Digital Classrooms The Linchpin of Education

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April 9, 2013

Technology is becoming an inseparable part of education. We are now standing at the cusp of a technological revolution in pedagogy. Technology is also serving as a means of boosting a school’s visibility and prestige. It can lead to student recruitment and retention. The modern digital classroom comprises of a range of innovative tools for making education more interactive and engaging. Technology led innovation is leading in education space.

Several studies highlight the impact that technology has made in making the classroom more engaging for students. Tablets have a promising future in education: they are seen as a tool to address the lack of teachers and rising student dropout ratio while enhancing the reach of education crossing geographical barrier. The development in ICT tools in education is also ensuring the delivery of rich educational content to the students.

There are also new challenges that technology brings in its wake. Schools and higher education institutions have to deal with issues in universalisation of education, student retention, student engagement, assessment and evaluation, etc.

However, despite all the challenges, the ICTs are becoming much more acceptable in the education community. Lack of Information, training, initial inertia scuppered the adoption of these tools. With effective training at the initial stage, technology introduction will help in closing the gap of the available facility and its usage.

The market size of digital classroom is likely to touch almost one lakh classrooms soon with a high growth rate. This trend is expected to continue for the next coming years. Classroom films, programmed learning devices, computer-assisted instruction and, more recently, interactive technology have been adopted and integrated into the curriculum with varying degrees of success depending on the effectiveness and involvement of people implementing the change.

The issue of digitalLEARNING seeks to highlight interactive whiteboards, interactive projectors, tablets, and other audiovisual aids that are being extensively used in the modern classrooms for enriching teaching-learning experience. We have interacted with a range of stakeholders to get their views on the innovations happening in the education space…

Launch of Electronic Payment & Application System of Scholarships (e-Pass)

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April 9, 2013

The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Kapil Sibal, also launched the e-Pass application (Electronic payment and application system for scholarships) for Himachal Pradesh and Tripura on March 25, 2013 at the e-Governance Hall of Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) at Electronics Niketan, New Delhi.
e-Pass, developed by Centre for Good Governance, Government of Andhra Pradesh, is an end to end solution right from registration of application by the student to the transfer of money to the bank accounts of colleges and students. It has been has been operational in Andhra Pradesh since November 2009.
The Rapid Replication Roll-out Initiative comprises of selection of some of the successful applications of one State and replicating them in other States that are willing to adopt them with customisation as per the Seeker States requirements.

Technology Used :

Attribute	Details
Software	e-Pass
Platform	Java Struts 1.2, Tomcat
Database	Postgres SQL
Environment	Linux
Hosted at	Centre for Good Governance, Government of Andhra Pradesh

Rajiv Gauba,
Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & IT, Government of India
“The e-Pass application is being replicated in Himachal Pradesh and Tripura under the pilot implementation of Rapid Replication Roll-out Initiative. Such replication will lead to significant savings in terms of time, efforts and costs. We have been talking about not reinventing the wheel every time an e-Governance initiative needs to be launched. The replication of e-Pass application in Himachal Pradesh and Tripura is a step in this direction.”

Launch of National Internet Registry (NIR)

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April 9, 2013

On 7th March 2013, at 10.30 AM, Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications and Information Technology, launched the portal of National Internet Registry (NIR) at a glittering ceremony held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion Sibal said that launching of NIR will ease the allocation of IP addresses within the country.

untitled

Dr Govind, Senior Director, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of Communications & IT, and CEO, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)

“NIR will facilitate the allocation of IP resources to large number of small and medium companies within the country. The services can be charged in local currency to avoid exchange losses. It will also facilitate local training and development, thereby providing local language support to the entities in India”

NIXI was recognized by Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) in March 2012 to become the NIR for the country after successful demo of the indigenous software and systems developed for the allocation and management of Internet resources. National Internet Registry (NIR) coordinates the allocation of Internet Protocol address with other Internet resource management function at a national level in the country.
APNIC is a regional Internet registry which coordinates the Internet Protocol address allocations and other Internet resource management is the Asia-Pacific region. NIR functions under the overall umbrella of Regional Internet Registry (RIR) which is Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) based in Brisbane, Australia.
The NIR has been named as Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN). Collective efforts of NIXI and ISPAI have led to the formation of IRINN in the country. It is a major milestone towards setting up of Critical Internet Resource management function in the country. Setting up of NIR under NIXI will not only reduce cost in procuring IP address but will also facilitate faster access to information for cyber crime investigators and Government authorities.
Creation of NIR will help promote activities related to research, education and training covering the areas of Internet Resources and its proliferation.

Established in 2003, the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is the neutral meeting point of the ISPs in India. Its main purpose is to facilitate exchange of domestic Internet traffic between the peering ISP members. This enables more efficient use of international bandwidth, saving foreign exchange. It also improves the Quality of Services for the customers of member ISPs, by avoiding multiple international hops and thus reducing latency. Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Government of India, has endorsed the operations of National Internet Registry (NIR) to National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). IRINN is a division functioning under NIXI and provides allocation and registration services of Internet Protocol addresses (IPv4 & IPv6) and Autonomous System numbers to its Affiliates .It is a not-for-profit, Affiliates based entity, with the primary goal of allocation of Internet resources to its Affiliates.

IMT Ghaziabad and Hyderabad Convocation 2013

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April 9, 2013

IMT Ghaziabad and Hyderabad India has the largest aspirational society on this planet and this is a manifestation of the courage, knowledge and enthusiasm of its youth and the enterprise of its business leaders. Young generation will be an integral part of this aspirational society and will be engaged in generating economic wealth and creating social harmony to build an India of the 21st Century,” said Kamal Nath, President, IMT
“Management education has a unique opportunity to address global socio economic issue, by developing a generation of responsive citizens who are driven not by profit motive alone rather have a long term vision based on the philosophy of inclusive growth. At IMT, the universe of management education is centred on the basic tenets of awareness of self, society and Action Oriented learning.” said Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Group.
According to Dr Bibek Banerjee, Director, IMT Ghaziabad, “In the last decade, we have witnessed the power of technology-enabled social networking manifested as mass dissent. The churning in the environment is palpable, and the challenges, both economic and social are expected to remain for some time to come. While this churn is frighteningly many, IMT Ghaziabad has attempted to respond to it proactively—by changing content, structure and delivery of curriculum of their PGDM programs, redesigning executive education and reframing resources toward doctoral programs.” The convocation would witness experts deliberating on the crucial issue, discussing ways to focus on emergent changes, and find synergies.
Dr V Panduranga Rao, Director, IMT Hyderabad says, “This convocation is very special for IMT Hyderabad, because students of its first batch are graduating today. It gives us great pleasure to see our students stepping out into the business world. We have always attempted to them from knowing mode to a doing mode and in turn to innovate for better lives, organizations and a better world. I am sure they will not only lead the business landscape, but they will also transform livelihoods and add value to human existence. I wish all success to this pioneering batch of IMT Hyderabad.”
The total number of students who have got the degree are 588 and 94 from Ghaziabad and Hyderabad campus respectively.
As Asia continues to propel the world economic growth, India has a huge role to play. While there will be a plethora of opportunities for talented young people, new challenges and responsibilities will become relevant. Business strategies during uncertainties, effectively harnessing technology, constructively employing social media, environment and social consciousness are some issue that CEOs all around the world are grappling with today. India’s role as a constructive player in the evolving global order will depend on how we shoulder the responsibilities of addressing these and new concerns that crop up. IMT Ghaziabad and Hyderabad is heading towards making valuable contributions to India business and industry.

The Digital Path to Future

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April 9, 2013

Recently we had the former HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal, who is the current Minister of Communications and Information Technology, saying “I want public services to be delivered through Aakash. I want Aakash to be a platform for 1.2 billion people.” The initial versions of Aakash may have failed to elicit an enthusiastic response from the market, but the idea of low-cost tablets for education and other purposes has struck a chord with everyone. Kapil Sibal is right when he says that a affordable tablet like Aakash can also become a tool for providing public services in the nation.
Aakash is just one example of a digital tool that holds great promises for the future of education in the country. It can greatly facilitate the acquisition and absorption of knowledge. Today education entrepreneurs have come up with a whole range of such solutions that provide unprecedented opportunities to enhance educational systems. The idea of “Digital Classrooms” where education is delivered through digital platforms has caught the imagination of the education community. They pose as a good strategy for engaging the digitalgeneration and improving individualised learning opportunities.
This issue of digitalLEARNING is focussed on the adoption of digital classrooms by the Indian institutions. We have interacted with a range of stakeholders to discover how the digital classrooms are re-orienting our school structures. We also take a look at the myriad challenges that the country faces as it tries to tailor its solutions around different institutions and their diverse learning needs. There are issues related to the training of the teachers in the digital technologies and there are also the budgetary constraints. But on thewhole the industry is doing well, and thanks to such technologies today students have access to an array of better educational opportunities.
We have included a guide in this issue of digitalLEARNING to help our institutions make the right choice when it comes to installation of digital classroom solutions in their campus.
This issue digitalLEARNING is a special edition, as it is a part of a series of two issues – April and May 2013 that are going to be launched at the World Education Summit (WES), scheduled for 23-24 April 2013, at Le Méridien,New Delhi. This would be the third edition of the WES, which is now widely regarded as the world’s premier platform for knowledge exchange. So we hope to have you there at this year’s WES, where large numbers of education leaders from around the globe are expected to gather. The conferences, exhibition, workshops and the award ceremony at the WES will provide a wonderful opportunity to stakeholders in the field of education, all over the world, to create opportunities of progress at all levels, namely – global, national, and regional.

eOdisha – Towards A Digital Economy

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April 9, 2013

Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik inaugurates the e-Odisha Summit

The revolution in Information and communications Technology (ICT) has brought a whole new agenda for governance into the realm of possibility. eGovernance, simply defined, is leveraging ICT solutions for transforming the reach and quality of the government’s service delivery. Being increasingly viewed as an enabler and facilitator of ‘good governance’, ICT widens the scope of good governance by including attributes such as a service-centric approach, citizen-centricity, anytime, anywhere delivery of services, integrated delivery of services, focus on outcomes, accountability, promoting right to nformation, and inclusion of disadvantaged communities.
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that ICT struck a timely chord with speakers and delegates and made the theme of the eOdisha conference held on 6th March, 2013 at Hotel Swosti Premium, Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The spotlight was on Odisha, the state playing the harbinger of a silent revolution in small towns and villages, acknowledging the IT initiatives and efforts in bringing about a digitally inclusive society.
The summit gave an opportunity to more than 500 participants, coming from governments, business and industry sector, academia, to create a level- sharing platform for easy exchange of knowledge and ideas in building and upgrading governance through ICT solutions, and build new visions of the future through good practice and case presentations.
eOdisha Summit 2013 was organised by Elets Technomedia under the patronage of Department of IT, Govt of Odisha and Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC). The eOdisha summit was designed and facilitated under the leadership of the Secretary IT, Department of IT in Odisha, Shri Madhusudan Padhi as the Program Chair.
Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the e-Odisha summit. He was joined by the Guests of Honour, the then IT Minister of Odisha and also by R S Sharma. Director General and Mission Director of Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI).
The objectives of the eOdisha summit were to provide a platform to stakeholders in ICT to address regional issues and the challenges in the development sector; to highlight the regional perspectives and to draw the attention of concerned authorities towards addressing these challenges; to highlight best practices and deliberate on ways of replicating the same across different regions; and to expand and diversify the multiple stakeholder voices in order to make the state more dynamic and vibrant, thereby, incorporating issues of contemporary relevance.
Inaugurating the one-day e-Odisha summit, the Chief Minister of Odisha said the IT sector is at the top of the State Government’s agenda and Odisha is trying its best to be in the forefront of the IT revolution. It is a matter of pride that the IT exports from the State was more than `1600 crore during the year 2011-12 with a growth of 17 percent in comparison to the previous year. To accommodate future development in IT sector, particularly in Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM), the Government is developing one IT Investment Region (ITIR) in Bhubaneswar.
Amongst others, the opening ceremony was also joined by the then IT Minister of Odisha, the Director General and Mission Director of UIDAI (Unique Identity Authority of India), Secretary, Department of IT, Madhusudan Padhi, Ranbir Singh, Group Director, Government Affairs, Microsoft India and Dr Ravi Gupta, CEO, Elets Technomedia and Editor-in-Chief, egov magazine.
eOdisha Summit comprised of parallel thematic track conferences on IT and Governance, IT in Education, and IT in Health. It hosted discussions around themes including ‘Effective electronic service delivery’, ‘Urban governance & Infrastructure’, ‘ICT for inclusive framework for eGovernance’, ‘Application & Infrastructure security and public safety’, ‘Technology in healthcare’, and ‘Scope of technology in education and skill training’.
The session on ‘Scope of Technology in Education & Skill training’ hold a fruitful discussion with some prominent panelists including Gagan Kumar Dhal, Principal Secretary, Dept of Higher Education, Odisha, Krushna Gopal Mahapatra, State Project Director, OPEPA, Dept. of School and Mass Education, Odisha, Prof Gopal Naik, Director, IIIT, Bhubaneshwar, Ratnakar Rout, Additional Secretary, Department of Employment and Technical Education & Training, Odisha, Lokesh Mehra, Director, Education Advocacy, Microsoft, and Ajay Krishnan, Director, Cisco Solutions.
eOdisha also presented three important components including active Conference, Exhibition, and Awards. Other than the active conferencing through thematic sessions, the eOdisha Awards platform recognised innovation and excellence in governance, education and healthcare. The awards were conferred in categories like eChampion of the State, Government to Business (G2B) Initiative, Government to Citizens (G2C) Initiative, ICT for Sustainable Development Initiative, ICT implementation in Public Sector Unit, ICT Initiative for Urban Development, ICT enabled School, ICT enabled Higher Education Institute/University in Odisha, ICT in education initiative by Government in Odisha, ICT in healthcare initiative and more.

Scope of Technology in Education and Skills Training ::

Gagan Kumar Dhal,
Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Government of Odisha
We are keen on digitising the libraries in the state so that there can be proper accounting of the journals, which are purchased and the students will be able to access them. We are coming up with a very comprehensive scheme for the same purpose.

Gopal Mahapatra,
Director, School and Mass Education Department, Government of Odisha
Every year we carry out a survey called District Information System for Education, which is essential to plan for the children belonging to the state. We get to know the requirement of teachers,infrastructural requirements, and requirement of text books. Around 65,000 schools across the state are monitored through our CRC, BRC and other. We monitor the performance of the schools broadly on four points, viz, infrastructure, curricular activities, extracurricular activities, and school community linkage. We analyse the performance of schools from all the 30 districts and the blocks too. We also have a student’s helpline number for the grievance redressal.

Ratnakar Rout,
Additional Secretary, Employment and Technical Education & Training, Government of Odisha
We have 630 ITI s and ITC s. We used to have manual registration of students till 2010. We introduced online registration in the year 2011 and were partly successful. In the year 2013, we have achieved 100 percent online registration during. Around 55990 students have registered their names through online procedure. Despite a lot of obstruction, we have introduced online JEE in Odisha. The counseling of students was done via online since last year and this year we have outsourced the service to an IT company. Odisha has around 100 engineering colleges, 100 polytechnic schools. We have observed that, there is dearth of technically qualified people in the government institutions and suitable people are not available to fill up the vacancies.

Lokesh Mehra,
Director, Education Advocacy, Microsoft
The government is focusing a lot on the development of the education sector. This sector has been allotted an increased budget of 17 percent.As we are progressing towards a virtual education system, the concepts of time and place changes leading to an alteration of the entire paradigm. By the year 2025, there will be 47 million youths and there should be 52 million job opportunities to employ everyone. There is a common complain that the industries do not come forward. However, the truth is that industries operate in silos. Some people prefer to go and deliver a guest lecture, some of them allow students to visit them, and some of them will come forward and donate equipment. Also, as far as the curriculum is concerned, the board of study sits twice or thrice a year. So the curriculum is not updated often.

Ajay Krishnan,
Director, Cisco Solutions
In order to bring about inclusive growth, we focus on three areas, viz, education, skills development and healthcare. We have used technology to solve the issue of lack of teachers in the schools. Through video conferencing, we have brought teachers to the class rooms which are located far away in the rural areas of Karnataka. There are 2000 students studying in classes 5, 6, 7 and 8 are learning through this medium. We have seen that will minimum usage of technology, education can be made to reach a large group of people. In a similar way, we have connected engineering students to a group of Indian Institute of Science professors.

In talks with IITs for better quality of higher education: Goa CM

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April 5, 2013

PORVORIM: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said that the government is in talks with IITs to come up with a better system to enhance the quality of higher education and to bring in a good teaching faculty.

He also said that new proposals would be introduced to raise the quality of education in institutes like the Goa Engineering College ( GEC), Farmagudi, and the Goa Medical College ( GMC), Bambolim.

Parrikar, who also holds the education portfolio, made the declaration while responding to points raised by members participating in the discussion on demands on Thursday.

He said the plan is to invite special professors to create an interest in subjects taught in engineering and medical colleges. But colleges should also put in more efforts to widen the wisdom of students.

As regards to granting an extension in the retirement age of teachers of higher education, he said it cannot be done for general teaching staff as even teachers who do not teach well will get the benefit. Granting an extension in the retirement age was being considered due to the high ratio vacancies.
As a way out, he said the extension in the retirement age could be granted, subject to a recommendation from the respective college. He said the proposal has been sent to the Goa University.

Referring to the demand for increasing seats of engineering and medical colleges, he said it was during his tenure that seats of both the engineering colleges in the state had increased from 430 to 900.

Planning Commission to hold first ‘Hackathon’ on 12th FYP

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April 4, 2013

Planning Commission and National Innovation Council (NIC) have jointly decided to hold a two-day hackathon on the 12th Five Year Plan on April 6-7.

As per the statement, the hackathon will last for 32 hours during which participants from all over the country will gather in teams to compete for interesting prizes, classified under three categories – mobile/web applications, infographics and short films.

Hackathon will be organised simultaneously in 11 locations across the country for computer programmers and others collaborate on software projects. Those interested in may join it virtually. Few hackathons will also be intended towards educational or social purposes.

The hackathon would allow young creative designers, coders, film-makers and policy and development enthusiasts to visualise and narrate the 12th Plan through the modes of infographics, short films, and support the initiatives proposed in the Plan.

The event is scheduled to take place at University of Jammu, IIT Delhi, Delhi University, Aligarh Muslim University, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, TISS Mumbai, IIIT Hyderabad, IISc Bangalore, IIT Madras and IIM Shillong.

Need Expansion, Equity and Excellence in Education: Pallam Raju

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April 4, 2013

NEW DELHI: HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju stressed on the need to focus on expansion, equity and excellence in education in the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).

Pallam Raju laid special emphasis on the need of combined effort from central and state governments, academics and autonomous institutes to come together and work towards the betterment of the country’s education.
Raju was addressing the state education ministers, university vice-chancellors, heads of different education boards and academicians at the 61st Meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), highest decision making’ body in the field of education.
The meeting reviewed the implementation of the Right to Education and ICT in higher education. Discussion was held on the education commission proposed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his speech on Independence Day in 2011.
Other discussions were held around the topics of Best practices in implementation of school sanitation and hygiene education; Elimination of gender and social gaps in school enrolment and retention, Review of implementation of RTE, etc.

Rajasthan fails to spend grants for ICT in schools: National survey

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April 4, 2013

JAIPUR: A national survey has now found that the state of Rajasthan has performed poorly in terms of utilisation of Central education grants. The state education department has failed to spend Rs 16.23 crore of the Rs 20 crore grant received under the centrally sponsored information and communication and technology (ICT) in schools in 2009. It also failed to utilize funds of Rs 5 crore sanctioned for ‘inclusive’ education for the disabled at the secondary stage (IEDSS) in the state.

The depressing level of fund utilization in the state was pointed out in a recent nationwide school education survey (8th) conducted by the National Council of Educational and Research Training ( NCERT). The status report was released by the Union ministry of human resources and development in January 2013. The centrally sponsored ICT scheme in schools was launched in December 2004 and revised in 2010 for Rajasthan.

Under the scheme, the state gets financial assistance to procure computers and other ICT-related infrastructure. The grant of Rs 6.4 lakh (non-recurring) and Rs 2.7 lakh (recurring) per school is given, which is shared between the Centre and state in a ratio of 3:1. Of the Rs 20 crore released by the Centre for the state, only Rs 4.77 crore has been utilized till date. Piling on more embarrassment, the state has also failed in issuing 25% of its share for the project.

Similarly, the Central government released Rs 5 crore during the 11th Five Year Plan for IEDSS. But here too, the amount remained unutilised. To cover up its inability, the state has not submitted the audit report to the Centre.
The report further indicates that no proposal under the scheme has been received from the state for year 2012-13. The apathy of the government shows large on the decline in enrolment of girls with disabilities in schools in the state.

Rajasthan recorded the second lowest literacy rates in rural areas at 54%, just a per cent better than Bihar. Literacy level among the urban population is 73%, a tad better than Uttar Pradesh which ranked lowest with 70%.

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