T V Joe Layng, PhD, Director of Learning Sciences, Mimio
Today’s classrooms are in transition. Technology of all sorts is making its way into the classroom and offering new ways to engage learners. The transition is not smooth, nor is it following a single path. Classroom technology was once limited to presentation via VCRs, filmstrips, and slide projectors. Today we find more interactive technology that uses LCD projectors, interactive whiteboards, notebook and desktop computers, and tablets such as the iPad.

Which technology? No “right answer”
There is no one “right answer” as to which technology will best engage students and improve outcomes. Teachers have a vision of what an engaged classroom looks like, and they strive to create that in their own classroom. Practices that make that vision more likely are more readily adopted, while those that don not are resisted. However, seeing our students engaged or feeling good about what we are doing may not be enough. Some teachers may assume that more interaction is better than less, that collaboration is better than independent study, and that tackling problems and projects through discovery and inquiry improves classroom practice and produces more authentic learning. Technology purchases often follow such beliefs.

Effective, flexible products are key
For the greatest return on their investment schools must purchase products that support effective instructional practices and that are flexible with regards to technology usage. Essential to a successful outcome is that interactive learning activities have clear student accomplishments specified, that there is a way to measure those accomplishments, that the activity actually leads to those accomplishments, and that most, if not all, learners demonstrate the accomplishments. The goal must be to combine effective instructional practices with the changing technological landscape now open to teachers. Done well, one can inform and enhance the other. Done poorly, we may find there will not be the hoped-for return on our educational technology investment. When purchasing instructional products, schools need products that allow for maximal flexibility among and between technologies, and that actually produce real, standards-based outcomes important to teachers and students alike.
How much penetration each interactive technology has differs from school to school and from classroom to classroom, making curriculum choices even more difficult. Schools may have a computer lab, but no computers in the classroom. They may have interactive whiteboards, but no computer lab. They may have computers in the classroom, but no whiteboard. And they may have any or all or none of these, and have iPads or tablets.
Accordingly, the technologies may differ from classroom to classroom and may change over time. A school that once focused on interactive whiteboards may shift that focus to iPads. Or, we may see a shift from computer labs to notebooks used in class or at home.
It is at times a confusing and hard to- manage environment. Adding to this confusion is that none of this technology works without content. Applications are key to the effective use of technology. Without good content, the technology is just metal, plastic, silicon, and glass. Teachers may be asked to develop content, but with an average of fifty minutes of preparation time available per day, there is only so much that can be done.
In what, then, should schools invest— technology, content, or both? What happens if schools invest heavily in applications for computer labs and then decide to shift to tablets? Or, what happens if a school likes the individualization afforded by computer applications, but wants the collaborative environment that can be provided by in- teractive whiteboard activities? It is unlikely that an application purchased for one interactive environment will work in another, or that an application written for individualized instruction can be seamlessly integrated with a more social, collaborative classroom approach. Schools are facing a real dilemma.

Where do they spend scarce technology and application dollars?
And will any of these actually produce the learner outcomes schools are after? What is needed during this transition are applications that can help schools reach their teaching and learning goals no matter what devices they may have, now or in the future. These should be research-based applications that either work across devices, or supply a similar outcome and work seamlessly with all their devices. Further, these applications should take advantage of the special properties of each type of interactive technology. For example, on a computer, highly adaptive, individualized learning can be provided that may not be available in a classroom. Conversely, using an interactive whiteboard may provide important collaborative engagement that is not possible for a learner using a computer.

A model for effective use of technology for instruction
Imagine a reading comprehension program that was designed to take advantage of a wide range of technology available in a classroom, including computers, interactive whiteboards, and perhaps tablets. A teacher might  begin by assigning the first three lessons of the program to be completed online s homework (eg, Leon et al, 2011). Learners could access the lessons using a notebook or iPad they have at home, or perhaps use a computer that may be located in a library or computer lab at school. The teacher could access  eportsthat not only let her know if the work was done, but also escribe the precise performance of each learner. The online pplication featuring continuous adaptation would catch and correct any of the errors made by the learner. The program would provide individualized correction based on the type of error that occurs. The teacher would know how many questions were answered correctly the first time, versus after a correction. Learners with many corrections would eventually answer correctly, but could be flagged as perhaps needing more attention. The teacher could then provide whole-classroom interactive whiteboard lessons that review and extend the material learned online. Learners would be able to participate and verbalize the strategies they learn. No interactive whiteboard? Teacher guides and learner response materials could be provided to help transfer and extend skills learned in the program.
The teacher may find that some of the learners do not have the basic decoding skills necessary for the lessons. A brief two-minute assessment administered to each learner might find that some need to begin in the second half of an online phonics program, while others need to begin earlier.
As the program proceeds, skills learned online become the basis of collaborative in-class activities. The activities extend beyond the multiple-choice, inquiry-based lessons provided online, and give learners the opportunity to construct open-ended answers to literal, inferential, derived vocabulary, and main idea questions. Material from a range of subjects might be included in the collaborations as the programs progress and the learners master increasingly complex reading tasks. We should see learners eagerly extend their new comprehension abilities to new areas.
Other teachers may focus on the whole-classroom lessons, and reserve online or iPad work for those learners who seem to be having trouble in class. Yet others may rely on the online program and use the interactive classroom lessons for small-group instruction for targeted learners. And yet others may begin with the interactive whiteboard lessons and subsequently rely more on the online lessons as a result of acquiring iPads for their classrooms. The options are many and the flexibility great. What all of these teachers want, however, is content that will help them achieve their classroom goals—no matter what technology is theirs to use, or how they choose to use it.
In summary, schools need to be able to take advantage of any or all instructional technology found in any combination that meets their needs. They might introduce iPads in one classroom, but have learners in other classrooms access the same lessons on a computer. If a classroom has no computers, but does have an interactive whiteboard, students should still be able to learn the same material. What’s more, teachers should be able to take advantage of each technology’s special features, such as whole group or small-group instruction using interactive whiteboards, individualized instruction using computers, or mobile learning using iPads.
What today’s schools require is a completely integrated solution, whether it be instruction provided by iPads or computers, accessible at school or in the home, or group interactive technology in the classroom. And all must work together to provide the best possible learning outcomes.

References
Klahr, D & M Nigam (2004). The equivalence of learning paths in early science instruction:
Effects of direct instruction and discovery learning. Psychological Science, 15, 661-667.
Leon, M, V Ford, H Shimizu, A Stretz, J Thompson, M Sota, JS Twyman, and TVJ.
Layng (2011). Comprehension by design: Teaching young learners to comprehend what they read. Performance Improvement Journal, 50(10) 40–47. Robbins, JK (2011). Problem solving, reasoning, and analytical thinking in a classroom environment. The Behavior Analyst Today, 12(1), 40-47.k

British publishing and education company, Pearson, has completed its acquisition of TutorVista and acquired the remaining 20 percent equity in the Bangalore based online education services company. In 2011, Pearson acquired a majority stake in the then five-year old TutorVista for Rs 577 crore, valuing it at around Rs 1,000 crore.
Srikanth B Iyer, the Chief Cperating Officer of Pearson Education Services has been named as the new CEO of TutorVista. He started his career with Wipro in 1993 but left soon enough to chase his entrepreneurial instincts. Iyer had co-founded Edurite, an education services company in 2000, which was later acquired by TutorVista in 2007.In a quick chat with Dr Ravi Gupta, Iyer sheds light on his new role…

How do you see yourself evolving from Edurite to Pearson and now TutorVista?
Pearson is into its third phase and version 3.3.0. Co-founding Edurite was the first phase and I call it version 1.0. Then we acquired TutorVista in 2007. After these acquisitions, we saw rapid growth in five-six years and that was the second phase, version 2.0. Now we are Pearson’s 100 percent owned entity, which is our third phase, version 3.0, where we have to recommit overselves to Pearson’s larger goals and objective and align our business interest to them.

Please shed light on product portfolio of TutorVista and how it has evolved in the last five-six years in India?
Currently, there are two large baskets of products and services. One of them is direct delivery basket in which we offer direct delivery of educational services and directly touch the end-users. We have Tutorvista.com, an online one- to- one tutoring model,in which we have around 20,000 registered users as of today. Then we have the Pearson Schools business in which have engaged more than 35 schools and 25,000 children across India. We also have our Pearson Learning Centre business, where we offer test preparation training for IIT, CET, etc. We have 70 of these learning centres in Karnataka and Kerala touching around 20,000 students year on year. That is our direct delivery basket. The other basket is called Pearson Inside, which is the menu of services offered to other schools both government and private. Currently, we have Textbooks, Digiclass which is an interactive classroom solution, Tablet based product MX touch, etc, under this basket. My current focus is on growing these two areas of the business.

Dax Network, networking and surveillance company, has launched a programme for network engineers aimed at enhancing the skills of young employed engineers and to make the final year students job-ready. Sudha Jagadish, CEO, DAX Networks tells about the plans to address skilled manpower crunch for the networking industry by having tie ups with various educational institutions. In conversation with Pragya Gupta, ENN

Please share the genesis of DAX Network?
Being in the networking industry for more than 25 years and in the networking space, we trust that we have enough knowledge and expertise ranging over many years now. Our contribution to the industry is specialised in the networking space.

Do you think there is enough skilled workforce available in your industry?
Yes, there is not much skilled workforce available these days. There is a huge demand for skilled workforce. We find more of this with the system integrators where actually work has to be done, we find that knowledge is missing. There are vacancies all over but they are not able to find the right candidate. We do have jobs, but it is difficult to find the right people. We are doing this in two phases. For the last two years now, we have gone into IT surveillance, which works traditionally on security but is now going into other areas also like marketing. Its scope is widening now. With thefts and other tragedies happening every day, the demand for IT surveillance across the industry has risen rapidly. We are primarily into education of networking and IT  surveillance to the industry partners and also to the educational institutions. We feel that a practical knowledge imparted to the students will help them to be placed better versus some other candidate.
Our education module is not purely theoritical; it gives a lot of insight on realistic case studies that we have handled, and what was your need and what the customer or anyone else would look for. It provides the entire insight for a person to design a solution and also gets a hands-on experience on technical details. It makes the candidate a fulfilled person, gives an insight into the kinds of needs existing in the industry.

What kind of skills do you look for in an engineering student while hiring?
When we hire a fresher, we only look for an attitude to learn and basic knowledge  about the subject. Though on the technical front, we would prefer to have a person who is already educated and trained.

Please share your tie ups with educational institutions.
There is two-fold strategy that we are taking in education: one is through the system integration community. The system integrators have network engineers or installers. We offer courses to them. We also have tie ups with engineering colleges and they sponsor their students to attend this course. The primary objective for colleges doing this is that they feel their candidate will be positioned better.
We are actively looking for more tie ups. We also have approached Educomp and trying to have a tie-up with them in imparting education. Right now, our tieup with them is only for the hardware solutions that we provide. However, we look forward to more tie ups.

Please share your plans for the education vertical?
Education is one of our primary verticals. The business comes from the government projects and tenders. All the institutions including government schools and colleges are part of the tender. We provide our hardware solutions to schools and we have more than a lakh schools networked through our products. We have just launched the education line by itself and will be taking it forward actively.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) is a comprehensive solution that has gained widespread popularity as a primary network security solution for organisations

By Sunil Sharma, Vice President – India & SAARC, Cyberoam

UTM is the evolution of the traditional firewall into an all-inclusive security product able to perform multiple security functions within one single appliance – network firewalling, network intrusion prevention and gateway antivirus, content filtering, data leak prevention, and on-appliance reporting. Tech-savvy institutions with large networks are well-versed with the security issues that create nuisance on day to day basis. Addressing the security issues, there are many institutions in India and abroad that has installed Cyberoam UTM solution.

Need for network security
While the Internet facilitates speedy communication and easy access to information, it can also be the conduit for a variety of malevolent attacks on the networks of educational institutions through intentional or unintentional access to inappropriate resources. A popular research across the industry suggests that students in educational institutes spend a considerable amount of time in non-productive Internet activities in absence of a strong  comprehensive network security solution.
According to a Cyberoam survey, for an assumed corpus, which includes both revenues and funding, it was found that almost 35 percent of the corpus was lost due to indiscriminate surfing, spam incidences, virus, network intrusion, and downtime. Indiscriminate surfing claimed a major portion at a whopping 14 percent. Others that caused major financial losses included spam at 12 percent, virus at five percent, network intrusion around nine percent and downtime one percent.
This was highly indicative of the surfing pattern of the students and the institute staff.

Cyberoam UTM protection
Cyberoam’s extensive website database and highly granular identity-based policies protect students from accessing inappropriate content by blocking or filtering web access based on work profiles. In educational institutions and libraries where multiple students and faculty access the Internet over shared machines, Cyberoam UTM protection identifies student activity by the user name instantly, enabling institutions to easily monitor online activities, which is not possible with IP-address based solutions.
This way, Cyberoam prevents students, faculty and administration from accessing inappropriate matter online and protects them while they are online. Cyberoam provides continuous monitoring through centralised management to build a pattern of usage and adjust policies accordingly to offer long-term safe internet practices.
Cyberoam’s content filtering carries predefined CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) templates that include categories like adult content, drugs, violence, computer security and more, allowing institutions to implement Cyberoam CIPA policies immediately on deployment.

Effective monitoring
Cyberoam installations have helped curb the Internet misuse while providing insights into usage patterns of users. The faculty, administration and others constantly share the machine with the students and in many cases indulge in non-productive surfing like – cricket score, bill payment, online banking and shopping. Especially when security solutions stop short of identifying the actual user and traces threat only till IP address, the students are put to blame, which is not the correct picture.
Cyberoam has been installed in reputed educational organisations with long standing credentials in the field. More than 45 percent of educational institutes using network security solutions use Cyberoam. Reputed universities like IIT Gandhinagar, Symbiosis, Delhi University, AIIMS, Mumbai University are some of our esteemed clientele in education segment.