ScooNews - April 2018 - Digital Edition by ScooNews

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think

Volume 2 Issue 9 April 2018 CHANGING TEACHERS’ LIVES EVERYDAY, EVERY WAY!

Margaret Mead

STRAIGHT

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TALK

Editor Nichola Pais Deputy Editor Parvathy Jayakrishnan Assistant Editor Anjana Deepak Reporter Ashima Sharma, Anuj Kr. Website Team Vaibhav Ramchandani, Pranav Sharma, Ojas Godatwar, Gaurang Mandhana Art Direction Rexsu Cherry Design CP Sharma Editorial Advisor Dr Swati Popat Vats, President, Podar Education

Nichola Pais

Inspiring Education

Network & President- Early Childhood Association India

Meenakshi Uberoi, Education Evangelist, Microsoft Innovative Educator Trainer and founder, De Pedagogics

Anand Kumar, Founder, Super 30 programme Dr Neeta Bali, Director - Principal and Head of School at G D Goenka World School, Noida

Nishi Misra, Principal, Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Gwalior Geeta Dharmarajan, Founder & President, Katha Dr Jagpreet Singh, Headmaster, The Punjab Public School, Nabha

Sandeep Dutt, Founder & Chairman, Learning Forward India

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f you agree that we live in a world whose future is largely unstable and complex, you will concur that we need to equip our children with lifeskills and learning that far exceed the conventional three R’s or even just tech competence. Clinging on to narrow thought processes and outdated methods would be an enormous wasted opportunity to prepare our future generations for a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA).April 2, educators from across the country gather at the ScooNews EdBrainstorm with Professor Sugata Mitra in Mumbai to discuss and debate what should go into the building of the Indian School of the Future. The sparks are bound to fly as differing viewpoints and multiple suggestions are shared about the Evolution of Learning Environments. From the deliberations, we hope, will emerge a clearer blueprint of the dos and don’ts of our schools of the future. How to create systems that empower learners to be flexible yet remain rooted in an ever changing environment… How to develop skills, core competencies and out of the box thinking… how to improve learning, communicating… how to make the learning atmosphere more relaxed, open and non-threatening… how to cater to individuals, keeping in mind their unique interest, capacity and pace of learning… These are a few of the essential points that will be pondered.With the brilliant yet uncomplicated educationist, Prof Sugata Mitra spearheading this EdBrainstorm, the takeaway will be enormous. Hailed worldwide for his unconventional wisdom and work in the realm of self-learning, he has created never-seen-before breakthroughs and disruptions. From the Hole in the Wall, to Self Organised Learning Environments, to the Granny Cloud, his ongoing work is inspirational on many levels.As we learn how to equip children with that most important 21st century skill - knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do – Prof Sugata, as the kids these days say, da man!Here’s to learning and light!

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April 2018

CONTENTS

12 COVER

Professor Sugata Mitra

METHOD TO THE MAGIC Best known or his Hole in the Wall experiment and widely cited in works on literacy and education, Prof Sugata Mitra’s belief in the power of self-organized learning to shape the future of education is immensely inspiring.

SCOONEWS RECOGNISED AS NO. 1 START-UP AT RAJASTHAN IT DAY

30 GESS Dubai 2018 :

24 Sugata Mitra Great Reads The Write Stuff !

A Phenomenon Called Sugata Mitra

Brimming with Educational Excellence

34 Evolution of Learning Environments - How Educationists would build I-SoF

HE SAID IT! : A selection of some of Prof Sugata Mitra’s seemingly sensational yet deeply sensible quotes

The excitement is palpable. Educationists across the country prepare to gather at the ScooNews EdBrainstorm with Professor Sugata Mitra on April 2 in Mumbai. It will be a smorgasbord...

TECH IT OUT : Best Classroom Management Apps and Gadgets

April 2018

YOURS TRULY LIT LOVE

TIMELY INFORMATION

‘TWO’ GOOD!

I read with interest the news that since the past six years, SNDP Higher Secondary School, Udayamperoor, Kochi has been undertaking various innovative programmes to introduce their students to writers and their works. One of their first initiatives was converting every classroom into a museum dedicated to a specific writer. They have museums dedicated to M T Vasudevan Nair, Kamala Surayya and many others. In fact, in the last academic year, the school made all 3,000 students represent one book they read as a graphic or even as a quote on a large canvas. This government-aided school also brings in renowned writers for interactive sessions with students. In these times of shrinking attention spans, where our children are losing touch with literature and reading, this is a great way to inculcate a love for reading in young minds. Keep up the good work, SNDP! Amina Ansari, Mumbai

It has been stressed enough at my son's school and probably in schools across the country as to how important it is to have well equipped sick rooms. With your article about how equipped infirmaries at schools need to be, I hope schools start taking notice and do the needful. Eventually, the onus is on both, the school management and us, parents to ensure a fully functional infirmary. George Varghese, Bangalore

The Take 2 section in your magazine is really an interesting compilation of books, media and inspiration. I just loved the “Did You Know?” and motivational quotes sections in your March 2018 issue. Bikramaditya Bornil, Guwahati

TECH CUES I love your magazines, whenever a new one comes out I skip right to the Tech Focus section – great to see ‘Immersive Learning' featured in the March 2018 issue. As an educator, I loved the interesting and extraordinary facts about technologies used in this and what’s in it for teachers. Samir Kumar, Ranchi

FRESH PERSPECTIVES I am very impressed with the content of the magazine and the way it is presented. With all the up to date information about education, I am now able to keep abreast of what is going on. This is helping me look at things differently when it comes to my child's education. Preetha Ramachandran, Cochin

PREPARING FOR EMERGENCIES The article highlighting the importance of first-aid in schools was very informative. I have even printed a copy and kept it at home to educate my wife and children about the same. It is important that we adults learn to administer proper and timely first-aid ourselves and teach our children too. Emergencies come without warning, after all! Gopinath K, Bengaluru

WOMEN & CHANGE

RELEVANT READ ScooNews magazine is so awesome! All the different articles and features make it interesting. I really enjoyed the cover story on Women’s Day and all the facts and quotes. However the Straight Talk (editorial) is my favourite. It raises and discusses such relevant subjects in a resolute and appropriate manner. Ramana Raghava, Kochi

It is indeed great to know that women are being empowered to bring in change. It is high time women are given the responsibility and recognition they deserve. Women educators taking over high positions is indeed a welcome change and the first step to bringing gender equality in the profession. Madhur Rao, Hyderabad

INSPIRATION GALORE First of all, let me congratulate you on a fabulous cover. The red bindilike dot encapsulating the theme of the month’s issue was powerful, complemented by the hands of women educators raised in empowerment. As an educator myself, it was inspiring to read the views of women educators. I have never ever felt my women colleagues to be wanting in any way as professionals. In fact, they are generally even more driven and conscientious than males! We need to help share the responsibility of home and kids in order to give them the space and time to truly grow and shine. Aman Nath, Rourkela

FEE CAP The Bengal government could be unveiling a new suggested fee structure for schools affiliated to CISCE, CBSE and the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) this academic session. The proposals which have been drafted by the selfregulatory commission will be placed before chief minister Mamata Banerjee by the end of April and could be ready by MayJune. Apparently, private schools have been classified into four or five categories and placed in separate bands of fee structures. I think this is a good trend though it remains to be seen how well it will be implemented. Akhil Yadav, Surat

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April 2018

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TRENDING

Gujarati compulsory in all state govt. schools

For the academic year 20182019, Gujarati will be introduced as a compulsory language for classes 1 and 2. This decision was made to promote the language by the state government. It will be implemented across all the different boards through the states including CBSE, ICSE and international boards and in English medium schools. State education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said that the basics of the language will be introduced for classes 1 and 2 and will be made

compulsory for classes 3-8 in a phased manner. “The move will increase pride in Gujarati as a language as all children studying in Gujarat will be conversant with the local language. The state has taken a cue from most states across India where local language is compulsorily taught in primary schools,” said Chudasama. The education minister added, “The decision will also help improve the standard of language in the state as it is a matter of grave concern that a large number of local students fail in Gujarati language paper in class X.” It needs mention that on an average 20% of the 10 lakh-odd students who appear for SSC boards have failed in Gujarati language paper in the past few years. Currently Gujarati is introduced in class 5 in English medium schools affiliated with Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) while it is offered as an optional subject in CBSE schools in classes 5-10. In ICSE schools, Gujarati is taught as an optional subject in classes 6-10. School managements across the state welcomed the move.

Only NCERT prescribed subjects for CBSE schools CBSE schools should follow only the NCERT prescribed subjects and no additional subjects should be included in the curriculum, the Madras High Court has said. As per the petition - NCERT syllabus prescribed only three subjects for Class 1 under CBSE - mother tongue, English and mathematics; however in practice, the Class 1 children are forced to study up to eight subjects, including computer science, general knowledge and Hindi. NCERT has also specifically stated that schools should not give homework to children of Class 1 and 2; again in reality, these rules are flouted and homework is made compulsory not only in CBSE but also in state boards, he added. Taking note of the submission, Justice Kirubakaran insisted that the board had a mechanism to make inspections and verify whether schools are following NCERT syllabus. To this the board said they had no financial assistance to implement the Acts enacted by the central and state governments. The judge directed the assistant solicitor general to get instructions from the central government and inform the court by March 27.

Only 20% Nigerian children can read after primary school

The World Development Report 2018: ‘Learning to Realize Education’s Promise’ was co-launched in Abuja by the World Bank Group, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Education. The report calls for greater measurement, action on evidence, and coordination of all education actors. “Millions of young students in low and middleincome countries face the prospect of lost opportunity and lower wages in later life because their primary and secondary schools are failing to educate them to succeed in life,” the report noted. It warned of a looming ‘learning crisis’ in global education, pointing out that “schooling without learning was not just a wasted development opportunity, but also a great injustice to children and young people worldwide.” “Even after several years in school, millions of children cannot read, write or do basic math. This learning crisis is widening social gaps instead of narrowing them. Young students who are already disadvantaged by poverty, conflict, gender or disability reach young adulthood without even the most basic life skills,” it noted. “Among young adults in Nigeria, only about 20 percent of those who complete primary education can read,” the report said. World Bank lead economists, Deon Filmer and Halsey Rogers, who co-directed the report team, said although the diagnosis in the report was disheartening, it should not be interpreted to mean all was lost, but that only too many young people are not getting the education they need. “Learning shortfalls eventually show up as weak skills in the workforce, making it less likely that young people will find good-paying, satisfying jobs. But change is possible, if systems commit to learning, drawing on examples of families, educators, communities, and systems that have made real progress,” they said in joint statement. They said education remained critical to global development and human welfare in every society, especially for Africa and indeed for Nigeria, given the state of its development. The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, said the Muhammadu Buhari administration had initiated several strategies to tackle the problems of education in the country. They include the N-Power programme, the home-grown School Feeding Programme, to reduce the number of out of school children and also the World Bank sponsored Better Education Service Delivery for All Programme designed to bring out-ofschool-children into the classroom.

April 2018

TRENDING Toyota teaches road safety to over 700,000 school children

As part of the Toyota Safety Education Programme (TSEP) to include safe road behaviour in children and youth, a special road safety awareness programme was curated in New Delhi. This Toyota Kirloskar Motor [TKM] initiative, in association with Delhi Traffic Polic and IL&FS Education and Technology Services Ltd, was part of its safety crusader mission. This all-India TSEP program recommends the need for early training of young minds to create a positive behavioural change, leading towards making Indian roads safer. Organized at Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi, more than 250 school children from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, along with stakeholders such as the World Health Organization (WHO), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Delhi Traffic Police, Hospitals, NGOs and others attended the programme. It included a series of educative and interactive sessions like quiz programs, demonstrations and skit competitions to educate children on citizen’s rights on the city road and the subject of road safety with the aim to instil safety routines as children’s daily habits. The programme also provided a good platform to spread road safety awareness to the masses at large. Road safety is a growing concern given that as many as 146,000 people lost their lives in 460,000 road accidents across the country last year. That equals roughly 400 deaths a day. The programme emphasises on road safety aspects, while also including feedback received from the schools. It focuses on sustainability and aims to bring about attitudinal change through multiple intervention, with different age group based modules [to cover Grade 6 to Grade 9]. Pursuing its deep rooted safety mission, Toyota Kirloskar Motor has been consistently engaged in Road Safety initiatives since 2005 through various all- India campaigns. The safety initiatives under CSR include campaigns, which target even children to start awareness at an early age.

April 2018

25 million child marriages prevented in last decade

There has been a 15 percent decline in the last decade of child marriages across the globe, with several countries seeing the decrease of women being married as children. The largest decline has been seen in South Asia in the last 10 years as a girl’s risk of marrying before her 18th birthday has dropped by more than a third, from nearly 50 per cent to 30 per cent, in large part due to progress in India. Increasing rates of girls’ education, proactive government investments in adolescent girls, and strong public messaging around the illegality of child marriage and the harm it causes are among the reasons for the shift. “When a girl is forced to marry as a child, she faces immediate and lifelong consequences. Her odds of finishing school decrease while her odds of being abused by her husband and suffering complications during pregnancy increase. There are also huge societal consequences, and higher risk of intergenerational cycles of poverty,” said Anju Malhotra, UNICEF’s Principal Gender Advisor. “Given the life-altering impact child marriage has on a young girl’s life, any reduction is welcome news, but we’ve got a long way to go.” Malhotra added, “Each and every child marriage prevented gives another girl the chance to fulfil her potential. But given the world has pledged to end child marriage by 2030, we’re going to have to collectively redouble efforts to prevent millions of girls from having their childhoods stolen through this devastating practice.” Worldwide, an estimated 650 million women alive today were married as children. While South Asia has led the way on reducing child marriage over the last decade, the global burden of child marriage is shifting to sub-Saharan Africa, where rates of progress need to be scaled up dramatically to offset population growth. Of the most recently married child brides, close to 1 in 3 are now in sub-Saharan Africa, compared to 1 in 5 a decade ago. New data also points to the possibility of progress on the African continent. In Ethiopia – once among the top five countries for child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa – the prevalence has dropped by a third in the last 10 years.

AP first to be disasterready with school safety curriculum State HRD Minister, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, launched the book, Comprehensive School Safety, which would be part of the curriculum of government and private schools of Andhra Pradesh. The minister lauded the education department’s initiative to integrate safety and protection of the children, along with awareness on

Now school kids advise parents to use helmets City-based educationist Geetika Saluja has undertaken an initiative to spread awareness among children in more than 20 schools in Ahmedabad about the importance of wearing helmets. She explains, “The idea was to not just educate children about traffic safety. It was to ensure their safety as well. We conducted workshops to encourage students to wear helmets even when they ride pillion with their parents as the habit of wearing a helmet won’t come instantly as they turn 18 and get a driving licence.” Saluja also enabled the distribution of 3,000 helmets to students, which they could claim after showing a copy of a parent’s driving licence. The habit is catching on and many students of these schools are now spotted wearing helmets when they ride their bicycles to schools. “It is heartening to see how the kids not just put on helmets themselves but also encouraged their parents to do so,” says Geetika. Parents reveal that often they would neglect wearing a helmet, especially for short distances. However, after attending the workshop and being informed by their children about the safety of both the rider and the pillion rider, a change has set in. Most of them now ensure that they, as well as their companions, wear helmets when on the road. The students attended a series of traffic safety and awareness workshops organised for them and their parents.

disaster management, which includes ‘disaster risk reduction’ in the school education system. He also released the Teachers’ Reference Book, which would help teachers teach students the new subject. He took pride that the state government was the first in the country to come up with disaster management curriculum at school level.

The Department of School Education and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Andhra Pradesh, in technical collaboration with Save the Children and support from NOKIA, developed ‘India’s first’ comprehensive school safety curriculum for Andhra Pradesh in Telugu language.

HRD Ministry invites suggestions on rationalising curriculum The Ministry of Human Resource Development has invited suggestions on rationalising curriculum for class I to XII to ensure all round development of students. The Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar has said that there is an urgent need to rationalise the school curriculum because the objective of education is to prepare a good human being from the system. Along with academic education, life skills, experiential learning, physical education and creative skills are needed. We need to develop the system where students get time for each of this and can progress in the areas which he or she likes most, therefore there is continuous demand of rationalisation of syllabus which many people believe is too heavy and inappropriate for age, Javadekar explained. The HRD Minister has urged all stakeholders including teachers, headmasters, school management, educationalists, parents, students, NGO’s, experts, public representatives and anybody who has interest and opinion on this issue to send their suggestions. The objective of seeking suggestions is to make the content more balanced in various subjects offered from class 1 to class 12 as prescribed by NCERT/CBSE.

April 2018

TRENDING Shaheen School crafts success for Urdu-speaking students

In inspiring news, Shaheen School in Bidar town of North Karnataka has been aiding Urdu-speaking Madrasa pass-out students to embrace mainstream education system and beat competitive exams. Set up to provide quality education to Urdu-speaking students in their mother tongue, the Urdu medium school, Shaheen has turned more than 900 students into doctors in the last 15 years. Students from the school have been consistently bagging government medical seats in the state since 2008. In fact, in the academic year 2016-17, no less than 201 students bagged medical seats in Bidar, of which seven students

(five girls and two boys) had done their schooling in Urdu medium. Similarly, in the academic years 2014-15 and 201516, eleven students each from Urdumedium grabbed MBBS seats. Of these, 17 were girls and five boys. Urdu is not a language of choice for schooling even among the Urdu-speaking masses. Most students from Urdumedium schools are from underprivileged Muslim families. Students find it particularly helpful that lecturers explain difficult concepts of Physics and Chemistry in Urdu. In 2013, the school was given the Rajyotsava award by the Karnataka government. Shaheen School’s records are a source of admiration across the state.

Yoga to replace detention in US school

April 2018

Doull Elementary is tackling punishment innovateily. They are dedicating every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, time slots reserved for detention, to yoga classes. The aim of introducing the new 'punishment' system is to teach kids how to deal with anger and other strong emotions, something that can bear fruit in all walks of life. What's more important - punishing kids for a mistake they made or teaching them some skills that they can actually use in life and not make the same mistakes again, asks

The school had been founded by Abdul Qadeer, 58, in a small room near his house way back in 1989. From those early days, the school has now swelled to occupy a new campus on the outskirts of the city, spread over four acres of land with a residential hostel facility, website and a toll-free telephone number. More than 11,000 students are stud ying in more than 30 Shaheen institutes across India, including UP, Bihar, Telangana and Maharashtra. Shaheen’s skill to win medical seats has seen it attract students from as far as Canada and West Asia, apart from across India.

school psychologist Carly Graeber. She said, “Studies are all so important to us here, but also we're really in the business of teaching kids social and emotional skills that they can use for their lives, so how to solve problems, how to deal with complicated feelings, and things like that.” Yoga, with its origin tracing back to India, has long been known to enhance a person's flexibility, allow for better control of the breath and is backed by research to ease symptoms of ADHD and boost performance in school.

Need for happiness curriculum in India schools According to the 2017 World Happiness Report, India stands abysmally low at 122 out of the 155 countries evaluated. In a developing country like India, there ought to be an increasing amount of competition as the knowledge horizons widen for people and opportunities remain limited. The report calls for attention as one of the fastest growing economies in the world is slowly turning out to be a sad place to live in. The need to have a ‘Happiness Curriculum’ in Indian schools arises so as to create a happy environment from early childhood. A visible action in this direction is the recent announcement by the Delhi government on the launch of ‘Happiness Curriculum’ in government schools for Nursery to Class 8 students from the

coming academic session. The Delhi government has formed a team of experts, including school teachers and principals, to prepare a framework for the happiness curriculum. This curriculum is expected to be purely activity based and no formal examinations would be conducted. However, every child will have a periodical assessment to see the child’s progress using the

happiness index. The motive behind the launch of Happiness Curriculum is to educate people that the purpose of education is not just to push students continuously to get good marks but it is also to create an environment where a student is happy, confident and self-aware. Hence, the need of the hour is to implement ‘Happiness Curriculum’ in schools.

Indian parents spend most time with kids’ homework

Something we have always suspected has now been proved true… A new worldwide education study indicates that Indian parents are the most keen to spend time with their children on schoolwork. They are most likely to help their children with their education at 95 per cent and they also reported to spend longer helping their children with schoolwork, with 62 per cent spending seven or more hours a week. The Global Parents Survey, commissioned by UK-based Varkey Foundation compared attitudes and priorities of over 27,000 parents across 29 countries. Indian parents are also the most optimistic about education standards in the country, the study revealed. What’s more, nearly three-quarters (72

per cent) of Indian parents felt that education standards have improved in the last 10 years. This figure is higher than any other country surveyed. A whopping 87 per cent of Indian parents also rated the quality of teaching at their child’s school as good, compared with a global average of 78 per cent. Indian parents were also the most optimistic of all the countries surveyed about their child’s school preparing them for the future. No less than 88 per cent felt their child’s school is preparing them well for the world of 2030 and beyond. Vikas Pota, Chief Executive of the Varkey Foundation, pointed out, “Despite headlines of funding shortfalls and educational failure around

the world, it is remarkable to see how much faith parents have in the quality of teaching at their child’s school.” The research, he added, also shows that parents, especially in emerging economies, are taking their role in education seriously by devoting many hours a week to help their child out of school. “It is the duty of governments to support parents by ensuring that under pressure school budgets are protected, and by reversing the cuts in education aid in the poorest parts of the world,” Pota added. The findings, which are based on an online poll by IPSOS, are published ahead of the Varkey Foundations annual Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF), to be held in Dubai.

April 2018

COVER STORY

PROFESSOR SUGATA MITRA

METHOD TO THE MAGIC 12

April 2018

Best known for his Hole in the Wall experiment and widely cited in works on literacy and education, Prof Sugata Mitraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s belief in the power of self-organized learning to shape the future of education is immensely inspiring. April 2018

COVER STORY

Parvathy Jayakrishnan editor@scoonews.com

ducation scientist and researcher, Professor Sugata Mitra is a name that gets anyone and everyone in the field of education and pedagogy excited and thrilled. He is synonymous with adjectives like out of the box, fresh and innovative. He is best known for his Hole in the Wall experiment, which proves that it is high time we break the

barriers of conventional rote learning and teach with the use of advancements in technology and the internet to impart education and make our children self-sufficient learners. A strong proponent of ‘Just in Time’ learning, he believes that the role of teachers is indispensable but what they need to do is not teach from textbooks. He avers, “Teachers need to enable children to do ‘Just in Time’ learning. How to learn quickly, accurately, how to search for the right thing – this is our job! So the job is changing. If teachers could

April 2018

realise that, then they wouldn’t have this attitude of ‘Technology is evil, technology will take away my job!’ We have to understand, technology doesn’t remain technology. You don’t think my clothes are technology, do you? It was once upon a time huge technology! My watch, my shoes, they used to be technology – they are not technology any more. To the generation that is growing up, the internet and smartphones are not technology; they are things that you live with. If children have interest, then education happens.”

If children have interest then education happens.

Prof Sugata believes that we can achieve better outcomes with minimally invasive education - i.e. when children can teach themselves. He says, “It's quite fashionable to say that the education system is broken — it's not broken, it's wonderfully constructed. It's just that we don't need it anymore. It's outdated.” Currently, he is Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and

Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. Simultaneously, he pursues his passion for implementation of minimally invasive education in the economically backward sections of society in India. He is winner of TED Prize, 2013. Early life and education Prof Sugata Mitra was born to a Bengali family in Calcutta. He finished schooling from St. Xavier’s High School, Delhi in 1969. He went on to do

a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) with honours in Physics from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, in 1973. He completed his Master of Science (MSc.) in Physics with specialisation in Solid State Electronics, Acoustic Holography and Quantum Biology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1975. He earned a PhD in Theoretical Solid State Physics of Organic Semiconductors, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1978. He went on to research battery tech-

April 2018

COVER STORY

I was inspired by the Hole in the Wall project, where a computer with an internet connection was put in a Delhi slum. When the slum was revisited after a month, the children of that slum had learned how to use the worldwide web.

nology at the Centre for Energy Studies in the IIT, and later at the Technische UniversitĂ¤t, Vienna. He published a paper on a zinc-chlorine battery and a speculative paper on why the human sense organs are located where they are. Hole in the Wall experiment and its receptionOn January 26, 1999, in collaboration with the Delhi government, a team led by Dr Sugata Mitra, then Chief Scientist at National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), carved

open a section of a wall adjoining the NIIT campus, and placed a computer with internet there. This was used by children, without supervision, from the adjacent slum in Kalkaji, New Delhi and thus Hole in the Wall was born. He found that children using learning stations like these required little or no inputs from teachers and learnt on their own by the process of exploration, discovery and peer coaching. The idea of Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) has crystallised over

April 2018

a period of time based on observations and educational experiments conducted at NIIT. Minimally Invasive Education is defined as a pedagogic method that uses the learning environment to generate an adequate level of motivation to induce learning in groups of children, with minimal, or no, intervention by a teacher. Within a month, the children knew how the internet worked. MIE uses children's natural curiosity and focuses on providing an enabling

environment where they can learn on their own. Children, in the process of freely experimenting with the Learning Station, pick up critical problem solving skills. It also provides a collaborative setting where children can share their knowledge and in the process, develop better group dynamics, all in a highly natural environment. MIE's uniqueness is its ability to attract children towards the Learning Station driven purely by their own interests. Conventional pedagogy, on the other hand, focuses on the teacher's ability to disseminate information in a classroom setting. MIE thus complements the formal schooling system by providing a much needed balance for children to learn on their own, and provides for a holistic learning experience. Across the nation, children with access to Learning Stations showed improved academic scores! A national research programme was started, in which Learning Stations were set up in 23 locations across rural India. In 2004, the Hole in the Wall reached Cambodia through the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. In an internal restructuring, in July 2013, NIIT Foundation (NF) which started in 2004 as a not for profit society with a mandate to reach the unreached, uncared and unattended for, ensuring inclusive development in India has been entrusted to implement the Hole in the Wall Education Project (HiWEP). With this, HiWEP is now poised to scale up the idea of Hole in the Wall to make a significant contribution to improving elementary education and life skills of children across the world, especially those in disadvantaged communities in rural areas and urban slums. Since then it has already implemented more than 100 Hole in the Wall Learning Stations in India as a part of CSR initiatives of various corporates. In the 18 years that have passed since, the Hole in the Wall concept has spread to Kerala, Maharashtra and more states across India. In Delhi, these computers have been set up in Lajpat Nagar and Alipur. The project was also the inspiration behind the novel Q and A by Vikas Swarup, an IFS officer. This novel led to the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. The project is

truly lighting the spark of learning in children all over India. For children, it is an extension of their playground where they can play together, teach each other new things, and more importantly, just be themselves. Prof Mitra is expanding his project to UK primary schools, using the same techniques to help children in Gateshead as he used in India. He believes that it can be used in failing schools that aren't attracting the best teachers. His idea has been implemented in a Mexican school with great effect. The class went from a 0 to 63 per cent in the excellent category on the Maths exam while failing scores went from 45 percent down to 7 percent. School in the Cloud and SOLEs (SelfOrganised Learning Environments) In addition to opening physical learning stations of varying sizes, Prof Mitra is creating a Granny Cloud, a global network of retired teachers who support kids through an online School in the Cloud platform. Granny Cloud is a platform where children interact with online 'grannies' to engage in a wide range of informal activities. His goal is to share the Self-Organised Learning Environments (SOLE) method with parents, teachers, afterschool programmes and communities worldwide, and transform the way kids learn. What makes this work is the universal 'grandmother' approach, where children get to interact with a person who is encouraging and appreciates their efforts, and in doing so enables them to learn what they need and also find out more about what interests them. The need for the Granny Cloud became apparent during the preliminary experiences in the SOLEs. The SOLEs were originally initiated to provide educational support for children in remote, disadvantaged settings in rural and urban areas in India. The SOLE approach appealed to many educators worldwide and is now used by many teachers and schools in their own classrooms. The School in the Cloud joins these two components together and will bring in the Grannies who will use the SOLE approach in these settings.

In November 2013, the first School in the Cloud learning lab — located inside a high school in Killingworth, England — opened its doors to students. Since then, six more learning labs have been built — one more in the UK and five across India. Mitra has also launched the School in the Cloud platform which ensures that anyone, anywhere, can experiment with self-organised learning. As of 2016, more than 16,000 SOLE sessions have taken place globally, with partner learning labs and programmes scattered across the world — including in Pakistan, Colombia and Greece. Newcastle University opened SOLE Central in 2014, as a global hub for research on self-organised learning. The platform is managed at the university's culture lab. He wishes to help design the future of learning by supporting children all over the world to tap into their innate sense of wonder. He says, “Help me build the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can embark on intellectual adventures by engaging and connecting with information and mentoring online. I also invite you, wherever you are, to create your own miniature child-driven learning environments and share your discoveries.” Thousands of people from Colombia to South Africa have also downloaded his SOLE toolkit for use in their homes and classrooms, experimenting with his learning method on the ground. They are also sharing their discoveries to help advance his research. School in the Cloud is the subject of a documentary by director Jerry Rothwell, winner of TED Prize Filmmaker Award. Digital Learning and the Shift He explains that we humans have a tendency to approach something critically, especially when it is new. He says sadly many approach the internet and digital learning that way. Before the internet or books were around, we were taught by people who knew the subject. To explain his point, he says “Why do you have to be taught? Because you don’t have access to that information easily. This was the case, for example, in the 15th century, where if you wanted to learn something, you had to find an expert and ask him or her to please explain it to you. So that’s where the teaching bit comes. When books came, which was the first sort of impact of technology, suddenly the teacher’s

April 2018

COVER STORY

Awards and Accolades

Prof Mitra has numerous awards and honours to his credit. Some of these include… • $1m TED Prize, 2013 • Education Leadership Award, AdvancED, Washington, USA, 2012 • Leonardo European Corporate Learning Award, 2012 • The Klingenstein Award, Washington, 2011 • Special Achievement award from Learning Without Frontiers, London, 2011 • Honorary Doctorate from Delft Technological University, The Netherlands, 2011

Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association, 2006 • The Dewang Mehta award for innovation in IT, Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, 2005 • Finalist, World Technology Awards, education category, World Technology Network, San Francisco, June, 2003 • The Man for Peace award for 2002 from the Together For Peace Foundation, Italy, 2002 • The Best Social Innovation of the year 2000 award from the Institute for social inventions, UK, 2000

• Best book of the year award from Indian Council for Technical Education for 2007

• The Best ICT story award from the IICD at the World Bank’s Global Knowledge II conference in Kuala Lumpur, March 2000

• Best Education Research Article in an Open Access Journal for 2005, The Communication of Research Special

• The Raizada award for the best paper of 1999 from the Computer Society of India, 1999

April 2018

knowledge could be tapped into a nonhuman form – the book. And there was equal controversy, I believe, at that time about the fact that books were going to ruin the education system! ‘What will teachers now do? Children will just pick up the book and they will figure it out!’ Then the teachers said, ‘No, that’s not going to happen because how do you know which book you have to read? The teacher will tell you!’ So, the curriculum, the library, the books, that kind of system came in. This happens for the first 17 years of your life because after that, once you get into your job, you don’t have access to all those books. You can’t carry your library on your head – you have to have it inside your head! So if you are lost, you are stuck, you are on a ship going somewhere and you want to know where you are, you use your sextant, point to a star, you use your knowledge of trigonometry, you look at your watch and you figure it out. All this you learnt in the first 17 years. But what happens when you can carry the library with you? That’s the shift that we are going through. Not just the library, you can carry everything with you! So, if you’re now stuck on a ship,

the new generation looks at a sextant and says, ‘What is this?’ Then you say ‘Well, trigonometry...’ and he says, ‘What is that?’ And you say, ‘But how will you find out where you are?’ And the new generation will say, ‘Here’s my phone’. We have to make that shift.

and methods. He has been a mentor and he has been constantly supportive of our work. He was even gracious enough to be keynote speaker at the ScooNews Global Educators Fest 2017. He inspires us to think out of the ordinary and come up with new and fresh ideas in the realm of education.

“Thanks to the internet, packing your head for the first 17 years of your life, like a suitcase for a journey, is no longer required. The stuff is available everywhere – whenever you need it, you can have it.”He believes, “It is high time we change our approach to teaching. We need to make children curious about something so that they look it up and learn, thereby reversing the process of learning. This generation doesn’t take to orders, not because they are indisciplined – we often think they are indisciplined but every generation says this about the next! Nobody is indisciplined, we are just adjusting and living in our time. So we need to make that change and adapt.”

In the current education scenario, students are rewarded for memorisation, not imagination or resourcefulness. Prof Mitra is an inspiration to educators worldwide and we hope that his ideas can revolutionise the learning system and pedagogy in India, thereby producing better results. We need to follow his advice and make changes in our system to make it more efficient for our children, particularly to impart primary education. The concept of pointless memorisation, which is undoubtedly a burden for the students, needs to come to an end and “real learning” needs to start. We can make it happen.

Mentor and friend To us at ScooNews, Prof Mitra is not just the brain behind several brilliant and innovative learning experiments

Like he rightly said, “Knowing is NOT the most important thing. To be able to FIND OUT is more important than knowing.”

April 2018

COVER STORY

HE SAID IT! A selection of some of Prof Sugata Mitraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seemingly sensational yet deeply sensible quotes

April 2018

Nichola Pais editor@scoonews.com

visionary in the field of education and technology, Prof Sugata Mitra’s thoughts and concepts have seemed radical to many, and just plain reasonable to most. From his observation that all children have the potential to learn, whether formally or informally, to allowing internet in the examination hall, his views have found resonance – and some healthy resistance! – worldwide. His statements mirror his revolutionary thought process, in a manner that’s simple and inspiring…

Knowing Vs. Learning “Once we get past knowing, we move into an era of learning. Knowing is about repeating facts, like ‘I know how far it is from A to B’ or you could say, ‘I know to multiply three digit numbers’ or ‘I know that you are not in the best of moods’—these are different kinds of knowing. I think this is no longer the most important factor in education. Learning is the new skill. Imagination, creation and asking new questions are at its core.”

System Called School “The Victorians created a global computer made up of people. It’s called the bureaucratic administrative machine. In order to keep that running, you need lots and lots of people. They must be identical to each other … So they created a system, called school, to make parts [for this human computer]. They must have good handwriting, they must be able to read, and they must be able to add, subtract and do division… But these skills aren’t as necessary with the advent of computers.”

Empowering Children “The best schools tend to have the best teachers, not to mention parents who supervise homework, so there is less need for self-organised learning. But where a child comes from a less supportive home environment, where there are family tensions perhaps, their schoolwork can suffer. They need to be taught to think and study for themselves.”

Universal Education “We spent 7000 years debating this

April 2018

COVER STORY issue of how do we educate everybody. We have never lived in a world where one standard educated everyone. And given that we have failed for over 7000 years, perhaps we will never have one standard. Maybe the right conclusion is that we do away with standard education. Maybe the convergence of technology and curiosity will solve this problem.”

Outdated Ideology “Schools still operate as if all knowledge is contained in books, and as if the salient points in books must be stored in each human brain - to be used when needed. The political and financial powers controlling schools decide what these salient points are.”

Changing Times “We live in a world where, when we want to know something, we can learn it in two minutes. Could it be, the devastating question, that we’re heading towards a future where knowing is obsolete?”

Thinking Vs. Rote Learning “In most schools, we measure children on what they know. By and large, they have to memorise the content of whatever test is coming up. Because measuring the results of rote learning is easy, rote prevails. What kids know is just not important in comparison with whether they can think.”

Collective Knowing “Within five years, you will not be able to tell if somebody is consulting the internet or not. The internet will be inside our heads anywhere and at any time. What then will be the value of knowing things? We shall have acquired a new sense. Knowing will have become collective.”

view children like batteries to charge. What if you do not have an opportunity to go to school, are you only a halfcharged human? All humans have the potential to learn, formally or informally.”

Defining Education

“Profound changes to how children access vast information is yielding new forms of peer-to-peer and individual-guided learning.”

“Our current definition of education is to produce individuals who can fit into a bureaucratic machine. Education prepares to be one piece of a machine. Our current education system produces spare parts for the machine. Everything falls into place and that is why everyone dresses the same way and why everyone is taught to know the same things. The result is a society that creates identical factory workers. The day of the factory is done. The West needs a fresh model.”

Learning Informally

Talking Smart

“Why do we have schools in the first place? I’ve been looking for an answer to that question for quite some time and there are many complex answers about fulfilling the human potential which I don’t quite understand. We

“A generation of children has grown up with continuous connectivity to the internet. A few years ago, nobody had a piece of plastic to which they could ask questions and have it answer back. The Greeks spoke of the oracle of Delphi.

New Learning

April 2018

We’ve created it. People don’t talk to a machine. They talk to a huge collective of people, a kind of hive. Our generation doesn’t see that. We just see a lot of interlinked web pages.”

Role of Teacher “In Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) the teacher becomes a friend. It’s as though a group of you are going somewhere unknown and you have a trustworthy friend, who also doesn’t know where you are going, but who could be useful. A comforting person to have around.”

Internet in the Examination Hall “The examiner would need to ask questions that are much deeper, to which the internet doesn’t have the obvious answer. Change the environment and the assessment process, and that would very gently and quite quickly create a very profound change in the education system.”

New Literacy “In India, I found two illiterate people

scary or even distasteful, but I find it a good sign. On the way to the airport today my cell phone was updating me with traffic conditions automatically, and asked if I’d like to download my boarding pass. Technology has always been assistive, but in a reactive way. Now it’s proactive, and that’s a shift I like.”

Assessment Overhaul “I think we need automated methods for testing questions which are openended, which ask the child what he thinks of a certain issue, which asks questions to which there are perhaps no answers. So then all you can say is: ‘current understanding tells us that this is what the answer might be.’ But who is going to evaluate? I think governments need to put together task forces to re-examine how the assessment system can be overhauled completely. It’s not a question of improving the existing assessment system - we need a complete change. I don’t know what that change will be. Perhaps one day it could be sort of biometric - so you don’t actually have questions and answers. Or you do have questions and answers, but what you’re measuring is what’s happening inside the brain.” texting each other. They had invented a language for themselves which you and I would not understand. I wonder: are there such things as illiterates at all? Yes, if we give them an examination on grammar, but maybe we’ve got the definition wrong and there’s a new literacy that we’re unaware of.”

Education & Interest “I got an interesting phone call once from Colombo, from the late Arthur C. Clarke, who said, ‘I want to see what's going on’. And he couldn't travel, so I went over there. He said two interesting things, ‘A teacher that can be replaced by a machine should be!’ The second thing he said was that, ‘If children have interest, then education happens’. And I was doing that in the field, so every time I would watch it and think of him.”

Proactive Tech “Technology is no longer just an aid— a crutch to help you do things better or more quickly. Our tech is now increasingly doing things for us without us even asking. Some people find that

Rote Learning “The Hole in the Wall showed that children can learn with minimal supervision. Since then, the Internet has changed very dramatically. Information is everywhere. Consider how students react to examinations: ‘This is all rubbish, as it’s all on the Internet.’ Most information you can find online, within minutes. So maybe memorizing facts is no longer important.”

Finding Information “A teacher makes you read many books for 12 years and memorize the content, simply because you cannot carry a library around on your shoulders. For example, many people learned how to solve a quadratic equation. But have you ever faced a situation where your life would change if you solved a quadratic equation? Arming children with memorized facts ‘in case you ever need them’ is no longer needed. Instead, children must have the ability to find information when they need it, quickly and accurately.”

Changing Classroom “…Through what I call ‘self-organized learning environments’. This is when a semi-chaotic group of learners with no supervision are asked a big question, then go find the answer. Kids have a natural curiosity—they always want to know ‘why?’ So if you can learn science in the process of answering big questions, they remember that information.”

Ideal Examinations “I’d change what a school exam looks like. We all know what they look like now: The teacher asks us if an object falls at X feet per second and it’s Y meters above the ground, how long will it take to hit the ground? But is that relevant? If we can’t answer that, are we uneducated? And who decided that? Instead, I want exam questions to excite children. I just got a Twitter message from a kid whose question was ‘Are we real?’ That simple question covers so much. I’d like to give students an hour with the Internet and anyone they’d like to communicate with. Then they’d write a page on the topic. That’s more valuable than learning how fast an object will hit the ground when it’s placed so many meters in the air.”

Mental Blocks “Too often we see that teachers and educational administrators feel threatened by self-organized learning. They, therefore, think it is not learning at all.”

Teacher-Enabler “Just because you say something is obsolete it doesn’t mean that everything associated with it is also obsolete. There are many aspects of teaching that should still be used. For example, the ability to raise an interesting issue or question, which perhaps learners would not have raised by themselves, is a very important task of being a teacher. As a teacher you can say something like: ‘Guess what, I was wondering why eggs are egg shaped.’ Usually nine-year-olds would react by saying: ‘Yeah, well they are egg shaped because...’ and they’ll say something absurd, so then you ask: ‘Are you sure?’ And they’ll say no, which means you can prompt: ‘Do you think you could use the internet and figure it out?’ Suddenly you’ve sparked research into three dimensional geometry.” (Sources: TED Blog, Wired, The Guardian, The Spectator, hundrED)

April 2018

COVER STORY

SUGATA MITRA:

The Write Stuff!

April 2018

Anjana Deepak writeback@scoonews.com

rof Sugata Mitra, the man known for changing the definition of education from classroom learning to self-learning, has detailed his concepts, methods, experiences and learnings in a series of interesting books. From the approach of Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs), where children control their own learning much as they did from his experiment Hole in the Wall, to the future of learning, these books make excellent reading for an insight into his unconventional and exciting philosophy. They also inspire educators to borrow his ideas and replicate them in their own environments.

ease. It was the dawning of Mitra’s introduction to self-organized learning, and it would shape the next decade of his research. This important update on Mitra’s ground breaking work (which provided the inspiration for the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire) offers new research and ideas that show how selfdirected learning can make kids smarter and more creative. He also provides step-by-step instruction on how to integrate it into any classroom. It’s an important lesson that could reshape our schools and reinvigorate our educational system.

“Just discovered these TED books. I was thrilled that this one was in the bookshelf because I have seen two of the author's inspirational and witty TED talks. Really exciting stuff about how learning can happen with curiosity and technology as an enabling tool. Astounding that one computer per 4 students is so much more worthwhile than one per student, as peer tutoring can happen.

The book has a foreword by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of both MIT's

The author placed a computer with mouse and keyboard and an internet

Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child Association. Reviews: Jennifer

Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of SelfOrganized Learning Author: Sugata Mitra Ten years ago, educator Sugata Mitra and his colleagues cracked open a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi,

The Hole In The Wall: Self Organising Systems In Education

Author: Sugata Mitra

installed a networked PC, and left it there for the local children to freely explore. What they quickly saw in their Hole in the Wall experiment was that kids from one of the most desperately poor areas of the world could, without instruction, quickly learn how the PC operated. The children also freely collaborated with each other, exploring the world of high-tech online connectivity with

The book traces the events that led to the discovery that children can learn to use a computer on their own, irrespective of who or where they are. Starting from a lecture in Goa to the slums and villages all over India and Cambodia, the book describes one of the largest experiments in primary education and its unusual findings. Review: Dan Becker “Great story and research about what kids who have no previous

exposure to computers can figure out all on their own. Just give them access to the technology and they can achieve great things together. Should be mandatory reading for every teacher who's been told to use computers in education - right up there with Seymour Papert's Mindstorms. This book is also a great example of human-centered design research and implementation. There's a sequel, Beyond the Hole in the Wall, and a TED talk too - I haven't read or seen them yet, but they're both on my list now.”

April 2018

COVER STORY connection in the slum side of the wall of his New Delhi office, and offered no input whatsoever to children there. Within 28 minutes on average, these kids were using the mouse, navigating the web and investigating email. They had never seen a computer before, spoke no English, and had no extrinsic motivation. One of the first sites they visited once they had learned how to navigate was an English Alphabet site to try to understand the websites they were looking at. The kids taught each other, and their skills were measurable and consistent as the program expanded through India and the world. Amazing. The kids organised themselves and learning happened more effectively than in the best schools with qualified teachers. The implications for education are incredible.

Recommendation: This small book offers some large ideas to consider, for anyone interested in the future of learning. Read it, and introduce your kids to TED Talks videos.

This is a must read for teachers and all those interested in learning. It is riveting and entertaining to boot!” George: “Is formal education, as we know it, an outdated idea? That last question is the central focus of this book. Once again, another cogent glimpse at the future of childhood education, from TED books. This one, Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Leaning, argues convincingly of the value of a SelfOrganized Learning Environment, where kids learn from interacting in small groups in front of computers. Perhaps some form of cross between SOLEs and the Kahn Academy approach will prevail. One thing that this book proffers, with which I am in total accord—kid’s stand to benefit from watching TED talks videos and researching and discussing topics of interest, they find there, in small groups of their peers.

Author: Sugata Mitra, Editor: Gaurav Bhatnagar

The Future of Learning Introduction

Author: Sugata Mitra A renowned peda-

Next, Mitra started working in schools. He decided to try some gentle direction and structure. He set up Indian students with an English voice recognition computer and told them to make the computer understand them. By the time he checked the results, they were speaking with British accents! A few years down the track, and Mitra decided to try the impossible - he had Tamil non-English speaking students able to answer bioengineering questions in English within a short time.

Introduction to Multimedia Systems (Communications, Networking and Multimedia)

gogue expounds the new trends regarding the educational system that will forever alter the way we teach children. He starts by criticizing the old way of teaching that has its roots in the Enlightenment and western imperial expansion. This old method is constantly becoming more obsolete with the advent of the internet and explosion of information. The new paradigms of education stem from self-learners and their pursuit to solving problems. Knowing may be obsolete. Teachers have a new role to play; they build questions instead of seeking answers. Sugata is famously known for his Hole in the Wall experiment that proves that Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLE) develops learners for the new century. He ends his talk by disclosing the challenge of assessment and how it can be fixed. Reviews: Tata Blanco “Maravilloso!!!! The future of education? There is no future for teachers and classrooms, but there is to learning! The case of self-learners who organise themselves and learn anything...epic!”

April 2018

Multimedia Systems is designed to be a general introduction to the broad field of multimedia... more specifically digital interactive multimedia. The editors have included topics such as the principles of "multiple" and "media," including sound, two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, animation, and text. All of these elements are stitched together by the programmer, or multimedia designer, based on the conceptualization of the designer. In order to take full advantage of the potential for a wide array of multimedia applications it is important to have a broad understanding of the principles of various media. The person preparing a multimedia "package," which may include such media as sound, computer graphics, and software, will most likely have a strong background in only one or perhaps none of the media to be used. Introduction to Multimedia Systems has been developed to be the first place to turn, both as an introductory textbook or as a professional reference for anyone diving into multimedia preparation. Multimedia is first and foremost a medium of communication. In order to take advantage of the nearly unlimited potential provided by digital environments a full survey of multimedia capabilities is covered in this book.

Q&A Author: Vikas Swarup Vikas Swarup’s book Q&A was inspired by Prof Sugata Mitra’s experiments which are based on the fact that learning doesn’t have to come from classrooms and that a person can be self-taught. Swarup’s spectacular debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held after correctly answering all twelve questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to each question. Ram takes us on an amazing review of his own history - from the day he was found as a baby in the clothes donation box of a Delhi church to his employment by a faded Bollywood star to his adventure with a security-crazed Australian army colonel to his career as an overly creative tour guide at the Taj Mahal. Vikas Swarup's Q&A is a beguiling blend of high comedy, drama, and romance that reveals how we know what we know - not just about trivia, but about life itself. Cutting across humanity in all its squalor and glory, Vikas Swarup presents a kaleidoscopic vision of the struggle between good and evil - and what happens when one boy has no other choice in life but to survive. The book was loosely adapted for the 2008 British drama film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle. A sleeper hit, it also won 8 Academy awards.

Website Feature: Learning by doing! The editors currently use the book in combination with a wide array of sample software and weblinks for students to learn how to build by example. Each part of the book will have a direct link to a publicly accessible website that will maintain these available software tools.

The weblinks will be updated as software versions advance, and most of the software involves demo or scaled down versions of commercially available multimedia design software/editing tools. This is a carefully written and edited book specifically designed to be a gen-

eral introduction to the broad field of multimedia and covers all the general topics of multimedia namely the principles of 'multiple' and 'media', including sound, 2D and 3D graphics, animation and text (Sources: Goodreads.com)

April 2018

COVER STORY

A PHENOMENON CALLED SUGATA MITRA LEADER WITHOUT FRONTIERS Mabel Quiroga, Researcher, Buenos Aires, Argentina “I became acquainted with Dr Mitra’s work more than twelve years ago towards the end of the Hole in the Wall experiments stage. In the year 2005, he travelled for the first time from India to Latin America, on that occasion to my country Argentina, for a keynote at an English teachers’ National Conference. It was his first of many travels to Latin America and Spanish speaking countries, an area of the world where his ideas caught on - probably more than anywhere else in the world - and where he developed over the years into an undiscussed educational leader. The TED prize in 2013 has probably contributed to the dissemination of his ideas and the SOLE approach around the world but I don’t think that is the only explaining factor: people all over the world are willing to try his method and particularly so in Latin America. As a result, there is SOLE Argentina, SOLE Chile, SOLE Uruguay, SOLE Perú, SOLE Colombia, SOLE Mexico, all buzzing SOLE chapters, vibrant communities who advocate for a better education for children in this part of the world. “Dr Mitra’s ideas have always been provocative and questioning of the status quo; perhaps that is why they are extremely motivating and engaging for all those teachers and educators who are unhappy about their education systems and practices. One important difference with many other international speakers and something that really caught my attention (and I am convinced that of many other educationists and practitioners) is that he always substantiates his claims with hard data and accumulated evidence from world-wide research projects. “Mitra’s love for children, his own curiosity about learning, his enormous capacity for communicating very complex ideas and his inexhaustible capacity to experiment and look at things from a different perspective have got him and us, his community of dedicated followers, where we are today: more hopeful that education can be changed for the better, that students and teachers can have fun while learning and that we are all getting better prepared to face an uncertain future. “It has been a wonderful ride in the past decade in which Mitra touched the lives of quite a few educators who in turn prepare themselves to touch the lives and learning experiences of the children around. The years ahead look as promising as the road travelled so far and we can only wish there were many other figures like Dr Mitra fighting for children's educational rights around the world. In the meantime, we are happy to connect across the globe and help him and ourselves take his legacy forward.”

April 2018

Peers and colleagues share insights into the educational legend REAL EDUCATIONAL EMANCIPATION “Sugata Mitra is one of the world’s best loved educators. His ideas have huge impact and influence – not least on his students at Newcastle University, where I work alongside him as a devoted colleague. His concept of Self-Organized Learning Environments, or SOLEs, is truly important. Mitra defines a ‘self-organising system’ as consisting of “a set of entities that exhibit an emerging global system behaviour via local interactions without centralised control’. “Mitra’s insight into the importance of self-organization in education can be extended to think what education would be like without any centralized government control or planning. Importantly, we have some historical insights into what did happen without government intervention, by looking at the history of education without the state. “For instance, in 19th century England & Wales, before government got involved from James Tooley, Professor 1870, private schools of Education Policy, emerged spontaneously, Newcastle University that is, in a self-organized fashion. A government report of 1861, the Newcastle Commission report, showed that 95.5% of children in England & Wales were already in school for an average of 5.7 years, well before the state made its major intervention (see West, 1994, Tooley, 2008). They were in schools provided by philanthropy and churches, but a large proportion were in “dame schools”, what today we would call “low-cost private schools”. All were private schools paid for by parent fees. They taught a curriculum that wasn’t prescribed by the state – with a heavy emphasis on literacy and numeracy and a disciplined approach to learning – and had learning methods which also emerged spontaneously without any state intervention. “But it wasn’t just in England that such low-cost private schools emerged. As I recount in my book The Beautiful Tree, the same was true in India, before the British got involved in education. Mahatma

April 2018

Gandhi, at Chatham House, London, October 20, 1931 wrote: ‘I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished….’ “The “beautiful tree” he described was a quiet revolution of private education that was existing before the British got involved. Indeed British evidence itself showed that, from Madras to Bengal, from Bombay to the Punjab, there was a vibrant indigenous education system serving as high a proportion of children at least as in other European countries, including England, just a few years earlier. In India, there were schools in almost every village before the British replaced them with the system that provided the foundations for today’s government system. “These are genuine, historical example of self-organized learning environments emerging. They emerged through a spontaneous order of the people acting in their own perceived best interests, exactly what Sugata Mitra describes. “But then the state took all this over. The genuinely self-organized learning environment, was taken over by governments which imposed structures and curricula, which was then “set in stone”, stultifying it, so that it becomes very hard to change and improve – something with which Mitra concurs: ‘Curricula around the world remained static: they assumed a top-down, hierarchical, predictable, and controllable world that progresses slowly.’ (p. 549). “So the key question is: what would emerge as a self-organized learning environment in the 21st century? Presumably it would not be the same as that which emerged in the 19th century. The self-organized learning environment of that time, viz., schools of various shapes and sizes, might not be the appropriate selforganised learning environment of the 21st century. But the key is, we don’t know what genuinely self-organized learning environments would be like in the 21st century, because all over the world “centralised control” – for Mitra the anathema of selforganized learning – has power over education. Governments (i.e., centralized control) have power over the provision and funding of education, and impose curricular and assessment frameworks on schools. To really take Sugata’s ideas forward we need to reclaim education from government, to see real educational emancipation. Centralized planning doesn’t deliver what is desirable, self-organized learning can do.”

COVER STORY SMALL STEPS, BIG CHANGE

“It was a great opportunity to be associated with Dr Sugata’s activities since 2007. We from eSkillport HR Services Pvt Ltd have worked for his projects at Hyderabad and Shirgaon (a village at Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra). We always showed keen interest in his unique method of learning. We were very happy to know that in February 2013, he received the prestigious TED Award. He wanted to donate all his award money for his dream project, SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environment). Newcastle University floated a global tender to execute his project in India and in the U.K. We were selected to execute the project in India. “We opened our first School in the Cloud at a very remote place near Sundarbans, West Bengal on March 9, 2014. Then we kept on adding four such schools in India at different places. Children loved the method of learning. This unique teacherless method of learning is now gaining popularity, not at a fast pace though. It is difficult to replace age-old methods of teaching, evaluating and awarding certificates. We, along with Sugata, are working hard to spread this method which children certainly love. We are now approaching corporates to use their CSR funds and build such schools. So far we got good responses and added two such schools for underprivileged children in Gurugram. One more is coming up shortly at Noida. We are looking forward to such assistance from corporates and setting up Schools in the Cloud in different parts of India.

Ashis Biswas, Managing Director, eSkillport HR Services Pvt Ltd

VISIONARY, LEGEND & BLACK COFFEE LOVER

Ritu Dangwal, Associate, Roundglass H20 Pvt Ltd

“It’s hard to define a person like Prof Mitra in few words. Simply put Prof Mitra is ‘larger than life'. “This will be a pretty emotional description for me and intense at the same time. I have known Prof Mitra for over two decades. And, he is still an enigma to me. I will take the liberty of calling him Doc. We in CRCS, ie. Centre for Research in Cognitive Systems, the then research wing of NIIT Ltd, address him as Doc. It sounds less intimidating and more warm. “Let me go back in time... I was working in National Open Schooling, as a researcher under Prof Mitra's wife, Dr Sushmita Mitra. One day, I landed up at their house in Green Park Extn. He, as usual, was sprawled on his big bed, looking pensive and majestic, smoking his pipe. He looked at me as a matter of fact, with no expressions and asked me what the hell I was doing in NIOS. He asked me join him in NIIT Ltd. And, before I knew it, I was there.

“Who knows, this small step towards changing the learning environment would bring a big change in our education system?”

“He put me onto an assignment of which I had no clue and I was supposed to deliver by 'figuring it out'. I have come to realise that his favourite line is... 'Figure it out'. Yes, it can be very frustrating for an adult who is so used to getting instructions to complete a task. We all are practically anal about it, I guess because we love to control things, and also because most of us are not equipped to live in chaos. We are much more comfortable living in the zone of complacency. “I have never related to him as a boss. To me, he has always been a mentor, a guide. A friend, who is wise and practical and equally perceptive. I hated travelling and I guess ever since I have known him, I have been traveling non-stop. “Doc is someone who allows you to do what you want, with minimal instruction and he has always looked at the positive side of things and people. I have rarely ever seen him get mad, angry or upset. I have yet to see him get excited or agitated about things or people. “Trust you me, it's darn difficult to talk about Doc in this manner... To me, he is a visionary, a legend, who has answers to everything under the sun. And, if he doesn't, he has no qualms about saying 'I don’t know', when all of us, including me, are struggling to look intelligent and give an answer! His love for children is completely out of the blue. He travels like crazy. Relentlessly saying the same thing over and over again. I have asked him this question umpteen times... 'Doc, don’t you ever get tired?’....and he looks at me and smiles...and his response is 'Who else will do it?' “He sits on the balcony apparently looking lost, smoking and drinking his black coffee and you think he is gazing around. Don’t get fooled for Doc is thinking... he is thinking

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maybe about how to bring internet into a remote village in Calcutta or maybe, what measure to use for the children or how trees are connected… “Nobody, I mean nobody, can decipher what is going on in Doc's mind. “He has changed my life... my complete perception about education and children. Every time that I have interacted with him, in person or over mail or telephone, I have only learnt. When he talks of things like Self Organising Learning Environments, it's not that he is talking abstractly; he actually practices what he says. “Hole in the Wall, School in the Cloud, SOLE labs ...all of these have germinated because he lives his life that way. Because he can live no other way! He is as young as a one-year-old child and as old as you can possibly think. “He loves his black coffee, he loves his fried egg, he loves mutton and Kenny Rogers and Kris Kristofferson. He loves to cook exotic dishes, loves his Vodka and loves his kurta-pyjama, his bed and yes, he loves Sigmund Freud. “He is an avid reader ...loves science fiction, can recite Rabindranath Tagore or Shakespeare or can chant the shiv stotra or sing ‘Ladies of Calcutta’...try googling that! “I can keep talking about Doc nonstop...jumping from one thought to the next because there is too much that I can say. To me, Doc has changed, shaped my life and given me a reason to live…to think...to believe…just like he has touched the lives of innumerable people! He is a simple man with a large heart and an enigmatic soul! “Love you Doc and I hope I can carry your dreams forward alongside you.”

HIS ONE OVERRIDING QUALITY - CURIOSITY “Where and how does one begin to describe Sugata? Unendingly complex… Just as one begins to feel that one understands him, his charm, and his motivations, another layer peels off… unveiling another facet of his personality. Yet there is one overriding quality – curiosity. A sense of wonder about everything that crosses his path [and even that which doesn’t!]. In the process he thinks and acts in unconventional ways, many of which can be highly frustrating and even incomprehensible.

A CARING GENIUS Rohan Wadhwa, Associate [Education Sector], Oliver Wyman “Who would think of putting a computer in the wall of a slum in India in 1999? Who would think to have Grannies skype in from all around the world to help support the most impoverished students? Who would think to have students try their hand at some of the world’s biggest questions? The answer: someone who is both ingenious and caring. These are the two traits that most distinctively come to mind when I think of Dr Sugata Mitra. “Dr Sugata Mitra is ingenious. At his roots, he is a physics researcher. Such a background provides a refreshing perspective to the world of education and one which is able to flip the conventional thinking that is so rooted in the system. Working with him, I have been able to notice how he takes the same researcher approach to education. He is constantly reading, hypothesising, and experimenting with new approaches. These new approaches have led to the most notable Hole in the Wall experiment, but also further refinement including the idea of ‘Grannies’ to support learners, and ‘Big Questions’ to motivate a Socratic-like way of getting students to work together. He even more recently has toyed with ideas to challenge the conventional way of conducting assessments by bringing to the table such radical ideas as having bots help with grading or running dynamic MRI scans to more objectively measure progress. The exponential effect of such a dramatic thinker is evidenced by what has now grown into the self-organized learning environment (SOLE) movement globally. “Dr Sugata Mitra is also caring. It’s one thing to be creative, but it’s another to be kind. Sugata does not propose changes, because he wants to create a stir. Instead, he does so because he listens to what students are saying. His most favoured moments are spent in classrooms listening to children. In fact, in his humble home in the UK, he can often be found talking to neighbourhood children. Students want more agency in the classroom and have the ability to perform at incredible levels when given the type of agency a self-organized learning environment like the one Sugata advocates for can afford. Not only is Sugata caring among children, he is also caring towards the people he works with. That doesn’t necessarily mean he will say what you want to hear. Much like his proposed ideas for improving education, he will be the true friend that provides genuine advice and feedback. He will be there when you need him and tell you the truth when you need to hear it. It’s a large reason why he has garnered so much loyalty among so many educators, parents, students, and others around the world.

“I have watched him through many, many decades. Long before his ideas began to impact different fields and professionals. Not all his ideas are palatable to the world at large. Yet they warrant close examination, separate from whatever disagreements one may have with him. Because several of these ideas hold the seed to potentially viable and far-reaching impact, particularly in the field of children’s education. I will stick to just one of these – The Granny Cloud. “It was in the midst of the OGEF Project of Newcastle University in Hyderabad in 2008-2009 that The Granny Cloud would take shape in what we then referred to as the SOME (Self Organized Mediation Environments). “Started with the relatively focused goal of enabling children in disadvantaged settings to learn English through their interaction with native English speakers (the Grannies), the initiative developed in its own self-organised way and through the past 9 years has developed into an entirely independent, self-funded and still completely voluntary group with its own website (www.thegrannycloud.org) operating in a couple of School in the Cloud labs and also in many other independent locations across rural and urban slum areas. The goals include not just learning a language, but developing search and independent thinking skills, developing confidence, collaboration and other social skills, providing an exposure to different cultures and lifestyles, with a healthy dose of fun thrown in to ensure that learning becomes a way of life. “Even as the Granny Cloud goes its own way, it chooses to retain its focus on vulnerable, disadvantaged and remote settings. Yet this does not negate the fact that the approach can be easily adapted to (and be meaningful) even in settings where every resource under the sun is available. Possibly, one of the biggest challenges is to scale up The Granny Cloud so it can reach vast numbers of children in India and elsewhere in the world where they are truly needed. “Working with a relatively small group of volunteers in a relatively small number of locations is hard enough. Ensuring stable and adequate internet connectivity is just one essential to make this approach work. Many other setting characteristics feed into actual ‘success’ on the ground. But trying to reach millions of children requires governments stepping in without losing the essence of the approach.”

Dr Suneeta Kulkarni, Director, The Granny Cloud

“Thank you for your ingenuity and care, Dr Sugata Mitra.”

April 2018

FEATURE

Evolution of Learning Environments

How Educationists would build I-SoF The excitement is palpable. Educationists across the country prepare to gather at the ScooNews EdBrainstorm with Professor Sugata Mitra on April 2 in Mumbai. It will be a smorgasbord of ideas and beliefs, a melange of thoughts and concepts, lively agreements and livelier arguments!In preparation for this exercise to discuss the building the Indian School of the Future, ScooNews invited key delegates at the EdBrainstorm to share their vision on the Evolution of Learning Environments. Read on for amazing insights into the mission of building the school of the futureâ&#x20AC;Ś

April 2018

“WHY DIGITAL ASSESSMENT IS BETTER THAN PAPER TESTING…” There are lots of reasons to use educational technologies for student assessments, such as saving time, making the learning process more comprehensive and friendly, offering fast feedback, etc. Digital assessment tools ease the lives of both teachers and learners: Due to modern technologies, students can get answers to their questions without needing to interrupt each other. All their activity can be tracked by a teacher on the spot. Finally, digital testing is fun for students, which creates a better learning environment: Working with an interested audience makes teaching easier and more desirable for learners. 4 Ways of Using Digital Assessment Tools

Sanjay Datta, Principal, Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur

1. Gamifying the Answers: Two most popular tools for digital assessments are Kahoot! and AnswerGarden. a. Kahoot: This gamification platform helps teachers build the learning process in a form of a game by creating multiple choice questions or using already existing games. The teacher can upload media files and images to create a unique game or download ready-made stuff. b. AnswerGarden. This simple online tool is focused on the (quick) question-answer interaction between learners and their teacher. After the teacher has shared a question in the class, students can either start forming an answer or

“GREAT TEACHING BACKED BY TECHNOLOGY” The Looking Glass of 2030 We borrow a term ‘VUCA’ used by the US army referring to the environment of the educational scenario that we will bequeath to our future generations of students and learners. VUCA, made popular in his white paper ‘Leading in a VUCA World’ by General George W Casey of the US Army (Retd.), looks at the future as Volatile Uncertain Complex and Ambiguous. According to Gen Casey, we live in a connected but unstable world where stability is a passing phase, instability is the norm, and complexity is accumulating. Things change, beyond our control. Being uncertain, it is difficult to visualize outcomes for the future. Integrating the multiple variables affecting our ecosystem is complex - and perhaps impossible. The future is ambiguous too as the same data can yield multiple and often competing interpretations. In a VUCA scenario, the personal perquisites that are required in

choose the right one from a multiple choice provided by the teacher. 2. Giving Instant Feedback: A great tool for free stuff lovers is Socrative. This software is equipped with various features that can be used by educators for many different purposes. It also includes activities like quizzes, quick questions, exit tickets, etc. Socrative has an intuitive colourful and easy interface and apps for both students and teachers. The tool allows educators to get immediate insight into their student understanding in real-time, as they can create quizzes in seconds and also share them with other teachers. 3. Tracking Progress: Plickers is another real-time educational software allowing to get data for an assessment. It is a comprehensive tool that helps teachers understand exactly where their students are in terms of progress. The results may be seen in two modes: Students mode and Graph mode. The Graph mode allows a teacher to explore how learners make their decisions, while the Students mode helps learners track their correct and incorrect answers. 4. Creating Survey-Based Assessments: A widelyused tool for student assessments is Google Forms. Google Forms allows teachers to create multiple choice questions in the form of a survey and enhance it with images and videos in a few minutes. They can also add collaborators to their Google Forms and work on a survey together. To Sum Up: There are many digital assessment tools that serve different purposes in the educational environment. Teachers will have to search the tool which is most suitable for them, as these tools will help them track their students' progress and provide them with more objective feedback and grades.

build strong organisations. ‘Trust becomes the glue that binds organizations together’.

Sudeshna Chatterjee, Director Principal EuroSchool Airoli

institutions and their leaders are as follows…Vision, to point the way ahead. Courage to articulate a clear view of the future. Character, because leaders with strong values

Let’s look at the following words of wisdom… • Developing and communicating vision and strategy • Building high performing teams • Setting the internal and external conditions for success • Preparing for the future • Taking care of ourselves Could this possibly be the mantra for the future of educational institutions? Prof Denis Shirley of Boston College, Massachusetts, and writer of 'The Mindful Teacher', points out that the aim of schooling, always defined as achievement with reference to standard test score results, had to evolve to the attainment of worthy goals. Integrity had to be balanced with achievement. Integrity - • as a personal characteristic; • as a professional disposition, and • as a result of a school system. The traditional ideological concept of Integrity has to be replaced by evidentiary imperatives. Integrity that is insular has to become global. He mentioned that 'love of one's country is a beautiful thing; but why does the love have to stop at the borders?'

April 2018

FEATURE Referring to the book by Michael Ford 'The Rise of the Robots', Shirley pointed out the future was uncertain and technology was going to change civilizations in a way unprecedented in human history. Professionals in the field of education would have to shift mindsets of achievement orientation to student well-being orientation, if we want safety and peace in the world of tomorrow. A study conducted on PISA toppers of 2015 by OECD has revealed the trauma that children have gone through in the process

of achieving the 'impossible and incredible' scholastic goals; it is too large a cost to their young years. A classroom tool suggested by Shirley was to film the children while they were learning. These short film clips could then be run in faculty meetings to get peer critique on how transaction strategies could be made more effective. We need to lay a great amount of focus on collaborative effort and sharing between teacher communities and global educational communities, bottom-line being that

“PREPARING THE CHILD HOLISTICALLY FOR THE FUTURE WORLD” Let me start with the definition of schooling. It started with Gurukul system of education in India, now we are in the British system which was established for the Industrial Revolution. According to me, school is the reflection of society. School should prepare the younger generation for the future. It is the platform to create leaders of the tomorrow. There are various goals of school in the society, who have their own vision to give education. In my experience, schools can be classified into three categories. • Parent driven education. • Teacher driven education. • Student/child driven education. Parent driven education:In this category of schooling, parents are the focal point of any decision. The expectations of parent are taken utmost care and fulfilled. The school will decide their each and every part of the child based on Mohammed Azhar, the parents’ expectations and demands. This school perPrincipal, Knowledge forms based on the profile of the parents. For example, if Academy School parents demand only doctors, engineers, marks etc. then school will focus on marks and their success lies on marks, etc. School’s ultimate aim is to produce good marks irrespective of whether child has learnt and understood. On the other hand, if the parents’ expectations are different from normal expectations then outcomes can also be different. Running a school based on parent’s expectation is highly volatile and in the long term for the child, it is very divisive. Most of the schools in India - at least 70% to 80% - belong to this category. Teacher driven education: In this category of schooling, teachers are the focal point of any decision. The expectations of teachers are taken utmost care of and they are the primary boss of the student. This system can be compared to the Gurukul where the teacher or guru has the say in every part of life of the child. In this system, the child will stay with guru/ teacher and guru will develop him holistically. This school will be successful based on the teacher. If the teacher is not up to the expected expectations then life of the child will be in danger. Boarding schools come into this category provided students stay with child and develop them holistically. This category constitutes only 10% of schools in the country. Over a period of time, this category of school is becoming extinct due to various factors of the modern world. Student driven education:In this category of schooling, students are the focal point of any decision. The expectations of students are taken utmost care of and they are the boss of their own learning. This system is still in the primary incubating stage in India, due to various challenges. In this category of schooling, the focus is on preparing the child for the VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) and making them leaders of the world. These schools are otherwise known as 21st Century schools. A school with no classrooms, the child has the autonomy to choose what they like to study, stress free learning environment, flexible assessments etc. The goal is learning that happens according the pace of the child. Here the teacher is a mere facilitator for the child’s learning. The child is prepared holistically for the future world.

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the issues facing our children, across the world now seem to be acquiring a degree of universality, hitherto not seen in ‘boxed up’ civilizations. Contrary to popular belief, it also has a near global consensus on the fact that Great Teaching backed by technology is progress- but Great Technology backed by poor teaching will be a disaster in the classrooms of the future. As a tribute to all that our noble profession has given us, let’s be to each other and our communities… ‘Yours in the service of education...'

“EDUCATING GENNEXT TO LIVE A LIFE OF PURPOSE, CHALLENGE AND MEANING”

tion for money. Yellow collar careers are the next generation of careers, after blue collar and white collar jobs, where individuals possess multi-disciplinary skills coupled with a specialization in one or more skills. In other words, they blend sets of unique skills to learn better, think better, communicate better and do more!

Prashant Muley, Principal, Podar International School ICSE, Aurangabad, M.S.

Global citizenship and intercultural competency are often incorporated into schools’ mission statements, but how often do schools that promise an international education in the hope of developing global citizens define what this really means? What does global citizenship and intercultural competency imply for the school’s leadership, curriculum, co-curricular activities, service learning, professional development and environmental sustainability? How can a school community develop a shared understanding of what this means and what it looks like in action? Many schools share the goal of encouraging global citizenship in their students, but experience suggests that such goals are sometimes daunting in their ambition and are all too often frustratingly vague in their structure. The focus should be typically on hidden aspects of Internationalism dealing with cultural norms, values, perceptions and assumptions and placing less emphasis on some of the more visible aspects typified by food, festivals, fashion and flags. We need to believe that every student should be able to adapt to the global scenario that they would be a part of – the scenario that is in a constant state of flux – the scenario where change is the only constant. We need to train the wards in our charge to be steadfast in an ever changing environment, using their skill, their core competence and thinking out of the box to make sure their success is not a probability but a certainty. Focusing on a program on Global Sustainable development goals which are designed by UNESCO could also prove to be very effective in inculcating global citizenship values. Next generation of careers also called the yellow collar careers require a new set of skills and attitudes. Careers in Design, Art, Humanities, Innovation and Technology will dominate the future. The leaders of tomorrow will be dominated by yellow collar workers with a fresh perceptive and a creative outlook. A yellow collar worker trades his/her competence for money as opposed to a blue collar and white collar worker who trade their time or educational qualifica-

As a school of Inspiration, we need to constantly find ways to inspire the boys and girls to find their purpose in life; dream big and then pursue it with passion. We believe every child is special in some way – some excel in sports and some in academics, some in dance and others in music, some on the stage and some in oratory. In the 21st century there is no hierarchy of professions, each is accorded with equal respect, it all depends on what you make of it. We cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. It will leave a whole life believing it is stupid. Hence everyone has expertise in different fields. In Einstein’s words, ‘Everyone is genius in their own chosen field’. Let us all recognize that our era has been left behind and we must become new age thinkers and recognize the new realities of this remarkable millennium. It has been well said that we must prepare students for their future and not our past! Many notions from our past must be abandoned now, such as success in academics is the only real success, that being an engineer or a doctor is the only worthwhile profession and the list goes on. Now, we need to think that instead of creating a better world for our children, why don’t we focus on building better children for the world which they will inhabit? This can be done by making them future-ready through skills which are participative, collaborative and innovative. This cannot be dispensed only within classroom walls through text books and tests, but gained and assimilated from experiential learning and living, by embracing the ‘intangibles’ which prepare us to face and welcome change. This means all the fuss about tuitions to get that extra mark or pushing children to get 1st rank in memory based tests will not necessarily ensure lifelong success; but may in fact be an obstacle for future growth!! Recognizing the new world demands we should encourage our children to explore new ideas and avenues. The future of the world will be dominated by right brain individuals, because everything that the left brain does can also be done by machines. It is believed that the tomorrow’s world will no longer need people with high computational or numerical skills; nor does the world need people with fantastic memories to hoard knowledge. We need people who can think, analyse, question, innovate and grow! Their yardstick of success is not the regular salary that is credited at the end of each month, nor is it a conventionally safe nine to five job! The new generation wants to live a life of purpose, challenge and meaning. And this is what we need to aim to deliver in school! We should build the future leaders and inculcate in them the skills needed for tomorrow!

April 2018

FEATURE “EMPOWERING CHILDREN TO UNLOCK THAT UNIVERSE EFFECTIVELY” If we look at school curriculums in India – the content, delivery mechanism and methodology of learning hasn’t changed in decades. Yet undeniably, the world is changing fast. Our schools, meant to prepare children for “life”, can barely cope with the speed of change and has been the same for decades.Our educational institutions need to stop and analyse: what are they preparing our children for?While it is hard to know what the world will look like in 20 years, we must at least attempt to understand the skills that future generations will need to navigate the new world. Reports like the 2017 World Economic Forum’s ‘Human Growth Capital Report‘ clearly outline the kinds of skills that companies would potentially be looking for in 20 years. The report credits countries like Norway and Sweden for the way they have adapted their education systems for this future. And, the results are already bearing fruit in these economies. In our interactions, we often hear successful parents tell us that their grades in school and what they studied has had little or no bearing on the people they have become, and the jobs they hold today.So, what made them the successes they are? Our first level of introspection leads us to believe that it is the values that were instilled in them by their parents and the teachers they loved. That it was the Helen Issar, skills like communication, Co-Founder, Papagoya negotiation, working together in groups, socialization, understanding, identifying and dealing with emotions that were learnt through their childhood. And, we see that our most productive employees are often the ones that show all these skills and values in their daily work. The subject matter of a job is easy to grasp – but skills and values cannot be taught later in life. There is a whole new set of skills that need to be added to meet the needs of the current world we live in. Good digital habits, for one, is a topic rarely addressed. We’re quick to label ‘screen time’ bad and rarely highlight how technology is good, how technology has enabled us to live better lives and connected the world we live in.Shouldn’t we instead be teaching children self-regulation when it comes to the use of technology, or effective ways to research or manage time using technology? What about teaching them to code and create simple solutions, or even use technology to make music, recreate, history and understand math– the possibilities are endless. Jobs of the future will need less process skill and more cognitive and intelligence skills. Machines and artificial intelligence will play a greater role in industry and hence the skills that differentiate us as humans with emotional and cognitive intelligence will ultimately be the ones that help us win. That’s what our schools, our curriculum and our learning methodologies need to start reflecting and teaching. The ways and means with which we can each impact and change education in our country is countless and as owners of education institutions, the power to do it is in our hands. Change always starts small. We know that education is the key to the universe and we must empower our children to be able to unlock that universe effectively, powerfully and in the most human way possible.

April 2018

“START EARLY...EVOLVE, EMBRACE, EMPOWER” ‘Schools are 19th Century institutions using 20th Century buildings to teach 21st Century students and we wonder why traditional education sometimes struggle to connect. So if they don’t learn the way we teach, then let’s teach the way we learn.’ – Mark McCrindle With changes in our politics come changes in our society. Today’s generation albeit young needs to be more informed from the start than others. This will be a win-win situation as children will be more socially inept and better decision makers in the coming future. For that it is imperative that we should understand the Gen Z in our classroom and rather than focusing on the subject centric teaching approach, present them the broader perspective to make them ready for life; the uncertain future.

Dr Seema Negi, Principal, Sanjeevani World School

Let’s start early and expand the horizon for today’s learner. It is the job of an education institution to keep the students up to date with the on goings of not

“PROVOKE AND LIBERATE!” If children have interest then education happens, said Sugata Mitra.In my search for a better understanding of Reggio Emilia’s Philosophy of Education, I chanced upon a wonderful video The Tin Forest by Rocky View School dated May 2, 2016. The school had adapted the story The Tin Forest written by Helen Ward, for provoking the students (age group five to six years) to be creative. All the material required including picture books of the story, was within the reach and an amazing tin forest was created by the students. Other than the creative work, what struck me and what was clearly visible among the students, was the total involvement, the team work, the joy and fun, the excitement, the decision making, the open mindedness, the spirit of inquiry, the research work and the sense of satisfaction and achievement. Effective learning took place through the child’s innovation, imagination, ingenuity and inspiration.

only the nation, but the world as well. Instilling the habit of reading newspapers from a young age can make children better conversationalists and widens their outlook on topics. Many establishments encourage students to pick up a paper and read it by breaking down everything to make it easier to understand; for example, Magazines, Tabloids, Specialized newspapers for students, etc. When taught at an early age about social changes including sub topics about minor communities and tolerance they become more accepting. They tend to become more comfortable to the continuous changes taking place around them. Making students only aware about the major topics is not as helpful as it sounds. They need to know about the sensitive topics as well to have a different point of view to see things from. Teaching them about society makes them considerate towards others viewpoints while still being firm in their belief. Everyone has a different stance on things but we need to teach our children to respect each one of them. To spread awareness between the students, they can be introduced to or asked about their perspective on topics like the election, internet addiction, digital disparity, etc. If we as educationists shy away from sensitive topics the students will also tend to do the same. When we are talking about delicate issues like addiction, mental health, religion… we need to teach our students to be tactful and diplomatic about them while putting their views forward. When students address their concerns we should acknowledge them to do so rather than repressing their voice. We need to give them the freedom of expression and speech because that is what will help them to become more confident and also to take a step forward. The need of the hour is a changed mindset, change to embrace the change. One size fit all policy no longer exists in education scenario. We need to give exposure to our students to become a better problem solver. To empower this generation, educationists need to change and keep pace with the present and future scenario.

Is it not what the 21st century education is all about? Is it not what is the need of the hour? We as educators have to ensure that children are given space and time to grow and learn on their own, discover, make mistakes, learn from them and move ahead rather than being spoon fed, crowded or cornered against the wall. It’s for sure not a very difficult task - the only difficulty is changing our mind-set. My responsibility is to guide the child to be an independent individual who fits into society like a glove.

Pratibha Sinha, CEO, DSR Educational Society

Even during my teaching days I used to be a great believer of giving freedom to the child to learn and thus used to be always be on the lookout for something new, something different, something challenging to make teaching and learning interesting. I used to cherish the look on my students’ faces when I entered the class … ‘What is she going to do today??’ Hardly ever was the textbook opened in my classroom but I relied a lot on bringing in more material related to the topic to the classroom. This created massive curiosity among the students, encouraged classroom discussion, individual opinion , framing questions, investigation, creating a new outlook and perspective on the topic. A teacher’s passion and positive attitude towards students, subject and teaching matters to promote the classroom environment and culture accordingly. Once the students know they have an independence to choose the topic they want to do first or last, there will be a lot of excitement and interest generated among the students. The learning atmosphere will be relaxed, open and nonthreatening. It will make teaching more rewarding and fun for the teacher too. Child driven education gives children a zest for imagining and learning to last a lifetime. For sure, it is essential and a life line to understand the potential of a child and nurture it. Grant children the lasting gift of freedom.

April 2018

FEATURE “SERVICE PROVIDER SHOULD BE A BYPRODUCT, NOT THE AIM OF ERUDITION”

thirst to learn without putting undue pressure on the student. The schools should be as much a home to sportsman as it is for a scientist. Educating girls is slowly picking up and the gender disparity among most of the professions is closing. Education needs to match up to it. Evaluation cannot be a criterion for success. The school should instigate thought process so that the child learns on their own. The primary job of a school should be to provide an environment conducive to explore and experiment. Learning will then happen on its own.

The way education all over the globe is being revolutionized, our schools need to match up to the demand of the future. Our education system is antiquated in that we are still trying to produce work force for the factories. Education should aim at building a character. Service provider should be a by-product, not the aim of erudition. The Indian School should cater to individual, keeping in mind their unique interest, capacity and pace of learning. School and parent working in unison will foster faster learning in the child. Keeping abreast with the technology is therefore critical. Familiarizing the children with the modern tools of learning with a hands-on experience is essential. Safe use of the internet is a challenge along with the constraints of service providers, finances and power cuts. Cross cul-

Dr Neeta Adhau, Director, Institute Of Sport, Innovative Minds School of Excellence

tural linkage with global population will lead to better perspective. Today we need schools which will foster the

April 2018

The years in formal education should be minimized and choices leading up to specializing should be made available earlier. The disparity between the various boards of education should be reduced. Outcome based learning should be made compulsory and learning with earning should be encouraged after a certain age. The interference of political parties in education system will lead to its downfall. The priority should be to make education independent of the Indian polity. Education is the only way that will make this world a better place for all to live in. Pathway to success is paved with one single word – Education.

“TEACHING LEARNERS TO LIVE LIFE WITH PURPOSE” In ancient times, schools began to impart knowledge about Vedas, occupation, herbal medicines, etc. Later Gurukul systems, in the times of two great epics of India; Mahabharta and Ramayana focused on various rules of life mainly Karma and Dharma. The basic objective of education was to teach how to live one’s life with purpose, pleasure, duty and liberation. With growing times, it was believed that childhood stage is for learning and schools were developed as ‘places of learning’ and slowly schools started emphasizing mainly on reading and writing. School and education systems have evolved to a great extent. With a variety of new initiatives in the education system across the globe, there are still differences in opinion about the purpose of schools. Some believe that a school’s basic objective is to train children to get good jobs, some feel schools need to cater to the interest of children and educate them accordingly, while some schools say that they believe in educating children with special needs. All round development of children is the underlined purpose for schools today. Broadly, today’s schools are a factory to condition children in their formative stage. Education begins as early as three years old and every student has almost similar curriculum and evaluation system; which Manisha Arondekar, has its own pros and cons. But this system has Principal, Dr S. surely helped a lot in Radhakrishnan growth of new technoloInternational School, gy and inventions. We Borivali have knowledge at our fingertips and soon robots in our service will be a common trend!When we look back at ancient times, the purpose of schools was to learn about the purpose, pleasure, duty and liberation of one’s life. Somewhere this purpose is lost in today’s schools and life is made mechanical and materialistic. As the Sanskrit shloka says… “SaVidyaYaVimuktaye!”This means the purpose of education is the liberation of life!The main purpose of schools should be to teach learners to live their life with a purpose, perform their duties satisfactorily and finally liberation. Though it sounds philosophical, future schools need to highlight on this aspect of learning. When we look around, we witness comparison, envy, jealousy, anger, sadness and discontentment. We are not able to distinguish between our needs and wants. We are consistently destroying nature and harmony in life cycles. If this continues, it may lead to the destruction of the entire universe. We need to take efforts to bring a positive change in this scenario. It’s time for human beings to become human! Schools can impact the minds and hearts of the upcoming generation and make a paradigm shift. The seeds sown today will give fruits tomorrow. If future schools start taking this balance of life into consideration, there are great rays of hope for all of humanity. Tomorrow’s schools can focus on the Guru and Shishya learning the real aspects of education together, and aim for true liberation from this materialistic world!

“SKILL ACQUISITION SHOULD BE EMBEDDED INTO THE LEARNING PROCESS” Our complex world requires a dramatic shift in the way we view education. In our future schools the purpose and values of education have to respond to these changing needs. Educational systems have tended to value conformity over creativity, the correct answer over the unique perspective, rote learning over conceptual understanding, competition over collaboration. These systems will fail us in the face of the growing complexity of the world’s problems. When a school shifts its goals to teaching the craft of learning - learning how to learn the classroom becomes a laboratory in which the process is valued equally with the product. In the classroom of the future the focus shifts to supporting students to become collaborators, researchers and analytic problem solvers, who are comfortable with ambiguity and can reflect, self-assess and revise. In such settings, students gain experience about how to solve problems, how to fail productively, and rework problems and solutions. Students must be given opportunities to transfer their understanding and to make connections between subjects. Integration of learning is a must. Education that is project based and connected to the real world embeds important skill acquisition into the learning process.Education must become relevant.

Aditya Patil (CEO) (Ascend International School, Mumbai)

Meg Roosa (Principal) (Ascend International School, Mumbai)

Schools must actively provide the kinds of experiences by which learners are actively required to shift their perspectives, build upon prior experience, and gain practise in becoming confidently open to new possibilities. It has been said that the most important 21st century skill is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do. Future-focused schools are giving students the skills to adapt and to face the growing challenges of the world at hand.

April 2018

FEATURE “WE ARE ENTERING A ZONE OF ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANY SUBJECT LEARNING” There is an imperceptible transformation that is taking shape in the space of school education in India. The purpose and objective of teaching is acquiring inclusion, the methodology of transaction in the classroom and beyond is harnessed to technology, the sage on the stage is gradually gaining the identity of a facilitator, teachers are vastly being perceived as harbinger of emotional wellbeing, deficiency in the ability to learn in any child is no longer a social stigma and there are scientific ways to obviate the challenge, classroom is no longer the sole place to learn. We are entering a zone of anywhere learning, anytime learning, any subject learning from multiple sources. This presents a new opportunity for the parents, students, teachers, school management and policy framers to design a dynamic, pupil-centric, forward looking liberal education that should have the potential to train the students and prepare them for a hugely uncertain future. Teachers and parents must orient themselves to the fact that sports or participation in a school play or service projects all are effective teaching tools.It looks increasingly difficult to sail on a particular discipline and convert it into a career. Domain specialization is gradually losing its relevance to the acquisition of a certain set of key skills – dynamic in nature to withstand the quick transition. We need to have an education system that produces Jyoti Agarwal, students who are critical and reflective, open to a lifetime of Director, The Sanskaar learning and relearning, who are Valley School, Bhopal comfortable with change, have empathy and a global outlook. Skills like communication, negotiation, entrepreneurship, decision making and accompanying values like equity, tolerance, empathy, social responsibility are the now longitudes and latitudes of education. The contours of the school curriculum, the yardstick of measuring success, the accessibility of college education, role of guidance and counselling, partnership with the parent community hold the key to navigate into the future. Education has to be the foundation to liberate opportunity.Artificial intelligence has been a gift to the learning process. Without getting overboard with technology, we should adopt a path of moderation and optimization; considering the teacher as the key driver of this change and not as “Her Superfluous Highness in the Classroom”. Schools of the future are likely to face staggering challenges arising out of emotional alignment with the time than academic ones and must prepare to handle with sensitiveness to ensure the highest standard of safety on the school compound. Happiness as an educational experience is going to determine the success and failure of an institution in the days ahead. This challenge has exciting prospect as the teachers who need to be trained as mentors, parents will have be reoriented as receptors and partners and each student as a unique individual possessed with a great potential to be a change agent.Some of the key skills and attributes of the future that we now deem relevant and essential are not necessarily the ones that we directly measure in our current major assessments. Alternative assessment techniques which test what students can and cannot do, in contrast to what they know or do not know is what needs to be incorporated in the system. The best assessment will no longer be the one in examinations, but it will be judged by how many socially responsive individuals an institution has contributed.

April 2018

“STUDENT-DRIVEN CLASSROOMS WILL CREATE A MIND-SET WHICH IS INQUIRY DRIVEN” The need of education today is to develop learners to be self-directed. How can that be achieved? The answer is simple and lies in the pedagogy used in our classrooms. If we really wish learning to be a joyful experience we need to look at all that we do from the lens of the student.In our traditional classrooms the teaching is teacher and content driven but to make our children out of the box thinkers, innovators and change makers we need to make our classrooms student driven, then only will we be able to create a mind-set which is inquiry driven.To enhance the happiness quotient of our children we need to make our schools happy spaces so that learning is stress free and lifelong.Child driven classrooms make children more responsible for their own learning and enrichment thereby instilling self-discipline.I recently read a book titled The Passion driven Classroom: A Framework for Teaching and Learning by Angela Maiers. This book is a great resource for all educators as it will help the Indian educator make a paradigm shift in his thinking.In child driven classrooms the learning is more active as students ask questions, find solutions by discussing with their peers and collaborate Farzana Dohadwalla, and learn content through National and an inductive teaching pedaInternational Educator gogy - be it cooperative learning or inquiry learning. Thus students develop their thinking and analytical skills coupled with a positive selfconfident approach to their learning journey at school.Thus if we truly wish to enhance the happiness and emotional quotient of our students in schools we should train our teachers in mindfulness and help them become facilitators rather than didactic teachers to make learning such that each child is nurtured to reach his potential.

“A SCHOOL SYSTEM WHICH IS MORE FOCUSSED ON SKILLS THAN INFORMATION” What my brother studied in 1995, I studied the same in 2002, and I see my students studying nearly the same in 2018! Unfortunately, the assessment and reporting too is still the same. That speaks about where we are in the fast changing world.The school system needs to quickly come of its assembly line system to become effective and relevant to the changing needs of the industry, society and the world. There is huge shortage of good teachers, learning levels across grades haven't shown significant improvements and there is high unemployment rate amongst the graduates. It is indeed time to critically look at our problems and design a school system which is more focussed on skills than knowledge and information.Let's Vaibhav Shukla, look at some features, system and processes of the future Head of School schools of India.Technology Vidyamangal School, Surat driven learning and assessments: The future schools will have technology at their core. Technology is a great enabler and a leveller. With presence of digital content providers, personalized learning apps (free and paid) the access to curriculum knowledge has become easy. Thanks to YouTube, it is quite frequently observed that, in topics which are interesting for students, by the end of the topic students have more knowledge than the teachers. The availability of content ensures that all students can have the same access to high quality curriculum, irrespective of the location and quality of teachers. Besides that in case of doubts, they replay the video again.Once the concept has been learnt, students will take assessment, which will help them find their areas of difficulty and put them on the self-learning path, till they gain mastery. With technology, students become responsible for their lifelong learning.

Source: Yourstory.com

The Role of Teacher: In a technology driven classroom the teachers assumes the role of facilitator (mentor) as all the students are in self learning mode. In a big size class which is the norm across schools, a teacher could never become a facilitator, but technology would ensure that teachers transit into this role with ease. The classroom curriculum would be run based on themes and project based learning. Teacher would be creating the right environment, give the right experience, make learning hands on and relevant to real life, guide students based on their teaching-learning reports, drive discussions and idea formation in the class. Through this the teacher would be driving the skill and attitude development of students. Viz: team work, co-operation, thinking skills, communication skills, and other skills (Observation, experimentation, analysis, hypothesis testing etc.) Learning in Action: The whole purpose of education is to take right actions. The future schools would be action oriented and hubs for innovations. We would be seeing schools which are green and self-reliant. They will be powered by green energy created by students, students would be creating and preserving the local ecology on the campus, water would be harvested and recycled. The schools would be run in democratic set-up led by students (social science in action). Through arts (visual-performing) awareness on critical issues would be created. These schools would function like a ‘model village’. End result: We will have people in the system who are self-learners and can adapt to the changing scenarios, have the skills to succeed and contribute to the economy, enjoy healthy personal and social life, make meaningful contributions to society and make the world a better place to live in.Ain't that what education is for!

April 2018

FEATURE

“EMBRACING TECH ADVANCES AND SOCIAL SHIFT” Learning is an ongoing process - as all things evolve, so has learning. Let us look back and see the learning processes as of the past 50 years and as of now. A change is always brought when things evolve for the better and learning is focal. Human beings have always been seekers of knowledge. When we discover something new we share it with others and move ahead for the next achievement. This is Evolution. We will now be talking about building the Indian school of the future. When we talk about a school, the basic concept will always be the same–the student, teacher and classroom. To renovate this to enhance the changes of the world today is challenging.Technology today is an empowerment and to use this for the learning process is the change which is happening today. The Indian Schools of the Future need to focus on teaching basic skills combined with problem solving creative routes for all students. The goal is to learn through all the different kinds of resources that real life offers. We talk about purpose of schools today and tomorrow – well it’s very logical and simple: to develop citizens and humans, to inculcate social and moral responsibilities, personal growth and self-improvement and lastly occupational preparation.Now, we look into the new skills to be acquired in terms of comprehension, communication and com-

Taruna Kapoor, Vice Principal, Wisdom Valley Global School

puting. Reading is a complex, cognitive process; it is a means of language acquisition, communication and sharing information and ideas. Reading is a very creative art form of a student’s learning process. The school and the parents too need to join hands to help our students develop this positive habit.Communication skills include reading, writing and listening. The art of good communication skills build confidence in a student to step up and speak. In today’s modern world, a student’s speaking skills serve as the cornerstone for any programme preparing young people. These skills should start with the

April 2018

collaborative efforts of parents and the school to motivate the students.When we talk of computing skills – well, these are the basics in today’s tech savvy world – presentations, PPTs for the students and in general gathering knowledge with the help of computers. Adaption of technology at an early stage will be helpful for an easy inflow of knowledge to the students.As educational researcher, Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the Wall project demonstrates, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. For all this, self-organized learning environments have to be encouraged and brought forward by the teachers. All these ideas, changes for the betterment of school, students and parents needs to be revisited by the parents as to what the programmes and sessions ahead are and to equip themselves.All of these need to be collaborated with portfolios and project works. Alternative assessments determine what students can and cannot do, in contrast to what they do or don’t know. These assessments help the students to demonstrate their ability, perform a meaningful task and receive feedback by a qualified person. This focuses on the students’ performance and the quality of work performed by the students. To conclude – change, an evolution is the essence of life and learning is an integral part of life. To prepare learners for the new world of work, the dynamic in the classrooms needs to be more reflective of the real world out there. Interestingly, it is not only about bringing technological changes into the classroom but also about embracing social shift – the way we think about and relate to the world and each other.

EVENT ROUND-UP

GESS DUBAI 2018

Brimming with

EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

April 2018

Highlights and takeaways from the three-day exhibition and conference teeming with ed solutions, inspirational talks, workshops and moreâ&#x20AC;¦

Team ScooNews writeback@scoonews.com

hree days teeming with educational excellence, Global Education Supplies & Solutions (GESS Dubai) made for a thrilling and inspiring experience from February 27 to March 1, 2018. Truly international in reach, the 11th edition of GESS Dubai welcomed visitors, exhibitors and speakers from across the globe. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exhibition welcomed over 550 companies and brands, as it showcased the very latest and most innovative educational products and solutions. The free to attend conference provided three days of inspirational talks and dynamic, hands-on workshops from

global industry leaders and influential local practitioners. The conference resoundingly confirmed GESS Dubai as the meeting place for educators to further their knowledge, learn from their peers and continue to promote the highest quality of education in the region. Under the patronage of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, GESS Dubai is the largest education event not just in the UAE but across the entire Middle East. It is the only event that brings all levels of educationalists together, in one place. GESS Dubai 2018 provided ample inspiration by showcasing the latest and

greatest advancements in education technology. From Artificial Intelligence (AI), to Virtual Reality (VR) to Augmented Reality (AR), these innovations garnered maximum interest among visitors and exhibitors. This year education-focused products and solutions were in the spotlight along with latest research and insights from leading international experts. School-based projects also showcased the initiatives by students and teachers in the field of artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities. The Sheikh Saeed Halls of Dubai World Trade Centre featured an exhibition of the latest educational products and solutions from 550 local and international companies and brands. The

April 2018

EVENT ROUND-UP

conference programme offered over 200 sessions and presentations from education, leadership and technology experts for which teachers could avail of CPD certification.

Some key learnings from GESS Dubai 2018… Artificial Intelligence to help uplift teaching profession Artificial intelligence could well be the breakthrough that teachers have been waiting for. At the recently concluded GESS Dubai, experts showed a glimpse of the future for the teaching profession with the help of AI, and how it can contribute significantly to school improvement. Century Tech founder and CEO Priya Lakhani presented an AI platform for school improvement that presents realtime data on a student, entire class even a whole school to support timely and evidence-based interventions; as well as multimedia content that can be used in and out of the classroom with features that can also help automate certain tasks such as assessments and tracking of homework. “With teachers spending up to 60% of their time on

administrative tasks and data management they need a solution which saves them time to do what they love: teach!” commented Lakhani, who also says the AI platform can also be used to improve outcome for learners as well as involve parents and guardians. Sallyann dela Casa, Lead Skills Hacker at GLEAC and head of Growing Leaders Foundation, said AI can be harnessed to develop outstanding schools. “We have developed a proprietary app called GLEAC to find out patterns of successful teachers and teams within schools through psychometric testing and patent-pending soft skills measurement. Using this information, schools can start engineering human capital, their teachers for instance, to build capacity and become outstanding educational institutions.” During her presentation, dela Casa showed how GLEAC can determine the pattern for characteristics often associated with outstanding teachers in great performing schools; and these character traits are often the same behaviour patterns displayed by highly paid professionals in other fields. “We can now make a case for improving teacher salaries, for one, to help uplift the pro-

April 2018

fession and eventually help draw outstanding talent and make teaching a more attractive profession for young people to pursue,” she added.

Positive business prospects Many exhibitors expressed optimism about their business prospects in the Middle East, after meeting potential partners and customer leads at GESS Dubai. Ahmed AlSuhaibani, Head of Commercial, Tatweer Educational Technologies, part of the Saudi delegation which had its biggest participation in GESS this year, said the event was an important platform for meeting new partners and potential customers. “We are very optimistic about our business prospects in the Middle East as this region puts a high premium on education and development of human capital. And the event allowed us to meet various stakeholders in one place, so our participation was worth it.” For UK-based pi-top, an edtech start-up that provides an ecosystem for experimenting, coding and building electronics, GESS Dubai enabled them to reach

the right audience from across the GCC as well as Turkey and Lebanon. “We generated hundreds of leads for our business and are quite positive about our future growth in the region,” said Joe Kelly, Global Sales Director. In addition to providing companies a platform to explore business opportunities, GESS Dubai’s conference programme also inspired many visiting professionals with helpful tips and insights from the various presentations and workshops conducted during the show. Hussain Mohamed, a Math teacher from Al Maarifa School, said the conference content was enlightening and “gave me some practical tips I can immediately use in my class to help me get my students more engaged in the lessons, which hopefully will make them perform better in their studies not only in my subject but in their coursework in other classes.” A visiting principal from a school in Pakistan, Mansoor Najani was delighted with the learnings from experts on neuroscience and said he would be sharing what he had learned with his teaching staff to help them with their

work. “The sessions on building up confidence and creating a more fun environment for students were particularly useful, and would be worth sharing with my teachers,” he added.

Breaking barriers and glass ceilings Education trailblazers inspired thousands of teachers and school leaders who attended the GESS Dubai conference and exhibition to break new pathways for a new generation of achievers and innovators. Saki Milton, Executive Director of a US-based STEM camp for girls, which hopes to encourage more girls to pursue careers in Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), said the number of STEM jobs globally will grow 17 percent by 2024, as compared to 12 percent for non-STEM jobs and that almost all the 30 fastest-growing occupations in the next decade will require at least some background in STEM. Milton lauded the UAE where she said 50% of students in schools are interested in pursuing STEM careers in the future. “This is an impressive figure

and hopefully the trend continues as more and more girls get better in STEM subjects. However, there remains the same percentage that needs to be encouraged, and for this the cause seems to be a lack of female teachers in STEM subjects who can become role models for young girls,” she added. ATLAB’s Teach Assist Robot, which was launched at GESS Dubai last year, has already been deployed to some pilot schools in the UAE. A new software has been uploaded into the robotic teaching assistant, enabling teachers to customise their lesson plans whilst additional sensors have given the robot much further accuracy in facial recognition and student profiling. Mark Drobngeh, a Ukrainian national visiting GESS Dubai said it would be interesting to see a robot becoming a part of the student’s learning experience; but thought “robots will never be able to fully replace teachers who will continue to have a central role in the education of students.” Another pioneering initiative that has drawn the attention of education pro-

April 2018

EVENT ROUND-UP fessionals is The Arcadia Preparatory School’s Jr. MBA programme, the region’s first entrepreneurship initiative for primary school pupils to teach them the basics of starting up and operating a business. Navin Valrani, CEO, who conceptualised the programme, said they are now exploring the possibility of licensing the concept with expressions of interest from UK schools, as well as “developing an incubator programme to turn some of the students’ ideas into real-world businesses.” “It’s great to have these innovators and trailblazers inspire others and have an immediate impact on education professionals who take away from GESS Dubai not just conceptual learnings, but practical and easy-to-duplicate strategies for better teaching performance or learning experiences,” said Sarah Palmer, Marketing and Conference Director, Tarsus F&E LLC Middle East, organisers of the GESS Dubai.

Outstanding Achievements The winners of the 2018 GESS Education Awards were announced, honouring outstanding individual as well as corporate achievements and innovations that have significantly contributed to the advancement of education standards in the Middle East. Trophies were awarded to teachers, schools and education professionals as well as suppliers and distributors in 21 different categories, with winners emerging from a competitive pool of over a thousand submissions. The highly sought-after Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in association with Ta’aleem, was given to Ed Goodwin, OBE, citing his long list of accomplishments in the Middle East, which include setting up one of the best British schools outside of the UK, as well as leading initiatives to promote excellence in education in the region. Among the teachers, schools and education professionals who were recognised for their various noteworthy initiatives were Aleksi Komu and Sanna Metsälä from Savonlinna Teacher Training School in Finland as well as Hamada Abdellatif from Al-Amal School for the Deaf/ Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services (Best use of ICT / E-Learning in the Classroom); Arushi Madan from Delhi Private

April 2018

EVENT ROUND-UP School-Sharjah and Lisa Elemor from Dubai International Academy (Ambassador for the Environment); Sirhajwan Idek from Keningau Vocational College (Community Award for Citizenship), Praveena Santosh from The Westminster School, Dubai (Innovation in Education Award); and Bashaer Kilani (Outstanding Contribution in Education Award). Other big winners included Kubo Robotics (Start Up Company of the Year), for their revolutionary work in teaching students coding and computational coding in a hands-on context. Classroom Monitor (SME Company of the Year) boasts an assessment product that is now helping 2,500 schools and 50,000 teachers make sense of their data. The Multinational Company of the Year Award went to Netsupport which helps teachers, through Netsupport School, maximise technology-led lessons by delivering content, encouraging interaction and monitoring student PCs to improve focus and attainment. The Innovation Award for STEAM/Non-ICT products was given to Spaceforme, while Classera Inc took home the innovation trophy for Elearning/Software/Apps for their ground-breaking virtual school model that provides access to proper education for children all over the world, especially for those with no access to formal education. Also taking home trophies were Arte Viva (Early Years Resource/Equipment Supplier of the Year), Literacy Pro-Scholastic (Primary Resource/Equipment Supplier of the Year), Connect and XPO-Wet (Secondary and Higher Education Resource/Equipment Supplier of the Year), Child Early Intervention Medical Centre (SEN Resource/Equipment Supplier of the Year), Edmodo (Best Free ICT / App Product of the Year), GL Education (Best Paid for ICT / App Product), Office Inspirations’ Brody WorkLounge (Best Resource or Equipment Non-ICT), and 5-a day fitness (Best Product to Promote Health and Fitness). Special Judges Commendation Awards were also handed to Veative Labs for the corporates; as well as to two outstanding education professionals, George Stokes (Head of Innovation at SAFA British School) and Kenya’s Gedion Kyalo (Goodrich Schools

Limited).

Dramatic Transformation The education landscape in the Middle East is going through a dynamic phase of transformation, thanks to initiatives from the public and private sectors towards improving the quality of teaching practices and learning experiences. Addressing education professionals from around the world at the GESS Dubai 2018 education show and conference, His Excellency Eng. Hussain Ibrahim Al Hammadi, UAE Minister for Education emphasised the efforts being undertaken by the Ministry to develop the education sector in the UAE as it is one of the foundations of the country’s aspirations to achieve a formidable knowledge-based economy. “At the Ministry of Education, we strive to improve and develop education because it is one of the most important pillars of a knowledgebased economy. It is a significant foundation of the fourth industrial revolution launched by the government recently,” the Minister said while also saying efforts are ongoing to continuously improve quality of education “through the supervision plan involving various educational zones to ensure compliance with the MOE’s laws, regulations and legislations, and through the inspection framework that delivers a high-quality school evaluation system.” Some of the transformations being seen across schools include not just curriculum enhancements, “but proactive projects that apply advances in technology, such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Cutting-edge studies in learning spaces and furniture design are also changing the look and feel of classrooms. We are providing teachers and schools administrators leadership sessions designed to help them manage their schools and the changes they are experiencing to be more equipped to handle future challenges,” said Matt Thompson, Project Director, Tarsus F&E LLC Middle East, organisers of GESS Dubai. School-based projects showcasing the wide range of initiatives being done by students and teachers in the field artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual realities; along with the latest research and insights from leading international experts as well as education-focused products and solutions

April 2018

were on spotlight at this year’s edition of the leading education show and conference in the region. Steve Bambury, Head of Digital Learning and Innovation, JESS Dubai presented the latest insights on how Virtual Reality is transforming students’ learning experience in school. “Students can grasp concepts more readily and retain information for longer. They can virtually travel to places they may not be able to visit in reality.” Students are also more focused on content and improved performance in school has been observed. Other notable benefits observed with the use of VR in classrooms include being able to travel through time to explore past culture and events in a more meaningful way; and being able to direct their own learning while within virtual environments.

Ending on a high note GESS Dubai successfully concluded its 11th edition, drawing 8% more visitors compared to 2017, while attendance from international delegates increased 20% vis-à-vis last year’s figures. The show’s VIP club, a group of key decision makers and education suppliers across the Middle East, also increased membership by 25%. GESS Dubai also welcomed delegations from Kenya and Pakistan and saw big increases in participation from Saudi Arabi and India, while Abu Dhabi saw its contingent double in number compared to the previous year in addition to visitor numbers from across other Emirates increasing as well. “Once again these numbers have shown growing interest in the development of the education sector in the Middle East, and as organisers of the show we are delighted we are able to provide a platform for education professionals to develop their craft as well as for companies and brands to grow their business,” said Matt Thompson, Project Director, Tarsus F&E LLC Middle East, organisers of the GESS portfolio of shows that takes place in Dubai, UAE; Jakarta, Indonesia; Mexico City, Mexico; and Istanbul, Turkey. GESS Dubai will return for its 12th edition at the Sheikh Saeed Halls of the Dubai World Trade Center on 26-28 February 2019.

April 2018

AWARD ScooNews recognised as No. 1 Start-up at Rajasthan IT Day

ScooNews gets acknowledged by Vasundhara Raje, Honourable CM, Govt. of Rajasthan for innovative education media platform at Rajasthan IT Day

cooNews was felicitated at a ceremony during the Rajasthan IT Day celebrations for being amongst the top start-ups of Rajasthan. Vasundhara Raje, Honourable Chief Minister of Rajasthan, presented the Gold Qrate card to ScooNews. ScooNews stood out as the best start-up from over 700 start-ups in Rajasthan with a Qrate score of 88. ScooNews has undergone rigorous training and mentorship under the iStart program managed by Applyfi to reach where it now stands. In a short span of three months, ScooNews moved from the Bronze level to Gold with the help of the access-improve-access model of iStart.

orate and showcase their skills and innovation. A job fair for students was also conducted as a part of the four-day celebrations which included events like TechRush, Hackathon 4.0, Eduhack, Green-a-thon and eMitra/ITGK Connect.

ScooNews has also been provided a financial assistance of Rs.20 lakh by the Government of Rajasthan under its newly launched Rs.500 crore Bhamashah Techno fund, which provides grants and investments to start-ups. The cheque was handed over to Mr. Ravi Santlani, CEO, Edupulse Media Pvt. Ltd. (ScooNews) during a special ceremony at Rajasthan IT Day.

Qrate is a unique programme based on the access-improveaccess model to assist start-ups in sharpening their business plans and investor pitch decks. The programme subsequently connects them to potential investors and customers. Start-ups are first assessed on various parameters of business and then provided with the Applyifi scorecard and assessment report based on their strengths and weaknesses. They go through an intensive learning and mentoring routine to get ongoing feedback and improvement.

Organised from March 18 to 21, the Rajasthan IT Day celebration is a platform for students, educators, individuals, government and non-government organizations, corporates and startups from the field of education, IT and e-governance to collab-

April 2018

iStart Rajasthan is a flagship initiative by the Department of Information Technology and Communication, Government of Rajasthan and intends to foster innovation, create jobs and facilitate investment. The programme aims to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship which would further help in the economic growth and development of the state.

More details about iStart and Qrate can be found at http://istart.rajasthan.gov.in/

TECH IT OUT Technology will never replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational. George Couros

Best Classroom MANAGEMENT Apps and Gadgets

TeacherKit TeacherKit is a personal organizer for the teacher. It enables the teacher to organize classes, and students. It is simple and the intuitive interface helps teachers track the attendance, grades and behaviour of students. Learn more about TeacherKit at http://teacherkit.net/

Teacher Class123 Class123 is a popular free classroom management app. It handles a lot of the basic stuff, including individual feedback, record-keeping, communication, and organization features. Class123 also features time, stopwatch, and alarm functions as well as a seating chart and even screen sharing. Teachers enjoy using it once they get used to it. Learn more about Teacher Class 123 at https://class123.ac/

April 2018

TECH IT OUT

Office 365 Education Office 365 Education is Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s classroom offering built for teachers and students, completely free, and full of powerful tools to organize in one place, engage students in new ways, and individualize student learning. Office 365 is a fully integrated set of tools, to help students and teachers complete all important school tasks online, offline, or on mobile devices.

Google Drive Google Drive is a cloud storage platform where you can store various files. It also comes with included apps like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. You can also access Google Keep and Google Photos to keep notes and backup photographs. Google Forms allows you to create different kinds of quizzes, polls and interactive forms. Teachers can use this for all kinds of stuff. You get 15GB of storage for free. Learn more about Google Drive at http://bit.ly/1PaMF38

Learn more about Office 365 Education at http://bit.ly/1Sj6mYd

Nearpod Nearpod is a must have application for teachers and schools that have access to a set of mobile devices for their classes. Nearpod is a synchronous solution for the use of mobile devices in the classroom. To try Nearpod, you will need one Tablet or PC/MAC and at least one other device (tablets, smartphones, Chrome books, PC/MAC), both running Nearpod. All devices should be connected to the Internet. Learn more about Nearpod at https://nearpod.com/

Amazon Echo and Dot Using Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alexa via Amazon Echo and Dot can be a great help in the classroom. Using nothing but the sound of your voice, the teacher can play music, search the web, create to-do classroom lists, get instant weather reports, and control popular smart-home products. The Echo and Dot can also be a great way for kids to practice speaking as they must enunciate well to be understood. Teachers can also have students practice their questioning skills by thinking of the question they want to ask before asking it. Learn more about Echo and Dot at http://amzn.to/2pmeC01

April 2018

Google Classroom Google Classroom is free to use. Schools that use the G Suite for Education (also free) can automatically integrate Google Classroom into their system. Each student will get their own email, cloud storage, and more. In addition, teachers will be able to assign work to students, receive work from students, communicate with students and parents, and more. It's one of the must-try teacher apps. Learn more about Google Classroom at http://bit.ly/2DD8TYi

TAKE2 We all remember that special teacher who has made a difference in our lives â&#x20AC;&#x201D; helping us see the world differently, making us feel proud, motivating us to try harder, egging us on from failure to success. Some of us have even been lucky enough to have more than one. These videos are a dedication to all such teachers making a difference.

3 Rules to Spark Learning

The Power of Words This video conveys a very powerful message - Words can change the way people understand or see you. Choose yours well.

In a fun and personal talk, chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam gives three rules to spark imagination and learning, and get students excited about how the world works.

https://youtu.be/Hzgzim5m7oU

http://bit.ly/1uh16G6

The Dot Sometimes you will get a little one who is sensitive and says "I can't draw". This video based on The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds is good motivation for teachers in such situations. It conveys the message that you do not have to be an artist to enjoy drawing. https://youtu.be/t5mGeR4AQdM

The Power of Introverts Happiness By Design Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy -- and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design.

introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

http://bit.ly/1wjk0wP

Maths Class Needs A Makeover Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think. http://bit.ly/RMSUik

April 2018

TAKE2 How to be an Amazing Teacher

The Reader If ever there was a video to champion literacy and the joy of reading, this is it! Disclaimer: This happens to be a commercial for whiskey. However, this doesn’t take away the impact of the message and you are bound to enjoy the moving story.

Steve Spangler teaches teachers, and people in general, how to create unforgettable learning experiences with humour and attention-grabbing science demonstrations. https://youtu.be/pcmMaGGQvX0

https://youtu.be/C7ZWz7my3Ho

World's Toughest Job Unlimited hours. No breaks. The most important job is also the world's toughest job. Watch the video to know what this is all about… A tribute to the most important woman in the world! https://youtu.be/HB3xM93rXbY Disclaimer: This is an American Greetings commercial.

The Power of Introverts Inspire Every Kid To Be A Lifelong Reader Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, In a talk that will make you rethink how we teach, educator and author Alvin Irby explains the reading challenges that many black children face -- and tells us what culturally competent educators do to help all children identify as readers.

introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.

http://bit.ly/2FCI08r

The Technology of The Heart In telling his story, The Karmapa urges us to work on not just technology and design, but the technology and design of the heart. http://bit.ly/1RTf7TK

We All Need To Practice Emotional First Aid Too many of us deal with common psychological-health issues on our own, says Guy Winch. But we don’t have to. He makes a compelling case to practice emotional hygiene — taking care of our emotions, our minds, with the same diligence we take care of our bodies.

We encourage you to bookmark these videos. We believe that all of them will quickly find their way to your heart. You'll want to keep them handy to view from time to time and share with others.

April 2018

A Life of Purpose Pastor Rick Warren, author of "The Purpose-Driven Life," reflects on his own crisis of purpose in the wake of his book's wild success. He explains his belief that God's intention is for each of us to use our talents and influence to do good. http://bit.ly/1iRoJDt