If reducing travel and accommodation costs was not enough, corporates have now begun cutting down on sponsorship of online MBA programmes by 15-20 % to conserve cash. Companies in the IT, finance and automotive sectors have reduced enrollments, according to U21Global
AMU organises Computer course for teachers
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is organising a Refresher Course 'Computer Application in Teaching' for teachers of Deeni Madrasas. The Centre for Promotion of Science, AMU, will carry the course from February 23-March 5, 2010. Selection of the participants for the course will be made on all India basis.
TA/DA and their lodging at AMU will be the responsibility of Centre for Promotion of Science, making all facilities paid for the participants. The announcements regarding the course details have been sent to selected Madrasas. Additionally, the prescribed application form and other details of the course can be viewed at the website of the centre.
Expert: There
Many educators may find computer games which are already common among students in this digital age as an educational promise to harness learning in the classroom but an expert said there is much to learn about it. Sylvia Martinez, president of US-based Generation of Youth and Educators Succeeding, who is one of the resource persons of the second ICT Education Conference, stressed this in her talk to explain how educators can discern the difference between hype and promise in considering computer games as an effective tool for learning in the classroom. According to studies, although there are still objections to games from educators who advocate for project-based learning, many teachers view school-age students' attraction to video and computer games with envy and hope that any educational experience that occurs on a computer will somehow capture the magic. 'There is much to learn from exploring the educational promise of games in the classroom,' said Martinez.
In her talk that dwelt on the subject 'Myths, Realities and Promise,' Martinez, however, said students can learn if they programme their own games to make them understand better a particular subject they are discussing in the classroom. She said teaching game design that would suit the specific need of a subject discussed in the classroom is not that really hard since there are many teachers in many parts of the world who are doing it citing those in UK and Australia where they joined networks and get friendly supports to develop a computer game design for learning. 'Game design involve the kind of problem-solving that make math come alive,' said Martinez. There are Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) games that are professionally designed and offers compelling game play but Martinez said these are not necessarily accurate, not connected to curriculum subjects and time consuming.
NIIT initiative for 1,870 Gujarat Schools
Global Talent Development Corporation, NIIT has entered into a contract with the Department of Education, Government of Gujarat, to introduce Computer Aided Learning in 1,870 high and higher secondary government schools for classes 9-12 in Gujarat. The five-year contract valued at Rs 84.38 crore, would impact around 9,00,000 school students across Gujarat, thus consolidating yet another State into NIIT's portfolio after its recent foray into Rajasthan with 1,672 schools. Based on its track record of providing quality ICT education solutions in schools NIIT bagged the majority share of the contract awarded by the Government of Gujarat. L. Balasubramanian, President, School Learning Solutions, NIIT Ltd, told BSE on Monday, 'We are honoured to partner with the Department of Education, Gujarat for the first time, in their initiative to promote computer education across 1,870 government schools in the State. We remain committed towards making education more impactful and interactive, by leveraging IT, and ensuring that the best tools and resources are made available to the school students. The confidence placed in us by two new States in Gujarat and Rajasthan, bears testimonial to our cause.'
NIIT had recently bagged the single largest turnkey IT education contract in the school segment in the country of 2005 schools from the Government of Andhra Pradesh. This was followed by its bagging of orders from the Rajasthan government (1672 schools) and two back to back orders from the Maharashtra and Bihar State governments to provide training in 900 schools for the next five years.
Applied Learning: A new approach
Toss out conventional textbooks and design a curriculum from scratch. Assess students on an ongoing basis, rather than the usual exam or test framework. To keep apace with students who have been brought up to consider online socialising the norm and the Internet their main source of information, these are some of the big steps the School of Science of Technology (SST) in Clementi
No science tests in primary schools
They will be replaced by a less formal system of ‘teacher assessment’ to encourage more experiments and group work in the classroom. But exams in English and mathematics will remain at the end of primary school, ministers will announce today. A panel of experts was established by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, to reform the way children aged five to 14 are assessed in England. At the moment, children take Sats tests in reading, writing, maths and science in the final year of primary education.
The group’s report – being published on Thursday – will stop short of demanding the all-out abolition of Sats, but it is likely to downgrade science. Science tests are expected to be replaced with a ‘beefed up’ system of classroom assessment, in which teachers log children’s progress during a series of set pieces of work. It follows concerns that existing tests fail to properly measure children’s grasp of the subject.
The new-style system will allow for more experiments to be completed in small groups. The expert panel, which includes Sir Jim Rose, who led a recent overhaul of the primary curriculum, will also call for computing to be put on an equal footing with science between the age of seven and 11. Teachers will be expected to assess pupils’ skills in ICT (information and communication technology) in a similar way.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said, ‘If there is a concern that tests are turning young children off science, then the same is true for English and maths. If anything, this move will simply narrow the curriculum further because it will encourage schools to concentrate on two subjects instead of three.’
The report will also make recommendations about how schools can ensure preparation for Sats is, ‘proportionate educationally appropriate”. It follows criticism that Sats encourage schools to “teach to the test,’ dropping other subjects such as history, geography, PE and art to give pupils exam coaching. In a further move, it will endorse Government plans for new-style “report cards” to give parents more information about children’s progress at school.
Sports peoson find opening at Jamia
Jamia Millia Islamia has invited applications for admission to its under-graduate and post-graduate non-professional courses for the coming academic year from sportspersons who have represented their State, university and region in different games. The sports admissions are exempted from the entrance test and are done on the basis of sports achievements and trials. Application forms can be collected from the office of games and sports on the Jamia campus on all working days between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. The last date for submission of forms is July 4. The final list of selected candidates will be displayed on the notice board of the office of games and sports on August 11 and on www.jmi.nic.in
Educational scheme Pendle to expand
A Pioneering scheme which provides education and training to Pendle youngsters who are not in school looks set to expand. Since The Alternative School (TAS) was set up in Brierfield in 2007, it has provided hundreds of youngsters with access to learning. Now plans for a second base in the old Barnoldswick Town Council premises in Fernlea Avenue have been submitted to Pendle Council. Town hall chiefs are expected to make a decision on the blueprints to transform the office space to an education facility very soon. The new centre at The Old Library will offer an alternative Key Stage Four curriculum for children aged 14 to 16, who are not in mainstream education. Group manager Kirsty-Anne Pugh is anticipating that it will have 20 full-time places for local youngsters who fall into this category. She said that the young people who benefit from TAS have had low attendance at school for a number of different reasons. Pupils from years 10 and 11 often attend TAS to continue studying for GCSEs in literacy, numeracy and ICT.
Pugh said the aim was not only to help children with reading, writing, numeracy and ICT skills, but also to build self-esteem and confidence. She added, 'The whole idea behind setting up TAS was to avoid young people being out of work and out of education between 16 and 18. A lot of these kids have had a real negative experience at school. We don't want to put pressure on them, so we let them write their own timetables. By setting their own attendance times, we've had an average turnout of 90 to 100 %. Our aim is to mainly work on personal development and to let them take ownership and control of their own learning, therefore making their own choices about their future lives.' TAS is also involved in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards programme, which gets young people to develop practical and social skills, improve themselves through physical activity, volunteer their services to the community and undertake an expedition.
6 teams shortlisted at Srijan’10
The Indus World School of Business (IWSB), Greater Noida, recently announced the 6 finalists of Srijan'10, a unique initiative aimed at harnessing India's entrepreneurial talent. Srijan, an initiative of IWSB provides a springboard to the numerous entrepreneurial ideas across the whole country. The school through its Incubation Centre envisages promoting the values of entrepreneurial leadership, with the aim to nurture, harness and bring the entrepreneurial ideas amongst its student community and also facilitate such opportunities in the country at large. The winning start-up ideas are currently in the process of being incubated at the incubation centre of entrepreneurship cell of the institute, known as CIEL (Centre for Inspiring Entrepreneurial Leadership). The participating ideas were brought in by teams from all over the country and were from across sectors like technology, environment, energy, business consultants, etc. The judging panel comprised of: Prakash Bagri (Head-Marketing, Intel), Anuj Sinha (Advisor & Head-NCSTC, Govt. of India), Pradeep Gupta (Chairman, Cybermedia Group), Sunita Singh (Sr. Director, NEN), Rahul Nanda (COO, Webchutney), Kapil Arora (Partner, Universal Legal), Satya Narayanan (Chairman, Career Launcher), Gautam Puri (Vice-Chairman, Career Launcher), Deepak Bansal (CEO & Founder, Clearpath Technology. All the participating teams were examined against parameters of feasibility, sustainability, scalability and many more. The teams that earned incubation for themselves include Green-O-Bin, 6 pi Consultants,Team Bharat, Advait Energy, Bio-Sol, and Shiv Shakti Enterprise.
Green-O-Bin provide end-to-end solution for paper waste management, consultancy to reduce the waste as well as complete paper recycling solutions to help organization understand Product Stewardship. Green-O-Bin aims 'Near to Zero Landfill' policy by providing source segregation and recycling services for waste paper. 6 pi Consultants aspires for Acting as intervening agents in the current education system- by improvising the inputs to learning, creating positively contributing human assets for the corporate and the society. Mobilizing a pool of skilled intellectual labour (working professionals) and creating synergies between the industry's requirement (demand) and the institutions' (supply). Assisting the corporate to reduce the learning curve for new hires and thereby maximise effectiveness and productivity of the workforce. Future planned developments include providing research and consulting services courtesy the dynamic pool of resources at disposal and the acquired student base over the years. Advait Energy is an 'Affordable Clean Energy' company that aims to provide clean energy solutions to customers at the bottom of the pyramid via a sustainable, for-profit approach. The company is addressing two challenges currently faced by the energy industry. Firstly, over 1.6 billion people in the world still lack access to electricity. Secondly, conventional methods of electricity generation have come at a great cost to the environment. Advait Energy offers solutions for distributed small-scale generation of electricity from renewable energy sources, with an emphasis on places where access to electricity is currently negligible or non-existent. The company is based in New Delhi and is currently focusing on providing solar power in rural parts of Northern India.
Pomegranate production has been suffering due to the 'oily spot disease'. The scientific community has failed to control the disease & recommended the government to stop fresh planting and go for a crop holiday for 10 years. After extensive research, they have successfully developed a formulation to tackle this problem. We intend to commercialise this product. Their services include support services, educational campaigns to guide farmers to improve productivity. Company is looking forward to expand its business to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Shiv Shakti Enterprise is an innovation led electronics manufacturing company. 'Lifesaving finger ring' is one of their unique products. It's a security device which works through Mobile phone, finger ring & RFID technology. It's useful for disabled, elderly peoples, Police, Banks, vehicles, Petrol Pumps & various other purposes.
TERI, IGNOU to hold Digital Libraries Conference
An international conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2010 will be jointly organised by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as part of IGNOU's Silver Jubilee Year celebrations. ICDL 2010 is proposed to be organized during February 23-26, 2010 in New Delhi. ICDL 2010 is the third conference in TERI's 'International Conference on Digital Libraries' series. The conference is to focus on web-based methodologies and the theme of the three-day conference is 'Digital Libraries: Shaping the Information Paradigm and the focus is on the strengths and potential of digital libraries and their role in education, cultural, social and economic development.'
In the event, IGNOU's participation is to support strengthening its arena of ICT, Web-based methodologies and digitisation for promoting seamless access to all. The speakers in the conference would include Prof. Michael Seadle, Director, Berlin School of Library and Information Science, Prof. Dr Erich J Neuhold Professor, Computer Science, University of Vienna, Austria and Edie Rasmussen, Professor and Director, School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
