Publishing Date: 10 July, 2022
Total number of pages 62, including covers
Technology will not replace great teachers but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational.
-George CourosTeachers devote a lot of time and energy to their students’ wellbeing and learning. Even outside of the classroom, teachers need to lesson plan, grade tests, run clubs or extracurriculars, and provide extra support to their students and schools. Education technology (Edtech) has the potential to enhance what a teacher can accomplish over a day’s work.
Technology can help teachers facilitate an easier, more productive learning experience. Technology isn’t just a medium to better students’ learning; it is the material that they should be learning as well. With modern technology, teachers can easily accommodate all their students and their different needs by incorporating tools for everyone through simple technological resources.
Technology is also a very useful tool for teacher collaboration and learning.
This issue of ScooNews is filled with edtech resources and information for teachers. I hope you find it useful and look forward to hearing from you (as usual).
Cheers,
Anandi Gopal Joshi became the first female doctor in India in an era when women were restricted by strict social norms and denied an education. She left for America at the age of 18 and graduated in western medicine from the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania, hence becoming the first Indian women to do so.
The history of Indian women in intellectual inquiry can be traced back to the Brahmavadinis of the Vedic age that disappeared during the later period only to resurface with the advent of the modern age.
Today is National Science Day, marking the 92nd anniversary of the day when C.V. Raman discovered the Raman effect. Interestingly, the Indian government has come up with the theme of “Women in Science” for this year’s National Science Day celebration to recognise the females who’ve their mark in the field of science.
Ek Janaki Ammal was the first Indian woman to obtain a PHD made in Botany. she was responsible for adding extra sweetness to the Indian variety of sugarcane and contributed to genetics, phytogeography, evolution and ethnobotany extensively.
3
Anna Mani was one of the most celebrated Indian scientists known for her contributions in the field of solar radiation, wind energy instrumentation and ozone.
Aditi Pant
Aditi Pant is a celebrated Indian Oceanographer who was a part of the expedition team to Antarctica, becoming the first Indian woman to do so. She was inspired by the book “The Open Sea” by Alister Hardy and enrolled in MS with a specialization in Marine sciences.
Indira Hinduja is the Gynecologist and Fertility Specialist based out of Mumbai. She was responsible for delivering the first Test tube baby in India and the development of Oocyte Donation technique.
Asima Chatterjee was the first Indian woman to be elected as the General President of the Indian Science Congress and gave valuable contributions in the field of medicinal chemistry. She was also the first woman to receive the Doctor of Science Degree from an Indian University in 1944 and a
A lady of high entrepreneurial spirit, Shaw is a technically skilled member of the Indian scientific elite class. She founded Biocon, which went on to become the largest biopharmaceutical company in India.
Kalpana graduated from Tagore School, Karnal, India, in 1976 and earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988. She was one of the many astronauts who passed away during the crash of space shuttle Columbia.
7 8 9 10
recipient of C.V Raman award, PC Ray Award and Padma Bhushan award.
A rocket scientist with ISRO, she was the Deputy Operations Director for the Mangalyaan mission. With a career spanning over 20 years, she has worked successfully for a number of projects.
Sunetra Gupta is the professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford. She has received the scientific medal from the Zoological Society Of London for her contribution in the field.
are teaching children in unusual ways or surroundings
At this school in Tokyo, fiveyear-olds cause traffic jams and windows are for Santa to climb into. Meet: the world’s cutest kindergarten, designed by architect Takaharu Tezuka. Watch this TED talk to know more about the kindergarten and it’s design process that really lets kids be kids.
A nonprofit organization called Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha operates almost 100 boat schools in Bangladesh since 2002. The schools are solar powered and have a laptop computer, Internet access, and a small library. Whenever there’s a flood and while every other business or service is closed, the boat schools are still operational. They pick up the students from docks or riversides and then anchor somewhere else so class can begin.
After the lessons, the boat school returns the students to their homes and yet another group of students is picked up. Approximately 70,000 children have benefited from the boat schools.
Inderjit Khurana, a school teacher from Orissa setup the Ruchika School Social Service Organization (RSSO) and subsequently the Train Platform School in 1985 to ensure that education is available to children who she saw begging on train platforms. She began her project with just one school and today more than 4,000 students are being educated around India through the program. These schools cater to the educational needs of street children, child laborers, and children from poor families.
The children gather between train stops to learn to read and write, and they learn through the use of field trips, flashcards, songs, drama, music, and puppetry. The RSSO also provides food and medication as it would be difficult to educate children from this social background without meeting the needs of their entire families.
The West Philadelphia School of the Future opened in 2006. In this High tech school, students use computers instaed of books. Mathematics is taught with OneNote, a note-taking app from Microsoft. The teachers use computerized smart boards instead of traditional whiteboards or blackboards for instruction. Students use digital lockers that open with the flash of an ID card. Familiarity with Microsoft Office and other programs gives students of this school a higher chance of employment after graduation.
Finland’s education system is one of the best in the world. To further improve the schooling system, Finnish officials and educators have decided to create schools which cater to the wholesome learning of students and do not just test your knowledge and assign marks. Major reforms like no fixed subjects, changes to the classroom structure and cohesive learning through an interdisciplinary format are underway and are likely to be completed by 2020.
The most significant among these is ensuring that the curriculum designed is learner-centric in every aspect. It has to be carefully graded, developmentally appropriate, backed by thorough research and suited to the needs of today’s learners. A constructivist approach to learning ensures that learner’s natural curiosity is channelled effectively through inquiry to achieve the desired outcomes and develop a well-rounded, holistic understanding of concepts that transcends disciplines.
An Inquiry-based approach that fosters natural curiosity has great relevance in learning by making connections between learner’s environment, experiences and the key concepts. Inquiry-based learning motivates the students to learn and advance their problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It gives them a platform to ask questions thus, giving them the opportunity to think critically and resolve the issues in their day to day life. It also helps develop their creativity.
The task of educating young minds is a challenge today, both for educators and schools in general. It requires a humongous amount of research, thinking, planning and careful execution. Some principles, however, stand out as time tested and universally applicable across all curricula and can be effectively implemented to enhance the process of teaching-learning.
Let them relate what they learn to the world around them. Ask them to research and look for information rather than merely relying on the textbook, mugging up and regurgitating the information in the examination. At the end of the day, the experience that a teacher takes them through in the process of learning remains indelibly etched on their minds rather than the content.
With an experience of over 34 years in the field of education, she started her career with Mater Dei School in Delhi as Head of Department, English, and served for over 18 years. She then headed schools like Apeejay School, Noida, GD Goenka World School, Gurugram, Kasiga School, Dehradun, in India and even spearheaded partnerships with some leading schools in Scotland & Utah.
Dr. Neeta Bali
Focus on multilingualism, language learning, along with a strong focus on developing knowledge of other cultural groups, appreciation of different ways of being and behaving, and developing positive attitudes to others and engagement with global issues in terms of undertaking activity outside of schools, in the local community and/ or other foreign communities promote the development of intercultural sensitivity and respect. Do this by weaving in activities that require ferreting out relevant information about other cultures – link them to your lessons as extrapolatory themes.
Collaboration: It gives a platform to the teachers and students to discuss and share ideas thus developing their interpersonal skills, too. Collaboration helps build trust and open communication between the students’ group as well as between the teachers and students.
1. Amongst Teachers: It is a great way of approaching academic planning because each teacher understands the concepts to be taught and share their ideas and opinions about the unit thus developing greater depth in the understanding of the concepts.
2. Amongst students: Students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning. It is a great way of enhancing the 5 Skills -Thinking skills, Communication skills, SelfManagement skills, Research skills, and Social skills in the students.
Inclusion and differentiation:
Practise differentiation to meet the needs of all learners. Differentiated access to content, multimodal approaches to assimilate content along with assessments that promote multiple ways of demonstrating competence and understanding ensure that the needs of all learners are met. Differentiation enables the teachers to give students the best chance at learning, regardless of their abilities, strengths and weaknesses.
Teachers design a variety of lessons keeping in mind the learning style of different students. Students are given a choice board to select a given number of tasks and showcase their understanding in any way that they feel comfortable with. It could through role-play, written content, ICT, oral, through drawings, etc. Students who have a good knowledge base but are reluctant writers get an opportunity to share their ideas and opinions through a medium chosen by them.
So, use different ways and methods to cater to all students –each one of whom is unique- Remember, we cannot apply the principle of one shoe fits all!
Encourage reflection, promote goal setting and selfregulate learning to fill the observed gaps. Make sure the assessments are designed to test relevant thinking skills by creating meaningful tasks that allow the students to show their understanding of the subject - not just their memory skills.
Finally, make learning a celebration for the young. Be vibrant and passionate about what you teach and the passion is bound to percolate to the pupils! Make learning fun!
The focus on critical thinking and conceptual understanding promotes the development of intellectual dispositions by providing opportunities to students to apply their learning to solving global and local and real-life problems.
Get students to think, discuss, explore, and find answers.
Dear Teacher, with this guide in hand, you will stop feeling overwhelmed and start getting comfortable about how edtech can help you and your students learn. In this guide, I have gathered 15+ educational technology tools including tools for classroom management, flipped learning, presentation, media production, and so on.
Flipgrid is the leading video discussion platform for millions of PreK to PhD educators, students, and families in 180+ countries. Students record short, authentic videos and can reply to each other’s videos. Educators are 100% in control with video moderation, access controls, and much more. Students can capture widescreen videos, pause while recording, add more after reviewing, and trim to perfect. From 15 seconds to 5 minutes, your students can perfect the elevator pitch or give a short presentation.
https://info.flipgrid.com/
Nearpod provide a host of pre-made, fully-interactive lessons developed by subject matter experts for all school levels and subjects. Nearpod also allows teachers to import lessons from any file type and begin adding interactive elements, web-links or video snippets to them. They can then synchronise their prepared lessons to all students’ devices, casting the lesson simultaneously to each student and able to monitor their progress throughout the lesson.
https://nearpod.com/
The OneNote Class Notebook is an app that helps educators set up OneNote in their class. This app will create a class notebook, which includes three types of sub-notebooks:
Student Notebooks - private notebooks that are shared between each teacher and their individual students. Teachers can access these notebooks at any time, but students cannot see other students’ notebooks.
Content Library - a notebook for teachers to share course materials with students. Teachers can add and edit its materials, but for students, the notebook is read-only.
Collaboration Space — a notebook for all students and the teacher in the class to share, organize, and collaborate.
https://www.onenote.com/classnotebook
Padlet is a great tool for gathering ideas, sharing them and modifying them later. It’s like a living sticky note board with images, links and anything you would like to curate and share with you class. Users can add links, YouTube videos, files and images to Padlet notes. They can move and arrange them. A link to a Padlet can be shared and Padlets can be embedded into webpages.
https://padlet.com
Teachers can search millions of study sets or create your own using Quizlet. These resources help you improve class and school results using flashcards, games and more. Quizlet is a basic framework that uses the concept of play to help students learn in a manner best suited to them. Students are able to compete against their fellow students and discuss sets, and entire classes can share teacher-created sets. The ability to choose flash card photos from Flickr’s pool of Creative Commons-licensed photography really adds to Quizlet’s efficacy for subjects like anatomy -- and the various modes of play give students some variety when studying.
https://quizlet.com/en-gb
My Simple Show is an amazingly simple way to create explainer videos that get the message across to your students. The tool contributes to the e-Learning community by incorporating various Vark model learning styles. It offers several storylines to choose from, including: presenting a CV, explaining a workflow, introducing a biological process, and even inviting someone to an event.
phy really adds to Quizlet’s efficacy for subjects like anatomy -- and the various modes of play give students some variety when studying.
https://www.mysimpleshow.com
Canva has all the tools an educator needs in one place, with features that make teaching and learning feel more collaborative, intuitive, and enjoyable. Although their teaching section is dedicated to using Canva for teaching, however, it also has some really useful general teaching and design tips which every educator will find relevant.
https://www.canva.com/learn/teachers/
Unimersiv is based on the premise that Virtual Reality can strongly improve the capacity of the human mind to remember the things it learned for a long time. Research has shown students remember 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see and up to 90% of what they do or simulate. Take your students to historical places, in space or inside the human body with the Unimersiv VR app.
https://unimersiv.com/virtual-reality-schools/
Flubaroo is a free tool that helps you quickly grade multiple-choice or fill-in-blank assignments. Created by a teacher, Flubaroo besides being a grading tool also computes average assignment score, computes average score per question, and flags low-scoring questions; gives you the option to email each student their grade, and an answer key and lets you send individualized feedback to each student.
http://www.flubaroo.com
The OneNote Class Notebook is an app that helps educators set up OneNote in their class. This app will create a class notebook, which includes three types of sub-notebooks:
▶ Student Notebooks - private notebooks that are shared between each teacher and their individual students. Teachers can access these notebooks at any time, but students cannot see other students’ notebooks.
▶ Content Library - a notebook for teachers to share course materials with students. Teachers can add and edit its materials, but for students, the notebook is read-only.
▶ Collaboration Space — a notebook for all students and the teacher in the class to share, organize, and collaborate.
https://www.onenote.com/classnotebook
This tool allows you to present your lessons visually and present related data with infographics. Infographics make data and processes accessible and memorable. Creating the infographics is a very simple 3 step process
Choose a template Add charts & visuals
Customize
https://venngage.com/
InsertLearning was founded by two high school teachers who wanted to create a richer learning experience for their students. Teachers and their students can annotate any web page and share what they think is important. Educators can also monitor student responses and annotations during class allowing educators to respond when students need help the most.
https://insertlearning.com/
PicMonkey helps the teacher develop student creativity by getting them to design posters, collages, and visual presentations. These projects along with lessons on photo editing and design concepts such as brightness, contrast, and saturation help your students learn the basics of graphic design.
https://www.picmonkey.com/
Desmos aims to empower educators in their attempt to help every student learn math and love learning math. With that in mind, they’ve assembled a collection of unique and engaging digital activities, which are free for teachers and their students.
https://teacher.desmos.com/
Simple K12 is a community of educators whose mission is to help other educators inspire their students, engage their learners, perfect their craft, and share their experiences to help others do the same. They provide Online Teacher Training, Professional Development resources and a lot of valuable stuff through their blog.
https://www.simplek12.com
SpiderScribe is an online mind mapping and brainstorming tool. It lets the teacher and students organize ideas by connecting notes, files, calendar events, etc. in free-form maps. It is the perfect platform to collaborate and share online!
https://www.spiderscribe.net/
From developing multiple intelligence platforms to time efficiency, Amit Yadav, Founder, Kidstriangle and Rishi Kapal, CEO & Global Strategist, Edugild, make a case for optimizing technology in the 21st century classroom.
Technology is enabling the creation of personalized learning environments that will eventually replace the traditional classrooms. Edtech (education technology) is one needed right step in this direction. Edtech has evolved from providing online learning material, information sharing and collaboration to the next level of personalization using innovative and adaptive teaching strategies.
Today’s students have unprecedented technological literacy. They are eager to embrace the use of various edtech platforms in the classroom. Teachers are more able to understand students. They can provide them more customized instruction.
Schools should adopt edtech because it makes teaching easier and encourages students to be more engaged with lessons.
According to recent digital survey conducted by Mc Graw Hill, 75% students found technology helpful in preparing for class and nearly 80% felt adaptive technology has helped in improving their grades. Learning through technology is necessary in every facet of society because of the shift in worldwide computer usage and the need for computer skills in the workforce.
Every student is unique in terms of his/her strength, learning style, and their day to day environment. Smart assessments continuously evaluate student performance and cater teaching strategies and material as per their needs. Students have access to interactive videos, updated textbooks, on-demand classrooms, customized learning modules, access to top-quality lessons and content from some of the best universities in the world, and all of this – available and accessible via today’s smart phones. Many startups offer tuition to school-goers. They help them in cracking entrance exams. On the other hand, a number of startups help aspiring professionals and entrepreneurs with their professional certification courses.
There are several good reasons to embrace edtech in the classroom…
Students become smart learners and can track their mistakes, thus ensuring mistakes are avoided. Equipping students with the caliber to become successful and knowledgeable professionals is at the core of a teacher’s job.
Modern teachers are now familiar with technology. Classrooms are also becoming paperless and technologically equipped. Due to many benefits of edtech, teachers should welcome its usage with open arms. Schools districts and school boards need to prioritize funding for edtech and computer devices for every student. Hence it is important to epitomize technology.
Students get the liberty to study and understand concepts at their own pace giving them adequate time to learn. Knowledge sharing and collaboration using technology platform has further helped students to get their questions and doubts answered quickly. Teachers can easily distribute their work with others when uploading lessons is as simple as the click of a button. Edtech is also self-checking because it is paperless and gives students instant feedback on their work. There are timer and monitoring apps, organizational sources and editing services. You will better manage your time and increase both your and your trainee’s productivity. So many things can be learnt in a short time.
Technology identifies and reaches more learners than any other kind of tool available in the classroom, and allows for a dynamic learning experience that directly benefits students. It can increase many kinds of intelligence in students like verbal-linguistic intelligence, verbal-logical intelligence, musical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence etc. and is hence very useful.
Students can access the learning material virtually anytime. They can do this anywhere in their preferred format of audio/video/ games etc. This has significantly increased effectiveness of teaching strategies and learning materials. With Edtech tools instructors can now use visual models that are built in a gamelike setting to communicate information, while also constructing teamwork skills and analytical thinking. Incorporating Edtech tools will allow instructors to foster learning through complex thinking.
It makes learning more engaging and students are motivated to learn more. Modern students are extremely tech savvy. They prefer internet and smart devices for their learning. The students and skill-seekers want to go beyond the limitations of classrooms and improperly trained teachers. This is an excitement for them. It motivates them to learn many things in a shorter time.
The Edtech options help in storing information. It will make organizing your brain easier. Digital space savers will not only help focus, they will also support you sharing and explaining any learning material. Designers should keep this in mind when constructing training materials. Sending and saving files digitally will boost the overall efficiency of the learning process.
There are some products which solve the issues of engineers (students, graduates, professionals) who experience difficulty in effectively visualizing and conceptualizing complex engineering subject matters, like diagrams, schematics, drawings, laboratory experiments, technical site operations etc. Poor visualization leads to poor performance during examinations, job interviews, or when applying technical knowhow in industry.
Edtech generates core quality content that solves this problem. Edtech in the classroom –the need of the moment!
Curriculum integration based on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) was initiated in US in the year 1998. Instead of teaching students four disciplines separately it was decided to package them together to develop a holistic approach amongst the students. Blended learning environment, and how scientific methods can be applied makes STEM education different from traditional learning. Techno innovation is widely accepted as a bright career choice today and it will also shape our future.
But STEM education does not yield the mental agility that comes from an intuitive, initiator, and innovative problem solver and that courage lies in understanding art and design at length.
Art and Science twain are considered to be polar opposites which shall never meet. Students, universities, corporates -- all of them have considered both as separate entities. Increasingly people started believing that this is not good enough to prepare future workforce in this
volatile environment and data drenched world. One of the first people to realize this was Georgette Yakman, considered to be an architect behind STEAM. But before understanding STEAM, it is important to understand STEM.
“Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.”
– Max Ernst
Science and technology were the transformative forces of the past century, today it needs to be coupled with Art + Design to bring transformation in society, in our learners, and in our education system.
The modern approach to learning and catering to meet the new education needs of the 21st century was initiated and called STEAM which integrates subjects like Science, Technology, Engineering, The Arts, and Mathematics to draw points to cater to students dialogues, inquiry, and critical thinking ability. The end result of STEAM education is, it makes students calculated risk takers, constantly engage them in experiential learning, develop a creative and collaborative approach and engage in problem solving. It makes them truly educated, innovators, and learners of 21st century.
STEAM concept was formalized by Georgetter Yakman in 2006 but it did not gain much attention. The Barack Obama administration in 2009 promoted in US the ‘Educate
to Innovate’campaign which inspired and motivated students, educators, industries, and policymakers.
STEM to STEAM is an initiative advocated by Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and it was globally adopted by education institutes, individuals, and corporates. It is simply said to be a way to teach things related to each other which is considered to be more engaging and fun than traditional learning.
Someone has rightly said, we learn how to organize with Maths, by using technology we research as historians so that we are able to comprehend, and communicate through engineering.
The transdisciplinary skills developed in students make them valued by employers. STEM to STEAM movement was rolling forward positively in last few years as STEM lacks key components of education desired by the industry and required by students to thrive in future.
1. It is an assimilated approach to learning where there is a connect between learning standards, evaluations, and lesson design;
2. It involves integration of two or more than two streams while teaching, delivered and assessed in an integrated manner;
3. Appreciating inquiry, collaborative approach to learning, and following logical processes are the essential core components of STEAM education.
4. Use of veracity from the Art stream in teaching science or technology make this initiative more beautiful.
Albert Einstein was an accomplished artist, and Charles Darwin was culturally inspired from theatre, literature, and poetry. Da Vinci used both art and science together in his work.
are not open to learn, and deliver poor test scores. Schools who have embedded literacy education in their curriculum have seen rising assessment scores, and increased willingness to learn amongst their students; That science linked with creative pursuits can yield better results has been proved again and again. Let’s have a look at few success stories
Taylor Elementary School at Virginia embedded art and music in their regular curriculum. Traditionally presented geometric principles were explained drawing a scenery while to understand different stage of plant lifecycle music was created using Apple software. It inspired students for peer learning and developed more positive inclination towards deep understanding of the subject;
University Place elementary School, Alabama is facing complete education revival due to STEAM education. They feel STEAM education made their students come out of the trauma coming from the loss of loved ones and their homes and they have emerged stronger than ever. An 18 year old Chennai boy, Sai Kiran, won second prize in NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest, 2017 where he visualizes creation of link between moon and earth that will allow human settlement in lunar space. Sai applied designed thinking and took a concrete step towards converting a dream into reality.
Kavya, a 12 year old engineer,
robotics champion, and environmental philanthropist, became the first youngest team to qualify for First Lego League –European Open Championship in Aarhus this year for her new designed product Bee saver Bot. Her unique idea, integrated with technology made her class apart for this championship.
I believe by providing art instructions we can actually help produce innovative scientists today. Even today art-science partnerships in India are very subjective and it is still felt that creative instincts developed through art education can be transferred and used in other fields.
STEAM education in India is still in its nascent stage and has not realized its full potential because there are no clear cut guidelines, and people also do not have conceptual clarity. There is also lack of tech support and infrastructure with schools and colleges as well as lack of resources to implement. Even there is scarcity of trained STEAM education teachers. Resistance to change is also a common disease in the Indian education system, and you will find old educators especially reluctant to adapt themselves to newer ways.
STEAM education creates an
active and collaborative learning environment in the classroom and engages students in learning. We just can’t deny that STEAM education enhances employment opportunities and inculcates a practical problem solving approach, so it has a great future even when it is facing many roadblocks. In times to come schools, colleges, industry will naturally encourage STEAM education to match demand and supply of necessary workforce skills. Policymakers and educators in India really need to act fast to keep pace with the advancement happening across the globe scientifically as well as economically and bring changes in the education system.
The world has accepted the fact that it isfine to commit mistakes, think out of box, commit failures, and cherish the joy of exploring at the same time having a strong bond with science and mathematics to discover. Teaching art and science together in the curriculum is vital, essential, and desirable today. Students need to learn sound methods, develop logical thinking, testing hypothesis, and interpret results with valid conclusions. It is equally important for them to understand and develop arguments, and creative decision making process. It will clearly enhance their employability and foster new skills. It’s time to see a new generation of resurgent men and women who recognize the importance of coexistence of analysis and creation.
STEAM education is igniting conversations across the globe about how creativity and innovation; the essentials coming from art and design education are today being valued by employers and for economic growth today it has to be integrated with science and technology. The journey of STEAM education sounds quite intriguing, but at the same time it’s quite puzzling if not implemented properly and there are educators who are not even sure how to deliver it in the right spirit.
Traditional education focused on convergent thinking, while inclusion of arts and design thinking developed divergent thinking amongst graduates which helps to explore various possible solutions. Students who possess both set of skills can contribute much better to workplace productivity. It engages students into STEM subjects at the same time ensuring that student’s creativity do not fall by wayside. To make scientific experiments results broadly fathomable and actionable artistic hand and mind can be a worthy choice.
stereotype differences. But when we start practicing these two disciplines together we realize how important both the discipline are. Both the disciplines search for truth, and rationale for the same deeply. Yes, agreed artist studio, and scientist lab are the last places reserved, but they generate lot of thinking and doing. Streams have borrowed themselves from another streams and hybrid education is a way of life today. An artist can be a great partner in triangulation of the scientific unknown.
Tata Sons Chairman, Natrajan Chandrasekaran, in his recent interview to PTI said, STEM education is important to us, and we are committed to promote and encourage education in this filed and support the children across the globe. He remarked that all of us are very close to technology, and especially when we are dealing with customers across the globe we need to embrace their psychology and adopt cutting edge technology.
One stream is data driven, while another is driven by emotions. One is more dominant by tech introverts, while other by expressive characters. But I would call these only
To me art, and science are natural partners as in both the streams approach problem through inquiry, and open-mindedness. None of the stream has a fear of the unknown, and possess complementary thinking. When both the streams join hands, the collaboration brings out unexpected results. The unusual nature of today’s problems can be bridged by best of the talents from integrated discipline and we can solve them by application from both the qualitative and quantitative domain.
Schools often struggle with students who
“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all the generations of the world.”
- Da Vinci
At the Harbour School in Hong Kong, TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada teaches citizen science and invention to the next generation of environmentalists. He’s moved his classroom into an industrial mega-space where imaginative kids work with wood, metal, chemistry, biology, optics and, occasionally, power tools to create solutions to the threats facing the world’s oceans. There, he instills a universal lesson that his own parents taught him at a young age: “You can make a mess, but you have to clean up after yourself.”
These TED talks will ignite passions, pique interests and introduce kids to the excitement of hands-on learning.CESAR HARADA: HOW I TEACH KIDS TO LOVE SCIENCE
Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges and even a roller coaster!
Imagine a set of electronics as easy to play with as Legos. TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir introduces littleBits, a set of simple, interchangeable blocks that make programming as simple and important a part of creativity as snapping blocks together.
At the INK Conference, Arvind Gupta shares simple yet stunning plans for turning trash into seriously entertaining, well-designed toys that kids can build themselves — while learning basic principles of science and design.
Ink that conducts electricity; a window that turns from clear to opaque at the flip of a switch; a jelly that makes music. All this stuff exists, and Catarina Mota says: It’s time to play with it. Mota leads us on a tour of surprising and cool new materials, and suggests that the way we’ll figure out what they’re good for is to experiment, tinker and have fun.
Netflix has been streaming movies, documentaries, and tv-series of multiple genres, attracting people from different walks of life. There are some series and documentaries which are quite fascinating for classrooms as well. They
talk about multiple issues and concepts from wildlife protection to gender-based issues that can educate the young students. Here is a list of 10 such programs which are a must-watch to enhance our knowledge banks.
Our Planet, narrated by David Attenborough, is a ground-breaking and honest series on the flora and fauna. It reflects on the issues that have been intentionally or unintentionally skipped in other series under this genre. It has been filmed in more than 50 countries and covers the diversity of species from coastal areas to grasslands.
Directed by Jeff Orlowski, it is a compilation of hard work done over a span of three years, with 500+ hours of underwater shoots, across 30 countries with the support of more than 500 volunteers. The movie sheds light on the depleting number of coral reefs and tries to find the underlying causes of such activity.
The movie 13th by Ava DuVernay is inspired by the 13th Amendment to the American Constitution. It is a depiction of racial inequality, unjust system and police brutality. The documentary has testimonies from different advocates and scholars on this topic and reasons for a large number of African-Americans in the prison. The message of the documentary is lucid
It explores the life of infants in the first year of their life. The series is based on ground-breaking science and reflects on the statement of ‘what it means to be a human can be found in the youngest creatures.’
Zion is a short film by Floyd Russ about a teenager Zion Clark who was born without legs and has lived in foster care for years. It is an inspiring story of a determined young man who wanted to make it in wrestling despite all the odds.
The White Helmets is a British short film on the work done by a relief and rescue crew in Syria and Turkey. The film has been directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and reflects on the daily operations and struggles of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as The White Helmets.
Directed by Rachel Lears, it is the life-story of four women who aspire to change the face of American Politics and enter the field in 2018 for the Congress race. This emotional and touching documentary follows their life-struggles, their effort and campaign stories.
This documentary film by Rayka Zehtabchi is focused upon menstruation. The plot of the film is set-up in rural India, where stigmas and taboos over period persist and people prefer not to discuss it. The film is about a group of women who revolt against the existing treatment to menstruation and create an impact by producing sanitary napkins at lower costs to ensure their feasibility for all.
Explained is a series by Vog Digs, where a plethora of topics have been discussed from politics to music. It aims to explore cultures, trends and anything relevant happening across the globe, with interviews and explanations by experts in the areas. It touches upon when sound becomes music or why women are paid less or the growing water crisis in the world.
ON
Developing and improving your knowledge is a must for any profession - teaching is no exception. With pedagogy evolving every day with new practices and technology, compiled are some books that every teacher must read to get better at their profession.
by Lee Watanabe-Crockett, Andrew Churches
It is time to rethink the relationship between teaching and learning and assess the crucial skills students need to succeed in the 21st century. The authors assert that educators must focus assessment on mindfulness and feedback for improvement, framing assessment around six fluencies students need to cultivate. The book provides scenarios, lessons, activities, and assessment rubrics.
by Eric Jensen
In easy to understand, engaging language, Jensen provides a basic orientation to the brain and its various systems and explains how they affect learning. After discussing what parents and educators can do to get children’s brains in good shape for school, Jensen goes on to explore topics such as motivation, critical thinking skills, optimal educational environments, emotions, and memory. He offers fascinating insights on a number of specific issues. Jensen’s repeated message to educators is simple: You have far more influence on students’ brains than you realise - and you have an obligation to take advantage of the incredible revelations that science is providing.
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavour can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishments.
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavour can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset—those who believe that abilities are fixed—are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset—those who believe that abilities can be developed.
Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishments.
In this book, George Couros encourages teachers and administrators to empower their learners to wonder, explore--and to become forward-thinking leaders. If we want innovative students, we need innovative educators. In other words, innovation begins with you. Ultimately, innovation is not about a skill set: it’s about a mindset. The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It’s time to recognise that compliance doesn’t foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity--and those are the skills our students need to succeed.
Todd Whitaker, Jeffrey Zoul, and Jimmy Casas are widely acclaimed experts on teaching and are pioneers in the education Twitterverse, and now they are sharing their best practices. In this book, they show how being a connected educator by using social media to connect with peers across the country and even across the globe will greatly enhance your own learning and your success in a school or classroom. You will find out how to create a personal and professional learning network to share resources and ideas, gain support, and make an impact on others. By customising your professional development in this way, you will be able to learn what you want, how you want, when you want. Best of all, you
will become energised and inspired by all the great ideas out there and how you can contribute, benefiting both you and your students.
In this book, award-winning science reporter Benedict Carey sifts through decades of education research and landmark studies to uncover the truth about how our brains absorb and retain information. What he discovers is that, from the moment we are born, we are all learning quickly, efficiently, and automatically; but in our zeal to systematise the process we have ignored valuable, naturally enjoyable learning tools like forgetting, sleeping, and daydreaming. Is a dedicated desk in a quiet room really the best way to study? Can altering your routine improve your recall? Are there times when distraction
is good? Is repetition necessary? Carey’s search for answers to these questions yields a wealth of strategies that make learning more a part of our everyday lives—and less of a chore.
With the advancement of digital learning technologies, knowledge sharing for the purpose of education and training has accelerated to a point we have never experienced before. The availability of powerful delivery tools and the intentions and interests for sharing knowledge with greater audiences are the major driving forces behind the growth of Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. While there are many benefits to MOOCs, they currently face several challenges. Design, development, implementation and evaluation of
open and distributed learning systems (e.g., MOOCs) require thoughtful analysis and investigation. But most people have no idea how or where to begin. Khan’s E-Learning Framework provides a comprehensive structure for analysing the issues involving the design, development, implementation and evaluation of e-learning initiatives.
Effective, intentional teaching begins with a strong set of beliefs, but even the best teachers - including Debbie Miller - struggle to make sure that their classroom practice consistently reflects their core convictions. In Teaching with Intention, Debbie shares her process of defining beliefs, aligning practice, and taking action to ensure that children are the true beneficiaries of her teaching. As Peter Johnston writes, “Through this book, we have Debbie’s teaching mind on loan. She engages us in the details of teaching life from inside her mind, showing the thinking behind her teaching and the consequences of her actions.”
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.
In The $100 Startup, Chris Guillebeau tells you exactly how many dollars his group of unexpected entrepreneurs required to get their projects up and running; what these individuals did in the first weeks and months to generate significant cash; some of the key mistakes they made along the way, and the crucial insights that made the business stick. This is a great glimpse into what is possible with a small investment, for people who have absolutely no experience in being an entrepreneur or online business owner.
In this book, Guy Kawasaki brings two decades of experience as one of business’s most original and irreverent strategists to offer the essential guide for anyone starting anything. From raising money to hiring the right people, from defining your positioning to creating a brand, from creating buzz to buzzing the competition, from managing a board to fostering a community, this book will guide you through an adventure that’s more art than science—the art of the start.
While there are many books to read for young, aspiring entrepreneurs, here are 10 of the best books to give young entrepreneurs a dose of inspiration and get started.
The purpose of this book is to give you a series of ideas, methods, strategies, and techniques that you can use immediately to make more sales, faster and easier than ever before. This is a useful & practical book on all the key things you need to know when it comes to sales, persuasion & consumer psychology. Brian Tracy’s ideas are both easy to understand, practical and well thought through.
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.Dr Seuss
Dale Carnegie’s timeless classic is a book that is packed with rock-solid advice that has carried thousands of now famous people up the ladder of success in their business and personal lives. As relevant as ever before, this book’s principles endure, and will help the reader achieve maximum potential in the complex and competitive modern age.
Learn the six ways to make people like you, the twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking, and the nine ways to change people without arousing resentment.
Robert T. Kiyosaki developed his unique economic perspective from two very different influences - his two fathers. One father (Robert’s real father) was a highly educated man but fiscally poor. The other father was the father of Robert’s best friend - that Dad was an eighth-grade drop-out who became a self-made multi-millionaire. This clear, well-written, and thought-provoking book is not just about money. It’s about how we are taught to think; how we are programmed by schools, family, and friends and the steps we need to take to reprogram our minds.
Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, the author reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow highly is highly recommended if you’re interested in why human beings behave the way they behave and will transform the way you think about thinking.
Gary Vaynerchuck is widely considered a web celebrity and social media expert. He used social media and online video (WineLibrary TV) to gain incredible exposure and propel his wine business to unprecedented success. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, readers will learn how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. The book has some great tips regarding social media and personal branding.
Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit—those are always results. WHY does your organization exist? WHY does it do the things it does? WHY do customers really buy from one company or another? WHY are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?
In a praiseworthy effort to distill some of the most important lessons of entrepreneurship, Kevin D. Johnson, shares the essential beliefs, characteristics, and habits of elite entrepreneurs. Smart and insightful, The Entrepreneur Mind: 100 Essential Beliefs, Characteristics, and Habits of Elite Entrepreneurs is the ultimate primer on how to think like an entrepreneur.
UNESCO defines early childhood as “the period from birth to eight years of age”. Alongside remarkable physical growth and “brain development at its peak,” the environment and people in a child’s surroundings influence her or him highly at this stage.
Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), thus, aims at the holistic development of a child. It includes all forms of education, both formal and informal, that builds a strong foundation for the child’s lifelong learning and wellbeing.
“A child’s most important steps happen before they set foot in a primary school. By their fifth birthday, children’s brains are 90% developed and the foundations for success at school and in later life are in place,” says a joint UNICEF-OECD-UNESCO blog.
On the surface, informal education refers to the primary source of input i.e. a child’s relationship and its nature and quality with his or her parents and/or primary caregiver.
When people say parents are the first teachers of a child, it’s the truth and not just hearsay. The relationship between the two is critical and sensitive, especially between the ages 0 to 2. On the basis of the quality of the parent-child relationship, a child forms a sense of self, and attachment with the parent.
The second part of the equation of ECCE is the formal education. It differs from state to state, and programme to programme. Educational programmes are often designed according to age groups and are administered in several settings such as daycare, childcare, kindergarten, nursery school, or preschool.
Some people consider ECCE as a mere preparation before entering the primary school; however, it is much more than that.
ECE experts owe their gratitude to the renowned psychologist, Jean Piaget for his research and theory on learning through play; Early Childhood Education posits that learning is highly effective when combined with play. Play meets the physical, intellectual, language, emotional and social needs of children. You would ask how does that happen?
According to research, it has been found that the curiosity and imagination of children are evoked naturally when they are unfettered. Tassoni suggests that "some play opportunities will develop specific individual areas of development, but many will develop several areas."
However, before setting up this environment, it is imperative that we understand the purpose of Early Childhood Care and Education.
IMPROVE SOCIAL SKILLS: ECCE aims at developing friendship among the preschoolers belonging to the common age group through play. One of the most important aspects of such schools is to provide the children with a safe environment that builds strong relationships while they interact with each other; it also encourages children to step out of their comfort zones leading to overcoming shyness for healthy social development. It is better for preschoolers to learn the art of sharing at an early age to avoid hostile behaviour. Children also learn to cooperate, respect the opinions of others, be better listeners and learn the art of communication while promoting teamwork. The active, hands-on experiences enable a child to inculcate life skills in his day-today life.
Providing appropriate education in the formative years helps in pre-emptively closing the education achievement gap between students coming from high and low-income families.
Children of low socioeconomic status (SES) already lag behind their higher SES peers as they begin school later; high SES children have three times the number of words in their vocabularies as opposed to low SES children. However, it has been proven that participation in Early Childhood Education drastically improves performance on standardised test while dropping the rate of grade repetition. Thus, the quality of ECCE programs co-relate with improvement in lowincome preschoolers’ IQs and test scores while decreasing grade retention.
Listed as one of the most important purposes, ECCE provides the opportunity to participate in an early childhood screening. How is this screening helpful? Screening is done for three to five-year-olds and it tests things such as physical and emotional health, cognitive development, speech, hearing, coordination, vision, as well as social skills. Screenings are beneficial in identifying any development of healthrelated issues that require attention. It, further, helps in preventing delays in learning and/or healthy development. From giving appropriate nonverbal and verbal cues to providing a nutritious
diet, everything affects a child. Visual stimulus and response time as early as 3 months can be an indicator of verbal and performance IQ at age 4 years. Thus, a good diet activates memory while junk and processed foods can cause attention, focus and behavioral issues. ECCE programs encourage the nourishment of the brain through
cross lateral movements and exercise.
“A child’s physical development level impacts their ability to complete simple tasks such as sitting still, holding a pencil, putting on their shoes, and especially reading – all skills essential for school,”
remarked early years’ specialist Dr Rebecca Duncombe, who led a study monitoring children of school age in UK, which found a higher number of kids experience problems with their balance and coordination ultimately affecting their ability to learn in class.
Foremost, it aims at instilling enthusiasm in the child towards learning; with the powerful tool of learning with play, ECE experts believe that different play and structured activities lay a strong foundation for learning and developing the imaginative power of an individual. It is at this stage that children’s thirst
to acquire knowledge until satisfactory answers are obtained develops. Preschoolers realise the importance of education in their lives. Several studies have reported that children who attend an ECCE program tend to have their IQ scores increased by the age of five from 4-11 points; on the other hand, a Milwaukee study reported a 25-point gain in IQ scores. As mentioned above, one of the central purposes of Early
Childhood Education is to promote holistic development. Preschools can be a place where a child’s weaknesses are recognised and worked upon while they are given the freedom to express and improve on their strengths. Further, it also leads to stimulating the brain of the child which is another purpose of ECCE.
In an interview, Dr Swati Popat Vats, President, Early Childhood Association of India, said, “There are some unknown ways by which a parent might affect their child; for example, if you take the child to a movie theatre, and the first thing you do is give them popcorn, then ice-cream, etc. Now, one tub of popcorn has enough salt for a week’s consumption, and you have just overloaded the child with sugar. Most parents say that the child is hyperactive and cranky after going to malls and theatres, and that is obviously going to happen because of all the sugar and salt that was pumped into the child. These are the things parents are not aware of. Another thing is sleep. Many parents do not know that children require nine hours of sleep and if they don’t get those nine hours, their brain’s ability to remember and the immune system become weak. It is important that parents get educated about these simple things so they can stop unknowingly harming their child.”
Thus, ECCE becomes a support for parents and families, and aims at building stronger, healthier and happier communities. Ultimately, the purpose of ECCE is to nurture caring, responsible and capable future citizens.
Early Childhood Association, India says… Our Goal is advocacy for stress free childhood years, after all this is the right of every chil. We want to touch the lives of all those who affect the lives and learning of children – be it teachers, parents, policy makers, entrepreneurs media.
UNESCO’s approach is reinforced in the Education 2030 agenda and in particular in target 4.2 of Sustainable Development Goal 4 which aims at ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education, by 2030, so that they are ready for primary education.
concludes the joint UNICEF-OECD-UNESCO blog.
In this way, Early Childhood Care and Education is one of the most valuable investments a nation can make to promote human resource development, reduce gender inequality and social cohesion, while reducing the costs for later remedial programmes. For disadvantaged children, such programmes play an important role in compensating for their hardships as well as in combating educational inequalities.
Thus, ECCE is education that is fundamental to an individual’s development; it has the ability to significantly affect the later years of an individual’s life as well as the nation. The sole purpose of ECCE is to help children live their best lives.
We must place quality pre-primary education at the heart of education plans and policies across countries
Once upon a time, presentations meant Powerpoint. And using Powerpoint meant excellent presentation skills, creativity, and maybe some designing skills. In this article, we feature 5 of the best free tools teachers can use to create awesome slideshows and presentations. These cool tools will be of great help to the teacher with minimal demands.
CEducators can use Canva’s web based tool to design stunning presentations that will engage their students. Canva’s free presentation software contains hundreds of beautifully designed layouts to create presentations on any topic. Making a interesting presentation is as simple as choosing the perfect images (over 1 million stock images are available), fonts and colors. Check out Canva’s teaching materials for more inspiration.
Using Google Slides, educators can create, edit and present wherever and whenever they need. This free tool from Google contains a variety of presentation themes, hundreds of fonts, embedded video, animations, and more. It gives the teacher the ability to access, create, and edit presentations on the go — from a phone, tablet, or computer
Emaze is an online content creation technology which enables educators to create beautiful content design within minutes. While initially just presentations, emaze is now a creation tool for beautifully designed social hub websites, blogs, ecards and photo albums. All in minutes and for free. different concept of “separating the content from the design”. The teacher needs to think of the information she wants to put on her slides, as if writing a draft. Slidebean will then generate an awesome design automatically. This way you can focus on what matters most: your ideas.
GMicrosoft’s Office Sway is an Office 365 app that helps educators and students express ideas using an interactive, web-based canvas. Sway’s design engine helps users quickly and easily produce professional, interactive, and visually appealing designs from images, text, documents, videos, maps, and more. Sway is not just a web-based clone of PowerPoint (for that you have Powerpoint online),
15 WAYS TO REDEFINE EDUCATION AND MAKE IT MORERELATABLERELEVANT, AND USERFRIENDLY
ONE OF THE MOST PROFOUND STATEMENTS THAT WE HEAR ESPECIALLY FROM THE EDUCATIONISTS THE WORLD OVER, REFERS TO “EDUCATION” AS THE MOST POWERFUL MEANS OF EMPOWERMENT.
In simple words, it should mean that an individual, after getting educated, is in a position to lead a meaningful and productive life, and is fully equipped to face and indeed, solve all challenges that life brings. It, therefore, presupposes that “Education” a person goes through during the formative years of his life, has a strong connect with real-life situations and that he acquires the necessary skills to handle them.
WE ALL KNOW THAT THIS IS FAR FROM THE TRUTH.
The paradigm of education currently is structured only to score marks, prepare for competitions and is essentially directed towards facilitating better livelihood. Let us objectively examine the possibility of bringing in certain specific interventions and changes that will make “Education” more meaningful.
It has a lot of widths and by the time you move on to the last chapter, the earlier ones have been forgotten. So what is important is the depth on the subject and not the width. Shorter and meaningful content would ensure better assimilation and encourage critical thinking. A syllabus should be structured in such a way that it has pace, progression and challenge.
OVER THE CONTENT IN ALL SUBJECTS AND DISCARD THE PERIPHERAL AND INESSENTIAL COMPONENTS. This would require some application but is worth the effort. The content should be relatable to real-life challenges and culturally relevant.
MUST CARRY OUT A COMPREHENSIVE EXERCISE IN CURRICULUM PROGRESSION AND ALIGNMENT so that subject-specific content, moves from one class to the next in in a seamless manner. A detailed exercise in curriculum mapping should be undertaken to ensure that it becomes outcome-driven.
4. WHILE TEACHING AND ALL ASSOCIATED PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES MUST FOCUS ON LEARNING AS THE PRIMARY FOCUS a parallel assessment protocol must be put in place to ensure that learning is, indeed happening. Our neural system is structured to be a trifle repetitive to store information for a longer duration. Hence revision of what is being taught and learnt is strongly recommended.
5. AS MENTIONED EARLIER, EVERY SUBJECT HAS A STRONG SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH REAL-LIFE SITUATIONS.
Integrating that aspect should be an essential part of the content and pedagogy.
THE TEACHERS IN THE PRESENT CONTEXT MUST ACT AS FACILITATORS, GUIDING STUDENTS FOR CONCEPT CLARITY AND ANALYTICAL THINKING. Information and data are available aplenty on the digital platforms and is easily accessible. Teachers must build up their own high order thinking and analytical skills to create the right perspective for their wards.
8. THE COURSEBOOK WRITERS AND PUBLISHERS ALSO NEED TO DO SOME RESEARCH WITH A VIEW TO INCORPORATE REAL-LIFE CONNECT AT THE END OF EACH CHAPTER. It will then become easy to remember and co-relate all the learning with real-life situations. Students will not easily forget that.
STRONG LEARNING HAPPENS ONLY BY DOING. LECTURES AND DISCUSSIONS ON THE TOPICS SHOULD, WHEREVER FEASIBLE, BE FOLLOWED BY PROJECT WORK RELATED TO THE SUBJECT. Teachers need to innovate. Project-based learning is gaining greater relevance.
Technology will continue to be a powerful tool for achieving tasks with greater precision and efficiency, but problem-solving skills will have to become an integral part of the education process.
to determine effective pedagogies, student learning and identify areas of improvement.
People will have to learn to be kind, compassionate, sensible and sensitive to one another, to society, environment and to the world at large. Without this, the entire education edifice of great intellectual or scholastic content will become meaningless.
Study of science and arts need not be in separate streams. Both complement each other for creating a paradigm of holistic education. For instance, music is not limited to be a hobby which is just an add-on. It can be the basis of a fulfilling life-long profession, and also help a student in understanding principles of science and mathematics. (Some of the greatest scientists in history have been great musicians. Artists and painters understood, maths, geometry, dimensions and astronomy as good, or even better than mathematicians and astronomers.) There is no reason why these can’t be started at the school level.
It is also not advisable to overemphasise the relevance and importance of soft skills. These must necessarily become an integral part of the holistic and wholesome education. Soft skills can be learned, imbibed and practised at an early stage of one’s life. Later in life, it is a bit too hard to learn them, leave alone practice them.
Our upbringing, our cultural ethos, sensitivity, habits, a span of attention, and all other factors that have an important bearing on learning are vastly different. We need to consciously start working on creating a differentiated curriculum to address the needs of individual students. The concept of “One size fit all” in the context of education is an anachronism.
10. THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF EDUCATION WILL NECESSARILY FALL WITHIN THE DOMAIN OF SOCIO-EMOTIONAL LEARNING.
11. WE ALSO NEED TO DEVELOP SUITABLE ALGORITHMS WITH THE HELP OF DATA ANALYTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
IT IS TIME TO REVISIT AND REDEFINE EDUCATION SO THAT IT BECOMES MORE RELEVANT, RELATABLE AND USERFRIENDLY.
Given the pervasive impact of technology in education, many ed-tech companies have started offering courses, tutorials, coaching for competitive exams, etc. in an online mode.
In this background, the parents, students and all stakeholders in school education have to be careful while deciding on opting for online content and coaching being offered by a host of Ed-tech companies. The decision has to be well considered with several Do’s and Don’ts.
Most importantly, the offer of free services that are promised by some companies has to be carefully evaluated. It has come to the notice of the Department of School Education and Literacy that some ed-tech companies are luring parents in the garb of offering free services and getting the Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) mandate signed or activating the Auto-debit feature, especially targeting the vulnerable families.
Following are some do’s and don’ts which the stakeholders of the education ecosystem may follow:
• Avoid Automatic debit option for payment of subscription fee: Some ed-tech companies may offer the Free-Premium business model where a lot of their services might seem to be free at first glance but to gain continuous learning access, students have to opt for a paid subscription. Activation of auto-debit may result in a child accessing the paid features without realizing that he/she is no longer accessing the free services offered by the ed-tech company.
• Do read the terms and conditions before acknowledging the acceptance of learning software/device as your IP address and/or personal data may be tracked.
• Ask for a tax invoice statement for the purchase of educational devices loaded with contents/app purchase/Pendrive learning.
• Do a detailed background check of the ed-tech company that you want to subscribe to.
• Do verify the quality of the content provided by the ed-tech companies and make sure that it is in line with the syllabus and your scope of study and is easily comprehensible by your child.
• Do clarify all your doubts/questions regarding the payment and content before investing any amount for your child’s learning in any ed-tech company.
• Activate parental controls and safety features on the device or in the app or browser as it helps restrict access to certain content and limit spending on app purchases.
• Help your child understand that some features in education apps are used to encourage more spending. Talk to them about possible marketing strategies used by Ed-tech companies and the consequences.
• Look for student/parent reviews online on the ed-tech company for any registered grievance and marketing gimmicks. Also, provide your suggestions and reviews which may be beneficial for others.
• Record the evidence of spam calls/ /forced signup for any education packages without complete consent for filing a grievance.
• Go through the child safety guidelines mentioned in the PRAGYATA guidelines by the Ministry of Education before using any ed-tech platform. (https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/ files/pragyata-guidelines_0.pdf)
• Do not blindly trust the advertisements of the ed-tech companies.
• Do not sign up for any loans of which you are not aware.
• Do not install any mobile ed-tech applications without verifying the authenticity.
• Avoid credit/debit cards registration on apps for subscriptions. Place an upper limit on expenditure per transaction.
• Avoid adding your data like emails, contact numbers, card details, addresses etc. online as the data may be sold or used for later scam attacks.
• Do not share any personal videos and photos. Use caution against turning on the video feature or getting on video calls on an unverified platform. Keep your child’s safety at the utmost priority.
• Do not subscribe to unverified courses because of their false promises.
• Do not trust the “Success stories” shared by the ed-tech companies without proper check as they might be a trap to gather more audience.
• Do not allow purchases without parental consent. To avoid in-app purchases; OTP based payment methods may be adopted as per RBI’s guidelines.
• Do not share your bank account details and OTP number with any marketing personnel. Beware of cyber fraudulent.
• Do not click on links or open any attachments or pop-up screens from sources you are not familiar with.
The legal provisions for e-commerce firms are being reiterated here for information to citizens who are consumers of EDTECH services.
Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 were notified by the MINISTRY OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (Department of Consumer Affairs) vide NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, dated 23rd July, 2020
https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/sites/ default/files/E%20commerce%20rules. pdf
At present, Ed-tech companies have seen rapid growth thereby increasing the number of students/teachers subscribing to their learning platform. The increasing number also means that platforms must be careful about the claims made regarding the services offered. It is very much evident that the Ed-tech companies which may be considered e-commerce entities have to comply with the Rules to prevent any untoward liability in the future and need to establish a dedicated mechanism in place to check for compliance with the law.
• No e-commerce entity shall adopt any unfair trade (marketing) practice, whether in the course of business on its platform or otherwise.
• No e-commerce company shall falsely represent itself as a subscriber and post reviews about its products or misrepresent the quality or the features of any educational content and its learning tools.
• Every e-commerce entity shall endeavour on a best effort basis to become a partner in the convergence process of the National Consumer Helpline of the Central Government.
• All Ed-tech companies are supposed to have a grievance officer and the name and contact numbers, and designation of the grievance officer who must be resident in India, to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Act or the rules made thereunder for grievance redressal or for reporting any other matter; to be displayed on the platform or website and ensure that the grievance officer acknowledges the receipt of any consumer complaint within forty-eight hours and redresses the complaint within one month from the date of receipt of the complaint.
• No e-commerce entity shall manipulate the price of the products/courses offered on its platform in such a manner as to
gain unreasonable profit by imposing on consumers any unjustified price having regard to the prevailing market conditions, the essential nature of the course, any extraordinary circumstances under which the course is offered, and any other relevant consideration in determining whether the price charged is justified; and discriminate between subscribers of the same class or make any arbitrary classification collecting their personal data/breaching privacy through unfair means affecting their rights under the Act.
• Every e-commerce entity shall only record the consent of a consumer for the educational product offered on its platform where such consent is expressed through an explicit and affirmative action, and no such entity shall record such consent automatically, including in the form of pre-ticked checkboxes.
• Every e-commerce entity shall effect all payments towards accepted refund requests of the consumers as prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India or any other competent authority under any law for the time being in force, within a reasonable period, or as prescribed under applicable laws.
Further to complying with the general rules of ASCI’s Code for Self-Regulation in advertising, the advertisements of Educational Institutions including the Ed-tech companies and Programs shall comply with the following guidelines:
The advertisement shall not state or lead the public to believe that an institution or course or program is official, recognized, authorized, accredited, approved, registered, affiliated, endorsed or has a legally defined situation unless the advertiser can substantiate with evidence.
(a) An advertisement offering a Degree or Diploma or Certificate which by law requires to be recognized or approved by an Authority shall have the name of that Authority specified for that particular field.
(b) In case the advertised Institution or Program is not recognized or approved by any mandatory Authority but is affiliated to another Institution, which is approved or recognized by a mandatory Authority, then the full name and location of the said Affiliating Institution shall also be stated in the advertisement.
(c) The name of the Affiliating Institution, as indicated in 2(b), shall not be less than 50% of the font size as that of the advertised Institution or Program in visual media such as print, internet, hoarding, leaflet, prospectus etc., including television. In audio media such as radio or TV the name of the Affiliating institution (if applicable), must be stated.
The advertisement shall not state or lead the public to believe that enrolment in the institution or program or preparation course or coaching classes will provide the student with a temporary or permanent job, admissions to institutions, job promotions, salary increase etc. unless the advertiser can submit substantiation to such claim. In addition, the advertisement must carry a disclaimer stating ‘past record is no guarantee of future job prospects.’ The font size of the disclaimer should not be less than the size of the claim being made in the advertisements.
(a) Advertisement shall not make claims regarding extent of the passing batch placed, the highest or average compensation of the students placed, enrolment of students, admissions of students to renowned educational institutes, marks and ranking of students passed out, testimonial of topper students, institution’s or its program’s competitive ranking, size and qualification of its faculty, affiliation with a foreign institution, Institute’s infrastructure, etc. unless they are of the latest completed academic year and substantiated with evidence.
(b) Advertisement stating competitive rank of the
institution or its program shall also provide full name and date of the publication or medium which released the rankings.
(c) Visual infrastructure of the Institution shown in the advertisement shall be real and exist at the time of the advertisement’s release.
(d) Testimonial of toppers in an advertisement shall be from students who have participated in the testimony program, exams or subject only from the advertising institute.
(e) An advertisement stating the number of passing out students placed for jobs shall also state the total number of students passing out from the placed class.
Government initiatives that may also be explored before the purchase of content: Free e-learning contents/textbooks/digital labs/ for all classes have been made available online ensuring quality and access for all by the Ministry of Education, its autonomous organisations, and all States/UTs which may be effectively used for learning and can be accessed here (but not limited to).
• https://diksha.gov.in/
• http://www.olabs.edu.in/
• https://swayam.gov.in/
• https://www.nios.ac.in/
• SWAYAM PRABHA TV Channels for class 1 to 12-
• https://www.swayamprabha.gov.in/index.php/ schooledu
• Official Learning portals/apps of the States/UTs
To Report any Untoward Incident, May please use the following links:
• https://ascionline.in/
• https://consumerhelpline.gov.in/
• https://pgportal.gov.in/
In the time of COVID-19 when classes have moved from desks to screens, how will the kids stay engaged without being glued to a gadget? Singapore-located Canadian International School understands that besides online classes, kids also require to indulge in personal, off-screen activities to develop observational skills.
Keeping that in consideration, the school has come up with fun and educative learn-while-playing activities that will not only keep them engaged but also encourage their observational, questioning, and creative skills. Take a look at these gadget-free activities:
This activity will help boost kids’ observational and creative skills. Here, you need to ask them to go around the house and porch/ garden and observe different patterns. They can either draw or record them and further use it to design a new item – can be a dress, table covers, cushion covers, anything.
Let them imagine and create a fun world of their own. Give them a pair of glasses and ask how would it change the objects around them? Let the glasses work like a magic wand that converts objects as they wish. For example, when they wear those glasses, objects around them can be musical instruments that they’d want to play.
At a time where they are unable to meet teachers and friends, help them build their oration and connectionbuilding skills with this activity. They can pick any object in and outside the house and frame questions that they would want to ask the object. And, finish with answers written as the object.
This one is to keep them busy as they rack their brains. Ask them to choose an object and notice 100 things about it. Pattern, colour, shape, existence, purpose, and many more and list them down.
ScooNews recommends and champions this idea of engaging kids in off-screen activities as they trigger them to think out of the box, learn beyond the lines of textbooks, and develop a connection with nature. Moreover, they bring a sense of normalcy with online classes balanced with offline activities.
Source: ScandAsia
