ScooNews August 2016 by ScooNews

Volume 1

Issue 4

August 2016 IGNITING MINDS

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

THE

LEDE Editor Juhi Shah Assistant Editor Meenal Singh Reporter Hridya Narang Website Team Varun Bodhwani, Harish Badlotia, Umang Sharma Contributors Damodar Prasad Goyal, Deepak Kalra, Manjari Singh, Shobhita Rajagopal, Meenakshi Uberoi, Vaibhav Ramchandani Art Direction Rexsu Cherry Design D Sharma Editorial Advisor Shobhita Rajagopal, Meenakshi Uberoi Pics Pressfoto - Freepik.com

CEO & Co-Founder Ravi Santlani Head National Sales & Marketing Ankur Verma Asst Vice President Sales Vanya Lodha Asst Manager Sales Jaspreet Kaur

EDITORIAL OFFICE EduPulse Media Pvt Ltd, J-3, Jhalana Institutional Area, Second Floor, Jaipur 302004 India Email: editor@scoonews.com

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Disrupting education: A disruptive view

his decade of this century is really all about ‘21st century skills’; about collaborative spaces, digital literacy and global classrooms. They are the new core competencies in education. Technology has made possible what was remotely imagined a decade ago. And remote learning from anywhere to anywhere on the globe is par for the course now. Tutors sitting in Chennai can take kids in Alaska through their mathematical paces or a mobile app can help your child mind her Chinese Ps and Qs sitting in Warangal. What makes online learning so powerful is that there is immediate feedback, the student owns the learning and that the teacher does not play the central role, says Esther Wojcicki in the introduction to her book Moonshots in Education. Being in control of one’s learning is the key to the effectiveness for students, she points out. True, the need of the hour is blended learning, as Wojcicki puts the case for it strongly elsewhere in the book — incorporating the 3Rs with online support using collaborative programmes like Google Docs or Khan Academy. Indeed, Google Apps for Education is a huge movement and cascading, with over 20 million users worldwide and growing! But how does it really work in the Indian context? We don’t even have classrooms in place in so many schools across the country, forget acquiring hardware like PCs and tablets, or even Internet connectivity; teachers savvy in the use of edtech seem a distant dream! I know, I know, we make all the right noises about Digital India and the technology exploding on the Indian scene but we need to take a long, hard look at where we really are in terms of our education — in terms of policy, curriculum, basic teacher-training or physical infrastructure before we can even begin considering making our classrooms techenabled. And let’s face it, that’s a little hard to achieve when a single Google Expeditions kit for a class of 30 students sets you back by over Rs 6 lakh! Can we afford such pricing? Are we ready to? When the maximum cooking cost of one mid-day meal for one upper primary child has been set by the government at `6.18?

FIND US ON

August 2016

CONTENTS

16 EDTECH SPECIAL

Learn the tech, teacher! To teach better

When technology has exploded on the education scene globally, it makes sense if Indian educators leverage it to the hilt to enhance learning... after all, it is the biggest enabler there is

31 Starting out right: Edtech and startups go hand in hand, after all, they are both disruptive! Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the lowdown on some great ideas

HEY TEACHER, USE THAT APP!: Luis von Ahn, cofounder and CEO of Duolingo, the popular free language learning platform used in 5% of all American schools, gives his take on India and future plans to team ScooNews

SYSA 2016: Baby steps into a grand future. The first SYSA kicks off on 15 Aug

EDTECH & YOU: Around the world on Expeditions

21 EDTECH & YOU: All over the news recently for investing $1mn in an edtech startup

Arun Gupta

tells just why he thinks edtech is here to stay

34 JUST BLOGGING

Please be a mom at home

All too often, teacher-moms forget that they are moms first at home. Principal Urvashi Warman on how they can become true super moms

PRINCIPALS ON BOARD Dear principals, your views matter to us. Do write in.

How can edtech be made an intrinsic part of the Indian classroom? You can send 150-200 word responses to editor@scoonews.com, along with your photographs. Please do mention your name, school, address and contact details.

August 2016

YOURS TRULY TIME TO SHOW UP, MADAM MINISTER!

A HEALTHY BEGINNING

I am happy that the Delhi state election commission has been directed by the Delhi Metropolitan Magistrate Harvinder Singh to submit records regarding the educational qualifications of Union minister Smriti Irani, against whom a complaint has been filed for giving false information in affidavits. It is bad enough that the former HRD minister made a mockery of the people who elected this govt with her flip-flop on her educational qualifications (remember her “degree” from Yale University?!!). That commission pleaded that the documents filed by Irani regarding her educational qualification were untraceable is laughable! The EC was asked to bring on record the original document as the complainant had alleged that Irani’s affidavit filed before it in 2004 for contesting election from Chandni Chowk constituency mentioned her as a graduate. It is commendable that the court has directed EC to file a report on the matter by July 23. The court had on November 20 last year allowed the plea of complainant Ahmer Khan, a freelance writer, seeking direction to the officials of EC and Delhi University to bring the records of Irani's qualifications after he said he was unable to place them before the court. The complainant had claimed that Irani had deliberately given discrepant information about her educational qualification in affidavits filed before the poll panel in 2004, 2011 and 2014 and not given any clarification despite concerns being raised on the issue. Ambar Mishra

Thank you ScooNews!! I am so glad that you had the courage to take up a sensitive subject like anorexia among teenagers (your cover story in the July issue: ‘It’s all about loving your body’). As someone who has witnessed it at close quarters—a close friend of mine went through many years of trauma and soul searching after her daughter was diagnosed of suffering this disease—I can empathise with those who go through the pain. What is worse is that our health system is woefully equipped to deal with this epidemic. Very often the treating doctors do not even have any idea as to how to go about the treatment and the prognosis of the disease, as seen in my friend’s daughter’s case. Such children deserve sensitive handling on the part of medical practitioners, parents and the community at large to help them cope. Awareness and proper disemination of information in the schools would also be a huge help to the teenagers and maybe help nip the problem in the bud. Madhumita Bose

LUCKNOW

UDAIPUR

IT STARTS SMALL

Makeshift cinema for just `10... I mean, wow! I was more than happy to read about the idea that is restraining the poor from falling prey to gambling, drinking and other such addictions. But what surprised me all the more was that the step wasn’t taken by somebody significant, but by small businessmen in and around the area. Kudos to the people who invested their own money into the cause. Well done, people! You’ve really inspired us all to do our part of duty towards the country. Neena Sahani DELHI

NO BLACK & WHITE MATTER, THIS I was shocked to read about the book that teaches antonyms by showing fair as beautiful and dark complexioned as ugly. Living in country like ours and being on the darker side, I too have faced criticism many a times but then if books will teach us such things then there is little that we can hope for. On the flip side, I loved the way you peo-

ple wrote about it, especially the line ‘Are we still willing to teach our kids this skewed concept of beauty?’ Kashaf Majeed INDORE

A WORLD BEYOND IIT Five years ago, I too was preparing for the monstrous IIT exam and so I could completely relate to your story. I had given my all to preparing for the exam but still could not make it. Rather than doing me any good, the preparation took away all the confidence I had ever had. But, unlike many others in this country, I have a very supportive family who stood by me all the time and suggested that I should instead opt for something I really wanted to do when I failed to clear JEE. So, I joined an undergraduate course in mass communication from one of the renowned institutes of the country and now after so many years when I am well settled and happy, I feel good about the decision I made and yes... the dialogue spoken by the character Farhan in the film 3 Idiots is apt for my situation—I am not earning as much as an IITian but that hardly matters as I am happy and content with what I do. Shashank Sharma VADODARA

THE WORLD BEGINS AT IIT I don’t agree with your story on IIT entrance exam. Children, if well guided and trained, can easily crack IIT and articles like the one in your last issue are sure to demotivate and misguide youngsters preparing for the exam. I would not like my 14-year-old boy to read it and think about other career options. I have sacrificed for him so that he gets the best in life; I don’t want him to do the same. And, like they say money is not God but it is surely next to God, so IIT may not be the end of the world but it is definitely where the world begins. I don’t want my child to regret his choices later and want him to be strong and face the competition. With money and fame happiness would follow eventually. Ajeet Gupta JAIPUR

TALK TO US

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Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts and samples before recycling

August 2016

TRENDING

Learn math with CueMath!

When the entire issue talks about edtech and its wonders, we sure had to talk of the latest commotion in the Indian edtech industry. To flag it off is Bengaluru-based CueMath, currently available only on the web and Android, which has been funded of as much as $4 million by Sequoia Capital India and existing investor Unitus Seed Fund. With this, CEO and founder, Manan Khurma and COO Akshay Kumar, now hope to take it to international markets too. CueMath, initiated in 2013 by an alumnus of IIT, Khurma, is among the fastest growing online networks of math learning and teaching in

the country. It serves the purposes of two segments, one home-based women willing to teach math, which made it a definite hit among Indian women. As many as 1200 teachers are already signed up, though 25,000 had applied! The other reason for the poularity is the ‘learning-by-doing’ methodology that lures a wide range of students from classes LKG to 8, who find math tough. What’s different? Well, it’s not the subject, it’s the methodology, ‘adaptive and gamified learning’ along with high technology, online and offline content that it provides that has made it a huge hit!

Manan Sood, 5-year-old boy from Jaipur, who remembers all from capitals of the state/country, currencies of various countries to minutest of the details of all the planets of the Solar System, has become the talk of the town these days. When others of his age are struggling to learn the alphabet, this young boy with a photographic memory has demonstrated his talent in over 20 city schools. Manan or the ‘Google Boy’ as he is called, has also received Swarnim Bharat Award for his extraordinary memory. Manan’s father, Alok was the one to discover his talent. Resident of Civil Lines in Jaipur, Alok said, “Teaching general knowledge to senior school students two years ago, when I asked them some questions, it was Manan who replied. I was amazed to hear that. Later I recited some things and asked him to repeat it. To my surprise he repeated verbatim!”

Call him Manan or ‘Google Boy’!

August 2016

UT education department plans to start internal exams With continuous decline in the level of learning in government schools, the UT education department is planning to bring back external exams this year onwards. The director school education (DSE) Rubinderjit Singh Brar confirmed the fact that the matter will be put forward for deliberations in state advisory council scheduled next month. The exams will be conducted through centralized process for all classes till class 8 and if all goes well, exams are expected to begin from September. The decision on whether these would be monthly, quarterly or board exams is still to be taken. “We are still deliberating. The matter would be finalized in advisory council's meeting,” said Brar. Students will not be detained, ensuring no violation of Right to Education Act, he informed. “The exams will only be conducted to assess learning levels and to maintain a healthy performance pressure,” an official said. Results of various surveys have shown Chandigarh faring below the national average, and both, the education department and school authorities have blamed continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) and nodetention policy for it. “There can be nothing better than bringing back exams as since performance levels have only deteriorated,” said Swarn Singh Kamboj, a teacher.

Gorakhpur gets AIIMS The country will soon have an all new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Gorakhpur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation on 22 July 2016. It will be built at an estimated cost of `1,011 crore. The Gorakhpur AIIMS, which will benefit 14 districts of eastern UP and neighbouring districts of Bihar will be spread in a total area of 112 acres, will have 750 beds, 300 super-speciality beds and is slated to take nearly four years to complete. Government has said that the establishment is being seen to serve two purposes: providing super-speciality health care to the population on one hand and creating a large pool of doctors and health workers under the National Health Mission (NHM) on the other hand.

Disability to make it to text books now

Chapters on disability will be made a part of school curriculum to increase awareness amongst the youth, human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar announced recently at a biker’s rally organized in Delhi to spread awareness about universal accessibility for the differently-abled. Not only that, but according to an official statement, he also said that educational institutions would be made accessible to the disabled in a phased manner. The ‘Ride for Accessibility’, organized to spread awareness about about universal accessibility for the differently abled, was part of a campaign run by the ministry of social justice and empowerment.

11-YO from Nagpur joins class of Einstein and Hawking As per the reports, every medical batch will consist of 100 students while nursing batch will have 60 students. The Union Cabinet headed by PM Modi had given its consent for setting up of the AIIMS under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). "This recurring expenditure will be met by the respective new AIIMS from their annual budgets through grant-in-aid to them from Plan Budget Head of PMSSY of the Health Ministry, the government had recently said. "The setting up of AIIMS under PMSSY aims at correcting the regional imbalances in availability of affordable and reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country and to augment facilities for quality medical education in under-served or backward states," it had said in an official statement.

A score of 160 in the Mensa IQ test is really something to boast about and Akhilesh Chandorkar, 11-year-old lad from Nagpur is amongst those few to attain this score. With a score that claims to be as high as that of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, Akhilesh is now part of top 2% intelligent people in the world. Student of Jain International School, Akhilesh appeared for the test while on a trip to Scotland. Aspiring to be an astronomer, even he wasn’t expecting such high scores as is evident from his interview to the Times of India, “I was expecting around 140, but this is really high. After the test, for days we kept checking e-mails for the result. It was a nice surprise to find it coming through teh traditional post!” Talking about her talented son, his mother Sonali said, “We knew he was special even as a child. He used to solve jigsaw puzzles and put together Lego block designs at the age of four, normally done by nine-year-olds. He’s a voracious reader as well. Since he met the minimum age of 10 for appearing for the Mensa test, we decided to let him have a go at it.”

August 2016

TRENDING Yup! Crunch it with MathCrunch, errrr,

Yup

CueMath isn’t the only one making math easy, there’s Yup, launched as MathCrunch, too. What’s new about Yup, other than the recent name change, is that it has now ventured into chemistry and physics too. The company has recently added a $4 million investment to its books. Yup, available on both iOS and Android, takes pride in being the mobile-first tutoring company that helps students connect with tutors on demand, anytime a student needs it. Any problems a student faces in math, chemistry and physics can thus be solved with the constantly available online help from the best of faculty members with specialized knowledge. Share the problem with photographs, graphs, or just ask the experts. For those, finding the name Yup a bit off-the-track, Naguib Sawaris, CEO, said that it’s easy and simple name, symbolizing “Yup, you’re on it.”

‘Some of those compositions, they’re like world-class.... Honestly, if she wasn’t my daughter, I might have used those compositions, stolen them, and used them in a movie” Shekhar Kapur on daughter Kaveri’s recently released album, which is written, composed and sung by the 15-year-old.

Kota marks its 12th suicide of 2016

The suicide count is still on in the education hub of the country, Kota with one more student, 12th in the year, commiting suicide. Prince Kumar Singh, a 17year-old IIT aspirant from Motihari district of Bihar allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling fan of his hostel room in Indira Vihar area of the city, police said on 23 July. According to Radha Kishan, ASI, Vigyannagar police station, the deceased was reported to have spoken to his parents on phone minutes before his death. A case has been lodged under section 174 of CrPC in this connection. The suicide is the second case by a student from Bihar.

August 2016

SYSA 2016

Investment into the

future

August 2016

Save the date!

SYSA may be the new kids on the block but they are one of a kind â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a unique initiative to recognize talent among students pan India

ScooNews Correspondent writeback@scoonews.com

cooNews Young Star Awards, already beginning to be wellknown as SYSA in the Indian school ecosystem, are a celebration of student life, inviting students and schools pan-India to come be a part of that celebration. While we at ScooNews like to call them a celebration, participating schools have dubbed them an investment, into the future of students. As Vanita Sehgal, principal of Delhi Public School, RK Puram, says, “We have many students who will definitely want to participate as it helps them gain leverage.” And there’s a reason behind this. At a time when there are several other big names awarding and ranking schools, here is an initiative by a young educational startup that is already making waves. The brainchild of founder Bahul Chandra and cofounder and CEO Ravi Santlani, ScooNews has already got up close with students and educators not just the schools and is now taking it to the next level. Like Chandra says, “In the past few months we were exploring avenues to connect with students

and do something that would encourage their inherent creativity. The idea came in the form of ScooNews Young Star Awards where we plan to felicitate the achievements of youngsters across five categories and share it with the country. The awards will be presented on 15 August 2016. I wish all the nominees all the best.” While the students are excited to win

awards and sending in their entries by the scores for the different categories, school principals too have found the initiative encouraging and refreshing as they recognize SYSA as the first ever effort in India that is only about students and their achievements on a national level. Dr Manisha Mehta, principal, Excelsior American School, Gurgaon, couldn’t hide her excitement when she called SYSA “A

And the guests of honour are... Sanjeev Chauhan, principal, Ivy World School, Jalandhar; Meenakshi Uberoi, education evangelist and founding director, De Pedagogics, Gurgaon; Kamaljeet Yadav, principal, Subodh Public School, Jaipur; Rama Dutt, principal, Sanskar School, Jaipur; Suniti Sharma, principal, Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ School, Jaipur; Pooja Singh, principal, Edmunds School (Jawahar Nagar), Jaipur; Madhu Maini, principal, Jayshree Periwal High School, Jaipur; Cdr VK Banga, chairman, Indian Public School Conference, and principal, The Mann School, New Delhi; Sanjay Datta, principal, Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur; Rakhi Verma, principal, Ryan International , Gurgaon; Ekta Dhawan, principal, Baba Lalwani Public School, Kapurthala; Rajni Kalra, principal, Ryan International, Amritsar; Vanita Sehgal, principal, Delhi Public School, RK Puram, New Delhi; Sachin Vats, director, Gurukul School, Ghaziabad; Archana Jain, principal, DPS, Panipat; Manjula Goswami, principal, The Millennium School, Lucknow; Inderpreet Kaur, principal, Gillco International School, Mohali; Puneet Vashishtha, principal, GD Goenka School, Agra; Rachna Mohotra, principal, DPS, Kanpur; Pradeep Dahia, Director, Scholar Global School, Bahadurgarh

August 2016

SYSA 2016 This is such a brilliant idea to boost students. I will be delighted to be part of this event as will our students. Commander VK Banga (retd), principal, Mann School, Delhi & chairman of Indian Public Schools’ Conference

We have a lot of brilliant students at the district level as well as national level players. Students and parents will delight to participate in the event. Girish Kumar, vice-principal, Apeejay School, Jalandhar

This event will bring a new hope in students and motivate them to achieve a milestone. Congratulations to team ScooNews for such a wonderful initiative. We will encourage our students for maximum participation. Inderpreet Kaur, principal, Gillco International School, Mohali, Punjab

very smart and innovative initiative. This is the first that I have heard of such an event at such a huge level.” The awards will be given away under categories with which ScooNews hopes to touch not just academic excellence in children but beyond. For example, there is outstanding educational achievement award, which invites students with at least 95% or 10 CGPA in their last academic session to participate. The outstanding contribution to sports award celebrates those who inspire others with their individual or team performance in sports, and the outstanding contribution to arts and culture prize invites dancers, musicians, artists, poets, etc. Those students who are allrounders will be celebrated under the student of the year category. Yet others, who think they do not fit into the mentioned categories, are sending in their entries under the open category. What has really excited the entire school ecosystem, and specially the students, is the fact that the competition is accepting entries not just from the schools, but also accepting recommendations by teachers and other fellow students. Some of the top schools of India will be represented by Suniti Sharma, principal,

Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls’ School, Jaipur; Cdr VK Banga, chairman, Indian Public School Conference, and principal, The Mann School, New Delhi; Sanjay Datta, principal, Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur; Sachin Vats, director, Gurukul School, Ghaziabad; Manjula Goswami, principal, The Millenium School, Lucknow; Vanita Sehgal, principal, Delhi Public School, RK Puram, Delhi; along with Meenakshi Uberoi, education evangelist and founding director, De Pedagogics, Gurgaon, etc, at event. The buzz that they have created becomes clear when the team ScooNews was forced to extend the deadline by a week, as the entries kept flowing and so did some verbal requests, even though entries have already piled up. As Santlani puts it aptly, “Today it is common for major educational publications to publish school rankings but I wanted ScooNews to be different. ScooNews Young Star Awards are a testimony to our commitment to recognize student achievers and bring them to the national stage. These awards will encourage them to perform better and set newer benchmarks every year. It is my dream to make SYSA the most sought after awards in the student community.” Gautam Sahu, Cambridge International School, Amritsar, happy that something has come up to bring students from the corners of India to the forefront, said that such events are the need of the hour for today’s education world. Yes, the final judgement will be tough and tricky and the team knows it, however, they are all geared up and well prepared with their rules and regulations and instructions to the judges, who are keenly following each and every entry.

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU

Learn the

TEACHER! To teach better

August 2016

Meenakshi Uberoi is passionate about coaching, teaching and learning. She designs curriculum and trains educators through her organization De Pedagogics to equip and assist them in creating innovative, challenging and enriching classroom environments. She is also a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator Master Trainer.

Meenakshi Uberoi

writeback@scoonews.com

When technology has exploded on the education scene globally, it makes sense if Indian educators leverage it to the hilt to enhance learning... after all, it is the biggest enabler there is

echnology is all around us, from the time we wake up in the morning to the time we sleep, we use technology in ways that we may not even realize. Every day, technology becomes more deeply ingrained in our lives, and our classrooms are no different. In classrooms too, we use technology as an enabler, as a timesaving tool, and to work more effectively and efficiently. These are exciting times for educators who have been looking to transform the way we teach and learn. It is the ideal time to seize the opportunity to bring excitement into teaching and learning, especially to engage the disengaged students. Much has been said about 21st century skills for students but are the educators equipped enough to prepare students for the century that we are living in? If we commit to a vision of 21st century knowledge and skills for all students, it is critical that educators master the competencies that ensure positive learning outcomes for students. Today’s life and work environments require far more than thinking skills and content knowledge. Cultivating the ability to cope with these changes in our students, the educators need to establish a vibrant

vision for rethinking pedagogy, modifying methods of teaching to suit the needs of the learners

Tech can be your best pal. Embrace it Technology, I think, is a teacher’s best friend — it’s an enabler, a timesaver, it aids collaboration and builds connections. Technology tools and apps are making learning engaging, interesting and empowering. Let the learners be in the driving seat. Learning, I believe, is something that happens to one and cannot be imposed on anyone. So, even if I, as a teacher, explain a concept to my students I can only make them aware of it and the students will learn only when they explore it on their own. This exploration will rely heavily on how the teacher has introduced the subject. Was it interesting enough to explore further? Did it leave the students with some unanswered questions? Did it intrigue them enough to challenge what they were told? Today’s student is interested in learning by doing, learning by self-discovery and developing new understanding. What comes to a teacher’s aid to create this environment is technology! Teachers must think of impactful ways of introducing a new concept to ensure they have a lasting influence. They can begin by using a video to introduce a concept. You may think, teach-

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU COMPONENTS OF A

21st

Learning Analytics

Century Classroom

Help teachers assess top concerns and achievements related to their students

Registrat Analytics doubled

Technology is undeniably changing the face of education, and it’s easy to see the impact already. Imagine what classrooms will be like in 20 years with the speed of technological innovation. Learn more about some of the key advancements in the 21st century classroom.

91% 1 in 5

of teachers have computers in their classroom...

...but just feel their classrooms have the right level of technology

INCREASING THE PRESENCE OF THE FOLLOWING TECHNOLOGIES COULD CHANGE THAT RATIO DRASTICALLY

81% of teachers believe tablets enrich classroom learning

Real World Education Project-based learning (PBL) teaches concepts, but also organization, articulation, project management and collaboration Integrating life skills into education can improve student engagement and retention and prepare them for 21st century careers

stu mobi cou

Online Courses Almost a third of all college students take at least one online course

Online enrollments saw 21% growth while overall higher education student population only saw 2% growth

Over 65% of education institutions count online learning as critical for long-term educational success

ers have used YouTube videos or PowerPoint presentations for years now to introduce a concept and that they have been used as a tool by the students too, so where’s the excitement? It is here that we, as educators, must look for the missing link — have we done enough to open the students’ mind towards learning? Do they have the knowledge they are seeking from

Games and Gamification of teachers have used online games in the classroom

In one study, games raised average test scores:

91.5% With the use of digital games

79.1% Without the use of digital games

the presentation? Are they ready to gain from the experience? No? Well, this is where tech comes in handy. Try this.

Allow students to explore the concept Let us say, a class of 10-11-year-olds is about to learn about photosynthesis. So this is what you must do as an informed, edtech

August 2016

savvy teacher, ask your students to share their prior knowledge about the topic. Let them explore meaning of the word, the terms related to the topic, pen down questions that come to their mind, recall if they’ve heard of this term anywhere before this — in short, get their minds working in the direction you want so that they are hungry to know more. Once the

One system claims to predict whether a student’s likelihood of sufficient course completion with about 70% accuracy, highlighting risk factors for individual students

tion for the Learning s and Knowledge conference between 2011 and 2012

70%

Top 3 Reasons for Teachers to Use Technology in the Classroom 76%

Adapt to diverse learning styles

77%

Boost student motivation

76%

Enhance the material being taught

Open source Textbooks In the next decade, open source textbooks are expected to grow to 25% of the textbok market

By 2013, e-textbooks may comprise

6 in 10 students have used a digital textbook - just 4 in 10 had in 2011 -

of textbook revenue

Over 51% of colleges cited wireless upgrades as their tech priority in 2011-12 given the 60% increase in mobile divices on campus in the previous year

86% of students believe they study more efficiently with tablets

Integration of Social Networks Engaging students with a free tool they already use can help them learn in new ways, gain focus and increase participation

1 in 5

udents have used a ile app to keep their ursework organized One social media pilot program assisted in a class’ 50% rise in grades

4 in 10 students believe integrating social networks into the classroom would benefit their education

59% of students would like to use their own mobile devices to enchance learning

29% of teachers use social media for coursework, compared to now 80% of college professors

Source: http://www.opencolleges.edu.au

ground is prepared, they are ready to learn, they will absorb more from the learning experience. Why? Because they are now seeking answers to the questions playing around in their mind. As for technology, use Padlet to post questions, videos, and prompts; or create a WhatsApp or Yammer class group. You can

use Sway for digital storytelling or Plickers for polling, whichever you find more accessible and easier for your students to use. Post a question for them to answer or to create a mind-map about the concept or simply post comments about what they already know about the topic. These digital media can help create powerful collaborative spaces for learning to happen. We (students

and teachers) are big-time digital consumers, but are yet to take the next step to becoming digital contributors. Many tools and apps, available to us today, allow us to create all kinds of awesome digital content. Students and teachers can create digital content using the following software — presentations using PowerPoint, OfficeMix, PowToon interactive digital posters using

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU Microsoft Publisher, eBooks using OneNote, videos using YouTube/Yammer/Twitter or OneDrive, blogs using Wordpress, Glossi, Sway and do so, so much more. You can get your students to make a short film, run an ongoing class website that features student work and opinions and lots more. Embrace social media — don’t be shy or scared of it. Today’s students consume digital information from social media as they easily as drinking water. In any case, they are already engrossed in social media outside of class; they check out Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and so many more digital spaces the moment they reach home! Bringing social media into the classroom, therefore, is sure to instantly grab their attention. Use it to elicit responses to compelling questions and engage students outside of class time. Give your students a platform to voice their thoughts.

Yet another tool that is making waves in classrooms across the world is Skype in the Classroom. Teachers can use the goal of global collaboration to inspire classroom design that allows for connected sharing and learning. Opportunities for networked and international collaborations are bringing both the world to the classroom and classrooms to the world. Teachers have been using Skype to bring in guest lecturers, experts, students, and virtual field trips into the classroom to open a new world of learning for their students. Nothing breaks up the monotony of “one voice in the classroom” like an enthusiastic subject matter expert from another school or country or a room full of students from another continent! If a picture raises a thousand thoughts, imagine how many thoughts a video spring up.

Teach them the way they want to learn If students do not learn the way we teach or are not willing to learn when we teach, we must teach the way they learn best and learn when they are ready. Not only does this increase access to relevant data, it helps to stimulate the mind — the extended time often required to understand a concept, and the visible, tangible results further reinforce learning. Whether they are online or offline, using a tablet, phone or PC, students need to be able to complete their work anytime and anywhere.

Classroom as a collaborative space Today, with a single laptop, a webcam, a projector, and an Internet connection, a teacher can broadcast and begin collaboration with any other classroom. Collaborative learning spaces empower students to work with each other and work in a non-threatening environment to share their knowledge as they understand that they are not being assessed but are being encouraged to voice their thoughts and share their knowledge. It has been observed that even the quietest of the students begin to contribute as they are not being compelled to contribute but can choose to share once comfortable. Though there cannot be a single universal blueprint for designing a collaborative learning space, teachers can refer to lesson plans available on professional learning networks like Microsoft Educator Network or Edmodo and learn from other’s experience to design a learning experience for their own students. These are only two of the numerous networks that are available for teachers to explore. In addition to this, however, the teachers must use social media for professional learning. There are numerous groups on all social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, WhatsApp and Yammer to choose from depending on the educator’s area of interest.

OneNote is one of the most powerful collaborative timesaving tools that can be used very effectively for project-based learning. Teachers agree that when students apply what they are learning to projects based on real life scenarios, the topics they are learning take on a deeper and more meaningful significance. Using OneNote, the teachers can add supporting data in the content library of the notebook for students to access offline to gain understanding as they carry out their research on the said topic. The teachers can add PowerPoint presentations to this notebook for students to access the data anytime, anywhere and on any device. This is of utmost importance for revisiting and revising concepts just before examinations when students are looking for easily understandable forms of learning. Using technology in the classroom, therefore, can help combat the ‘lecture style’ system of education, which does cater to a variety of learning processes. Teachers are changing their classroom practices to help students be successful both in and out of the classroom. Most importantly, educators must understand that technology should never be used in teaching for its own sake. It should be used to meet specific learning objectives and outcomes. Teachers must begin to learn using technology effectively in classroom by teaching with technology not teaching the technology.

August 2016

Edtech is here to

Pic: Ojas Godatwar

STAY

All over the news recently for investing $1mn in EduAce, a Lucknow-based edtech startup, Arun Gupta tells ScooNews just why he thinks edtech is here to stay ScooNews Correspondent writeback@scoonews.com

run Gupta, the founder of MoMagic is a technology veteran turned serial entrepreneur with 25 years of experience and multiple patents to his credit while wearing the hat of director MediaTek for close to a decade. Credited with being the architect of the first version of MediaTek handset MMI, his steering of MoMagic has helped it achieve a significant market share of the mobile internet market in India in a short span of four years. The company is strategically aligned with the end customer both in feature and smart phone category with a reach to 90 million users in India. With a strategic investment by MediaTek, the global chip set player, MoMagic is set for very aggressive expansion plans, which include venturing into the edtech space. In May, Gupta was in the headlines for investing USD 1 million in the Lucknow edtech startup EduAce. ScooNews caught the maverick for a quick tête-àtête on the emergence of edtech in the startup space..

All pics: Vaibhav Ramchandani

Does edtech have a future in India? Well, yes, it is here to stay; we might take time to understand the technological advances in education, but we’ll get there. The entire education system will be impacted by digitization, eventually. I don’t see any reason why edtech should not be required. If education becomes online, it is friendly to the environment too. With the Indian reliance on traditional teaching methods and the country’s huge geographical diversity, how would that be possible? Well, again, it will take time; there are certain basic requirements that need to be fulfilled before technology completely takes over. Of 125cr people, only 25% use the internet. Only 3cr use 3G. So, that infrastructure is needed. So, people would need two basic things to bring about that revolutionary change — connectivity and collection of payment. The cost of content creation is much lower than content distribution. If there is better internet connectivity, if payment stops being a hindrance, creators would be more in demand than the distributors. Why are big names like yours investing in edtech startups? MoMagic is not just an investor, we work as enablers too, in some cases with tech companies like Mediatek

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU and Foxxconn. Education is our current area of interest where we see a space for ourselves as the fuel to help it go forward. What would you advise edtechs startups to sustain? First, have a long-term vision, education is not a field where you can come in and start earning profits (right away). Real advantage comes 5-10 years later, so patience, long-term patience, is the top priority. Do not try to multiply profits in the short term; it would lead you to nowhere.

angel investors in India, but then they are not doing what is expected of them. Which one of your investments is the closest to you? It’s all money, to be honest. We earn the hard way, and then invest. It’s like being asked to pick out your favourite kid of the two, although you love them both. Right now, I am investing only where I feel connected. If I don’t, I don’t invest. I do not invest in five in one year, I’d rather invest in one in five years.

Whatever you develop, understand your target audience. In a country like India, there’s a lot of difference from one city to the other. With each new audience, there has to be a new understanding. Get to know the nitty gritties of each small town or city. Get into those small towns and cities, because each of these smaller places will have a different thing to work upon; you’d know your focus target audience ultimately. Have a vision before you get into this area, understand people; they would give a wide angle to it, a different requirement. The basic idea is get to know what your requirement is. Prepare to get into that wider canvas.

Are Indian edtech companies good enough to compete with the rest of the world? Why not? Indian edtechs have localized advantages too. Education is something that needs localization, which would limit the number of people entering into this field. That’s where I see the Indian edtech companies doing better than anyone coming from the outside. There’s a huge opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs to do well here, it will be local players eventually winning. Will EduAce do well pan-India? Do you have any advice for them? For us, EduAce is the decision maker, we won’t get into that field; we are enablers. But anyhow, they are working hard to build awareness in the northern region, the south of India is not yet in the immediate plans. However, once they find themselves stable, they’d definitely like to enter the rest of the market.

Once you know the target audience, focus. And focus only on that until unless you have a completely developed platform and thus can move to the next. You might be allured by the way Flipkart got successful but check the losses they have faced too. Be adaptable. Plan long term and understand the ups and downs. It’s a journey you have to go through, not just a destination you’d enjoy. How would you guide college students full of ideas? See, we are not angel investors, neither are we VCs. We invest only in ventures that have already explored the market, been there for at least 1.5–2years. It was the same with EduAce. We are not into making people entrepreneurs with a click, we want people to know what entrepreneurship is in detail. There are several

Do you think gadgets will completely take over the printed word?

Edtech is just picking up, four-five years down the line there will some competition in the field. Once there is focus on the field, a lot of things will take shape.

Which, among all the current edtechs, do you believe, has the most potential? Ah, there are several picking up, so, it’s quite difficult to say. Though I see Educomp running the race for a long time now and probably it would go even farther; it is faring well. Having said that, I think it is too early as of now for anyone to be in the race; the space is too new, it has not yet become a proper race to be won, like e-commerce. In 2011-12, ecommerce was new and now it’s such a common thing that it has the choicest of competitors.

You have plans to go international, starting with Africa. Do you think Africa has a space for edtechs? Well, yes. Our plans are to find the best possible business opportunities for MoMagic. However, the market there is slower than in India. For technology too, the business runs slower. But then, MoMagic has its own success story in Bangladesh, so if we can do it there, why not in Africa. And then, why not edtechs? Yeah, we’d definitely like to replicate our success story in Africa too. Which latest technology have you picked up to learn? I like to learn a lot about Internet of things (IoT), on which eventually everything will be shifted. Experts say, as of today, as many as 22 devices can be connected to IoT. Whatever gadget we use will be connected to IoT. And since we are into the business of technology, we like to explore this area.

Everything has a certain positive and negative side to it. You have to decide which side you are on. As much as I can see, the kids today seemingly have more knowledge, are more proactive, smarter, than earlier. Their needs are different. You can’t avoid handing over a smartphone to school kids. You may set limits on usage of a phone, Notebook or an iPad, but eventually they would spend time on their gadgets. They react a lot to everything.

see the way education has transformed — anyone with access to internet has access to information, anyone with access to gadgets doesn’t need to memorize. Nobody can stop this transformation. Instead of pushing it away, why not welcome it. Technology has made several things easier for us. Education too needs to change. The senior generation too needs to understand this change and accept it.

Access to information was critical in the past and still; how you memorize was and remains crucial to excellence in academics. However,

Still, I do not believe that would phase out books completely. There will be a mix of the two — books 30%, technology 70%.

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU

AROUND THE WORLD on Expeditions Imagine sitting in your classroom in Agra and taking your class to the Great Wall of China! Impossible? At nearly 10K USD, perhaps yes for the Indian classroom. But a revolution in edtech nevertheless

ScooNews Correspondent writeback@scoonews.com

magine sitting in your classroom in Agra and taking your class to see the Great Wall of China. Not possible you would say! How can one do that sitting in dusty, chaotic Agra? But as nothing is impossible, so is this. In today’s digital world when you can video chat with your beloved sitting in one corner of the world so also can you travel to places never seen before, just sitting in your classroom with your students! Freed from the beta version recently, the Google Expeditions app allows you to go on immersive, virtual journeys to places you’ve only heard of or seen in pictures and the most interesting part is that you can visit, feel and have fun at these places not alone but with your students. Google Classroom, paperless way of educating, has been popular since its release in 2014 and in its similar endeavors to expand in the field of education it has been making various efforts, one being the beta Expeditions Pioneer Program introduced by the search giant in September last year, to help change the way teachers teach students with the help of Cardboard VR. While this pioneer program allowed only a select number of school partners to take virtual Google field trips, it is now finally available free to all on Play Store. The Expeditions app is virtual reality in education that consists of VR trips to many prominent locations of the world like the Great Barrier

Reef, Machu Picchu, the Grand Canyon or the Great Wall of China. According to Google, the app that can be downloaded on multiple devices, currently has more than 200 virtual trips to places across the world. The kit comes with 30 smartphones and Google Cardboard viewers that turn phones into virtual reality headsets, three chargers, a router to keep Expeditions running without any Internet connectivity, a tablet for the teacher who serves as the tour guide and can choose which location he/she wants to take their students, who follow through VR, learning about places and events in the process. But don’t students today already spend too much time onscreen? Using screens further, even if to teach, raises health concers. In reply, Ben Schrom, product

manager Google Expeditions, told www.alicebonasio.com, “We took steps from the get-go to make Expeditions really social. It’s not a canned, solitary experience. It is teacher-led so every time you do an Expedition, it is different,” he informed. On the other hand, Jennifer Holland, program manager for Google Apps for Education, is of the view that VR can act as a catalyst for students to see the world from another perspective: “We initially thought that Expeditions would be about taking students to all these majestic places, letting them explore Mount Everest, the Taj Mahal, and even Mars. But we soon found out that it was about much more than that. We can bring historical moments to life, or we can give insight into what someone’s job is like to those who don’t have access to internship or mentors. We recently piloted some Career Expeditions where you can follow a palaeontology professor from the Natural History Museum, or a pilot for American Airlines and see what they like (and don’t like) about their work.” Not only that, but the app has also been appreciated by American First Lady Michelle Obama, who sees it as a great tool for her initiative Reach Higher, as it can be used to visit various college campuses through VR and hence support her aim to encourage students from diverse backgrounds to apply and go to colleges. The app is also being supported by partners like educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and British documen-

Wait, there’s more Talking about Google’s other edtech endeavours, it is all set to release a new Google Cast for Education Chrome app, which will allow students and teachers to share screens wirelessly. Besides, the search giant has also launched Quizzes in Google Forms, to ease the work of teachers. And that’s not all Google has to offer, it has also introduced three creative apps — Explain Everything, Soundtrap, and WeVideo — for Chromebooks. The apps bring out students’ creative best allowing them for doing their own thing in animation, music and videos. Available, at a price, on Play Store. tarian David Attenborough in collaboration with Alchemy VR, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The app has so far been used by a million students from 11 countries and why not when it lets teachers control what the students see, and lets students experience the real world virtually. The best part of the app lies in the fact that teachers personalize each Expedition. “We found that as soon as teachers press the pause button, students automatically put the goggles down, they don’t have to be told. It works really smoothly as part of an interactive lesson. Teachers actually joked that they wished we could implement that button on all their devices,” said Holland.

Moreover, real-world application for knowledge is what makes students interested in things, said Samson Meyer, grade 6 math teacher in South Carolina, US: “Sometimes the best way to help students is using the voice of another student. We teach each other different ways of learning.” But, the app that is revolutionizing education wasn’t easy to come up with; the team had its share of challenges, the foremost being the technological barriers. It had to make sure that the app not only ran smoothly on devices of teachers and students, but also that it ran with little or no Internet connectivity. “We did that by enabling the teacher’s tablet to be used in such a way as to operate like a local server, connected to all of the viewing devices. This means we can take it anywhere, from a rural area in Ghana to the Amazon rainforest,” said Schrom. The app is currently available for Android via Play Store and will soon be available on iOS. The kit will be available on Best Buy for $9,999 so that it can be bought without going through lengthy sign-up process.

EDTECH & YOU

Hey teacher,

use that app!

Luis von Ahn is a Guatemalan entrepreneur & assoc prof at Carnegie Mellon University. A pioneer of crowdsourcing, he founded reCAPTCHA, sold it to Google in 2009 and then co-founded Duolingo

Luis von Ahn, cofounder and CEO of Duolingo, the popular free language learning platform used in 5% of all American schools, gives his take on India and future plans to team ScooNews

August 2016

ScooNews Correspondent writeback@scoonews.com

What was the original source of inspiration for you to start Duolingo? I wanted to work on something related to education, which has always been my true passion, thus Duolingo really is the project of my passion. Now, my views on education are much related to the fact that I am from poverty-ridden Guatemala, which, in many ways, is similar to India. And I saw that a lot of people talk about education as something that brings equality to different social classes but, according to me, it is just the opposite, it rather brings inequality to social classes. People who have money can buy the best education in the world, go to best schools, and continue having money, whereas people who don’t have enough money barely have the proper education and therefore continue not having money. So, I wanted to do something that would bring equal access to education to everybody regardless of the fact that they have money or not and that’s where Duolingo came from. How is the current version of Duolingo different from the earlier one?

We’ve made it significantly more intelligent this time… the first Duolingo was static. Today, it is very personalized to you, customized as per the user’s previous lessons and other requirements. What are Duolingo’s plans for the language market that India offers? India is a huge market… the total number of people learning language is huge, particularly learning English, as it can double or triple your income potential. So, it can fix in with our vision and mission of free language education to everybody. India is the first country that we have made a specific team for. So, we have an engineering team dedicated entirely to India. The team started making changes to the app, the latest version of the app that we released is significantly better for India. The size of the app is very small bringing it down to 7mb because we know in India most of the smartphones being used are without high memory power. The goal is to have a fully offline version so that people can do it entirely offline. It’s also localized to Hindi so you can learn English from Hindi. Also, we calculate that there are as many as 1 billion adults the world over, 200 million being in India. Now that’s definitely a huge market. Since you’ve offered solutions for schools, how would you approach Indian schools? We aren’t yet talking about schools in India, but yes, we are open to doing that in the future. We have contacts with many governments in the world… 5% of all US schools use Duolingo to learn languages. Our immediate goal here in India is to grow in terms of user base.

A lot of people talk about education bringing equality to different social classes but it is just the opposite, it rather brings inequality to social classes. People who have money can buy the best education in the world, and continue having money, whereas people who don’t have enough money barely have the proper education and therefore continue not having money. Luis von Ahn, Duolingo

Any message or insight for school administrators for using edtech? There are lot of edtech companies but there are few who actually care about teaching better… so, I would ask educators to demand actual proof that they teach better, for example, at Duolingo we have spent efforts measuring how well we teach. There are many tools that sound great but in reality you don’t know if they work well, I think that is something educators should demand. Any message for our readers, school administrators, teachers? I think the message should be that there is lot of good educational opportunities right with your smartphones, making taking and giving of education rather easy. If you carry a smartphone, you should make full use of it.

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU If you are the sort of educator who wants to step up to the times, break boundaries all the time, you are in the right place. For ScooNews has three great reads to be “tasted, swallowed... and chewed and digested”, with due apologies to Sir Francis Bacon!

Hooked, & booked...

by tech 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom By Alice Keeler and Libbi Miller This book came about in response to a question that the authors came up against often: ‘How can I effectively implement digital tools in my classroom when I don’t fully understand them myself?’ Hence this thorough overview of the Google Classroom app. Part of Google Apps for Education (GAfE), Google Classroom was developed as an aid for teachers. With various screenshots, this book explains to teachers step-by-step the way to implement this powerful tool. From setting up the app, adding students, creating a lesson, sharing announcements to keeping a check over who’s working and who’s not on team projects, teachers can learn all from this book. And if you’ve come this far, do read too 50 Things to Go Further with Google Classroom: A Student-Centered Approach by the same writers, because it gives you an understanding of the view from across the desk and how Google Classroom can be a boon for individualized learning. Go, grab your copy to effectively use this power book and enhance your teaching experience.

Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies

Ditch That Textbook: Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom

By Michelle Pacansky-Brock

By Matt Miiller

Since Michelle Pacansky-Brock is a teacher, she has the answers to all those who have been trying to keep up with technology and incorporate it usefully in the field of education. Her book eases the path of those who wish to be effective educators. Recounting her own journey, she talks about the pedagogical tricks she has herself used to make her online classes engaging. Besides, she also dwells chapter by chapter, on emerging trends in education technology, including Web 2.0 tools and mobile technologies.

This book by author and teacher, Matt Miller is all about incorporating teaching methods that are: n different from conventional ones; n innovative, drawing on new ideas or modifying others’ ideas; n tech-laden talking about the digital sites, tools and devices; n creative, tapping into students’ original ideas as well as your own; and n hands-on, encouraging students to do things on their own.

Beginning with how a teacher can build a base for incorporating tech into the teaching and learning process successfully, Pacansky-Brock goes on to discuss Barr and Tagg’s ‘Instruction Paradigm versus Learning Paradigm’ theory. She has also taken up webcams, microphones, screencasting software, content hosting services and approaches as a means of tech-empowered teaching. The book is full of useful tips like how best to use various apps like Jing, EyeJot, Skype, Twitter, Poll Everywhere, Ning, and VoiceThread, including even listing a website containing links to all of the resources discussed in the book! Don’t miss reading this one if you want practical examples of how tech can be instrumental in deeper student engagement.

Alice Keeler

Once again, a useful buy for the educator, who wants to keep up with the times and technologies, who is willing to be educated herself!

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU

Starting out right

Learning through gaming What it does: With offerings like Historia, which teaches kids world history by letting them follow a civilization through time, E-Line Media has brought game-based-learning to hundreds of thousands of students in more than 10,000 classrooms and after-school programmes. Games are designed around major core subjects such as history, language arts, science and math. How it’s changing education: The edtech startup partnered with the ASU Center for Games and Impact to develop a middle-school learn-

Edtech and startups go hand in hand, after all, they are both disruptive! Here’s the lowdown on some great ideas that are stirring up things in both sectors. Educators, watch out for these ing platform called Thrive, which focuses on teaching history, language arts, math, science and new literacies. Its Gamestar Mechanic platform also teaches youth how to create and design their own games. Founded: 2007 Funding: $3.93 mn

GK, anyone? What it does: newsela.com helps students build their reading comprehension skills by publishing daily news articles from sources such as the Washington Post and Associated Press across five different reading levels for grades 2–12. How it’s changing education: The edtech startup’s new app lets users set their reading level and then browse Newsela’s library of articles. Students can join a teacher’s classroom, read assigned articles and take quizzes to test comprehension. Founded: 2012 Funding: $22.16 mn

Newton would’ve liked it

Homegrown, and how! What it does: Vedantu also focuses on exam prep, but with a difference. This is an online marketplace for teachers with oneon-one live tutoring. Offerings range from monthly tuitions, IIT Foundation to preparation for exams like NTSE, JEE Mains, etc. The four cofounders — Vamsi Krishna, Saurabh Saxena, Pulkit Jain, and Anand Prakash — are all IITians and this is their second venture. How it’s changing education: Students from grade 6 to 12 can use trial sessions and a ranking system to choose a suitable teacher from over 200 registered on the site. An in-house audiovisual tool enables live interactions at low bandwidths as well as low volume storage of recorded sessions. Founded: 2011. Launched 2014 Funding: $5 million

What it does: Knewton is like having a highly sophisticated personal tutor available 24x7! It uses an adaptive learning platform that can tailor lessons to a student’s strengths and weaknesses. The technology uses data to learn things about the student, such as how long they stay focused on a history lesson, or whether video is more effective than text when teaching science. Knewton then uses these data points to create more effective lessons. How it’s changing education: After introducing the technology in classrooms at a high-poverty public school in Baltimore, students saw a 25% increase in reading scores over the previous year. Founded: 2008 Funding: $157 mn

August 2016

EDTECH & YOU And then, there’s Byju Byju’s Classes is truly a startup to watch out for! It started out as classroom coaching for MBA entrance exams, but metamorphosed into an online player. The company, which raised $30 million from Sequoia Capital recently, has been offering study material to students from Class 6 upwards on a tablet and is launching an app soon. Unacademy is India’s largest ‘free learning platform’, which aims to index all the world’s education

on its platform in all languages. Founders Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, Sachin Gupta and Roman Saini say it is India’s most popular educational channel on YouTube, with 200,000 visits and 1.5 million page views a month. The portal empowers to create high quality courses, and enable students to take these courses. More than 100 educators have created courses on unacademy.in

Toppr – $10 m As the name suggests, Toppr aims to help students in India crack college entrance exams with unlimited practice tests, feedback reports, and benchmarking. Co-founders Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti are both IIT Bombay grads who founded a mobile commerce marketplace called Chaupaati Bazaar back in 2008, which got acquired by retail conglomerate Future Group. Zishaan later became a prolific angel investor, being among the earliest to bet on Ola.

CultureAlley – $6.15 m “We actually started CultureAlley as a platform for people to learn foreign languages like Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, and so on. But while we were doing that, we realized that English was a much, much larger market,” CultureAlley co-founder Pranshu Patni told in Asia in a recent interview.

EduKart – $1 m This startup operates with a different model from the ones we’ve seen so far. EduKart is an aggregator of a variety of courses from a range of Indian and international providers including universities as well as other edtech portals. In other words, it provides a lot of choice to anybody looking to learn something online, get certified, or prepare for exams. It neither develops nor delivers the courses, acting instead as a distribution platform. The asset light model received US$1 million in funding from a range of investors, including Stanford Business School’s alumni angels in June this year. EduKart founder Ishan Gupta is also an alumnus of Stanford University.

CollegeDekho This is another startup helping students to find the right courses and colleges. The difference with MeetUniv is that CollegeDekho focuses on colleges in India. Apart from helping students search for what they want, it has also set up CRM (customer relationship management) systems for the colleges to streamline these interactions. What is different about this startup is data analytics to create student profiles.

Quite logycal, that What it does: Schoology, founded by four college students in 2009, offers a learning management system for K-12 schools and universities that facilitates collaboration, communication and resource sharing on a single platform. The company’s LMS is used by more than 12 million users worldwide. How it’s changing education: There are numerous case studies, but one example is the Fairview School in Pennsylvania, which used Schoology’s LMS to support its 1:1 iPad implementation programme. The setup gave teachers the facility to assign individual tasks to students according to their needs and lessons using a method (video, audio, etc.) that worked best for the student. Founded: 2009 Funding: $57.1 mn

August 2016

JUST BLOGGING

Please be a

MOM at home

Urvashi Warman

writeback@scoonews.com

All too often, teacher-moms forget that they are moms first at home. They can become true super moms only if they manage to be more of a mother and less of a teacher at home

The writer is a veteran teacher and principal, The Palace School

eing a teacher-mom is by far one of the most challenging tasks. A teacher-mom is a teacher who is also a mother at home. One would think that teachers find it easy to be good mothers as they have the best of the two within them... a teacher and a mother and the combination makes nothing short of a Super Mom. Super Mom? For sure! However, much is at stake here. The role of a teacher is one of a guide, a mentor, a disciplinarian, a tutor, all rolled into one. It is a demanding role, one that sometimes takes its toll at the emotional level. Often it has been seen that teachers tend to get didactic in their associations and dealings and use an authoritative tone while dealing with children especially. Now being human, it is natural that the tone one uses for nearly six hours a day will become a part of one’s personality eventually. As a result, the teacher finds it difficult to step into the mother’s shoes upon reaching home. Often, without realizing it, she continues to act as a teacher by always ‘telling’ a child what to do and not asking whether he wishes to do so or not. The equation between a super mom and her child tends to see-saw. Here are a few questions one needs to ask if

August 2016

one is a teacher-mom: n How much time do you spend talking to your own child? (This excludes the time you spend in ‘telling’ the child what needs to be done and how.) n How often do you hug your child and express your love? Compare it to the number of times you check your child for some task not done according to your parameters. n Do you tend to slip into a ‘teachertype scolding’ mode when your child does something wrong? n What is your level of expectation for your child’s academic performance? Check. Is your image of a good, fantastic teacher somewhere influencing your expectations from your own child? n Do you tend to neglect your child’s academic needs as you think you can somehow cover up within the school? (For those moms who are teaching in the same school.) I clearly remember an incident that happened early in my teaching years. Being new to the field, I would look up to my senior colleagues for guidance at every step. There was one such colleague with 15 years of experience

with a 10-year-old son, who studied in the same school. This colleague, Charulata Sharma* was a very talented, highly articulate and a super efficient teacher. She was to be found all over the school; she was involved in all major activities within and outside the school premises. Her son, Raman*, on the other hand, was just the opposite. A very shy child, he disliked any kind of extra attention to be showered on him, preferring to be very much on his own. A below average performer in scholastic and co-scholastic areas, he was a kid who could easily be forgotten in class. Being an overambitious person, Charulata tried her level best to push him forward in every activity that she could. Especially forcing him to take part in public speaking activities and her colleagues had a tough task handling her as she refused to accept the quiet, reserved nature of her child. The child started remaining absent ever so often and would fall ill before every major event he had been forced to participate in. Soon I, being the class teacher, noticed that Raman had started to stutter and was also unusually aggressive with his classmates. The matter was referred to the school counsellor. It did not take her long to get to the root of the problem. It took very long counselling sessions for both the mother and the child to resolve the issue. Being the class teacher I was privy to the matter and realized that had Charulata not been working in the same school, Raman may not have had such a severe problem. Charulata, unconsciously tried to put her son into a mould of her making, to complement her social image amongst her colleagues, parents and friends.

It is a fine balancing act to be a teacher and a mother at the same time and the matter becomes more sensitive if both the mother and the child are in the same institute. Teacher-moms need to have a high level of maturity while dealing with their colleagues. It is very easy to become paranoid about your child’s progress if you have had a personal spat with your colleague. There is always an element of mistrust about the way your child is being handled and it is very easy to shift the blame of your child’s performance to the ‘biased’ handling of your colleague. These can be dangerous traps and one needs to be very careful not to become prey to a never-ending blame game. Work environment can become very stressful and demotivating if one has to constantly battle the feeling that the talent of your own child is being smothered because of internal politics. Every work area has its share of politics. Work ethics demand that if professional differences crop up between two individuals, it should never involve personal lives of any of the people you are working with. Every aspect of our life is interlinked. There can never be watertight compartments between one’s personal and professional lives. The work of a teacher-mom is all the more complicated because a part of her personal life—her own child—is also a part of her professional life. A teacher-mom will actually become a true super mom if she manages to become more of a mother and less of a teacher at home. And, remembers to be a

teacher and not a doting mother when at work. Each member of an educational institution is equally responsible to maintain a healthy work environment. And being educators and parents at the same time, the quantum of responsibility becomes higher still. * Names changed to protect identities

For the mother is must be, whether she knows it or not, the greatest, strongest and most lasting teacher her children have. Hannah Whitall Smith, Suffragette, speaker and author

August 2016

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Dear Reader 12

TOPPER TALK: Many of you may be wondering how to go about prepping for law entrances. Some tips and tricks from three CLAT toppers of 2016

Small Wonders BIG APPS Barely 8 or 9, these kids are whizzkids when it comes to coding. Yes! And it is something they learnt on their own, online! Up close with these

BACK2SCHOOL: Manish Sisodia meets up with ScooNews

17 TAKE2 EDM and SciFi... how â&#x20AC;&#x2122;bout that? EDTECH & YOU They teach you coding... for free!

August 2016

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BACK2SCHOOL Meet our special guest... Manish Sisodia, Delhi deputy CM! Catch him at his candid best as he fields our questions

The older generation needs to go

BACK TO CLASS! Meenal Singh & Pranav Sharma

writeback@scoonews.com

Where did you go to school and what did you like most about it? I went to a village school, around 50–60km from here, part of western UP, a very ordinary village school. Your father was a teacher too. How was it growing up with a teacher for a father? He used to teach in my school, which was 15–16km from my village; we would cycle home on weekends as we lived in the hostel. I left the village when I was 26, so cycling with him is something I miss. He was a strict father-teacher; no extra advantages for me! It was the regular grind as for any other student; study and pass your exams. To go by his rule, whatever you do, you do it on your own. Any memory you’d like to share? He was a very religious person, and hard working. He made me learn how to work hard; he used to wake up at 4am, which upset me—I used to ask him why he had to wake up at 4am. He also taught us what it is to live (together) as a family.

August 2016

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Your favourite school memory? There are way too many... parading in NCC, the uniforms. When I was in class 10, I attained a high position in the state, which gave me wings. It gave me the opportunity to reach Ghaziabad. For the first time I was anywhere out of my village. Won an award of books, life sketch of some freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar, Ashfaqulla Khan, reading which gave me the idea to do something good for the nation. How did your school impact you and what would you do if you were back in school? Well, the school I was in was not one to impact anyone. Imagine a typical village and government school. There were teachers who worked hard but there were others who kept themselves busy politicking, or looking out for promotions; some misused their position of government teachers. But if I do get a chance to be back in school, I’d like every teacher to ingrain in students a certain level of confidence and understanding, not learning by rote. If a child understands what is taught in schools, nothing can deter him. This understanding and confidence needs to be built up in students, in not just bookish knowledge but also for other worldly things. Now, imagine, if every student has that confidence and the right understanding, they won’t be misled, neither will they let the others be misled by anti-social groups. Who do you think needs to go back to school? I’d rather like to have everyone in school (smiles). When we were in school, there were a lot of things missing from what is available today. Career was something

hardly anyone would know of, the reason for schooling too was missing, which clearly reflects in people today, be it an advocate, doctor, IAS, etc. So, the previous generation should go back to school. Everyone should question, ‘meri upyogita kya hai’. It would be an injustice to those whom I might name. I might take some political names only, though I would rather that every Indian goes back to school and try to get an answer to ‘meri upyogita’. If you were a teacher, which politicians would you like to see in your class? (Laughs) To see myself as a teacher is quite difficult, I’d rather learn than teach. How does it feel like to be the deputy CM and education minister? You are listed among the top100 influential people of India this year... I have no clue of how the list of influential people is made (laughs). But then, yes, it does make you feel good to see your name printed at such levels. But do such lists matter? What should matter is the effect you have. Yes, I am influential as I am the deputy CM, Dilli sarkar me meri chalti hai, these are the things that are measured when such lists are made. But am I effective as a minister? Am I effective as a person? Answers to these questions would be the right way to decide the top 100 influential people. Congratulations on the Delhi govt schools performing better than the private in board exams! How did the govt achieve it? First thing, my battle as education minister is not govt vs private schools. Education, for me, is not about numbers. I have also

come across a news where a student with 95% score had no clue how many angles a triangle has. As of now, what I see is both these schools are doing is a kind of a confusion. Other than simply teaching to acquire careers, schools also create confusion about what their target is. Every student is being taught to be an entrepreneur, an engineer, etc, in both the schools. The parents from private schools are a bit alert, as they have some time in hand. The parents from govt schools are not affluent. Each day of their lives ends in fighting to provide the best to their families. Neither can they afford the expensive education. They are very hand-to-mouth. They can’t get into the mode of helping their kids, giving them the right direction. And still, if the govt schools can still have a better result, it’s a moment of pride. This should be celebrated and the govt schools shouldn’t be feared. These kids are scoring better without any parental support. We should help them get more confident at least now. Parents generally rate private schools higher than the govt schools. I wish to make this list go the opposite way, so that they rate govt schools higher than private schools. Affordable and quality education is the target for our government. What is Chunauti 2018? It is a highly ambitious project. There are several students who fail in class 9 for which there are many reasons, one being that these kids not having a strong foundation and consequently developing an inferiority complex. Chunauti 2018 is for them. For this year, we won’t detain anyone; every child would be passed on to the next, and we’d work on their weaker aspects, but softly. By 2018, we’d have worked so

August 2016

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BACK2SCHOOL much on these students that none of them would fail. When would we start educating that Chotu of the next chai stall? I think, ye jo kirane ki dukan ya thadi ya dhabe pe bachhe hote hain, ye wo hote hain jinhone apna confidence kho diya hai; they have failed once, then twice, thrice and eventually losing confidence, they have ended up here. We’d like to tell them that they won’t be taught electrons, neutrons, etc; we’d rather work on their basic weakness, so, come Chotu, join Chunauti. We are also forming mohalla sabhas to identify those who have dropped out of school for any reason and counsel them. What’s your opinion on student-suicides? Where are we going wrong? As a nation and society, we are confused. We are one of those ‘bad-luck societies’ that believes education is all about numbers and scores, packages. A student should have confidence. And this confidence shouldn’t be limited to what would be formed out of C and O2, or what is 1+1. Students today can hack stuff, they know what to do if their gadgets don’t work. But do they know what is to be done if basic relationships do not work smoothly? Bhai-behan ke rishte, bachho ke parents se rishte, friendships. We go to all limits to see our gadgets repaired, why do we have egos when it comes to repairing relationships? Is it gadgets that we’d spend our lives with or is it the people? Who or what holds more importance? That’s where we lack. We teach students, we don’t make them learn anything. You were a journalist before joining politics. Were you always inclined towards journalism? What was your experience? Well, the school I was in didn’t know much about career options. There were limited

choices — you could be doctor, an engineer or a teacher. It was a very ordinary school. I too was no extraordinary student; all that I yearned and worked for was a 1st division, sometimes managing with passing marks. Neither did the teachers know anything. When I reached Delhi, I developed an interest in radio, the songs or the information being played there allured me and then it became my aim to get into radio. While working for radio I realized that it needed some professional attributes too, and I eventually joined Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan for a diploma in journalism, learning a bit more about communication. Graduated to FM, news reading, other shows around 1997, when radio was losing its regular tone for a more chatty style. Then I switched to TV. I am in class 11 and I have this opportu-

nity to interview you. What would you advise me to do to be a good journalist? It’s my pleasure to be interviewed by you, kid. As a responsible journalist, look at a 360 degree perspective before you say something. What you say, be it in print or electronic, it remains. Try estimating the impact it would have. A few days back, Raj Babbar won a particular constituency, and the headline was ‘Raj ka raj’. What message does it give to people? Raj will rule? Although people should take us to be their servants; they have chosen us, voted for us and then only have we reached where we are. We should be thankful to them, not rule them. You see, how language can change the entire perspective? We are a democracy, not a monarchy. Responsible journalism would be when the message is that we are a secular and democratic state, there’s no one ruling (the country).

But if I do get a chance to be back in school, I’d like every teacher to ingrain in students a certain level of confidence and understanding, not learning by rote. If a child understands what is taught in schools, nothing can deter him Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM, Delhi

August 2016

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TOPPER TALK Many of you may be wondering if law is the right choice for you or how to go about prepping for the entrances. ScooNews gets you tips and tricks from three toppers of 2016

Your cheat sheet

CLAT!

for

Kashish Makkar: CLAT Rank

August 2016

Varsha Rawatni CLAT Rank

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Hridya Narang

hridya@scoonews.com

Why law, why not any other field? Ayushi Sunder: I wish to be an IAS officer, and for an administrator I think understanding law, its complications and implementation are all very important aspects of being an administrator so that is why I decided to appear for CLAT (common law admission test). Kashish Makkar (who dropped a year to attempt CLAT in 2016): I scored 96% in class 12 and I had planned to go for either economics honours from Hindu College or NLU Patiala, which I got through CLAT counselling last year, but then I discovered that law was fascinating and that I wanted to be a lawyer. Apart from this, I also saw how law has changed and shaped the personality of my father’s friends; the kind of work they do and the life they lead inspired me. Varsha Rawtani: I believe that law has a bright future and is also a diverse field, lawyers can become entrepreneurs, handle own business, go in for social services or the judiciary, write the IAS exam or move to corporate jobs, and moreover can earn big time.

this year, though I like legal aptitude and find it easy but if you talk about this year’s paper, I would say... English, it was the easiest. Varsha: See, CLAT is known for being unpredictable and last year’s paper was quite difficult; they had questions from CAT! This year, it was a cakewalk, at least for me, because I completed the paper 30–40 minutes prior to the time limit. Logic, I would say was pretty easy.

What was your weakness and how did you overcome it? Ayushi: Initially, I would say, it was English... not that I am weak in the subject but

Since how long have you been preparing for it? Ayushi: Took me almost one year, began preparing for it in class 12. Kashish: I started in October 2015, because I was already in law school, NLU Patiala; I took up correspondence courses for my law entrance prep.

What routine did you follow while prepping for it? Ayushi: I would reach home from school by 3 pm, eat my lunch and leave soon after for my PCM (physics, chemistry & math) coaching. I would return by 7.30, take an hour’s break and pick up my books to study my regular subjects first and then for CLAT. Kashish: I had my college from 9am to 3.30pm, so I would study for CLAT after college, from 4 to 11pm. Varsha: I started with 5–6 hours of study, increasing it to 7–8 hours daily. My tuitions were in the morning and so I got enough time to self study through the day. I invested the remainder of my day in walking and socializing with my friends.

Which section was the easiest of all? Ayushi: The English section was the easiest

English has two subsections— vocabulary and reading comprehension. When I took the mock tests given by the institute, reading comprehension consumed a lot of my time because of which I was never able to attend to the math or logical reasoning sections. English gave me a real hard time! However, I was able to overcome that by going through the vocabulary module given by the institute; my teachers there asked me to revise the learnt words the next day to memorize them well. Kashish: I analyzed last year that GK (general knowledge) was my weakest point; since I was preparing for class 12 then I wasn’t into reading newspapers. This year I made it my strength... read and revised GK every

month and hence managed to score 42 marks on 50 in the subject. Varsha: I had always been really bad at math since class 11, so that was my weakest point in the beginning of the year. But, by the end of the year, I made it a point to make it my strongest point!

How much time did you give to each section when attempting the exam? Ayushi: I gave 15 minutes to GK out of the first 30 because either you know the answer or you don’t. The next 45 I invested in logical reasoning and math, then 35 minutes in legal and the remaining time to English. With this strategy, I managed to complete the paper much before the allotted time. Kashish: I should not ideally reveal my strategy! But, since you ask, I began attempting the question paper working with a reverse timer of 120 minutes. I had set myself a deadline of 95 minutes to drop legal reasoning, so I gave 25 minutes to that at first, and then 20 minutes (ie from 95–75 minutes) I did the English section. I had already planned that at the 75th or 74th minute I would drop the English section whether complete or not and similarly for math for which I had allotted 50 minutes. So, I attempted the 50 questions of GK from 75–65 minutes, which is good enough time for GK, and then took up the mathematics section. Varsha: I found the paper quite easy and it was only the math that took some time because I found some questions pretty tricky; they were out of course. I would say, 20–25 minutes were taken up by English, logic took 20, legal 20, GK 20, and mathematics 20–25 minutes.

Were you ever discouraged? How did you overcome it? Ayushi: I had to manage tuitions for both PCM and CLAT, so there was a phase when I missed out on things due to mismanagement, which eventually led to demotivation. Kashish: There were discouraging elements, but I didn’t pay heed. My father is a source of inspiration; he keeps telling me, ‘believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable’, so I was wasn’t really discouraged. Varsha: I dropped a year for CLAT and it’s not easy to deal with that. There were times I felt low with poor mock test rankings but then the mentors at Law Prep helped us remain motivated; they told us to just focus on the exam and study hard.

August 2016

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EDTECH & YOU

Scene One. Take Two: How often do we see something wrong with our community and wish we could pledge a little time for the society at large? Take up a cause? Like feeding stray dogs, planting trees, or cleaning up our surroundings? So did Priyal Jain and Prateek Mahesh. The difference is they decide to go ahead and do their bit. Via an app that they build. An app that has gone viral since it was launched in So far so good, but what’s the big deal about an app that eases your social conscience while working like a game on SM? Maybe not a great deal. Except

Scene Two. Take One: At Apple’s annual developer’s conference, WWDC 2016, this June is this Indian origin Aussie girl who has flown across from Melbourne, hoping to make her mark at the big ticket event. With a number of iOS apps under her belt, hoping to show her Smartkins Animals app to Tim Cook, Apple Inc CEO, Anvitha Vijay is not very different from the hundreds milling San Francisco.

There is only

one difference.

Anvitha is all of nine years old.

Except

Priyal is 13 and Prateek 12! Scene Three. Take One: Cut to Mumbai, May 2016 and a meeting between Satya Nadella and Indian developers. One of them presents his gaming app ‘Let there be light’. It focuses on ecological balancing. Talking about the developer later in his keynote address, the Microsoft CEO says, “I felt most inadequate.... (his) dream is to create a society that knows how to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability... and he translated that vision... into a novel game that he’s built.”

August 2016

The

developer is

Medansh Mehta He is eight years

old.

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Barely into double digits, these kids are whizzkids when it comes to coding. Yes! And it is something they learnt on their own, online! Readers, please raise a toast to these...

SMALL WONDERS

BIG APPS ScooNews Correspondent

Coding is for kids online

vPledge, says Priyal who studies in Delhi Public School, Bengaluru, “is designed for people who want to make this planet a better place to live in. This summer, I had enrolled for AcadGild’s (an edtech startup in Bengaluru) Android summer course. Prateek and I wanted to develop an app together.” “Using our app, people can pledge... (to) contribute to the greater societal good. We are targeting students as well as all citizens of the country,” adds Prateek, who is a class 7 student of New Horizon Public School.

writeback@scoonews.com

t started with Priyal and Prateek hearing of a boy who missed his board exam because of bad traffic. That set them thinking, and working hard, until they came up with an app they call vPledge, a platform where you can take a small pledge to bring about a change in society. And when you have fulfilled it, ‘vPledgers’, as the app users are called, are provided access to share their accomplishment on social media, tag friends, challenge them and also grab points that can be redeemed. vPledgers can graduate to other levels with feeding and caring for strays, distributing storybooks to poor children, walking two–three kilometres every day to ensure better health and reducing vehicle emissions, donating meals to poor, etc.

“In future there will only be two kinds of people, those who will take orders from computers... computers will tell them what to do... and those who will tell the computers what to do,” laughs Vikalp Jain, co-founder AcadGild.

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EDTECH & YOU Coding should be a requirement at schools. We are doing our kids a disservice if we are not introducing them to coding. Tim Cook, CEO Apple Inc, speaking at Startup Fest Europe in May 2016

Kids, they can do it (coding). We have so much of creativity, energy. Just keep going even when it becomes challenging. Don’t stop. It may take some time. But that’s ok. Anvitha Vijay, 9-year-old programmer at the Apple developers’ conference in June 2016

The day is not far when those in the second category outnumber those in the first. What’s more they will be younger and younger like Priyal and Prateek or Anvitha or Medansh. With online classes and tutorials all over the internet, the world is learning like never before. And it’s not just the technology helping the people but technology itself undergoing significant changes by the day with the implementation of imparted knowledge, for example, computer programming, which has become the game changer in the tech world. What’s more, all it needs is a device connected to the internet and an online trainer or tutorial for guidance.

enabled mobile game app for two players that works sans internet connectivity.

That is how Jonathan Buchanan of Ohio, USA taught himself coding at age 10 for ChipTrading, the mathematical app that he developed back in 2012. To be fair, Jonathan’s dad showed him the way when he began teaching him simple web scripts. But that was at age six! And he was soon tired of it and decided to learn a language his dad did not know about. Less than a year later, he “wanted to make an iOS app because I was only able to make websites and I wanted a new challenge. So, we ordered an iOS book and I started studying the iOS programming language,” Jonathan told an interviewer for a website in 2013.

In the short span of summer holidays that Priyal encountered learning online, she fell in love with coding. “Coding is fun... I love coding,” she told ScooNews on phone from Bengaluru. Anvitha, who wanted to build mobile apps that empower children, did not get any formal training but learned to code watching free tutorials on YouTube and the internet for a year. “Coding was so challenging,” she told Fortune magazine at WWDC. “But I'm so glad I stuck with it.”

“I wanted to create this app because I play a physical version of the game with my friends a lot in math class, but we could only play it there. Then I had the idea to create an app so we could play it in other places and I could share the game with others,” the kid told mactrast.com. Helping these kids revolutionize the world is Samarth Grover who has developed a Bluetooth

Doing it right by the community: Prateek and Priyal of Bengaluru have their hearts (and minds!) in the right place

Though teachers, who believe in conventional learning methods, may not be comfortable with this mode of learning, these kids and their like are using it to acquire new skills, and why not? When technology is invading all spheres of our lives, barring students from the best that edtech has to offer is like dragging them back into the dark ages. And the younger they are, the faster they learn, it seems. Anvitha started at age 7 and Medansh, at 8, is a hero already!

& it’s fun even if tough

The magazine reported that Anvitha was inspired to create her apps by her little sister learning to talk and identify animals. Smartkins Animals app uses sounds and flashcards to help teach toddlers 100 different animals’ names and sounds. Although their apps look simple, designing them is not. But our little techies make it look super easy and fun! Describing the process, Anvitha said: “Turning an idea for an app involves a lot of hard work. There are so many components to building an app, including prototyping, design and wireframing, user interface design and then coding and testing.” For Jonathan, developing his first app did not come about easy either; right after he submitted ChipTrading to Apple (the approval process took about a week), he discovered a huge bug! And, it was back to his computer to swap out the code before he could patch the bug and submit it again for the review process to start all over again. “We would check Apple every morning and night to see if it was approved,” said Jonathan, who admitted to feeling nervous! But in the end, all of his hard work paid off when the app received a good rating from reviewers and users. “It’s very heart-warming to see what these kids are capable of,” says Chris Bastianpillai, who enjoys teaching robotics to 10-year-old underprivileged kids in Pune. “They come to us

August 2016

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Starting young. Really, really young! (Clockwise from top left) Anvitha in Melbourne, Jonathan in Ohio and Medansh in Mumbai

One piece of advice

that I would give to kids that would like to create apps is that you need to start out at the basics like learning about making websites. My dad always says that if you start at the basics you will have an easier time understanding the harder things. Jonathan Buchanan, , who created ChipTrading, a mathematical values game app for iPhone, at age 10 in 2012

knowing nothing; some of them haven’t even seen a computer, forget about robots and within a year or two, they are writing difficult programmes and winning these competitions.” Chris is cofounder, Robominds, a robotics institute, which gives a hands-on learning in educational technology to young children.

It’s also SUPW Absolutely the best part about all these guys is the reason why they developed these apps, I mean, apart from the fun of it all! Why did Medansh Mehta leave Satya Nadella speechless? Why did he feel inadequate? Medansh dreams, said Nadella, “to create a society that knows how to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability. This is the goal he has and then he translated that vision, that goal, into a novel game that he’s built.” That’s right. A sense of

social responsibility — socially useful productive work — a desire to do something good for society is what drives these school students. Medansh’s app ‘Let there be light’ focuses on balancing industrial development with sustaining the environment. Players have to build cities by creating factories and farms but also take care of their environment and air quality. Medansh gives additional points to players for using sustainable options like solar and wind energy.

EdTech, an area of technology devoted to the development and application of tools (includingsoftware, hardware, and processes) intended to promote education.

Anvitha has played her own part in contributing to edtech and empowering kids by programming two apps that help kids learn — her other iOs app helps children learn colours interactively. Up next is her app GoalsHi that aims to motivate classroom learning, help kids her own age with setting goals. “It teaches them,” she says “to set goals and actions, to

August 2016

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EDTECH & YOU achieve one little step a day”. Priyal and Prateek have ambitions similar to Anvitha. “vPledge is an app with small attainable goals aimed at achieving a bigger significant mission. Change can happen when we all come together,” they say. “We feel that in India there is a lack of social awareness. So this app is our contribution to society. Pledges such as using public transport for a month, quitting smoking, starting composting, carpooling, and planting trees among other things can fetch great benefits for all,” they nod, confiding how the app they created is a dream come true. And they have big plans. “Now we have a little over 1,000 users but in the next six months we aim for one million downloads,” says Priyal. “We look forward to support from NGOs to help us spread the word and reward vPledgers who have completed their pledge. We are not earning from this app; we just want to make a difference.” “We wanted something productive that could bring about a change in the society,” adds Prateek.

So, why not catch them at school? Speaking at Startup Fest Europe in Amsterdam a couple of months ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook said coding is “just another language, and just like any other language it should be taught in schools.” In fact, he went on to say that we are doing a disservice to our kids by not introducing them to coding. Adding that coding is being “absorbed by everything” he pointed out that universities should establish linkages with companies to help develop these skills throughout a person’s education. Maybe Cook had the BBC micro:bits initiative in mind. In March, the broadcaster began its initiative to give away micro:bits for free to one million children in year seven of their schooling. The scheme is designed to motivate them to get actively involved in writing software for computers and building new things, rather than being consumers of media. It has been designed to work alongside other systems, such as the Raspberry Pi, building on BBC’s history in computing in education. The tiny computers allow kids to programme light sequences and control games. Microsoft is also doing something similar with Minecraft, launch-

One big, happy huddle: The kids at Robominds, Pune

August 2016

All of 15 and 14, and brothers Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran already own their own company GoDimensions, 11 apps and a cheaper VR device to their credit. Their app ‘Alphabet Board’ rates 5/5 on the Apple app store. One loves developing, the other is art oriented. Huge football fans, the brothers desire to have their own venture rather than working for somebody else. Passion for coding and a love for gaming is what got these teens into developing the apps. Admitting that programming “is very difficult because there will be thousands of bugs in your app apart from the errors and, above all, the run-time errors,” Shravan says he enjoys developing while Sanjay likes the designing as he is more artistic.

ing education edition of the hit game that aims to teach children by developing worlds in the platform. But are all the kids on the same platform? Is every kid making full use of the technology to learn things? Definitely, our schools need to look seriously at these initiatives. With technology growing at unimaginable speeds, with kids as young as eight years creating apps of their own, on their own, teaching programming appears to be the need of the hour. And it’s time we realized that unless we do that we’d be losing our young pool of talent. Tech giants realize that and recognize these kids. Apple selected Anvitha for its scholarship programme for developers to attend WWDC in San Francisco this June. (“I’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg,” she told NDTV. “There’s so much more to learn in coding and there’s so many people I can learn from here.”) And when Medansh questioned Nadella on how he could become Microsoft CEO, “You are already ambitious beyond being the next CEO,” Nadella replied. "The game has the sensibility that all of us need.”

You only have to know one thing: You can learn anything For free. For everyone. Forever. — Khan Academy

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EDTECH & YOU Coursera

Khan Academy Computer programming is taking the world by storm and Khan Academy is one of the reasons why. With the tagline “You only have to know one thing: You can learn anything,” the academy teaches how to programme drawings, animations and games using JavaScript and ProcessingJS and if you think that’s all they have to offer, you are wrong, they also teach HTML/CSS and SQL.

The course spectrum offered by Coursera is wide with hundreds of courses in subjects as diverse as the arts and humanities, business, computer science, data science, social science, etc. The best part is that students across the world have access to the best professors through this platform that has tie-ups with top universities and organizations.

If you’ve wanted to get into MIT but couldn’t, you can access some of its courses anytime, anywhere. But these are only for those who have achieved a basic understanding of coding. Our vote goes to their introduction to computer science and programming, introduction to programming in Java and practical programming in C language. Don’t get fooled by the name, the courses are of a pretty high level!

GitHub

Places that

teach you

coding

for

MIT Open Courseware

free

If you are a programmer and get stuck or need help to resolve an issue then GitHub with more than 500 free programming ebooks in more than 80 different programming languages is the place to be.

edX What better than an online learning platform by Harvard University and MIT? Yes! edX is an open source platform founded by two of the world’s most renowned institutes.

Code Academy

Udemy

Code Avengers

Ever since its establishment in August 2011, Code Academy has been a one-stop destination for all those who’ve desired to learn coding for free. This interactive platform allows you to read, type and implement your code right away for HTML & CSS, JavaScript, Jquery, PHP, Python and Ruby.

Most of the courses that Udemy offers are free and taught via video lessons, like programming for entrepreneurs, or introduction to python programming.

Language is not a barrier for those who want to learn and the best example of this is Code Avengers that teaches in Russian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Portuguese and English! With assistance in most languages, Code Avengers has made learning HTML/CSS and JavaScript easier than ever before.

August 2016 August 2016

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EDTECH & YOU

In 1946, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania created ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), one of the first computers. It was a 30-ton machine with 17,468 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors and 10000 capacitors, and occupied a 30x50 foot room. It was a calculator.

A 256 GB thumb drive holds the same amount of data as 213,000 floppy disks (5.25 inch). Laid end to end, that’s 17.7 miles of floppies!

Technology...

The Apollo Space Modules only had 4KB of memory in their guidance computers. Not even enough to display a photo of the module on the internet.

There are currently 17,000 people waiting to receive a donated liver. Once they receive their liver transplants, they will have to take anti-rejection medicine for the rest of their lives. Scientists are now able to 3D-print liver tissue that will not be rejected, and completely eliminate the need for a donor.

DOWN THE AGES The 1948 Admiral 9A111 TV Set had a screen resolution of 653 by 499 pixels. A 4K.UHD has a minimum resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels.

Kindle holds 1400 books. Considering that the average hardback weights about 2lbs, and the average paperback weights about 1lb, that’s a ton of books. Literally.

August 2016

The smallest iPod holds about 480 songs. That’s roughly the equivalent of 32 cassette tapes.

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A 1965 Super 8 film cartridge held enough film to record 2.5 minutes at 24 frames per seconds. A 2.4 inch GoPro will record 2.25 hours* of footage at 30FPS. *Depending on wifi and mode

The 1938 Bugatti Veyron Type 57SC Corsica had a top speed of 110MPH, and went from 0–60 in 10 seconds. The 2013 Bogatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse has a top speed of 258 MPH, and goes from 0–60 in 2.46 seconds.

The 19th century prosthetic arm was made of wood, iron and leather. Now motorized prosthetics are individually jointed, and can adapt to the shape of the object they are gripping. Oh, and they have apps!

As recently as 2007, pacemaker surgery meant cutting into the chest and inserting a device about the size of a 50-cent piece, with 2 feet of trailing electrodes. Today’s nano-pacemakers are a tenth of that size and can be inserted through a vein.

Reduction in fatalities by infection diseases in American children from 1900–1998. Thanks to vaccines! Smallpox Diphtheria Pertussiss Tetanus Measels Mumps Rubella

100% 100% 95.7% 97.4% 100% 96.6% 99.3%

August 2016

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EDTECH & YOU

Virtually speaking

irtual Reality. This must be the most used (and abused) term of today’s times! So what is it, really? How do you define it? Or like many, do you mistake it for a device that shows VR? Truth to tell, virtual reality is an artificial world that consists of images and sounds created by using computer technology. It is a simulated environment, which places the user inside an experience, an experience where the user interacts with a 3D world in a way that everything appears him to be real. And it requires two of the five senses, sight and sound, to experience the world as not seen before. VR is usually used in two areas: for the simulation of a real environment for education and training and for the development of an imagined environment for a game or interactive story. But often Virtual Reality gets confused with Augmented Reality. Are they the same thing with different names? Actually, AR is the blending of virtual reality and real life — images that developers create within applications, blending them in with contents in the real world. With AR, users are able to interact with virtual contents in the real world, and are able to distinguish between the two. (The best example of AR currently is, yes, you guessed it, Pokémon GO!) On the other hand, VR is about the creation of a virtual world that users can interact with. It has to be designed in a way that users find it difficult to tell the difference from what is real and what is not. And usually, you can experience VR only by wearing a VR helmet or goggles similar to the Oculus Rift. With AR, users continue to be in touch with the real world while interacting with virtual objects around them. With VR, the user is isolated from the real world while immersed in a completely fabricated world. With AR hardware devices like Google Glass (Microsoft is also planning something similar) and of course games like Pokémon GO, which has the world by storm (apparently, the game had been downloaded by more than 30 million people by 20 July; Apple has told TechCrunch that it has broken app store records), it seems to be ahead of VR. With VR, the technology is still being developed. But with the development of the Oculus Rift, it is getting there. Looks like VR might work better for video games and social networking in a virtual environment, such as Second Life, or even PlayStation Home. But AR may have the edge because it does not completely take people out of the real world.

August 2016

Appy browsing ... to you ScooNews lists out some apps for different ages that we have tried and tested. Check ’em out, guys!

oothy Beasts. Jurrasic Park. Extinct species. They all remind you of the mysterious, giant predator, the dinosaur that once roamed freely on planet Earth. So, how about taming one of your own? Yeah... you can have one of your own, in the virtual world certainly! The app is Dinosaur Mix. So, you get the outline of the creature and all you have to do is mix and swap body parts to create it. Once your monster is formed, he’ll wander around looking for food, you have to pick up the right food and feed him. Right, if you think it’s for your younger sibling, we have other apps to rescue you from boredom. For starters, you can check out Me Comics, which is compatible with both iOS and Android platforms, will allow you to read, personalize your comic collection and hear different character voice narration and sound effects. Then there’s Disney Storyline, which has not just the largest collection of old, new and classic Disney stories but with delightful illustrations and animations also offers narration and impressive sound effects. Definitely, both of these are for you to enjoy with your younger sibling, hearing stories via Bluetooth speaker or earphones. And, if you think you have heard it all, from classic tales to modern ones, then Bulbul app is sure to impress you. It dives deep into the imagination to come up with stories for up to age eight. This app lets one access stories on any device or platform and as if that was not enough, three-time Emmy Award winner Mark Zaslove wrote 30 stories for Bulbul apps. So... here are stories you can relate to, stories of your time, stories you’ve never heard before! Like Princess and the Pea, written by Zaslove for Bulbul, which became the number one e-book in 14 countries. Next up on our bucket list is the Dr Panda’s Toy

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Cars app. Hooray, this one has no time limits, no rules, no in-app purchases or third party ads! All it has is four huge cities to travel in, 20 different vehicles from motorcycle to a cement mixer, a fire truck, and a boat! You can possess a number of them, each with a unique task: a truck to carry a cargo, ambulance to carry patients and more. And you can have all the fun in the world controlling multiple vehicles at the same time. Vroooom... get out on that dumper and feel the thrill! Rhythmic Village is the app for you if you dig your music but yawn at reading sheet music. The world of apps has Rhythmic Village to keep your music love alive. In this app, you’ll find “Rhythmiacs”, folks who know everything about music. This app will ease reading music, for one, let you play percussion instruments for another and aid your sense of rhythm. Chances are your parents will like the app too! Especially if they too have an ear for music. But, but if music’s not your scene, Lego® Star Wars™ The Yoda Chronicles seems like

NAME OF THE APP

COMPATIBILTY

DragonBox Elements Lego® Star Wars™ The Yoda Chronicles Rhythmic Village Dino Dog Dr. Panda’s Toy Cars Bulbul apps Disney Storytime Me Comics Dinosaur Mix

iOS and Android iOS and Android Windows and iOS iOS iOS and Android Windows, iOS and Android iOS iOS and Android iOS and Android

your thing. This app has a special place for all the Star Wars fans, who can build, create and control their favourite characters and vehicles to smash their enemy, solve puzzles and complete challenges within the LEGO® Star Wars™ universe. Oops! But your mum is not happy you

using her iPhone 6 to play this one! No worries, impress her with the very educative (and psst... fun) DragonBox Elements! This one teaches you geometry and its fundamentals. You’ll get a deep understanding of the logic of geometry once you have solved 100+ puzzles of the app, we kid you not. Players can make use of shapes and their properties to recreate the mathematical proofs that define geometry. This app will improve your logical reasoning skills, will help you understand shapes and angles through play and, most importantly... your parents will be more than happy to hand over their smartphone! Okay, okay! Enough gyaan. Back to the dinosaurs it is with Dino Dog! This one takes you on a digging adventure with dinosaurs. What you gotta do is to first dig out the bones from the Earth and then assemble them to create the Dino. Dino dog Doug and Bonnie the bear travel the world searching for amazing dinosaurs but it’s not that easy... they have to explore the deep crater of the Earth, locate fossils, clean the bones that they find and finally assemble the whole dinosaur. With a number of awards to its credit, like Kidscreen 2016 a w a r d , B o l o g n a R a h a z z i Digital Award and Mom’s Choice silver award, this app will surely be on your list of favourites once you play it.

August 2016

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EDTECH & YOU If it weren’t for the Internet, where would we be, wonders a GenNext, unable to conceptualize a world without it. Two 12th graders speak out...

In defence of Google & iPad

Ira Akbar

writeback@scoonews.com

one are the days when people had the time and the patience to sit around trawling big, fat books to get the information they were looking for. In today’s world, we students need quick access to a variety of information and this is only possible because of the contribution of information technology in education. The use of internet has totally changed the world of education. If we need some answers, we simply Google. It gives us a variety of learning resources and also facilitates a multimedia approach towards learning. I don’t think there’s any student who doesn’t seek information over the internet. I mean, who wouldn’t? It makes our lives so easy and comfortable. We get so many projects to do, so many assignments and we barely have time to search in the books at the library. With internet, we have access to knowledge from anywhere and everywhere and at any time. And, it is the only thing that drives the brilliant idea of distance education. We have online lectures, ebooks and what not! Many of us do not get the complex scientific processes and things by just reading in books. For students like me, YouTube is a blessing. My personal all-time favourite is meritnation.com; it’s a portal where a large number of teachers

Shreya Mathur

writeback@scoonews.com

hen we talk about edtech, whether technology is of use or not is always debatable. For me, it’s something tried and tested; certainly, it plays an integral part in the lives of students. My experience with the combination of education and technology has been a successful one. I was always a tech-savvy teenager, but since I’ve started to focus on how it can prove to be of effective use to me, I’ve found my work getting easier and faster in execution. My go to gadget is my iPad, which I tend to carry with me always. Be it research work, calculations, or informational videos, everything is just a tap away. I generally use it for all purposes varying from studying and killing it at MUNs,

and students can interact with each other. It’s almost like an online coaching centre, you can get answers to any kind of questions be they related to science or commerce. cbseguess.com is yet another amazing site that give you access to various practice questions papers and study material. Also mycbseguide.com has been really very helpful preparing for board exams. It has saved me the trouble of going around looking for previous year’s question papers and sample test booklets. It has not only changed the lives of the students but also has ushered a new era in teaching. The use of visual teaching aids in classrooms have made teachers’ lives really easier as children now learn faster and with great interest. Besides, teachers can now communicate with other teachers around the globe. Many people give the counter argument that IT has somewhat spoiled students’ lives, but even the moon has a darker side. IT has contributed so much that it has become a part of the learning process. It is impossible to exclude it from the classroom now. Had there been no advancement in information technology, there would have been no advancement in the world of education. Ira is a class 12 student at Sawai Bhawani Singh School, Jaipur

or using it as a means to score good in projth ects and viva. What could be better for a 12 grader like me? Hush! It’s no less than boon. I no longer have to fit my head into plain, boring books, and cram. Basically, when my iPad is there, there’s nothing that I fear! Apart from this, studies never seemed so interesting. This gadget is like the epitome of all, for me. From various learning apps to the internet, everything is just a tap away. I can proudly say that I’m very well equipped with the best of technology, and certainly it plays a tremendous role in boosting my confidence when I score good. Not just for academic purposes, but I’ve also been using my iPad for personal growth and development. And indeed, it has brought a change in me. I never knew technology could be so much fun, and as informative. Shreya is in class 12 at India International School, Jaipur

August 2016

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EDTECH & YOU

Wanna be a

smartAPP musician?

HEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

HOW Some of the best resources for aspiring musicians are on their phones! ScooNews has some great smart phone apps to make you a smarter musician

August 2016

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Vinay Singh

Musicnotes

writeback@scoonews.com

f you are just starting out on your musical journey, it is best you start with watching YouTube tutorials on music-making, singing and instruments from the best musicians and music teachers in the world. Once you get the hang of it, and are ready to take off on a longer, more musical journey, here is a handy list of smart phone apps to help you in many, many ways.

Complete Ear Trainer What’s a musician without the ear? Ear for notes, pitch, sounds? So, this is the ultimate ear-training app for you. Learners can develop relative pitch to the full here by improving their aural skills and music theory knowledge. This will help you improve many aspects, be it improvisation, composition, arrangement, interpretation, singing, or playing in a band. The app is designed like a video game but with strong academic concepts in place, it will help you master each interval, chord, scale, etc before taking you to the next one.

Available on: iOS & Android, Cost to you: None

Yousician

This is a 100% free iPad, iPhone, Android and desktop learning solution, which offers instant access to all of your Musicnotes.com sheet music files, plus leading-edge tools and features created by musicians, for musicians. With this one, forget hauling around stacks of paper, forever! Just experience the ultimate in sheet music accessibility... right in the palm of your hand.