Leading Change in e-Education : September 2008 Issue

The monthly publication on ICT and Education RNI No. UPENG/2008/25311

digitalLEARNING INDIA

Volume IV Issue 9 September 2008

ISSN 0973-4139

Rs 75

Leading Change in e-Education

www.digitalLEARNING.in

Revisiting the Vision: ICT and Education PAGE 8

With Technology Comes New Opportunities Interview: Dr V S Ramamurthy PAGE 30

Leader’s Speak Reinventing Education With Real Life Experiences Interview: Ashish Rajpal PAGE 41 India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education

Conference Report

Your Say, Your Stake Policy Matters - PAGE 50

Linking Learning and Livelihood Through ICT PAGE 34

With Every Right Comes a Responsibility Education is Everyone's Right and Spreading the Message of Education with ICTs is our Responsibility Volu me V

Issue

1 Jan uary 20

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Digi tal celeb LEARNIN ratin G rd g its A nn ivers ary i n Janu ary 2 009

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For Advertising Enquiry, Contact: Siddharth Verma (+ 91-9811561645) siddharth@csdms.in For Editorial Enquiry, Contact: Manjushree Reddy (+ 91-9999662910) manjushree@csdms.in

You will hear voices from Government, Academia, Industry, and All the Stakeholders of ICTs and Education.

ASIA

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Visit us at: ister www.e-asia.org/reg

25-27 November 2008, Sunway Resort Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ERS! CALL FOR PAP

mentioned pers on the above pa te no vi in s r se ni be submitted, in The orga Abstracts should .org . es em th ce en confer @e-asia words at papers longer than 400 er 2008 issions is 7 Octob Last date for subm

The conference will encompass the following main thematic areas • ICT Policy in Education: Challenges and Opportunities • Innovative and Best Practices of ICT in Education in Asian Region • e-Education- The Asian Experiance • Country case studies of ICT and education initiaves • Smart ways to see ICTs in School Education • Use of ICT in Technical & Vocational education • Dimensions of integrating ICT in Higher Education • Leading Technology: Engaged Learning with Interactive whiteboards • Pedagogical consideration in e-Learning • Partnerships in promoting ICT education • Delivering Excellence in e-Education: Tools and Strategies

Host Organisation

Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications (MEWC) Government of Malaysia

n mail us at For further informatio rg registration@e-asia.o

The significant growth surrounding the importance of incorporating ICT in teaching and learning requires a more comprehensive and closer collaboration among the planners and practitioners in ICT-related education programmes across the Asian region. CSDMS hopes that with Malaysia as the host country, the ICT Conference and Exhibition will further enhance a network of ICT initiatives in the field of education among the Asian nations in particular, especially through the networking, knowledge sharing and establishment of smart partnership programmes. The Digital Learning Asia 2008 Conference and Exhibition would ensure involvement and participation from international governments, agencies, and industry in the development of ICT in Education to share ideas, point of views and experiences in implementing and integrating ICT in education.

For sponsorship and exhibition enquiries, contact: Siddharth Verma (+91 9811561645), sales@e-asia.org For opportunities and information related to e-ASiA 2008 event contact us at info@e-asia.org

Organisers

knowledge for change

Supporting Partners

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GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP

GKP The World Bank

Contents Volume IV Issue IX, September 2008

Cover Feature

Development Agenda

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34

Revisiting the Vision ICT and Education

Danny Nagdev, Namit Kasliwal and Ratul Dutta

Higher Education Technology 30 With Comes New Opportunities Interview: Dr V S Ramamurthy, Chairman, BoG, IIT Delhi

Positive Strokes

37

Interview: Dr B S Bhatia, Former Director, DECU-ISRO, India

Technological Challenges in Distance Learning Arvind S Patil

Policy Matters

50

Corporate Diary

41 43

Leader’s Speak Ashish Rajpal, Managing Director, iDiscoveri

Commentary: 21st century Education - Reinventing the Classroom Amit, Gupta

44

Partnership: Intel Reaches Himachal Pradesh with Technology Aided Learning

A Model for Innovation Interview: K K Dhawan, Director, Mira Model School

Learning Community

Use 32 Sensible of Technology Imperative for Improving Education in India

48

Nalini Gangadharan and Faraaz Mohiuddin

Innovation Recording 24 Innovative Solution

Linking Learning and Livelihood Through ICT

Power School

India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education

Regulars

57

Mark Your Calendar

News

28

India

40

Asia

46 56

Corporate World

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

digital LEARNING INDIA Volume IV, Issue 98 | September 2008

President M P Narayanan Editor-in-Chief Ravi Gupta Group Directors Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar

Editorial

Programme Co-ordinator Jayalakshmi Chittoor

Revisiting the Vision of ICT and Education

Assistant Editor Manjushree Reddy email: manjushree@digitallearning.in

India has seen great technological advances in the last two decades. But it is yet to be fully reflected in the field of education. For a country, whose onefifth of the population is still in schools, we cannot afford to be left behind in the ICT race.

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

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

ICT is here to stay and we better accept it to our advantage, was the underlying current at the digitalLearning India2008 conference held in July end. In this issue of Digital Learning we proudly present to our readers the learnings gathered from the three days of power packed sessions and technology demonstrations.

In the course of discussions and debates, two distinct viewpoints emerged. One that ICT can increase access to education, especially in a vast country like India with its numerous disparities. The other held a more cautious approach to the whole issue; how much of ICT do we need in education. Merely bombarding classrooms with ICT will not do wonders, we also need motivated teachers and reforms in the education systems.

On the policy front, the event saw a multi-lateral discussion on vital issues of need for a national vision on ICT policy for schools, perspective of states and challenges involved.

Apart from the conference report, we also bring to our readers our regular fare of articles on innovative recording solution, distance education initiative from IIT-B and livelihood training. We also have interviews from Dr Ramamurthy, Dr Bhatia who have dwelved on various aspects of technology and education, plus the corporate angle.

We hope all these provide our readers a gainful insight into the vast exapanse of technology and its bearing on education.

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

ER V O C URE T FEA

Revisiting the Vision ICT AND EDUCATION

Today, technology implementations may reach across campuses, institutions, departments, offices and other workplaces and often require the integration of systems involving both academic and business units.

It’s a collaborative approach that needs not only technology, but also strong leaders who know how to engage whole communities as well as top-level strategists. On this backdrop, Digital Learning INDIA 2008 in Pragati Maidan, Delhi, from 29-31 July ‘08 provided a forum to examine the challenges appeared in ICT and Education, shared and worked together, analysed and assessed, as well as created actionable plans for leading technology enabled education while learning about the latest trends and talks.

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September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

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he Digital Learning India 2008 Conference and Exhibition was organised as a consecrated track under the eINDIA2008 umbrella event. The conference followed three previous ICT in Education conferences in India and two in Asia; the previous one “Digital Learning INDIA 2007” was held in Delhi in July 2007.

Against the background of the focused and refocused Education For All goals, the conference examined questions such as how new technologies can effectively support innovations in education and training, promote desirable change and support digital literacy for all.

The conference also took a look at the current situation and outlined desirable future developments. This also gave an unique opportunity to get to know education leaders and decision makers from around the country and beyond, who have a shared interest in improving educational achievement with the integration of ICTs. Apart from facilitating sharing of knowledge and experience, the conference enabled an open dialogue around the several educational issues that the country faces in achieving its educational goals.

Inaugurating this largest ICT conference, Union Minister of State for HRD (Higher Education), Smt. D. Purandeswari said that India’s educational scene today is at a tipping point where opportunities abound and yet the challenges are also unprecedented. This scenario calls for dovetailing efforts at the Information and Communication Technology level into efforts of providing quality higher education. Smt. Purandeswari said that we Indians are fortunate that our demographic profile is dominated by the youth thereby providing an ideal opportunity for maximising the benefits of ICT. She said that investing in education, particularly higher education, through ICT also makes business sense for the corporate sector as this will give immense benefit in the long run. Giving an example, Smt. Purandeswari said that developed countries like the US, the UK and Australia have not only invested 10

Lighting the lamp of Education: Inauguration of eINDIA 2008

significantly in higher education but have also made this sector as one of their largest export earners.

Even the Asian economies, such as Singapore and UAE have experienced the competitive advantage provided by a world class higher education infrastructure.

The Minister also announced that Center is to launch a new scheme namely ‘National Mission in Education through ICT’ so as to provide connectivity to the learners so that they can link themselves to the knowledge world in cyberspace and to make these learners ‘Netizens’ in order to enhance their self learning skills and develop their capabilities for online problem solving. She said that in order to deliver the benefits of ICT enabled learning, the National Mission would focus attention on achieving technological breakthrough by developing a very low cost and low power consuming access device, making available free bandwidth for education propose to every Indian.

Delivring Inaugural Address: D Purandeswari, Minister of State for Higher Education, Government of India

Releasing the Compendium ‘Towards a National Policy on ICT in School Education: D Purandeswari (M), Ashish Garg (R), Dr M P Narayanan (L)

Smt. Purandeswari said that the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development would like to build knowledge network between institutions of higher education and also within these institutions.

A compendium ‘Towards a National Policy on ICT in School Education’ was also released at the function. The compendium published by Global eSchools and Communities Initiative September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Fast Facts • •

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The largest ICT Event in education in India Date & Venue: 29-31 July 2008, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India Organisers: CSDMS & Elets in Association with Ministry of HRD, Ministry of Communication and IT, and UNGAID The only conference of its kind that shared active conferencing, networking and showcasing alongwith SIX seminal tracksegov INDIA, Telecentre Forum INDIA, eHealth INDIA, mServe INDIA, Municipal IT, and eAgriculture INDIA The conference followed three previous ICT for Education conferences in India and two in other Asian countries like Bangkok and Malaysia.

A collaborative forum for 4000 participants An exhibition and demonstration area for 150 leading ICT industry players, solution & service providers 2 strands, 7 Plenaries, 18 thematic sessions, three special sessions/workshops, 16 Chairs, 75 Speakers

(GeSCI) and CSDMS is a compilation of feedbacks collected in the process to formulate the ‘National Policy on ICT in School Education,’ an initiative taken by the Department of School Education and Literacy in HRD ministry.

Dr M P Narayanan, the President of CSDMS made the floor open with his welcome address. The other eminent speakers who addressed the inaugural session were Subash Pani, Secretary, Planning Commission, Government of India, Jainder Singh, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, Michael Rawding, Vice President, Unlimited Potential Group, Microsoft Corporation, Praveen Vishakantaiah, President, Intel India, and R Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, who is also the Chairperson of the Programme Advisory Board, eINDIA 2008. Dr Ravi Gupta extended profuse thanks to the distinguished guests of the event for such a gala opening.

The Digital Learning India 2008 Conference proceeded with the thematic track sessions with the Keynote session titled ‘Vision for Transforming Education with Technology’. This session was chaired by Dr. Terry Culver, Executive Director of Global Nomads Group. In his keynote address, Dr. Terry Culver introduced how technology strengthens teaching and learning. He felt that innovation drives education not only in developed world, it is reality in today’s world. Globalisation makes learners in motivation. He also illustrated skill requirements in Indian society in the wake of globalisation and as an emerging economic power. In his speech he emphasises on disciplinebased IT-enabled pedagogy.

Shantanu Prakash, CEO of Educomp Solutions Limited, with the help of some statistics, tried to make justification that Indian youth are not ready to make use of opportunities of globalisation, due to failure of Indian education system.

He informed the audience that Indian education system does not impart collaborative skill which is essential in today’s workplace. Shantanu illustrated skills required to run BPOs, KPOs and other service industries, which need to be acquired through finishing schools.

He also emphasised on analysing return on investment (RoI) on in-service teachers training for better result. How new technological paradigm shift takes place in education space, collaborative tools to change power of learning and learning from each other, and how to create personalised learning path to make every child unique in reacting to the ICT-enabled environment was highlighted in his talk.

Dr V N Rajashekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was the first speaker in this session. In his lecture he gave an overview of Indian education system – from basic literacy to higher education. He was emphatic on open and distance learning (ODL) system that established in India to bridge skill gaps and skill requirements in the society. He also pointed out the need of public-private participation in skill enhancement programmes.

David Mc Bride Sample, Senior Vice President of Blackboard Inc. also presented an insightful lecture, who emphasised that a grand vision is needed to manage all the changes in educational infrastructure and inclusive e-Education policies. He introduces five core challenges in higher education institutions as referred in Unlocking the Global Education Imperative Core Challenges and Critical Responses: Defining Institutional Mission; Funding structure and arrangements; Student engagement methodologies; Institutional transparency and accountability; Ability to partnering in a variety of ways.

Dr Pillai also highlighted several national challenges, such as infrastructure requirement for harnessing education for all, shortage of trained teachers in schools, colleges and preschools; infrastructure requirement and human resources requirement in a very large country like India and how IGNOU tries to address today’s challenges and bridging skill gaps. He also suggested strengthening national education grid and national information network covering all senior secondary schools, colleges, universities and lifelong learning institutions across the country.

The theme of second Session Keynote was ‘Leading Change in e-Education: How to Succeed amid Endless Challenge’. This session was chaired by Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary of Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

S Regunathan, Advisor of National Knowledge Commission, while speaking in this session, introduced basic issues in e-Education in India. Indian society is now effectively competing global economy. Unfortunately, Indian educational institutions cannot cope with global demand for new skills, due to limited institutional provisions. Higher educational institutions in India should 11

facilitate lifelong learning for competing in global economy. In modern age, functional literates are those who can learn, un-learn and re-learn in a given situation. Nowadays technologies are also available for provisioning of learn, un-learn and re-learn. In this situation there should have flexibility in curricula, not a fixed syllabus. Indian higher educational and technical institutions should attract foreign students for capital devilment. He also informed that Ministry of HRD is investing INR 600 Crore for the establishment of National Knowledge Network, networking higher educational and technical institutions of the country with 15 GB bandwidth connectivity. This Network will be instrumental for transforming Indian institutions to cope up with challenges in global economy.

Rajiv Katyal, Director-Education of Microsoft India in his speech provided a set of matrix to illustrate challenges in e-Education faced by Indian society.

He described, challenges are manifold, starting from inadequate basic amenities in schools (such as classroom, teacher and blackboard), then basic ICTinfrastructure in schools (such as ICT equipments, hardware, software, digital literacy among teachers) and lastly ICT-enabled environment (such as quality content, ICT-enabled curricula, interactive learning environment).

Amongst the three phases of eEducation, he mentioned, digital literacy is positioned in first phase, which is still not achieved in the country at large.

This phase establishes a baseline for startup. Content creation and content sharing to communicate one to many are placed in second phase. Interactive and collaborative content creation can be placed in phase three. Phase three is the high end of e-Education that helps an ordinary student to become a creative, smart, and intelligent kid.

illustrated how to do project based learning through e-Education. In knowledge-based economy, critical thinking skill is essential that can be imparted through collaborative learning platform. We also need localisation of knowledge products and services to cover a wide spectrum of audience. e-Education can be achieved through a set of three major steps. Step one relates to investment in people and strengthening educational system, train teachers, and reform key parameters.

Step two relates to providing equal opportunity, affordability through financing, local content creation, strengthening access to e-Education in rural areas and public private partnership in e-Education delivery. Finally, step three relates to implementation of key policies such as financial provisioning, key access policy, universal service policy and spectrum policy.

Dr Joya Chatterjee, Director-Emerging Markets Platform Group of Intel

She also illustrated some success stories in Malaysia, where Intel provided technical support for capacity development in e-Education in the country.

Capt K.J.S. Brar, CEO of Designmate India illustrated how to teach science using 3D contents. He informed the audience that private schools in India mostly use 3D contents in classroom, whereas government-aided schools sometimes use 2D contents in classroom for teaching science. He pointed out why 3D contents are needed in classrooms.

Teaching science is very difficult using textbooks only. 3D animation helps in learning science through visual effects at molecular level. However, 3D contents are less beneficial for teaching social studies, language and history.

He also illustrated how virtual reality, 3D gaming, and stereoscopy can be effectively used in classrooms for better understanding of subject matters.

Vision for Transforming Education with Technology: Shantanu Prakash,Terry Culver, David Mc Bride Sample and Dr V N Rajashekharan Pillai

Leading Change in e-Education: Subhash C Khuntia

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S Regunathan

The Session titled ‘Unleashing the Strength of Universities Through ICTs’ was chaired by Dr. Shakeela, Director of Planning Commission. Prof A K Bakhshi, Director, Institute of Life Long Learning of University of Delhi made a presentation on “e-Learning in September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

various recommendations of National Knowledge Commission for harnessing educational reforms in the country in order to achieve expansion, excellence and inclusion. She pointed out how ICT can help in (i) building high quality learning and teaching environment, (ii) building high quality advanced research environment, and (iii) better assessment and evaluation, particularly group assessment and continuous assessment. She also pointed out some considerations for ICT implementation in the country to meet global requirements. She presented Edutech’s integrated eEducation framework that transforms knowledge into talent, and talent into performance.

Amit Gupta, CEO, Schand, Srikanth B Iyer, CEO, Edurite, Nancy Knowlton, CEO, Smart Technologies, Abhinav Dhar, President, K-12 Solutions, Educomp, M M Joshi, Assistant Commissioner, Kendriya Vidayalaya Sanghatan (From L to R) on the Panel titled ‘Smart Classrooms with ICTs’.This session was chaired by B Anand, Commissioner, Navodaya Vidayala Sangathan

Nancy Knowlton

Higher Education: Perspectives and Initiatives of University of Delhi”.

He illustrated some of the initiatives of Institute of Lifelong Learning, particularly resources developed and resources available in institutional portal such as e-Contents and video lectures.

He concluded that e-Learning will not replace classroom learning, and blended learning is more effective to the lifelong learners and mid-career learners.

Indresh Chauhan, General Manager Operations of Sify Technologies observed a wave of change to cater to lifelong learning in Indian society.

Lifelong learners form many groups and sub-groups for learning specific professional skill sets. Learning has to cater to new realities as emerged from globalization of Indian economy. New learning paradigm offers enormous scope of engagement, and collaboration irrespective of size of groups. That also follows a (un)-learning cycle, i.e., learning–un-learning–re-learning.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

He pointed out that present day lifelong learning programmes should be designed for creating mainstream solutions; should be cost-effective; should have short development cycle times, less back-end support and easily scalable.

Abirami Devi from Everonn, presented a paper titled “Promoting Higher Education with ICT in Indian Universities”. She pointed out opportunities, drawbacks, threats and challenges in Indian higher education system and suggested some strategic reforms such as empowerment and accountability of stakeholders, improving quality effectiveness, restructuring higher educational institutions to meet global requirements, creating course repositories at national level and enabling ICT-based education for all.

Aparna N, Marketing Service Manager of Edutech pointed out

‘Meeting the needs of ICT skills’- while speaking in this session, N Balagopal, Executive Chairman of Confederation of NGO’s of Rural India (CNRI) introduced CNRI as an Apex Body of Non-Governmental organisations of rural India with the specific objective of strengthening, co-ordinating and facilitating their working at the grass root level for integrated development of the rural India and to emerge as a think-tank as well as a consultative body at the national and international level. It is a partner in Project ­Ujala / Twin-e-Learning (English Language and Computer education).

P.N. Panicker Vigyan Vikas Kendra under CNRI is involved in studies, vocational studies, e-Reading, etc.

The Kendra runs a Skill Development Programme for 90 days. These are area specific programmes with activities like telemedicine, etc.

Another part of the kendra is used to provide education and related facilities to school students, teachers and parents through village knowledge centres (VKC). It now has 24 Knowledge Centres, aimed at moulding students into job providers instead of employment seekers, village knowledge centres (VKC) in schools in the State have given a new meaning to education and 13

proposes to have 1000 centres by 2010.

The learning system is done though the IGNOU system.

Nalini Gangadharan, Chairperson & Faraaz Mohiuddin, Instructional Design Coordinator, CAP Foundation also spoke in the session. The CAP Foundation is an independent registered organisation demonstrating public partnership initiatives between civil societies, corporate and government agencies in Linking Learning and livelihoods for communities of children, youth and women `at risk’. Looking beyond the mechanism of classroom based delivery and considering the need to disseminate life skills to a larger audience, while at the same time maintaining the quality of lessons, the digital life Skills Toolkit is intended to offer anytime/ anywhere flexible distance learning education option to a wider audience of youth. It consists of entry-level employability training facilitators or youth trainers. They need to be able to think creatively, solve problems and make decisions when working with students. It also has online learning programmes.

What is required is a holistic approach, analysed Karthik K S, Founder & CEO, 24x7 Learning. A methodology that aligns with the organisation’s objective of building value, by enhancing its intellectual capital. This entails meeting the varied needs of different levels in the hierarchy through comprehensive solutions. As part of Talent Lifecycle Management SM, 24x7 Learning works towards preparing a talent pool that is fresh off campus and once employed, grooms them to lead and succeed in a challenging global environment.

with employable skills, thereby catering to the increasing workforce needs of fast-growth Industries. At a macro level, SkillBridge addresses the national issue of unemployment by stemming it at the root.

Surabhi Dewra, Strategist, Founder, The Shiksha says, everyday we need to make decisions related to the different aspects of our life. Making right education related decision can go a long way in shaping ones career. For example, after completing three years graduation one may ask, should I do MBA or MCA? Further one may ask should I do higher studies in India or abroad. Even further should I study in England or America?

Getting answers to these queries is only half work done. Having figured out which course to do and the location, there will be more questions like which colleges are good to pursue MBA or how to go to Australia to pursue higher studies or which is the best institute to receive coaching for IIT entrance examination.

Shiksha.com is a place that connects education seeker with education provider. It provides a platform to students in the 15-24 age group to research courses and colleges online. At the same time it will enable educational institutes to reach out to their target audience. It provides information for over 70,000 colleges, courses, scholarships and admission notifications. It lists information on graduate, post graduate and vocational programs from colleges in India and in countries like Singapore, US, UK, Australia, etc.

The SkillBridge platform addresses the early training needs in the Talent lifecycle. Just as 24x7 Learning’s business model (Talent Lifecycle Management Solutions) addresses learning needs comprehen-sively, SkillBridge addresses the training needs of this segment end-to-end.

Jayant S Bhadauria, Head, Education Solutions India-Adobe Systems while speaking in the session mentioned, e-Education can be a Solution for career and technical education programs and Prepare students for future careers or professional work. How, students perform after their K–12 experience will largely depend on what they have learned.

SkillBridge is an effective training program that enhances employable skills. It equips a larger youth population

A powerful symbiosis emerges: school becomes more relevant as it aligns with work, and in turn, professional

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work experiences reinforce the need for an interactive education experience.

Whether students are learning print and graphic design, web design and development, or film and video production, Adobe software provides the essential, integrated, and productivityboosting capabilities that today’s working professionals rely on. The individual products have been enhanced in cutting-edge versions and are now available as components of Adobe Creative Suite 3, offered to schools and districts in exclusive site licenses.

‘Quality Development, Quality Assurance and Quality Education’the following session organised in Digital Learning India 2008 was also supported by Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA). The session was Chaired

by V S Prasad, Former Director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), and Co Chaired by Dr R Sreedher, Director, CEMCA. The Panel comprised of a group of eminent educationists and stakeholders who are taking forward the research of CEMCA education projects and initiatives.

They are Dr. Kiran Bansal- Professor, IGNOU, Anuradha Deshmukh- Head of programme evaluation and the quality assurance resource centre of Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, B S Bhatia- Former Direcotr, DECU-ISRO, Savithri Singh, Principal, Acharya Narendra Dev College, University of Delhi.

Meera Balachandran, Director, Quality Foundation of India also delivered on a Quality Assessment of Schools survey which was done of 60% government schools and 40% private schools on what they regard as quality.

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) helps countries increase access to education of quality at all levels by focusing on quality assurance, teacher development, alternative forms of schooling, new approaches to higher education, and the creation of expertise in eLearning.

Through its own resources and its extensive networks, it also provides a September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

wealth of services and collaborative opportunities for policy makers, institutions and distance education practitioners to encourage the development of, and help enhance, the use of open and distance learning (ODL) policies, systems and applications.

CEMCA operates as a regional media service of COL. CEMCA functions through networking and information transfer. An advisory Council comprised of representatives from major open learning institutions in the region guides CEMCA for broad policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation. CEMCA’s services are available to all developmental and educational institutions and agencies in Commonwealth Asia.

power to create with the simplicity of use. Unlike textbooks or librarybased resources, content-ware has the potential to engage all stakeholders in the education system—from software developers to ministry personnel to education researchers to teachers and students—in the development of multimedia learning resources. While developing educational multimedia resources, it is important to take into account objectives at the level of the individual learner, the school, and the state. Each has different characteristics, expectations, and needs, and the means to fulfill them are all interrelated. For this reason, development of learning resources is linked, strategically, with processes of educational reform and the transformation of teaching and learning.

at the school level, hence the birth of CEMCA project.

The following session ‘Empowering Educators’explored and showcased excellence and innovation in teaching that facilitates student learning while discussing on innovative use of a learning technique or methodology, adaptation of technologies, innovative course design, case studies and learning and assessment.

What are the methods of skilling and re-skilling educators to adopt changing faces of tecxhnology? How can educators be guided on effective use of these new tools that focuses on learning activities, rather than content delivery or general learner management?

How to build buy-in and ownership among educators and motivate them to spearhead the ICT-based education process? How to build e-Learning professionalism among educators? This session attempted to answer these key questions through models and practices of Educator’s capacity building and also deliberated on the best strategies for facilitating the Educator’ seamless progress from the traditional role of an instructor to the new role of a facilitator of learning.

Prof. Mohammad Akhtar Siddiqui, Chairperson, National Council of Teacher Education Chaired the session, who put forth some suggestions during his talk. Those are - generating awareness Panelists of the sessions titled ‘Quality Development, Quality Assurance, and Quality about ICT at grassroots Education’.This session was supported by Commonwealth Educational Media level (Workshops at Centre for Asia (CEMCA) district, village, school level), incorporating ICT in curriculum at different Dr R Sreedhar, Director, CEMCA levels, building capacity for teaching ICT related subjects, generating ICT A fundamental challenge is facing the Peer review using a “Multimedia supportive environment in educational development of multimedia teaching and advisory group” made up of academics institutions, filling the gaps in prelearning (MTL) material, namely how invited from a variety of schools, which service to make in-service training more to ensure that a suitable level of quality uses a panel evaluation approach in useful and focused. is being maintained. Computer-based conjunction with the set of principles and Web-based multimedia contentof good practice, is seen as the key to Vasudha Kamat, Joint Director, ware is itself dynamic, built of bits maintaining quality in MTL material.

CIET- NCERT talked about the ICT and bytes, using software development This will overcome a transient lack of based communication strategies, web tools that combine, in some cases, the specific quality assurance experience 2.0 platforms, online forums, blogs, Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

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wikis, ets and ICT based evaluation strategists, discussion forums, concept maps, working on live projects, innovative presentations, e-Portfolio, etc. Vivek Sawant, Managing Director, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited highlighted some of the challenges for the educators on the front of ICT teaching and learning process. Those are lack of leadership, lack of coherent policy framework at the national level, lack of governmental backing and credibility, decision makers not fully aware of the transformative potential of Digital Technology in education, dominance of teacher centrism or content centrism over learner centrism, dominance of Inform Content over

Perform Content, focus of instructional design-delivery systems on information and not on participative exploration and innovation, open education resources yet to attain a critical mass, quality Assurance Frameworks yet to evolve, weak Ecosystem for privatepublic-community partnerships, etc.

Johnnie Wycliffe Frank MuwangaZake, Lecturer, School of Education, University of New England, Australia deliberated on e-Learning and implications for Educators in African developing communities and suggested further to create participative environments for ICT research and development. He said, Africa has to invest heavily into ICT at a rate higher than the developed countries do: this is

a major problem in light of other basic needs (such as drinking water) and poverty.

Dr Shylaja of Everonn tried to bring an understanding of the educators perspective on ICT based product and best strategies for facilitating the Educator’s seamless progress from the traditional role of a teacher to the new role of a instructor of learning.

Ahish Rajpal, Managing Director of iDiscovery – academic plan, creating resources for teachers, planning for learning The Session ‘Policy, Foresight and Innovation for higher learning’was intended to provide the latest insights into modern technologies and their implementation within higher education.

What might education systems and institutions look like in the future?

What can we learn about possible future options from current trends? How are patterns of teaching and learning changing in the face of scientific advances, new technologies and diverse student populations? How are policies and initiatives from governments and educational institutions established in order to stimulate a sustainable take-up?

How is a consensus with all stakeholders ensured?

Prof. Mohd. Akhtar Siddiqui, Chairperson, NCTE addressing in the session ‘Empowering Educators’.The other panelists are Johnnie Wycliffe Frank Muwangazake, Shylaja,Vivek Sawant,Vasudha Kamat and Ashish Rajpal (L to R)

ICT Integration in Teaching and Learning Processes: K K Dhawan, Peter Ormerod, Dr Seema Parihar (Chairperson) and Utpal Mallik (L to R)

16

September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

accountability and assessment provisions, challenges with technology based assessment, etc. Madan Padaki, Co-Founder & CEO, MeritTrac shared his company’s work as the Skills Assessment Company that designs and delivers assessments to evaluate abilities, skills and knowledge for corporates, academia & individual customers.

Alternative Assessment Strategies, Innovative Approaches in Evaluation: Suchismita Srinivas, Pramod Das, Madan Padki and Charles B Johnston (L to R)

MeritTrac has assessed over 3 Million candidates across different industry verticals. MeritTrac’s team has created a validated collection of tests in over 300 areas spanning Communication Skills (English and other Indian Languages), General Abilities, Domains Skills (Technologies, Engineering, Accounting, etc.) and

These are just some of the questions that were tackled in this session, which was Chaired by Dr V S Ramamurthy, Chairman Board Of Governers, IIT Delhi. The panelists for this session were Dr Jyotsna Dikshit & Dr Moumita Das, National Centre for Innovation in Distance Education, IGNOU, Dr. S. Senthilnathan, Dy. Co-ordinator, UGCSAP(DRS), Department of Educational Technology, Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu, Rahul Bedi, DirectorCorporate Affairs, SA, Intel, and Rohit Kumar, President-Higher Education & Internet, Educomp Solutions Ltd. Session ‘ICT integration in teaching and learning processes’ tried to address some vital questions like how should ICT be used in the teaching and learning process so that it contributes to the learning of the students? How shall ICT resources and applications be used with appropriate methods and strategies? And why and how is the need of convergence of pedagogical and technological points of view to support effective connections with suitable technology to design learning environments? Dr Utpal Mallik, Head, Computer Division, NCERT along with Peter Ormerod, International Business Development Manager, Promethean, UK and K K Dhawan, Director, Meera Model School spoke in the session, who provided the changing context and the making of an effective Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Building ICT Infrastructure: On the Dias - Kuldeep Nagi, Gautam Bose, Dr Seema Parihar, Chitresh Markanda and Mandar Vartak (L to R) while Rajesh Malik address the audience

education system. The session was Moderated by Dr Seema Parihar, Deputy Dean, Students Welfare, University of Delhi.

Behavioural Assessments. The team has been instrumental in generating over 100,000 questions across all these test areas. .

Session ‘Alternative Assessment Strategies, Innovative Approaches In Evaluation’ discussed about accountability and assessment systems that meet local education needs, technology tools and resources that are available to support the accountability, ways technology can supoort the

Charles B Johnston, VP of Pearson VUE talked about the world’s leading test center network, with over 5,200 test centers in 162 countries, 230 of which are fully-owned and -operated Pearson Professional Centers. Pearson Professional Centers utilize a patentwinning design, which was created 17

“Government of India is launching National Mission on Innovation through ICT in Schools by the end of this year. And then all higher education institutions in India will be connected with broadband very soon. Also Ten Dollar laptop for the school students will be ready soon in the country. All these interventions by the Government will enhance reach of universal education to the masses.”

N K Sinha, Joint Secretary, Department of Technical Education, Ministry of HRD, Government of India

specifically for high-stakes testing and offers a carefully controlled, consistent testing environment.

Recently Pearson VUE introduced the implementation of palm vein recognition technology as many law enforcement agencies had objections regarding fingerprinting.

Suchismita Srinivas, Vice PresidentDigital Adaptive Learning, Educational Initiatives introduced some of the assessment programmes to the audience. EI offers products and services to private schools, schools groups, municipal school boards and governments. Assessment of Scholastic Skills through Educational Testing (ASSET) is a scientifically designed, skill-based assessment developed for Indian schools, after a detailed study of the syllabi of different central and state boards. Mindspark is another computer based adaptive self-learning programme that allows the student to construct his/her own learning – at a pace he/she is comfortable with.

Pramod Das, the other speaker in this session represented Questionmark.

Questionmark has been providing assessment products and support services Questionmark enables educators and trainers to author, schedule, deliver, and report on surveys, quizzes, tests and exams.

Building ICT infrastructure: Flexible integration solutions in a dynamic environment- the session was presided

by Dr. Gautam Bose, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, 18

Government of India. Seema Parihar, Deputy Dean, Students Welfare, University of Delhi, one of the panelists discussed about how e-Learning helps the visually challenged students, discussed about Jaws-a comprehensive screen reading software that works with Windows operating system to provide access to the popular software applications and the Internet, and also about SAFA -a Hindi Screen reading software with VachakTTS. Kuldeep Nagi, Associate DirectoreLearning Programs, Assumption University of Thailand deliberated on Moodle, a license free open-source software platform. All those involved in the business of eTraining also call it as a Learning Management System (LMS), or Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)).

Rajesh Malik, Dawson College, and Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, talked about addressing the eLearning, Computer, and Information Technology Needs of Post-secondary Students with Visual Impairments, who interestingly himself is visually challenged.

Chitresh Markanda, Manager, Tech Mahindra & Mandar Vartak, Head of IT Management (Corporate IT), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd also discussed about the eSangathan project.

These specialists in IT Solutions created this state-of-art collaboration solution which comprises of both real-time and non-real time collaboration including Wikis, Blogs, Instant Messaging,

Application Sharing, Document sharing, workflows for a widely distributed demography of retireeexperts in India.

The Session ‘Universal Education: Assistive and Learning Designs for All’ was chaired by N.K. Sinha, Joint Secretary, Department of Technical Education, Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

In his address Mr. Sinha shared his feeling that those who don’t have formal schooling, they need life skills for contributing to the society. Life skills also help in developing sustainable livelihoods options to the marginalised groups. He pointed out that innovation is key aspect in journey of knowledge society. ICT-enabled learning environment will facilitate and integrate innovations in school and technical education. He is in favour of assessing whether present pedagogy in schools is suitable for learners and individual’s learning needs.

Archana Rane, Senior Staff Scientist of CDAC Mumbai was the first speaker in this session. She presented a paper titled ‘Marathi Tutor’ which is a constructive learning environment for teaching spoken Marathi to distance learners.

Hemant Chopra, Staff Member of NIC - UP State Unit, was the next speaker in this session, who discussed about ‘e-Scholarship’. He demonstrated Uttar Pradesh State Scholarship Portal [http://scholarship.up.nic.in/], which is a scholarship management system for disbursing educational scholarships to the socio-economically backward students of Uttar Pradesh.

Dr. Stella Samuel, Regional Consultant of FasTraKids introduced importance of interactive whiteboards in schools.

Interactive whiteboards have positive impact on students, such as achieving attention, concentration, excitement, retention and grades improvement.

Paramjeet Kaur Johar, Director of Designmate introduced state of the arts of 3D media, more particularly effectiveness of stereoscopic viewing, September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

einDia 2008 eXHiBitiOn

• An Exhibition and Demo Area of 3500 sq mt • More than 100 showcases • Floor Plan available at www.eindia.net.in/2008/floor_plan.pdf

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

1

virtual teachers and virtual DJs in teaching and learning. She also demonstrated bilingual 3D contents, developed by Eureka.in/ DesignMate, which can be widely accepted in multilingual education environment in India.

C. Vijayalakshmi of Department of Computer Science and Engineering in Indian Institute of Technology Bombay presented a paper titled ‘Project Oscar’ (Open Source Courseware Animations Repository) which aims to create a repository of web-based, interactive animations for teaching various concepts and technologies. The Current Goal of Project OSCAR is to develop animations for Classes VII to XII. Puja Goyal, Regional Online Community Coordinator of TakingITGlobal informed the audience about the importance social networking tools for collaborative learning. In this context she introduced TakingITGlobal that provides a portal for young people to find inspiration, access information and get involved in improving their local and global communities.

Session ‘Teaching and Learning At a Distance’ was Chaired by M M Pant, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling. Distance education is the current hot topic for educators in all fields. However, there are many obstacles. The most appealing aspect of Teaching and Learning at a Distance is that it is based on the sound pedagogy of active learning, but it does not prescribe a single “best” method for teaching at a distance. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) is being seen as a means for ushering in a revolution in delivery of quality education in a cost effective and need-based manner. India’s ODL systems have not succeeded fully in taking advantage of the technological advancements. Further, a wide variety of technological tools like Direct to Home through Satellite, televisions, radio, mobile phones and the internet have failed to reach those learners who live in inaccessible or remote areas or who are at a disadvantage due to socio-economic reasons. Although the technological advancements in ICT 20

have expanded the delivery modes of imparting teaching, the teachers have been left out of its purview. Majority of teachers are either not aware or are untrained in using the ICTs in their teaching. The education system needs to co-opt the teachers in to these multiple teaching modes.

Dr. Tonya S. Muro, Director of Programs, Global Nomads Group, Arvind Patil, Technical Officer, I I T Bombay, Ananya Shankar Guha, Jt Director, Indira Gandhi National Open University, and Sachin Torne, Practice Head Education, Tata Interactive Systems exchanged their views and experiences in the session.

‘Innovating for the FUTURE of Education: Technology challenges & leadership insights!’- This session was chaired by Randeep Kaur, Learning Advisor of Plan International India.

Pratap Kumar Mohanty, Deputy Education Advisor of Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD narrated major reasons as to why schools remain unattractive.

Mr. Mohanty suggested several needs for technological integration such as to enhance learning outcomes; accommodate differentiated learners, enable activity-oriented, inquiry-based and project- based learning; empower students and teachers with critical thinking including development of high order thinking skills; enhance communication skills and learning through collaborations; increase motivation; and to create environment for self-learning and assessment.

Sandeep Kumar of Educomp Solutions Limited, in his speech, pointed out that in competition world there are both intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors for innovation. Otherwise, the institution or organisation will be out of business. Thus, focus should be to make learning intrinsically motivating.

Raising prosperity and declining social exclusion in India motivate the educational companies to innovate and explore in emerging markets. Thus, Educomp created and launched many

innovative products, systems, services and processes not only for USA but also for emerging markets in India. In this connection.

Annie Koshi, Principal of St Mary School identified some essential skills needed for the future. These are communication, cross application, sensitivity, critical thinking and team work. Her concerns on technology are: whether technology can minimize isolation; whether it can cultivate vision, imagination, and aesthetic sensitivity; and whether it can encourage gentleness, generosity, caring, or compassion.

Kalpana Kapoor, Principal of DPS Vasundhara touched upon educational transformations as experienced in DPS society. She pointed out some determining factors for selection of hardware, software, networking, equipments, human resources and other resources.

Anju Visen-Singh of SMART Technology touched upon keys to innovation in educational landscape. In this connection, Anju introduced some of their products, particularly SMART Board – a product range of interactive whiteboards. She also pointed out some benefits of using interactive whiteboards such as improved student engagement, improved motivation and attendance, supportive to different learning styles and special needs students, improved review and retention, and improved teacher productivity.

Dr Joya Chatterjee, Director-Emerging Markets Platform Group illustrated how to innovate successful products.

Successful products are the mix of business value, user value and technology, where relevance exists at the intersection of three components.

Urmila Guliani, Principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya in R K Puram suggested that teachers should be empowered. There is a need to use technologies in right manner. There is also need of empowering students for sharpening their multiple intelligences.

September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

eINDIA 2008 Awards

The OSCARs for ICT Practitioners

Recognising India’s outstanding ICT and Education ACHIEVERS As a continuous effort to make the eINDIA Forum all encompassing, the organisers (CSDMS) along with the supporters conferred eINDIA 2008 Awards to distinguish professionals and institutions working primarily on the domains domains ICT for Development. eINDIA Awards are the annual attempts to assess the role of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in developmental programmes and to recognise the great practitioners who use ICTs for expediting sustainable development in seven thematic tracks- e-Agriculture, e-Governance, Digital Learning, e-Health, Indian Telecentre Forum, m-Serve and Municipal IT.

Best ICT Enabled School Podar Group of Schools, Mumbai http://www.podar.org

ÂŽ

Presented in collaboration with Global e-Schools and Communities initiative (GeSCI) Best ICT Enabled University Wee Kim Wee School of Commn.& Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/sci/

Best Government Initiative General Education Dept, Govt. of Kerala, for IT@School, Kerala www.itschool.gov.in/html/glance.htm

Best Policy Initiative KADO (Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion)?, Korea http://www.kado.or.kr

Best Open Source Initiative CSE Department, IIT Bombay http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/

The award, this year was open for all national and international

Best NGO Initiative Education Development Centre, Bangalore http://ies.edc.org/T4India/

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

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THE

JURY

RECOMMENDATIONS •

Vertical integration of information management systems necessary at all levels

•

India needs to have access to private higher education

•

Bring solar power to classrooms for uninterrupted power supply to incorporate ICT

•

Need to take technology not just into classrooms but in the hands of students

•

Need for transformation in education to cater to global needs

•

Invest in people and education systems for capitalising on ICT

•

Technology revolution has to be led by educationists, not technologists

•

Technology is about bridging the digital divide for children

•

Teacher training: one of the most critical part of smart classrooms

•

Need to modernise secondary education in India to improve higher and vocational education

•

ICT can be used to elevate Science and Math education in schools

•

Need for developing educational technology programmes in local languages to benefit the states

•

Need for a transformation from art of teaching to science of learning

•

Need to generate awareness about ICT at grassroot level

•

All round capacity building of teachers, community members and administrators required to bring in innovation

•

Technology alone cannot do wonders,; need to empower teachers as well

•

Need for an India specific ICT programme; merely copying the West not sufficient

ashish garg Country Programme Director - India Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI)

M C pant Chairman National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)

g narendra Kumar Secretary Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Delhi

Government organisations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and enterprises who have transformed social development opportunities into a sustainable social enterprise through innovative use of ICTs. The occasion was graced by dignitaries such as the Minister of Panchayati Raj and DONER, Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar, Former Minister and MP, Shri Suresh P Prabhu, Joint Secretary, Minsitry of HRD, Shri Subhash C Khuntia and Additional Secretary, DIT, Ministry of Communicaiton and IT, Shri R Chandrashekar, among many others, who also gave away the awards in the various categories.

The Awards got an overwhelming response from the ICT community all over, with more than 174 entries coming in for the various categories. In order to ensure that only the best were selected and awarded, the award committee used an elaborate evaluation criteria.

For other track award information and photograhs of eINDIA 2008, please visit www.eindia.net.in/2008/awards/index.asp 22

The detailed eINDIA Conference Report is available online alongwith all the presentations and photographs at www.eINDIA.net.in

September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

partners - Digital Learning India 2008 Organisers

Co-Organisers

Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & IT Government of India

knowledge for change

Platinum Sponsors

Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India

Ministry of Urban Development Government of India

Diamond Sponsor

UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development

Learning Partner

School Partners

Assesment Partner

Higher Education Partners

University of Delhi

NIOS

Gold Sponsors

IGNOU

Silver Sponsors

Associate Sponsors

empowering education... enabling careers

Exhibitors TM

empowering education... enabling careers

Key Sessions • • • • •

Vision for Transforming Education with Technology Leading Change in e-Education: How to Succeed Amid Endless Challenges Smart Classrooms with ICTs Unleashing the Strength of Universities Through ICTs Towards Building a National Policy on ICTs in School Education: Perspectives of States as Implementers

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

• • • • • •

Empowering Educators Meeting the Needs of ICT Skills Quality Development, Quality Assurance and Quality Education Policy, Foresight and Innovation for Higher Learning ICT integration in Teaching and Learning Processes Alternative Assessment Strategies, Innovative Approaches in Evaluation

• •

•

•

Universal Education: Assistive and Learning Designs for All Building ICT Infrastructure: Flexible Integration Solutions in a Dynamic Environment Innovating for the Future of Education: Technology Challenges & Leadership Insights!

Teaching and Learning at a Distance

23

inn

io n t a ov

Innovative Recording Solution

Danny Nagdev, dannyn@mkcl.org Namit Kasliwal, namitk@mkcl.org Ratul Dutta, ratuld@mkcl.org MKCL- Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited- is a public limited company established by the Government of Maharashtra, to create new paradigm in education and socio-economic development through universalisation and integration of Information Technology in development processes by bridging the Digital Divide. MKCL delivers 8+ hours of Lectures daily on .Net and Java Software development track at 6+ locations spread across India through Video Conferencing. A need was felt to record these live lectures for repeated viewing by students.

MKCL devised a Recording solution which was a low cost, high quality, easy to use, maintenance free and required low disk space. This solution also allows to convert the recordings in different formats for streaming the lectures on dissimilar devices like iPods, Web Browsers, etc. This article talks about the problem description, evaluation methodology, proposed solution and benefits of the proposed solution 24

Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation, India

I

n a short span of six years, MKCL has emerged as a high-tech and high-touch initiative focused on design, development and delivery of innovative eLearning, eGovernance, and eEmpowerment technologies, solutions and services to the masses. MKCL’s technology and management frameworks are comparable to the best in terms of architecture, performance, mass personalised services and direct value addition to its millions of customers in India and abroad. MKCL incorporates a world class work environment, including a state-of-theart software development facility, high-end server infrastructure and broadband connectivity.

Introduction to MKCL Finishing Schools MKCL Finishing Schools has a transformative agenda of shaping the destiny of young graduates for emerging knowledge-based society.

It builds a “Bridge from College to Careers” in the form of courses imparting actionable Academics knowledge leading to rewarding careers. MKCL Finishing Schools conducts several advanced courses in many cities of India.

Due to the scarcity of quality teachers it was decided that the courses would be conducted through Video conferencing which would facilitate two way interactions between the students and the teachers across India.

MKCL Finishing Schools Network Architecture Video Conferencing requires various high-end equipments and stable network connectivity.

The equipments used at MKCL Finishing schools comprise of a Central Multi Conferencing Unit (MCU), Central Studio and Remote end Video Conferencing Equipment.

MKCL Finishing Schools are connected to the MCU using a 512Kbps dedicated MPLS VPN Network. Backup of 384 Kbps per site is also provided by using Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) A brief description and features of the Video Conferencing equipments used are given below: Multi Conferencing Unit or Multi Control Unit (MCU) Multi Conferencing Unit or Multipoint Control Unit is a device in videoconferencing that connects two or more audiovisual terminals together into one single videoconference call. The MCU collects September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Audio support: G.711a, G.711u. G.722, G.722.1, G.723.1, G.728, Siren 7, Siren 14.

Video support: H.261, H.263, H.264+, 30 frames per second, 60 fields per second, QCIF and CIF video resolution, Conference data rates and 128 Kbps to 2 Mbps.

Network interface support: 10/100 Ethernet, 2 PRI Interface ISDN and Dedicated, T1/E1, 4 PRI Interface ISDN and Dedicated, T1/E1 and 8 PRI Interface ISDN and Dedicated, T1/E1.

Video Conferencing End Point Each far location has a Video Conferencing endpoint which enables the students at that location to attend the video conferencing lectures

information about the capabilities of the systems at each of the videoconference endpoints and sets the conference at the lowest common denominator so that everyone can participate.

Features offered by the MCU are as follows: Multi-network support for voice, video, and unified conferences: IP (H.323) and ISDN (H.320) video, PSTN and VoIP voice.

Audio and video system capacities Audio: PSTN, 480 ports, VoIP, 384 ports.

Video: H.320 ISDN/T1 @ 384 kbps, 61 ports, H.320 ISDN/E1 @ 384 kbps, 64 ports, H.323 IP @ 384 kbps, 192 port.s Transcoding: Audio Algorithms G.711, G.722, G.722.1, G.723, G.728, Siren 7, Siren 14, Networks – IP, ISDN, T1, Network Speed – 128 Kbps up to 2 Mbps, Resolution – QCIF or CIF, Video Algorithms – H.261, H.263, H.264+, Frame Rate – 7.5 fps-30 fps – 60 fieldsper-second, Data Rates – 6.4-46.4 Kbps MLP, 64-128 Kbps HMLP. Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Resource Sharing

Software Resource Sharing: MGC operating system software, Unified Conference Suite, IVR/DTMF audio & video, Greet and Guide, Virtual Conference Suite, Virtual meeting rooms, Single number per conference, Auto-detect endpoint capabilities, Autoextend and terminate the conference and Packet Commander.

Hardware Resource Sharing: MGC platform, Audio, video, network, and data modules, IP QoS support, Reorders and synchronizes incoming IP packets, IP Error Resiliency, IP Precedence Support, IP DiffServ Support Firewall Security: Works with existing data firewalls, MGC platform firewall solution is Check Mark certified, Polycom MGC platform management tools, MGC Manager – Windows®based application for configuration, scheduling and monitoring, WebCommander – Web-based scheduling and management, Personal Scheduler – Microsoft® OutLook conference scheduling, IVR/DTMF – Touch tone UI to conference features, API Software Developers Kit (SDK) and CDR Collector.

Design Features: Designed for medium to small meeting rooms and shared office environments, Elegantly designed all-in one set-top unit that fits easily on any standard television monitor and Integrated wide angle view camera with extensive zoom, pan and tilt.

Application Features: Join up to 4 video and 3 audio sites with optional embedded Multisite functionality, Best possible call for each Multisite participant with rate matching and transcoding, Powerful live presentations through one-step PC plug-in or LAN connection, View presentations and presenter simultaneously with Duo Video and H.239 Dual Stream and URI Dialing.

The Problem (Opportunity) As the delivery of courses started through Video Conferencing, a need was felt to archive the lectures.

A need was also felt to provide these recorded lectures to students for review.

Thus, a search for a high quality and affordable recording, archival and streaming solution was started.

We found various recording, archival and streaming solutions on the Internet.

All the solutions seemed to be a perfect match of what we required. Therefore, 25

we stared evaluating these solutions, one by one.

Getting the demo equipments from the vendors was very time consuming. The courses had started and we had to start recording the sessions urgently.

Solution 1: Initially we tried recording the lectures by using a DVD Writer which is the most recommended solution by the Video conferencing vendors. After recording few lectures we noticed that the data clarity (Power point and Desktop Sharing) in these recordings were very poor. However, the recorded quality of the video of the lecturer was satisfactory. Our search for a stop-gap arrangement continued.

the evaluations were successful on all the products. The only problem now remained was the price tag. These equipments come with a very high price tag which we felt was not acceptable to us.

The Final Solution After a long research on various products available in the market today, we finally found the solution to our problem. A product named Camtasia Studio was discovered which perfectly matched our technical requirements at just 2% expenditure as compared to the prices offered by Video Conferencing vendors.

Camtasia Studio was versatile enough to record live PowerPoint presentations, personalised training sessions, and rich software demonstrations. We used Camtasia Studio to capture live Teacher’s Computer Desktop Screen, Teachers voice and video (using a external camera) simultaneously.

Camtasia Studio helped us to create dynamic, multimedia recordings that we can publish on our Learning Management System, upload onto our website or copy to CD. Camtasia Studio can create interactive movies in minutes. It allowed us to add

Solution 2: We started using Microsoft Windows Media Encoder along with a TV Tuner Card to record the live lectures.

This helped us archive the lectures in .wmv format which can be streamed to all centers using Windows Media Streaming Server.

The data clarity offered by this solution was still poor but at least it gave us a stable and good stop gap arrangement.

We developed a portal using which the students in the centers could access these recorded lectures and review them.

Now the problem which emerged was the size of the recordings.

Approximately 4Gb of disk space was utilized for 8 hours of lecture time. We started running out of disk space ant it became tough to manage the setup.

Solutions offered by Vendors We approached vendors like Polycom and Codian who are re-known for their Video Conferencing products. After constant and rigorous follow-up we could get their recording devices for evaluation.

A thorough evaluation for Video / Data recordings was carried out using various bit rates on these devices. Technically 26

September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

narration, background music, captions, quizzes, and more. Also enabled us to make any edits we wanted, and then share it in a variety of formats, including Flash, Windows Media, on CD and DVD, and online.

Camtasia Studio helped us change the way we train and present to our students.

We used it to post online lectures.

For educators, Camtasia Studio was the answer for absent students, class supplements, and review materials.

With the instructor’s voice and lectures available 24 hours, students could improve their learning experience, and educators their teaching techniques.

It allowed us to train using technology or communicate lesson concepts without having everyone in the same room – but enabled us to replicate the live training experience for our students because they could see the screen, hear the voice, and even have the option seeing the teacher’s face.

Sample Output of Camtasia Advantages offered: Easy to use and affordable, Can share videos and other multimedia content with anyone, anywhere, Allows to publish videos and MP3 files for iPods and portable media players, Enables editing of video and adding own voice and data, No knowledge of Flash or HTML is necessary and Allows creation of classroom lecture videos that students can use to learn at their own pace.

You can add your own text captioning, import speaker notes from PowerPoint, or import text from any document into the captioning field. If you’ve ever tried to make 508-compliant captions, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is with Camtasia Studio.

Smaller Flash Files Deliver the best quality content at even smaller file sizes.

Production Wizard Our new Production Wizard makes

video creation and production easier than ever, so that both students and teachers can use the best format and settings for their purposes MKCL- Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited- has started using the innovative recording solution comprising of Camtasia Studio Software and other Audio Video components. This has helped to provide high quality low cost lecture recordings to the students of MKCL Finishing Schools.

Other Features in Final Solution

Quizzing Provision to assess learning and comprehension with multiple choice quizzes. You can create open book questions that can be accessed at any time in the video, or you can designate that the viewer must take a SCORMcompliant quiz at a specific point.

508-Compliant Captions Closed captioning for videos isn’t just about helping the hearing impaired get access to your material - it’s about getting your message across quickly, and effectively. Camtasia Studio’s groundbreaking captioning makes content more memorable as well as accessible.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

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News india AIMA signs MoU with IGNOU to offer e-learning and doctoral programmes To cater to the growing demand for talent in sectors like Retail, Banking and Finance, All India Management Association has joined hands with Indira Gandhi National Open University to offer sectoral programmes for emerging industry.

Talking about the highlights of the programmes which will be jointly offered by AIMA and IGNOU, AIMA President Kewal Handa said, ‘We have not finalised the specific programmes as they are under process. The programmes will be taught by faculties of AIMA and IGNOU.’

The survey was carried out under the Social Development Foundation on ‘Rising Trend of Women towards the Technical Education’ and covered over 20 engineering schools, including the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). It was discovered that females’ participation in acquiring engineering skills since 2002 onwards was more towards system engineering followed by information and communication, environmental and electrical engineering.

PwC and IIM-C join hand to offer IFRS training

Auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta have entered into an agreement to launch dedicated executive programmes on International Financial Reporting Standards which will be adopted by India by 2011. Besides training, PwC and IIM-C will also develop the concept and position papers on various IFRS-related technical matters and industry related issues.

More girls taking to engineering studies in India More girls in India are taking to engineering studies these days. The enrolment of girls in technical institutes in the country has gone up from 22% in 2002 to 125% this year, with most preferring system engineering and information and communication, says a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India.

IFRS is the standard which would be adopted by more than 100 countries in next few years and financial reporting by an organisation under this format would be acceptable globally. The training courses are expected to be introduced from November.

Maharashtra plans bill to keep CBSE, ICSE students out Maharashtra government is contemplating a law barring admission in junior colleges to students passing out of ICSE, CBSE and IB board schools, according to an announcement made by School Education Minister 28

Hasan Mushrif in the Legislative Assembly. The move has been proposed following allegations that these institutions do not comply with the statutory norms laid down by the state school education department.

Of the 3,500 English medium schools in the state, ICSE, CBSE and IB schools number around 500. The state also plans to bring all unaided schools under the control of the government by giving them aid.

IIM Ahmedabad to launch carbon finance course After the Indian Institute of Management - Lucknow, it is now the turn of IIM Ahmedabad to launch a programme on environmental management strategies with special focus on carbon markets, a market in which India is now the second largest seller in the world. The course, to be launched this academic year, is aimed at providing conceptual and practical understanding of the anthropogenic forces causing climate change, the global legal and institutional framework and mechanism to deal with it.

The course has been divided into 14 sessions and will introduce the evolution of the global carbon market, the current state of international negotiations on climate change and developments following the Kyoto Protocol.

Bihar allocates INR 58.6 crore for NIFT branch Bihar government has approved the allocation of INR 58.6 crore for the setting up of a branch of the prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Patna. The amount will be spent on NIFT’s infrastructure, including building and equipment. Of the total September 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in

amount approved, INR 27 crore will be spent in the current financial year.

The classes are expected to begin this academic session. It will initially have a small batch of students and function from a temporary building, which is being renovated.

UGC committee recommends additional 735 universities

OLPC to launch student laptops in Indian languages

Delhi to give scholarships to poor students

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, launched by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, will now introduce laptops with various keyboards in local Indian languages.

Research is being conducted on introducing these laptops in regional languages like Urdu, Hindi and Bengali so that education is digitalised.

In an effort to encourage underprivileged students for higher studies, Delhi government has announced scholarships for those economically backward students taking admissions in higher education institutions in the national capital. For this, a Delhi Higher Education Aid Trust will be constituted which would be headed by the Minister for Higher Education.

To increase the enrolment rate in higher education, a UGC committee has suggested starting additional 735 universities in the country during the 11th Plan ending 2012 to increase gross enrolment rate in higher education to 15% from the current 10%.

The trust would provide scholarships, education loans, stipends, prizes and other financial assistance to economically backward students. The government would contribute an amount of INR one crore as corpus fund for carrying out the objectives of the scheme.

According to OPLC, at present a few laptops were given to students in Khairat village of Raigadh district in Maharashtra, under the project. These laptops have been localised and have come with Devanagari script.

The committee, set up to suggest reforms on the affiliation system and monitoring of education in 11th Plan, has worked out a formula of 20,000 students per university to achieve the target. At present there are 388 universities in the country.

IGNOU to launch new medical courses Indira Gandhi National Open University has joined hands with Christian Medical Association of India to launch a set of medical courses through its distance learning model. The university will offer short and long term training courses in health related areas like medical, allied health, among others.

The IGNOU signed a MoU with CMAI for setting up of ‘CMAI-IGNOU Chair for Health Sciences’ in this regard.

The new health care courses will be ‘need based’ and emphasis will be on developing and imparting professional and quality health care training.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

IGNOU to set up national centre for IT-enabled education The Indira Gandhi National Open University is setting up a nodal centre to facilitate collaboration in research among colleges, universities, and R&D establishments across the country.

The Advanced Centre of Informatics and Innovative Learning (ACIIL), to be established as a hub institute on the lines of National Education Grid, will work as an autonomous inter-institutional centre of excellence under Open University Act and will be governed by the UGC. The ACIIL will conduct academic research at post-graduate and PhD levels in areas such Information Sciences, Applied Computer Sciences, scientific database management apart from development of web-resources, e-governance and extend knowledge in areas related to socio-economic development.

Online exams for Kendriya Vidyalayas soon The Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan is planning to create a database of questions based on the HOTS (Higher Order Thinking System), the concept which was introduced by the Central Board of Secondary Education to develop critical thinking and analytical skills of students.

Through this online testing, students from all KV schools will be able to test their knowledge online, based on questions thrown by a question bank. A report on this test will be generated thereafter. This will allow a student to immediately figure out how much he or she has learnt, and which areas to improve upon.

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With Technology Comes New Opportunities

Dr V S Ramamurthy Chairman, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi

er h g hi tion ca u d e

Currently the Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Delhi, Dr V S Ramamurthy has held several positions in his long and distinguished career with a reputation of serving his responsibilities with great dedication and professionalism. He was the Scientific Officer, Nuclear Physics Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay from 19641982 and Head, Fission Physics Section, BARC Bombay from 1982-1989. From 1989-1995, he was the Director, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneshwar.

From 1995, he served the Government of India for a period of ten years as Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.

In an interview with Digital Learning on the sidelines of eINDIA2008, Dr Ramamurthy shares his views on issues related to education.

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Is the current policy landscape suited for innovation in India’s higher education sector?

Policies are in place because they were relevant at one time.

But over a period of time they become irrelevant and outdated.

When a certain policy is not allowing you to function effectively in today’s context, we need to modify that policy. For that consultations are carried out and a revised version is brought out. But by the time the whole process is completed, a new change occurs resulting in the revised version also becoming outdated. Policy has to be a dynamic document; it cannot be a static. It will always have gaps, but we need to keep identifying and modifying them. Foras like eIndia help us identify these gaps and see where modifications are warranted in today’s context.

Do you think policy reforms have addressed the need of the education sector?

It is difficult to say yes.

The e-Learning sector has seen fast paced developments in the last few years. How have they impacted the education scenario?

With new technology comes new opportunities. The Internet offers us an opportunity to move information anytime, anywhere. On one hand, we need to see how to make use of this technology for educating a person residing in a village or a rural area. On the other hand, we are living in a technologydriven world where nobody is out of its purview. So familiarity with technology is necessary to take full advantage of it. Today technology touches every field, like healthcare, agriculture, education, etc. This implies that everybody needs to be exposed to technology skills along with education. For accomplishing this task, we need to have teachers, resources and infrastructure.

But its not possible to create them overnight. Now is the time to start grooming teachers. A teacher is today’s student. Moreover, education is no longer related to schools and colleges. In this fast paced world, we have to constantly keep ourselves updated to keep pace with our competitors. And it may not be possible to go back to the university due to time or age constraints. So we need education in the office, at home. It has to be any time, any place, affordable and accessible. Internet can make this possible.

The challenge is to make use of technology effectively.

Do you think IT can give a boost to teaching as a profession?

Career options are based on one’s interest and flair and also the remuneration offered by the profession. In today’s environment the teaching profession needs support and incentives from the government. A teachers’ salary should be matched to the scale September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Policy will always have gaps, but we need to keep identifying and modifying them.

Foras like eIndia help us identify these gaps and see where modifications are warranted in today’s context

that a student gets once he/she gets employment in an MNC or a public sector. For example, if a student joins Infosys, he gets five times the salary of the teacher. It’s a complex game of employment and financial incentives. The issue can be resolved with focus.

What do you think of the importance given to education sector in the 11th Five Year Plan, vis-a-vis expenditure and projects for school and higher education.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

I am very glad that ample emphasis has been given to education in the 11th Plan and lot of investment planning has been made for the sector. It will take some time till we see the actual impact on the ground.

There are three levels of teaching; first is general education where everyone has basic knowledge and soft skills up to class 12. General education does not generate knowledge or address the requirements of the technologicallydriven industry. Hence the need for the

next level of professional education where people have problem solving skills. All college education - technical and non-technical - translates into professional education. Unfortunately today a large section of people who enter colleges do not get professional education. The third level is that of knowledge generators. While the gradual progression from general education to R&D is seamless, they are distinctly different and their strategies have to be different. There are lots of weaknesses in the system.

Today most of the landscape is driven by the market. But we need to go beyond the market and the government should take initiative in this regard.

Slowly innovation is being recognised as an integral part of education.

Entrepreneurship and innovation will convert knowledge into real economic benefits. I have always pushed for and believed in that.

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VE I T I POS OKES STR

Sensible Use of Technology Imperative for IMPROVING EDUCATION in India Dr B S Bhatia Former Director, Development and Educational Communication Unit-ISRO, India

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India has a history of more than 30 years of satellite broadcast. The satellite revolution started in 1975 under the aegis of Ahmedabad-based Development and Educational Communication Unit (DECU) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE) project. Digital Learning walked through the years of satellite broadcast with Dr B S Bhatia, former director DECU, as he shared his experiences and the future of digital communication at eINDIA2008 held in New Delhi.

September 2008 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

Please comment on the changes in the technology landscape over the years in India. How has it impacted the education sector?

Technology has evolved substantially in the past four decades. e-Learning actually started with radio broadcasting of programmes, then came television.

We started with issuance of learning license for broadcasting educational programmes for schools. Then with SITE experiment came the satellite television. This was primarily aimed at school children in rural areas and we installed televisions in about 2000 schools. However, its infrastructure demanded a huge set up and this technology was expensive for that period. But with computers becoming an in-built component of the working environment the production cost of learning material has come down drastically. The satellite technology demanded a huge studio set up with equipments, but today anyone with basic computer skills can create learning material for classrooms. The whole scenario has changed from the technology point of view.

Technology brings with it issues of access and quality. If we get down to school level, although computer availability has increased across the country, Internet connectivity is yet to reach many areas. Moreover, the computer aided educational programmes available freely are either not monitored or evaluated. Plus we need to focus on capacity building activities. On one hand teachers need to be trained in using ICT effectively in classrooms and on

EDUSAT w as one att empt to p computer ro network i n schools vide colleges a and nd thereb y in educat ion. The n introduce ICT ext technolog y wave wi phase of ll s technolog y for scho ee wireless ols the other we also need to evaluate the content reaching schools.

India has made great technological advances, which needs to be sensibly put in place for improving education at the grassroots level. EDUSAT was one such attempt to provide computer network in schools and colleges and thereby introduce ICT in education.

The next phase of technology wave will see wireless technology for schools.

Educational bodies like National Council of Educational Research and Training and the University Grants Commission have started work in this direction.

What kind of technology does the education sector need. Is it one single technology or a blend?

It has to be a blend of technologies. For example, college students have access to mobiles and Wi-Fi connectivity, whereas the technology environment

Technology brings with it issues of access and quality: Internet connectivity is yet to reach many areas and computer aided educational programmes are not evaluated Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

in schools mostly involves computer labs and ICT enabled teachers. The blend of technology used also varies with the audience. For example, both the community radio and campus radio can serve as a platform for interaction amongst college students.

At a time when a plethora of content is being pushed into schools by the market forces, do you think there is need for some standard on the quality of learning material?

With computer penetration increasing in schools, the space for computer-based content has increased.

Apart from computer-based content, there are also many players for television content across the country.

As there is lack of quality benchmarks for e-content, some companies just copy textbooks and make CDs. Hence, we are working on standards for quality content to ensure that only quality content reaches schools. A working group on Quality Content Assessment has been formed with the active support of Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) to look into the process of production and standardisation of e-content. We believe quality benchmark can be assured by following a level of period testing.

So first we are talking of assessment, this will be followed by grading and finally certification. We aim to bring in a mechanism for production of quality e-content, prescribing to quality benchmarks.

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NT E OPM A L E DEV GEND A

Linking Learning and Livelihood Through ICT CAP Foundation

CAP Foundation imparts vocational and employability training to underprivileged and out-of-school youth. Apart from facilitating learning, these courses also enable the youth to acquire life skills needed for a positive education-work-life balance. The core module of CAP, which is the life skills education, has been digitised with the aid of multimedia tools. Integrating ICT has helped CAP overcome two major challenges -- prevention of the dilution of its well-formulated life skills curriculum and effective facilitator training. This article analyses how the current ICT initiatives has helped CAP develop tools that would add value to its work, help it realise its mission, and provide learning and livelihood solutions for underprivileged youth across regions and countries

I

n the global, high speed, knowledge driven and competitive new economic order, all facets of modern society are increasingly becoming knowledge dependent. Without the essential knowledge and skills, disadvantaged communities will remain on the margins of society resulting in loss of their potential contributions to the society.

CAP Foundation endeavours to provide education and life skills to a wide range of difficult-to-reach groups of disadvantaged youth through community based programmes spread across India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

It imparts vocational and employability training to in-school, out-of-school and post-high school youth enabling them with entry level competencies in the labour market. The emphasis on Life Skills make re-integration into formal school and institutes of higher learning possible for those youth who have dropped out of mainstream education. Apart from providing education, CAP Foundation also engages with communities. Right from community targeting, local market 34

scan and student mobilisation to posttraining placements, it maintains a strong community focus. On the whole, it aims at social inclusion by enhancing access to education and thus envisages an equitable society.

To further its aim of enhancing educational outreach, CAP Foundation has integrated Information and Communication Technologies in its vocational programmes and life skills modules. It works in the following way: First a need is identified and then various options are explored. An action plan is formulated on how ICT can address the issue, following which the Foundation proceeds with the design and development of suitable ICT interventions.

The current ICT initiatives of the Foundation include: • Digital Life Skills Toolkit, • Digitised CRS Module and • High School Curriculum Supplement

Digital Life Skills Toolkit Life skills is an important and indispensable part of the CAP model.

With an increase in the number of

training centres, there arose a need to train more facilitators. But over time, the life skills curriculum was being diluted.

In order to effectively train facilitators in life skills, there was a need for a support tool. It was felt that ICT tool in the form of multimedia programmes could capture the essence of life skills training, and distribution of such programmes would enable packaged expertise to benefit audiences.

ICT enabled CAP to develop a facilitator training module for its life skills curriculum, which also helped mitigate its dilution, as the facilitators were now equipped with a self learning and continuous reference tool.

An important aspect of life skills education is its emphasis on the constructivist theory while delivering lessons. This methodology was incorporated by the DLST by linking delivery of life skills with activities.

Life Skills education has four focus areas: • Developing personal competencies • Social and interpersonal skills • Managing situations • Getting ready for work September 2008 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

The ability to learn and maintain the work-life-education balance is the important result that life skills education seeks to attain. In the current educational paradigm, learning what is deemed not immediately relevant is often discarded as unnecessary. Life skills education may seem distant from the skill based education, but it certainly helps the learners in their careers, especially those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It thus contributes to the overall growth of an individual, and hence enhances the quality of education.

Digitised Customer Relations and Sales (CRS) Module For students wishing to pursue a career in Customer Relationship and Sales(CRS), an understanding of the nuances of dealing with customers is needed. Equally important is their work readiness. More so for those coming from economically disadvantaged background, who need a thorough experience of the urban, consumerist lifestyle.

The video demos were shot at shopping centres, thus giving a real time picture of the skills required in the retail business.

Some examples from the CRS module include: • Grooming, • Body language, and • Handling a customer, right from their entry to departure after billing

High School Curriculum Supplement (HSCS) With an ever increasing number of career options available today, there is a need to educate learners on the various careers that they could take up. The High School Curriculum Supplement tool connects the core subjects taught at school with related careers paths through packaged career expertise along with visual appeals on a multimedia platform.

With the help of ICT, a comprehensive support tool comprising visually appealing demonstrations suited to a scenario was developed to make the CRS course more effective.

In the first phase of HSCS project, around 20 modules across four subjects were developed and delivered. The audio-visuals, along with effective learning support material helps sustain the learners interest and involvement.

The HSCS helps foster a spirit of inquiry and exploration in a learner and connects them to their aims. It gives them an opportunity to understand the nuances of various career paths and help them take informed decisions.

The new CRS module developed includes simulations of retail lifestyle with numerous photographic representations and many video demos.

Subsequent initiatives will enable a more comprehensive career directory that explores a vast variety of career options available to young learners.

CAP Foun da education tion endeavours to an p range of d d life skills to a wi rovide de iffi disadvant cult-to-reach grou ps ag based pro ed youth through c of gr ommunity Nepal, Sri ammes spread acr oss India, Lanka and Banglade sh Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Cap has also implemented this project in government schools, where teachers have been trained in the delivery of these lessons. Such partnerships help extend the impact of this initiative while enabling the educational institutions to use technology confidently and imaginatively in teaching and learning.

Future Initiatives: Expanding Scale and Reach CAP is constantly involved in an effort to extend its community based model to newer target groups. While its current ICT initiatives focus on enhancing quality of learning, it intends to focus more on scalability and enhancing the reach as part of its future initiatives.

There is a need to provide continuous education for CAP Foundation pass-outs and other working candidates who wish to acquire new skills and move to wellpaying jobs. For this online programmes can be introduced through learning management systems.

Another possible intervention is e-community centres to address the learning needs of communities and engage them at different educational levels through a tv channel for young people, vocational training, part-time and full-time continuous learning programmes.

The Internet provides possibilities for real time sharing and management of individual learning plans and portfolios to keep a track of the student’s development. Therefore there is a need for a system that enables easy organisation and collection of information from a variety of sources, to foster a better understanding of students.

Challenges in Implementation of ICT ICT implementation in education faces lot of challenges. A major challenge is the lack of convincing evidence that ICTs are making a radical contribution to efficiency or effectiveness either at national or organisational level.

Although technological advances have helped create necessary infrastructure for promotion and delivery of eLearning, they cannot be solely 35

ICT enabl ed training m CAP to develop a f ac od curriculum ule for its life skill ilitator s , its dilutio which also helped n, a mi now equip s the facilitators w tigate er pe continuou d with a self learn e ing and s referenc e tool responsible for the success of this learning approach. The extent to which the teacher and learner can use the technology available to facilitate the learning environment is more important.

The second challenge is that of preparedness. Often facilitators complain of lack of motivation among learners. Online programmes can thus be risky as these demand self-motivated learners. Moreover, there is lack of acceptance on the part of facilitators to use ICT as an educational tool.

Awareness of the opportunities that implementation of ICT entails for learners and employers is very important. Concerns about costs are always raised in discussions related to technology. Start-up costs can be high, but economies of scale are significant. Widespread awareness of e-Learning can draw the masses towards its fold.

The Way Forward Keeping in mind these challenges, CAP Foundation has made modifications in its ICT policy to overcome the roadblocks. For example, since hardware is expensive and resources limited, CAP volunteers try and adjust with whatever little facilities are available to them.

Since it is natural to have mental blocks about a new teaching/learning method, facilitators are given enough time to acclimatise with the ICT tools. A twostep training, where facilitators are 36

given initial training and then provided continuous support, helps them to be better prepared for using ICT.

requires that the education we provide is made available to a broader range of historically suppressed groups.

Educational programmes, language teaching, and training for social and job skills need to be specially designed and delivered to these groups. In contrast with this escalating demand is the lack of preparedness of our education system to even deal with the existing demand.

There are signs that ICTs may be a catalyst for divergence between groups: helping the rich more than the poor, men more than women and urban dwellers more than those in rural areas. Defying such possibilities, CAP Foundation strives to achieve social and educational inclusion through its multifarious efforts.

References: •

Organisations need to work with the realisation that technology is only a tool and no technology can fix a bad educational philosophy or compensate for bad practice. Educational choices have to be made first in terms of objectives, methodologies, and roles of teachers and students before decisions can be made about the appropriate ICT interventions. It is not the medium that makes the difference; it is the way in which the designer and instructor use the features that are available. Emphasis should therefore be on understanding how e-Learning environments can help people learn.

ICT and Social Inclusion ICTs hold great promise in empowering individuals and groups from the disadvantaged sections of the society.

A fair and concerned humanity

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ICTs for Education: A Reference Handbook, Wadi D. Haddad ICT for Education: Potential and Potency, Wadi D. Haddad, Sonia Jurich Creating a Knowledge-Based Society Through E-Learning in Korea, Hyunjeong Lee Emerging Trends in ICT and Challenges to Educational Planning, Gudmund Hernes e-Learning in Australia and Korea: Learning From Practice, Josie Misko, Jihee Choi, Sun Yee Hong, In Sook Lee Objectives and Strategies for Effective Use of ICTs, Gajarag Dhanarajan The Economics of ICTs and Global Inequality: Convergence or Divergence for Developing Countries? Richard Heeks & Charles Kenny 2002

Nalini Gangadharan, Chairperson, CAP Foundation is a development professional with considerable experience in innovative program development, institution building, change management, scenario development and resource mobilisation.

She has worked extensively with international organisations and corporate foundations in terms of innovative program design, programme scale-up, technical and networking support, as well as resource mobilisation.

Faraaz Mohiuddin is an Instructional design coordinator at CAP, he oversees implementation of elearning projects. He is a computer engineer by qualification, and is passionate about writing. He has completed certificate courses in technical writing and instructional design, and looks forward to applying his learning to social welfare initiatives.

September 2008 | www.digitalLEARNING.in

ce n a t Dis ation c edu

Technological Challenges in Distance Learning Experiences from IIT Bombay Arvind S Patil Technical Officer, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

T

he distance education initiative of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has been in operation since 2002 and its core strength is live interactivity between teachers and students with the use of the best of what ICT has to offer.

The expertise of exceptional teachers at IIT Bombay is being tapped with the use of satellite and internet technologies. Thus addressing a gap that exists between the demand of expert faculty and need for quality education across regions. In other words, the interaction between teacher and student is being extended outside the classroom using technology.

Efforts are on to make the traditional classroom kind of interaction available

live at the individual level. The number of classrooms from where the transmissions could happen could be increased substantially. Efforts are on to make all classrooms at the institute digitally interactive.

An exponentially expansion of this model is viable if other institutes start using newer technologies.

This article will provide insights into the current technologies in use; discuss the challenges as faced while offering education in distance mode and possible next generation technologies which could be roped in to address these.

Current technologies Two basic technologies used in distance education are satellite and internet. IIT Bombay has been using satellite based-

technology for the last seven years for reaching remote areas not so well connected even today.

This is how it works: Signals are generated at a ground station and beamed to the satellite kept in geostationary orbit about 36000 km away above the surface of the earth. The satellite is always in the line of sight of the ground station and receives signals constantly.

The satellite in turn can transmit the signal received to far away places through the transponders on the satellite.

The EDUSAT launched by ISRO was made available to transmit courses from IIT Bombay on its extended ‘C’ Band channel. Initially, the bandwidth was shared with two other programmes on the same channel but with the growth in the activity from IIT Bombay offering as many as 13 semester long courses; the entire bandwidth of 1 MBPS was made available to IIT Bombay.

The working arrangement of the EDUSAT communication is shown at Fig. 1 Following is the cost wise break-up: the receiving equipment set cost ranging from Rs. 10 to 20 lakh, reducing with time. The bandwidth charges ranged from Rs. 21 lakhs to Rs. 39 lakhs; again reducing with time.

Figure 1 Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Internet and web based transmission picked up in India after it became 37

Table – 1 Typical MTNL Annual Leased Line Tariff The tariff for port charges on Annual basis are as follows : Option A: Standard Bandwidth (Port Charges)(Revised w.e.f.

01.01.2007)

through internet is possible in moodle.

The support in the learning is possible by providing the course content as compressed audio video files on portable media like VCD or DVD. This is termed as offline classroom. The course could be viewed at Remote Centers asynchronously and interacted though LMS. Additionally, limited live interaction between the course instructor and the participants is possible at a scheduled time using satellite transmission or internet based video conferencing. This methodology is increasing rapidly as matching course delivery schedules at all remote centers is avoided.

affordable and available. Typical MTNL internet lease line annual charges are shown in Table – 1. below: Participants are increasingly demanding courses through internet as this is more affordable. Though the web technology is well established in the West, the feature that is added at IIT Bombay is of interactivity between the participants and the teachers, and also between the participants themselves.

Interactivity in satellite transmission is the niche of IIT Bombay’s distance education programme that has an edge over other distance education programmes.

In a way it simulates a typical classroom session at many places and entire groups of participants become part of an extended classroom.

The second live interactive technology used at IIT Bombay is video conferencing over the internet. It has limitations on the number of users who can simultaneously connect as it is dependent on the bandwidth available.

The bandwidth gets shared between the users and hence a larger bandwidth is required at the transmission point. With 38

2MBPS leased line up to 40 locations could get connected by using additional equipment like MCU and using software to achieve compression and decompression of data.

The communication is simultaneous.

The offline interaction is arranged by a Learning Management System called ‘moodle’ developed by Mr. Martin Dougiamas of Australia; available in open source and used as effective support to live interaction.

The instructor or teacher controls the communication through moodle. There could be number of teachers for a single course. The participants, as decided by the teacher, are given a login in the moodle page of a particular course and then only they are able to post questions, answer questions posted by others, correct or debate answers given.

The teacher could post the lecture-wise presentations progressively through moodle for the benefit of those who may have missed a live session.

The quizzes, examinations could be conducted through moodle. Previous question papers could be posted for solving by the participants collectively.

Any other communication possible

The course content supplied by IIT Bombay is a good support material to supplement the study material used by the local instructor. This helps the local instructor and the receiving institute to take care of its curriculum while receiving courses from IIT Bombay.

The other technology available is to enable courses receiving by a participant through DTH. DTH or Direct to Home as it popularly known uses Direct Broadcast Satellite Service for transmission. So, the issues related to satellite transmission are common to Live Transmission and DTH to a large extent. The recipient is directly connected to a satellite broadcast and receives the same through a dish antenna directly at home.

The broadcast is non-interactive at present but efforts are ‘on’ to make it interactive. The Video on Demand (VOD) feature of DTH is gaining popularity as it facilitates viewing of the lectures at one’s convenience.

Challenges faced The live interactivity through satellite is manageable with about 100 receiving terminals (SITs) of EDUSAT connected and would be meaningful if about half of them join a particular course transmission on an average. The number of SITs is limited by the infrastructure that is required to be in place for reception.

September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

The snapshots of moodle for a typical course

There is practically no limit on number of SITs otherwise. The quality of Video which is at present a constraint and is because of the input to the satellite codec is in analog form. Once the input signal gets changed to digital; there shall be remarkable improvement in the quality of video at the receiving end.

In case of transmission over internet through VC if the bandwidth is shared then the consistent minimum required bandwidth availability is an issue as it dependent on third party users.

Dedicated leased line is one possible solution but cost wise it is still quite out of reach.

The reach of interactive course offerings is limited as it happens through internet using Learning Management System (LMS) like ‘moodle’. Unless basic internet reach spreads to larger part of the country, it will continue to be a big bottleneck in growth.

The internet has its connectivity problems because of cables used.

Alternatively, the same satellite used for Live Transmission could also be used for internet connectivity to Remote Centers.

Transmission of courses in DTH mode is possible but it’s yet to develop to meaningful proportions. The DTH service providers find it difficult to make it affordable on their own as it caters to a very small fraction of users willing to receive courses offered from institutions like IIT Bombay as individuals.

Some institutions have shown interest to create receiving facility by investing significantly for the benefit of larger student community interested with them. The cost of downloading course contents is still a concern for many individuals.

Conclusions The technology advancements are quite rapid and with multiplying options in the area of distance learning, but the demand and compulsions to offer distance education are increasing at a much higher rate. The challenges are real and sincere efforts are needed to face and overcome them at all levels.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

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News Asia Japan offers help in setting up new IIT in Hyderabad Keen to enhance ties with India in the education sector, Japan has offered its assistance for setting up the proposed IIT in Hyderabad. The offer was made during the visit of Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura.

Philippines Education Dept tie-up with Smart to expand Smart Schools In an effort to improve IT understanding among students and quality of basic education in the country, Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd) has signed an agreement with major telecommunications company Smart Communications Inc. for expanding the department’s Smart Schools programme.

WB aid to Bangladesh improve The tie-up with Smart Communications secondary education Inc. and the Philippine Business for

The Secondary Education Quality and Access Enhancement Project will finance activities in 121 upazilas aimed at improving education quality and poverty-targeted stipends and tuition for girls and boys to increase access and retention. The project will also strengthen the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Education in Bangladesh both at central and local levels.

Social Progress (PBSP) would pave the way for expansion of the department’s Smart Schools programme to an additional 30 public high schools and a similar number of elementary schools this year. More and more public schools are coming into the programme since it addresses their need for Internet access, content and training.

South-East Asian school principals agree on improving school management Southeast Asian school principals have agreed to enhance school leadership and management capacity and to develop the use of information and communication technology in education. This was decided at the first conference of the Southeast Asian School Principals Forum (SEASPF) held on August 15-16 in Indonesia.

The forum also deliberated on key strategy, financing and partnership issues as well as time and place for the next two

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Indonesian President Yudhoyono launches online repository of school textbooks In a move to encourage equitable education and also safeguard its quality, an online repository of school textbooks has been launched in Indonesia to enable students and teachers to access textbooks at affordable prices.

During the visit, Japanese minister expressed willingness to support the IIT by providing best of the technologies. Both the countries also emphasised the need to have more youth exchange programmes.

Now the Bangladesh government’s efforts to improve the quality of secondary education and systematically monitor learning outcomes will get a major boost with World Bank approving a US $130.7 million credit to the country.

meetings. The forum also approved its drafted vision and mission and details of its organisational structure, membership, financing, and possible collaboration with relevant regional or international organisations.

The repository has been designed by the Education ministry, which owns the copyrights to a number of books available in it. It contains 407 titles of textbooks which can be accessed from the website.

Japan, ADB to help Viet Nam develop model research universities Plans by Viet Nam to boost its higher education sector are getting support from Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Japan Special Fund, through ADB, will provide US$1 million in technical assistance to finance a feasibility study that will pave the way for an ADB loan to build two model research universities in the cities of Ha Noi and Da Nang. The Government of Viet Nam will provide an additional US$ 200,000.

The new model research universities are expected to become core scientific centers and will play a critical role in research and teaching, leading to enhanced research and development capacity for the country.

September 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in

Reinventing Education With Real Life Experiences Please tell us about your journey from the management to education sector. How did iDiscoveri come into being?

I started my career in Procter & Gamble in India and then moved to Russia and finally France, where I was the Worldwide Marketing Director for Groupe Danone. While my career was taking off in the corporate world, my attention was gradually turning towards education, entrepreneurship and India. My two young children led me to understand that each child is created different; yet the schooling we receive does not necessarily cater to those differences. I studied the works of leading educationists like Howard Gardner, John Dewey and Sri Aurobindo. I realised that each child has an innate potential that can be unleashed if the educational experience was connected to real life. I wanted to invest the rest of my life creating and scaling up a quality educational programme that can reach a large number of children. I took a break from work to study at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and then returned to India in 2002 to lead iDiscoveri. iDiscoveri was co-founded in 1996 by me and a group of classmates from XLRI Jamshedpur. We started off as a small adventure-based summer programme called Youreka – now one of the largest in India. We wanted to give children a whiff of nature and adventure away from the concrete jungle of cities. In delivering this programme for thousands of children, we stumbled onto a powerful method of ‘learning-by-doing’ that truly touched children. When I returned to India in 2002, I saw the potential of taking this learning method into schools and classrooms – to transform the way children learn and teachers teach. iDiscoveri since then, re-invented itself as a social enterprise to renew school education.

How does your school programme XSEED seek to enhance learning and teaching?

XSEED is an experience-based primary school programme that ensures that all children learn better. It builds on the fundamental insight that children learn best when they are engaged in ‘doing’ as opposed to ‘listening’. We have also learnt that teachers can consistently deliver great learning only when they are provided with both the skills as well as tools to teach effectively. XSEED extends through the entire primary school and is based on the guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework and several international boards.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Ashish Rajpal

Having lived in France, India, Russia and the US, Ashish Rajpal, Managing Director, iDiscoveri, blends a successful track record at Fortune-500 companies with a passion for education. A co-founder, he has an MBA from XLRI and an Ed.M (Mind, Brain and Education) from Harvard University. Drawing upon his inter-disciplinary background in education, management and cognitive psychology, Rajpal has done innovative work in the areas of school curriculum, teacher education, leadership, and creativity.

In an interview with Ashish Rajpal, Digital Learning gets a peep into the social enterprise called iDiscoveri 41

We believe that XSEED works because it has all the three critical ingredients necessary to raise the instructional quality in classrooms. First, at the heart of XSEED are detailed curriculum manuals with over 3000 well-researched lesson plans providing teachers with a very detailed instructional process.

Second, we provide a practice-oriented teacher and leadership training programme to build hands-on skills to teach in an innovative way. Third, we have developed student assessment workbooks that allow measurement of children’s learning in a specific way.

We support the school for a year in the implementation of this programme.

Research shows that learning improvement of children is twice as much in XSEED classrooms as compared to regular teaching. The improvement is more dramatic for the lower half of the class. XSEED today is in over 50 schools in 10 states and 33 districts. This includes both wellknown schools like DPS, Bangalore International, Oakridge and Heritage and many upcoming schools in small towns.

for teachers and leaders. The results of these programmes have been quite well received by the schools and the government there.

Apart from this, we have also partnered with the Bharti Foundation on the Satya Bharti rural schools initiative, with the Wipro Applying Thought in Schools programme and with the New Delhi Municipal Corporation.

What was the idea behind setting up iDiscoveri Pre-schools? How is it different from other pre-schools?

While there is much talk about quality education and innovative practices, there is very little visible evidence on the ground. The iDiscoveri Pre-schools were created to put our ideas into practice and create inviting community learning centers. The iDiscoveri Preschools create a learning environment where the innate talents of each child are recognised and nurtured. Children have a place to freely explore, experiment and experience within a safe environment.

The physical environment of the schools includes the real world through

iDiscover i st adventure arted off as a sma ll -b called You ased summer prog ramme re children a ka, where we want ed w away from hiff of nature and a to give d the concr ete jungle venture of cities Are there any projects in execution stage with governments or other bodies?

Yes, we have a multi-year knowledge partnership with the Royal Government of Bhutan where we are engaged in several education reform projects.

This includes a pilot of XSEED in seven government and two private schools, a baseline research study on the quality of school education, training 42

activities like gardening, composting, art and craft. Children are allowed to express themselves freely. At the heart of the Pre-school is the XSEED early years programme that is built on sound scientific foundations of early childhood education.

Please shed some light on your work with the corporate sector. In what ways do these programmes impact

business results?

Our enterprise group works on an offering called Crucible which is a year-long ‘college’ for senior business executives. The goal of Crucible is to help draw out leadership capability in individuals. Crucible is not just a series of programmes spread over a few months. Rather, it is a sustained learning effort designed and linked around specific leadership challenges for the participants where iDiscoveri takes on full ownership and responsibility to sustain the challenge to learn among participants. Crucible achieves this impact through a combination of vision building, critical skill development, personal coaching and action learning projects.

Please comment on the education system in our country. What do you think are its shortcomings?

The major shortcoming, in my view, is the teaching practice prevalent in most classrooms that can be summarised as ‘telling’ and ‘testing’. This removes the student from actively participating in the learning process. While this problem is recognised and talked about, very little is done about it except for blaming teachers and the government. There is very little action on the ground that provides schools and teachers with real and effective solutions to good teaching.

In your view, what is the role of ICT in education?

Information Technology is already playing a major role in the lives of children. While I believe in the power of ICTs, I recommend that young children need to find more opportunities to ‘touch and feel’ the natural environment around them. I also feel that the power of ICTs to enable teachers and schools is often under-estimated. ICTs can play a huge role in training, coaching and equipping teachers for classroom practice.

Interactive Video technology has huge potential in this domain to demonstrate what good classroom actually looks like.

Blogs, Wikis and other collaborative publishing platforms can enable distributed groups of teachers to come together and develop curriculum.

September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

21 Century Education st

Reinventing the Classroom

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o say that there is a disconnect between what is being taught in classrooms across the country today and the expected skills a student needs to be ready for the 21st century workspace, is stating the obvious. In a world fast shrinking to a global village, skills like global literacy, computer literacy, creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, effective communication and collaboration skills are essential for any child to grow up to be an effective and productive part of the society.

The emphasis is not just on knowledge of core subjects but also on 21st century interdisciplinary skills and the ability to assess available information, analyse it and be able to apply it to new situations. This highlights the underlying need for deep understanding rather than shallow knowledge. These standards engage students with the real world data, tools, and experts they will encounter in college, on the job, and in life -- students learn best when actively engaged in solving meaningful problems and allows for multiple measures of mastery.

This is the mantra for success in the digital economy. This change begins in our classrooms where teaching – learning activities address the 21st century learning requirements of the students. And technology can be the catalyst for bringing about this change.

In a 21st-century learning environment, all students should be able to learn. Project-based learning allows students to acquire 21st-century skills in the context of real-world scenarios, and the integration of video and other media to support instruction links students with outside resources and enables teachers to address many learning styles at once. Never before have we had so much information as to how children learn and we must seize this opportunity to bring about much needed changes in

the way curriculum transaction takes place in our classrooms.

We must actually allow creativity in our children to blossom rather than stifle any desire for learning under the labour of rote learning and repetition. Motivating self- learning early in our students is the key to life-long learning.

The first prerequisite for developing a 21st century learning community is the involvement of all the stakeholders including district leaders, principals, teachers, students, parents, and the business community. It is imperative that all stakeholders be involved in putting together a road map to bring about the requisite changes in the educational system to prepare students for the workforce.

But the moot question here, so many discussion forums later, is - how prepared are we really to address this urgent need? Are we giving the right direction to our students and preparing them for the world they are stepping into?

Are our teachers adequately prepared and supported to be able to bridge the gap between the ground reality and the high expectations for 21st century learning? The answer, unfortunately, is no.

The solution lies in implementing changes in the way we teach. By training our teachers and empowering them to be able to use the tools and technology effectively in their teaching practices. By providing the basic infrastructure for sustained change in the form of technology – enabled learning environments. We need to provide spirally organised multimedia content based on sound pedagogical approach.

This will ensure that the student can grow from one level of learning to the next, constructing new ideas based on their existing knowledge. Only if we address all these components of education can we provide an effective solution to the growing need for 21st century learning.

Amit Gupta CEO - S Chand Group & Director - HMSC Learning

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

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Intel Reaches Himachal Pradesh with Technology Aided Learning

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ntel announced the extension of the Intel Teach Program in Himachal Pradesh in a joint event with the state government called Sankalp (Pledge) with an aim to ensure that the teachers and students of the state are equipped with the right tools to connect them to 21st century opportunities.

The event, organised at Hotel Holiday Home on July 11, 2008, also saw the unveiling of a CD-ROM containing technology aided lesson plans, created by teachers who have been trained under the first phase of the Intel Teach Program in the state.

The CD-ROM unveiled at the event, has been evaluated by SCERT Solan prior to the release. It will be replicated by the state Education Department and copies will be provided to all government schools as readily available technology based lesson plans across K12.

On the occasion, Chief Minister Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal said the initiative taken by Intel in Himachal Pradesh was commendable, and further appreciated the ‘noble example of Public Private Partnership in the field of education’.

Prof. Dhumal was of the firm view that the use of technology with broadband connectivity is a must for the teachers and students in this changing world. He also stressed that in the 2nd phase of this programme thousands of more teachers will be trained so that technology based 44

Dhumal addressing the audience along with Rahul Bedi, Director CAG Intel South Asia; P C Dhiman, Principal Secretary Education; I D Dhiman, Education Minister; and Valsa Williams, Head CAG North and East India at the head table.

education extends to the reach of every student and community.

‘If you teach a man only one person is taught, if you teach a woman one whole family is taught, and if you teach a teacher one whole institution gets taught.

Therefore I thank Intel and the HP education department for taking this initiative and training the in-service teachers’ - Chief Minister (Himachal Pradesh) Prof. Dhumal also appreciated the Project Based Learning concept of Intel Teach Program and applauded the social community awareness project done by students of Govt. Senior Secondary

School Basdehra, Una to raise the sensitive issue of declining female sex ratio.

Rahul Bedi, Director CAG Intel South Asia, introduced the audience to the INTEL world Ahead Program and complimented the governance in the state as both the Chief Minister and Education Minister had stressed on Broadband Connectivity for schools as an essential requirement. This corroborates with the Intel World Ahead Program and the 511 vision.

Valsa Williams, Head CAG North and East, detailed the Intel Teach initiatives in Himachal Pradesh which were highly appreciated by the Chief Minister and Education Minister.

The evening ended with all present September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Release of the CD-ROM containing the projects developed by the teachers of Himachal Pradesh during the first phase of Intel Teach Program in the state.

signing their names on the pledge board and taking a Sankalp to assure the availability of the right tools required for 21st century opportunities.

In Himachal Pradesh, the Intel Teach Program has trained 15062 teachers till date. Through the implementation

of computer-based education and innovative teaching methods in government schools, the programme aims to make learning easier and more interesting for students, and facilitate the creation of 21st century skills, including digital literacy, problem solving and critical thinking.

. A positive impact of the Intel Teach Program in Himachal Pradesh: Project on Female Foeticide at Una by students of G.S.S.S Basdehra.

• The district of Una had been seeing a decreasing female ratio as per the last 1991-2001 Census.

• To understand the ill-effects of an unbalanced population, students from G.S.S.S Basdehra worked on a school project with the help of their Economics teacher.

• The students initiated speech competitions, interviews in surrounding areas on female foeticide, based on which they arrived at findings which were very biased towards the male population.

• The students used technology tools Internet, MS Office, Digital Camera, Printer etc to extensively support their project and prepared presentations, brochures, flyers and interacted with local people to create awareness of the ill-effects.

• As a result of their awareness creating project, the Mahila Mandal held a presentation on gender inequalities for the villages of the district.

digital LEARNING Think of possible ad size you want to place Contact digital LEARNING for assistance through email, phone or fax

Digital Learning magazine CSDMS, G-4 Sector 39, Noida 201 301, U.P. India Tel +91 120 250 2180 to 85 Fax +91 120 2500060 Email info@digitalLEARNING.in Web www.digitalLEARNING.in Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Now on the STANDS

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New TalentTracker e-Learning Zone Logical Innovations, UK provider of TalentTracker online recruitment software, has launched a valuable new feature to provide HR Managers with effortless learning resources for new system users.

The e-Learning Zone can be included as part of any TalentTracker Enterprise solution, the bespoke e-Recruitment system for large companies and call centres. The e-Learning Zone is included in the secure back office and allows users to readily access a series of quick guides and short demos while they are using the system. In addition, the users can also choose from a series of quick guides, which provide colour illustrated step-by-step instructions to allow users to quickly accomplish tasks.

Cegos launches complete blended learning solution for UK market

Cegos UK, part of European training and development company, has launched its new blended learning solution, Global Learning by Cegos. In addition, Cegos has also launched e-learning solutions - a catalogue of over 250 online training modules, many of which will be included in its blended learning solutions or provided as stand-alone learning tools. There will be 24 separate Global Learning by Cegos programmes available in 2009 and a further 20 available in 2010.

Global Learning by Cegos combines the latest skills-based, face-to-face learning techniques with relevant and interactive online training modules. It also provides self assessment opportunities across the learning activity to help individuals track their knowledge and skills developments. The entire programme can be deployed internationally, is 46

available in seven different languages, and tailored to the needs of specific clients.

Atlantic Link launches low cost rapid e-Learning development service

and focuses on the area of improving employability of college graduates.

The company will focus on preparing students currently studying in over 15,000 colleges in the country for workplace. ‘Along with our recently announced partnership with Raffles Education Corporation for professional education, Educomp’s foray into skills completes our 360 approach to helping students achieve their fullest potential,’ Educomp Solutions CEO Shantanu Prakash said.

OnForce to utilise DirectPointe’s e-Learning solution for its IT community

Atlantic Link has launched a low cost, rapid e-learning development service, which provides organisations with high quality custom e-learning courses developed in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional vendors.

The rapid e-Learning software from Atlantic Link allows customers to collaboratively develop their own e-learning in record time, without the need for programming skills. Since the software is collaborative and server based, custom content is developed live on web servers, meaning that courses are available online as soon as production starts. Full workflow tools embedded into the software also allow customers to keep track of their projects and collaborate in the development process, reducing review cycles.

Educomp to buy 76% stake in A-Plus Education Indian e-Learning solutions provider Educomp Solutions said it would acquire 76% stake in A-Plus Education Solutions for INR 10.75 crore in the next two years. A-Plus Education is operating under the brand name ‘Purple Leap’

Management service provider DirectPointe has announced an agreement with OnForce, the world’s largest marketplace for IT service professionals, to private label DirectPointe’s learning management system. Under this, OnForce will utilise DirectPointe’s secure e-Learning portal to offer educational and training programmes to their community of more than 12,000 IT professionals.

‘DirectPointe’s e-Learning portal provides the critical functionality and resources we need for our community of IT professionals,’ said Jose Bernal, Sr VP, Business Development, OnForce.

The e-Learning portal empowers OnForce to easily create, distribute and track interactive training and presentations for its professionals and partners. In addition, OnForce is able to monitor usage statistics, survey responses and user activity, enabling the firm to optimise its content and programmes to maximise their impact.

Educomp launches tele-education programme Educomp Solutions has launched ETEN programme to provide training in accounting, softskills, English language and coaching for Chartered Accountant (CA) across the country through VSATenabled learning centres. For this, a national network of Educomp Learning Centres (ELCs) will be established to provide access to high quality faculty, September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

content and certification through a unique blend of face-to-face and distance education pedagogy.

The portfolio of services being offered currently is ETEN CA - technologyenabled coaching for CA aspirants and accountant training; ETEN ET - employability training; and ETEN ELT - English language training. First off the ground, ETEN CA is initially being launched in Delhi, Chandigarh and Ludhiana and will be offered shortly from 30 additional locations across the country.

Spanco Telesystems launches BPO training hubs for underprivileged Spanco Telesystems and Solutions has launched project ‘Sarthak’ to enable sustainable livelihood options for the underprivileged rural and urban youth by providing skills training and access to employment opportunities in the services sector. Under the project, Spanco along with ngo Seed, will be setting up BPO training hubs across the country, the first of which has been set up in Gurgaon, Haryana.

24x7 Learning to enhance skills in Rajasthan

24x7 Learning has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rajasthan government to offer employability enhancement programmes under the aegis of ‘Knowledge Centres’ across major colleges in the western Indian state. Under the agreement, the talent lifecycle management company will launch an employability enhancement programme ‘SkillBridge’.

The project will be implemented in a phased manner. Initially, this initiative will be offered in seven colleges in cities like Dungarpur, Banswara, Chitorgarh, Bhilwara, Beawar, Sikar and Kaladehra.

SkillBridge is expected to open new avenues by providing employable skills and therefore create better career opportunities for final year college students or those seeking employment. It is also expected to help bridge the skill gap between the academia and industry.

Vantage Learning, ACER partnership for student assessment

The BPO training hubs established under ‘Sarthak’ will focus on imparting vocational competencies and further access to employment opportunities.

Each beneficiary will be assigned a mentor from Spanco for a period of six months and the training will cover basic computer skills, call centre operations, personality development, spoken English and communication skills, and basic management skills. On completion of training, a certificate will be issued and adequate placement support will also be provided.

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Vantage Learning, global provider of online assessment tools and instructional writing solutions, will provide computerbased essay scoring using Vantage’s patented IntelliMetric technology for the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), an educational research center.

Under the agreement, Vantage, USA, will integrate its IntelliMetric technology into ACER’s Web-based English Language Skills Assessment (ELSA)

to instantly score students’ essays and provide diagnostic feedback to teachers and administrators to help them identify areas for student improvement.

IntelliMetric uses artificial intelligence to instantly score essays to open-ended and constructed-response questions with documented levels of accuracy and reliability exceeding that of human scorers.

HCL’s Shiv Nadar to set up INR 300 crore university HCL’s Founder and Chairman Shiv Nadar is making a second foray into university education having sought 300 acres of land in Noida, near New Delhi, to set up a INR 300 crore multidisciplinary university. The university will be residential and is expected to be operational by 2009.

This university will be Nadar’s second major venture in education after Chennai-based SSN Institutions, which offers graduate courses and research programmes in engineering, biomedical engineering, IT and management.

North to get its own ISB, courtesy four biz honchos Four leading Delhi-based industrialists - Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal, Hero Group founder BM Munjal, Max India chairman Analjit Singh and Punj Lloyd chairman Atul Punj - have joined hands to bring the Indian School of Business (ISB) to the north. They will invest INR 50 crore each to set up one of the country’s premier B-schools at Mohali in Punjab.

The Punjab government is expected to provide land for the campus and an MoU to that effect would be signed shortly. The second ISB in the country after the one in Hyderabad - is expected to commence operations in academic year 2011-12. The campus will include four centres for healthcare management, public policy, manufacturing sciences and infrastructure .

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A Model for Innovation A teacher of Physics and Director, Mira Model School, K K Dhawan has about 45 years of teaching and administrative experience in India and overseas. While teaching in Nigeria in 1978, he came across the first Sinclair computer and knew at that time that technology was going to revolutionise teaching and learning. In the 90s when he joined Mira Model School, he started using computers in his classroom.

He also held a workshop where hands on experience of technology to Physics teachers was given, under the aegis of National Progressive Schools Conference in 1993.

Subsequently, he established a separate department of Learning Through Computer in the school and also made many modules for teaching science and mathematics.

This innovation won the school many awards from Intel, Government of India, British Council, etc. At present Dhawan has tuned his energies into promoting the concept of globalised education, which is a new dimension of technology.

School Track

Digital Learning shares with readers Dhawan’s passion for innovation in education.

Power School Please trace the journey of Mira Model School towards ICT integration.

In 1999, in the name of computer education, students would be told about terms like hardware, floppy, CPU, monitor and RAM. I felt that we should go further than than that and so asked the teachers to integrate computers in classrooms to make it more interesting. In 2000 we bagged the national award for the best presentation on integrating technology in curriculum hosted by

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Intel. This was a major inspiration which thrust our school on the path of ICT. Our school also participated in the competition held by the Ministry of Information and Technology on excellence in computer education in the year 2003 and were the second runners up. In 2005, we introduced the concept of globalised education in our school and in the last two years, we have successfully established regular interactions between our students and those of British schools.

We also have Smart Classrooms.

How did you go about implementing HeyMath. What has been the response of the children?

We introduced HeyMath in class 6 as an experiment to see the response of children. With its visual effects, students found it quite interesting. So we held an orientation programme on this for parents of middle school students. Initially only few parents and students came forward, but I am hopeful that more students will come into the fold once sufficient interest is generated. There is also an option of evaluating the performance of children with the help of feedback given by the website. The website monitors how the students are September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

using the software and whether assignments are being done. I thought introducing this would be a small and innovative step towards changing the whole concept of teaching Maths and would also help eliminate boredom among teachers and students.

Do you think that collaboration with foreign institutions is something that is inevitable and good for Indian schools?

Earlier it was difficult to imagine this type of collaboration. But today technology has given birth to a new slogan - ‘kar lo duniya mutthi mein’ (you can hold the world in your palm).

Imagine the power technology has given to our children; they can now interact with their peers from around

the world and exchange their work.

My school uses a special software Super School++, which has been provided to us by the British Council.

In the wide wild world of internet, this software gives children and teachers a safe corridor to interact.

Each user has an email and also web pages where they can upload notes on various topics for others to see.

All this has been possible because of technology. Technology has brought all of us so near; it has transformed the world into a small village.

What are the major challenges in implementing ICT in schools?

To implement ICT in schools, one needs to be aware of various technology available and how to go about its implementation. We need

to address the fear among teachers in accepting technology. While introducing technology, one needs to keep in mind the three T’s - technology, teaching and technique. Content, infrastructure and delivery system are the three basic requirements for introducing technology, but the most important thing is the willingness to do it.

The biggest challenge is bringing ICT to schools in rural areas and government schools in urban areas.

The inertia among teachers to use technology aids is another challenge and we need to look at ways of breaking it. I believe that the technology wave is here to stay and we have to accept it for our own good.

Learning Curve Jamia opens Urdu medium school for girls

Mumbai convent schools to bring down class strength

Green Clubs planned in 250 schools in TN

In order to promote education among Muslim women, Jamia Millia Islamia has opened a senior secondary school exclusively for girls. The Jamia Girls Senior Secondary School will cater particularly to those sections that seek education through Urdu medium.

The Archdiocesan Board of Education (ABE), Mumbai has decided to bring down the class strength to 45-50 students per class, after repeated complaints from teachers about the deteriorating teaching quality.

About 150 schools are governed by the ABE.

The vice chancellor also announced that 10% seats would be reserved for students belonging to poorer sections of society. ‘The school will hold lessons for classes IX to XII. Class IX will have four sections, three offering education in humanities and one in science stream. There will be around 25 students in each section. In class XI, students will be taught sciences and computers only. The new school will employ 16 new teachers trained in Urdu medium.’

‘With more than 75 students in a class, the quality of teaching is gravely affected. Teachers also complain of not being able to give proper attention to students.

At the end of the day, students are the sufferers,’ said Gregory Lobo, Secretary of ABE. Once approved, the new rule will be implemented from the next academic year. The authorities are also working on reducing the school fees. At present, students have to pay Rs.10 per month and in unaided schools, around Rs.350-400 per month.

Hailing Tamil Nadu for the successful implementation of the National Green Club (NGC) programme in schools since its inception in 2001, Udayasankar, Deputy Director (Environment Education), Ministry of Environment and Forest, said, ‘As many as 7,500 clubs will be started in 250 schools per district across Tamil Nadu in the current financial year.’

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issu 9 September 2008

Udayasankar said that in each school around 40 students would be enrolled in the NGC and they would be trained on the need to protect the environment though various training programmes, workshops, quiz, cultural programmes, ecotour and through celebration of environment specific days like World Ozone day through teacher co-ordinators and dedicated NGOs. The Ministry has allotted INR 18 crore to carry out these activities across the country.

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ICY L O P RS E T T MA

India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education Perspective of States as Implementers

At the eINDIA2007, Ministry of Human Resource Development announced the need for a National Policy on ICT in School Education, for which it initiated a consultative process along with Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative to address the 21st century challenges in teaching and learning using technology tools. A draft document was developed under the guidance of Ministry of HRD, Department of School Education & Literacy through a series of consultations with major stakeholders in the ICT in Education domain; including national consultations, workshops and a series of e-discussions pertaining to integration of ICTs in school education.

As part of efforts to take this dialogue forward with the government functionaries and experts on methods of effective implementation of ICT in school education, a panel discussion was organised at eINDIA2008 on July 30, 2008. The broader objective was to create opportunity for discussion on three vital issues concerning effective implementation of ICTs in schools, namely, • Should there be a national vision for integrating ICTs in school education? Is effective implementation of ICTs in schools impeded by lack of a guiding document portraying a national focus.

• States bear the onus of effective implementation of ICTs in schools. What should the policy document prescribe to aid the process of its implementation in states?

• What are the challenges faced during its implementation and possible ways to combat these challenges?

We present you the report of the Policy session in Digital Learning India 2008 ‘Perspective of States as Implementers’ The learnings and recommendations derived from the panel discussion have been collated and presented to the Ministry of HRD to enable a participatory and informed policy formulation with strategic guidelines to all stakeholders.

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September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Towards Building a National Policy on ICT in School Education Perspective of States as Implementers

Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, along with Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), founded by the UN ICT Task Force, and CSDMS has initiated a consultative process to formulate ‘National Policy on ICT in School Education’ to address the needs and challenges for teaching and learning in the 21st century using technology tools.

A draft document was developed under the guidance of Ministry of HRD’s Department of School Education & Literacy through a series of consultations with major stakeholders in the ICT in Education domain; including national consultations, workshops and a series of e-discussions pertaining to integration of ICTs in school education.

To take this dialogue forward with the government functionaries from the Centre and States and experts in the field of education on effective implementation of ICTs in school education, a panel discussion was organised at eINDIA2008 on July 30, 2008.

which need to be addressed for effective implementation of ICTs in schools. These concerns are: • Should there be a National Vision for integrating ICTs in School Education? Is effective implementation of ICTs in Schools impeded by the lack of a guiding document portraying a National focus?

• States bear the onus of effective implementation of ICTs in Schools. What should the policy document prescribe to aid the process of implementation in schools to ensure maximum learning advantage for students?

• What are the challenges faced during implementation and possible ways to combat these challenges?

Secretary, School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Arun Kumar Rath was the Chief Guest and key note speaker.

The session was chaired by Joint Secretary, School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Subhash C Khuntia and moderated by GeSCI Country Director, India, Ashish Garg.

The consultation provided an opportunity to gather regional knowledge on the experiences and challenges involved in implementing ICTs in schools, especially in rural schools.

The State representatives shared their perspective on the challenges/ impediments that they have faced while implementing and integrating ICT programmes in the school education system. The panel experts thereafter provided a deeper understanding of the policy process and responded to concerns and issues raised by State representatives and participants in the session.

The broad objective of the panel discussion was to create opportunities for discussion on three crucial and vital concerns Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

Keynote Address by Arun Kumar Rath, Secretary, Dept of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD

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In his key note address, Arun Kumar Rath highlighted the aggressive investments and actions on the part of Government of India to provide quality education to all children of the country. The universalisation of primary education has been nearly achieved with about 97% children and habitats covered at primary school level. This coverage is about 90% at upper primary school level. The Government has ensured provision of at least one primary school within 1 km. and upper primary school within 3 km.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the flagship programme of the Government to achieve Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE). SSA in partnership with State governments seeks to provide quality elementary education, including life skills and also computer education to bridge the digital divide.

Rath announced the launch of Rashtriya Madhyamik Abhiyan (RMA) in near future to show the Government’s determination and commitment to address the needs, challenges and priorities of education at secondary level. RMA will be the new educational flagship programme of the Government at the secondary level on the lines of SSA. The Government will provide necessary funds, resources and capacity building to upgrade 40,000 secondary schools in the country to become good quality schools. The goal would be to have one best school in every block and especially every backward block.

Rath expressed concerns over the deficient level of knowledge among the students, especially in Science and Maths and highlighted the role that ICTs could play in improving reach and quality of education. Most government schools lack good science, mathematics and technology teachers. Despite the fact that country has a dedicated satellite for education (EDUSAT) and hardware has been provided in schools, these are grossly under-utilised.

Moderator Ashish Garg, Country Programme Director-India, GeSCI

A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective to the Secretary, Education, Chair and panelists.

She briefly discussed the consultative process initiated last year to enable an informed discourse and perspective sharing among all stakeholders in order to identify the needs, challenges and priorities to be addressed in the proposed National Policy of ICT in School Education. She highlighted the objectives and expected outcomes from the panel discussion, which revolved around three questions mentioned above in the report.

There is a need for capacity building of teachers in using ICTs in education. Quality educational content and in contextualised format are required for the schools. ICTs could reach education to every village and block in the country.

The Secretary, Education also discussed about involvement of IITs and other institutions in improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools. IITs are now being pursuaded to join school education and IIT Kharagpur has launched a Virtual Academy to support teachers in collaboration with MHRD. A virtual education group will be available for consultation to secondary school students and teachers. 20 more academies of this nature will be started if the experiment succeeds.

Rath also dwelved upon the questions that need to be reflected upon: • What is the value of ICT in school education?

• Is there a need for a National Vision?

• What should the National Policy prescribe?

• What are the challenges which the states face while implementing ICTs? At the outset of her address, Ashish Garg presented the Compendium on National Policy on ICT in School Education: 52

Arun Kumar Rath with the Compendium on A National Policy for ICT in School Education - A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

Chair Subhash C Khuntia, Jt Sec, Dept of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD

S C Khuntia, who chaired the session, called for bringing uniformity and clarity amongst the States on implementation of ICTs in education. A set of coherent implementing guidelines giving a broad direction to the States are required.

The document would be a reference point for all levels. He emphasised the need for consultations in evolving a robust and dynamic policy which would make ICT integration at schools easier. A dynamic and flexible policy would help the States in leveraging ICTs in school education.

Khuntia pointed out three key challenges in education, viz., access, equity and quality, especially at secondary level. ICTs may play a major role in addressing them. The proposed ICT policy is expected to further the educational objectives.

He stressed on addressing issues related to infrastructure, connectivity, content, teachers training, best practices, M&E and PPP. He also called for reflections on targets and timelines for implementation. The policy may also provide standards and norms for procurement and other areas, which States require.

In conclusion, Khuntia invited all the stakeholders, including teachers, students, NGOs etc. to come forward and contribute in the process. ‘We have to move from ICT labs to ICT enabled classes in our schools,’ he added.

The second part of the session saw two presentations by State representatives from Gujarat and Jharkhand. Secretary, Primary Education, Gujarat, Anita Karwal presented State’s perspective on proposed ICT policy and shared the State’s experience with Computer Aided Learning in schools. Gujarat has covered 5,371 schools till date through BOOT model. Remaining 14,885 schools will be covered in current year with the same model. 23 Multimedia based CD have been developed for Maths, EVS and Co-curricular activities in collaboration with Azim Premji Foundation for classes 3 to 7. Teachers have been trained with the help of INTEL, she added.

Some of the challenges faced by Gujarat in implementation of ICTs in schools include procurement, capacity limitations, scale, remoteness, language, quickly changing technology, software, connectivity and operating systems. Karwal made following suggestions for the National Policy on ICT in School Education: • Standardise procurements - should we procure hardware, software or services • Connectivity options • Research based benchmarking of expected outcomesaccreditation of schools for CAL • Constant review of policy to ensure availability of latest technology • ICT policy for standardising database for creating national grid for enabling child tracking/mapping, monitoring drop out, retention • Funding – under SSA of computer labs/ rooms, service oriented CAL programme Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Jharkhand, Ram Sevak Sharma made a presentation on experience, challenges and needs of education in the State. Some of the educational challenges faced by the State include access, retention, quality of education, quality of teachers, para-teachers of poor quality and poor infrastructure, he said. The State’s experience in implementing ICTs in schools has been positive, supported by third party evaluations.

Anita Karwal, Secretary, Primary Education, Gujarat Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

In the near future, the State plans to provide computer education and computer-aided learning to all government school students of Class IX to XII. He said Jharkhand has also 53

• • • • • •

to measure SP’s performance through a Third Party Monitoring Agency (TPA) Flexible to accommodate various implementation models Takes care of variation in infrastructure availability – power, connectivity, manpower Focus on internal capacity building Leverage private sector efficiencies Promote open source and standards Flexibility in financial norms

Sharma emphasised on the need to address the following issues in the proposed ICT policy: • Flexible to accommodate various implementation models • Takes care of variation in infrastructure availability – power, connectivity, manpower Ram Sevak Sharma, Principal Secretary, Jharkhand

experimented with following models for implementing ICTs in education: • Total government ownership of equipments and their maintenance • Total outsourcing of hardware, software and teachers/ manpower • Hybrid solution : Hardware, its maintenance and training with service provider, teachers and customised software with state He said the experience with various options has enabled the State to consider the following model for implementing ICT in teaching and learning in schools in future: • BOO model for 5 years • Service Provider (SP) provides hardware, maintains it, trains teachers • Service Level Agreement (SLA) becomes the yardstick

M M Pant, Former Pro VC, IGNOU

• • • •

Focus on internal capacity building Leverage private sector efficiencies Promote open source and standards Flexibility in financial norms

Following the State presentations, the expert panelists took the opportunity to share their perspective on issues raised by the States and responded to some of the concerns. There was consensus amongst the panelists about a supportive role of ICTs in education.

According to Prof Vasudha Kamat, Joint Director, Central Institute of Educational Technology, ICTs are not the sole answer to all the problems. However, it will change the way we learn and share knowledge. ICTs may address the issues of access and quality of education.

Vasudha Kamat, Jt Dir, CIET, NCERT

54

Prof. M M Pant, Former Pro Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, found the potential of ICTs in improving the learning levels of students. ICT is no more an added advantage but an essential aspect of higher education. ‘If ICT is the answer, what is the question? Is it education for all or quality education for all?

Are we going to concentrate on Art of Teaching or the Science of Learning? What is our goal? Good students with the help of good teachers doing well or mediocre students with average, ordinary teachers doing well?’ We need teaching methods propagated through technology which enables 80% of the September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SESSION • • • • •

• Utpal Malik, Head, Dept of Computer Division, NCERT

• • •

There is an urgent need of formulating a national policy on ICT in School Education The aim is to move from ICT labs to ICT enabled classrooms Children should be encouraged to think outside the box BOOT or BOO model should be implemented in all states Mandatory computer training in government offices and among school teachers if they want promotion or fee hike Flexible, dynamic and multi-stakeholder consulted policy Focus on internal capacity building with flexibility on economic norms ICT has to be integrated in the 40 min of classroom curriculum Public-private partnerships encouraged

e-content is very important. Though software developers have already started addressing the market needs, governments also need to recognise the importance of content development.

Shamsu also felt that there was need to overcome teachers’ resistance to using technologies. Technology phobia faced by teachers should receive immediate attention and computer education for them should be made mandatory and added as part of teachers training, she added.

According to Prof. Utpal Malik, Head Computer Division, NCERT, although computer materials for schools are being developed at a fast pace, ICT is still a virtual aspect in class.

It has still to become reality. Good hardware or software may not be enough for good education. ICT has to be integrated in the 40 min of classroom curriculum.

He said it is time we teach the children to think out of box. It’s like a health drink – stronger, sharper and taller. Project based learning is the best. The need of the hour is to develop a model which is replicable, scalable and suitable for average teachers teaching poor students.

Shakeela Shamsu, Planning Commission

population to learn better. The faster one learns and more independently they learn the better. Uzbekistan has made computer education mandatory in schools and has issued certifications without which one cannot enter jobs. India should learn from such examples, he said.

At the end of the session, the expert panelists also responded to few queries from the audience. The interactive policy session provided a deeper understanding of the policy priorities, needs and concerns of various stakeholders to be addressed in the proposed policy.

Shakila Shamsu, Joint Advisor, Planning Commission, emphasised on the need to move from teacher to student centric learning, which can be ably supported by ICTs in short time. ICT should be the major factor with teachers just being the facilitators in class. She expressed concern over dearth of good quality e-content in Indian languages. Developing Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008

55

News world New York plans to implement an affordable student loan programme

the UK’s four Bellerbys international colleges. Bottom of the list of 19 factors were the availability of scholarships, future work opportunities and whether their friends studied in the same country.

New British universities could struggle to survive Newer British universities may disappear because of global competition forcing them to spend more, ratings agency Standard & Poors has warned. It warns of ‘certain universities ceasing to exist’ because of increasing competition from China and India and within the UK. The analysis suggests that more researchintensive universities will be in a stronger position to cope.

NewYork has plans to implement an affordable student loan programme in an effort to make it more competitive with other states. The administration plans to introduce legislation for it in the budget for the next year.

A report was released about New York state’s higher education system which listed the requirements of such a programme in its top ten major recommendations. It also proposes infusion of around US$3 billion for the research and hiring of at least 2,000 new teachers. Academic research is also one of the central focal points of the report.

Quality of teaching tops the list for international students: Study Quality of teaching is the single most important factor considered by international students when deciding where to study, according to research published by Study Group. Also ranking near the top of the list were personal safety, reputation of the college and country of study, according to the majority of the 671 students surveyed.

The ‘Choice of Destination’ survey was conducted by the International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate).

The respondents were from a variety of countries (including China, Russia and Greece) and studying at one of 56

‘From a credit perspective, the UK higher education sector has made positive strides over the past few years, but faces increasing risks in the mediumto-long term,’ the report states.

UDcast delivers e-Learning network to universities in Oceania UDcast, a global provider of enterprise network optimisation and mobile television solutions, has delivered a network acceleration system to the universities in Papua New Guinea.

The network was ordered by the Papua New Guinea Academic and Research Network, a consortium of private and state universities.

Papua New Guinea still lags with one of the lowest internet usage ratios in the world -- 2.8% among the 6 million

citizens. So far, 21 ground sites have been equipped with secure broadband satellite connection. Each site features an UDgateway that provides protocol acceleration, caching and security in conjunction with iDirect VSAT modems.

EduWave Live launched in the Middle East EduWave Live, an e-learning and educational management solution, was launched in the Middle East with the aim of providing the educational sector in the UAE and across the region with an advanced software platform that will help to enhance the management of the region’s schools and universities, and facilitate country-wide collaboration between teachers, students and educational administrators.

EduWave Live is ITG’s next-generation award-winning, comprehensive eLearning and educational management solution that is built on the latest collaborative Microsoft technologies.

Together, Microsoft and ITG, a Jordanian partner, have designed, developed and will market EduWave Live, a multilingual, comprehensive and userfriendly e-Learning Platform that caters to schools from K-12 onwards and the educational community as a whole.

Teachers in Rwanda to receive ICT training by year end Teachers in the country will be equipped with ICT and management skills by December this year, Secretary General, Ministry of Education, Justin Nsengiyumva said on the occasion of a week-long training of 45 head teachers in ICT and management in Nyarugenge district.

The training was aimed at easing and speeding up management work that has been affecting these teachers’ performance. With ICT access and knowledge, Rwandan teachers will get Internet connection for research and able to compete globally. The training is being facilitated by a British project known as VVOB\Flemish Technical Cooperation which will be in charge until its completion.

September 2008 | www.digitalLearninG.in

Mark Your Calendar september Learning Technologies Africa 8 - 10 September 2008 Abuja, Nigeria http://www.LearnTechAfrica.com

iPED International Conference 2008 ‘Researching Academic Visions and Realities 8 - 9 September 2008 Coventry, United Kingdom http://www.coventry.ac.uk/iped2008

e-Learning Asia 2008 10 - 11 September 2008 Seoul, Korea (South) http://www.kelia.org/user/eng/elearningasia2008.jsp

The 2nd African Conference on Curriculum Development 16 - 18 September 2008 Willow Park Confere Centre, Kempton Park, Gauteng, South Africa http://www.unisa.ac.za/curriculumconference2008

Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Conference for the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education 24 - 26 September 2008 Macao, SAR Macao, China http://www.unescobkk.org/education/apeid/macao2008

Digital Resources for the Humanities & Arts (DRHA08) 14 - 17 September 2008 Cambridge, United Kingdom http://www.rsd.cam.ac.uk/drha08

VIDLATEL ‘08 - 1st International Workshop on Visual Design Languages and Applications for TechnologyEnhanced Learning 17 September 2008 Maastricht, Netherlands http://elearn.pri.univie.ac.at/vidlatel/

Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 4 April 2008

CREATEL08 - International Workshop Creation of TechnologyEnhanced Learning Solutions for 24/7 Professionals 16 September 2008 Maastricht, Netherlands http://www.createl08.net

37th Annual NSEE Conference 24 - 26 September 2008 Orlando, FL United States http://www.nsee.org

Innovations in Learning 24 - 26 September 2008 San Jose, California United States http://www.brandonhallconference.com

Enhancement of Knowledge on Higher Education and its Dissemination: Imperative for Policy and Practice 25 - 27 September 2008 Cluj-Napoca, Romania http://conference.ubbcluj.ro/hej/

College Teaching and Learning Conference 29 September- 2 October 2008 Las Vegas, Nevada, United States http://www.CluteInstitute.com

october

CREAD 2008 5 - 8 October 2008 Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro Brazil http://www.cread2008.com.br

HighEdWeb 2008: Infinite Solutions 5 - 8 October 2008 Springfield, Missouri United States http://www.highedweb.org/2008/

Utopia 1 - 3 October 2008 Cairo, Egypt http://www.freewebs.com/utopia-2009

Announcement SIRCA 2008 Grant Cycle Announcement & Guidelines The SIRCA Programme is pleased to announce a call for grant proposals to identify future research leaders and facilitate their development through the support of research grants.

The awards are intended to ensure capacities to conduct research in the area of Information and Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) are built in Asia. This applies particularly to emerging researchers based in Asia who are relatively new to ICTD research.

The programme promotes broad-based high-quality multidisciplinary research in ICT development, e-services, new media use and social impact, and policy for the benefit and advancement of individuals, organisations, nation and society. This grant focuses on social science research, in particular, the relationships between ICTs and society. Projects focusing on developing ICT applications or other similar types of action research without the social science element would fall outside the scope of this grant.

There are three categories of funding – 20,000 Singapore Dollars, 26,500 SGD and 33,000 SGD. Project proposals exceeding 33,000 SGD must specify the source of additional funds. If the proposal seeks to supplement an existing research programme, please specify the alternate source and categories of funding.

Important Dates: Grant Application opens on August 25, 2008 Online registration along with name and title of project: September 29, 2008 Deadline for receipt of proposal: October 13, 2008 Award notification: November 1, 2008 For further information, please visit: http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/sirca/

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