Next Education, a technology-driven education enterprise, provides ICT-based products in the K-12 segment. Veena Raizada, Director (Academics), Next Education, speaks about infusing IT into education in today’s world…

The educational space is being revolutionised with new technologies, and Gujarat is at the forefront of this revolution. The traditional chalk and blackboard model is no longer in vogue; we are gravitating towards interactive white boards and digital content for imparting education.

According to the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan policy of the Union Government, schools are adopting technology in a big way. Next Education wholeheartedly supports this initiative. The strong IT infrastructure in the state will go a long way in making quality education available to every student.

Gujarat to Leapfrog

The policy initiatives on IT taken by the Government of Gujarat are quite encouraging. The telecom and the IT sectors in the state are well developed, and the state’s literacy rate is almost 70 percent. The Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geo-Informatics (BISAG) has satellite communication facilities with a dedicated bandwidth.

These are good signs. Gujarat can be a leader in adopting IT in education. The IT network in the state is strong. The transport network is good. Investment in the IT sector is very high. The state is ripe for having a much deeper tryst with digital education.

There are several challenges in the adoption of ICT in the education sector. Among them are low literacy levels, unwillingness to adopt technology, monitoring and evaluation, lack of guidelines, and institutional fragmentation. Even those deemed literate may not be competent enough to receive IT education. Educational standards would need to be raised before citizens can become digitally literate.

Steps need to be taken to overcome the unwillingness for adopting new technology, so that the digital literacy levels among students and teachers can be increased. Teachers are wary of technology. They need to be made aware that IT training will help them rather than pose as a threat to their jobs.

Hardware penetration in schools in quite high, but with no auditing or monitoring system in place, there is no way for us to evaluate the effectiveness of this hardware. The most common issue faced by schools is related to identification of quality content, but this issue can be resolved by providing clear guidelines.

There is a need to bring about some harmonisation and co-ordination in the aspects of curriculum, infrastructure, content, policy and implementation. The framework for these things is developed by several bodies at several levels. India also has linguistic diversity and income disparity. The digital divide in the country is so acute that it becomes difficult for policy-makers to frame universal policies to be implemented.

Reaching the Last Mile

Digital solutions on any media that can be operated through the simplest of technological applications will make the mission possible.

The myriad challenges in the path of digital learning can definitely be overcome through dedicated approach. The concept of “School on Wheels” can succeed with all coming together for running it successfully.

On eINDIA 2011

Gujarat is poised for a big leap into the world of digital learning. An event like eINDIA 2011 becomes very relevant in this context, as it is a platform for discussions on the best ways of infusing IT into the educational curriculum.

MESSAGE “Gujarat, with its all inclusive, sustainable and rapid growth, is emerging as a globally preferred place to live in and to do business.”

Over the years, the Gujarat has emerged as one of the most dynamic, prosperous, investor friendly and fastest growing states of India. The importance of well thought governance initiatives with significant use of technology in this success cannot be overemphasized.

Good Governance is the key to sustainable development. The state has been constantly innovating, aiming at excellence in governance. The opportune understanding of the importance of technology in effective and efficient delivery of services has enabled the state to take up many innovative steps for empowering people.

While the State’s emphasis has been on building educational infrastructure, training of teachers and computerization of schools, we have successfully been able to come up with 11 new universities, 400 colleges, 1.25lakh new teachers, 38000 new schoolrooms and to double the seats for technical courses. The State has witnessed a massive reduction in the dropout rate at all primary levels. Improvement in the health and nutritional status of the population has been one of the major thrust areas of the social development programmes in the state. Over the years, Gujarat has developed good health infrastructure and human resources. The state has initiated a wide variety of Public – Private collaborations, involving NGOs/Private Sector practitioners. Gujarat is now emerging as a global medical tourism destination.

It gives us immense pleasure to share with you that Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat and Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd are jointly organizing eINDIA 2011, an annual ICT conference and exhibition at Mahatma Mandir International Convention Centre, Gujarat from December 15 – 17, 2011 as one of the prelude/precursors and warm up exercises to Vibrant Gujarat 2013. The vision roadmap that we have carved for the state will certainly get reflected in various thematic conferences under the umbrella of eINDIA 2011.

We warmly welcome all delegates and look forward to participating in what promises to be an immensely enriching event. (Narendra Modi)

Implementing Agency: Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd

Website: www.microsoft.com/india/msindia

To address the priorities in national educational through focus on three core areas: Innovative Teachers, Innovative Students and Innovative Schools.

The first phase of Partners in Learning entailed the launch of Project Shiksha, which is targeted towards teachers in government schools. Launched in December 2003 by Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, this scheme is designed to deliver affordable software solutions, comprehensive training and curriculum leadership for students and teachers in government schools. The lofty aim of the exercise is to ‘Empower the future’.

The curriculum seeks to make it easy for teachers to understand how to integrate IT tools in classrooms. Currently, this curriculum is available in six regional languages and includes a lot of self-practice exercises. Entire training is delivered over 8-12 full day sessions..

At the onset, the project had a target of reaching out to 80,000 teachers by December 2008, a period of five years. The second phase of Partners in Learning, Shiksha Pragati, was launched in April 2011 in India. Shiksha Pragati is a logical progression of Microsoft’s Project Shiksha and is designed to equip schools with a capacity building mechanism in order to reduce their dependence on external agencies for ICT and 21st century teaching-learning skills.

Need for the Project

Project Shiksha will bring relevant technology to the education sector and help address the problem of huge gap between the citizen’s expectations and the services that are being provided. We are committed to digitize the classroom environment and thereby contribute towards economic growth of the country.

Implementing Agency: Designmate 

Website: www.designmate.com

A digital library of Learning Objects for Science and Mathematics, Eureka.in contains learning resources like text, video, simulation, quiz and web-link. The animation in the videos and simulations are done in 3D, which is conducive for providing viewers with an enriching, fulfilling and engaging experience. The digital content comes in two formats Mono (without glasses) and Stereo (with glasses) and caters to students from 6th to 12th grades. The product is already operational in 5000 schools around the world.

Need for the Project

It is a well known fact that teachers often find it difficult to explain many crucial concepts in science and mathematics to their young students. Hence Design-mate decided to come up with teaching material in visual format so that the students can actually make visual contact with the scientific and mathematical ideas and thereby achieve better understanding. One thing is for sure – the time when a teacher did all the talking and the students sat as passive listeners is passé. Today teachers and students can developer better bonding through digital teaching materials.

Localisation

Translating the entire content into regional languages around the world and then mapping the same according to the respective curriculums. To overcome the same Design-mate started entering different countries by partnering with big local companies in different countries operating in the field of education and started translating and mapping the content with partner companies help, assistance and guidance.

Piracy

The content can be safeguarded from getting pirated, by building a robust encryption after years of research.

Global reach

To treat this issue Design-mate has been attending educational exhibitions across the Globe and have partnered with big players in the field of education.

Compatibility

The content is made compatible with various devices across the world. To cater to this issue Design-mate started procuring various SDKs of devices and today after years of research and development over it the content is compatible with most of the contemporary devices.

Implementing Agency: Gujarat Technological University
Website: www.www.gtu.ac.in

The Gujarat Technological University (GTU) was setup by the state in 2007 to regulate the affiliation, examination and curriculum development in diverse areas of professional education. To achieve the goal of bringing new digital technology to education, GTU is working on the lines of Industry Define Project (IDP), Faculty Development Project (FDP) and User Define Project (UDP).

Exam paper delivery system at GTU is now paperless. Security is through encryption /decryption technique having three layer password protections, out of which one password is delivered before half an hour of the examination through dedicated mobile SMS service.

Need for the Project

• To help students develop the knowledge of subjects like science, engineering, technology, management, environment, etc.
• To create institutes and centers of excellence for imparting state-of-the-art education, training and research. 
• To create capabilities for development of knowledge, skill and competency at various levels. 
• To establish close linkage with industry for making teaching, training and research relevant to the needs of the industry at various levels.