Dr Manjula Goswami, Principal, Millennium School, Lucknow, shares her views on the deployment of new ICT enabled learning infrastructure at the school to Sharmila Das

www.themillenniumschools.com

How has ICT helped you to achieve success in education field?

ICT can be used to great effect to improve understanding and performance in the target subject and to improve both learning and ways of learning. ICT has helped our teachers and students to develop as better and more informed personalities. We have Educomp Technology enabled Classrooms with maximum number of Smart Class and various other technology enabled products like Mathguru, Educomp online, Wiziq, SAS, O3, CMPC etc.

What kind of response do your high-tech education solutions see from students, teachers and also from the parents?

We have got amazing response from students and parents. Students who did not take interest earlier in studies are keen  to learn through Smartclass. This has really improved the results. We also invite parents to demonstrate the Smartclass way of teaching. Parents appreciate this technology and very often adults want to repeat their school days with the new age tools.

Do the solution providers help you in setting up the infrastructure?

Yes, they provide all the infrastructure and installation. Their technical and e– learning coordinators provide regular trouble-shooting support. In case of any problem in an ongoing class, a teacher can call the coordinator for immediate help. A Smart Class register is maintained in all departments / staffrooms wherein all complaints are registered by teachers on a regular basis. These are resolved on a daily basis. A report on usage, troubleshooting and all areas of concern is mailed on a daily basis by the IT Coordinators.

What kind of challenges do teachers face while dealing with Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system?

The CCE has been very thoughtfully designed after considerable research and as a motive to reduce the stress /pressure of board examinations for students. As change is the only constant, this kind of a change was sought in the education system. The CCE emphasis on Life Skill development, deployment of a variety of modes of evaluation and the clearly marked stress on Co-Scholastic development of students is the need of the hour. Young learners of the present generation clearly need an education system geared to prepare them for the challenges facing them in the 21st century. However, the CCE may not always be successful at its aim of reducing the stress for students and educators alike:

• Change in any system, as all-pervasive as the CBSE in India’s school education, is bound to happen in phases and thus, the CCE is still in a state of flux, to a great extent. Changes in syllabi etc. add to the stress level of students. Thus, these should be communicated well ahead of the beginning of the academic sessions for the board classes. The communication procedures amidst schools and the CBSE definitely need to be more transparent, quick and effective.
• The Rubrics that need to be designed for the evaluation of Life Skill assessments are very tedious and difficult to achieve for teachers not adequately trained to create the same.
• With no reduction, on the contrary, increase in the syllabus to be covered, there is very little time left for proper development of Co-Scholastic activities within school hours.

What is your take on CBSE guidelines for CCE?

The CCE is a very well-researched and needed change in the education system. However, like most major changes, it shall take some time to move on from the state of flux to becoming a seamless new structure. Thus, the flow of information from CBSE to the schools needs to be wellorganised.

• The Inclusion of Life-skills and the emphasis on Co-scholastic development of students is a praiseworthy effort by the CBSE.
• The inclusion of Disaster Management in Social Studies is also a good addition, but it should be allocated more marks so that it is conducted seriously in schools.
• To reduce the pressure on students, the syllabus and marks allocated for Summative assessments can be reduced. Some sections can be evaluated through research-based learning techniques. For instance, students may conduct some real-time research and prepare dissertations. There can be viva-voce etc. on these. This shall go a long way at reducing the stress of an extensive syllabus to be prepared for an exam.
• The CCE can include some skill development trainings for teachers so that educators can be empowered enough to accept and adapt to the varied changes in the education environment and to understand the changing needs of young learners.

What is your strategy to emphasise the need of sports development in the overall education of the student?

Sports are an integral part of the education system.

Apart from the regular Sports fitness and Swimming classes, the school offers students a choice between various sports to be played regularly during their co-Curricular activity periods. The student may choose between Basket Ball, Foot Ball, Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, Badminton, Skating, Cricket and Shooting. Specialized trainers are engaged to train students on their chosen sport. Indoor Games like Chess, Scrabble and Carom are also available for students who prefer these. However, outdoor activities are compulsory. Yoga is an integral part of the daily assembly at the school. Regular  Health checkups are conducted and students are trained about their general well-being and hygiene on a regular basis.

What kind of sports assessment system the school has?

Sports evaluation is a part of the Report card in each term. The students are individually marked on Sporting Skill, Team Spirit and Interest. The report card also includes a detail of the students’ Height, weight, Vision, Oral Hygiene and reflexes. Yoga is a special skill area on which the students earn Co-Scholastic grades in CCE.

Can you give us an overview of the solutions that you are using in examination and assessment in your school?

We are using smart class SAS system. It includes software, hardware receiver and remotes. The remotes are distributed among the students and with the help of SAS software, a questionnaire is displayed on the Smart board through projector
with some options (MCQs). All students are required to push the correct option with the help of remotes. This activity is captured by the receiver. The Smartclass assessment software displays the correct answers student-wise and also compiles the results. This is time-saving for teachers and interesting for students. Moreover, with the SAS generated graphic analysis we directly come to know the areas of improvement to focus upon. The ‘O3’ technology, which connects the teacher’s laptop with students’ CMPCs, is also used for evaluations of soft copy assignments like PowerPoint Presentations. These may be assigned as group or individual work. While the presentations can be evaluated through Rubrics, the content can be accessed through direct O3 (One-On-One) data sharing basis.

How the challenges of traditional examination methodology are overcome by the introduction of ICT?

Compilation of assessment data is always an arduous task at hand for teachers. Thus, we have data management software to support the same. A Database management system for compilation of CCE and other evaluation marks and the printing of report cards is provided to the teachers who can enter the marks obtained and the skill-based grades get generated as per the percentage allocations defined by MLS and CBSE. The SAS is also used as an evaluation tool after each chapter.

Norina Fernandes, Principal of Smt Lilavatibai Podar High School leaves no stone unturned in ensuring that the school delivers the best ICT based learning experience to students. Shares her insight to Sharmila Das.

How has ICT helped you to achieve the targeted quantum of success?

The ICT e-content has been generated in Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School (LPSSS) to supplement both teaching
and learning and we have been the pioneer for the same. We have won the best ICT enable school. All our classrooms are fitted with ICT, ‘Starboard’, from (STD I to XII).

We have achieved our targeted quantum of success after six years, with all our stakeholders very comfortable. All our e-content is developed in-house in our IT hub where academicians, technologist and IT media managers coordinate and work on the syllabus for the subject assigned. The content gradation is done timely and in-sync with the latest technologies. [Smart boards, Visualiser].

The School Heads review the lecture produced and certify its correctness academically. The lectures for each subject comprise of objectives, subject mapping, summary, text, case studies, FAQs, videos to enhance learning (eg movie clips for English, Hindi language and Marathi language) and audio (use of songs to teach concepts in language), assignments, quiz, tutorials, references, glossary, links, blogs, contacts.

How do you train your teachers to adopt e-content in your classes?

We have regular weekend training programmes to ensure that teachers are comfortable in using the required e-tools. Training sessions are held to refresh teachers on the effective use of Star board and subject wise. A hands-on training is then followed to monitor the teacher’s competencies with ICT. Teachers are then asked to prepare presentation on topics in subjects that they tech to check their command with ICT and effective usage in the classroom. Mock lessons sessions are held to make the teacher comfortable with its use. All their lessons include exercise, simulation,
questionnaire, diagrams, graphs, index, tables, narrative text, exam, experiment, problem statement, self assessment and lecture. Both our student-teacher and student-parent community have a positive outlook.

Give us an example of using e-Content system that has solved your students’ issues.

The biggest problem that learners have with Shakespeare’s plays in their inability to understand a play by reading it. Our teachers felt that the plays were meant to be seen and not read to bring about deeper understanding of the period in which it was written. To approach Shakespeare’s complex languages, teachers at LPSSS us a multimedia approach in our classroom, watching a particular scene from a particular act on one screen and then reading the text of the play on screen. The pedagogical approach serves both as a model for teaching Shakespeare and as a site for discussion of the various ways to teach Shakespeare. The use of multi media has erased the fear of discussion of the various ways of teaching Shakespeare. The use of multimedia has erased the fear of learning classics like Shakespeare and his works. It also creates opportunities and develops strategies that permit students to demonstrate through their own work, the influence of language and visual images on thinking and composing like minded matter.

What is your strategy to emphasise the need of sports development in the overall education of the student?

A sport has a critical role to play to improve the lives of people. Sports builds bridges between individuals and across communities providing fertile groups for sowing the seed of development and peace. At LPSSS we understand the need and importance of physical and mental health of our students. The regular Time Table offers our students weekly two periods of

• PT
• Aerobics
• Yoga

Besides this the school encourages and coaches our students in many sporting events like Table Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Cricket, Football, Chess, Swimming, and Gymnastics. LPSSS students participating in interschool sporting events at the state and national level.

Can you tell us the nature of investment the school has made in the sports infrastructure.

At a distance of three furlongs from the school building, we have Podar Sport Academy and ground, where students are taken regular for their Physical Education Class and coached for athletics cricket, football, basketball, table tennis, and throw ball. Indoor sporting activities like gymnastics, karate, chess, carom, table tennis and skating are also taken care off.

What kind of challenges do teachers face while dealing with CCE system?

Introduction of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation has bought about a sea-change in the classroom. The main aspect of this change is the fact that assessment has become an integral part of the teaching-learning process.

There are not many challenges with regard the CCE system as we have seen a progressive growth curve with its introduction. The one off area of challenge in this system is dealing with student absenteeism. Especially with long sick leaves where the student has missed out on a whole concept.

The other challenge teachers face while dealing with CCE system is that they have to be on the go all the time. They have to continuously upgrade themselves and assess themselves. It also requires all teachers to be more interactive and have a sound knowledge of the students as applied to the various Bloom’s Taxonomy Process. Understanding and knowing every student should now be their priority.

What is your take on CBSE guidelines for CCE?

CBSE introduced the CCE Scheme for doing a holistic assessment of a learner which also includes co scholastic area of Life Skills, Attitudes and Values, Sports and Games as well as Co-Curricular activities. The CCE scheme aims at addressing
this in a holistic manner.

At LPSSS we do not outsource for any assistive software for CCE. We have our own well planned formative and summative evaluation throughout the year incorporated within the e-report card developed by our own IT Centre. For 2012, we are taking the Detailed Assessment Program offered by Educational Initiatives, Ahmedabad they will be conducting at least 12 Formatives for the students, working jointly with our teachers on the lines of the syllabus covered. Being the first year, we have opted for only Std VI, VII and VIII for this program.

No doubt CCE can help in citing or learning problems and corrections/remedial for individuals, but the biggest challenge of the CCE is the grading system. The student scoring 90 marks and 99 marks will both score A – so it may seem unfair for some students.

Also a huge pool of students will be grouped together. A scenario emerges where all students scoring say above 91 per cent in all subjects will have the same cumulative grading. How can one rank them? The grading system may actually lead to more stress and disincentive to performance for many. Though with CCE, we are able to identify progress of students at regular time intervals on small portions of content.

Aarati S Mhasawade, Principal, Secondary School, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), Pune, has tested the water before implementing ICT aided teaching system in her school

How has e-content been helping you?

School has very recently completed the implementation of the e-contents for K-12 state board curriculum, computer skills contents and spoken english contents provided by Guruji World Technologies Pvt. Ltd. under ICT@School project Phase II, Maharashtra.

e-Contents implemented by GurujiWorld are as per syllabus of state board and easy to learn so teachers and students are enjoying the new ICT based learning approach.

What are the problematic areas you have come across in deploying e-Content?

School was lacking in infrastructure which was required for the implementation of digital learning. In this regard we have
received lot of help from Director of Education (Secondary & Higher Secondary). Government has provided us basic infrastructure such as hardware, projectors, lab infrastructure along with full time instructor for the period of 5 years to run this project successfully.

How do you train your teachers to adopt e-Content in your classes?

Solution providers have trained the instructors to adopt econtents in classes. Students and teachers are excited to have e-contents in school. Teachers are willingly using e-contents in classes. They found it attention-grabbing and effective with a student centric approach. Now a day’s parents are aware of e-learning and its benefits so they are evenly happy.

Give us an example of using e-Content system that has solved your students’ issues.

E-contents have been beneficial for our students as e-contents facilitate them and keep them engage during the classes. Instead of traditional teaching methods in classrooms, students are exposed to the advanced digital learning tools and e-contents repository. Students are also provided with World Wide Web in labs to prepare them for the competitive persona and know-how attitude.

Can you give us an overview of the solutions that you are using in examination and assessment in your school?

Along with the traditional method of assessments, our solution provider has also incorporated e-assessments at the end of the every chapter for all the subjects. This is an innovative solution and subject teachers can carry out oral assessments or select the chapters and carry out a mock assessment for those particular chapters. Students also get their results instantly after finishing the exam.

Tell us about your solution providers.

HCL and Guruji World are our solution providers for hardware and software respectively. We are very happy with the services which we are getting from our service providers.

How the challenges of traditional examination methodology are overcome by the introduction of modern ICT solutions?

We were facing challenges with traditional methods of examination and assessments. We tried to overcome these challenges by using tools offered by solution providers. Solution providers have given handy assessments with each chapter which is very useful for students as well as teachers. Though multiple choice questions, they are very effective and evaluation is easier and accurate, subjective questions are also equally essential and should be obligatory for students to enhance their creative and ingenious minds.

Mamta Gupta, Principal, Shiksha Bharti School, feels her school is yielding good results because of ICT aided educations system. She talks to Sharmila Das.

How has ICT helped you to achieve the targeted quantum of success?

ICT is very much helpful. It’s an audio visual medium and through visualization children get more information. Even it’s a good experience for the teachers as well. When teachers show the text content on board, it becomes the better means of understanding. Through e-content teaching has become easier. With very less time we can correct the things in no time.

We have got our solutions from Educomp Digital learning process and it is indeed very helpful for the teachers and for the students. Teachers find it very helpful. In the beginning, there were few problems but as the teachers learnt the how-tos involved they are feeling it more convenient. Rather than pen and paper students are showing more interest to learn their lessons. Retaining knowledge also gets better, when they see the content visually.

What are the problematic areas you have come across in deploying e-Content?

Last year when I attended your World Education Summit (WES) I realised that all my teachers should be computer trained. Furthering this, I had asked my computer teachers to teach computer to other teachers and he did. Then I made
it compulsory for every teacher to type the Unit Test questions on their own, later on I also asked them to prepare PPT presentation of the contents they are going to teach in the classes. So that was the beginning. Although in the first phase, teachers came to my room and told me that it is not possible for them to learn computers. Some of them even complained that these things were not mentioned at the time of appointment. I counseled them patiently and when they were convinced, they took help of their children to learn computer. Some of them taught it from outside computer training institutes, and from our computer teachers alike.

Later on when they learnt to operate computers, they brought the PPT to me and commented this is the better way of teaching, because maximum syllabus can be covered with lesser time. Naturally, understanding is also better. So my teachers got interested and they wanted to prepare the PPTs for the next session as well. I welcomed their efforts and they prepared the contents willingly. That was a very successful start and I got appreciation from the parental community and my students were also very happy with the change. The school management also was delighted with the digital learning process and the outcome.

Give us an example of using e-Content system that has solved your students’ issues.

I will cite the example of our History classes, as we know History is a dull subject. So when we started teaching History classes with the help of e-content, the students were enlightened. They came up with the feedback that History classes are no more boring.

Challenges do teachers face while dealing with Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)?

It is very challenging for the teachers; CCE recommends observing students behavior. Sometime I feel, the students are not behaving the real way, they are actually pretending to be something else in front of the teachers. Reasons could be fear or earning good grades. So this is the problem with CCE. To deal this problem I counsel my teachers to counsel the students to be honest and not to be diplomatic.

What is your take on CBSE guidelines for CCE?

I welcome CCE and through CCE I have come to know that every child is special and through CCE I realised that if any student is not good in studies it does not mean that he/she is good for nothing.

CBSE guidelines are okay; only thing is that CBSE is more conservative, they advocate pen-paper examination. So I would like to have more CCE.

CBSE has fulfilled all my expectations but few things are there which are still not cleared in the parental mind about the grading system. CCE has given a wide range of grading system that says from 91-100 per cent it is A- 1 and from 81to 9o, it is A-2. The range should be minimised. I expect CBSE to change this grading system.

Digi-content has been yielding good results for its adopters feels Anshul Sonak, President – Corporate, Core Education and Technologies Ltd

Your take on the level of e-Content adoption by Indian schools.

The education fraternity is fast becoming aware of the importance of content support and gradually adopting the same. It is only a matter of time for the school management community completely adopting the e content based education system. Also with adoption of new technology tools like 3d and tablets for 1:1 virtual education is increasing the e-content adoption

What kind of solution you provide to schools.

Core enables collaboration and best practice teaching methods within schools, local education authorities and school clusters. We offer developed content in collaboration with University of Oxford to enhance instructional capabilities and classroom efficiency, lesson and attendance control.

Challenges faced in convincing school management about the benefits of e-content.

Earlier there was a general apathy to advanced technologies in education but now the situation is different with the state and public both understanding the need for contextualizing education for revamping the education system in India.

In your opinion, why should every school go for e-content learning system?

Every school should focus on 21st century education transformation goals to make their students better poised to succeed in new world we are in. A strong research driven content coupled with whole school reform philosophy and strong teacher quality focus will be very critical for any change.

Your best selling e-Content solution for schools; kind of innovations for future use.

We have leadership solutions in research driven STEM, literacy and career tech content besides cognitive growth solutions and formative assessment tools that we deploy worldwide including India. We are also enhancing our e-content portfolio by introducing more gesture based computing content solutions, immersive 3d content, advanced STEM solutions.

Rupesh Shah, CEO of InOpen Technologies feels the reach of digital learning is yet to touch rural schools although the prospect is magnificent

Your take on the level of e-Content adoption by Indian schools.

The concept of e-learning in India is in early stages and may not exactly be spreading like wild fire in many parts of the country, especially in rural India. However, as a mode of teaching and learning, it has seen an increasing use in urban educational institutions. In cities, the use of computers and audio visuals is being extensively promoted to get the children better versed with the lessons taught in the classroom.

Kind of solution you provide to schools.

InOpen has been serving K-12 market with the flagship product ‘Computer Masti’ and newly introduced Science curriculum called ‘Small Science’. We offer IT literacy solutions to government bodies and corporate. We make tailor made curriculum using Computer Masti for K-12 segment. The execution starts through training the existing IT faculty and setting up the computer lab. We design a series of handhold visits where faculty from InOpen visits the schools to do capacity building exercise and solve issues arising out of implementation.

Challenges faced in convincing school management about the benefits of e-content.

Most of the present efforts like government policies, public private partnerships are directed to ensure initial access to technology. One of the major challenges is renewing licenses of the software and providing hardware support. In this regard, if free and open source applications are actively used, this would help keep the total cost of implementation low and make good use of the old systems.

Your best selling e-Content solution for schools; kind of innovations for future use.

We intend to supply the highest quality of content and training in all major subjects for schools. We will launch the following econtent services: a) Launch CM 2.0, b) InOpen’s CM Everywhere Initiative, c) We are working on e-learning modules and different platforms which would help us attain scale and large audience.

Abhinav Dhar, Director- K12, Educomp Solutions Ltd says the Indian education sectors  as travelled a long way from chalk and talk to smart classes

Your take on the level of e-Content adoption by Indian schools.

Indian education sector is today among the fastest growing in the world. There are close to 15 lakhs government schools and 1 lakh private schools in the country. Out of this, only 7-10 percent of the private schools have tapped the potential of multimedia classroom teaching whereas in government schools, it has barely made any inroads.

Kind of solution you provide to schools.

Educomp Smartclass is today the largest player in the digital content solutions space. We provide complete solution to the school- from hardware to India’s largest repository of high quality digital content. A knowledge centre manned by Educomp resource coordinator is set up in each school to help teachers on a daily basis. Total support is provided in upkeep and maintenance.

Challenges faced in convincing school management about the benefits of e-content.

When we launched Smartcalss back in 2004, it was the first of its kind digital content solutions for schools and as with most pioneering initiatives, did meet with some reservations. Schools needed to be convinced about its effectiveness and teacher community too was hesitant to adopt technology alongside the tried and tested chalk and talk method.

Your best selling e-Content solution for schools; kind of innovations for future use.

Smartclass CTS, the new avatar of the popular Smartclass program is an amazingly versatile, rich-on-technology innovation, which will make every teaching-learning session much the more stimulating, interactive, enlightening Educomp will continue to innovate and create new products that will enhance a student’s educational experience.