Mexus Education, a Bilakhia Group enterprise, has been promoting learning through technology based platforms like multimedia DVDs, motion films and interactive online tools. Anil Goyal, Director, Mexus Education, shares his views on education in Gujarat

The academic foundations of the state can only be strengthened by an all-round development in education. The development has to be right from the primary stage to the higher stages of education. The attempt to branch-out from conventional mainstream areas by setting up nationally recognized Business School, Fashion Technology Institute, Entrepreneurship Development Institute has actually made education more relevant to the citizens.

Initiatives have also been taken at school-level education, to ensure that students step into these academic pursuits with right orientation and mindsets. Efforts like School on Wheels, Kanya Kelavani, and the partnering with NGOs, are designed to make children better skilled, so that they may fit into the changing economy and tap emerging opportunities in the state.

Gujarat to Leapfrog

The opportunities in Educational ICT abounds. These shortcomings are increasingly acknowledged and accepted by the policy makers, as well as school administrators. In this decade, there is a strong need to use technology. Only technology can make education more relevant to current dynamics of economy. This easiest and most convenient way of addressing this pulsating need is by furthering a teaching-learning process through fusion with ICT. Indian Education is poised to incorporate audio-visual learning, collaborative learning and knowledge sharing elements. ICT is imperative to set a framework for these initiatives.

Reaching the Last Mile

For bringing education to the rural masses, we need to develop a model of education that is relevant to them. This will engage rural masses and ensure that they stay with the system, and thereby dropouts will be minimized.

• Application-orientation specific to their skill sets that can improve the chances of getting proper employment will generate interest. 
• Setting up a robust technology support which is not only easy to use, but also inexpensive and less dependent on existing infrastructure and facilities. 
• Ensuring that the system attracts a large number of students so that the economic viability of the model is maintained. 

Initiatives like ‘Schools on Wheel’ would go a long way in addressing the digital divide, as it reaches out to students regardless of infrastructure, as well as the basic facilities.

On eINDIA 2011

eINDIA 2011 is designed to highlight the myriad initiatives that the government has undertaken for improving literacy levels in Gujarat. This event will prove that when it comes to education, Gujarat is far ahead of other states in the country. The coming together of academicians, educators, government officials and the corporate on a single platform will definitely lead to solutions that foster an inclusive growth in education sector.

Mosaic Network develops innovative tools that are used in educational institutions, government organizations and social agencies. Saurabh Sethi, Vice President, Mosaic Network (India) Pvt. Ltd. shares his views on transforming education…

IT has made it possible for us to bring quality education to India’s remote areas. The rural areas and the smaller towns can enjoy the same quality of education as the developed cities.

Last two decades have seen major turnaround in the way technology is used in education – we have systems like digital boards, eLearning, and mobile learning. IT is helping educational bodies by enabling micro management, any time access to information, quick and proper assessments and evaluation of education. IT has transformed education into a process that is learner-centric, engaging, attention grabbing, cost effective and reachable. The guru is now the IT empowered guide. Having said all that, it must also be accepted that IT has its limitations, which the innovators must address.

Gujarat to Leapfrog

Digital education has seen tremendous growth in the past 4-5 years. I strongly feel that this will continue to grow at higher rates in coming years. Only 10 percent of over 100,000 educational institutions are technology enabled and out of these only 12-15 percent have technological penetration in their classrooms. A market this big cannot be affected by competition and I can’t see any factor that might slow the growth. Right now, I am not even considering the government sector, which has the potential of making the opportunity even bigger.

Valuable lessons can be learned from the best practices being implemented around the world, but there is no formula for determining the optimal level of ICT integration in the educational system. Significant challenges that policymakers and planners, educators, education administrators, and other stakeholders need to consider include educational policy and planning, infrastructure, language and content, capacity building, employment and financing.

Reaching the Last Mile

We must accept the fact that technology alone cannot help us bridge the knowledge and opportunity divide. There are issues related to limited infrastructure, and it is also a fact that many teachers are hesitant when it comes to adopting new technologies. A comprehensive approach to tackle multi-level challenges in implementation as well as delivery has to be followed.

• The digital content access shall be made available through a very easy to use tool, with minimal features.
• Teaching processes must be standardized to take into account the low skilled teacher/trainer, who needs to follow simple instructions. They must be provided incentives for taking this additional burden.
• Periodic inputs should be provided for improving the system if the learning level drops. 
• Authorities and teachers should have timely access to reports and all kinds of feedback, so that the overall progress being made can be monitored.

“Drop-outs” are one of the biggest challenges for any education system. We should keep in mind while developing the learning content that the idea is to supplement the learning. The digital content should not become an additional burden on the students. The delivery must be engaging and the content should be contextual and theme based. It should adapt to the learners requirements. Motivational exercises and out-of-class activities should be conducted periodically to break the monotony.

On eINDIA 2011

We have been actively participating in your eINDIA events since 2009. We feel that eINDIA is a wonderful platform for enhancing knowledge, networking with companies, and gaining insights into the challenges faced by organizations in the field of education

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.