The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University is planning to organise a five-day training programme on 'E-learning in Agriculture Education' from 2-6, January 2007 in Tamil Nadu, India.
The main of the training programme is to upgrade the knowledge and skills of faculty and scientists and side by side informing them about latest developments. Faculty from TNAU, Educational Multi Media Research Centre, University of Mysore and iacharya.com are participating in the training programme.
The e-Shishu project is trying to make ensure education for all children up to age 14 in the Orissa, India.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The State Government is trying to initiate ICT skills in e-Governance and education sector. The main of the e-Shishu project is to make a way for Universal Elementary Education for all children in the state up to age of 14. The project will also ensure for generating funds for school infrastructure and children's education. State government will create a live database of all children from age 14 to 26. The Government will also provide a technology framework in e-Governance, which will include track child progress and prioritise resource allocation. The data would also be available on web to maintain the transparency between government and public. The project would be implemented in schools of 52000 villages and it will also include EMIS (Education Management Information System) code generation and Intelligent Character Recognition/Non-Intelligent Character Recognition sheet designing for data collection. The Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority has conceived the e-Shishu project. Two sub-projects under e-Shishu have been initiated. While the Orissa GIS School Mapping aims to map the available infrastructure in each school in the State, the Educational Personnel Information System will help gather information on teachers and teacher-to-pupil ratio in the State. In future, the IT department of the State Government, the Orissa Computer Application Centre, Software Technology Parks of India and CSM Technologies will involve in this project.
Excelsoft Technologies, an e-Learning solutions provider has signed an agreement with he Europe-based Wolters Kluwer Education (WKe), a division of Wolters Kluwer to provide e-Learning application across all WKe publishing houses.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Excelsoft Technologies, provider of e-Leasrning solutions with development centers in Mysore and Hyderabad, India has signed a five-year agreement with Europe based Wolters Kluwer Education (WKe), an information services and publishing company. According to the agreement, Excelsoft will provide e-Learning framework across all Wke publishing houses. It will also include development of custom e-Learning applications on the Framework, for each of the publishing houses. Ke is the leading provider of primary, secondary, and vocational educational material, content and services in seven European countries like Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Austria, and Hungary.
Simmi Kher
Coordinator India
Tony Blair Faith Foundation
simmikher@gmail.com
Springdales school in Pusa Road, New Delhi, India was selected by the International Jury to take part in the Mondialogo Symposium in Rome, Italy from 4 to 7 November 2006. Springdales was selected with its partner team from Königin Kathariana Stift, a school in Stuttgart, Germany as one of 25 finalists representing 50 most committed teams from 2600 schools of 137 countries in this year’s Mondialogo School contest. It was the only school to be selected from India. The contest, initiated by Daimler Chrysler and UNESCO in 2003 is the world’s largest global contest on international dialogue.
Its aim is to encourage dialogue between students from different cultures, paired with each other to work on a joint project. The cooperation is intended to develop understanding, tolerance and friendship between people with different cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds. The use of creative and innovative approaches to different topics was one factor influencing the selection of the finalist teams, as well as the intensity of dialogue between them.
The school’s team included students Sainyam Gautam, Priyanka Grover, Supriya Malik, Aakash Lamba, Uday Vir singh, Arjun Bhandari, Pankaj Jindal, Dhruv Gupta, Esha Kher, Suryanshu Prakash and the coordinating teacher was Simmi Kher.
The winners were selected by an international panel of judges, which includes Jean Ping (Gabon), Countess Setsuko Klossowska de Rola (Japan), Vigdis Finnbogadottir (Iceland), Mounir Bouchenaki (Algeria) and Lourdes Arizpe (Mexico).
The Mondialogo Symposium programme included many opportu-nities for intercultural dialogue and a tour of the sights of Rome. The symposium brought members of these teams together to discuss the importance of intercultural exchange in a series of workshops and debates.
Digital Learning ‘Power School Award 2007’
Digital Learning has also introduced the Digital Learning Awards in 2006. In 2007, we are introducing the ‘Power School’ award for best practice in ICT-enabled education in schools. Digital Learning would run this campaign from January 2007 to July 2007 to select the best school in ICT in education in India. An eminent group of experts would serve as jury members to select the best schools. These schools would be awarded at the Digital Learning India 2007 Conference, to be held in August in New Delhi.
Schools are the drivers of ICT-enabled education for children. While the government has funded the integration of ICTs for learning and teaching in government schools, several private schools have taken the lead in enhancing learning outcomes of students through ICTs. These schools have innovated in training their teachers, engaging students and using innovate multimedia content for teaching. While their endeavours have met with mixed results, these initiatives have definitely build hopes and encouraged educators and teachers to explore newer ways for utilising the immense potential of ICTs for educating their students.
Digital Learning has encouraged schools and teachers to share their experience in ICT-enabled education. The responsibilities of the educators and teachers have increased manifold in ICT-enabled learning environments- administrator, facilitator, technical support and evaluator, and many of them have taken up this challenge and are leading their schools to show the way for the others.
Digital Learning salutes these schools and their teachers and school principals who are providing leadership in taking teaching and learning through ICTs to a different level.
In the last six months (since the ‘school track’ section has been introduced in this publication), Jeffry Thomas, Academic Technology Coordinator, Woodstock school, Dehradun, Simmi Kher, IT coordinator, Springdales School, Pusa Road, New Delhi, Dr Lalit Modak, Biotechnology Teacher in Delhi Public School, Vasundhara, Annie Koshi, Principal, St. Mary’s School, New Delhi, Divya Jishi, Deputy Director, DAV College Managing Committee, New Delhi have shared their schools’ activities in ICT-enabled education. In sharing their stories, these schools have taken the lead in knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer learning between schools and teachers and are also emerging as front-runners in ICT-enabled education.
We invite schools, which may be at various stages for ICT-enabled teaching and learning to share their stories with Digital Learning. We invite you to build your network of peers in other schools who have invested and initiate ICT-enabled education.
We invite schools to share their experience in ICT-enabled education in schools. Please also look out for more details on how to apply for this award in the Digital Learning website www.digitallearning.in
Till then, Happy reading!
Digital Learning ‘Innovation 2006’ Award was given for the innovative ‘Camera school programme’ in Udaipur district of Rajasthan in India, which was implemented to reduce teacher absenteeism in schools. Cameras, the simplest form of ICTs, were provided to single-teacher schools run by Seva Mandir, a not-for-profit organization in Rajasthan. These tamper-proof cameras have shown how to improve teacher attendance by keeping record of entry and exit hour snaps of the teachers in schools with the students.
Cambridge University Press ties up with RiiiT to promote ICT education for schools throughout South Asia
RiiiT conceptualised a unique innovative ICT Education for K-12 and is named as IT Kids. IT Kids is a special package of teaching material, to assist students and teachers in honing ICT Skills.
Cambridge University Press, impressed with the concept of IT-Kids joined hands with RiiiT for publishing, distribution and marketing to cover rest of India as well as the whole of South Asia.
IT-Kids has been successfully tried and tested in Karnataka. RiiT not only provide end-to-end ICT education to schools but also provide ICT solution for school Administration and training teachers on ICT. In stage-1, the child and teacher is supported with conventional books; in stage-2 digital aid is being provided, where in the teacher is supported with classroom presentation, workshops/seminars, orientation programs, session plans, In stage-3, Computers based tutorial and online crossword puzzle, quizzes, memory games, animations & walkthroughs. In stage-4, e-learning content is provided with more through images, audio, simulation and multimedia.
‘Emotion software’ spots distracted students
Tutoring software that knows when students’ are losing interest in a lesson and can adjust to keep them on track is being tested by researchers in China and UK.
The system keeps track of students’ attention by measuring physical signs of emotion. It then varies the speed and content of a lesson based on an assessment of their level of interest. Ultimately, it could improve electronic tutoring, say the researchers, thus helping developing countries deliver education to remote areas that lack educational institutions.
To use the new learning software, a student wears a ring fitted with sensors that monitor heart rate, blood pressure and changes in electrical resistance caused by perspiration. This data is transmitted via Bluetooth to a computer that assesses the wearer’s emotional state. It judges if they are interested and keeping up or bored and struggling.
For example, it can slow down or change topic if a student seems disinterested, or appears to be falling behind. The software might also try a different mode of delivery, switching from text to video. It can also learn that certain types of material are more stressful to the student than others. This could help the system determine which material is most difficult for a student and requires further focus.
Students from NE States steal the show
School students from the north-eastern Indian states stole the thunder at the finals of a digital art competition conducted by software training major NIIT at the “Kidex” exhibition of Confederation of Indian Industry at Chennai Convention Centre. The winners in all three categories — sub-junior, junior and senior — were from the north and some of them were from Meghalaya and Assam. Some of the winners, such as Bhargob Gogoi and Tanya Gupta from Uttar Pradesh, were flown into Chennai by the organisers only on the previous day of the event and were visiting the city for the first time
Today the whole world faces and recognises the enormous force of information streaming via TV/cable, Internet, MP3, IPOD, radio, books, magazines, newspapers, smart cell phones, and handheld devices. People live in society of access to everything via the access to web pages and information searches such as google.
So how do we combat Information Overload? The answer is we change the way the message is delivered! How do we change the message delivery system? By Chunking – that is grouping larger bodies of information into smaller, meaningful segments which has certain advantages.
This article describes flash cards in terms of transferring content to pocket-sized cards as well as access to cards by mobile phone along with making own personal mobile flash card system.
Flash cards for learning
By definition Flash Cards are fast reading, pocket sized deck of cards that enable individuals, public and private enterprises to quickly tap into the best minds on business, professional development, communications, sales and marketing and host of other important content topics in work, occupation, organisation and or business. Flash Cards change the way the message and medium is traditionally delivered to one using innovative technological mobility tools in the communication age. It provides persons or enterprises to have ready access to information or serve as a learning tool for capacity building to raise their level of competence to perform tasks.
By chunking these flash cards can provide a learning platform for content dissemination that meets the needs of institutions
Indian Internet companies Mercantila, TutorVista getfunding
Two India-based Internet companies Mercantila and TutorVista, catering mainly to customers in the United States, have received US$29.5 million funding from Lightspeed Ventures Partners.
While Mercantila, an online retail venture, has received US$22.5 million funding from LVP, TutorVista, an online tutoring company, has received US$7 million funding from the investors. TutorVista was set up in November 2005 to offer online tutoring. It received a first round of funding of US$2 million from Sequoia India in May 2006.
Lightspeed is looking for more Indian ventures to finance and May invest about US$100 million to US$150 million in India in the next
few years.
Reliance to carry FLAG far and wide
Reliance Communications is all set to expand FLAG Telecom’s global optic fibre network, as FLAG will build the world’s largest IP network over submarine cable systems, over the next 36 months. Called FLAG Next Generation Network (NGN), the project will cater to the telecom needs of over five billion customers across the globe.
FLAG Global Network would have the capability to carry 2.5 billion simultaneous voice calls, 300 million simultaneous webchats, 52 million simultaneous video chats and enabling 20 million students in educational institutions of India to offer e-learning simultaneously. On completion, FLAG Global Network would span over 1,15,000 km by December 2009 taking the total optic fibre assets of Reliance Communications Group to over 2,30,000 km.
New Cisco Academy launched at St Michael’s Foundation
Investment, Industry and IT Minister Austin Gatt has launched the first of a series of five new Cisco academies in Malta, at the St Michael’s Foundation.
The first Cisco academies in Malta were opened in 2002 at the Swatar Training Centre, the University of Malta and MCAST. Through these three academies, some 700 individuals have followed Cisco courses to date.
The Cisco Academy set up at St Michael’s is special, because the school took a brave and innovative step as a secondary school to integrate the IT Essentials curriculum in the full-time ICT curriculum taught at Forms III, IV, and V.
iLink creating Saturday university
iLink Systems Inc. launched a unique Saturday University program (http://blog.ilink-systems.com/default.asp?Display=4) for all it employees in their offices spread across Bellevue (WA), Fairfax (VA) and Chennai (India).
A University calendar was published for the first trimester and it included an unprecedented 76 training hours in that period. Annualised, this works out to 28.5 training days per employee every year; well above the annual training provided to software employees in most organisations.
Subject matter for the training was spread over a wide variety of areas, predominantly based on the latest Microsoft Technologies, but also on building domain competence like business intelligence and soft-skills including communication and presentation skills. Training methodo-logies were also varied including formal training, in-house presen-tations, e-learning and self-study.
Global IT services spending to grow 8%
Global IT services spending is likely to increase at around 7-8 per cent over the medium term to $500 billion in 2007 from $470 billion in 2006.
According to a report by Icra, IT services spending is likely to be driven by strong forecast GDP growth of 3.5 per cent in the US, moderate increase in IT spending in the US, and strong growth in IT spending in emerging markets.
For Indian companies, growth is expected at around 28-30 per cent in the medium terms, driven more by reallocation of corporate budgets from internal to external spending rather than growth in aggregate IT spending.
Although communications products and services represent the largest single category of ICT spending in 2006 with $1.57 trillion, software is the fastest growing category with annual growth of 10 per cent.
Aptech opens training centre in Malaysia
Indian global learning solutions giant, Aptech Limited officially opened its maiden office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the launch, Aptech also announced the inauguration of a high-end training centre located at Antarabangsa, in the heart of the Golden Triangle in Kuala Lumpur.
Aptech initially plans to offer services & solutions to individuals, corporates and academic institutions in Malaysia and later address the client’s needs across South East Asia. Aptech has been operating in Malaysia in partnership with Human Resource Development Corporation (PSMB) and Cosmopoint since 2002.
Under this special partnership, Aptech has provided high end software development training to over 1000 IT graduates and has an excellent 98% post training job placement record.
The IT outsourcing wave has been driving India’s economic growth and India continues to dominate as the preferred provider for global e-learning solutions. In recent years, the escalating demand for e-learning and certification coupled with the lack of globally-recognised solution providers, has led Aptech to expand rapidly.
Open document format push
IBM Malaysia is taking strides to push the OpenDocument Format (ODF) concept into the public sector. These include educating the various Government agencies of the advantages of ODF, providing suggestions on the ODF migration paths, and helping in solving certain issues that crop up. Last year, Thailand, China and Japan were some of the nations to endorse a position paper from Harvard University that supports software based on open standards. And in June, the Thai government held a summit of many Asian nations which agreed to explore its adoption. India, the Philippines and Thailand are running pilot programs for ODF.
Research company Gartner has predicted that by 2010, ODF will be required by 50 per cent of the governments worldwide and 20 per cent of commercial organisations.
Satyam to set up 2,000 seat development centre in Malaysia
Satyam Computer Services, the country’s fourth largest software exporter, said it will set up a 2,000-seat software engineering global delivery campus in Malaysia.
The company would increase the headcount to 2,000 over the next four years as part of steps to strengthen foothold in Malaysia. The campus would serve as a major technological development and software support facility for its ASEAN, US and Middle-Eastern clients. The campus is in addition to the 100-seater global solution center (GSC) established about three years back.
The GDC would be established along with Malaysias Multimedia Development Corporation (MDEC), which oversees the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) initiative. The current staff strength of Satyam is 150 employees of which majority are Malaysians. It launched its first mass recruitment program for fresh graduates outside India in 2004.
Till date, more than 65 Malaysian engineering graduates have been trained by the organisation and absorbed as full time employees at the global solution center in Kuala Lumpur.
IT grants for United Voice and Prihatin
Those with learning disabilities can now converse more eloquently with a picture-to-speech communicator PDA. The gadget is one of the technology-breaking projects funded by Samsung Digital Hope 2006.
The Samsung Digital Hope grant programme, which is into its fourth year, recently awarded US$620,000 to 16 organisations from South-East Asia and Australia. Two of the beneficiaries are from Malaysia. They are Pertubuhan Prihatin Sosial Malaysia’s E-Community Technology Centre for Unemployed Youths, a recipient of the grant for the second consecutive year, and United Voice, which provides social, communication and leadership skills, and forums on issues related to people with learning disabilities.
Pertubuhan Prihatin Sosial Malaysia (Prihatin) was awarded RM255,000 while United Voice received RM34,000. 
Dubai Education Council honours 'I-Teach' graduated teachers
Dubai Education Council honoured 200 teachers of the 'I-Teach' programme. 'I-Teach' is an IT Training Programme for Teachers who have been awarded the Cambridge International Diploma in teaching with ICT.
ICT in primary schools
The Iceland-Seychelles Development group (ISDG), together with local partners, Air Seychelles and Cable and Wireless Seychelles, are collaborating with the Ministry of Education to develop primary school teachers in becoming more confident about using technology and maintaining students' interests in the classroom.
This follows the first round of intensive training in a project to implement Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in primary schools as from next year. The aim is to ensure that teachers have access to the latest technology to help them in delivering their lessons to improve pupils' learning.
Macedonia announces bold plan for PC access, training
The government of Macedonia has recently announced a massive four-prong approach to beefing up computer literacy.
The Macedonian government intends all primary and secondary students to have a computer within the next two years. Through a programme of computer purchasing, training, Internet access and scholarships to those students who specialise in Internet technology, the government hopes to build its IT literacy and competitiveness.
Although the exact number of computers that would need to be purchased is not yet known, the initial phase of the program would be 150,000 at cost of about 9 million euros for 2007. The total amount just for the first project is expected to reach 20 to 22 million euros. The next two phases of the program will offer every citizen the opportunity for free basic computer training and free Internet access. These are expected to be implemented in Spring 2007 and 2008, respectively.
GEMS Education to develop 'School of the Future'
GEMS Education announced that it has concluded an agreement with Microsoft Gulf that will see the launch of 'State-of The Art Education Solutions' across the network of GEMS Schools in the United Arab Emirates.
The initiative, the first of its kind in the region, will include development of the 'School of the Future', a visionary educational model that is rooted in empowering the school community through continuous, adaptive and relevant learning. The entire programme will be supported through Microsoft certified training for teachers and the installation of Microsoft certified ICT labs.
The 'State-of The Art Education Solutions' will include the launch of learning gateways in GEMS Schools. The integrated framework will provide parents, students and teachers access to online lessons and tutorials.
ETV for schools in Philippines
Ten elementary and high schools in Rizal province in Philippines will soon have access to educational television (ETV) through the joint efforts of the British Embassy in Manila and the local Knowledge Channel Foundation.
The embassy did not name the schools, but noted that Rizal Province was selected as the project site for its contribution to the workforce requirements of the Metro Manila metropolis.
Studies show that ETV increases learning and improves academic performance while decreasing absenteeism among students.
Applied ICT Teaching and Learning Business Portal for Schools
The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), the unitary awarding bodies in the UK, and the National Computing Centre (NCC), UK's leading independent IT membership organisation announced that they have formed a partnership to build a unique web-based information portal for schools and colleges which will provide their academic, business and operational functions with access to relevant business case studies and benchmarked IT materials.
Malaysian ICT market achieves 12% growth in 2006
Malaysia's ICT market achieved the 12% growth as forecasted earlier in 2006 by the Association of the ICT Industry Malaysia (Pikom), compared to an estimated 10% in 2005.
The most promising industry segment was services; business in the “old-line” segments of hardware, software and systems integration was flat. The market for notebook PCs has grown much faster than for desktop PCs, and there is strong demand for PDA- (personal digital assistant) type products. Another bright spot in the ICT industry was outsourcing.
In 2007, ICT market is expected to grow around 13%. The Government sector should remain the main driver of growth, since the Ninth Malaysia Plan's allocation for ICT projects was double the previous plan's.
Teachers are ICT heroes
Many teachers in Malaysia are adept at Information and Communication Technology and even capable of servicing and maintaining computers in schools. According to Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, this was clear from the way teachers were able to handle high-tech gadgets like laptops and overhead projectors.
Unemployed IT graduates urged to register with MDeC
Unemployed information technology (IT) graduates have been encouraged to register with Multimedia Develop-ment Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDeC).
Making this call, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Mohd Jarjis said IT companies such as Dell Malaysia and Satyam Computer Services Ltd were expecting to provide job opportunities for local IT graduates.
Dell, which has opened a centre here, expects to produce 1,500 jobs while, Satyam, an Indian based company expects to provide 5,000 jobs over the next five years.
Free job camp for unemployed engineering, ICT graduates
Curtin University of Technology Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak) is offering unemployed Malaysian graduates in engineering and information communication technology (ICT) the opportunity to participate in a three-week Job Camp beginning Jan 15 2007.
The job camp, to be held in collaboration with the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia at the Curtin Sarawak campus, is to enhance ICT graduates' employability. The participants will be exposed to Windows Server 2003 server administrator and will be equipped with up-to-date knowledge and skills for the ICT industry and will receive the Microsoft Certified System Adminis-trator (MCSA) certificate upon completion of the camp. Admission is free but the university is limiting the number of participants to 30.
Govt to extend IPTA students' practical training
The Higher Education Ministry has agreed in principle to extend the practical training of those who had completed their studies at public universities (IPTA), especially those studying information communication technology (ICT), from six weeks to six months.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said a study showed that students who had a longer practical training attachment had a better chance of getting a job.
More than 600 Universiti Teknologi Mara (UITM) students from Shah Alam, Selangor, Melaka, Terengganu and Perlis took part in the programme which entailed doing community work in the state assembly constituencies of Bukit Bunga, Air Lanas and Kuala Balah.
Mustapa, who is also Jeli Member of Parliament, said students taking up entrepreneurship courses should also attend a longer practical training to produce world class entrepreneurs
Klang Valley to turn MSC
The Klang Valley will be turned into a Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in stages, according to Malaysia's Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
He said details of the plan were being worked out and more cybercentres would be rolled out quickly in the Klang Valley. Abdullah said the Government would continue enhancing efforts in information communications technology, and e-education was being carried out in schools.
The first European and Indian e-Infrastructures conference was held at the Grand New Delhi, New Delhi, India from the 14 – 15 December 2006 attracting over 250 ICT research, industrial and academic delegates. The aim of the first of its kind event was to exchange views on how eInfrastructures are currently deployed in both Europe and in India with the objective of analysing how their increasing role is viewed in a business, educational, socio-political & scientific context. The two-day intensive discussions looked at promoting the sustained use of the EU India link (Geant2 connectivity) and its use by new user communities especially.
The conference was organised by the BELIEF (Bringing Europe’s eLectronic Infrastructures to Expanding Frontiers) consortium. The BELIEF partners are from varied backgrounds and areas of expertise spanning Europe, Asia, America and Latin America. The BELIEF Consortium possesses experience in Community development, e-Infrastructure expertise, networking connections & Digital Library development, sharing complementary skills, international resources & links in the areas of e-Infrastructures.
What impact will eInfrastructures have on distance and eLearning? Case studies from European and Indian leaders explored the future of Distance and eLearning in the conference by harnessing the power of eInfrastructures. M.M.Pant from Planet Edu Pvt (India), Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, from the Bombay IIT, and Prof. Pierluigi Ritrovato, CRMPA-Centre of Excellence for Learning and Knowledge set out to answer many such similar questions. Prof. Ritrovato presented the European perspective to the session and helped demonstrate to the BELIEF audience how can Europe and India collaborate given their mutual strengths, skills and knowledge in eInfrastructures. The European Learning Grid Infrastructure (EU funded) project concern with use of Grid technologies for supporting the implementation and adoption of pedagogy driven, user centred learning model, enabling experiential based and contextualised learning approaches. Information on the ELeGI software architecture for formal learning, defined as a Domain Specific Grid based Service Oriented Architecture, was provided highlighting the innovative design process followed in order to guarantee the compliant with respect to the pedagogical model
.
Prof.Pant’s presentation looked at the possibility of linking Indian eLearning initiatives to the European eLearning Infrastructure to deliver high quality learning and prepare youth for the emerging global economy across an Indo-European System. Notable means for this are the ERNET, the EDUSAT, the INFLIBNET on one side and the GSM and CDMA cellular phone networks on the other. With the possibility of 3G on the horizon, there is a huge opportunity for this convergence to rapidly accelerate the growth of Distance and e-learning.
Prof. Krithi Ramamritham provided the eLearning picture in India and the potential of using eInfrastructure through showcasing aAQUA, an online multilingual, multimedia Agricultural portal for disseminating information from and to the grassroots of the Indian agricultural community.
The rich, and diverse two-day programme specifically targeted Industry and Research experts and new users who wish to adopt eInfrastructures effectively within their workplace or research activity. The participants represented a rich mix of industry, government, research and academia, NGOs and European Funded Projects. The participants were mainly from India, besides European and Latin American delegates.
Some of the speakers in Europe included representatives from:CNRS-IN2P3 (France), Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), D – Grid (Germany), Eindhoven University of technology (Netherlands), Enginnering (Italy), GEIE ERCIM (France), GRNET (Greece), INFN Cagliari (Italy), Infra Technologies (France), KTH (Sweden), Martel GmbH (United Kingdom), Poznan Supercomputing (Poland), RENATER (France), University of Salerno (Italy).
Additionally, officials of the European Commission and of the European Union delegation to India were present to exchange information with delegates on opportunities for mutual, collaborative R&D European funded programmes. Indian representations included members from: Ministry of IT, ERNET India, Avanade Inc, Sullivan University, C-DAC Noida, Centre for Science Development and Media Studies (media partner), DELNET-Developing Library Network, Development and Media Studies, IIIT Bangalore, IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Statistics, Indian Institute of technology, Institute of Biomedical Technologies, National Informatics Centre, PlanetEDU Pvt.Ltd, Sullivan University.
The visionary plenary and stimulating parallel sessions explored the eInfrastructures. Members could select from the following topics:
• Connectivity and sustainability – new user communities for eInfrastructures (services) between India and Europe;
• Government delivered services – eInfrastructures the current case studies, future plans and visions in India and Europe;
• eHealth – The new opportunities for EU-India e-health cooperation using eInfrastructures;
• Scientific repositories – How can the EU best collaborate with India to create worldwide digital repositories;
• Digital divide – the eInfrastructures role in reducing the digital divide;
• Enabling Business – what impact will eInfrastructures have on business in India;
• Distance and eLearning – harnessing the power of eInfrastructures;
• Mobile Grid – the convergence of eInfrastructures, mobile and Grid technology.
Some Highlights of the Conference
EUIndiaGrid Project Session: The EU-IndiaGrid (www.euindiagrid.org) project session discussed priorities for training and interoperability between EGEE and Indian Grid infrastructures; and explored possibilities of pilot applications for this new infrastructure support project.
Belief Conference Promotional Zone: This Promotional Zone displayed highly relevant documentation published by the European Commission and ERNET. The focus of this promotional area was innovative Grid-enabled technologies and e-Infrastructures developed or being developed by Europe and India; national and international initiatives aimed at facilitating the adoption of these new, more powerful resources, intensifying collaboration between the two regions and spurring innovation for mutual benefit.
Get In Touch Sessions: BELIEF offered all delegates the chance to participate actively in the conference and learn about the activities of various projects as well as FP7 opportunties. Each Session comprised a series of 10-minutes presentations focusing on project activities and ideas for eInfrastructure funding under FP7. The EuroIndia-IT project was on hand to offer expert advice on future opportunities under FP7 to foster further collaboration between India and Europe.
Do you remember the go-go days of the Dot COM boom? I do, very well. Living in the heart of the digital explosion in Northern California it was impossible to avoid. Getting bombarded from every avenue with talking heads claiming that “nothing would ever be the same,” that every idea, every product, every thought ever valued before was now history and the world had shrunk to a global village where everyone was but one click away from everyone else. At the time I found myself getting more and more irritated at a story that while exciting and glittering with new possibility was just as obviously at very best, just an utterly wild exaggeration.
My own interest was in the Global Village part so I decided to do a little research to find out exactly how connected we all were. The results of that research were depressing. Despite all the growth of the Internet and even all the efforts to build e-learning sites and communities what we found was that while the fact of the Internet created the potential for a true Global Village, the reality on the ground was something else entirely.
For all the hype and marketing, the “Internet Explosion” was essentially restricted to first world countries and the very wealthy segments of the population in other parts of the world. For most part the real villages of the world were not only bypassed but not even a consideration. At that point I started wondering just how digital technology could be employed to really create a Global Community. How, in other words could we use this supposedly revolutionary technology, to being to empower the most un-empowered individuals, the youth of the world.
That question sent us on a two-year exploration of what was being done and what could be done. The result was the founding of the Global Classroom Connection. What we discovered was that while a lot of people and organisations were sincerely trying to use the Internet to reach and empower youth, their efforts were almost always constructed on a “build it and they will come” structure that mirrors the Dot Com business models but that has proven to be utterly ineffective at achieving any meaningful results in the education venue.
We discovered that the GCC programme dovetailed neatly with some of the highest educational priorities of most school systems across Asia. Specifically, the promotion of ways to learn and practice English as a foreign language; implementation of positive ICT programs; and exposing their students to the global community
It turns out “they will come” only after they have already reached a level of technical sophistication (not to mention language proficiency) to comfortably surf and decipher the available options. For the majority of the youth in the world that level of technical and language proficiency is years, if not decades, away. The result is that the much-heralded Global Village turns out to be little more than a cruel joke that privileged people wanted to believe because it glossed over the much more disturbing reality of the digital divide. Yes, the Internet opened the possibility for leveling the playing field, but the reality was that without a wholly different approach, the same old divisions remained with the wealthy privileged few reaping all the benefits and the vast majority of the world’s population still struggling to play catch-up.
We started from there and asked the two fundamental questions: if the normal Internet model doesn’t work how can you reach the young people of the world and how can you get them into a robust cross-border dialogue? Everything we have done since then was built around trying to answer those questions and construct a model that could not only succeed but succeed on a truly massive scale.
The first thing we realised is that to get students really communicating we had to create small digital communities that would have the time and opportunity to actually get to know each other. Just connecting youth to the larger Internet community was not, by itself going to have such a significant impact.
That world is just too big, too diffuse and too dominated by the already tech savvy predecessors. Secondly, if you just give young people access to computers and the Internet without also giving them something compelling to do most will end up playing video games more than anything else. Finally, we realised is that if we really wanted to include as many young people as possible including and indeed with a particular emphasis on youth in the underdeveloped world, they would not come to us, we would have to go to where they are and where they are is in school.
Once we had figured that out the core of our strategy became clear: the digital communities had to be based on already existing youth communities, the millions of classrooms around the world. Connecting those classrooms through encrypted joint websites would give us a very flexible vehicle within which the students could communicate safely, freely, and robustly, and at the same time would give teachers a very powerful tool to direct students in cross border understanding and exploring of jointly determined curriculum.
We began piloting the GCC in Asia and in the United States in 2003 and quickly discovered both the benefits of the program and the obstacles that needed to be overcome. The greatest benefit was simply student enthusiasm. Students in virtually every classroom participated enthusiastically and reported back a very high level of interest and excitement at being able to communicate regularly and directly with peers in another country.
From an institutional point of view we discovered that the GCC programme dovetailed neatly with some of the highest educational priorities of most school systems across Asia. Specifically, the promotion of ways to learn and practice English as a foreign language; implementation of positive ICT programs; and exposing their students to the global community. In every classroom we piloted the programme we were met with real enthusiasm and very active participation.
It turned out that the biggest obstacle the GCC would face in the short run would be overcoming teacher fear of technology. Most teachers in Asia did not grow up with computers and are understandable less than comfortable with the technology. When we introduce them to the GCC they are initially very skeptical. To overcome this problem we made the web building software incredibly easy, so easy that someone with no computer experience at all can learn in less than five minutes. That has helped but the resistance is still there. Of course with the younger teachers who are more familiar with computers the reaction is exactly the opposite. Young teachers instantly understand the concept, get very excited and are immediately thrilled to join in.
Since initiating the program we have run a number of excellent pilots in Thailand, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines and made some serious progress particularly in both the Philippines and Malaysia. In the Philippines the GCC is partnering with the Gilas Project which is connecting high schools to the Internet while the GCC is then giving those high schools the option of getting instantly connected to classrooms in other countries. In Malaysia, the GCC is one of the “international” options that will be offered throughout the school system beginning with this coming school year. We are also making the program available in both Thailand and Japan for inter-country connections in their own languages.
We are also in the formative stages of cooperation in Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and parts of China and working hard to get the funding to allow us to expand rapidly throughout Asia. The long-term plan is to establish a solid network of connected classrooms in Asia before branching out to the rest of the world.
In the long run, we hope to build a truly massive network of the worlds youth which will not only allow students to connect with their peers in other countries on a regular basis throughout their school career, but will also provide a platform for youth to share their hopes and dreams and perhaps even begin their own programmes and initiatives. In the history of our world youth has always been the most un-empowered segment of society.
The GCC model opens the possibility of changing that once and for all and giving our young people both a more sophisticated and deep understanding of the world in which they live and an opportunity to have their own input into the directions we will move.
The GCC is a nonprofit and like many nonprofits the single biggest obstacle we have faced so far is raising the funding necessary to allow us to grow to a level where the program will be self-sustaining. Every possible funders we approach gets very excited at the long term vision, loves the program itself and is very impressed with the rapid and solid progress we have made, but then apologizes and explains that our program is not within their “category” for funding. That is of course always true since what we are doing is quite unique and so far we have not found a funder with the vision to step outside their categories and assist us but we are working hard at it and have confidence the support will come soon.
We are also in the formative stages of cooperation in Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and parts of China and working hard to get the funding to allow us to expand rapidly throughout Asia. The long-term plan is to establish a solid network of connected classrooms in Asia before branching out to the rest of the world
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