Teaching Aid Frog in line for National Award

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April 15, 2009

Online teaching aid specialist Frog has been shortlisted for a national award. The Dean Clough-based company gives secondary school teachers, administrative staff and students tailor-made learning platforms which are embedded in the school's working practices. It helps schools and local authorities develop better ways of addressing educational needs and empowering students and staff to achieve excellence in education. Now Frog is among the finalists for the ICT Company of the Year BETT (British Education and Training Technology) award, one of the most sought after awards in the education industry.

The firm has been recognised for its ability to radically improve the engagement of pupils and the academic results of schools across more than 80 local authorities in the UK. The BETT Show 2010, the world's largest education technology event, will showcase some of Frog's work with the help of teachers and parents. Students are also encouraged to learn independently and develop a more mature and academic approach to their work through Frog. Using the remote user application, pupils can access the school network, software packages and learning resources from their own homes.

IGNOU ties with MAAC to offer animation programme

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April 15, 2009

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has collaborated with the Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) to offer programme in animation. The varsity has decided to offer animation programme to meet the rising demands of animation professionals. In addition to Bachelor of Arts in 3D Animation and visual effects, the varsity is also going to offer an 18 month Diploma in Computer Generated Imagery and a six month Certificate course in Film Making. 'IGNOU will be responsible for the theoretical content and training will also be monitored by the varsity. While the faculty and the animation software will be provided by MAAC,' said Yogesh Panjanani, vice president, MAAC. The classes will be conducted at 63 MAAC centres across the country.

Curriculum for BA animation will be designed by experts from both IGNOU and MAAC. It will train students in animation skills and also impart soft skills, business and production management training, and an orientation to student on an actual project of creation of content. Admission will be offered on the basis of performance in the entrance test followed by an interview. Students will have to appear for an aptitude test to prove their computer knowledge and ability for the course. 'In the degree course, subjects like organisational behaviour and English are made mandatory. Hence, by the end of it students will be industry-ready along with the animation skills,' added Panjanani.

Quota in elite English medium schools promised by SP

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April 15, 2009

Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav may have an aversion to English as stated in his party's election manifesto – but his colleagues in Uttarakhand do not seem to share his views. The party's Uttarakhand unit is planning to release a separate manifesto highlighting state-specific issues. And one prominent issue will be 10 % reservation for local students in English-medium public schools. This demand goes against what Mulayam has been saying. He has opposed the use of English in government offices and even suggested that expensive English-medium schools be abolished. But SP's state leaders say Uttarakhand's concerns are different from those of Uttar Pradesh. 'If our party comes to power at the Centre or becomes part of the ruling coalition, we'll ensure 10 % reservation for locals in the public schools of Uttarakhand,' told Vinod Barthwal, SP's national general secretary on Monday.

Barthwal said that the move was necessary because Uttarakhand's reputable public schools – especially those located in Dehradun, Mussoorie and Nainital – discriminated against students from the state. He added, 'The schools don't allow admission to needy local students on the grounds of caste, religion and financial status.' He said a separate SP manifesto – likely to be released this week – would promise 'reservation for students.' The public schools rubbished the demand for reservation. 'It is ridiculous and we will oppose such political agenda,' said Dev Lahiri, principal of Welham Boys School. He said public schools never denied admission on the basis of caste, religion or financial status. 'We have to keep in consideration the growing cost of education, but schools are committed to education for all and Welham even offers scholarships.'

ANUSAT of Anna University to be launched on April 20 by ISRO

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April 15, 2009

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch Anna University's 50 kg micro satellite ANUSAT, designed and fabricated at the University on April 20, Vice-Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar said here on April 13. The satellite is being sponsored by ISRO. Addressing the students and the faculties at the Annual Day of the College of Engineering, Guindy (CEGC), Dr. Jawahar appreciated the efforts and hard work of the faculties' in moulding the students and said the commitment of the industry has helped the university to offer more courses to the students. S. Madhavan, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant Foundations' conferred the awards to meritorious students and urged them to train themselves with the skills that would be required once they join the industry. The global recession should not let young engineering graduates get deterred as it would not last for long.

Recalling the time when he graduated in 1966 from the College of Engineering, the country was facing an economic crisis. He said, 'We were determined to educate and specialise ourselves inspite of the economic crisis and cultivated the seeds of entrepreneurship. The current economic downtrend will not last for a long time. And among the economies of the world, India has weathered well.' The information technology sector had 'grabbed all graduates' anticipating growth, irrespective of the candidates' skills leaving other industries with no candidates to recruit. Budding engineers should keep themselves abreast of the engineering skills and should be versatile by participating in professional societies and taking up certificate programmes. With more companies 'shifting design activities to India, it entails our engineers to be good at design technology. The expectation of the industry has changed and they now expect you to have a higher set of industry-specific skills.' He explained that they look for good communication skills, problem solving, analytical ability, intellectual honesty, high ethical values, teamwork, innovative thinking and capability to understand and apply emerging technologies. P. Shahabudeen, head of the Department of Industrial Engineering, listed the various activities of the college in collaboration with the industry. CEGC Dean M. Sekar, Student Advisor, S. Muttan and President of Student Union, P. Kalaiarasan spoke. A total of 77 students graduated in 2008-09 from the college.

e-Learning centres for better access to education in northern Ontario

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April 15, 2009

This year, at least 20 distance-learning centres will be available in Ontario to provide students better access to education in remote areas of northern Ontario.

According to Barbara Taylor, President of Canadore College, 27 per cent of northern Ontarians aged 15 and over don't have direct access to a college or university campus in their community. These distance-learning centres will provide the students in Cobalt, Elk Lake and Fort Albany to take courses at Lakehead University and Cambrian College among others, using audio and video conferencing. Some other communities, many heavily aboriginals, will receive money to upgrade existing technology. It's part of a plan to improve post-secondary enrolment rates in the north as stated by Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Chris Bentley. The government committs $1.5 million to fund the new centres.

Master plan to develop Vietnam’s digital content industry (DCI)

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April 15, 2009

The Ministry of Post and Telematics (MPT) of Vietnam revealed a master plan at the Vietnam Information and Communication Technology Outlook 2006, opened in Ho Chi Minh City on July 11, to develop Vietnam's Digital Content Industry (DCI) targets, to earn US$400 million revenues in 2010 and uphold an average annual growth rate of 50 percent.

DCI is a design, production, publishing, storage, distribution and publication industry of digital content products and related services like information lookup, digital entertainment, online healthcare and online learning. According to the Director General the MPT's Department of Information Technology Industry, Nguyen Anh Tuan, Vietnam is having 10,000 DCI experts and the number will triple by 2010. The department is also planning to develop human resources, to improve legal policy for DCI, to support enterprises and digital products, to protect intellectual property and to develop e-Learning and games, and cartoons on Vietnam's history. At present, Vietnam is developing six DCI fields, such as e-Education, online games, Internet content development, mobile network services, digital film and e-Learning.

Disaster warning system at low cost by IIT Delhi

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April 15, 2009

Professor Subrat Kar of the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT-Delhi's Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology and Management and his students Dinesh Lohan and Kuldeep Singh have developed this multi-purpose low-cost display kiosk. The project has been funded by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services in Hyderabad with active participation of Dr. Shailesh Nayak, former director of INCOIS, who is now the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. 'INCOIS approached us asking if the information present with them could be disseminated to coastal areas. There is already a system in place, but it is quite expensive. They wanted a low-cost device,' said Professor Kar.

The warning system was one of the projects on display at 'I2Tech Open House 2009' on the IIT campus this past weekend. When a disaster like tsunami, flash flood or super-cyclone is about to strike, the kiosk — that costs about INR 50,000, will double up as a self-powered warning device establishing multiple low-capacity communication links with available networks. The kiosk also has a hooter attached to it for alerting people in times of a disaster, which is audible up to 5 km. It will also start flashing lights that are visible from the sea. The LCD monitor will start displaying warning messages in regional Indian languages. If the fishermen and coastal residents register themselves with the kiosk, it will also send bulk SMS warnings to them. 'This system will reach out to most people. It shows the warning on the screen, plays it out, disseminates it through SMS, and, more importantly, costs less. We began working on this two-year project in 2008. This is our first prototype and we will get an improved product in another one year,' added Professor Kar.

UK: National database to unmask the unrealised potentials

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April 15, 2009

A pioneering national initiative is launched by Department of Education and Skills Schools Minister Andrew Adonis to help teachers to identify and stretch some of the brightest children whose true potential may in the past have gone unrealised or have been masked by social disadvantage.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Under this plan, for the first time a national-scale database will be created in UK. There will also be an onus on schools to ensure that the background of their gifted and talented children should be broadly representative of the whole school population. The new register will cover all children identified as gifted and talented by their schools and provide data to encourage schools to consider children they have not so far identified. Schools are also being encouraged to identify the top 5 percent of 11-19 year-olds nationally, for registration at the National Academy for Gifted and Talented (NAGTY). There are some 200,000 of these – part of the wider gifted and talented population – and 100,000 have been registered with NAGTY to date.

Poor Educational facilities catch spotlight in polls

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April 15, 2009

Kids travelling several kilometres to different areas in the city for better school and higher education, poor facilities in government schools, lack of counselling for students, hostel facilities and poor sports facilities at schools. These are some of the problem areas related to education in the Northwest Delhi parliamentary constituency that few former Members of Parliament have bothered to address over the years. The constituency has around 18 lakh voters and also the highest number of youths, who remain deprived of a quality education in their own area. This Lok Sabha election, the main issue in the agenda of both Congress and BJP candidates Krishna Tirath and Meera Kanwaria vying for the Northwest seat is better education. The Northwest constituency has 10 Assembly seats – Narela, Badli, Rithala, Bawana, Mundka, Kirari, Sultanpur Majra, Nangloi Jat, Mangolpuri and Rohini. Despite a large number of students passing out from schools every year, these areas boast of having just three colleges of the Delhi University – Swami Shraddhanand College (co-ed) in Alipur, Aditi College (for girls) in Bawana and Delhi College of Engineering (DCE). Students have to travel to the North Campus or opt for Correspondence even if they get a high percentage.

'There are a limited number of seats in Shraddhanand College. Being a girl, I cannot travel 20 km everyday when there is only one mode of transport, i.e., the bus, here. I had to opt for a correspondence course despite scoring 84 per cent in Class XII,' said Monika Bhardwaj, a student from Narela.

IGNOU and UNESCO collaborate for National Symposium on Media Education

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April 14, 2009

In order to commemorate the birth anniversary of late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi and to mark the start of year long Silver Jubilee celebrations of the establishment of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the School of Journalism & New Media Studies (SOJNMS) is organizing a two-day National Symposium on 'Challenges and Opportunities of Media Education in India' on the 20-21 November, 2009, in collaboration with UNESCO.

It has led to the entry of numerous stakeholders offering diverse programmes, courses, curricula etc at various levels catering to the rise in demand for skilled personnel in the field, leading to a chaotic situation. Also the debate for including media literacy education right from school in democracies has been gaining momentum globally. At this juncture, with a view to provide a platform for meaningful deliberations for chalking a roadmap for the future of media literacy education in the country, the School has taken up this initiative. The symposium is being supported by many national and international agencies such as UNESCO, the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), etc. promoting media literacy education globally. The deliberations shall be spread over four main theme-wise Plenary Sessions like-Status of Media Education in India, A Systemic Approach to Media Education, Need for Horizontal and Vertical Expansion of the Horizons of the Discipline, The Challenge and Opportunities Ahead and a few sub themes.

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