Blended Objects in Math Labs can Increase Application Areas Immensely

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March 6, 2013

By Sindu Aven, Head – Academic, Design & Content, Zee Learn

Although laboratories have been associated with science subjects historically, the national focus on activity- based learning encourages us to think about using laboratory methods for priority areas like Mathematics, language and Social Sciences. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) mandates schools to have labs for varied subjects like Social Sciences, language, Mathematics, Bio-Technology etc. Goals of laboratory classes may differ according to subjects, but they overlap over the objective of providing opportunities for experiential learning. Our future labs will, therefore, need to focus on creating more opportunities of experiencing the subjects studied even within the budget constraints and large class sizes. Judicious use of technology can help us kick start this process.

Blended Objects in Maths Lab The focus in science education in schools has been evolving from the activityobservation- documentation framework to a more inquiry-based learning approach for developing scientific literacy. Instead of simply conducting a pre-identified activity, students should be encouraged to create explanations of the outcomes of an investigation by using evidence and logic. The future science labs will have a greater focus on the learning process along with conducting experiments. Online laboratories and experiments are useful in capturing the entire learning process without significant additional teacher intervention for individual students. Any number of students can dissect leaves and animals or mix hazardous chemical in online simula-tions without requiring a scaling up of the actual facilities and minimising system errors in experiments. Questionnaires with immediate feedback test their evidence and logic as they use pre-defined formats to build their reports. An online repository of experiments can be linked according to concepts so that students can perform related experiments or activities even if the rest of the class is not. Such relevant application assists students to move from guided activities to independent exploration and testing of laws and rules. The ubiquity of next generation computing devices has already transformed the experience of using computers has from click to touch. With the immediacy of touchscreens and the portability of tablet devices, discrete lab activities managed by lab instructors can be transformed into complete learning experiences leading to greater concept understanding with individual attention to all lab participants.

While planning for the labs of the future, we have to ensure that they provide answers to the problems of today

Blended Objects In Mathematics, the use of technology can transform the learning experience as well. The CBSE manual on Mathematics lab shows how simple paper and charts can be used for introducing object-based application of mathematical principles and application of geometry in real life. However, using the many available software and simulators we can make our Math labs truly futuristic. Free and open source software like GeoGebra offers online activities that join geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics and calculus. There are other geometry, algebra and graphing software that can be leveraged for greater application of mathematical principles. Integration of Mathematics and subjects like graphic design and music should be explored to make the Math lab an experimental one. An effective mix of computer-based applications and hand-held objects in Math labs can increase the areas of application immensely without requiring considerable expenses. Networking with experts and practitioners online can augment the expertise of laboratory instructors and it will also allow them to explore the application of Mathematics principles in various fields.

The concept of Social Science and language labs in schools is still a nascent one in India. A language lab is less of an experiment lab and more of an activity lab where students develop their speaking skills through listening to audio clips and recording their own audio for the teacher’s review. As effective communication skills appear increasingly important, we see the emergence of finishing schools for engineers and managers in many Indian cities. A language lab helps reduce the need for such later-day interventions by honing speaking skills at an early age. Social Science labs in schools, on the other hand, offer opportunities for exploration and analysis. The Social Science lab of the future would rely heavily on multimedia. A collection of films and documentaries can bring alive the issues, cultures, communities and events from textbooks. A Social Science lab can remove the perceived dryness of the subject and engage students in topics of human interest. Apart from exploration, reflective use of technology also helps students develop media literacy through critical thinking and directed analysis of the practices in the popular media. Social Science simulation software is not useful at the school level, but students can be made familiar with the various survey mechanisms essential in Social Science study through online survey tools.

While planning for the labs of the future, we have to ensure that they provide answers to the problems of today. From heavily guided activity centers for a limited number of experiments, they need to become safe zones for independent exploration and application. From the isolation of schools, they need to make avenues for working on issues relevant to the community outside. Above all, an inquiry-based and experiential pedagogy needs to be adopted so that students can formulate their own ideas about the subjects taught.

Bringing Industry-Academia Closer

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March 6, 2013

We can have quality institutions only if we have deregulation and giving the institutions better autonomy and more flexibility, says Prashant Bhalla, Chairman, Manav Rachna Educational Institutions

Please tell is about the concept behing Manav Rachna. What is your vision?

Manav Rachna was set up to provide quality education, especially to the students in Northern India. We started 15 years back in 1997 when privatisation in the higher education sector was negligent. At that time, certain policies of the AICTE and several initiatives of the central and state governments came in which wanted to push the private sector in coming into the higher education space.

Our commitment is to provide quality education and we try to bring in the best practices from across the world through our cross linkages, from various international institutions and partners, as well as very strong connectivity with industries like Tata Consultancy Services, Maruti Suzuki, Jai Bharat Maruti and other management, banking, finance and engineering companies. We are trying to create a bridge between the industry and academia: the need of the hour. Our curriculum is relevant to what the industry needs and aims at driving the whole system towards contributing to it.

How do the foreign collaborations contribute to Manav Rachna?

When you are associated with a good academic institution, the drive comes from the faculty and departments. There are articulations, academic exchanges, student exchanges, international placements, and joint research. We are trying to develop something that is truly indigenous with support mechanism from the best practices from across the world. Manav Rachna Institutions have a strong base of foreign collaborations with Carneige University, Curtin University (Australia) and with universities in Finland, UK, New Zealand, and other countries across the world. Our new venture, the Kunskapsskolan Schools is a new methodology of teaching prevalent in the West: a true personalised coaching, and goal-based learning that we are trying to bring in into our schools. We will follow the CBSE curriculum and break it into a student-centric learning methodology rather than a student- or teaching-centric methodology.

What made you get into this field and what are your future plans?

The drive was to bring in something in the North. Today, we are trying to drive the environment in such a way that we make continuous innovations to provide new courses. We have to focus on the courses that are relevant to the current timeframe and the current generation and try to bring in ways to use the best available technology. Technology and digital learning should be implemented in the right way and the whole community should benefit out of it.

In the future, we will try to move into health sciences. We are creating the first flagship of Kunskapsskolan Schools in Gurgaon and we plan to take it to across the country.

What are your expansion plans?

We are trying to develop this programme as a methodology and as a concept. We will look at like-minded people who would be interested in working with us, or those who are running their own schools and would want to adapt to this methodology. It is driven by a learning portal and any school can adapt to it. The challenge is the implementation thought process and trying to work upon the existing system because there is a great resistance of change whenever you try to do something new.

Please tell us about your industry academia linkages.

We are moving to a practical way of doing things. Our students get the advantage of picking their career from the day they join us. The industry also benefits from this because they do not have to work on training the students and on getting them involved in their system from day one.

Companies like Jai Bharat Maruti and Tata Consultancy Services are moving on to this thought process. During the selection process of the students, the industry representatives jointly do the selections and contribute towards what is being driven to them. We are also planning to start an MBA in healthcare with Fortis Hospitals.

Aiding Teachers Digitally

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March 6, 2013

Casper Grathwohl, Senior Vice President – Group Strategy, Oxford University Press, in his conversation with Ruhi Ahuja Dhingra, talks about Oxford Educate and how it will teach the educators a better way of imparting learning in the classroom

Please tell us about Oxford Educate.

Digital materials have been around in the classroom for quite some time in India. There are quite a few technology companies in the market fighting to provide these services, but the content is not good or is not relevant. I read a study that said that only 20-30 percent of the digital material that is purchased by the schools is actually used. Oxford Educate has been our response to that – digital materials that can make a difference in the classroom, something that teachers want to use to enhance children’s
learning.

What is special about Oxford Educate is that it is much more than just a course book in digital form: you can page through it and click on different elements with animation and readings. In the English Language Teaching courses, you can read poems and hear them in the original language. You can also see videos and print documents.

Oxford Educate gives all the tools to teachers that they need to teach a course more effectively. In the past, digital products were offered as supplements, but they did not offer help in teaching the course. The material that publishers have been offering since the last couple of years when the entered the space, has better content but is not a part of the course. That is what makes Oxford Educate special. Also, it is free and other publishers either charge extra if you purchase the CD with the digital materials along with the book. But we are offering the material for free not only because we are committed to education and want to see students perform better and help teachers, but also because we think our products will do better and more people will use them because the digital material we are providing is effective.

What is your view of the adoption of the digital medium in India?

There is a huge difference between the range of schools in the market. The private high-end schools in tier-1 cities are very different from those in tier-3 cities that do not have a lot of money. The challenge with digital in a place like India is that it is not happening uniformly across schools. The digital revolution is at different points on a scale at the same time. Therefore, you cannot come up with a solution for your ideal classroom and expect the educators to be able to implement it.

My view is that the gap is closing partly because technology is becoming less expensive. Tablets used to be so expensive but they will get lower to a point where if not everyone, but at least the next layer down of students will have access to these materials. That is going to make a huge difference. As of now, everything is print-based while technology sits as a supplement. But when real change happens, technology, digital and print will be blended together in a way that one does not drive the other. Right now, print drives digital.

Students are more tech savvy as compared to teachers. How do you think that gap can be bridged?

To be fair, Oxford Educate will not bridge that gap fully. Young people are excited by technology in ways that some of us who are older are not. But because Oxford Educate is very simple to use: you can turn pages just the way you do on an e-Reader or when you are on the web, there will hopefully be no gap between a teacher’s and a student’s understanding about the programme.

The challenge outside of Oxford Educate is Indian teachers need better technology training and this training will soon be the key to a long-term successful Indian education system that is growing so rapidly. Technology evolves so quickly and young people are always going to be on the edge of where we are going. So teachers have to learn to adapt to this.

Will Oxford Educate serve as an aid to the teachers?

Today’s students are as sophisticated with digital at the age of seven or eight years as teachers are and that is very intimidating. This makes the teachers think that digital makes their job harder and that they cannot do anything that is more difficult or that they are not comfortable with.

When we developed Oxford Educate, we talked not to just digitally-savvy teachers, but also those who do not use digital to find out what they need to get more comfortable and make things more interactive for students. Even the teachers who are less comfortable with digital will find that it works just like how they use their Facebook or shop online. Oxford Educate’s CDs are very intuitive and easy to use. That is why they will work.

The cost of tablets will soon come down to a point where if not everyone, but at least the next layer down of students will have access to digital materials. That is going to make a huge difference

Oxford Educate has been designed to help teachers use the course material. A teacher can read out a poem to the class. He can also have that poem on the screen with an audio sounding like Shakespeare. This way, students will learn as they pay attention to the story that is being told. What a better way to learn! Oxford Educate will help teachers because it is too much of a task for teachers to do it without any support right now.

In how many countries have you launched Oxford Educate?

India is the first. We developed this specifically for the Indian market and did the research here. Digital education is taking off in India and we thought this is time when we could make a difference.

What are your plans for the Indian market?

Right now, Oxford Educate accompanies 13 courses across all subject areas. Courses like English Language Learning, Computer Science, Mathematics and Science will be launched now and teachers will receive CD-ROMs. Our website also has tips on how to use the CDs, contact information and best practices.

Our plan is to have teachers use this. We have trained all of our 130 teacher trainers to help teachers if they need any assistance. We will gather all the feedback and update Oxford Educate every year so that it has new features and more content. It is very important to stay close to the classroom and learn and keep updating it. We probably will not be perfect at it at first but we will try to remain nimble so that we can constantly keep up with what teachers need. And we think that if we publish a new course and make it available every year, we will be improving the programme.

Dispelling the Fear of Math Among Children

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March 6, 2013

$Fear of math$ Math Lab at Algar Public School, Tuticorin
Principal: Deepashree

Alagar Public School in Tuticorin who have been using both hands-on instruments and software for teaching maths in the school. Deepashree, Principal of the schools shared their insights on how math labs changed the way of teaching and learning math…

The privatisation of education in India a decade ago was welcomed as it was aimed at enhancing the size and availability of skilled talent pool that India IAlagar Public School started in 2009 when the eight decade old business conglomerate Alagar group of companies under two aegis of our chairman A Jeyaraman first conceived the idea and developed it into reality.The school offers the renowned CBSE Curriculum and aims at academic excellence, positive social values and creative freedom. At Alagar students have exposure beyond books and academia.

Alagar Public School introduced Math labs with Math Buddy programme last with an aim to dispel the fear of Math among children. It has indeed made Math easier and fun with choice of manipulatives and the software. It is heartening to see kids working with the Math kit in groups and are fully engaged. Our Math lab is one place where numbers truly come alive. It also helps children to visualize and understand the concepts.

Benefits of Math lab

Math Buddy helps in improving the standard of the students as well makes math more interesting.
Evaluation is done by the software itself.
Since Math Buddy software contains lots of examples and exercises, it helps the students to improve their mathematical skills.
Students feel to be an interactive informative method to understand the concepts of Math.
Students find Math lab an interactive method interesting to learn math. They feel it is an easy method to understand the concepts through online games.

No more Math fear among students
Now, I like learning Math because we can develop our skills with exciting tools. We understand the problems in the first time. I will invent such Math software in future, Says S Motheenath.

Math has now become very interesting to learn and it is very easy because if we don not know any concept we can learn in Math Buddy. Math Buddy is more easy than math text. We can do learn many concepts in Math buddy for example Decimals, Fraction, Angles, Tables, etc. It is easy to learn. It makes us to improve our math skills, says N Lohesh.

Maths is fun now and we can learn something by playing. There are many forms of learning in this like a quiz, choose the correct answer etc. Learning is fun, says R Shakthi Niveha. Math Buddy is very useful. We can get many information about Math. We can learn much sums. I like Math buddy very much, says R Dharun.

Math buddy is an interesting math software which helps us to improve our math knowledge. There are many chapters like number, metric measures, Geometry, Fractions. I like math buddy very much, says A Vidhu.

Math Buddy is a very interesting website. We all like that. The math games of math buddy improve our knowledge of math. We get more ideas about math. The game can be won easily. In playing the game we understand some difficult sums, says A Flavin.

ICTACT BRIDGE Concludes its Chennai Edition

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March 6, 2013

Industry – Academia Interaction with the focus on Skill Requirement for a Paradigm Shift

ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT) is organizing a series of conference titled “ICTACT BRIDGE” a platform for all the stake holders in the education eco-system to discuss on improving the Industry-Institute collaboration, thereby creating a vibrant industry relevant education scenario in the country. This event is being supported by Government of Tamil Nadu and conducted in association with NASSCOM. For the 7th time in the row ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu successfully conducted ICTACT BRIDGE conference. The conference addressed the pressing factors challenging employability with focus on 21st century skills for Education, employability, and Entrepreneurship on 20th Feb 2013 at Chennai Trade center, Nadambakkam. The event w as supported by ELCOT, EDI Chennai, TANSACS TNSDM, STPI, FICCI and TiE. ICTACT BRIDGE 2013 Chennai edition featured powerful sessions and tracks to address specific stakeholder issues with focused themes including Leadership in Building World Class Institutions, The 21st Century Skills for Teachers, Skill Development and Employability, Conclave on Recruitment Trends 2013 followed by ICTACT Academic Partner Excellence Awards 2013.

The conference was represented by a multitude of key stakeholders from Academia, Corporate, Government and Media. The Academia participants included academic leaders, the teaching fraternity, research community, placement officers etc. The Corporate participants included corporate executives, senior management members, technical executives, etc.

A team of eminent experts from the industry and academia are part of the ICTACT Bridge committee, are leading the conference, provide expert guidance, finalise the theme and framework of the conference and be part of various activities of the conference thereby making the conference a real bridge between the industry and academia. The conference was not only a chance to hear from those leaders and brainstorm for the future, but an opportunity for the academia to network with corporate. BRIDGE 2013 – Chennai Edition witnessed around 1160 participants from 347 colleges and various corporate.

K Ganesan Global Head, Talent Acquisition, while giving the welcome address stressed on the point that the education ecosystem should fine tune its learning system and the syllabus to get itself updated to the 21st century education. The syllabus should be made student centric with active learning. Education through Internet should be facilitated. He quoted that ‘21st century education is not a Sage on the Stage but a Guide by the Side.”

Thiru Atul Anand, IAS, Managing Director, ELCOT said, “ The government will ensure the access of IT to every nook and corner of the state. He advised that the academia should have an open mindset and accept the new trends which will help them to adopt for the 21st century education.”

Thiru Kumar Jayant, IAS, Secretary – Project Director – Tamil Nadu Aids control Society opened his speech by requesting the college to understand the input of the student. The students though have a routing exam system and score high marks are not competent enough to face the demands of the industry. The students are very poor in application skills, but have great skills in memorising and scoring great marks. College is where more freedom should be given to the students and there should be mechanism to suppress the pressure of students. All colleges should have orientation programs. Reading books beyond the academic curriculum should be made mandatory in all institutions. This habit will fetch great difference among the students and improve their communication skills in the long run.

David J Gainer, Public Affairs officer US consulate, Chennai spoke about the values of the Indian education system. He stated that they will introduce 100 community colleges in India. He mentioned that Indian students are working all over the World in all Top MNC’s in all sectors; it is the educational background which makes this possible. He stated that more a half a million Indians travel to US every year. There are strategies framed for the collaboration of the Indian and the US educational institutions.

Thiru P Murari, IAS (Retd), Advisor to FICCI President & Former Secretary to President of India

Thiru Murari started his speech by stating that he is very much delighted to be in ICTACT Bridge conference. Not only IT but teaching skills are enhanced by taking such collective initiative. Eighty percent of the people who emerge from various institutions are still not employable. The State skill development is established to upgrade the skills and make them employable. We have to look into this problem very urgently. What we need to do is to develop and foster the entrepreneurship spirit among the students. Convert the job seekers into job creators. Risk taking ideas should be promoted. Entrepreneurship cell should be created in every college with partnership from corporate and effectively utilized for the growth of the students. Another important issues is the innovative spirit of the students, because of this the patent registration in India is very low. He finally ended his speech by quoting about the entrepreneurship talent hunt organised by FICCI and US embassy. The Closing session was given by Crazy Mohan and he explained about how skill development has helped him throughout his career. He shared his experience and how his teachers have been an important inspiration for his success. He finally concluded that everyone should nurture a skill which will help them through their lifetime.

“Math is Our Buddy Now”

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March 6, 2013

$Math is Our Buddy$ Sreenarayanan PC, Principal, Podar International School, Ahmedabad, shares his experience with Math labs

With the objective of practising Mathematics concept easily with immediate feedback, Podar International School deployed Math Buddy Math Labs in the school. The implementation of these labs has led to higher academic standards among the students. Children are evaluated through various modes like pen and paper test, online assessment through smart sheets, assignments and activities.

There are multiple benefits for students and teachers. Students can visualise and understand concepts in Mathematics related to real-life in a very easy manner, perform better in standardised tests, and show keen interest in the subject taught.

Math Teachers find these labs very userfriendly and easy to understand. These labs help them in preparing customised worksheets and assignments and multiple options to bring in interactivity in the classroom. Students in the school feel that it makes the classroom come alive with thousands of ready-to-use activities and customised worksheets in minutes.

Online support and periodic training of teachers by experts, keen interest and hard work put in by the teachers, parental support and cooperation, has helped the school in the successful implementation and getting benefits of Math labs.

“We are using iPads, therefore, we expect that various apps can be evolved that can work well with them.”

“Integrate Skill Labs in the various district level colleges to include the rural and semi-urban youth in the Skills Movement,”

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March 6, 2013

Says, Bikram Dasgupta, Founder & Executive Chairman, Globsyn Group

According to the India Labour Report 2009, 1.4 billion youth is expected to enter the country’s labour force by 2026. Around three million students are added to Indian work force every year. Despite deceleration in the broader economy, India is set to create more than a million jobs across various sectors. Though this sounds a promising figure, the industry perspective differs.Only 10-15 percent of them are considered employable by the industry.

With the growth rate expected to hita record low figure in a decade, India is in the middle of a crippling economics lowdown. But, it is unlikely to hit thehiring pattern. Companies are on the constant look out for skilled man power so as to cut down their training costs.Multi-skilled people are given more preference in all fields.

It is a sorry fact that around 53 percentof the Indian youth faces a serious problem of skill deprivation, thus leading to the industry academic gap. With globalisation providing huge opportunities to the Indian youth, Indian youth need to up their employability quotient to meet the growing demands of the industry.With government allowing FDIin multi-brand retail, we expect that there will be huge demand for workforce for that particular sector. As reflected through the figures, availability of labour will not be a major problem. What is of concern is the absence of skills to meet the global standards. There is a need to groom the students with specific add on training so as to refine their existing skills.

To combat this issue, there is amajor debate on how to bridge the industry— academic demand and supply gap. One of the approaches is the shift of the Indian education system from the current teacher-centric system,to the more holistic and robust learner-centere instructional methodology. Further to this, emphasis should be given to vocational education in colleges.

Colleges today should pay equal importance to life and work skills along with regular academics.

One of the breakthrough ideas would be to integrate skill labs in the various district level colleges so as to include the rural and semi-urban youth in the skills movement. This will help the industry to address this skill gap by up-skilling and cross-skilling the students. The objective is to complement the existing curriculum followed by the colleges and groom the student to meet all the professional demand at the workplace right from day one of his office life.

The Indian government too, has gauged the potential of skilled manpower.Therefore, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was formedas a part of the coordinated approach to skill development to synergise and enhance industry and employer participationin skill development. As a part ofthis, NSDC has taken up the mandate of skilling 500 million people by 2022.Considering the present scenario,collaboration of the skill training institutes with the industry is extremely essential. The corporates need to recognize the importance of certified skilled workers. The industry at this hour needs innovative solutions from the academia to meet their business needs of higher productivity and lower costs without compromising on efficiency.

Digital labs can help bring about consistency in the teaching process

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March 6, 2013

Bharathy Bharadwaj, Founder & CEO of Concept Learning Technologies Pvt Ltd/Math Buddy LLC

How are Math labs making students fall in love with the subject?

Mathematics is a subject which is learnt best through exploration. It is not a subject where a student can just watch a video or an animation and understand the concepts. Towards this end, we believe that a Math lab should be an integral part of every educational institution so that students can learn the concepts through interactive hands-on as well as virtual activities. When students learn Math this way, they explore, experience, and enjoy the subject, and many a times, they are made to figure out the formulae by themselves by making them observe patterns.

Once the children explore concepts with traditional instruments under the supervision of the teacher, they can practice the concepts using similar instruments in virtual space. The advantage in digital labs is that the teacher does not have to be present to see if the children are modeling correctly. The system will provide feedback to the children and the teachers can monitor their progress through detailed reports. In higher classes, digital labs can help children visualise and understand difficult concepts and help eliminate the need for rote learning. Lastly, digital labs can help bring about consistency in the teaching process especially when new teachers come in.

How do you see the adoption of Math labs across India?

We believe there is a huge potential for Math labs. Many of the schools have been using Math lab instruments for sometime to illustrate concepts. However, when we talk about a Math lab, the instruments are not to be used just for illustrating concepts, but to get students
to explore by themselves sitting in groups of four or five. More and more schools are warming up to this, and are showing interest in setting up dedicated rooms for Math labs with seven to eight sets of instruments for students to do hands-on activities.

In addition, schools are beginning to realise the benefits of virtual software based math labs where students sit in front of the computers and interactively play with activities and learn the concepts. We believe the combination of handson and virtual Math labs provides a lot of benefits and with newer technologies offering the ability to access virtual activities from desktops, tablets and even phones, the future looks very bright.

With Internet access becoming more affordable and more people going online, there is a tremendous opportunity for products that allow students to access from home as well.

We have more than a hundred schools across India including Lawrence School, Sanawar, Podar International Schools, Global Indian International Schools, Navrachana group of schools, Chennai Public Schools and many more using our solutions.

Do the schools understand the concept of teaching Math with new ways over traditional ones? Most of the schools are familiar with traditional Math labs with hands-on instruments.

However, very few have actually set up a dedicated room for a Math lab and the penetration of digital components is even lesser. However, in the past year or two, schools are beginning to see the val-ue of a complete Math lab with hands-on instruments and software, and the adoption rate is increasing. As we go forward, there is a tremendous opportunity since the penetration, even at this time, is less than one percent of the private schools, let alone government schools.

What are the innovative Math lab solutions that you offer to educational institutions?

We develop a complete range of Math lab solutions. Our flagship product is Math Buddy Digital Plus Math Lab, which is a unique combination of hands-on kits to help children explore concepts using hands-on instruments and a digital lab with more than 1,200 interactive activities to help reinforce the concepts from grades 1 to 10.

The digital lab can be accessed from classrooms for teachers to illustrate concepts as well as from a computer lab for children to interactively practice the concepts. We also have our product online to enable children to continue learning from their homes.

This year, we are also introducing Math Buddy for tablets and smartphones, which should bring down the cost of setting up a virtual Math lab tremendously and make Math learning even more enjoyable for students.

MathsLab for Next Generation Teaching-Learning

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March 6, 2013

Maths Lab With Mathematics playing a dynamic role in our lives, it is evident that applications of Mathematics are advancing at a spectacular rate. However, often students are found struggling with mathematical concepts. When teaching relies on generic formulae, theorems and concepts, students lose interest and find Mathematics dull and boring. This results in lower grades, eventually leading to a ‘Math phobia’ among students. The use of boards, notebooks and instructional learning often do not address the Math needs of a class of diverse students. For those students who require experimentation and visualisation, a variety of interactive teaching methods are needed.

Next Education, with an aim to cater to the needs has come up with an innovative platform, MathsLab, which allows students to develop deep insights into various mathematical concepts by experiential learning. MathsLab is a zone created with projectors, computers and various handson kits where children do various activities, projects and simulations to discover mathematical ideas and validate formulas.

What is MathsLab?

Next Education’s MathsLab is an innovative platform that allows students to develop deep insights into various mathematical concepts by experiential learning. Based on the ideology of Learn-Analyse-Build, MathsLab features pedagogically appropriate content, where students can learn through activities and perform simulations to discover mathematical ideas. The aim is to merge the three dimensions of understanding Mathematics: teacher sessions, student practice and hands-on activities.

Complying with the NCERT and NCF guidelines and catering to all school boards such as CBSE and ICSE in India, Next Education’s MathsLab aims to fill the gap between learning and practice.

Key features

Next Education’s MathsLab is a complete and comprehensive solution that encompasses all classes from KG to 10. One of the key differentiating aspects is the pedagogically- appropriate content based on the class and age of the students. It not only helps the students develop higher order thinking skills, but also gain holistic understanding.

Classes KG to 3 are taught Maths using a story-based approach with engrossing visuals that ensure the kids are focussed on the lesson.
For the higher classes (grade 4 to 10), Next Education has built Mathematical understanding by relating Maths to real-life applications. For example, MathsLab helps students understand how Maths can be applied to organise a school fete or how pictographs can be used to collate data.
Maths Lab also features numerous simulations, where a child can create various scenarios, perform multiple trials and thereby observe the results.

Next Education’s MathsLab’s comprehensive approach of incorporating activities with hands-on models provides avenues to cover Math topics by doing a teacher-led activity or hands-on activity. With the exhaustive list of physical models called Manipulative, teachers and students can perform hundreds of activities.

Next Education MathsLab’s learning laboratory presents an opportunity for teachers to reinforce concepts through thousands of exercise questions. On one side, the exercises provide personalised learning environment for students and on the other, they can also be used by teachers as formative assessments.

For easy integration into a school’s system and structuring lab classes, MathsLab comes with a ready-to-use lab plan. Additionally, the teachers and the management of the school can gain performance insights using the student and teacher usage reports. For instance, the ‘Individual Student Performance Report’ automatically generates and tracks each student’s progress in every chapter. The ‘Teacher and Student Usage Reports’, used by the management, tracks usage by teachers and students.

Online Labs for Schools on Low Cost Tablets

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March 6, 2013

By Prof Raghu Raman, Director, Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education (CREATE), Amrita University

India’s educational challenge includes a large school going population, lack of science teachers and shortage of expensive science labs in schools. Online Labs (OLabs), the free and open-access, digital interactive multimedia- based science labs for schools, addresses this challenge by adapting the solution of low cost Android-based tablets like Aakash. The phase 1 of the project covers classes 9 and 10, to be followed by phase 2 which covers classes 11 and 12, and additional subjects like English and Maths and have regional language support.

Mata Amritandamayi, Chancellor, Amrita University, has inspired us to understand the educational challenges faced by our country and tackle them using research-based holistic solutions. OLabs on low cost tablets like Aakash are guided by her vision of providing affordable and high quality learning programmes to lakhs of school-going children all over India, including those in rural areas to reduce the digital divide.

The research we do is focused on developing responsive UI-based content for the tablets and our approach is fully integrated into the formative assessment process and most importantly, coexists with the present e-Learning environment. With tablets, we are foreseeing a renewed effort on teacher empowerment.

A significant milestone for OLabs was the recent circular from CBSE recommending OLabs as a teaching aid for their 14,000+ schools. OLabs training has been provided at various workshops and conferences and we have trained over 1,200 teachers from 200 schools and have 19,000 registered students/teachers. OLabs videos, animated demonstrations, mathematically based simulations, and self-evaluation exercises provide an interactive, life-like learning environment that optimises student learning. OLabs are designed by subject matter experts to arouse the curiosity of students and to motivate them to learn advanced concepts through interactive online learning. A recent study showed significant performance improvements in conceptual and procedural skills of high school students with OLabs.

“Online labs is one of the advanced teaching systems which can make a revolution in education, especially in science. It is one of the modern methods which helps to teach science and helps the student to smoothly conduct the lab,” says Niranjan Parida, ODM Public School, Bhubaneswar.

OLabs project is jointly developed by Amrita University and C-DAC Mumbai, under a research grant from DeitY, Government of India. OLabs is available free for schools at its website. Other innovative educational technologies from Amrita University include Computer-based Adaptive Learning, Vocational Education with Haptics, Virtual Labs for Higher Education and A-VIEW, a distant learning platform.

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