Insights success the 10 fastest growing education solution provider companies november2016

www.insightssuccess.com November 2016

The way of business solutions

cHALK tALK Big Data and Analytics for Education

Business Spotlight Enrollment Management Systems: Converting Prospective into the Concurred

Editorial’s Desk What Will Define the Face of Education?

THE

10 Fastest Growing

EDUCATION Solution Provider Comapnies

Need of an Hour

industry outlook

Traits that can turn an Employee into an Employer

Flipped Learning: A Technological Advancement That Takes Learning at Ease

Editorial

T

he way universities used to teach and students used to learn is changing due to technological innovation in the education field. Today’s knowledge economy demands, academic institutions charged with equipping graduates. Sophisticated learning management systems, distance learning and the opportunity to cooperate with research partners from around the globe are just some of the transformational uses that universities are embracing.

But for all the changes, technology remains a disruptive innovation. Faculty members used to teach in a specified way may be reluctant to invest the time to learn and adopt new methods.

Education, In the Hands of Technology

A significant effect on higher education is getting impacted by the technological advancements. Almost 63% survey respondents from public and private sectors say that technology will have a major influence on the teaching methodologies over the upcoming five years. Truthfully, technology will be the core differentiator in attracting corporate partners along with the students.

Online learning has emerged as a major contributor to global education and is gaining a firm foothold in universities around the globe. Many educators and students believe that online learning is a key to place advanced education within the reach of people who might not be able to accept it earlier.

Corporate and academic partnerships are expected to form an increasing part of the university experience. This will be happening at a time when locating funding and controlling costs are key worries. Institutions will need to demonstrate a commitment to advanced technologies, to attract corporate partnerships.

Also, education is responding to the globalization, while an overseas presence is becoming the norm for the majority of universities. Many of the institutions already have foreign locations or plan to open them over next three years. With universities in the US and overseas, distance education is becoming increasingly global while leveraging advanced technologies to make education available for many more individuals around the globe.

Technology mostly has a positive impact on the campuses, but the operational challenge may hinder all the benefits from being realized. Adding to that, the technology can be disruptive in ways not intended: rise in student plagiarism, cheating and attributing to distractibility, students attribute to easy and a click away access to mobile technologies.

Though, technology is a two sided sword, at the end how it can be used, depends on the users. No doubt, the technology is disruptive in some ways, but it is no surprise to say that, present and future of education lies in the hand of technology.

Abhijeet Parade

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Abhijeet Parade Co-Editors David Smith Archana Ghule Stephanie Andrews Vikram Suryawanshi Suhel Mashayak Ujal Nair Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Victoria Co-designer Alex Noel Picture Editor Amol Kamble Art Editor Aparna Vanzule Business Development Manager Mike Thomas Nick Adams Marketing Manager Chris Business Development Executives David, Peter, John, Brian Research Analyst Jennifer Circulation Manager Robert Database Management Steve Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

November, 2016 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com 6

Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Ofď€ ce No. 513, 5th Floor, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: 020-69400110, 111, 112 Email: meera@insightssuccess.in For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.in ,

C

O

06 28 38

N

T

Chalk talk Big Data and Analytics for Education

Editorial’s Desk What Will Deď€ ne the Face of Education?

Need of An Hour

Traits that can turn an Employee into an Employer

CXO Standpoint

E

N

22 34 16

T

Business Spotlight Enrollment Management Systems: Converting Prospective Into the Concurred

Industry Outlook Flipped Learning: A Technological Advancement That Takes Learning at Ease

Vision Privatization in Education

30 Emerging Technologies from Microsoft: Remove The Limits on Your Business

CXO Standpoint

36 The Real-Time World-Wide Learning through the Internet

18 Novel Technologies that Simplify Enterprise Systems

CXO Standpoint

12 Binumi:

Shaping the Future of Digital Storytelling

14 Brightbytes: Improving Education For A Better Tomorrow

24 DominKnow: Connecting the Thoughts

26 Kornukopia: Tying education content into the process of education

40 Special Learning: A Global Leader in Autism and SpecialNeeds Education

42 Tutorfair:

For Every Student who Pays, they give Free Tutoring to a Child Who Can't

Data Big Analytics for

Chalk talk

&

Education B

ig Data is having an influence everywhere and education is not an exemption. Big data is becoming a fruitful tool in the education system. In the last decade, learning has changed its phase from a passive to an active experience.

The traditional education system requires classrooms, textbooks, reference books, teachers, and all institutional management which are now drastically changing. Institutions are no longer required to continue education in a conventional way. From homeschooling programs that has become highly effective to the online colleges, to the efficient online educational tools to boost professional career, the opportunities to expand intelligence of learner from their desk are abundant.

Big Data is Making Education More Interesting, Affordable and Available Big Data is assisting educational institutions and companies to understand things they could not have previously. For student enrollments, Big Data and predictive analytics have the ability to prepare analytical databases which can cater to college administrators with fast, actionable information. This information helps them to take smart enrollment decisions and allocate both staff time and financial resources to raise enrollment from current markets while constructing new ones.

Companies like edX are using Big Data to determine what kinds of classes can be conducted online and which are best suited to a classroom culture.

From a student’s viewpoint, Big Data and predictive analytics can assist the candidate to shortlist colleges that best fit for their profile. These conclusions based on thousands of data points that can guide the applicants towards those colleges and universities which will be the best match to their profile. College students are increasingly using social media to guide and influence their college choice.

Reshaping Learning Through Big Data While considering modern day educational learning, there’s no doubt that students are having more options than ever before. They can learn at their convenience from home, the coffee shop, or the classroom with the assistance of Big Data as a tool which is more powerful than conventional learning.

06 November / 2016

Chalk talk Digitized Textbooks Future Textbooks will be not likely to anyone who carried around heavy backpacks in their high schools and colleges. The transformation from a backpack that’s full of books to a slim smartphone has been an ongoing phenomena for some time, but the future textbooks will be increasingly interactive, collaborative, and updated for accuracy in real-time.

Greg Fenton, CEO of Redshelf (the digital textbook company) says, “There is a plenty of information available on students’ habits of reading and the amount of time they spend for studying. With online textbooks, publishers and professors now have access to information that shows exactly how, when, how often and why the students use textbooks.”

This data, assists publishers with insights that inform the editorial process and also gives teachers access to information that can help them to improve as the instructions based on student's learning habits. With the digital textbook, updates can be automated in real time whenever required, homework sections in the book also can be graded in real time, video files and audio files can be installed, and much more.

much more effective when equipped with the tools to evaluate the student’s abilities and challenges. Most of the students get bored while studying in a textual format so now, textbooks are not only coming with just a digital copy, but also they have web-based sites that include animations, videos, and sample quizzes.

Digital textbooks have benefited with an active feedback loop in which students and teachers can note areas of confusion also they can highlight the tools that are helpful.

Changes and improvement made in real time can actually be profitable for the students and teachers immediately, instead of semesters or years later unlike before.

Big Data for e-learning: From Classroom to Corporate World Now e-learning is not only limited to classrooms for studies, but it also benefits to the corporate world for the improvement of employee skills within least time span. Also, the e-learning is becoming more useful for physically handicapped and ill students who can’t attend classes, it helps them to overcome the losses they suffer due to unavailability in the classrooms. The conventional classrooms are also becoming e-classrooms which provide e-learning, helps students to easily grasp knowledge as it is available in pictorial forms. Big Data is fruitful in elearning as learning material is analyzed based on usefulness and acceptability to make it readily available for all at the same time.

Internet of Things (IoT) The IoT market is continuously expanding, from consumer electronics, manufacturing, e-commerce, autonomous vehicles, drones and education. IoT integration is much beneficial for higher education because its cloud capabilities reduce hardware costs. Most of the students have Internet-connected devices which create an academic infrastructure that is no longer restricted by traditional barriers, such as geographical location, language, specialized learning needs. It makes the campus without a Generally, the goal of any invention is to make the life of physical library. All books can be digitized and readily available for every student at the same time, independent of human being easy and comfortable. The Big Data also altered the way of learning by making it easy, simple and the number of copies of physical books unlike before. interesting. The traditional classroom environment is no longer necessary for learning. Technology will continuously Personalization make learning easy for the convenience of students, no Plenty of data and analytics tools available to give an opportunity to create a high level of personalization. Every matter someone likes it or not. single learner isn’t the same, thus teachers can become November / 2016

07

The

10

Fastest Growing

Education Solution Provider Companies

Educational Transformation with the help of Technological Upgradation

T

echnology in education was a debatable topic amongst the society with everyone having their positive and negative views on whether to modernize education and make it technology aided or not. But, as technology got embraced by the educational institutes, everyone realized the significance of technology in education.

Its positives got outnumbered with the negatives and at present, education has taken a whole new meaning with technology while transforming into ever-advanced level. Education and technology are a great combination when used together with a right vision and reason.

With the right vision and reason, many education solutions providers have equipped technology into their core values and are delivering outstanding solutions and services while making education easier more than ever.

Out of them, we have shortlisted the most outstanding and exceptional solutions providers in our The 10 Fastest Growing Education Solution Provider Companies issue. These education solutions provider companies are using technology advancements at its best and are standing strong while proving their mantle.

We have solution provider companies that includes Binumi, the largest educational video creation platform in the world, BrightBytes which provides the first SaaS-based data analytics platform, dominKnow, a web-based platform, collaborative authoring and content management solution designed for creating, managing, and delivering high-impact multi-device learning, Kornukopia, a free hosted learning management system, Special Learning, Inc., an education technology company helping people with Autism attain a higher quality of life, and Tutorfair, a platform that help parents find and book great tutors. We have also shortlisted CrossKnowledge, TechSmith, and Mango Languages due to their innovative solutions.

While engrossed into the magazine, don’t forget to flip through the pages of articles given by industry leader that includes, “The Real-Time World-Wide Learning through the Internet”, “Predictions for Q3 & Q4, 2016”, and “Emerging Technologies from Microsoft: Remove The Limits on Your Business”. We also have “What will be the face of education”, “Big data for education”, and “Enrollment Management Systems: Converting Prospective into the Concurred” penned down by our editorial team on the education industry and trends to be followed in the upcoming years.

Let’s get started then.

MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION FORM Global Subscription 1 Year

(12 Issues)

$250.00

6 Months

(06 Issues)

$130.00

3 Months

(03 Issues)

$70.00

1 Month

(01 Issue)

$25.00

Date :

Name : Address :

City :

State :

Zip :

Country :

Check should be drawn in favour of : INSIGHTS

SUCCESS MEDIA TECH LLC

Corporate OfďŹ ce Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754, (302)-319-9947 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com

The

10

Fastest Growing

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

Company Name

Management

Brief

Binumi binumi.com

Anthony Copping Founder & CEO

Binumi is the largest educational video creation platform in the world dedicated to making it possible for educators and students of all ages create high quality video projects in minutes.

BrightBytes brightbytes.net

Rob Mancabelli BrightBytes provides the first SaaS-based data analytics platform Co-Founder & that measures the impact of technology on learning and provides Chief Strategy Officer a roadmap for improvement.

CrossKnowledge Crossknowledge.com

Pascal El Grably COO

CrossKnowledge is an engaging, forward-looking digital learning solution that provides a customized, fully integrated learning solution and implement it at unmatched velocity.

dominKnow dominknow.com

Luke Hickey CEO

dominKnow Platform is a web-based, collaborative authoring and content management solution designed for creating, managing, and delivering high-impact multi-device learning.

KEV Group kevgroup.com

Bram Belzberg Chairman & CEO

KEV Group gives boards a better way to handle school finances.

Their Web-based School Cash Suite delivers real-time financial visibility that prevents fraud and makes fund management easier and less time consuming.

Kornukopia kornukopia.com

John Shine Founder & CEO

Kornukopia is a free hosted learning management system that provides a common working platform to manage grades, assignments, calendars, to-dos, groups and courses to the students, teachers, parents, and all educators.

Mango Languages mangolanguages.com

Jason Teshuba Founder & CEO

Mango Languages creates lovable language-learning experiences for libraries, schools, corporations, government agencies, and individuals.

Special Learning special-learning.com

Karen Chung Founder & CEO

Special Learning, Inc. is an education technology company that exists to help the 70+ million people in the world with Autism attain a higher quality of life.

TechSmith techsmith.com

Wendy Hamilton CEO

TechSmith Corporation provides practical business and academic software products that can dramatically change how people communicate and collaborate.

Tutorfair tutorfair.com

Andrew Ground Co-founder & CEO

Tutorfair is a website to help parents find and book great tutors and, for every student who pays, they give tutoring to a child who can’t.

Binumi: Shaping the Future of Digital Storytelling

T

oday’s teachers are dealing with a generation that has never known life without the internet. There is a need to integrate digital technology into their teaching methods that will engage students and aid the development of 21st century skills. If students are to have a competitive edge, educators must harness the full power of these digital technologies and create learning opportunities with digital storytelling.

We live in a digital world which is highly visual, interactive, engaging and shareable. The future of education paints a picture of success for those institutions that embrace the need for digital storytelling, preparing young learners for the world of tomorrow.

Education institutions are looking for solutions to help them adapt to how

students consume, create, and share information.

One education solution provider that offers a turnkey solution is Binumi.

Digital storytelling no longer requires expensive equipment, technical expertise or lots of time. Binumi also solves content and copyright challenges as well as e-Safety issues that are often associated with video platforms. Binumi makes it possible for all subjects to easily incorporate powerful communication through video creation for every student.

Binumi: Helping Everyone Make Videos Worth Sharing Binumi is an online platform that helps everyone make amazing digital stories by offering a rich cloud-based universe of royalty-free content, GPS

intelligence, and advanced integration, coupled with editing and publishing tools.

For schools, Binumi features the world’s first curriculum-linked video project Assignment Tool. This gives teachers the ability to assign video projects in a few clicks and students everything they need to complete projects; including, instructions, content, editing tools, safe private publishing spaces and personal video portfolios.

In Higher Education, professors utilize Binumi to produce stunning courseware while students capture academic materials, compose presentations, and create digital CVs and portfolios. Students also share the stories that help define the excitement of life on campus-a fast growing valuable marketing asset for University recruitment.

Anthony Copping: National Geographic Filmmaker turned Entrepreneur Anthony Copping, the Founder and CEO has had an incredible life journey. He has traveled to some of the most remote places across the globe in quest of indigenous music and the origin of languages. His documentaries were showcased on the National Geographic Channel, and his journey was labeled as “the most dangerous expedition in the history of music.”

Anthony Copping (top right) in Vanuatu on his quest for indigenous music for National Geographic

12 November / 2016

One of the key things Anthony found during his travels was that humans connect through stories.

Fastest Growing

The

10

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

Anthony Copping Founder and CEO

“

With Binumi anyone,

“

anywhere and anytime,

can create amazing digital stories from any device

Consequently, he became concerned by the growing disparity in education where children around the world did not have equal access to digital storytelling.

“I went on a mission to build a platform whereby a 14 year-old student anywhere in the world could create short documentaries with nothing more than access to the Internet. I’m very proud, because students as young as 5 are now telling video stories with Binumi.”

Being able to deliver that vision required four steps. First they needed video content that was without copyright restrictions and free to use by everyone ‒ especially students who do not have the resources to travel across the globe shooting videos.

Secondly, they needed a platform in which users could discover content in a way that enabled storytelling. The third thing was an online editor, one that young people could use to put together video stories in minutes. Lastly, a digital storytelling space was developed so stories could be published and shared across all platforms. With these four components

up and running Binumi’s vision had become a reality.

Making of Creative Storytellers Binumi makes it possible for all students to access digital storytelling. It helps develop important literacies and meets the needs of 21st century education by promoting critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication. Binumi provides active learning opportunities through video whereby students become content creators. The result is improved involvement, engagement, and retention both at school and home.

Video projects offered by Binumi ranges from in-depth explorations found in documentaries to multimodal learning environments for language learners.

Unique Digital Solutions Provider Binumi combines three essential elements of digital storytelling: content, tools, and publishing. The company is the only platform in the world that offers this solution. Binumi offers seamless integration with innovations like the Assignment Tool, cloud-based and template-based editing experiences, private sharing

spaces, and ability to share stories; all highly valued by Binumi’s educational institutes worldwide.

Developing and Growing Worldwide Binumi has seen success in over 10 countries including Singapore and Taiwan and is quickly emerging in the USA as a major player to watch. The Australian Government also has taken notice as a new government initiative will give Educators across Australia immediate access to Binumi and the world’s first digital storytelling learning tool by the end of 2016.

Binumi’s new mobile app featuring GPS-tagged video content has great potential for stories on-the-go opening up new commercial sectors such as tourism. Binumi continues to develop new technologies, helping grow partnerships with leading knowledge and content organizations.

Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, communicate and learn. Binumi will enable the education sector to update their teaching methods to truly embrace and lead the development of 21st century digital storytelling skills.

November / 2016

13

BrightBytes: Improving Education For A Better Tomorrow

T

his is the most exciting and challenging time to work in education in the past century. It’s challenging because the methods of schooling honed over the past 100 years do not provide students with the skills they need to compete in the global economy. But it’s exciting because developments in connectivity hold the promise of replacing these approaches with advances that make individualized learning truly possible for the first time in human history.

The transition between these two worlds requires talented educational leaders who can meld together visionary plans with real change management for their schools and communities. BrightBytes is a company which provides essential tools that advance the work of these educational innovators.

BrightBytes: Improving the Way the World Learns With a mission to improve the way the world learns through the use of data, BrightBytes gathers ideas from the best experts in the world and creates evidence-based frameworks that are combined with data from schools, providing clients the tools to understand and quickly improve student learning outcomes.

In an industry overwhelmed by DRIP syndrome (data rich, information poor), BrightBytes goes to great lengths to provide educators across school, district, and state levels, with personalized and research-driven insights, resources, and support material at each data point. Educators not only see the data in an educative and engaging format, but they also know what actions to take to address any gaps or challenges within their personalized results.

14 November / 2016

Rob Mancabelli: A Veteran Educator Rob Mancabelli, the Brightbytes Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, is an educator with over fifteen years of experience in schools. Rob is an internationally known speaker, writer, and consultant on educational innovation.

He’s the co-author of the book Personal Learning Networks (2011), sits on the advisory board of Education Week magazine and has an MBA from MIT. The Seven Modules Mancabelli, a veteran educator himself, aspired to address different challenges educators face with each unique module available on the Clarity platform.

He explains, the first module, Technology & Learning measures the impact of school technology on student learning. It works to narrow the new digital divide and provide fast actionable solutions for more impactful implementation and improved fund allocation.

The Digital Privacy, Safety & Security module, created in partnership with iKeepSafe,™ gives districts the capability to strike the right balance between achieving technology goals and fulfilling privacy and security responsibilities.

The Early Warning and Intervention modules, formed through a partnership with Mazin Education,™ uses predictive analytics to identify at-risk students early based on student-and building-specific triggers. The dropout prevention system identifies students at risk of dropping out as early as first grade, with 90% accuracy. After identification, the modules help connect students with the right support systems, and monitors the success of students

The

10

Fastest Growing

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

Rob Mancabelli Co Founder & Chief Strategy Officer

“

Every one of us in education must begin to think deeply

in a hyper-connected classroom

where we can do anything,

at anytime, anywhere, and most importantly, with anyone

“

about how pedagogy changes

within those programs.

Leadership, the fifth module on the Clarity platform, was built in partnership with McREL International. This module helps district leaders understand which initiatives have the greatest impact on the learning process, and whether school leaders are adequately empowered to drive those initiatives.

The 21st Century Service Agency module informs service agencies where they stand in terms of technology readiness, and delivers personalized recommendations for improvement.

Finally, the Financial Transparency module makes it easy for the public to understand revenues and expenditures by organizing and comparing spending throughout schools across the state. Community members can use this knowledge to have informed conversations and ignite change.

Providing Research and Action Plans Many companies offer dashboards of educational data, but those products fail to transform that information into

decisions. The BrightBytes platform provides educators with research frameworks that select only the data linked to improved student outcomes. It then identifies strengths and gaps in those frameworks, and offers insights into how to improve, using specific examples from real schools. This combination of research and action plans set the platform apart from every other offering.

The complex predictive-analytics platform and its researchbased content are the product of the combined efforts of the BrightBytes Labs, the research engine behind Clarity, and the BrightBytes team. Together, mission-driven school practitioners, designers, engineers, and visualization experts join forces with statisticians, analysts, researchers, and thought leaders from top institutes to power and inform the seven modules of Clarity.

BrightBytes plans to continue their process of creating products that address issues that arise in the K-12 educational sector. The organization is set to expand their product lines and sales teams, across the US and internationally. www.brightbytes.net

November / 2016

15

Vision

PRIVATIZATION

EDUCATION

in

T

he foremost task in the existing scenario is to impart better and quality education. Children are the nation builder of future and to carve them as splendid native we need to provide them with genuine education so that they can become pillar of the nation’s growth and make it richer in wider aspect. These ideas were typically regarded as ruffle, but have gradually moved to center stage, cluthched by liberals and conservatives alike.

Privatisation can be a boon to the changing times of development as it has increased the opportunities by increasing the number of admissions in all the levels of education. Due to the freehold, level of quality increased at a rapid rate to a greater extent. This process has created several opportunities and challenges to the educational institutions; the process of globalisation has invigorated foreign universities and universities of repute to explore the feasibility of establishing their branches in US. Privatisation is beneficial as it improves the quality imparted whereby decreasing the political interference, eventually proliferating the competition.

Why Privatization in Education?

There are basically two discrete motives. Many believe that competition, emblematic of the private sector, is the best guarantee for the best outcomes. Competition impels participants to ratify the most efficient means and maximizes motivation by threatening extinction if a company does not excel.

Privatisation is considered as a mean to fill the gaps in education. Education and schooling both are changing very fast and also considerably by the impact of information technology-computers, Internet and multimedia. Now-a-days, gradually, school is becoming less and less important, because pupils can learn through computers and Internet at home itself. This is creating an atmosphere of ‘classroom without walls’.

The best universities like MIT and BOSTON are private, US has progressed well and the well share goes to these private universities and institutions. Many important and useful, innovations and inventions have taken place here.

The human edification would haven’t been so progressed and advanced if there didn't had existence of private insitutions in the world “Privatization” on being a useful tool!

Studies have stipulated that private schools have a major influence on academic development and overall character building

16 November / 2016

Vision

of children. Their results help us to understand just why schools tend to maintain inequalities and elite reproduction.

These schools also deliver exceptional learning ambience in terms of school organization, material resources, buildings, furniture, and well-equipped laboratories with modern scientific instruments like TV, Internet, parks, etc. All these factors motivate students for good performance.

The quality of teacher-pupil interaction, better teaching, an atmosphere of cooperation and healthy competition both, caring between teacher and students, and wellorganized course preparation of private schools are the influential factors that determine the better performance of the students.

They keep pushing ahead their academic expedition and visions regardless of the political party that comes to power. The vice-chancellor of public school is not appointed by the Government but by the university board. With a humanistic aim, they admit commendable students from anywhere in the world. They bring about a cultural exchange between the nations and elevate the human civilization and legacy. Most of the private universities are reported to be making more productive utilisation of resources. They get donations so much so that, every year they start new research projects and new courses.

Nearly 50 per cent of the University’s budget is met with benefactions and the remaining out of student fee.

The fee prescribed by private universities in the U.S. is much higher.

It is because they perpetuate a high calibre of laboratories, library and education. They do not get financial aid

from the Government. Additionally, privatization also eliminates the problem of corruption from the root level, reducing the taxation and increasing the job scopes.

Privatization of the primary and secondary educational systems can help ameliorate the situation by improving the quality of education while reducing the cost. Additionally, privatization also eliminates the problem of corruption for the root level, reducing the taxation and increasing the job scopes.

Scouting more on Privatisation The expansion of the horizons of knowledge is taking place at a rapid pace all over the world; the underdeveloped economies must keep pace with this blast of knowledge.

Emphasizing this point the World Bank has stated: “Today knowledge explosion is dividing the world into fast moving, rich economies that use knowledge effectively and slow moving, poor economies that do not.

Education or knowledge industry is becoming a key factor in the process of development.”

This being so, education is no longer viewed as a community service, it is considered a necessary economic input and as such investment in education is treated as a factor contributory to human resources development.

In this endeavour towards human resource development, the private sector is also expected to play its impactful part since it is a paramount beneficiary of the knowledge industry.

According to W.W. Rostow, the world is passing through the fourth Industrial Revolution (1985). This encompasses genetics, communications, robots,

lasers and new industrial material and the various tools and products incorporating the micro chip.

The magnification of Satellite TV and the developments in computer technology have additionally escalated the information revolution. These technological developments have increased the requirements of highly educated and well-trained technical manpower.

The public sector is hindered by paucity of reservoir and cannot meet the needs of industry and other sectors of the economy. Therefore, the private sector must be commenced in the programmes of training proficient manpower to take advantage of hi-tech opportunities.

Privatization can respond more promptly and efficiently than the public sector which is crippling with structural and operational obstinacy to market signals or market demand for labour and take effective steps to promote human resource development to keep pace with the emerging requirements.

Privatization, by imposing the full cost or a substantial portion of the cost and at times, by charging cost-plus pricing for the service provided is likely to generate greater culpability among the recipients of education i.e., the students.

Thus, privatization of the country’s education system, coupled with a welltailored system, can help improve the quality of education imparted on children, creating people capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating the older generations-being more creative, inventive and discoverers by reducing the costs for parents.

November / 2016

17

l

CXO Standpoint

Nove

Techno ogies that Simp ify

Enterprise Systems

T

he three big technologies impacting the enterprise in the near future are mobile, social, and cloud. These have all, of course, been around for a few years, but they are finally reaching the maturity required for enterprise robustness and scale.

In the mobile space, the community has standardized on iOS and Android (much to the chagrin of early leader Blackberry/RIM). More companies are comfortable with Bring-Your-OwnDevice policies or have an enterprise wrapper such as Good to harmonize security policy. A decade ago, we entered into the world where you were expected to be able to answer a work call or email at any time, because you had a cell phone. Now, mobile access to systems and data is going to push us towards a norm of 24-7 “complete responses.” No more one-line “I will look that up in the morning” responses from a phone. Instead, we will be able to access enterprise systems seamlessly regardless of platform or form-factor. Development platforms that enable simultaneous construction of mobile and web/desktop interfaces will also become

18 November / 2016

CXO Standpoint

the norm, as no application should be limited to a single client device type. Today’s users, frequently use tablets in the field as opposed to the old-world pattern of the user as an assembly-line worker chained to a desktop. A mobile user can much more effectively interact with the customers, suppliers, other workers, assets, and other entities that business systems are all about. Real-time interaction generally results in better data and faster visibility throughout the organization, both core components of Return on Investment. With the rise of larger phones, tablets, and the HTML5 standard, using the web version of an application from a mobile device has become an acceptable alternative to building a specific, native mobile version, but doing so generally compromises usability.

On the social front, citizens of the Millennial and X generations have become accustomed to their personal software supporting feed-based interaction.

Every object supports commenting, tagging, filtering, etc. Images, video, and text are all intermingled seamlessly. A user can follow hundreds of contacts by exerting only a few minutes a day of scrolling through updates, and mobile technology makes it easy to take these few minutes whenever downtime emerges. Enterprise systems are still fairly locked into the old paradigm of forms, reports, using email for less structured communication. As these systems are refactored to use a social interface, users will get the same interaction their personal software has led them to expect. A sales executive can follow updates to a pipeline, events for when a demo was performed, and collaboration points with the contracts team the way he or she would follow streams of social

Austin Rosenfeld CEO, Macedon Technologies

November / 2016

19

CXO Standpoint

events. It can even be done while walking through an airport. The social posts made by both system and human actors become part of the audit trail of the records they are associated with, minimizing the dreaded searching of emails that often becomes a poor substitute for this functionality.

based systems, including integrations with systems maintained by partners, suppliers, and even customers.

Enterprise technology vendors are simplifying deployment, maintenance, and procurement with a range of PaaS and SaaS offerings, simplifying the adoption of cloud technology.

Finally, the cloud has reached a level of security and maturity that is acceptable to the vast majority of businesses, crossing the chasm from “bleeding-edge advantage” to “expected infrastructure.” Certifications give businesses comfort that data will be secured and backed up.

The price point has continued to fall, to the point where hosting servers in a private data center is no longer competitive with the economies of scale of the cloud.

Budgets can easily be set to gear more towards the operating expense model of cloud offerings as a service than the cap-ex model of building and hosting in a proprietary data center. Customers expect the ease of use and uptime of cloud-based systems. Additionally, since few enterprise systems exist in vacuum, modern standards greatly facilitate integration among an organization’s cloud-

Macedon Technologies is an Appian reseller and services partner. We build all of our systems around mobile, social, and cloud architecture. Whether the paradigm is workflow automation, case management, integration with end-user visibility, document management and routing, or just a general-purpose enterprise system, we use these maturing technologies as the foundations of 21stcentury enterprise systems.

20 November / 2016

Business Spotlight

nro men

anagemen Syste s: contacted an advisor and all such actions which ultimately leads to establishing a solid client is the ultimate goal of conversion marketing. Enrollment management plan is successful with a higher conversion rate. This also helps to monitor the performance and hence ensures that wasteful spending can be eliminated, resources are maximized and finally a roadmap can be drafted for maximum enrollment.

Building the company’s Persona to target the most actionable Students Similar to buyer personas in conventional business terms, many of the educational institutes today are pursuing “student personas” that targets their most valuable and sought after audience segments. A tailor-made student persona enhances the strategy for student recruitment and ongoing engagement. It should be based on real evidence without emphasizing on non-relevant characteristics.

C

onverting qualified prospective students into enrolled students is what conversion marketing is all about. Every tool, resource and communication in the enrollment arsenal needs to be optimized for conversion.

Even before any new channels of investment can be added to the mix, education institutes and solution providers are stressing more on the present channels of engagement such as a website, social media, content or data. They have to make sure that each of these tools are working hard for a higher conversion rate.

In enrollment management, a conversion can be the number of prospects who filled out an inquiry form, completed an application, attended an orientation event, clicked on an email, or

22 November / 2016

In order to present an authentic and actionable persona, the Education Solution Providers need to address all the elements that comprise personas. It will reveal the student buyers in the context of the decision the Education solution Provider companies want to influence, while eliminating irrelevant data and reducing the number of student buyer personas. For this the companies need to define motivations and goals, identify pain points or perceived roadblocks, isolate search behaviors or key steps in their decisionmaking journey, clarify background information such as age, location, current level of education, professional status, parental status, financial situation, etc. and identify important influencers.

The insights that are gathered through direct student surveys can give the Education Solution Providers the information about who needs to be persuaded within the student’s community, what information are required by

Business Spotlight

them to make an enrollment decision, when are they most receptive towards any forwarded message, where to reach them, how to create a persuasive argument for purchasing any solution and how it fares when compared against peers.

Care should be taken to avoid going overboard with a flood of personas. It is not necessary to represent every single group or segment of the student population, hence aligning with the specific goals of the student enrollment strategy. The research and development of any company’s persona has to be periodically evaluated as per the changing campaign, while also being vigilant about unhelpful assumptions and misguided conclusions.

Digital Marketing for an accelerated enrollment strategy In today’s Digital World, everyone turns up to the internet for answers to their questions. So, the website of any Education Solution Provider has to behave as a front door to prospective clients. It should be able to inform them about the cost, about the duration and also the probable perspectives of the course in the real world i.e. the availability of careers.

Another factor to be well noted is penetration into the world of mobility. With smartphones gradually increasing their customer base, building a website, mobile friendly seems to be a viable option.

Keeping the competition in mind, special care should be taken about the user interfaces, accessibility, navigation, load times, cross-browser and cross-OS compatibility.

With the increasing accessibility to mobile internet, social media has also found an increasing number of users across the world. It showcases the brand, personality and unique content to the prospective students.

Video Content and Social Media: Key to Creative Marketing Strategy There are many schools that consistently rely on Facebook and YouTube to share updates about activities, programs and events. It drives conversations, which leads to various actions and it is the job of the SEO analyst and the in-house developers to make sure that it turns into a positive conversion. Special care should be taken to attract and retain as many followers on the social media.

This can be done by constantly nurturing the followers with rich information about the programs offered, about the faculties and the current client’s experience.

In today’s age of networking, SMOs (Social Media Optimizer) play a vital link between the company and its clients. They have to make sure to keep themselves competent with many of the social performance-tracking tools that are currently there and are going to be available. Some of the tools that are already available today are Hoot Suite, Bit.ly, Google Analytics and Google Trends. However for all this to work together in consensus, key performance indicators have to be set for social media objectives.

Many of the Education Solution Providers stress a lot on the video content. The fastest mode of dispensation of information is video. The title, description and thumbnail are the most important ranking factors for video in a search result. Each video should have its own unique page, which gives it a unique URL to share on social media. It also acts as an added advantage for onsite links and for email marketing campaigns. It can also aid in creating a video site map and allow Google to index the URL as a video page. It is essential that the videos are optimized as per the social media platforms in order to generate more student enquiries from video content.

Some of the key metrics that need to be considered for converting applications to admits are, Click to Lead, Lead to Application, Application to Admit and Admit to enroll. Identifying a problem is essential as it helps to troubleshoot them proactively and efficiently.

With these methods, any of the marketing and enrollment efforts would be more effective and efficient.

November / 2016

23

dominKnow: Connecting the Thoughts T he problems we see in the education space today are the same ones we’ve been witnessing for the past 20 years – limited development resources, poor use of existing content, compromised learner access, and an inability to gain insight into a student’s interaction with learning material. dominKnow Learning Systems is one of the very few organizations that focuses hard on all these areas.

Providing an integrated suite of tools and processes that support collaborative content creation, dominKnow allows educators to easily create, share, and re-use content across any number of projects - for use inclass, on-line, or as student reference material. Teachers can fully leverage the effort they (and their colleagues) have put into creating learning material, students can access it in multiple ways depending on the time of need, and everyone can gain insight into what content is being accessed and how. dominKnow: Content Authoring and Publishing for Teams dominKnow Learning Systems is a content authoring and publishing solutions provider that believes you shouldn’t just build learning content and forget about it. They feel strongly

24 November / 2016

that it’s all about creating and sharing great learning experiences - and then maximizing that content’s use and value in as many ways possible.

They know that a lot of material developed in the educational space is stuck in inflexible pages, trapped in traditional formal learning vehicles like eLearning courses or classroom presentations. As a result, learning content (and the time and effort that goes into creating it) is often poorly leveraged.

Their cloud-based content authoring and publishing platform allows educators to collaboratively gather, design, create, share, reuse, deliver and measure content that can be used to help students at multiple times of need -from formal through to just-in-time learning.

Luke Hickey: Passionate about Technology Luke Hickey, CEO, dominKnow has almost two decades of experience in the Software and Information Technology industry. Luke asserts, “we are a learning company that builds software and training solutions, as opposed to a software company that builds products to develop learning content.”

Luke shares that dominKnow’s strengths are built upon their

experience - both as continuous learners and as educational content creators. Their passion as learners means their instructional and system design philosophies place the student at the center of the learning experience, while their long history as content developers has taught them the “power of many”, and how to best leverage collaboration, sharing, and content reuse in the learning content design process.

Leveraging Technology There’s been a rush for authoring tool vendors to get on the responsive content bandwagon. That’s great news for those wanting to develop material that can be accessed on multiple devices and used in multiple ways, but Luke and his team know that all responsive tools are not created equal.

Most authoring tool vendors enforce a dumbed-down approach to learning content development. Templates, fillin-the-blank, or block-based tools help get stuff out the door and meet the responsive check-box, but they often don’t satisfy the learning need.

Luke and his team’s approach is to allow for all the same powerful, rich content development they are known for, while providing an intelligent content authoring framework with dynamic themes and components that

Fastest Growing

The

10

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

Luke Hickey CEO

“

Whether you need to make fully-responsive content,

“

a fixed-layout eLearning course,

or a software simulation,

it's easy to get started in the dominKnow Platform

take care of the underlying details. This “true responsive” methodology allows educators to build rich learning experiences without worrying about specific devices or multiple versions of the same content.

Supporting xAPI Standard Luke believes that from a measurement point of view, the emergence of xAPI is a very exciting development for the educational space. xAPI is an open specification for learning technology that makes it possible to collect data about the wide range of learning experiences a student has - both in and outside the classroom. This studentcentric approach to learning analytics will be increasingly important as forward thinking teachers continue to deploy varied learning strategies (online, classroom, apps, chatrooms, etc.). “With xAPI integration, teachers, students, and parents will be able to access metrics related to content access

and interaction that will allow them to measure and assess its effectiveness,” Luke asserts.

Latest version of the dominKnow Platform dominKnow has recently launched their latest version of the dominKnow Platform - with major advances in single-source, multi-use content authoring and the ability to measure content interactions using xAPI. They have focused on new enhancements, however, they didn’t lose sight of the importance of a powerful but simplified authoring experience.

Towards that end, this latest release of the dominKnow Platform continues to flesh out their robust offering of rich templates, stock images and characters, responsive pre-made components, buttons and gauges, built-in actions, and a large integrated asset library that educators can add to and share as they develop their own learning

experiences.

The history (and current state) of learning technologies is full of horror stories about costly investments in proprietary technologies that lock up content and make it unusable beyond its initial purpose. Since its inception, dominKnow has focused on industry standards. They encourage educational institutions to eschew propriety technologies and look for vendor neutral, standards-based platforms. In the end they will own their content and be able to re-use and re-purpose it freely - both today and tomorrow.

November / 2016

25

Kornukopia:

n

Tying Education Content into the Process of Education

I

n today’s world, millions of schools need access to education content and education systems.

With this in mind, the demand for software and all types of education content has grown significantly. Until recently, neither the schools nor the providers/publishers had a common way to leverage and provide software and education content. Many of the existing or legacy systems that schools use every day are outdated, and difficult to navigate, as well as they further isolate the education process from education content.

The issue is tackled by Kornukopia, a company that provides an education management system as well as an education software/content distribution network. Kornukopia’s eye-catching graphics, features, integration, and simplicity to implement make it a unique and logical choice for educators. Kornukopia was founded with a goal of providing the premier educational content and education systems to schools and has emerged as one of the fastest growing education solution providers.

Kornukopia: Improving the World of Education by linking education content with process and communications.

First things first: Kornukopia is a free, hosted learning management system.

Korukopia provides students, teachers,

26 November / 2016

parents, and all educators a common working platform to manage grades, assignments, calendars, to-dos, groups and courses. Kornukopia provides a user-friendly learning management system, student information system, learning content management system, calendaring system, discipline system, and a complete student and parent communication infrastructure.

Currently, Kornukopia competes with many different Edtech solution providers in different categories like LMS, LCMS, SIS and Education Communication Providers. Kornukopia differentiates the services in three ways. Foremost, Kornukopia provides a modern, device-neutral environment that is easy to implement. Secondly, Kornukopia provides a truely integrated Education Management System that combines multiple features and modules that schools rely on to provide the same solution. And finally - but most importantly - Kornukopia has larger aspirations and a different vision than its competition; Kornukopia is looking to re-write the way schools can leverage education content and education software.

John Shine: Improving the World of Education, One School at a Time.

John Shine, Founder and CEO of Kornukopia, saw a need for a paradigm shift from the existing legacy

student information systems and learning management systems, which were created in the late 80’s. The existing systems encountered by most parents, students, educators, and administrators are archaic and difficult to navigate at best. As a parent himself, Shine found himself in the midst of marketplace where a lack of strong tools and the inability of any provider to attain significant market share made him realize the immediate need for a reasonable content distribution network for education that integrated into a system-wide learning process.

Shine began researching education systems around the world and realized how most education systems were built: with limited system approaches that could not have even considered the next generation of education content and education methods. He also knew he would have the same issues that all the other providers have had penetrating a vast school marketplace with millions of new education providers.

As a result, he created Kornukopia, a free LMS, LCMS and SIS, giving away his product, and introducing Kornukopia to schools all over the world. He knew that while his education management system was superior to many of the other players that his real goal was to reinvent the way education content was provided.

Fastest Growing

The

10

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

John Shine Founder and CEO

“

If our growth is a measure of success and acceptance

“

in a new way to manage

education, then we are all succeeding in a big way

Initially, an average of 5-10 schools tried Kornukopia a day. Eventually the demand became so strong in the first year that he released Kornukopia in 13 different languages worldwide.

Growing and Adapting with Technology Advancements Kornukopia is growing faster than ever. Many schools have already introduced Kornukopia to their teachers, students and parents and are using it at significant scale. On average, Kornukopia users engage for over 7 minutes per session.

Kornukopia users rely on the company’s system for many significant pieces of their day. Founder John Shine predicts that as users become more familiar with Kornukopia, the system will become an increasingly integral part of their day.

Shine is working on a platform to develop Kornukopia in two different ways. One way is to introduce additional modules to the existing service, like the school fee management module and a volunteer management module. The second is to

continue creating paradigm shifts in the field of educational content.

“Freight Train” is the anticipated next generation of Kornukopia. Freight Train is expected to unleash an amazing assessment module, and a state of the art education content publishing tool that will provide teachers and publishers with a very inexpensive way to create education content and integrate it into a learning process.

Simplifying The Existing Education System “I would recommend that Edtech professionals maintain an open mind.

Edtech professionals need to be aware of standards and advancements of course, but the real question is are those standards which are often times work- arounds for old tech really applicable to their schools specific needs and to current new world systems.

new innovators that will provide solutions that have yet to even be envisioned,” suggested Shine to other education providers and education solution and content providers.

“We believe that teachers are the next rock stars in the global education environment, not only when they touch students’ lives, but when they are able to create and publish education content to the students and schools across the globe inside Kornukopia,” replied Shine when asked about the teacher’s role in current education system.

The goal of Kornukopia is not just to benefit students, teachers, parents or administrators, but to create an environment where all members of the education community can work, learn, organize, communicate and grow as a team.

In this marketplace, paradigms are going to shift quickly, leaving traditional solutions and work-around standards in the dust and establishing November / 2016

27

Editorial’s Desk

What Will

Dene the Face of

EDUCATION?

T

he gusty winds of education due to insufficient funding, advancing technology, and the need of tough jobs in the last few years has been a thing to think for many thinkers and experts. The economic health and capacity to innovate largely depends on the improvement in education. While the “how to” improve is still unfolding. But there are some trends that are aiming to change the face of education in the coming years.

Rethinking How School Works: Need for Change in the Traditional Way There is a concentrated effort to reinvent the traditional classroom pattern and rearrange the entire school experience. A trend that is being driven by the impact of

28 November / 2016

innovative learning approaches. Project and challenge based learning methods are removing the limitations of the traditional bell schedule for schools that allow students to move from one learning activity to another more easily. The integrative nature of these traditional approaches has popularized the innovative application of technology and encouraged innovative designs of school models that connect each class and subject matter to one another. Also, as learning becoming more student-centered and fluid, some administrators and teachers have started to believe that schedules should be more flexible to allow opportunities for authentic learning. To change the traditional way of learning that takes place in classrooms is becoming more agile and open to trying new approaches.

Editorial’s Desk

Deeper Learning Approaches: Coping up with Advanced Technology There has been a long-term prominence in the classroom on deeper learning approaches that delivers rich core content to students in innovative ways, which allow them to learn and then apply what they have learned.

Problem-based learning and similar methods encourage more active learning experiences. As technologies such as smartphones and tablets are more willingly accepted in schools, educators are using these tools to connect the syllabus with the real life applications. With the advanced examples of this trend, students are able to create solutions to press local and global problems and begin to execute them in their communities.

Collaborative Learning Approaches: Group Learning is the Solution Collaborative learning, which refers to students or teachers working together in group activities or peer-to-peer, is based on the view which says learning is a social construct. It involves activities that generally focused on four main things, putting the learner at the center, highlighting interaction, working in groups, and developing answers to real world problems.

Collaborative learning models are successful, especially for shy students in improving engagement and achievement. Teachers also get benefits through peer groups as they engage in professional development and teaching opportunities. An increasing focus on online global collaboration around the world to support curricular objectives and intercultural understanding is an

added dimension to this trend.

Consumers to Creators: Transforming Theory into Reality A switch is taking place in schools all over the world as students are learning the subject matter through the act of creation rather than the consumption of content. A wide number digital tools are available to help this transformation. Indeed, a whole new level of comfort is growing due to the accessibility of mobile technologies.

Many educators believe that sharpening these skills in students can lead to engaging learning experiences in which students become the authorities on subjects through storytelling, investigation, and production. Game making and development that nurtures learners as inventors and entrepreneurs are other components of this trend. Intellectual property issues will become a key component as learners will be active producers and publishers of the educational resources.

Blended Learning: Combination of Online and Offline Learning is the Key Blending learning models are giving favorable experience to students all over the world. Online learning has been the most active model for students in recent years. Hybrid learning which is a combination of best practices from online and offline learning is on the rise. Well funded institutes are solidifying this trend all over the world. Blending and hybrid model embracing schools are finding online method is different but at the same time complementary functions to

physical institutions. Students can achieve mastery of content that too with online learning when designed and implemented correctly. On the other hand, teachers can focus on small groups less strong students who need support. This trend will continue to grow towards integrated online learning due to progress in adaptive learning, learning analytics and combination of cutting edge digital platforms.

STEAM Learning: The Necessity of Art in Prime Education The movement from STEM to STEAM learning has been taking root over the past few years and is moving forward on a positive note to truly meet the needs of the 21st century. Several key components were missed in STEM learning for many educators, parents, and employers. Thus, the need for STEAM learning has been essential for the education. STEAM is an educational method that mainly uses Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics as main points for guiding student dialogue, inquiry, and critical thinking. The end results learners who take thoughtful risks, persist in problem-solving, work through the creative process, embrace collaboration, and engage in experimental learning. The innovators, leaders, and educators are in the making through STEAM learning.

Education is the key to future, and making it advanced will only help mankind in reaching a brighter tomorrow.

November / 2016

29

CXO Standpoint

Emerging Technologies from Microsoft: Remove The Limits on Your Business emaining on top of technology trends is a critical concern for entrepreneurs and professionals. Skill sets come and work at a breakneck tempo, and it’s important to remain in front of the curve in an effort to predict the next hot spots of technology to keep ourselves relevant in our always-shifting universe.

IoT is about devices that are connected to the internet to perform the processes and services that support our basic needs, economics, health and environment. Cloud computing acts as a front end to access IoTs. Cloud computing has now been a more popular service that arrives with more characteristics and advantages. In reality, cloud computing is based on users who perform the computer tasks using services delivered entirely through the Internet.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization to achieve more. For businesses today, It is believed that the Internet of Things (IoT) represents not only the next major wave of computing, but also the next competitive advantage. Harnessing signals and untapped data from existing and new devices unlocks powerful insights.

Explore The Possibilities of Microsoft Cloud Platform IT today is under more pressure than ever before to deliver resources faster, support new business initiatives, and maintain pace with the challenger. To handle these demands, commercial enterprises need a pliant and resilient

30 November / 2016

infrastructure that is easy to handle and easy to scale.

With Windows Server, Microsoft System Center, and Microsoft Azure, you can transform the datacenter. You can get advantage of innovation across the datacenter and the cloud to simplify your infrastructure and rapid delivery of services to the business. Enterprise-class virtualization and unified management give you a foundation in your data center, while hybrid options provide you admission to the boundless capacity of the swarm. Hold open your business competitive with the Microsoft cloud platform.

Microsoft Data Warehousing and Big Data The traditional data warehouse is under pressure from the growing weight of increasing volumes of data, the expansive variety of data types, and the real-time processing velocity of how information is being used to develop and operate the line. Data warehousing has made the most important tipping point since its origin. The biggest, possibly most elaborate information management system in IT is shifting.

The traditional data warehouse was designed specifically to be a central repository for all data in a troupe. Disparate data from transactional systems, ERP, CRM, and LOB applications could be cleansed-that is, extracted, transformed, and loaded (ETL) —into the warehouse inside an overall relational schema. The predictable data structure and quality optimized processing and reporting.

Nevertheless, preparing queries was largely IT-supported and based on schedule batch processing.

CXO Standpoint

Kris Nanda, President, V.L.S Systems Inc.

The Microsoft data warehouse is built on symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) technology. With SMP, adding more capacity involved more powerful hardware and then fork lifting the prior data warehouse into it. This was necessary because as the warehouse approached capacity, its architecture experienced performance issues along with a scale where there was no room to add incremental processor power or enable synchronization of the cache between processors.

Nevertheless, data volume is expanding tenfold every five years. A lot of this new information is driven by devices from the more than 1.2 billion people who are linked to the Internet worldwide, with an average of 4.3 connected devices per person. Devices including smart phone also offer documentation for remote monitoring sensors, RFID, location-based data, transactions and more.

Microsoft Upgrades a New Standard for Wearable’s Only lately, Microsoft filed a patent for a wearable smart bracelet, but it’s unlikely the patent was lodged for this updated device. In the patent, the company explains the device is comprised of “interactive smart beads” attached to a connecting element, and spreads out the possibility for interaction with toys-to-life franchises. Microsoft Band offers an impressive set of characteristics, including built-in GPS, call-screening, the ability to scan incoming e-mails and texts, a fully-synced calendar, a heart rate monitor, and more. But the key to getting the most of Microsoft Band is Microsoft, Health, an ambitious and superbly organized wellness app, which provides a full selection of wellness and fitness tools.

The Microsoft Band has been designed to function with all smart phones. Whether you’re a disciple of the Windows

November / 2016

31

CXO Standpoint

Phone or not, the Band will sync with Android and IOS devices as well, then no need to worry if you’re not a Microsoft dedicated. Tracking your heart rate, your steps taken, your calories burned and sleep patterns, the Microsoft Band tracks your daily physical activity and allows you to go over your stats with a bare glimpse at your wrist.

With a GPS Run Mapping system, you can map all of the paths that you’ve run, cycled or hiked and save your most challenging or your preferred roads. Including email previews, calendar alerts, incoming call notifications and text messages, the tracker carry a 48 hour battery.

Microsoft: 2016 Will Be the Year Of AI Microsoft is applying artificial intelligence to create detailed maps illustrating population density and the access to the internet across the world.

This should help Microsoft bring internet to parts of the globe that are without access. Microsoft has analyzed 20 countries and 21.6 million square kilometers amounting to 350TB of data.

Microsoft is also reported to be creating deep learning AI which aims to recover out what matters to Microsoft users. Microsoft is definitely not new to the AI game. In 2010, it introduced facial recognition technology that could distinguish people in photos, and in 2013, Microsoft dedicated a lab to AI research and also recruited deep learning experts to set up the AI headquarters. Microsoft says its design for AI is to personalize what matters to each user, populating timelines with things they genuinely care about rather

32 November / 2016

than people and places they'd opt not to look.

Microsoft has determined to leverage Artificial Intelligence in order to enable better offline translation for the Translator app to be changing the way we communicate with the machines and also the way machines learn from our slipway. Corona has been a fine piece of example when it comes to artificial intelligence, making things more comfortable for us and now Microsoft has leveraged the technology to bring about some worthwhile improvements in the Translator App. The best piece of the new AI inclusion is the very fact that it will bring in a much more potent and reliable offline translation, the caliber of which can be compared with the online translation.

The new AI feature will be the world’s first Deep Neural Network powered offline engine for Android. All you need to do is download language packs and get near online quality of interpretation.

A Microsoft Perspective: To Be Successful, Organizations Must Be Strategically Aware Today’s organizations have to deal with dynamic and uncertain environments. In edict to be successful, organizations must be strategically aware. They must see how alterations in their competitive environments are opening. They should actively look for chances to exploit their strategic abilities, adapt and seek improvements in every area of the business, building on awareness and understanding of current strategies and successes.

Directors who made long-range plans generally assumed that better times put down in front. Future plans were

simply extensions of where the organization had been in the yesteryear. But a bit of environmental shocks undermined this approach to strategic planning: rapid technological developments, the maturing or stagnation of certain grocery stores, increased international competition.

By now, you will see that Microsoft was making a rather unique resource.

Its approach to software “componentization” allowed the firm to leverage intellectual property across multiple product lines. And it likewise made it attractive for third-party firms to leverage Microsoft’s platform, equally opposed to others.

But how did this allow the firm to react effectively to technical change?

Foremost, it received an established foundation of knowledge that could be brought to bear on new emerging opportunities. Second, it possessed a well-defined process through which new intellectual property could be codified and integrated into this knowledge base in a manner that ensured compatibility with its living elements. And third, its established processes evolve this knowledge home to ensure it reflected changes in the broader technological context.

All in all, Microsoft believes that the pursuit of an effective entrepreneurial strategy is mainly through information.

Keying out the competitive advantages has to be represented through the aggregation and analysis of data from existing experiences.

Industry Outlook

ipped earning: A Technological Advancement That Takes Learning at Ease

T

echnology is a boon and it’s proving it again and again in various aspects of human lives. However, one can still debate on if is it a curse or a boon, but it will be wrong not to appreciate the technology advancements.

Technology advancements are changing the way business was taking place and will be doing the same in the coming years.

While technology is driving a revolution in every ďŹ eld, how education would lag behind? Yes, education combined with technology is a not a surprising thing anymore, as students are already using it anyway. Flipped learning is one of the focal advancement, technology has given to the students as well as educators.

34

November / 2016

Industry Outlook What is the need?

In a conventional system, students generally try to capture what is being said at the instant speaker says it. However, they face difficulty in getting all the information, as they cannot stop the speaker to reflect upon what is being said.

Contrary to traditional learning, flipped learning allows students to control the lecture: they can watch, rewind, and fast-forward as needed. This ability allows students to get information at ease.

What is it?

The days are gone when students used to attend every lecture being present physically. The modern era demands everything at a click away and that's where Flipped learning makes an impact. Short video lectures, viewed by students at home or somewhere else, before the class session, making them devoted to exercises, discussions or projects in classtime. Flipped approach is mainly based on video lectures created by the instructor or posted online. A podcast can be a good example of Flipped approach, where information is at ease and one can get it anytime, anywhere. Active learning, student engagement, course podcasting, and hybrid course design can be achieved through Flipped classrooms.

How does it work?

There is no certain model for the flipped classroom that could constrain diversity of the concept to the limited use. The term can be used to describe any class structure that provides prerecorded lectures followed by in-class exercise. In one model, students get lectures of five to seven minutes, while in-class they can solve online quizzes on the topic they have learned or also certain activities can be performed in-class to know what they have learned, which can help clarify points of confusion. Instructors also might lead in class discussions or transform the classroom into a studio where students can collaborate, create and put into practice what they have learned.

The future of education paints success for those advancements which aim to transform the traditional system into something better, wider and easier.

November / 2016

35

CXO Standpoint

The Real-Time World-Wide Learning through the Internet

T

he story of the Internet started in the 1950s with the development of electronic computers. The first message was sent over the internet from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinroc’s laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).

Vast researches and inventions made today’s most sophisticated internet platform that we are using. Within a fraction of a second, we can inter-act with anyone present in any part of the world. This opens the door for high-end communication and education.

Pre-Internet Education Prior to the Internet age, students wrote with pen and paper, send it by post, waited for weeks to hear back from their friends around the world; Students have been connecting with pen pals to learn about other countries and cultures; many have even traveled to meet in person after decades of correspondence; Students fully depend on hard copies of the book and their school teachers; unlike today. Today’s extreme architecture of Internet not only overcomes the communication issue but also opens the tremendous opportunity of learning for the students.

Online Learning Opportunities One might think that fast and easy communication through the Internet would have made pen pal exchanges even more popular- but in fact, the opposite has happened. Online communication through letters, have fallen out of fashion across the United States. Why? Teachers now face intense pressure to use every minute of classroom time to prepare students for standardized tests that have implications for their school’s reputation and funding. This heightened focus on testing leaves little time for activities such as pen pal exchanges that don’t focus on the skills that will be tested at the end of the year.

This decreased the popularity of pen pals couldn’t come at a worse time. Due to the rapidly expanding network of cultural and economic ties between nations, students are graduating into an increasingly international workplace.

Whether students pursue careers in technology,

36 November / 2016

manufacturing, professional services or almost any other industry, they will be working side-by-side and online with colleagues from China, India, Mexico and dozens of other countries. In an age when employers are increasingly setting their sights overseas, we can’t afford for our schools to shut themselves off from the world for the sake of better scores on a test.

Obstacles in Language Learning While students in other countries may not suffer from the same focus on standardized testing, they face another challenge that is even more urgent: learning English. For students around the world, the ability to understand, write and speak English can often mean the difference between a life of poverty and an opportunity to build a career. More than 80 percent of the information stored electronically around the world is in English. Schools, governments, businesses and nonprofits have invested heavily in English instruction, but despite these efforts many schools are still challenged to find qualified teachers. Even in wealthier schools, many students struggle to learn English without every-one having the opportunity to interact with a native English speaker.

Real Life Awareness and Consideration There must be literacy and cultural awareness within the learning youth of all around the world. Students further aware of the issues like, environmental sustainability, gender equality, human rights and other subjects in addition to world religions, international trade and politics, literature, cooking, athletics and many other subjects.

Voluntarily teachers are also needed for schools and adult learners to avoid the barrier for the poor who can’t pay, so that everyone should get educated. All learners require a common online platform that connects them, to learn together, which helps to build the foundation for a more peaceful and collaborative planet, regardless of their age or topic of conversation.

Pen pals may have gone out of style for a few years, but that’s quickly changing thanks to rapidly expanding access to the internet throughout the developing world and the universal desire to connect, learn, and share the experience.

CXO Standpoint

Joe Troyen Founder, PenPal Schools

About Joe Troyen Joe Troyen has founded PenPal Schools, an organization that connects over 100,000 students from more than 170 countries to learn together. PenPal provides a common online platform for all learners from all around the world for overall improvement in all ďŹ elds. Before starting PenPal Schools Joe worked for 5 years designing software for Education and other industries, taught English in Spain, and researched the effectiveness of after-school programs in the Bronx. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Pomona College and is passionate about connecting learners and expanding educational opportunities around the world.

November / 2016

37

Need of An Hour

J

ust guts aren’t enough to make the transition from an employee to an employer. It always takes more than that.

Being an entrepreneur is all about mindset and conviction that comes with one’s thought process. So, how one can become an entrepreneur from an employee? Which traits are essential to be a potential entrepreneur? Not that difficult as it sounds. Let’s find out.

38 November / 2016

Need of An Hour

Audacity

Am I really willing to risk the pay-cheque coming in at the end of the month? That’s the question one needs to ask himself/herself when thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. The fear of not getting a constant pay-cheque can stop one from realizing the true potential of dreams. One needs to learn to be okay with the inconsistent inflow of money and not get anxious about it.

Strategy

A strategy, a clear vision and clear goals are the things that can help a person, travel the path of entrepreneurship successfully. If one thinks he/she cannot survive the failure at the beginning, then he/she is going to fail eventually. Having strong goals and strategy can help one overcome the negative thoughts about the failure.

Discipline

Pragmatic

Passion

This is something that is very important, when one begins the voyage of entrepreneurship. Being an entrepreneur, one needs to work 24*7. There is no ‘shut shop’ at 7 for entrepreneurs. Some people work better in a structured environment, while some work in unstructured. Thus, only disciplined people can survive the downs and problems, entrepreneurship throws at them.

One just cannot quit his/her job and say hey, now what am I going to do?

What am I passionate about? What is it that I want to get out for every single day? - That is what will drive him/her. One cannot sustain if he/she don’t know how to be realistic about the goals and dreams. Sacrosanct is having a very clear roadmap and sticking to it.

Recognizing one’s strength and passion is very crucial for entrepreneurs.

Every entrepreneur has their own strong areas and challenges. Thus, the key to success is to recognize that and look for things that would compliment them. Passion will always play an important role in a long journey.

These traits are not the standard one, but possessing them might just help an employee be an employer. However at the end, reaching the milestone will only depend on the person who will be paving the road for entrepreneurship.

November / 2016

39

Special Learning: A Global Leader in Autism and Special Needs Education

O

ne in every 68 American children is on the autism spectrum, with a tenfold increase in prevalence in the last 40 years, which counts for over 3 million individuals in the U.S and tens of millions around the globe.

There is no established explanation for this continuing increase, although improved diagnosis and environmental influences are two reasons that are often considered.

However, the fact to be noted is that one can always overcome autism by leveraging technology advancements.

Karen Chung, Founder and CEO of Special Learning identified this global problem 7 years ago and set about doing something about it. Thus, with a vision to help over a billion people around the globe with autism and special needs, Special Learning, Inc., an education technology company that exists to help the 70+ million people in the world with autism to attain a higher quality of life, came into service.

people who provide education, support and care to individuals on the Autism spectrum.

Special Learning’s basic, intermediate and advanced course curriculum designed by leading experts are being conveniently used by parents, clinicians, therapists, paraprofessionals and educators. Also, the Special Learning package that includes extensive libraries of relevant materials, expert articles & blogs, and live webinars is getting highly preferred by clients.

With a mission to provide those, who care for and treat individuals on the autism spectrum and with special needs, with the most helpful and effective resources to assist in helping each student reach their full potential, Special Learning is paving their way to new heights. Presently, Special Learning market reach spans nearly 100 countries, many of which sorely lack adequate numbers of therapists to treat those in need.

Special Learning: Changing the lives of Individuals with Autism and Special Needs Special Learning provides 24/7 access to the world’s most effective early intervention therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). ABA-based training tools and resources are available as a one-time purchase or as a subscription, depending on the product or user’s preference.

Karen Chung: Driving force and Innovation Behind the Mission As an entrepreneur and investor, Karen has had active involvement over the past 15 years in several businesses in various industries including executive search, investment banking, real estate development and high-end retail.

Special Learning is improving the lives of millions of people around the world with autism and other developmental disabilities by teaching how to properly use ABA, the only evidence-based autism treatment method, to

A native of South Korea, Karen immigrated with her family to the United States in 1975 and obtained her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Northern Illinois University and a master’s degree in Business Management from

40 November / 2016

Fastest Growing

The

10

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

Karen Chung Founder and CEO

“

No one else offers the comprehensive array of products and services that Special Learning does

“

Northwestern University.

Karen is an active member of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a frequent guest speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and private equity. She is also a founding member of a new graduate-level degree program which focuses on Women’s Leadership at Benedictine University. At Special Learning, Karen is the driving force and innovation behind her mission to become the most comprehensive special needs provider in the world.

Leveraging technology and Easing the burden Special Learning respects and admires those who are at the front lines in education and believes that teaching is truly a vocation that requires a unique day-in-day-out commitment.

Before joining Special Learning, a number of their team members have previously worked directly in the education system and thus, they are well aware of the diverse challenges students, teachers and parents face.

The team strives every day to use technology easing those challenges for students, teachers and parents, and talks internally all the time about simplifying their needs. The team believes in being easy to use and interact with and knows how to distinguish between having world-class training, tools and resources available, and making it work for the client every single time. Also, they use technology to

gather feedback from their clients as a part of their continuous improvement commitment.

Ethics training has been the particular area, Special Learning is being recognized around the world and for which, they have partnered with Dr. Jon Bailey, one of the world's foremost experts, to conduct monthly live and interactive webinars.

Looking beyond the Dawn “We see education continuing to adapt to the lifestyle and needs of the user. As many institutions have begun thinking through how the curriculum can be best offered and delivered is strategically smart. Teaching for enduring understanding should be our mutual goal,” asserts Karen on the future of education.

Also, Karen assures, “We are very excited about some changes we will be launching in the near-term to enhance our client’s experience while providing them more options as to how they may choose to use our products. We understand it’s about choice, ease and reliability. We are continuously listening to our clients and act swiftly in response where we think we can improve.”

November / 2016

41

Tutorfair: For Every Student who Pays, they give Free Tutoring to a Child Who Can’t

I

t often gets difficult for parents to find the right tutor for their children. Knowing that the children get influenced a lot by the people they learn from, parents get more concerned about the person they assign to teach their child. Checking the authentication of the qualifications, the tutor’s way of teaching and the success he achieved in his past assignments are few of the complicated procedures a parent has to go through.

They offer Paid Tutoring, where a small donation is made to the Tutorfair Foundation with each lesson purchased through Tutorfair; Professional Training, where some of the most experienced tutors in London=share their best practices; Volunteer Programs, where tutors work with inner-city students in small group tutoring or university application workshops.

With the vision to simplify the process of finding the most appropriate tutor for the students, Tutorfair was founded

by Andrew Ground. Today, Tutorfair has over 40,000 tutors registered and over a million visits a year to their website. Andrew and his team have built a socially responsible tutoring business by facing up to feedback and creating experiences which their users recommend to their friends.

Andrew Ground: Finding Solutions for the Real Life Problems As with every good idea it started with a problem, the story of Tutorfair began when Andrew Ground, CEO and CoFounder of Tutorfair, started to find a tutor for his son.

Andrew had just finished being CCO at LOVEFILM (the Netflix of Europe), which had sold to Amazon. At LOVEFILM, Andrew had helped create an incredible product that could help users pinpoint the ideal film to watch next.

Tutorfair: Giving Every Student Fair Access to Excellent Tutors Tutorfair was launched by Andrew Ground, Mark Maclaine, Edd Stockwell, and Patrick Verdon in 2012 and is based in London, United Kingdom.

Tutorfair offers professional development opportunities through tutor training, volunteering, and observation.

Students can look for tutors by subject, and browse their profiles to view their videos. Registered users can make their own shortlist, book tutors and message them.

42 November / 2016

Andrew found it surprisingly difficult to find a tutor for his son. He realized that his need for a tutor was a similar informational need to his previous product, and one that the web would be perfect to solve; and he cared much more about helping his child succeed, than he did about what to watch next.

“One For One” Promise After a little research, Andrew realized that he was not alone in this journey. Both the Americans and Germans had

The

10

Fastest Growing

Education Solution

Fastest Growing IoT Solution

Provider CompaniesProvider Companies

Andrew Ground (left), Mark Maclaine (center) & Edd Stockwell (right), Co-Founders

“

We offer an easy way to

find the right tutor for you,

“

while giving free tutoring to students who need it most

already established tutor marketplaces. He presented the idea to an early investor who suggested the “one for one” promise; for every student who pays they would give tutoring to a child who can’t. This was a big idea that could transform the way people saw the tutoring business; it attracted a team who wanted to make waves within education, and formed their name “Tutorfair”.

Overcoming the Hurdles Andrew and his team set out to create a Minimal Viable Product (MVP), but it took a lot of troubles to make it viable. Their MVP was launched in January 2013 but it certainly was not viable, not even close. The team manually signed up tutors by showing them mock-ups on paper of what the website would look like, and set up volunteering projects in local schools. Their friends soon found out about what they were up to, and put in their tutoring requests.

They would call up the tutors to arrange the lessons and send an invoice. They had a business, a community of tutors, a brand and a clunky website. It was a thrill for the team to see a few users trickle through and use the site - but 80% of their business was offline.

they tackled even the worst bugs and became confident adding in features that were initially left out. They began to feel good about the progress they were making.

Easy way for Tutors to reach Students For tutors, Tutorfair is free to join - they set their own hourly rate and the subjects they want to teach with subjects ranging from English, Maths and Science to chess, music and drama. Tutorfair charges a variable rate of commission on top of their hourly rate depending on the number of Tutorfair hours they have completed.

The Tutorfair Foundation arranges for tutors to go into inner-city London schools, helping children who otherwise would not be able to afford tutoring.

What started as one man’s overreaction to the problem of finding tutoring for his own children is today helping thousands of parents find their own tutors. They have given thousands of students access to free tuition and inspired many of the UK’s top tutors to join the Tutorfair community.

Andrew took this as validation of the concept, and raised £150k to employ a full-time developer to fix the product.

Having an in-house developer sped up the entire process,

November / 2016

43

WEB AND MOBILE EXPERTS

Custom Web Development A professionally created website and a remarkable design go a long way in creating that impression about your business and thus help in converting a visitor into a customer.

CUSTOM WEB DEVELOPMENT

Mobile Application Development Develop powerful, highly usable apps that solve business problems, attract users, and reinforce your brand.

UI/ UX Our role is to oer the expertise and determination to deliver each site to the utmost standards.

User Engagement MOBILE APPLICATION

We do it by using artiďŹ cial intelligence to provide true end to end personalization and continue to engage shoppers across unlimited segments to deliver experiences that convert.

UI / UX

USER ENGAGEMENT

Email id: contact@ascratech.com | Contact No.: +91-9769162289 | www.ascratech.com

LIFE IS

DIGITAL MOMENTS and we are on a mission to perfect them

www.comptel.com