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St Xavier’s group of Schools Opt for digitisation

March 13, 2012

Mexus Education has partnered with St. Xavier’s group of Schools in Uttar Pradesh to complement the learning environment and philosophy of the Group. These schools have opted for technology integration to further leverage the creativity of students by creating a complete learning environment. This partnership would complement the learning system that offers adequate opportunity to every learner to avail quality education transcending textbook education..

All the 45 schools of The Group spread over Varanasi, Allahabad, Lucknow and other areas in Uttar Pradesh have opted for digitisation through partnership with Mexus. These schools have opted for complete school solutions including Iken Library for a digital classroom, Iken Evaluate for remote-based objective test, Iken Learning Labs to introduce hands-on conceptual understanding. This partnership would build upon the learning standards by supporting teachers to teach the concepts in the classroom with the help of interesting animations, videos, real-life concept applications that enhance involvement of students in the lessons.

Speaking about the partnership, Anil Goyal, Director; Mexus Education said “The ultimate objective of education is to prepare students for the rapidly changing and thereby unpredictable economy and jobs. Mexus Education works with schools across India to ensure that all children have access to effective education. Engaging contexts, activities and content formats of new education create an experience in itself. Partnership with St. Xavier’s Group of Schools is a milestone in taking the technology-education integration to the grass-roots.”

Sandeep Kumar, Director, St. Xavier’s Group of Schools adds “Channeling students as they grow would ensure that the country grows in the long run. Our learning practices supported by Iken School Ecosystem will orient children to use their creativity and learn with context. Contextual learning gears children to continually find applications of their learning as progress in their careers and life; automatically improving the recall.”

New teaching practices would include supplementing the classroom sessions with the real life, application-based activities in the dedicated experiential lab – the Iken Learning Lab & preparing students to exchange thoughts on global platform with Iken English Lab.

Inopen Technologies,GurujiWorld Join hands to Create Digital Content

digitalLEARNING Network

March 13, 2012

Inopen Technologies create alliance with GurujiWorld to provide digital based e-content at schools that will offer Inopen and GurujiWorld capacity building opportunities in the space of Computer Education & IT Literacy. Both the companies intend to create a Joint Venture as well as consortiums which will feature products and services from both the companies as agreed in the MoU. They would together work on “Opportunities in the field of Computer Literacy, K12 Education and Technology Based training in ICT and training projects”. The venture will be equally owned by both companies. They will strive to excel and come out with the best in the field of Education Delivery through Technology servicing the Computer Education training needs of various School boards and Government departments.
The JV Company that GurujiWorld and InOpen will create; will work aggressively towards standardization of the IT Literacy curricula in various Schools boards and Government departments. InOpen with IIT Bombay will be providing the academic support and GurujiWorld will be providing its technology support to create innovative lightweight digital contents for new delivery platforms like Tabs/Web/Mobile/iPads, etc.

Girish Prabhu (Founder and CEO GurujiWorld Technologies) said “GurujiWorld firmly believes that India of tomorrow is India which is e-ready at the bottom of the pyramid. For this to happen, the people need access to easy, efficient, relevant and affordable localized e-learning digital contents at their doorstep. To cater to the masses we need to eliminate the language barrier and adapt technology based solutions. This association will help both GurujiWorld & InOpen to achieve the common objective of delivering Quality Computer Education to the masses using innovative technology delivery platforms & digital contents. I and Rupesh have set a target to increase our present user base by minimum 10 percent in the first 6 months of our association. Our major focus will be to create quality IT Literacy digitized contents and work towards standardization of IT Literacy curricula for various School Boards & Adult Education in India with a learner centric approach.”
Rupesh Shah (Co-founder and CEO) said “I am very positive about the partnership with GurujiWorld. Girish and I share the same vision for penetration and adaptability of IT literacy in India. Our combined strength can be useful for large scale projects as well as give us competitive advantage on the existing players.”

digitalLEARNING LABS DIGITAL REALITY : March 2012

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

EDITORIAL
The digitisation of our classrooms

COVER STORY
The Push to Install Technology-rich Labs
By Elets News Network (ENN)

K-12
Concepts + Simulation +Tech = Labs 21st Century + Aptitude

Chemistry Labs Simulating the Lab Experience!

CREATE@Amrita Research Agenda for Educational Technologies for Societal Benefit

Challenges of Implementing Technology into Schools
Veena Raizada, Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd

Quality Education via Digital Medium
Dheeraj Mehrotra, Deputy General Manager (DGM)

PRODUCT PROFILE
Labs on Demand

HIGHER EDUCATION
Virtual Laboratories Perspectives from Higher Education Institutes

“Regulations Need Thorough Review and Appropriate Implementation”
Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH

EVENT REPORT
Learning in the Digital Era Conclave Distance Education Through Online Platform

Enabling Next Gen Innovators in STEM Intel Launches Intel Future Scientist Program in India

Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools

IN CONVERSATION
Online Examination The Game Changer
S Murlidhar, Co-founder and CEO, MeritTrac Services

“CBT is not something you can do overnight”
Fiona Collins, Managing Director, Pearson VUE India

Private School Penetration Increases NIIT’s Revenue
Hemant Sethi, President, School Learning Solutions, NIIT Ltd

“We Don’t Like to Compete, Our Task is to Create Competition”
N Subramanian, MD, TRS Forma

ADVERTORIAL
Breaking the Language Barrier

Introducing 4th Generation English Language Learning
Portable Language Lab

Edaxis LangLab: Integrated teaching of all language skills

ACTUniv (Academy for Computer Training (Guj.) Pvt Ltd

CORPORATE DIARY
‘Robotics’ as the fourth R
Gagan Goyal, CEO, ThinkLABS

INVESTMENT FILE
Sustainable Capitalism in Education

Sustainable Capitalism in Education

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

By Anoop Verma, Elets News Network (ENN)

The investments, even those with so-called profit motive, being made in the education space can be seen as echoing Aesop’s classic fable. After all, the money that goes into education also serves the purpose of protecting the future flow of golden eggs by taking better care of the goose that lays them. This is what the concept of “Sustainable capitalism,” is all about.

The investor forgoes current consumption in order to invest for future returns, not only for himself, but also for the society in general. Theoretically, this is a capitalist virtue. “Short-termism” or what someone might call investment myopia is not a possibility in the education space. Investments made in education usually have a high gestation period; it takes significant about of time before the investment start yielding returns.

The investment angles

Investors are typical moving away from the beaten path while picking up stakes in new or established companies in the education space. In February this year, Dubai-based Varkey Group has increased its stake y to 38.12 percent in Everonn Education. The Varkey Group has also appointed Rakesh Sharma and Dino Varkey as directors on the board.

In a filing with BSE, Everonn said, “Varkey Group has been allotted 2,618,120 shares of Everonn Education through preferential allotment at a price of Rs 528 per share, aggregating to 12 per cent of the post preferential issuance equity capital.” The investment community is of the opinion that the education companies have good long term potential. This why competition seems to be heating up for education companies in India.

Few months back we had the news of Infotel Broadband, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, acquiring 38.5 percent stake in Extramarks Education, a company focused on school education and digital learning, for an undisclosed amount. The statement from RIL declared that the investment in Extramarks had been made through an affiliate company Reliance Strategic Investments.

RIL’s investments in Extramarks are in no way altruistic. The investment has been made with the strategic aim of creating content related value for Infotel, which is the only company in India to have bandwidth for high-speed wireless broadband service across the country. In the mid-2010 auction, Infotel had won spectrum for an approximate cost of 13,000 crores.

But let us see this investment from the point of view of what it might achieve for our educational system. Quality educational content and services will become available to students and teachers through high speed 4G networks. The Extramarks investment might spur similar investments by other telecom service providers leading to a tariff war in the data services industry for education. The ultimate beneficiary of such a tariff war will not be the private companies; it will be the community of students and teachers are going to be the big gainers.

The time of start-ups!

The investments in the education space are flowing in large and small amounts. Few weeks back a technology start-up Carveniche, which has been founded by Infosys engineers Avneet Makkar and Saraswathy A, secured angel funding from Mumbai Angels. Carveniche is in the business of providing content based products and services to schools in the country. It is leveraging cloud technology for delivery of content. We are also having rumours of Mumbai Angels investing in few other start-ups in education.

The company called Edusys was launched in 2004 and it already boasts of a customer base of more than 3,500 companies globally. It supports students in 150 countries and offers courses and tests that span a vast spectrum of conventional and emerging domains of learning and work. The company’s offices are located in USA, UK, Singapore and Australia besides Bangalore and Bhubaneshwar.

In February, Edusys raised $7.5 million (approximately Rs 38 crore) from Sequoia Capital. With this round of funding, Edusys aims to expand its business by introducing new products and strengthening its core team and technology platform. The founder and CEO of the company, Tridibesh Satpathy, says, “The certification market is a $48 billion global industry and we see tremendous opportunity for growth.” According to sources, company is planning to double its workforce next year.

Even websites that are remotely linked to the field of education are catching the eye of the investment community. The Delhi based boutique investment firm, VAS Capital has made an investment in AM Edumedia Pvt Ltd, which runs, which is a website devoted to helping students pick the right engineering colleges among thousands. The IndiaCollegeSearch.com was launched only in April 2010, and as of now the company records more than 50,000 searches per month on the site.

CL Educate, which was formerly known as Career Launcher, has acquired G.K. Publications, which is a publishing house that specialises in career and academic test preparation and skill building resources.

The tablet syndrome

New technological trends like tablets are also becoming a vehicle for investments to flow into the education sector. The government of India has launched the ambitious scheme to empower students with handheld devices like Aakash tablet PC. Perhaps the tablet that finally comes into the hands of our students will be more advanced than the initial version of Aakash.

The Union Minister for Human Resource and Development, Kapil Sibal has stated that an improved version of the Aakash tablet is being planned. The tender from government could be of around 50 lakh Tablet PCs for students. The tender is expected to be out in two months of time. This kind of large order for Table PCs, will certainly lead to large investments flowing into the educational devices space. Many major companies will start eying for a slice of the market. That is already happening as RIL is rumoured to have teamed up with a major Chinese device maker to procure low cost tablets in the 4G space.

On an international level the launch of Apple’s iBooks has received lot of attention. The product is aimed at reinventing the textbook. Instead of a bagful of books, students will be using tablets powered with Apple’s iBooks system. The platform embraces interactive textbooks. Students can pinch to zoom on DNA strands, watch videos on mysterious of outer space and they can experience learning in an interactive fashion. The words are still there. iBooks simply serves the purpose of making learning a bit more exciting.

Apple is yet to reveal the exact investments that the company intends to make in the iBooks section. But it is going to be substantial. As Apple has teamed up with publishing partners Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, and McGraw Hill, there is scope lot of interesting investment ideas to emerge.

Quality Education via Digital Medium

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

‘www’ is regarded as the second name for the Internet. However, for childern today, it is actually ‘Whatever, Whenever and Wherever’

By Dr Dheeraj Mehrotra

Education is the pathway to excellence. But this excellence can only be achieved when we have quality infrastructure. Many experts in the education space have now started regarding the Internet as the core infrastructure for education. When you tell a child to write an essay, he/she is might download the content and present it before you in no time. Some parents have started thinking that the Internet is a menace, as it is making their children lazy by giving them easy access to course material. But the truth is that the Internet has a large role to play in the process of education. It is not a menace, if properly used, it can be a boon.

The tilt from Web 1.0 to 2.0 and now to 3.0 offers new opportunities to our students. It is up to the teachers to guide their students through the maze of the digital world. Teachers need to develop a balanced approach in developing new policies and practices that can guide the students in regards to usage of the Internet. Conservations and discussions on the best ways of taking advantage of the Internet has to be conducted between the teachers, administrators, and parents. It is not necessary to have rules that are too rigid. All stakeholders should have a chance to contribute to the decision-making process. There is no doubt that a computer empowered with vibrant software can be an exciting tool for learning.

In my view, a quality educator must be deeply networked with all his students. He needs to have the following:a. A website.
b. At least 200 links on the Internet. Many of the links can be in “About the Teacher” sections.
c. He/she must share websites with the children.
d. He/she must expand the scope of learning through 24/7 availability.
e. Be a Facilitator by walk not only by the talk.
f. Activate self and open to learning rather than teaching.
g. Respect the knowledge of students that students already possess.
h. He/she must be capable of criticizing privately and praising publicly.
i. He/she must have blogs
j. He must share YouTube videos of his own

should come as no surprise that we are having e-Classrooms in every school. But the true potential of the e-Classrooms can only be achieved once the teachers and the school administration are able to develop an affinity for the digital systems. In today’s environment, it is imperative for a teacher to be a trainer, learner and an all rounder. He should be well conversed with the modalities of the cyber space. It is advisable for teachers to have presence in social networks, blogs, etc.

The modern kid is SMART – Systematic, Meticulous, Active, Realistic and Tactful. He will be involved with the learning process in the classroom only when he is being taught something that he did not know earlier. A teacher has to be aware of the 21st century learning requirements. The teacher should not be teaching what the kids already know through parents/friends or through interactions on the social networks. If he tries to teach what is already well known, then he might have to hear this kind of words in the classroom, “Sir/ Madam, It is already in the book. Please tell us something new”. Do we have a reply to such questions from kids?

Someone has rightly commented, “Good teaching is also about style.” Should good teaching be entertaining? You bet it should!

Author

Dheeraj Mehrotra
Deputy General Manager (DGM) (K12 Education),
Scand Harcourt (India) Pvt Ltd

Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is recognized as an important aspect of the nation’s educational initiatives. In order of the VE to play its part effectively in the changing global environment, there is an urgent need to redefine the critical elements of imparting VET to make them relevant, flexible, and sustainable to suit the contemporary needs of the learner and industry. In this backdrop, the NIOS, UNESCO and COL planned a three day International Conference on “Integration of Academic Courses with Vocational Education in Secondary Schools” from 17-19 February 2012 at IDSA, New Delhi. The Conference deliberated upon the impending challenges and issues in the academic courses at secondary education level and tried to develop a framework and recommendations to establish linkages of skills training through vocational education at secondary school level with emphasis on knowledge base through academic subjects.

The objectives of the conference were to:
1.   Explore the modalities for increasing the access to sustainable and learner centric quality school education equipped with vocational skills;
2.   Develop strategic plan to strengthen the environment and image of VET; and
3.   Establish linkages on the quality assurance system for the VET to promote the quality and equity among learners at all levels.

PARTICIPANTS

Experts from Australia, Bangladesh, Fiji, India, Germany, Namibia, New Zealand, Malawi, Tranzania and Zamibia. Representatives from Academic Institutions, Trade and Industry Associations, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Conference of Indian Industries (CII), Vocational Education Institutes, Educational planners and administrators and international experts in vocational, secondary and open learning participated in this conference.

THEMES
The various sessions of the Conference centred on the sub-themes of:
•   Vocational skills and training to empower citizens;
•   Designing the curriculum and quality framework to strengthen the impact of vocational courses,
•   Use of technology in providing education;
•   Developing framework for the Recognition of Prior Learning; and
•   Development of Assessment and Certification Framework.
Organizers received 90 abstracts from the national and international experts, out of which 45 were shortlisted and presented in different parallel sessions.

INAUGURAL

The Conference was inaugurated by Ms Anshu Vaish, Secretary, School Education, MHRD, Government of India. There was a special address by Shigeru Aoyagi, Director, and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, Maldives, India and Srilanka.

There were five thematic sessions, two panel discussions besides the parallel sessions on all the three days.

The first theme for the plenary session on 17th February was on the “Use of Technology in Providing Education”. The speaker on the theme was Prof. Sugata Mitra, MIT Media Lab, USA. Prof. Mitra shared his experience with the experiments that he had done with the use of IT and search engines in educating children.

He presented the “Hole in the wall” experiment and emphasized on the need for self organized learning environment. He also showed the interesting results of various experiments which were conducted in several contries where he showed that there is a uniform learning curve when the children learn without any assistance. Children, when given free access to computers, pick up basic computer literacy skills by with minimal intervention by adults. This has been called Minimally Invasive Education (MIE) by Dr. Sugata Mitra and is basis for the Hole-in-the-Wall Learning Stations.

The second theme was on Vocational Skills and Training to empower citizens. The two speakers Sharda Prasad, Joint Secretary & Director General (DGET), Ministry of Labour, Govt. of India and Mr. G. Vaz, International Development Consultant. Mr. Prasad presented an overview of the strategies being adopted to bring about necessary changes in vocational training imparted in ITIs.

Vaz highlighted the need to change the mindset and perception of the public towards VET and discussed the importance of knowledge, skills, and innovations which are essential for a country to succeed.

Third theme was shared on second day “Designing the Curriculum and Quality Framework to Strengthen the Impact of Vocational Education at school Level.

Dilip Chenoy and Basab Banerjee from (National Skills Development Council) NSDC presented the role that the organization is playing in development and implementation of National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF). Chenoy emphasized that multi-skilling should be done to enhance the employability or rural youth. They also highlighted the role of the Industry in mapping of skills and curriculum development.
Belinda Smith, Consultant, TVET, Australia highlighted the need to adopt ways of integrating vocational skills by using ICT and simulated learning environment. The fourth theme was on Developing Framework for the Recognition of Prior Learning, which addressed the issues of identification of informal knowledge and skills and attaching importance to it. In this session there were two very distinguished speakers Ms. Liz Bowen from Competency International Ltd., New Zealand and Ms Madhu Singh From UNESCO Institute of Lifelong learning (UIL) Germany. Ms Liz began with a motivating presentation and mentioned that lack of formal qualification does not mean that someone is not competent. Ms Madhu Singh from UIL dwelt upon the need for policy and guidelines for the RPL and different approaches to governance of PRL.

The session was followed by a panel discussion on Vocational Education in Secondary Schools and its implications for NVEQF. Dr Alka Bhargava, from MHRD, Dr Swati Majumdar, Director, Symbioses Institute of open learning , Pune, Inder Gahlaut, President, Saksham Bharat, Darshika Sanghani from Wadhwani foundation were the panelist and Dr Kuldeep Agarwal director academics NIOS was the moderator.

The fifth and the last theme of the conference was on the Assessment and certification framework. The theme addressed the issues pertaining to development of framework in an integrated situation for both academic and vocational subjects, credit transfer and assessing skills by educational institutions in partnership with industries. The two speakers for this sessions were Ms Maria Peters from Australia and Shailender Sigdel Regional Advisor Statistics UNESCO. The topic for the Peter’s presentation was “Working in the partnership to engage young people in VET”. She gave the overview of the Australian education context and the VET policy framework. Sidgel provided details on TVET and its assessment strategies and tools designed by UIS, such as the Literacy Assessment, Product on TVET. His presentation covered the aspects of TVET, its purpose, assessment and types of assessment.

VALEDICTORY SESSION

The Chief Guest of the Valedictory session was Dr. (Smt.) D. Purandeshwari, Hon’ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India and Sh. Jagmohan Singh Raju, JS (AE) and DG, NLMA, Government of India was the guest of honour on the occasion. The welcome address and consolidation of three days International Conference was given by Dr. Sitansu S. Jena, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling. Dr. Mamta Srivastava, Deputy Director, (Vocational Education) NIOS and conference secretary presented report of the conference. Dr. K.P. Wasnik, Director, (Vocational Education) NIOS presented Vote of Thanks.

‘Robotics’ as the fourth R

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Gagan Goyal, CEO, ThinkLABS – a quintessential robotics enthusiast who decided to make his passion his profession and bring the world of robotics right into the classrooms of students in conversation with Rachita Jha (ENN). Excerpts

Tell us more about the genesis of Robotics Lab?

Robotics is an exciting field of study and fascinates and engages people of all ages-truly a multi-disciplinary subject and brings in more interactivity and fun-based learning in STEM education. It is an ecstatic moment to see young students be it either school or college working in teams and building robots with so much fun and collaboration. It’s amazing to see how robots excite and scintillate their minds. My journey and the genesis of ‘robotics lab’ began during my years as a student at IIT Bombay, and participated in many robotics college competitions and gained a liking and fun in the same. The activity also made be learn the concepts better due to hands-on learning. The subject of robotics is multidisciplinary and one gets a chance to apply the concepts in engineering. So there was disconnect that got bridged by my robots creation. The international level competitions exposed to common presence of robotics in these locations. Robotics emerged as an education tool and a motivational tool and many consider ‘Robotics’ as the fourth R in education after reading, writing and athematic.

Compared to your experience in other countries, how do you see the role of robotics labs in India?

My experience in the US and UK education market revealed that robotics is compulsory and it is very common and important pillar in experiential learning and hands-on learning, especially for science learning. However, in India we were not exposed to robotics for science learning in school education. So I decided to introduce robo labs in India. These labs of making robots not make science learning fun but also give better knowledge in learning skills, life skills, thinking skills, teamwork, and leadership skills. The demand for 21st century skills is coming in face of students that are not based on ability of rote learning instead, the future workplace will require students who can adapt to the situation will excel with problem-solving skills. We all learn better by doing, this has to start from the beginning – to think, create, solve and apply the knowledge that has been gained in the classrooms at school-level itself. The overall benefits of our pedagogy approach helps students gain visual grasp of maths and science concepts and it teaches though the mode of discovery i.e cause-and-effect learning. Students enhance their problem solving skills, innovation and creativity aptitude and strengthen logical and analytical thinking skills.

How have you designed the robotics labs for school students? Tell us more of the various components of the kit?

We have devised a Robotics Learning Systems (RLS), which is a world-class programme specially created for students of class 4 onwards that is designed in a simple way for schools to embrace science and technology through hands-on-learning. The pedagogy applied to the learning system helps train students in six of eight intelligences proposed by the theory of multiple intelligences, thus making it a holistic learning experience. The kit includes hardware building blocks, software licenses, curriculum content and the most important component is teacher training. Our hardware is called i-Pitara PRO which is an ergonomically designed modular, re-programmable kit with more than 100 components like sensors, micro-processor unit, gears, motors, tools etc. Our approach is to ensure that the kit offers innumerable options for creativity, designing and critical thinking. Our software is called CIMPLETM and is based on intuitive visual programming software. The drag and drop, flowchart-based programming approach helps in building the logical thinking of students when they are involved in the robotics labs. To ensure that the labs are in sync with what is taught to them in the classroom, we have designed the courseware in our R&D centre at SINE, IIT Mumbai that helps the concepts that are taught in the robotics labs integrate easily with the existing school curriculum. The heart of the kit remains with the teacher training component, as unless the teacher is involved, motivated and aware of the learning concepts embedded in the robotics labs, the students will never reap the true benefits of the same.

“Currently we assess that the robotic lab market in Indian education sector is close to 1000 crore, and the space for robotics labs is an unexplored market. So the potential can actually be much more.”

Tell us more on the robotics labs designed for higher education students?

The needs of higher education engineering students are very different and are more career-focused, so we have designed a course in embedded systems to make them robotic engineers. Distinguished faculty and alumni of IIT Mumbai have designed the courseware aimed at universities, colleges, institutes covering various skill sets required for a successful career in Embedded systems. We invest in setting up of a centre of excellence for Embedded System with state-of-art laboratory carrying out education and research activities. Monitoring the skill gap in a structured manner, followed by placement and internship opportunities for certified students are offered. The intensive hand-on learning projects have helped many students realize their dreams in embedded systems.

Usually due to constraints of time and space, many schools are unable to pursue lab activity in their timetable. What is your suggestion to schools on adoption of robo labs on this?

We are fully aware of these constraints that are common to all schools across the country, the mission to complete the syllabus usually does not give any space for such workshops and labs. So, we suggest the best way out for schools is to upgrade their existing computer labs to robotics labs. Robotics should be included as a subject and the real-life impact will come if it becomes part of the curriculum. We suggest at least two periods in a month. The time has come for computer labs to transform as a centre for holistic learningof other subjects as most of the computers and related applications are on self-learning by the students. So we will see the arrival of language labs, math labs and of course robotics labs as learning modules.

Having entered a market untapped by any, tell us your views on how the education market evolved for robotics labs in India? What is your market assessment for robotic labs in India?

We are a five-year old company and we started with engineering students and for us school education in a new avenue for us. And there is lots of effort that went behind our launch of our products for the school segment as we had to design our platform that was very elementary and student-friendly-so those took a lot of time from us. Schools are not alien to the various modes of experiential and activity-based learning for students, and this is evident from our involvement in just 38 schools last year to 108 schools this year. Acceptance from the education community has been very forthcoming, and we are seeing the demand coming from Nasik and other tier-3 cities much more.Currently we assess that the robotic lab market in Indian education sector is close to 1000 crore market, and the space for robotics labs is an unexplored market so the potential can actually be much more.

Challenges of Implementing Technology into Schools

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Implementing technology in schools in not a smooth road. It has various speed breakers which hamper the speed of adoption of technology. Techno phobia is one of them

By Veena Raizada

The 21st century continues to change at a rate faster than we can imagine. The immersive media has created learning communities that communicate and collaborate across the globe. The world has become highly interconnected and complex. What remains to be checked is,
“Are we ready for the change?” The answer seems to be big “No”

Misconceptions about technology

Lack of awareness in minds of stakeholders has created lot of misconceptions about technology and its crucial need in the present times. Implementing technology for effective teaching learning means more than teaching basic computer skills and software programs in a separate computer class.

For investors it remains additional equipment that might increase the proficiency of the school system. Everyone involved in the management of education system needs to acknowledge that technology is and can be a comprehensive tool to effective school management.

Parents still can not foresee the productiveness of new trends in the education whether with technology or without it. For them, successful education still remains a report card with 90% + in almost every subject. And for this attitude, to some extent our education system is also responsible.

Teaching community probably is facing the main challenge. Good teachers, in particular see it as threat to their importance or may be even their recognition as a good teacher. It is also perceived as an additional work load to change their pedagogy that incorporates technology into curriculum.

Challenges of implementing technology can be broadly classified into:
• Misconceptions
• Understanding the need for implementing technology
• Affordability
• Techno phobia
• Impact

Students are facing even a bigger challenge than the parents and teachers. For them the vast expansive knowledge platform that World Wide Web has offered needs synchronisation with their specific needs.

Digital gaming, virtual world of connectivity to the universe, simulation, virtual manipulative, my space, facebook etc. The unlimited power of digital era seems to be sweeping the GenNext. Technology is an integral part of the lives of Ikids of the new millennium. Educators therefore, will have to find ways of harnessing this power to create a better tomorrow for today’s students. Technology enabled education will prepare our youth for competitive traits and competency attitude.

Financial implications are probably the biggest barrier for any school to adopt technology especially when it is a large setup. Even if the school is willing to do it, to ensure that optimal provisions are made to make technology enabled education become a meaningful support for teachers and students needs sufficient budget allocation from the school funds.

It is very important for investors to appreciate that for a significant impact of technology on learning, regular usage by both the teachers and learners is essential. Adequate technology support systems to all are essential.

Techno phobia though existent among all stake holders, is more a mental barrier than a technical hurdle. Skepticism, fear of incompatibility and may be lack of motivation or even incentives are root cause of huge inertial force to accepting technology as part of our classroom life. Everywhere else we seem to be going with the flow. Then why technology in education is a phobia?

Technology based education is still accepted as supplementary and not primary source of child’s learning process. Outcome of technology based teaching learning is yet to be validated by many research studies. Apprehensions therefore, are obvious for its easy adoption. There is no technology that can turn underperformers to over achievers or help low performing systems to high result performance oriented organisations.

Educators may be aware of the need for improvement in their set ups but the potential role of technology may need clarity. Meticulous planning is, therefore vital for any technology initiative to yield expected outcome. Without proper insight into what, why, when and how of technology implementation, technology investment are liable to become expensive ventures ending up as failures.

Author

Veena Raizada,
Director Academics, Next Education India Pvt Ltd

“We Don’t Like to Compete, Our Task is to Create Competition”

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

N Subramanian is a successful entrepreneur and an expert in high volume data processing and data capture services. He is a person with very innovative ideas; he takes pride in pioneering lots of new concepts in examination testing at various universities in India. In conversation with N Subramaniam, MD, TRS Forma, with Pragya Gupta, he talks about e-Assessment, e-valuation and education technology market in India

Please throw some light on TRS Forma operations in India?

TRS is a professionally managed company, one that has access to lot of modern tools for catering to the data capturing and imaging related needs of various government and private institutions. TRS specialises in providing integrated solutions in the field of document and data capturing by using OMR and ICR techniques. Besides technological support, TRS takes pride in being exclusive distributor for the sophisticated range of OMR scanners of DRS plc. , United Kingdom, and Sekonic of Japan. TRS is also a reseller for ABBYY Software of Russia and Archival and Retrieval software from Edocs.

TRS has one of the largest OMR bureaus in India, consisting of six high-end scanners each capable of scanning around 7200 sheets per hour. Scanning of these OMR sheets is a one step process and information gets accessed quickly, accurately and securely.

How do you see education technology market shaping up in India?

Technology in education is always an advantage and is accepted by the end users with full appreciation. Education technology market is definitely shaping very well in India and in one or two years it will change the complete outlook of the education in India.

What is the role of e-Assesment and e-Valuation in education? How do you see the adoption among school and higher education segment?

e-Assessment and e-Valuation definitely bring a big change in the quality of testing and evaluation which is very much required in today’s situation. Schools and higher education segment are looking for such technology solutions to improve their quality and also to achieve that without much trouble. So we are finding that the acceptance level is increasing day by day for such solutions.

What is the market size of e-Assessment and e-valuation? How useful and safe is the technology?

The approximate market size for e-Assessment and e-Valuation is 500 crores.

e-Assesment as you know has brought in high class change in the quality of examination and selection process. We have so many complications in the selection process. The volume swells every year. e-Assessment is a must for any examination or recruitment process. Even though Government of India is working towards reducing the number of competitive exams, the process will take few years. With so many competitive exams being conducted the students also find it difficult to prepare for all these exams. e-Assessment can also be a good tool for giving students the confidence for facing such exams. Schools as such are yet to make use of the e-Assessment in a bigger level. Currently with the availability of mobile devices like the tablet PCs, the students can be given a short test after every class to get a feed back on the level of understanding in that class. Based on the analysis extra classes can be arranged to make the students understand the particular chapter properly.

“The approximate market size of e-Assessment and e-Valuation can be around 500 crores. e-Assessment has brought in high class change in quality of examination and selection process”

How do you see the acceptance of e-Valuation by Indian education system?

e-Valuation is something which is being looked upon by the education boards and university. The necessity arises from the fact that getting the required number of proper valuators for each subject is difficult. When the shortage is there then each evaluator is asked to look at more booklets within the short time. This leads to lowering of quality. In e-Valuation the answer sheets are fully digitised, so an immediate archival can be done. It is made easy for evaluators to access the image copy of the answer booklet through the net or intranet. All facilities like key points for each answer and maximum marks for each question are controlled from the software. Hence errors are avoided to a great extent. There will not be any case for re-totalling. In case of request for revaluation, the complete image copy of the answer booklet can be given to the student; this has also become a mandatory under RTI rules. If the same booklet has to be re-valued that can be arranged immediately by posting that answer booklet again for the valuation. Good control on the valuation front can be brought in by administration module where the activities can be statistically viewed both individually and overall. This will help the exam controllers to take remedial action at the right time if any valuator is not doing the right job or is not meeting the targets of valuation. So delay in results can be avoided. Also once the valuation is over the result preparation will be instantaneous. Slowly universities are getting on to pilot projects and upon successful implementation, full acceptance will come. Currently there are some practical difficulties of providing the required infrastructure and it will take some time to overcome the same.

Please share with us the details of latest products or solutions you are planning to launch in the Indian market.

Launch of automatic dummy numbering system for the subjective exams is a mile stone for TRS. This has been accepted by some of the leading universities like Bangalore University and Kanpur University. In Tamil Nadu, universities like Periyar University, Baratiar University, Allagappa Univeristy have implemented the system successfully. Our e-Valuation system has by now been fully tested and is now fully ready to be launched. We are the only company in India to have e-Valuation software developed indigenously. Another product that is being launched is our comprehensive Question bank software which can handle objective and subjective inputs for an organisation of any size. It is finding a good response and we are in the process of implementing it in 3 to 4 universities before April. We are also coming up with a security product for the certificates and mark statements. Even though more than a dozen security features are printed in every certificate, forgeries keep happening. Our product is so secured that duplicating or tampering is impossible. The process of verification in case of our product is also very simple.

Tell us about your OMR, ICR and examination solutions?

The requirement of OMR or ICR solution comes due to the high volume of process. These are introduced to replace the manual data entry and to speed up the process. Of course, with all that speed the output will be more accurate than the manual methods. Because of the speed the results are out within the shortest time and so the selection process is fast. Quality of testing has improved a lot and the selections have been very fair. Some coaching centres, where OMR has been introduced, are conducting almost one test daily. These tests are mainly based on the previous day class, and they help the students in getting better understanding of their lessons.

Please share with us your future plans for the Indian market.

Most of TRS products and solutions are those that are in great demand in the country. TRS solutions are definitely required in every university and education board all over India. We plan to establish our presence entire country, and offer our services in a more professional manner. Currently we have our branches in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Allahabad. We are in the process of opening new offices in Pune, Kolkatta and Jaipur. TRS may be the only company of this size to have a permanent R&D division where solutions for the current and future requirement are being prepared. We don’t like to compete; our task is to create competition.

Enabling Next Gen Innovators in STEM Intel Launches Intel Future Scientist Program in India

Magazine

digitalLEARNING Network

March 12, 2012

Intel added another feather in its cap by nationally launching the Intel Future Scientist Program on 29th February 2012. The aim of the program is to promote and nurture the spirit of inquiry among students.

An invited audience of over 100 representatives including key policy makers, civil societies, public and private sector organizations from across the country attended the launch event. The launch event was presided by K Kasturirangan, Honorable Member Planning Commission and Member National Innovation Council. The days’ proceedings began with the ceremonial lighting of the lamp by the chief guest Dr Kasturirangan, Dr. Manoharan, Chair Professor of Raman Chair for Mathematics and Science Education, IGNOU, Dr. B P Singh from Department of Science and Technology, Dharam Veer, State Election Commissioner, Haryana and president of SPSTI and Dr. Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India.

Ashutosh Chadha, Director Corporate Affairs Group, Intel South Asia initiated the discussion on Ecosystem Preparedness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education. He stressed on inculcating 21st century skills to develop innovation and identifying the key issues that help build a knowledge economy. Gagan Gupta, Subject Expert from NCERT shared the vision of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and how it envisages inquiry based approach to inculcate scientific temperament among students. He emphasized that the curriculum should be made visible, relevant and connects to real world problems.

Prof Manoharan, Raman Chair for Mathematics and Science Education, IGNOU, emphasized on scientific learning without stress so as to promote creativity. He emphasized on the contribution made by Raman chair on inculcating scientific temper among children. Dr B P Singh, Scientist/Head from Department of Science and Technology emphasized on contextualizing learning in both formal, non-formal education and also shared that formal education must be sensitive enough to be a part of the system.

Dharam Veer, State Election Commissioner, Haryana and president of SPSTI opined that a good foundation of Maths and Science is crucial in today’s world. This would help in instilling the scientific temper among the students and ICT needs to be part of the education system.

An Audio Visual to elaborate the objectives of the program captured the audience’s attention which was followed by a brief overview of the Intel Future Scientist Program. The overview highlighted the goals, objectives and the outcomes of the program.

Intel India President, Praveen Vishakantaiah shared Intel’s vision to connect and enrich every person on the earth by building trust, promoting scientific capability and nurturing the path to success. He emphasized on the continued progress of nurturing pipeline of scientific communities. He elaborated on the global workforce requirement and stressed that the inquiry based learning was the need of the hour which led to the Intel Future Scientist Program.

Dr Kasturirangan during the formal release of the Intel Future Scientist Curriculum said, ‘Intel Future Scientific program has made the demonstrating approach on how to shape the next generation’. He applauded the initiation of the program as a sustained way to promote asset as its own heritage to improve the quality of society which can imbibe the culture of inquiry and innovation. While emphasizing on innovation, he felt that the rural urban divide is no longer an intellectual space. He asked to identify the core problem and bring affordability in the system so that it can bring easy interface with mechanisms, demonstrations and initiation of linkages.

“Intel Future Scientific program has made the demonstrating approach on how to shape the next generation.”
Dr K Kasturirangan, Honorable Member Planning Commission and Member National Innovation Council

He also said that initiatives to support educational programs have increased from .98% to 2.5% of the GDP. Even the Prime Minister’s office has set mechanisms to work with corporate sectors, support the public-private partnership and provide support to promote research which can bring about transformation and paradigm change.

The launch of the Future Scientist program was followed by an intensive Round Table Discussion on Sustaining the Innovative Streak in Young Geniuses.

There is an urgent need to sustain the brightest innovators and researchers to nurture home-grown talent. The students who have won laurels internationally do not get due recognition when they return back to India and tend to lose out on the opportunities in pursuing their interests. The round table was intended to discuss how to nurture these talents further!

The discussions started with setting the stage for deliberations on how the students who have received global recognition can be given due credit in their home ground. The questions that were brought to the fore for the invited experts to discuss were-

•   What are the recommendations that can be put forward to ensure that innovation by the students who have proved their mettle in International Science Fairs like ISEF get recognized in the formal system?
•   Why some Universities those have special ECA / Sports quota for admission does not include innovation as criteria. What can be done to change this scenario?
•   Can we have preferential criteria for admission to reputed colleges/ universities for the students who have proved themselves on a research based international platform?
•   How can we build the pipeline of this talent and create more young innovators?
The key recommendations that were put forward by the group are as follows:
•   NCERT should support such fairs and help in reaching out to the rural segment
•   State Universities should take a step forward to support the students and help in research projects
•   Prominent colleges / universities can explore the option of providing admission
•   Problems to be placed before the governing bodies to find a solution to the problem
•   Collaboration with scientific academies and research hubs should be initiated for further research and patent
•   Industries who have powerful education wings need to provide support and take ahead the initiative to ensure pipeline of talent
•   Dept of S&T need to find a solution by bringing it to the notice of the cabinet and ministry and provide recommendations to institutions for admission
•   Increase stipend and fellowship to attract more students towards research
•   Provide opportunities for students to undertake real time projects spearheaded by both government & private sector
•   Policies and schemes should be relooked to nurture innovation and creativity; Build synergy with the government initiatives and existing programs

Eminent educationists from leading institutions – IIT’s, DU, IISER, prominent personalities from the industry – CII, representatives from Government Bodies – MOCIT, DST, NCERT, IGNOU, KVS, NVS, Scientists from MSSR, Homi Babha, SRC, Birla Science Museums, NISCAIR, representatives from Multilaterals – IUSSTF, Foundations – SPSTI, AMRITA, AGASTYA , and educators from prominent schools took an active part in the forum and contributed in making it come alive with some pertinent views and suggestions.

The highlights of the deliberations were summed up by Dr Praveen Vishakantaiah, President Intel India. He said, ‘the valuable suggestion put forward by the focused group could set the ball rolling and this in itself is a great step in bringing about a change in the thinking process of how the students can be given due recognition and how do we bring in more students into the fold of innovation’.

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