what they want to learn and where, according to their changing needs. The eLearning programme at Mahindra & Mahindra will impart critical knowledge of the various business processes.

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Tarang launches e-learning for CXOs

Indian American wins global digital literacy champion award An Indian American pioneer in digital education, Appu Kuttan, has won the prestigious 2006 Champions of Digital Literacy Inspiration Award for making the most contributions globally to bridging the digital divide over the years.

Tarang, a provider in the enterprise learning space has come up with a programme for the Indian CEOs. The new e- learning programme, ‘Tarang Elearning for CXOs’, aims to solve business problems of comapany executive officers (CXOs) and enhance performance and productivity in the enterprises.

The programme provides end-to-end learning management system (LMS) and comprises interactive sessions such as understanding and sustaining organisational culture, programme goals, strategies and tactics measurement, and programme management. With a stronghold in Europe and Japan, Tarang is currently getting bullish on the Indian market and looking for new segments such as automobile, IT/ ITeS and financial.

Research shows 89% of the CXOs prefer to take the course in 1-2 weeks.

The course is tailor-made keeping in mind the organisation and designation, like, a CIO requires technical acumen whereas a COO requires market and financial perspective.

Harbinger launches Raptivity Harbinger Knowledge Products have released Raptivity 3.0, which can help users to create interactivity rapidly and add it to their e-learning content.

Raptivity is being used for a host of training applications such as employee training, customer education, product knowledge training, IT training, sales force training, IT application rollout, process training, distance learning, 26

Kuttan, chairman and founder of CyberLearning, the global leader in digital education, was presented the award at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Kuttan was chosen for the Inspiration Award from 13 Champions of Digital Literacy award recipients. CyberLearning, founded in 1994, has trained over a million disadvantaged students and adults in digital literacy and IT skills. Its programmes have been implemented in the US, India, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritius among others.

Kuttan’s contribution to digital and IT education spans 20 years from advising late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on making India an IT power, to currently helping Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam transform Mauritius into an IT-focused nation by providing digital literacy and IT education to 400,000 Mauritians to providing digital education to thousands of disadvantaged school students and teachers in the US and India. regulatory compliance training and many more. Users can continue with their existing authoring tool, LCMS, LMS, CMS and Live Collaboration Systems with Raptivity. The contents published by Raptivity can be easily used in pesentations, Websites, documents and help files by users.

conclude on December 13, 2006 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

e-Learning @ Hilton varsity makes employees loyal

SkillSoft hosts ‘Beyond Traditional Corporate Learning: New Strategies for Maximising Business Impact’ SkillSoft PLC (http://www.skillsoft. com/), a leading provider of comprehensive e-learning content and technology products for business and IT professionals within global enterprises, announced that it will host half-day workshops for learning professionals to discuss the challenges associated with the next generation of corporate learning and strategies that can be used to successfully link learning to the organisation’s human capital and performance management systems.

The workshop series, “Beyond Traditional Corporate Learning: New Strategies for Maximising Business Impact,” will take place in 29 cities across the United States and Canada.

The series kicks off on September 6, 2006 in Seattle, Washington, and will

According to the findings of a recent team member survey in Hilton, part of Hilton Hotels Corporation, being given the opportunity to develop through Hilton University - the group’s online learning platform encourages employees to remain loyal. Hilton team members across the globe are able to access a wide range of learning activities through Hilton University. These include: 550 SkillSoft e-Learning courses covering business, professional and IT skills; Books24x7 Referenceware - featuring best-selling management, business and technology books and reference materials, online mentoring and virtual classrooms.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Good for thinking

teamwork sharing

Good to grow

The SMART Board™ 600 series interactive whiteboard As educators work to integrate technology, digital content and pedagogy, schools are recognizing the value of SMART Board interactive whiteboards in the classroom. Students can use them to grow ideas through brainstorming, researching and collaborating on projects. Teachers can use them to grow the skills and knowledge they need to encourage inquiry-based learning with digital content.

But growth doesn’t have to come with steep learning curves. If you can use a computer, you can use a SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Get the world’s leading interactive whiteboard. It’s good to grow.

© 2005 SMART Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. SMART Board and the SMART logo are trademarks of SMART Technologies Inc.

www.smarttech.com

Insight

Ale winomugisha Alexx TTwinomugisha [ALEX.TWINOMUGISHA@GESCI.ORG],, Global e-Schools and Communities Initiatives (GeSCI), Dublin

The price of good policy

Calculating the Total Cost of ICT4E Ownership

GeSCI has developed a framework and approach that educational policy makers and school administrators can use to inform their choice of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for schools, in a way that ensures that they achieve their educational objectives. The framework advocates for a consideration of some key elements: a focus on educational objectives as the overriding consideration, targeting an end-to-end approach, and considering the benefits, feasibility and total cost of ownership (TCO) of any ICT choice

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nformation and Communication Technology (ICT) has become the latest buzzword in the education sector today as schools and ministries of education clamor to equip the kids with ICT skills for today’s information age. Millions and even billions of dollars have been spent both in the developing and developed countries to provide computers, Internet access and other hi-tech gadgets to schools.

However all these endeavours, while well intentioned, have often been poorly implemented or not realised any of the benefits touted. As such, most computer labs especially in the less developed countries resemble small “museums” with banks of old, non working computers, some schools have good equipment but untrained teachers while other

schools have no equipment but have had their teachers trained. These “disconnects” and poor implementations are caused by among other factors: • A focus on the technology without paying attention to the educational objectives and needs.

• Narrow interpretation of ICTs to mean computers only and forgetting that other ICTs such as radio or TV can be more appropriate and cost effective in some situations • Failure to consider other vital components of implementing ICTs such as providing user and technical support, providing for maintenance, and providing the right educational content

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And lastly, a failure to consider all of the costs, short term and long term, involved in obtaining and using ICTs.

As a result, ICTs in education are increasingly being criticised in many quarters as aptly put by Larry Cuban (2001): The money spent on computers might have been better spent on other resources such as ‘smaller class size’, better salaries for teachers, renovation of decayed buildings computers in the classroom have been oversold by promoters and policymakers and underused by teachers and students.

Despite these denouncements, there is also no doubt that given right circumstances, ICTs can transform teaching and learning, help improve student achievement, motivation and performance, engage ‘hard to reach’ or disadvantaged populations, support students with special needs, and achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in school management.

However, in order for these benefits to be realised, the current implementation of ICTs is going to take the “lessons learned” more seriously and schools and ministry of education planners are going to have to rethink the approach to acquiring and deploying ICTs.

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September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

The Framework The commonly occurring educational objectives, grouped into four broad categories, Administration, Teacher Development, Learning Resources, ICT Skills Training Administration •

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Enhancing school productivity; Freeing up teacher and administrator time, and improving data storage and flow, through use of ICT for administrative tasks and communications Enhancing data flow for policy making; Collecting and managing data for planning purposes (monitoring results, assessing needs, allocating resources, etc.)

Teacher Development •

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Developing teacher skills and knowledge; Using ICTs to improve teacher’s subject knowledge, train in new pedagogical practices, and motivate and connect teachers Assisting effective lesson planning; Assisting teachers with planning objectives, structure and content of lessons, especially for teaching unfamiliar subjects

Learning Resources •

• •

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Accessing information (by students) Students accessing local content, intranet, or Internet for information beyond what is available in textbooks and library collection Improving conceptual understanding; Explaining concepts and information to students through dynamic audio-visual representations Developing constructivist skills; Actively constructing knowledge by searching for information, interacting with simulations, designing products, and presenting work Facilitating collaboration; Using ICTs for group project work and communication between students in order to improve motivation and understanding Providing testing and feedback; Opportunities to rapidly apply learning and get feedback through tests

ICT Skills Training • •

Developing basic ICT skills; Familiarising students with ICTs and developing basic usage skills Developing advanced ICT skills; Learning advanced ICT skills (e.g., programming) under teacher instruction

To this end, GeSCI working with a team from McKinsey and Company, supported by a financial contribution from Intel and pro-bono time and effort from McKinsey and Company, developed an overall framework for thinking about benefits, costs and feasibility of ICT options for schools Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

and created a sophisticated analytic electronic tool that models TCO for various ICT options. The framework and electronic tool have subsequently been revised extensively by GeSCI following feedback from various ICT in education experts and are briefly presented in this paper.

The framework and corresponding approach is based on s number of key considerations that arise directly out of some of the major problems facing the deployment of ICTs in schools today. These considerations can also be taken as “steps” in an approach to considering the acquisition and implementation of ICTs in education.

Focus on educational objectives ICTs are tool and not an end in themselves. Schools should therefore focus on what they need to use the tool for, in the first place. Choosing and deploying ICTs for education must stem from, and be driven by the desired educational objective(s) and outcome. From an extensive literature survey and consultations with various ICT in Education experts, GeSCI identified 11 commonly occurring educational objectives, which can be grouped into four broad categories.

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Target an end-to-end approach Purchasing and installing ICTs in schools is not the end of the story. It is only part of an integrated, comprehensive and on-going (end-to-end) system that requires that a plan be developed in advance, ICTs purchased and installed, users trained, adequate technical and user support provided, and continuous assessment and evaluation conducted to ensure that educational objectives are being met. The end-to-end system consists of 5 major components: deployment of ICTs, content and applications that accompany the ICTs, user training and support to enable proper usage, maintenance and technical support to keep the ICTs working and monitoring and evaluation to ensure that the ICTs are being used for the educational objectives originally 29

GeSCI end-to-end-system

There are six most common usage approaches and three different levels of functionality giving rise to eighteen possible technology deployment models. However, of these eighteen technology deployment models, four are not in fact meaningful, since they combine a functionality (non interactive) with usage approaches that would not make sense together. For example, it does not make sense to consider use of noninteractive technology (e.g., TV, radio) only in office administration.

envisaged. It should be comprehensive, demand driven, capable and efficient and well coordinated.

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Carefully consider your deployment model A study of the different ICT-inschools models across the world suggests there are six key questions, grouped into four elements that help define those models: Usage approach: Who uses the equipment: administrators, teachers, students?

Where do they use it: office, classroom, lab, open access?

• Functionality: How interactive is the equipment? Is it connected to the Internet?

• Numbers: What is the ratio of devices to users?

• Content and Applications used: What content and applications are required for the educational objectives set?

• The most important elements are usage approach and functionality and these determine the “technology deployment model”.

ICT Deployment Models

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Consider whether your selected deployment model helps achieve your desired education objective

A careful analysis of the 14 deployment models, and therefore the e-school models, shows that some models are more suited to achieving certain education objectives than others.

“Suitability” in this particular case is based on a combination of the benefits rendered and the feasibility of the given model. The chart shown in the next page summarises the suitability of any model to the range of educational in Education objectives. It uses “circles” – a blank circle represents zero suitability and a completely filled-in circle represents maximum suitability.

Mounting degrees of suitability are shown by quarter-, half-, and threequarter-filled circles.

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Consider the feasibility of any selected technology option

The feasibility of any given ICT determines whether that particular ICT is applicable in a given context irrespective of the inherent benefits.

Feasibility is usually influenced by local conditions. There are 5 key common constraints: existence of poor ICT infrastructure such as computer equipment and telecom infrastructure, availability of sufficient electricity for ICT usage, limiting physical school infrastructure (size and shape of classrooms; security; types of furniture; lighting conditions; ventilation), educator’s technology skills and comfort in integrating technology into teaching, and access to developed local ICT industry that includes distance from services; capability of local ICT service industry and ease of procurement. For example, the lack of wired telecom infrastructure at a remote village may mean that the only connectivity options are satellite or none at all, or cultural considerations such as teachers’ lack of readiness to use technology in the classroom may mean a deployment of technology in teacher offices only.

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Consider long term and short term costs or “the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)”

Work out how much this technology will cost, not merely to buy in the first place, but throughout the life of the project using the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concept. The TCO captures all the costs of a particular purchase from “cradle to grave” i.e. from making the decision to purchase, through the useful life of the purchase to retirement or end of life. TCO September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Comparison of e-school models and educational objectives

differs from a regular budget because the budget usually focuses on the immediate (or initial) costs, encompassing one time purchases and the more obvious operating costs. TCO is therefore vital to understanding the full implications of any purchase one makes. The TCO of any technology platform selected must take account of all the five main categories of spending, aligned with the GeSCI end-to-end system. Each of these categories involves initial capital expenditure and then ongoing operating expenditure.

After calculating the TCO, compare it with your budget. TCO is a critical decision tool as it often spells out the “bottom line�. For example, if it is within your school budget, you can move forward to design a strategy around the chosen technology platform. If it is too expensive, you must go back and review the earlier choices, including your educational objectives, selected technology platform and deployment model.

While TCO can be used to make a choice between two models, it should Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

not be the only factor considered. A final choice can only be considered after a careful analysis of both the costs and benefits or suitability of your selected options.

The framework and approach developed by GeSCI is intended to help educational planners and school administrators make the right ICT choices that will fulfill their particular education objectives. Indeed, the framework can be useful in any other of a variety of situations including in procurement planning, in setting ICT standards, and in developing a technology plan and budget.

This framework and TCO tools are not meant to be rigid and prescriptiverather, they are meant to be support aids for the decision maker. Any application of the framework must be in the appropriate users context- by considering their own local environment and other local factors.

Most importantly, this framework is meant to make it much more likely that the ICTs acquired have a direct impact on your school administration, management, teaching and learning.

This paper draws heavily from a report on the framework and TCO tools developed by GeSCI and the team from McKinsey and which can be found at the GeSCI website at http://gesci.org.

Alex Twinomugisha, is currently the ICT Specialist at GeSCI based in Dublin where he is responsible for generating, maintaining, acquiring and sharing knowledge and expertise in ICTs for education and community development. Prior to this, he was a technical consultant to the World Bank in Washington DC for the African Virtual University (AVU) project responsible for setting up and managing the online and satellite technical infrastructure for course delivery and management to over 34 learning centers in over 15 African countries. He later established and managed the ICT department for the independent AVU organisation based in Nairobi, Kenya. He has also worked for the Ugandan Ministry of Education, in designing an ICT network for course delivery and management for a planned open university, a VSAT network for universities in Somalia under a joint World BankUNDP capacity building mission for Somalia and obtaining cheaper VSAT bandwidth for universities supported by the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa.

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Knowledge and Education to Glare in Every Hinterland of India Information and communication development has been one of the major concerns of the United Nations in general and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in particular, since their inception. In India UNESCO has supported many programmes and activities relating to development of skills and facilities in education, computers and information science.The role of UNESCO in India being more relevant today when there is a knowledge explosion distinctly visible here, Digital Learning is trying to see the responsibilities UNESCO is furthering from different stand points like, as a means of bringing about desired social change, paving the path for free flow of information, and institution building. Minja Yang, Director, UNESCO New Delhi Office and Representative to India articulates all the fine points in an exclusive chat with Rumi Mallick of Digital Learning.

Minja Yang assumed her function in October 2005 as Director, UNESCO New Delhi Office and Representative to India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and the Maldives. Upon completing her BA in Development Sociology from Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA), MA in Politics and PhD qualifying diploma in Political Science (University of London, UK), she served at UNHCR in Thailand, Japan and then in Geneva HQs from 1979 – 1989.Yang transferred to UNESCO in 1989, first serving in the office of the Director General for UN inter-agency activities before being appointed successively as Head Emergency Unit (Bureau of Operational Activities), Head UNESCO Task Force on Cambodia, Head Asia-Pacific Regional Section of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre; then she served as Deputy Director of this Centre. Prior to her appointment as the Director of the UNESCO New Delhi Office, Yang was Charge de mission to the Assistant Director General for Culture, responsible for special projects on cities and local governments and museum development.

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? What are the most critical challenges of education in India?

Without any doubt, it is Education for All. Enrolling all children in school, and retaining them until graduation with quality education that will prepare them to be responsible, productive and above all, happy citizens are challenges before India.

The number of school drop-outs and adult illiterates are increasing every year, close to 300 million citizens of this country is functionally illiterate, this is more than the population of Japan, France and Germany put together.

? What is your vision for promoting education in India?

Education must be given top priority on the political agenda of the central and state governments. 3% of the national budget for education is clearly insufficient to make the great leap forward necessary. India’s productivity as an agricultural economy is now being matched by its industrial growth, and the IT-based knowledge providing services. So imagine, what India can become if the nation’s population become literate, and if the excellent quality of education already available to some can be made accessible to all! I dream

of every corner of India, including its geographically isolated regions, being connected, gaining access by Internet to the best possible learners’ material in all the major languages of the country, and an army of teachers in every hinterland of this vast nation imparting with the knowledge that can be gathered from all the information now available on Internet, making learning an enjoyable exercise.

? What are the specific areas of education interventions by UNESCOIndia?

The UNESCO New Delhi Office covers Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, in addition to India; so our limited human and financial resources are being put into promoting quality through teachers education and literacy. We are focusing on content development, particularly for distance learning material, in an “integrated” manner.

? With reference to India, how is UNESCO addressing the issues of access to education services and information resources?

UNESCO’s interventions are based on its mission to promote the free flow of information, knowledge and data, and September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

its major objective to build a knowledge society based on sharing such knowledge and incorporating all the socio-cultural and ethical dimensions of sustainable development.

In India, we are focusing on this in a number of ways: support in the development of enabling policies such as the community radio policy and the national broadcasting bill that are now under consideration; advocacy and awareness building in terms of the economic, social and political benefits that ICTs can bring; reinforcement of community media access models which we have been building over the past six years, such as community radio and community multimedia centres (CMCs), and community learning centres (CLCs), where we experiment with a wide combination of low cost traditional and new media devices and the Internet for bridging gaps, overcoming barriers and accessing masses in their own local languages and culturally and context specific ways.

Education interventions by UNESCO- India UNESCO has a partnership with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to produce the LIFE kit (Literacy Initiatives for Empowerment) to contribute to the amazing work being done by the National Literacy Mission (NLM), in promoting literacy as a process in gaining life skills, rather than as an end in itself. The LIFE kit will have many modules – for the agricultural communities of different ecological zones, for the industrial workers, and for those in the service sector - notably in the growing tourism industry. The Association of Heritage Hotels with its 200 establishments has agreed to be its partner to use the LIFE kit to train their employees.

UNESCO is also collaborating with the NCERT to develop a teachers’ resource kit on science and technology with multi-media support. This collaboration is being extended to a very exciting new area, that of assessing pupils learning outcomes, to enhance quality by identifying where the problem is, and not by multiplying exams and test to eliminate those trailing behind. As a longer-term collaboration, together with our UN sister agencies, UNESCO is also working with the government to improve its educational statistics, develop better indicators, activities which are not very visible but extremely important. It just began a new programme for “volunteer teachers” – for teachers all over India to participate in making UNESCO’s teacher resource kit relevant to India’s diverse communities.

? Do you think rural schools in India are ready for ICT–enabled education?

Yes, definitely. This may be a step-bystep process, taking into consideration the extent of the challenges, which prevail in each locality. There is relatively low computer penetration in rural schools in India. It is not only the mere insertion of computers into the classroom, but on a number of factors, such as the necessary infrastructureelectricity and Internet connectivity.

Matters relating to software interface in local languages remain crucial to this exercise.

While much has to be done to improve connectivity and above all financial accessibility, rural India should not be considered different from its urban or semi-urban areas.

There needs to be ICT “hubs” to Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

enable access to information and the training of trainers, from where information can be translated into knowledge and disseminated. But ICT also includes traditional forms of communications too, such as radio.

As a real fan of community broadcasting, I dream of these ICT centres becoming places where the local community can make their own video films and record their own

music, so the creative genius in every community can make life more interesting.

? What are those critical elements that need to be in place for an effective ICT intervention in Education and capacity building?

Political will, good governance, and an “enabling environment”, to use UN 33

lingo to mean a lot of things!

Basically, much depends on the government, both central and state, and now at the local level with decentralisation, allowing individualsteachers and private citizens and companies, and NGOs and the many individuals working in the numerous educational institutions across this vast country to be permitted to think outside the box, and to take initiatives, and to be rewarded and recognised for innovative means to build human capacities, whether it be through formal or non-formal education or, through television or street theatre or through oral traditions. Most important is the political will and appropriate national policy to ensure access to information for all and to develop localized tools, technologies and methodologies in the ICT field. The element of capacity building of our trainers, teachers and managers of education services,

Having worked on culture, as a vector for local development for close to 20 years, I am convinced that knowledge can be imparted through culture. School education should be, in fact must be, complemented by home education, which today, also includes the television, and radio, DVD films, etc.

I am eagerly looking for a TV film producer and director willing to collaborate with UNESCO to make a TV “soap opera” to inculcate integrated values education to promote democratic governance. depends heavily on infrastructure as well as connectivity at affordable costs, both in terms of the Internet as well as in community broadcasting.

Our experiments the world over have shown the positive impact of these forms of connectivity on educational and social advancement. Distance education programmes beamed by radio to the

UNESCO addressing access issues of education resources CMCs and CLCs are operational by UNESCO in districts such as Seelampur and Old Delhi in Delhi; in hill districts of Uttaranchal; Agya Village, Uttar Pradesh, Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, and Namma Dhwani, Karnataka. Combinations in these centres range from community radio, television and newspapers; to radio browsing (radio + Internet for live broadcast), various handhelds, multimedia formats for dissemination through satellite and cable, and participatory evaluation (using Ethnographic Action Research methodology- EAR) to allow the communities themselves to benchmark and document their own successes and challenges and build a wider understanding of the issues of ICTs particularly in urban marginalised, rural and remote areas of the country. The opportunity is also created for the development of local content information for sharing and dissemination using the wide range of multimedia facilities accessible at these community multimedia centres.

UNESCO continues to develop various tools to encourage more and more access to information resources that are made available to our stakeholders and partners in India such as its ICT-related publications, productions, training manuals and modules, all of which are available on our website at www.unesco.org/webworld.

Open source software packages are also available such as the Greenstone digital library software and OPEN eNRICH, a joint NIC/OWSA/UNESCO open source browser for documentation, storage and easy retrieval of information in use particularly on the community levels. These tools are all made available for translation and adaptation into local languages taking into consideration the cultural diversity of India, for widespread use.

UNESCO is presently developing modules in community radio and ICT skills for the visually impaired and other disabled groups.

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most distant rural communities have been known to have considerable impact on the pass level in school examinations; The facility to develop relevant development content in health, education, environment, natural disaster, in local languages for exchange amongst schools and learning spaces is critical also to this exercise.

? How is UNESCO promoting local content creation in India?

This question brings to mind an old African proverb: “Until the lions have their own historians, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter” As we speak at this moment, a local content creation workshop within the UNESCO Cross Cutting project entitled “Finding a Voice” is currently in progress in New Delhi. Using the digital storytelling format, trainers from participating CMCs, Community learning centres (CLCs), and other ICT-related activities largely from Sri Lanka, Nepal and India are learning to put together stories affecting their own environments, health, education, disaster, scientific development, social struggles and challenges in multimedia format for radio and/or television broadcast, publication, exchange and dissemination by both traditional as well as new media means. They are also learning, through the application of September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Ethnographic Action Research (EAR) methodology, to examine the most effective ways of using the ICTs to empower the ‘voices’ of poor marginalised people; research opportunities and constraints for content created by and for specific local communities for the development and communication of ideas, information and perspectives appropriate to those communities; and by continued recording and posting to learn from their experiences on an on-going basis. The local content created is earmarked for exchange first amongst the participating trainers and their community based institutions within an international project network, then amongst other community based initiatives in India as well as on provincial and national networks. It is being carried out with our partners, the Queensland University of Technology, and the University of Adelaide (Australia); and UNDP (Indonesia). On return to their centres these trainers will continue to spread this methodology in their local content training programmes.

In India, UNESCO will continue working with the United Nations Country Team (UNCT), its partners, such as all those participating in the activities of Mission 2007 of which ICT4D is also a part, other national and international stakeholders, in promoting the development of local content material through capacity building, research, sharing and exchange, as well as documentation and dissemination on as many levels as possible.

How do you see the role of civil society organisations in promoting and facilitating ICT-enabled education?

Mission 2007, Microsoft, Intel etc., such organisations have a crucial role to play in this field; existing CMCs and other ICT-related centres must be scaled-up to facilitate distance education in collaboration with IGNOU and local schools; local and national NGOs should all be encouraged to use ICT across their organisations and provide unified electronic services in becoming more service-oriented entities based on the life events of poor communities; increase networking, dissemination of information and access to knowledge; and creation of an enabling environment for democratic dialogue.

Is India ready for an ICT in education policy?

Which organisations in India is UNESCO partnering with or plans to partner for education?

Yes, certainly. Many interesting initiatives both by the Government and private sectors are already showing positive results. We now need to make sure, collectively that cooperation, rather than competition and sharing of results will lead to reaching the unreached through firm political commitment.

National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), National Council of Educational Research and training (NCERT), State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERTs), SRCs, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS); National Council

Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

on Teacher Education (NCTE); Jamia Milia and other universities, Rama Krishna Mission, numerous schools and institutions of the National Literacy Mission (NLM), NGOs, and the CIIs in various regions. We are also in discussions to partner with Microsoft and Intel.

In your role as the UNESCO representative and Director in India, what specific areas of concern do you want to address? What do you want to achieve in your role as the UNESCO Representative and Director in India?

Many, many things. Basically, do whatever possible to assist in the realisation of relevant ICT policies such as the community radio policy and the national broadcasting policy to better facilitate achievement of development as outlined in the 11th National Plan and the MDG goals within the deadlines envisaged.

Since most of my career has been in promoting the cultural dimension of development, I would like to see the power of creativity- that is, building on India’s rich and diverse heritage to foster creative thinking in education, science, culture and communications to improve the lives of people, to learn to be, learn to do, and learn to live together.

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SSA and ICT ICTss in schools

Still Miles to Go...

India Statescan

In an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities to all children, through provision of community-owned quality education in a mission mode, the Government of India has launched in 2001-02 an ambitious programme called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), an initiative for universal elementary education. SSA aims to provide useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6-14 age group by 2010. Many a times, state interventions are seen as alternatives to market forces. When market fails, the state is requested to intervene. As a broad strategy of SSA programme, the state governments are undertaking reforms in order to improve efficiency of the delivery system.

The scheme encourages the states to use ICT and the satellite EDUSAT to provide distance education within states to supplement school education with a curriculum base. States too seem to be struggling hard to pitch in making the ICT education integrated to the schools, with a gradual shift of their focus from elementary education to secondary education level. Digital Learning has tried to encapsulate the voices heard from the state heads of the SSA project and the education secretaries, who are marching with the mission of getting kids enrolled and to provide them with the education with innovation.

K M Ramanandhan, State Project Director, SSA, Kerala

Namrata Kumar, State Project Director, SSA, Uttaranchal

Dr Alok Shukla, the Education Secretary of Chhatishgarh says, ‘We have many schemes for using IT in education. Under SSA we have started a scheme called “Eklavya Computer aided self learning”. In this scheme fully animated multi-media software has been created based on 36

Rakesh Kanwal, Former State Project Director, SSA, Himachal pradesh

textbooks of classes 6 to 8. This has been loaded on touch screen computers, and has been kept in the school corridors for easy access by children. Under Indira Soochna Shakti Scheme, free computer education is being given to more than one hundred thousand girl students at secondary

Md Manzoor Bhat, Education Secretary, Jammu & Kashmir

level with the help of NIIT. Interactive radio broadcast is being used for teaching-learning of English language at primary level. We have already started using the facility provided by EDUSAT in 50 schools in Koria district. We intend to extend it further to other districts.’

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Under the SSA scheme, Rajasthan has embarked on a large-scale education initiative. The initial pilot would have computer learning centers in all state districts to provide elementary education to students. Kerala too is trying to bring in IT in very big way.

IT is in the curriculum for students in 8, 9, and 10 standards. For secondary level examination IT is one of the optional subjects, which interested children can opt for. The state provides education to schools in rural areas through EDUSAT. It has also prepared CDs on various subjects, which are meant for middle schools and high schools and is organising live classrooms by telecasting lessons from expert teachers.

Jammu too has a multi-dimensional strategy to implement ICT and make ICT a vehicle for transformation of school education. ‘One programme is run under vocationalisation of secondary education and the other is innovative IT component in SSA. We are trying to provide computer labs to higher secondary schools. By the end of the year we must have covered around 350 higher secondary schools,

P K Tiwari, Former State Project Director, SSA, Assam

computer familiarization programme.

Initially it will begin from primary classes, and expose them once in a month to common computer practices.

And fourth is, computer-aided education and to make that more attractive in primary classes’, says Mohammad Manzoor Bhat, the Education Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir.

Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) along with technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco. Satyam’s Byrraju Foundation, Airtel’s Bharti Foundation and some other players are very keen in this sector, states like Kerala, Uttaranchal, West Bengal and Rajasthan being proactive in making such partnerships.

While the obligation of universalisation of education programme is on state governments, a few NGOs, and some foundations of IT companies too have come forward partnering with government in this direction. Azim Premji Foundation has set up 12,000 computer aided learning centers (CALCs) across India. The Foundation provides curriculumbased learning in the form of multimedia packages and CDs. West Bengal has tied up with IBM to take ICTs to students. IBM is providing the necessary IT infrastructure, education services, IT support and project management for 400 schools initially. Each school is equipped with 10 computers. The schools are expected to train more than 150,000

The programme calls for community ownership of school-based interventions through effective decentralisation. This is to be augmented by involvement of women’s groups, Village Education Committee members and members of Panchayati Raj institutions. The Programme is having a community based monitoring system. The Educational Management Information System (EMIS) will correlate school level data with community-based information from micro planning and surveys. Besides this, every school is encouraged to share all information with the community.

Alok Shukla, Education Secretary, Chhattishgarh

the focus will be to teach computer education as a subject in class 11 and 12. Second is, to provide a cumpulsory computer literacy to every child in higher secondary school, irrespective of whether he/she has taken computer education as a subject or not. We will have a Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

K.M.Ramanandhan, Kerala State

Shyam Shankar Prasad, State Project Director, SSA, Jharkhand

students in three years. Uttaranchal government is also thinking on similar lines; teacher training and the development of curriculum and examination system is developed with support from MNCs including Intel and Microsoft. The Rajasthan government is rolling out the UN’s

Lida Jacob, Former Education Secretary, Kerala

Project Director, SSA, says, ‘Now we are taking the assistance of Panchayati Raj Institutions and we are taking the cumulative planning to school level. Then we have school level work committee member who is very much involved in the planning process. Then we have PTA (parent 37

training to teachers for 20-30 days.

The regular teachers are trained in English language too.’

Considering teachers’ capacity building as the biggest challenge in the direction of integrating ICTs into the education system under the SSA programme, other hurdles like the problem of connectivity for the last mile in rural areas is also emerging. Despite the market buzz around connectivity for the next billion, not much is happening in rural areas, which still grapple with low teledensity, poor Internet access, etc.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan recognises the critical and central role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs

teacher association), which also help in planning at school level. Once it is done at school level, we consolidate at the panchyat level.

Here is a planning and monitoring committee headed by the Grampanchayat president. This committee approves the panchayat education plan.’

But Lida Jacob, while placed as the Education Secretary in the Kerala state, said, ‘To the Education Department and to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan we give academic support and training. Whether this training is giving them advantage or not has to be monitored. Panchayats can play an important role, but I think we need to make it more systematised. Most of the Panchayat members are graduates and their commitment to education is very high among the elected members of Kerala. We need to channalise it into monitoring the classroom activities. They can provide support to the teaching facilities and infrastructure. SSA is providing funds, trainings, etc. We are trying to ensure that all these funds and programmes are implemented properly and we want to ensure that local bodies play an important role in this process.’

While describing the community role, the state came up with another 38

dimension of implementing SSA programmes effectively. ‘In Kerala, we have started a initiative under the modernising of government programmes called ‘Social Audit’, through community initiative, to improve quality education. Under this scheme, we want schools to conduct their individual self-assessment.

Teachers themselves can evaluate their schools in terms of students’ performance, teachers’ performance, infrastructure of the school, etc.’, said Jacob.

SSA recognises the critical and central role of teachers and advocates a focus on their development needs.

Setting up of Block Resource Centres/Cluster Resource Centres, recruitment of qualified teachers, opportunities for teacher development through participation in curriculum-related material development, focus on classroom processes and exposure visits for teachers are all designed to develop the human resource among teachers.

Shyam Shankar Prasad, the Jharkhand State Project Director, SSA, commenting on how the teachers’ training programme in the state works, says, ‘We train teachers through Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). We have District Institute of Training where we provide

For Prasad, ‘The problem is faced more in hilly tracks and in forests areas in Jharkhand, densely populated by the tribal people. We face the difficulty in establishing centres in such places because of lack of infrastructure. We have to shift the schools sometimes to some urban places or most habitated places, may be due to lack of road or lack of school buildings or else to ensure safety to the girls. The difficulties lie with the geographical areas in some districts, which are really difficult to manage with.’

Telecom companies, which have ushered in the mobile revolution in India prefer to stick to cities and tier two towns for broadband access since they find it easier to recover the costs of heavy licensing fees in cities which enjoy a larger subscriber base.

There is no incentive for these companies to venture into the hinterland. The Central government’s State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) policy brings a ray of hope to overcome such challenges. This envisages broadband access at the district and block level to solve the connectivity gap.

The very success of SSA in getting kids enrolled, and the demographic patterns of India, induces a surge in demand for schooling with a renewed capacity, education with innovation, and making ICT@schools happen.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

News ASIA Digital library for rural Thai village

International Datacasting Corp’s SuperFlex DVB satellite datacasting system and Datacast XD content distribution and management software played a key role in the launch of SatEd’s “Room for Life” e-learning centre in the tiny village of Baan Nong Pai in rural Sakhon Nakorn, Northeast Thailand.

The “Room for Life” provides email, e-commerce, video conferencing and an educational video-on-demand digital library to the residents and students of this remote area. IDC provided Sat-Ed’s Learning Centres with a state-of-the-art digital library system that offered access to television-based educational material, as well as multimedia content on PCs, via video-on-demand and playout from web servers.

Philippines Govt, ADB to fund project for info sharing The Philippines government and the Asian Development Bank have signed a grant agreement to fund the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) that will facilitate information sharing and exchange among the civil servants in Philippines.

The USD500,000 grant will be funded by the Government of Japan through the ADB-administered Japan Fund for Information and Communication Technology (JFICT), while the 40

government will contribute an additional USD250,000. The project will be used to modernise the country’s ICT to improve the government’s resource development, structures, systems and processes.

The project will initially target thirdlevel executives and will develop and operate a shared database, web portal and online products that include a system of learning and skills application modules for management concepts, tools and data commonly used by third-level executives.

World Bank pilots Elluminate Live!

Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of live eLearning and web collaboration

‘ICT market to grow less than 5 percent in 2006; IDC The Taiwan market for information and communications technology (ICT) hardware, software and services will see growth of less than 5 percent in 2006, according to a report released by the International Data Corp. (IDC).

While Taiwan’s business application software and business intelligence products posted total sales of US$71 million and US$10.8 million, respectively, in 2005, the market for these products is expected to expand slightly by 1.1 percent in 2006.

Educational institutions were the major clients of the personal computer market in 2005 and the government’s measures to stimulate domestic demand also helped encourage businesses to replace and upgrade their computer systems, according to the report. Sales of notebook computers were boosted by promotional packages offered by manufacturers such as Acer, Asus and HP in 2005, with the shipments of notebook computers 30 percent higher than that of personal computers in the third quarter of 2005, according to the report.

solutions for the real-time organisation in Canada, announced that the Global Development Learning Network (GDLN), a worldwide partnership of independent learning centers established by the World Bank, will use Elluminate Live!

Academic Edition on an experimental basis for training and collaboration among GDLN Affiliates in selected countries around the world. By applying distance learning tools and services, GDLN Affiliates enable organisations, teams, and individuals around the world to communicate, share knowledge, and learn from each other’s experiences.

The GDLN will start using Elluminate Live! to train over 100 affiliates located in 80 countries worldwide on its new Activity Management System, an application used to schedule and coordinate knowledge sharing and learning activities across the network.

Pakistan to have 10 new universities Ten federal universities will be established across Pakistan during the year 2006-07.

Two universities of engineering, sciences and technology, will be established at Lahore in collaboration with Austria and Germany. Two universities of engineering, sciences and technology, will be established in Karachi with the collaboration of France and China. There were 10 federal government universitiesseven in Islamabad and one each in Karachi, Gilgit, Lahore and Rawalpindi. Virtual University of Pakistan at Lahore is still in development phase and no separate recurring funds are being provided.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

News WORLD Free laptops for GCSE students

design, hardware and software acquisition, training, implementation, and ongoing support. The EU approved framework is expected to reduce the risk and burden on schools and colleges.

Nepad launches e-School in Uganda New Partnership for African Development’s (Nepad) electronic school initiative is officially launched at Kyambogo College School near Kampala, Uganda.

The objective of Nepad’s e-Schools initiative is to equip all African schools with ICT tools, to ensure that African youth graduate with the skills necessary to fully participate in the information society and knowledge

Free laptops are helping a group of students with their General Ceertificate of Secondary Education (GCSEs). Eighteen teenagers at Newhaven Pupil Referral Unit in Eltham were given computers, funded

by Mercers’ E-Learning Foundation in London.

The Learn Anywhere project is aimed at helping Year 9 children finish homework and coursework assignments. Another 12 students at the unit are due to receive a laptop.

They will also pay £3 a week to cover insurance costs for the machines and own the computers by the time they finish their GCSEs.

Becta to save cash for schools The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) has launched a new ICT Infrastructure Services Procurement Framework. The framework is expected to save millions of pounds for education institutions.

Around 16 suppliers will handle the framework, which covers system 42

economy. The three schools that are already benefiting from the Nepad’s Advanced Micro Devices are Kyambogo College School, St Andrew Kaggwa Senior Secondary School in Luwero and Bukuya Secondary School in Mityana.

percent of the world’s population to the Internet by the year 2015.

The AMD-led consortium is responsible for three of more than 100 secondary schools playing host to NEPAD’s e-Schools Demonstration Project – a critical initial step in the continental implementation of the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative. Through these deployments and the overall NEPAD Initiative, teaching, learning and administration at these schools are all enhanced. Students and teachers are empowered with ICT skills and knowledge and digital resources enable an overall increase in health literacy. The added technology also facilitates increased efficiency in the schools’ management and administration systems.

Google joins hand with California varsity to digitise books The University of California (UC) system has inked a pact with search giant Google to digitise millions of books in its libraries as part of the California-based firm- Mountain View’s Google Books Library Project, an initiative that aims to digitise volumes from the world’s vast array of libraries and make content available online.

AMD ’s 50×15 initiative expands educational opportunities in Uganda A consortium led by AMD launched three digital inclusion programmes in schools in and around Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. As part of the 50×15 Initiative, AMD is collaborating with the Ugandan Government, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and 13 additional organisations as part of the company’s commitment to connect 50

Other parties that have joined Google in its digitisation efforts include the University of Michigan, Stanford University, Harvard University and the New York Public Library, among others. The UC network includes 10 campuses across the state that are September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

home to some 34 million library books, and though UC has not specified which books will be digitised, it has said millions of volumes will be scanned under the initiative.

Zimbabwe Army schools adopt ICT Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) schools have embraced Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

The training programme will enable all ZNA schools to put the computers to good use. The introduction of the ICT training in army formal schools offers greater opportunities for products of this system to participate in development as their human capacities are improved, thereby enabling them to cope with demands of an economic environment characterised by extensive use of information technology.

Egyptian students take IT route with mobile IT clubs

Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, in association with the Cisco Networking Academy Programme, is giving basic computer training to the masses of remote areas of Egypt through a series of mobile IT clubs.

The Mobile Information Technology Club initiative is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Cooperazione Italiana programme and currently features two caravans and Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

two buses outfitted with PCs. Each vehicle has a satellite link giving users access to e-mail and the Internet, originally intended to provide people in remote communities with training and awareness on the basics of computer, Internet and multimedia use. Each mobile IT club has been made a local academy, with two instructors per vehicle operating under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s e-Learning Competency Centre, which is one of six regional Networking Academies in Cairo. The caravans have 20 computers each and capacity for around 20 students, while the buses have 10 PCs apiece, with space for a student at each.

‘Plagiarism’ online threatening quality of British degrees The practice of online sites selling essays and completed assignments to students has reached a 200-millionpound business in UK which is threatening quality of British education.

The issue has reached such proportions that the House of Commons education select committee has decided to hold a special session later this year to investigate it. New online sites are appearing almost every week and many sites report incomes in millions as students prefer to buy their assignments. According to an investigation made by University of Central England, Internet cheating and selling tailored essays has assumed the dimensions of international trade, the trend has been termed by them as ‘contract cheating’.

Such sites claim that their work is mainly intended as a ‘guide’ to students, but they actually encourage plagiarism.

‘E-learning Ghana’ launched ‘E-learning Ghana (www.elearningghana.com)’ to offer a wide variety of high quality affordable

e-learning courses has been launched in Ghana by 2Ti Solutions and BusyInternet.

‘E-learning Ghana’ will cover a wide range of technical IT and business Skills topics. Over 1200 courses and an additional forty to fifty new courses will be added every quarter.

The primary objective is to provide customers with extremely affordable pricing combined with world-class quality, resulting in outstanding value. ‘E-learning Ghana’ will be available from BusyInternet throughout the day and all the days.

It will ensure that its users are able to maximise benefits that online learning materials offer.

New Zealand spearheads to give boost to students ICT knowledge In a bid to modernise education using ICT, another USD200 million is to be ploughed into the New Zealand’s schools, over four years.

The aim is to ensure young people have confidence in using ICT tools.

The project will also provide remote schools with satellite broadband at a subsidised rate including schools in the Chatham Islands and on Pitt Island at a cost of USD700,000 over two years. Laptops for all teachers account for the biggest item in this year’s action plan budget at a cost of USD17.58 million.

The programme was announced last week, at Wellington’s Brooklyn School. It allowed the ministry to demonstrate the country’s first tablet classroom.

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Open source software for schools School environment requires several kinds of software, which can be the grade and timetable tracking software for teachers, educational software for classes or the security software. More important is to make educational resources more effective, efficient, and ubiquitous by enhancing communication, and sharing resources, for which this space is advocating the use of some open source and free software, open texts and lessons, and open curricula for the advancement of education and enrichment of school environment.

School Tra ck

Knowledge Bank The SEUL/edu Educational Application Index (http://richtech.ca/ seul/) is a directory of school-related open source software.

The Debian Jr. project (http:// www.debian.org/ devel/debian-jr/) has educationrelated software packaged for use with the Debian GNU/Linux operating system.

The LinuxForKids site/project (http:// www.linuxforkids.org/) promotes free software reviewing and rating available software, with a target audience of children under 10.

BlueEDU (http://www.sedoparking. com/showparking. php4?domain= bluelinux.org&rel _key=linux) is a distribution of the Linux operating system focused on educational packages.

edu.kde.org/) Project aims to create free educational software based on KDE, the K Desktop Environment.

Linux-EduCD (http://www.simpst.pl/mos/ website in Polish) is a schooloriented customization of the popular Knoppix GNU/Linux distribution.

The Free Software Foundation (http:/ /www.gnu.org/) hosts the Savannah (http:// savannah.gnu.org) software development foundry. It’s both a good place to look for free software and to host new projects. It helps developers offering stable network and software resources needed to spread their free software and form a community around each project.

OFSET’s Freeduc (http:// www.ofset.org/freeduc/) maintains an index of educational free software.

K12LTSP (http://k12os.org/) - the K12 Linux Terminal Server Project is an easy to install, Linux-based terminal server package designed for schools.

The KDE Edutainment (http:// 44

Freshmeat (http:/ /freshmeat.net/) is a broader index of all kinds of open source software.

In IIT at 15!

S Chandra Sekar is a Microsoft Certified professional, youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Cisco Certified Network Associate. He is only 15 years old , but has now joined the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, for an MTech in computer science.

Inspiration On August 4, this teenager from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu became the youngest to join IIT-Madras to do an M Tech. He scored 99.32% in the graduate aptitude test in engineering, required to join the course. It was at the age of 10 that Chandra Sekar came into the limelight for his expertise in computers. As a child prodigy, he had begun programming on his own when he was eight. At nine, he was a Microsoft certified professional and earned the youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer Certificate at 10.

The following year he got the Cisco Certified Network Associate certificate. These are achievements that usually students make in the latter part of their 20s. Chandra Sekar was given double promotions at Bell Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tirunelveli and he completed schooling when he was 12.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Learning Curves PDAs to mould the personality of high school children Handheld devices are boosting interest and results in education among the school children in UK. The initiatives to provide schoolchildren with constant access to information through PDAs are coming with proven results. The handheld device is an invaluable means of supporting personalised learning and has become a buzzword for ensuring the school children not to be treated like homogeneous groups of pupils but more like individuals, with different needs and interests.

Some of the free software is so good and powerful that children can handle themselves. However, the devices are considered ideal for secondary schools rather than primary schools.

USE YOUR SPACE

Schools to be digitalised in Nairobi A plan worth Sh18 billion has been made to equip schools and other education institutions with computers is launched in Nairobi.

The National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Strategy for Education and Training plan aims at all educational institutions to be equipped with digital technology equipment in the next five years. It is also meant to ensure that the technology is fully integrated in all academic programmes and school management as well as Ministry of Education departments. It is also meant to ensure that the technology is fully integrated in all academic programmes and school management as well as Ministry of Education departments. The plan is jointly prepared by the ministry and the Kenya ICT Trust Fund, which brings together more than 20 government agencies and private firms. Kenya has 20,000 primary and 4,302 secondary schools, 641 of them private. The ratio of computers to students in public universities stands at one to 45 while in secondary schools; it stands at one to 120 students.

Digital Learning | Vol 2 Issue 9 September 2006

This is your space, your space to watch, your space to use and your space to change too. We invite you to be a part of our ‘School Track’ section, which you can do by contributing your experience with ICTs as a schoolteacher, principal and administrator, or as someone in the school education process working in any capacity. We welcome your stories, research papers, opinion pieces, resources or any other such relevant information, news, and a new idea for this space that can help elevating the spirit of education in schools with an integration of ICTs. We look forward to you using this space, by sending your words to info@digitalLEARNING.in.

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Mark Your Calendar

CFY’s 2007 Family Learning Software Award

september

october

22nd ICDE World Conference on Distance Education 03-06 September, 2006 Rio de Janeiro Brazil

EDUCAUSE 2006: Spurring Innovation and Marshalling Resources 9 - 12 October, 2006 Dallas, Texas, USA

Computers for Youth is accepting nominations from software developers for educational software titles for its 2007 Family Learning Software Award (http://www.cfy.org/flsa_top.html).

http://www.icwe.net/icde22/english/

http://www.educause.edu/ content.asp?SECTION_ID=169&bhcp=1

ECKM 2006: 7th European Conference on Knowledge Management 04-05 September, 2006 Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary

Access 2006 11 - 14 October, 2006 Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

http://www.academic-conferences.org/eckm/ eckm2006/eckm06-home.htm\

E-Learn 2006 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare & Higher Education 13-17 October, 2006 Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii

I-KNOW ‘06 06-08 September, 2006 Graz Austria http://i-know.know-center.tugraz.at/

5th International Internet Education Conference 11-13 September, 2006 Ramses Hilton Cairo, Egypt

http://www.access2006.uottawa.ca/

http://www.aace.org/conf/eLearn/default.htm

InSciT2006 - I International Conference on Multidisciplinary Information Sciences and Technologies 25-28 October, 2006 Mérida, Spain http://www.instac.es/inscit2006/

http://www.distant-learning.net/index.shtml

10th ECDL(European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries) 17-22 September, 2006 Alicante Spain http://www.ecdl2006.org/

Mobile Content World conference 19 - 21 September, 2006, Olympia London United Kingdom http://www.mobilecontentworld.biz/

Content Management 2006 31 October - 2 November 2006 San Jose , California, USA http://www.contentmanagement2006.com/

november Learning 2006 5-8 November, 2006 Orlando, Florida, USA http://www.learning2005.com/

APRU DLI Conference 8-10 November, 2006 University of Tokyo, Japan

International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR) 28 - 30 September, 2006 Brisbane Australia

http://www.fenu.ru/?a=page&id=488

http://conferences.aoir.org/index.php?cf=5

http://videolinq.tafe.net/learning technologies2006/index.html

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Learning Technologies 2006 conference 8 - 10 November, 2006 Moolooba, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

The CFY Family Learning Software Award will be presented in April 2007.

Meet the Buyers: Top nominated software products will be reviewed by a panel including “Ed Tech” executives from America’s most prominent school districts.

Meet the Players: Students will demonstrate the final five software products to more than 200 executives from the software and technology industries. Share the spotlight with digital leaders from around the country.

Nomination criteria • Have explicit educational value • Be designed for children in grades 3-8 • Demonstrate sensitivity to diverse family learning contexts • Be able to engage children for at least 20 hours Operate on a stand-alone PC, Pentium III (600 mHz) processor, on board sound and video, 256K RAM, and not require Internet access to function.

If the product is normally Internet driven, it must be able to be converted to a non Internet driven application that can be installed onto a PC with the specifications listed above.

Contact: Kallen Tsikalas ktsikalas@cfy.org Computers for Youth (CFY) is a nonprofit in New York that helps underserved children in school by improving their learning environment at home.

Deadline for submissions is 29 September 2006.

September 2006 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

I am a child Though, I look after two as My own.

I have dreams Though, I never talk About them.

I have needs Though, I have not The means.

I have learnt To give, without Ever demanding.

Is asking for An education, asking Too much.

I am but a child!

Through its innovative learning methodology, Hole-in-the-Wall Education Limited (HiWEL) makes a significant contribution to improving elementary education and life skills of children across the world, especially those in disadvantaged communities in rural areas and urban slums. To find out more, visit: http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com

2nd Floor, Synergy Building, IIT Campus, Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110016, INDIA Tel: +91-11-26581017 / 20 Fax: +91-11-26581022 ; email: hiwel@niit.com