By Jaivardhan Varshney

Technology in a classroom should focus on enriching learning without compromising on any of the three types of interactions involved in the learning process

The rapid development of computer and Internet technologies has dramatically increased the ways of teaching and learning. From the typical classroom to online courses – all learning processes are witnessing changes. However, most of such technologies are finding it difficult to merge seamlessly with the pen and paper method of learning. Before we understand the importance of interactivity lets broadly classified learning interactions under three categories: i) learner-instructor, ii) learner-learner, and iii) learner-content.

With advent of smart boards and online content, classrooms are witnessing a change, though not the one we would like to see. The content gets played on the smart boards. Though it may help the school to standardise the content, the teacher gets marginalised and the learning flow gets compromised leading to a lot of to and fro between the content and the teacher, when actually the interactions should be more between the teacher and students.

Moreover, the learner-learner interaction also gets impacted to a large effect. Students fail to learn from amongst themselves. The class assumes a shape of lecture based learning rather than a discussion based one.

Thanks to Anoto’s dot-patterned digital pen and paper technology, classrooms are getting efficient without losing the golden touch – the touch of pen and paper. The education solutions built around this technology are capable of capturing everything students write with digital pens on their paper notebooks and show it on an interactive whiteboard in front of the class. The content so displayed can be used as a basis for discussions.

The entire classroom progress is digitally saved and stored along with audio so that teachers can continue from where they left or playback classes. This solution allows to save individual student’s work, and track progress seamlessly and effectively.

All this to bring the focus back on learning, where it should always remain. These solutions enrich the overall learning process by:

• Encouraging discussion-based learning
• Enhancing students’ attention in class
• Leading to increased content retention

The teacher is able to carry out oneon- one interaction in a classroom setup where all the content is saved digitally. Automatic Test Administration and Grading frees up teachers’ time to focus on teaching. All this is achieved with simple pen and paper technology that does not require teachers or students to change their habits. Nor do they have to undergo extensive training on using the solutions.

Technology in a classroom should focus on enriching learning without compromising on any of the three types of interactions involved in the learning process. And that can be achieved only when the level of interaction remains as high as it was before implementing the technological solutions, if not less.

(The author is the Chief Operating Officer of Xcallibre India. He can be reached at jai@xcallibre.com)

One of the biggest challenges of the 21st century is to bridge the digital divide that exists in the world population. Most new technological inventions and gadgets are primarily focused on the developed first-world populations which have the purchasing power for such innovations and services. Billions of people are still without access to Internet, which is now being considered a human
right in the Western world. Datawind believes that its products and technology are a solution to this problem.

Datawind Accolades

• Shiksha Ratna Award by digital LEARNING State Education Summit 2013
• UK’s Most Innovative Mobile Company Award – 2012, by UK Trade & Investment, a government department
• Datawind CEO honoured as “Entrepreneur of Year 2012” by The Sikh Directory, London
• CNBC TV 18 and Mercedez Benz “Young Turks Innovation of Year” Award 2011
• Datawind founders received the “Technology Achievement Award” by the Indo-Canadian Chamber of Commerce presented by the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, Joseph Oliver, and ICCC President, Satish Thakkar (Toronto)
• Datawind CEO listed among “Forbes Top 15 Classroom Revolutionaries List” for Education Innovation

Datawind has broken this price barrier by creating an Internet-capable device, which costs the equivalent of a typical week’s salary in India, about `2,500. Datawind’s products are built around its breakthrough web-delivery platform, covered by 18 US patents, which reduces network load and delivers a fast and efficient web experience on today’s congested mobile networks. The content delivery is accelerated by factors of 10x to 30x – resulting in a superior mobile web experience at a lower cost. Rich web content can be now be downloaded at a fraction of usual costs. Datawind products will be delivering anytime, anywhere Internet access to its users for `99 monthly unlimited data plan over GPRS networks. This means users all over India will be able to get online anywhere they get a cell phone signal (added Wi-Fi functionality, if you are at a hotspot). Additionally, the device can also be used as a cell phone to make phone calls. This opens the door for creating custom solutions for India’s population that has been left out till now, but will be joining the Internet age. It decreases the disparity of education through technology among the less developed nations, therefore, bridging the digital divide between gender, income and age group. Intended to empower a better quality of education through affordable devices and mobile access, Datawind’s Aakash/UbiSlate tablets deliver the power of billions of web pages of content and communication to students anytime and everywhere.

Datawind has been named a finalist for the Global Mobile Awards 2012 (GSMA) in the category for the Best Mobile Innovation for Education. Datawind’s innovative solution at breakthrough pricing was chosen from six hundred applicants, and this recognition validates the critical need to break the affordability barrier for devices and network access in bridging the digital divide in the developing world.

This technological innovation of developing a sustainable business model and market potential also links strongly to institutional systems like virtual learning environments and Management Information Systems.

Datawind’s innovative products have brought the attention of the world to the possibility of creating a sustainable business solution to  cater to the underserved sections of the global society. Enabling users to have Internet access over GPRS networks at high speeds on an affordable data plan is a revolutionary phenomenon which can bring the next billion users into the Internet age.

By Anil Goyal, Director, Mexus Education

Technological innovations in education are set to revolutionise the traditional labs in schools. The new generation, future digital labs seek to re-invent the pedagogy and learning experience

Although India is trying its best to bring as many children as possible under the fold of education, issues relating to the quality of pedagogy employed, and not to mention the ineffective teaching infrastructure, continue to produce halfbaked results. Our traditional rote-based education system has been inadequate in nurturing students’ inherent curiosity and quest for exploring knowledge. Going forward, this has made them ill-equipped for the dynamic work-situations of today that require application of knowledge for out-of-the-box, resourceful and instant decision-making.

As the business environment becomes increasingly dynamic and competitive, the gap between industry expectations and skills is widening. This situation cannot be salvaged with late stage interventions through learning programmes and trainings; skills need to be developed from the very beginning with the help of newage labs. Clearly, if the present stock of students had a learning experience better suited for a hyper-competitive, every changing work environment that encouraged independent assimilation, reasoning and innovation, India’s workforce would have been radically different today.

The missing elements

School laboratories are not a new or breakthrough concept in the Indian schooling system. Whether public or private, schools were always required to house science labs at higher secondary levels. Of course, the adequacy of these labs is questionable, since they largely depend upon how well schools were funded. Essentially, the significance of ‘practicals’ or experiential learning has always been recognised in our system, if not applied in spirit. The idea that each child is unique and that a combination of learning methodologies reaching out to all seven learning orientations is required for learning, can revolutionise Indian schooling today. A complete learning system by complementing classroom learning practices with engagement through activities is the master key to unlock the minds of all children by infusing interest and interactivity into an experiential mode of learning.

Experiencing lessons first-hand augments curiosity among children about why things are the way they are; a much more effective method of learning than spoon-feeding them with knowledge. Through hands-on activities and by putting theory to practice, students can gain knowledge of subjects, and understand their relevance with improved retention and recall. There are several schools in India with high-tech laboratories which team up with existing infrastructure in schools to reinvent pedagogies, with surprising results.

Bringing the change

More and more schools are now taking up experiential activities through ‘Digitised Activity Lab’ sessions to educate students that study between grades 4 and 9. These labs facilitate activity-based learning aided by audio-visual and kinesthetic simulation, which motivates, involves and connects with students in process of learning through interactivity.

The sessions complement instructions on subjects taught in class and do not upset classroom learning, thereby allowing students to revise theoretical concepts in a meaningful manner. In addition to hundreds of practical sessions, labs are also an avenue through which children can access learning resources, tools, kits and activities that schools do not generally provide.

These labs fundamentally serve the purpose of development of a scientific temperament among children, by encouraging them to explore new concepts through investigation and reasoning. Previously, the responsibility of imparting education was shouldered solely by teachers and quality lapses occurred when they could not live up to what was expected of them. The virtue of experiential learning is that students are now responsible for how much they learn; and they will, because learning has been made fun and interesting. The time invested by teachers in reiteration of concepts can be invested qualitatively in strengthening fundamentals by means of experiential learning.

The labs facilitate schools to grab and retain the interest of students in Science and Technology by allowing them to experiment scientific theories and knowhow for problem solving through project-based activities leading to early development of ‘Design Thinking’.

Conclusion

By enhancing teaching methods to incorporate experiential education, it is possible to ensure better outcomes in terms of reality-orientation and employability of students, by motivating them to pursue science and technology oriented fields in the future. Experiential learning through modern-age labs is perfectly poised to prepare solution seeking, industry-ready professionals contributing to the intellectual wealth of the country.

Prof (Dr) Louis Vernal

• Member – National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), Western Region

• Education Consultant – Learning Links Foundation Delhi, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Goa

• Former Dean, Faculty of Education & Chairman, Board of Studies in Education, Goa University

There is a need to expand the vocational education and training programmes in the country to reap the benefits of the demographic dividend, says Prof (Dr) Louis Vernal

Secondary Education

Education is the key to the task of nation- building. It is also a well-accepted fact that providing the right knowledge and skills to the youth can ensure the overall progress and economic growth of a country. The Report of the Education Commission (Kothari, 1964-66), titled ‘Education and National Development’, set a number of goals to be pursued. One of them was to vocationalise secondary education.

The National Vocational Education Mission includes the establishment of 1,600 new industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new skill development centres to ensure that annually, over 100 lakh students get vocational training. There is thus, a need to expand the Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes to reap the advantage of the demographic dividend of the country and to fulfil the aspirations and right of the youth to gainful employment and contribute to national productivity.

The total annual training capacity of VET programmes thus offered is estimated to be about 25 lakh. There also centrally-sponsored schemes of vocationalisation of secondary education which includes establishment of 1,000 polytechnics in the country under the government, PPP and private models. Jan Shikshan Sansthan and Craftsmen training are other schemes.

About 90 percent of employment opportunities require vocational skills, which is not being imparted on a large scale to students. The major reforms proposed for bringing about necessary ‘flexibility’ in the offering of vocational courses and development of ‘modular competency-based curricula’ in collaboration with industry to suit the needs of both target groups and the employers (industry), will be useful in reducing the shortage of skilled manpower. The corner stone of a vocational framework would be the close partnership and collaboration with the industry/potential employers at all stages: identification of courses, content development, training and provision of resource persons, assessment, accreditation, certification and placement.

A National Policy on Skill Development has been formulated by the Ministry of Labour & Employment and which has been approved by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 23rd February, 2009. The objective is to create a workforce empowered with improved skills, knowledge and internationally-recognised qualifications to gain access to decent employment and ensure India’s competitiveness in the dynamic global labour market. It aims at increasing the productivity of workforce both in the organised and the unorganised sectors, seeking increased participation of youth, women, disabled and other disadvantaged sections and to synergise efforts of various sectors and reform the present system.

Higher Education

Workforce in India

With elementary becoming universal in India, secondary education is targeted in the next phase. Higher education will take time to be transformed into a mass education initiative. At present, India has more than 15,000 colleges with about 10 million students. More than two-thirds of these colleges are Arts, Science, Commerce and Management (18 percent) and oriental learning colleges. The recent growth is much greater in professional colleges especially engineering, management and medicine as well as in private vocational courses, catering especially to the IT sector. There are over 1,250 medical colleges.A major concern echoed by both the industry and the academic community is that India has stock of some 22 million graduates, including six million science graduates, 1.2 million with engineering degrees and 600,000 doctors, according to the data compiled by the Economic Times Intelligence Group, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and other industry sources. This population is growing rapidly, with over 2.5 million graduates added every year, including 25,000 doctors, 350,000 engineers and over 600,000 science graduates and post-graduates. Yet, at any given time, about five million graduates remain unemployed.As per a McKinsey report, 73 million workers are needed by 2015: 50 percent more than today in the automobile and electronic sectors.Collaboration between educational institutions and industry is vital for producing capable and employable workforce. The courses and their transaction should be tuned to the real-world requirements to increase the employability quotient for the students. The influx of a variety of global organisations have their own set of benchmarks and additional requirements are needed such as analytical ability, communication and people skills, technical proficiency, creative thinking and leadership competency, social media.

Pranab K Bose, Managing Director, Waterford Institute India, shares how Waterford Early Learning is empowering both the teachers and the students

Please tell us about your digital lab solutions.

Our comprehensive early learning suite, Waterford Early Learning, comprises of Waterford Early Reading and Waterford Early Maths and Science programmes, which includes English language, Math and Science curricula; early literacy assessment; and innovative teacher tools that provide a richer learning experience that inspires and empowers both the children and educators alike.

How do the programmes help learners?

Waterford Early Reading Programme provides a complete digital language arts programme that has created dramatic results for young learners across the country. Systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, text comprehension, vocabulary, print concepts, readiness skills, writing, and oral fluency provide a comprehensive foundation for English language learning.

Waterford Early Math and Science Programme provides a comprehensive early Math programme with instructions in the five big ideas of early Math: numbers and operations, geometry, algebra, measurement, and data analysis. The programme also emphasises exploration and the scientific method through an integrated science curriculum that covers earth, life, and physical science.

Please tell us about the benefits that the programme offers to the students.

Because Waterford Early Learning assumes no background knowledge and automatically individualises instruction, it has been proven to help a wide range of students to achieve academic success, including: Preschool through grade 2, response to Intervention differentiated tiers, English language learners, at-risk students, advanced students, and special education (IEP) students

Please shed light on your tie-up with academic institutions to extend the reach of the programme.

Yes, institutes and schools including the Aga Khan Education, Sujaya Foundation, Children’s Academy, Chennai Public School, Gudecha Academy, Chitkara International, Sneh International, Hills Nursery, and Klay Schools are using the programme.

Please tell us about the infrastructure required to set up a digital lab.

Typically, a digital lab includes a networked lab with a central server and client nodes (as per the requirement of the school) complete with microphones, and headphones etc. The application software and media (content repository) would reside on the server and the student application software in the client nodes.

Please share with us your future plans.

The next version of our programme, which is slated to be released this year, would involve the application server residing in the Cloud. This will result in reduced cost of acquisition for the customer.

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.

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

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.

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.