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Corporate News: Sep 2008

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

New TalentTracker e-Learning Zone

Logical Innovations, UK provider of TalentTracker online recruitment software, has launched a valuable new feature to provide HR Managers with effortless learning resources for new system users.

The e-Learning Zone can be included as part of any TalentTracker Enterprise solution, the bespoke e-Recruitment system for large companies and call centres. The e-Learning Zone is included in the secure back office and allows users to readily access a series of quick guides and short demos while they are using the system. In addition, the users can also choose from a series of quick guides, which provide colour illustrated step-by-step instructions to allow users to quickly accomplish tasks.

Cegos launches complete blended learning solution for UK market

Cegos UK, part of European training and development company, has launched its new blended learning solution, Global Learning by Cegos. In addition, Cegos has also launched e-learning solutions – a catalogue of over 250 online training modules, many of which will be included in its blended learning solutions or provided as stand-alone learning tools. There will be 24 separate Global Learning by Cegos programmes available in 2009 and a further 20 available in 2010.

Global Learning by Cegos combines the latest skills-based, face-to-face learning techniques with relevant and interactive online training modules. It also provides self assessment opportunities across the learning activity to help individuals track their knowledge and skills developments. The entire programme can be deployed internationally, is available in seven different languages, and tailored to the needs of specific clients.

Atlantic Link launches low cost rapid e-Learning development service

Atlantic Link has launched a low cost, rapid e-learning development service, which provides organisations  with high quality custom e-learning courses developed in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional vendors.

The rapid e-Learning software from Atlantic Link allows customers to collaboratively develop their own e-learning in record time, without the need for programming skills. Since the software is collaborative and server based, custom content is developed live on web servers, meaning that courses are available online as soon as production starts. Full workflow tools embedded into the software also allow customers to keep track of their projects and collaborate in the development process, reducing review cycles.

Educomp to buy 76% stake in A-Plus Education

Indian e-Learning solutions provider Educomp Solutions said it would acquire 76% stake in A-Plus Education Solutions for INR 10.75 crore in the next two years. A-Plus Education is operating under the brand name ‘Purple Leap’ and focuses on the area of improving employability of college graduates.

The company will focus on preparing students currently studying in over 15,000 colleges in the country for workplace.  ‘Along with our recently announced partnership with Raffles Education Corporation for professional education, Educomp’s foray into skills completes our 360 approach to helping students achieve their fullest potential,’ Educomp Solutions CEO Shantanu Prakash said.

OnForce to utilise DirectPointe’s e-Learning solution for its IT community

Management service provider DirectPointe has announced an agreement with OnForce, the world’s largest marketplace for IT service professionals, to private label DirectPointe’s learning management system. Under this, OnForce will utilise DirectPointe’s secure e-Learning portal to offer educational and training programmes to their community of more than 12,000 IT professionals.

‘DirectPointe’s e-Learning portal provides the critical functionality and resources we need for our community of IT professionals,’ said Jose Bernal, Sr VP, Business Development, OnForce. The e-Learning portal empowers OnForce to easily create, distribute and track interactive training and presentations for its professionals and partners. In addition, OnForce is able to monitor usage statistics, survey responses and user activity, enabling the firm to optimise its content and programmes to maximise their impact.

Educomp launches tele-education programme

Educomp Solutions has launched ETEN programme to provide training in accounting, softskills, English language and coaching for Chartered Accountant (CA) across the country through VSAT-enabled learning centres. For this, a national network of Educomp Learning Centres (ELCs) will be established to provide access to high quality faculty, content and certification through a unique blend of face-to-face and distance education pedagogy.

The portfolio of services being offered currently is ETEN CA – technology-enabled coaching for CA aspirants and accountant training; ETEN ET – employability training; and ETEN ELT – English language training. First off the ground, ETEN CA is initially being launched in Delhi, Chandigarh and Ludhiana and will be offered shortly from 30 additional locations across the country.

Spanco Telesystems launches BPO training hubs for underprivileged

Spanco Telesystems and Solutions has launched project ‘Sarthak’ to enable sustainable livelihood options for the underprivileged rural and urban youth by providing skills training and access to employment opportunities in the services sector. Under the project, Spanco along with ngo Seed, will be setting up BPO training hubs across the country, the first of which has been set up in Gurgaon, Haryana.

The BPO training hubs established under ‘Sarthak’ will focus on imparting vocational competencies and further access to employment opportunities. Each beneficiary will be assigned a mentor from Spanco for a period of six months and the training will cover basic computer skills, call centre operations, personality development, spoken English and communication skills, and basic management skills. On completion of training, a certificate will be issued and adequate placement support will also be provided.

24×7 Learning to enhance skills in Rajasthan

24×7 Learning has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rajasthan government to offer employability enhancement programmes under the aegis of ‘Knowledge Centres’ across major colleges in the western Indian state. Under the agreement, the talent lifecycle management company will launch an employability enhancement programme ‘SkillBridge’.

The project will be implemented in a phased manner. Initially, this initiative will be offered in seven colleges in cities like Dungarpur, Banswara, Chitorgarh, Bhilwara, Beawar, Sikar and Kaladehra. SkillBridge is expected to open new avenues by providing employable skills and therefore create better career opportunities for fi

India Formulating a National Policy on ICT in School Education

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

At  the eINDIA2007, Ministry of Human Resource Development announced the need for a National Policy on ICT in School Education, for which it initiated a consultative process along with Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative to address the 21st century challenges in teaching and learning using technology tools. A draft document was developed under the guidance of Ministry of HRD, Department of School Education & Literacy through a series of consultations with major stakeholders in the ICT in Education domain; including national consultations, workshops and a series of e-discussions pertaining to integration of ICTs in school education.

As part of efforts to take this dialogue forward with the government functionaries and experts on methods of effective implementation of ICT in school education, a panel discussion was organised at eINDIA2008 on July 30, 2008. The broader objective was  to create opportunity for discussion on three vital issues concerning effective implementation of ICTs in schools, namely,

  • Should there be a national vision for integrating ICTs in school education? Is effective implementation of  ICTs in schools impeded by lack of a guiding document portraying a national focus.
  • States bear the onus of effective implementation of ICTs in schools. What should the policy document prescribe to aid the process of its implementation in states?
  • What are the challenges faced during its implementation and possible ways to combat these challenges?

We present you the report of the Policy session in Digital Learning India 2008 ‘Perspective of States as Implementers’ The learnings and recommendations derived from the panel discussion have been collated and presented to the Ministry of HRD to enable a participatory and informed policy  formulation with strategic guidelines to all stakeholders.

Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, along with Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI), founded by the UN ICT Task Force, and CSDMS has initiated a consultative process to formulate ‘National Policy on ICT in School Education’ to address the needs and challenges for teaching and learning in the 21st century using technology tools.

A draft document was developed under the guidance of  Ministry of HRD’s Department of School Education & Literacy through a series of consultations with major stakeholders in the ICT in Education domain; including national consultations, workshops and a series of e-discussions pertaining to integration of ICTs in school education.

To take this dialogue forward with the government functionaries from the Centre and States and experts in the field of education on effective implementation of ICTs in school education, a panel discussion was organised at eINDIA2008 on July 30, 2008.

The consultation provided an opportunity to gather regional knowledge on the experiences and challenges involved in implementing ICTs in schools, especially in rural schools.

The State representatives shared their perspective on the challenges/ impediments that they have faced while implementing and integrating ICT programmes in the school education system. The panel experts thereafter provided a deeper understanding of the policy process and responded to concerns and issues raised by State representatives and participants in the session.

The broad objective of the panel discussion was to create opportunities for discussion on three crucial and vital concerns which need to be addressed for effective implementation of ICTs in schools. These concerns are:

  • Should there be a National Vision for integrating ICTs in School Education? Is effective implementation of ICTs in Schools impeded by the lack of a guiding document portraying a National focus?
  • States bear the onus of effective implementation of ICTs in Schools. What should the policy document prescribe to aid the process of implementation in schools to ensure maximum learning advantage for students?
  • What are the challenges faced during implementation and possible ways to combat these challenges?

Secretary, School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Arun Kumar Rath was the Chief Guest and key note speaker. The session was chaired by Joint Secretary, School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD, Subhash C Khuntia and moderated by GeSCI Country Director, India, Ashish Garg.

In his key note address, Arun Kumar Rath highlighted the aggressive investments and actions on the part of Government of India to provide quality education to all children of the country. The universalisation of primary education has been nearly achieved with about 97% children and habitats covered at primary school level. This coverage is about 90% at upper primary school level. The Government has ensured provision of at least one primary school within 1 km. and upper primary school within 3 km.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is the flagship programme of the Government to achieve Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE). SSA in partnership with State governments seeks to provide quality elementary education, including life skills and also computer education to bridge the digital divide.

Rath announced the launch of Rashtriya Madhyamik Abhiyan (RMA) in near future to show the Government’s determination and commitment to address the needs, challenges and priorities of education at secondary level. RMA will be the new educational flagship programme of the Government at the secondary level on the lines of SSA. The Government will provide necessary funds, resources and capacity building to upgrade 40,000 secondary schools in the country to become good quality schools. The goal would be to have one best school in every block and especially every backward block.
Rath also dwelved upon the questions that need to be reflected upon: What is the value of ICT in school education? Is there a need for a National Vision? What should the National Policy prescribe? What are the challenges which the states face while implementing ICTs? At the outset of her address, Ashish Garg presented the Compendium on National Policy on ICT in School Education: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective to the Secretary, Education, Chair and panelists.
She briefly discussed the consultative process initiated last year to enable an informed discourse and perspective sharing among all stakeholders in order to identify the needs, challenges and priorities to be addressed in the proposed
National Policy of ICT in School Education. She highlighted the objectives and expected outcomes from the panel discussion, which revolved around three questions mentioned above in the report. Moderator Ashish Garg, Country Programme Director-India, GeSCI Arun Kumar Rath with the Compendium on A National Policy for ICT in School Education – A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective
Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008 53 S C Khuntia, who chaired the session, called for bringing uniformity and clarity amongst the States on implementation of ICTs in education. A set of coherent implementing guidelines giving a broad direction to the States are required. The document would be a reference point for all levels. He emphasised the need for consultations in evolving a robust and dynamic policy which would make ICT integration at schools easier. A dynamic and flexible policy would help the States in leveraging ICTs in school education. Khuntia pointed out three key challenges in education, viz., access, equity and quality, especially at secondary level. ICTs may play a major role in addressing them. The proposed ICT policy is expected to further the educational objectives. He stressed on addressing issues related to infrastructure, connectivity, content, teachers training, best practices, M&E and PPP. He also called for reflections on targets and timelines for implementation. The policy may also provide standards and norms for procurement and other areas, which States require. In conclusion, Khuntia invited all the stakeholders, including teachers, students, NGOs etc. to come forward and contribute in the process. ‘We have to move from ICT labs to ICT enabled classes in our schools,’ he added. The second part of the session saw two presentations by State  epresentatives from Gujarat and Jharkhand. Secretary, Primary Education, Gujarat, Anita Karwal presented State’s perspective on proposed ICT policy and shared the State’s experience with Computer Aided Learning in schools. Gujarat has covered 5,371 schools till date through BOOT model. Remaining 14,885 schools will be covered in current year with the same model. 23 Multimedia based CD have been developed for Maths, EVS and Co-curricular activities in collaboration with  zim Premji Foundation for classes 3 to 7. Teachers have been trained with the help of INTEL, she added. Some of the challenges faced by Gujarat in implementation
of ICTs in schools i clude procurement, capacity limitations, scale, remoteness, language, quickly changing technology, software, connectivity and operating  ystems. Karwal made ollowing suggestions for the National Policy on ICT in School Education: Standardise procurements – should we procure hardware,
software or services Connectivity options Research based benchmarking of expected outcomesaccreditation of schools for CAL Constant review of policy to ensure availability of latest technology ICT policy for standardising database for creating national grid for enabling child tracking/mapping, monitoring drop out, retention Funding – under SSA of computer labs/ rooms, service oriented CAL programme Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Jharkhand, Ram Sevak Sharma made a presentation on experience, challenges and needs of education in the State. Some of the educational challenges faced by the State include  access, retention, quality  f education, quality of teachers, para-teachers of poor quality and poor infrastructure, he said. The State’s experience inimplementing ICTs in schools has been positive, supported by third party evaluations. In the near future, the State plans to provide computer education and computer-aided learning to all government school students of Class IX to  II. He said Jharkhand has also Anita Karwal, Secretary, Primary Education, Gujarat Chair Subhash C Khuntia, Jt Sec, Dept of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of HRD 54 September 2008 | www.digitalLearning.in experimented with following models for implementing ICTs in education: Total government ownership of equipments and their maintenance Total outsourcing of hardware, software and teachers/ manpower Hybrid solution : Hardware, its maintenance and training with service provider, teachers and customised software with state
He said the experience with various options has enabled the State to consider  he following model for implementing ICT in  eaching and learning in schools in future: BOO model for 5 years Service Provider (SP) provides hardware, maintains it, trains teachers Service Level Agreement (SLA) becomes the yardstick  to measure SP’s performance through a Third Party Monitoring Agency (TPA) Flexible to accommodate various implementation models Takes care of variation in infrastructure availability – power, connectivity, manpower Focus on internal capacity building Leverage private sector efficiencies Promote open source and standards Flexibility in financial norms Sharma emphasised on the need to address the following issues in the proposed ICT  olicy:  lexible to accommodate various implementation models Takes care of variation in infrastructure availability – power, connectivity, manpower  Focus on internal capacity buildingLeverage private sector efficiencies  Promote open source and standards Flexibility in financial norms Following the State presentations, the expert panelists took  the opportunity to share their perspective on issues raised by the States and responded to some of the concerns. There was consensus amongst the panelists about a supportive role of ICTs in education. According to Prof Vasudha Kamat, Joint Director, Central
Institute of Educatio al Technology, ICTs are not the sole answer to all the problems. However, it will change the way we learn and share knowledge. ICTs may address the issues of access and quality of education.  Prof. M M Pant, Former Pro Vice-Chancellor, IGNOU, found the potential of ICTs in improving  the learning levels of students. ICT is no more an added advantage but an essential aspect of higher education. ‘If ICT is the answer, what is the  question? Is it education for all or quality education for all? Are we going to concentrate on Art of Teaching or the Science of Learning? What is our goal? Good students with the help of good teachers doing well or mediocre students with average, ordinary teachers doing well?’ We need teaching methods propagated through technology which enables 80% of the Ram Sevak Sharma, Principal Secretary, Jharkhand Vasudha Kamat, Jt Dir, CIET, NCERTM M Pant, Former Pro VC, IGNOU Digital Learning | Vol 4 Issue 9 September 2008 55 population to learn better. The faster one learns and more independently they learn the better. Uzbekistan has made computer education mandatory in schools and has issued
certifi cations withou  which one cannot enter jobs. India should learn from such examples, he said. Shakila Shamsu, Joint Advisor, Planning Commission, emphasised on the need to move from teacher to student centric learning, which can be ably supported by ICTs in short time. ICT should be the major factor with teachers just being the facilitators in class. She expressed concern over dearth of good quality e-content in Indian languages. Developing e-content is very important. Though software developers have already started addressing the market needs, governments also need to recognise the importance of content development. Shamsu also felt that there was need to overcome teachers’ resistance to using technologies. Technology phobia faced by teachers should receive immediate attention and computer education for them should be made mandatory and added as part of teachers training, she added. According to Prof. Utpal Malik, Head Computer Division, NCERT, although computer materials for schools are being developed at a fast pace, ICT is still a virtual aspect in class. It has still to become reality. Good hardware or software may not be enough for good education. ICT has to be integrated in the 40 min of classroom curriculum. He said it is time we teach the children to think out of box. It’s like a health drink – stronger, sharper and taller. Project based learning is the best. The need of the hour is to develop a model which is replicable, scalable and suitable for average teachers teaching poor students.
At the end of the session, the expert panelists also res onded to few queries from the audience. The interactive policy session provided a deeper understanding of the policy priorities, needs and concerns of various stakeholders to be addressed in the proposed policy.  Rath expressed concerns over the deficient level of knowledge among the students, especially in Science and Maths and highlighted the role that ICTs could pla in improving reach and quality of education. Most government schools lack good science, mathematics and technology teachers.  Despite the fact that country has a dedicated satellite for education (EDUSAT) and hardware has been provided in schools, these are grossly under-utilised. here is a need for capacity building of teachers in using ICTs in education. Qual ty educational content and in contextualised format are required for the schools  ICTs could reach education to every village and block in the country.
The Secretary, Education also discussed about involvement of IITs and other institutions in improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools. population to learn better. The faster one learns and more independently they learn the better. Uzbekistan has made computer education mandatory in schools and has issued certifi cations without which one cannot enter jobs. India should learn from such examples, he said. Shakila Shamsu, Joint Advisor, Planning Commission, emphasised on the need to move from teacher to student centric learning, which can be ably supported by ICTs in short time. ICT should be the major factor with teachers just being the facilitators in class. She expressed concern over dearth of good quality e-content in Indian languages. Developing e-content is very important. Though software developers have already started addressing the market needs, governments also need to recognise the importance of content development. Shamsu also felt that there was need to overcome teachers’ resistance to using technologies. Technology phobia faced by teachers should receive immediate attention and computer education for them should be made mandatory and added as part of teachers training, she added. According to Prof. Utpal Malik, Head Computer Division, NCERT, although computer materials for schools are being developed at a fast pace, ICT is still a virtual aspect in class. It has still to become reality. Good hardware or software may not be enough for good education. ICT has to be integrated in the 40 min of classroom curriculum. He said it is time we teach the children to think out of box. It’s like a health drink – stronger, sharper and taller. Project based learning is the best. The need of the hour is to develop a model which is replicable, scalable and suitable for average teachers teaching poor students. At the en  of the session, the expert panelists also responded to few queries from the audience. The interactive policy session provided a deeper understanding of the policy priorities, needs and concerns of various stakeholders to be addressed in the proposed policy,

Linking Learning and Livelihood Through ICT

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

CAP Foundation imparts vocational and employability training to underprivileged and out-of-school youth. Apart from facilitating learning, these courses also enable the youth to acquire life skills needed for a positive education-work-life balance. The core module of CAP, which is the life skills education, has been digitised with the aid of multimedia tools. Integrating ICT has helped CAP overcome two major challenges — prevention of the dilution of its well-formulated life skills curriculum and effective facilitator training. This article analyses how the current ICT initiatives has helped CAP develop tools that would add value to its work, help it realise its mission, and provide learning and livelihood solutions for underprivileged youth across regions and countries

In the global, high speed, knowledge driven and competitive new economic order, all facets of modern society are increasingly becoming knowledge dependent. Without the essential knowledge and skills, disadvantaged communities will remain on the margins of society resulting in loss of their potential contributions to the society.

CAP Foundation endeavours to provide education and life skills to a wide range of difficult-to-reach groups of disadvantaged youth through community based programmes spread across India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

It imparts vocational and employability training to in-school, out-of-school and post-high school youth enabling them with entry level competencies in the labour market. The emphasis on Life Skills make re-integration into formal school and institutes of higher learning possible for those youth who have dropped out of mainstream education. Apart from providing education, CAP Foundation also engages with  communities. Right from community targeting, local market scan and student mobilisation to post-training placements, it maintains a strong community focus. On the whole, it aims at social inclusion by enhancing access to education and thus envisages an equitable society.

To further its aim of enhancing educational outreach, CAP Foundation has integrated Information and Communication Technologies in its vocational programmes and life skills modules. It works in the following way: First a need is identified and then various options are explored. An action plan is formulated on how ICT can address the issue, following which the Foundation proceeds with the design and development of suitable ICT interventions.

The current ICT initiatives of the Foundation include:

  • Digital Life Skills Toolkit,
  • Digitised CRS Module and
  • High School Curriculum Supplement

Digital Life Skills Toolkit

Life skills is an important and indispensable part of the CAP model. With an increase in the number of training centres, there arose a need to train more facilitators. But over time, the life skills curriculum was being diluted. In order to effectively train facilitators in life skills, there was a need for a support tool. It was felt that ICT tool in the form of multimedia programmes could capture the essence of life skills training, and distribution of such programmes would enable packaged expertise to benefit audiences.

ICT enabled CAP to develop a facilitator training module for its life skills curriculum, which also helped mitigate its dilution, as the facilitators were now equipped with a self learning and continuous reference tool.

An important aspect of life skills education is its emphasis on the  constructivist theory while delivering lessons. This methodology was incorporated by the DLST by linking delivery of life skills with activities.

Life Skills education has four focus areas:

  • Developing personal competencies
  • Social and interpersonal skills
  • Managing situations
  • Getting ready for work

The ability to learn and maintain the work-life-education balance is the important result that life skills education seeks to attain. In the current educational paradigm, learning what is deemed not immediately relevant is often discarded as unnecessary. Life skills education May seem distant from the skill based education, but it certainly helps the learners in their careers, especially those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It thus contributes to the overall growth of an individual, and hence enhances the quality of education.

Digitised Customer Relations and Sales (CRS) Module

For students wishing to pursue a career in Customer Relationship and Sales(CRS), an understanding of the nuances of dealing with customers is needed. Equally important is their work readiness. More so for those coming from economically disadvantaged background, who need a thorough experience of the urban, consumerist lifestyle.

With the help of ICT, a comprehensive support tool comprising visually appealing demonstrations suited to a scenario was developed to make the CRS course more effective.

The new CRS module developed includes simulations of retail lifestyle with numerous photographic representations and many video demos. The video demos were shot at shopping centres, thus giving a real time picture of the skills required in the retail business.

Some examples from the CRS module include:

  • Grooming,
  • Body language, and
  • Handling a customer, right from their entry to departure after billing

High School Curriculum Supplement (HSCS)

With an ever increasing number of career options available today, there is a need to educate learners on the various careers that they could take up. The High School Curriculum Supplement tool connects the core subjects taught at school with related careers paths through packaged career expertise along with visual appeals on a multimedia platform.

In the first phase of HSCS project, around 20 modules across four subjects were developed and delivered. The audio-visuals, along with effective learning support material helps sustain the learners interest and involvement.

The HSCS helps foster a spirit of inquiry and exploration in a learner and connects them to their aims. It gives them an opportunity to understand the nuances of various career paths and help them take informed decisions.

Subsequent initiatives will enable a more comprehensive career directory that explores a vast variety of career options available to young learners.

Cap has also implemented this project in government schools, where teachers have been trained in the delivery of these lessons. Such   partnerships help extend the impact of this initiative while enabling the educational institutions to use technology confidently and imaginatively in teaching and learning.

Future Initiatives: Expanding Scale and Reach

CAP is constantly involved in an effort to extend its community based model to newer target groups. While its current ICT initiatives focus on enhancing quality of learning, it intends to focus more on scalability and enhancing the reach as part of itsits future initiatives. There is a need to provide continuous education for CAP Foundation pass-outs and other working candidates who wish to acquire new skills and move to wellpaying jobs. For this online programmes can be introduced through learning management systems. Another possible intervention is e-community centres to address the learning needs of communities and engage them at different educational levels through a tv channel for young people, vocational training, part-time and full-time continuous learning programmes. The Internet provides possibilities for real time sharing and management of individual learning plans and portfolios to keep a track of the student’s development. Therefore there is a need for a system that enables easy organisation and collection of information from a variety of sources, to foster a better understanding of students.

Challenges in Implementation of ICT
ICT implementation in education faces lot of challenges. A major challenge is the lack of convincing evidence that ICTs are making a radical contribution to efficiency or effectiveness either at national or organisational level. Although technological advances have helped create necessary infrastructure for promotion and delivery of e- Learning, they cannot be solelyresponsible for the success of this learning approach. The extent to which the teacher and learner can use the technology available to facilitate the learning environment is more important. The second challenge is that of  preparedness. Often facilitators complain of lack of motivation among earners. Online programmes can thus be risky as these demand self-motivated learners. Moreover, there is lack of acceptance on the part of facilitators to use ICT as an educational tool. Awareness of the opportunities that implementation of ICT entails for learners and employers is very important. Concerns about costs are always raised in discussions related to technology. Start-up costs can be high, but economies of scale are  signifi cant. Widespread awareness of e-Learning can draw the masses towards its fold.

The Way Forward
Keeping in mind these challenges, CAP Foundation has made modifi cations in its ICT policy to overcome the roadblocks. For example, since hardware is expensive and resources limited, CAP volunteers try and adjust with whatever little facilities are available to them. Since it is natural to have mental blocks about a new teaching/learning method, facilitators are given enough time toacclimatise with the ICT tools. A twostep training, where facilitators are given initial training and then provided continuous support, helps them to be better prepared for using ICT. Organisations need to work with the realisation that technology is only a tool and no technology can fi x a bad educational philosophy or compensate for bad practice. Educational choices have to be made fi rst in terms of objectives, methodologies, and roles of teachers and students before decisions can be made about the appropriate ICT interventions. It is not the medium that makes the difference; it is the way in which the designer and instructor use the features that are available. Emphasis should therefore be on understanding how e-Learning environments can help people learn.

ICT and Social Inclusion
ICTs hold great promise in empowering individuals and groups from the disadvantaged sections of the society. A fair and concerned humanity requires that the education we provide is made available to a broader range of historically suppressed groups. Educational programmes, language teaching, and training for social and job skills need to be specially designed and delivered to these groups. In contrast with this escalating demand is the lack of preparedness of our education system to even deal with the existing demand. There are signs that ICTs may be a catalyst for divergence between groups: helping the rich more than the poor, men more than women and urban dwellers more than those in rural areas. Defying such possibilities, CAP Foundation strives to achieve social and educational inclusion through its multifarious efforts.

References:
ICTs for Education: A Reference Handbook, Wadi D. Haddad ICT for Education: Potential and Potency, Wadi D. Haddad, Sonia  Jurich Creating a Knowledge-Based Society Through E-Learning in Korea, Hyunjeong Lee Emerging Trends in ICT and  hallenges to Educational Planning, Gudmund Hernes e-Learning in Australia and Korea: Learning From Practice, Josie Misko, Jihee Choi, Sun Yee Hong, In Sook Lee Objectives and Strategies for Effective Use of ICTs, Gajarag Dhanarajan The Economics of ICTs and Global Inequality: Convergence or Divergence for Developing Countries? Richard Heeks & Charles Kenny 2002

Revisiting the Vision of ICT and Education

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

India has seen great technological advances in the last two decades. But it is yet to be fully reflected in the field of education. For a country, whose one-fifth of the population is still in schools, we cannot afford to be left behind in the ICT race.

ICT is here to stay and we better accept it to our advantage, was the underlying current at the digitalLearning India2008 conference held in July end. In this issue of Digital Learning we proudly present to our readers the learnings gathered from the three days of power packed sessions and technology demonstrations.

In the course of discussions and debates, two distinct viewpoints emerged. One that ICT can increase access to education, especially in a vast country like India with its numerous disparities. The other  held a more cautious approach to the whole issue; how much of ICT do we need in education. Merely bombarding classrooms with ICT will not do wonders, we also need motivated teachers and reforms in the education systems.

On the policy front, the event saw a multi-lateral discussion on vital issues of  need for  a national vision on ICT policy for schools, perspective of states and challenges involved.

Apart from the conference report, we also bring to our readers our regular fare of articles on innovative recording solution, distance education initiative from IIT-B and livelihood training. We also have interviews from Dr Ramamurthy, Dr Bhatia who have dwelved on various aspects of technology and education, plus the corporate angle.

We hope all these provide our readers a gainful insight into the vast exapanse of technology and its bearing on education.

Effective Content-based Video Retrieval

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

The article is on video based educational material where presenters deliver educational content. The authors developed a system which is capable of storing educational video clips with their semantics and retrieving required video clip segments efficiently on their semantics. The system creates profiles of presenters appearing in the video clips based on their facial features and uses these profiles to partition similar video clips into logical meaningful segments. This addresses one of the main problems identified in profile construction and propose a novel approach to create the profiles by introducing a profile normalisation algorithm

At its best, e-Learning is individual, customised learning that allows learners to choose and review material at their own pace at anytime anywhere. At its worst, it can disempower and demotivate learners by leaving them lost and unsupported in an immensely confusing electronic realm. Leveraging the most advanced technology, multimedia have raised the learners' interest and provide methods to learn effectively. Multimedia includes more than one form of media such as text graphics, animation, audio, video and video conferencing. Interactivity (interactive learning) is a term that means a computer is used in the delivery of learning material in the context of education and training. In a computer-based interactive learning environment, a person can navigate through it, select relevant information, respond to questions using input devices such as a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or voice command system, complete tasks, communicate with others, and receive assessment feedback. Integration of heterogeneous data as content for e-Learning applications is crucial, since the amount and versatility of processable information is the key to a successful system. Multimedia database systems can be used to organise and manage heterogeneous multimedia e-Learning content.

In an attempt to integrate video clips into e-Learning we have realised that building an index on top of the video library is a requirement to provide efficient access to the video library. This will provide an easy mechanism for a student to navigate through the available video clips without downloading the entire clips and thus provide a solution to the limited bandwidth problem as well. To provide content based retrieval of digital video information, we employ a set of tools developed by us to segment video clips semantically into shots by using low level features. Then we identify those segments where presenters appear and extract the relevant information in key frames. These information are then encoded and compared with a database of similarly encoded key frames. The feature information in video frames of a face is represented as an eigenvector which is considered as a profile of a particular person. In our research, we have designed a multimodal multimedia database system to support content-based indexing, archiving, retrieval and on-demand delivery of audiovisual content in an e-learning. In this system, a feature selection and a feature extraction sub-system have been used to construct presenter profiles. The  feature extraction process transforms the video key-frame data into a multidimensional feature space as feature vectors. These profiles are then used to construct an index over the video clips to support efficient retrieval of video shots. This allows the end-users to use the available bandwidth more efficiently.

But one difficulty we came up with is the profile overlapping when the faces of the presenters are projected to the eigenspace. This occur when the presenters have some features in common and complex to identify as separate profiles. We observed that this happens mainly due the variation among lighting conditions. Our efforts were to construct an algorithm to overcome lighting variations. In this paper, we propose a novel profile normalization algorithm to construct presenter profiles effectively. One of the distinct features of the algorithm is that it is capable of generating profiles at different illumination levels. Our method consequently solves the profile overlapping in eigenspace problem by using certain parameters. This work refines our earlier approach for profile construction which averages all sample key-frame data to construct the presenter profiles.

The main components of our architecture are: a Media Server, Meta-Data Database, Ontology and Object Profiles, Keyword Extractor, Keyword Organiser, Feature Extractor, Profile Creator and the Query Processor. The main emphasis of this research is on the profile creation and normalisation components of the system. The first step of the profile constructor is to extract features from the video Key-frames which containing most of the static information present in a shot. The main inputs to the profile constructor are these key-frames stored in the multimedia database.

The presenter detection and recognition process detects the faces in the key frame and try to match it with the presenter profiles available in the profile database. If the presenter in the key-frames matches with a profile then the system annotates the video shot with the presenter identification and maps it with the metadata database. On the other hand, if the current presenter's key-frames do not match with the available profiles then the profile creator will create a new presenter profile and insert it in to the profile database.

The profile construction is based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The idea is to represent presenter's facial features in a featurespace where the individual features of a presenter are uncorrelated in the eigenspace. The feature space comprises of eigenvectors of the covariance matrix of the key-frame features. In this approach, PCA is computationally intensive when it is applied to the facespace. Through the experience we gained from our initial experiments we have realized that the efficiency of the PCA process in this context can be improved substantially by limiting the analysis to the largest eigenvectors of related key-frames instead of all eigenvectors of key-frames.

Profile normalisser acquires available profiles from profile database and executes the normalisation algorithm and returns the normalised profiles to the database. Since we get key-frames from different lighting conditions we have to have a proper dynamic profile normalization algorithm to maintain the accuracy of the profile matching algorithm to an acceptable level. Therefore we concentrate on two descriptors, normally the mean intensity and its standard deviation of the data set that we use to construct presenter profiles. After investigating the variation of the illumination and the deviation of the mean intensity and standard deviation of a collection of profiles, we have identified few parameters that can be used to develop an algorithm based on these parameters to normalize the profiles with respect to illumination.

Illumination constraint

In our previous approach we have constructed presenter profiles by getting the average intensity values of the faces of presenters in the key-frames of the training set. From the results gathered we have realised that, our system performance deteriorates when the video key-frames are captured at different illumination conditions. The effects of illumination changes in key-frames are due to one of the two factors: The inherent amount of light reflected off the skin of the presenter, or the non-linear adjustment in internal camera control. Both of these conditions can have a<

Intel Classmate PC to go touchscreen

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digitalLEARNING Network
-

It seems touchscreen has become the sine qua non for the new gadgets hitting the shelves in the coming months. Call it the iPhone effect if you will, but it is not just iPhone rivals, but even computers which are going touch feely with a vengeance. Now, Intel has given a complete makeover to what was once touted as the ultra low-cost laptop.

The company has unveiled its third generation Classmate touchscreen PC Tablet at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

The new Classmate is more of a touchscreen tablet, moving completely out of the realm of a low-cost laptop that was devised to take on MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) one laptop per child (OLPC).

The makeover will make Classmate more appealing to a wider cross-section of market segments.

With 8.9-inch touchscreen display that boasts 1024×600 resolution, the PC Tablet runs on Intels' Atom 270 1.6 GHz CPU, and will feature 1GB RAM, up to 8GB flash HDD, SD card slot, USB 2.0 port and even a webcam that can rotate 180 degrees!

The laptop will support battery life of up to 6.5 hours.

However, Intel did not reveal the pricing details. The new machines are expected to hit the market by end of this year.

The company has also announced two-core Atom processor at IDF.

Classmate was conceptualised by Intel three years ago as a low-cost PC project targeted at students and educational institutions in developing nations on the lines of MIT honcho Nicholas Negroponte's pet OLPC project.

Education Council to be set up in India by US

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digitalLEARNING Network
-

The US has announced plans to set up an education council in India with the aim of promoting stronger relations between the academic and industrial sectors.

Funding is set to come from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (BECA), which will discuss the project in greater depth during the US-India CEO forum in October.

The BECA has already put forth “substantial resources” and has worked with a number of IT organisations to make an educational course available online.

Goli Ameri, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs in the US, commented: “It is a massive project. We will have to put together a consortium of companies to make it happen.”

BECA has already implemented the English Access Microscholarship programme, which has provided the deprived children of over 50 countries with English language courses.

The US has further made headlines recently due to the government's pledge to lift its 20-year ban on travellers carrying the HIV/AIDS virus.

IIT-B, Wipro sign MoU to enhance Engg faculty

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) and Wipro's Mission 10X to enhance engineering faculty through innovative teaching across the country.

Mission 10X is a non-profit trust which was launched by Wipro Limited in September last year to address skills shortage affecting the IT industry's growth.

The 3-year MoU will provide a formal platform for initiating interaction between Mission 10X and IIT-B.

Creation of educational material, establishing a joint centre of excellence to carry out research in the field of education and transmission of education through EDUSAT will be jointly undertaken under the MoU.

“We see an opportunity to work towards enhancing engineering faculty capability through innovative teaching and learning paradigms. Its in- person training methodology at colleges, complements IIT Bombay's method of imparting education”, said Kannan Moudgalya, Head of Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme (CDEEP), IIT Bombay.

IIT Bombay's courses are being transmitted by CDEEP for several years now.

Since January 2008, CDEEP has started transmitting IIT-B's course free of cost to more than 50 colleges through the EDUSAT facility offered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

BSF schools to spend

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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IT spending in schools is forecast to hit

‘Education gap can be bridged by IT

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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Experts say in addition to setting up more varsities, government should also use information technology to impart education

Even as the government of India goes about establishing new IITs and IIMs, experts believe that digital learning can play an important role in imparting quality education to nation's bright minds. Speaking at the 20th Annual Management Education Convention of Association of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) in collaboration with Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Dr Vijay Govindarajan, professor at Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth-US) and chief innovation consultant at GE, stressed that the fastest way to close India's education gap is through digital and information technology.

“At present only a few thousand students are able to study at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). But another 100,000 are equally smart. So why can't the IITs come together and create an e-IIT and expand its reach,” he questioned. “Most of the institutions in the country are either facing a faculty shortage or have poor faculty. We need to rethink and reinvent our education system fundamentally. The education gap cannot be closed by merely building more universities,” he said. Pointing out that establishing more universities would mean acquiring land and putting together the necessary infrastructure, Govindarajan said India must instead make good use of digital technology. “Information Technology (IT) will allow our students to have access to global faculty.”

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