The dream of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to have a state-run drama school on the lines of National School of Drama (NSD) promoting folk theatre and others arts of central India has finally taken shape. Exclusive to promote theatre as a vocation, the first state government-run school will be inaugurated in Bhopal on June 17 by senior BJP leader L K Advani. Theatre personality Vani Tripathi, the Madhya Pradesh Drama School will offer one, two and three year courses. A batch of 25 students have been selected for the first course starting in July. Apart from courses in Indian classical theatre, modern Indian theatre and Western drama, the school will specialise in folk drama of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, tribal dance and folk story tellers. “The focus of the school will be preserve, protect and restore the dying arts of Bundelkhand, Baghelkhand, Malwa and Nimaad and as well as cover modern areas like film and television,” Tripathi said. The school's advisory body includes theatre luminaries such as Bansi Kaul, Mahesh Dattani, Sanjna Kapoor of Prithivi Theatre, NSD director Anuradha Kapoor and natyashastra expert Kamlesh Dutt Tripathi.
New Zealand attracts Indian students with education fair
Parents with their children, groups of school-going teenagers and graduates sauntered through the stalls put up by 25 participating institutions and universities. 'I am here with my father and sister. I have brought along all relevant documents. I want to do a business management or accounts course. I like what I have seen here, I am definitely going if I get through, and they (the universities) say I qualify,' said Neha Mehta, a first year B.Com student. Neha, a resident of Ghaziabad, said she thought New Zealand was full of opportunity, and that she had worked out a basic plan with her agent here. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NTZE) and Education New Zealand Sunday organized the education fair in the capital hoping to woo Indian students with its niche set of courses and 'study – leisure environment.' The fair will also be held in Chandigarh April 7. Many present appeared amazed that New Zealand, perceived mainly as a tourist destination, could be an education provider interested in Indians students.
NZTE officials said that in the year 2005 there where 2,000 Indian students in New Zealand. The numbers have increased to 6,000 students as of March 2009. 'Education visas for New Zealand are fairly easy to get. In fact since most of the universities and institutes there communicate with students via our 21 local agents in India, the process of application is very simple,' said Jugnu Roy, NZTE business development manager. The fair also drew a lot of interest in niche courses like viti culture (wine tasting), hospitality management, plant science and horticulture, food technology and sports management. While New Zealand hardly offers any scholarships, officials said that low student living costs and higher standard of living in New Zealand will attract scholars from India.
IMARK, a suite for distance learning
The Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK) is a comprehensive suite of distance learning resources for information management and exchange, which facilitates learning in several major subject areas in agricultural information management.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
All IMRAK toolkits are being made available in five languages – English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Chinese. Policymakers, senior managers, information managers and trainers in government agencies, academic, universities, extension organizations, documentation, publishing, and IT centres, NGOs; and international organizations will be benefitted from this course.
Wireless devices to get emergency alerts
We interrupt your cell phone call with this important announcement: The government will soon be sending warnings of national emergencies on wireless phones, websites and hand-held computers. The21st-century technologies will carry warnings of natural disasters and terrorist attacks. The Homeland Security Department in United States, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, expects to have the system working by the end of next year. Though still in its pilot stages, the system is being demonstrated at a public television station in suburban Virginia.
The Association of Public Television Stations is partnering with FEMA to transmit the alerts to receiving networks ranging from wireless devices, cable TV channels and satellite radio to traditional broadcast outlets. Anything that can receive a text message will receive the alert. This has some advantages like, the new digital system is more secure, it`s faster, and it enables to reach a wide array of citizens and alert them to pending disasters. Only the president can order a national emergency alert. The system was initially designed to warn Americans of a nuclear attack. But President Bush last month ordered Homeland Security to extend the alert “for situations of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster or other hazards to public safety and well-being.”
Malaysia government allocates RM3 million for visually impaired students
According to the Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, the Malaysia government will allocate RM3 million to help visually impaired students, mainly to provide access to Information Communication and Technology (ICT) facilities.
The RM3 million is for the ICT development of blind students in all schools. There are 823 blind students studying in normal schools nationwide. The Education for All Students with Visual Impairment Global Campaign was also launched.
Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Programme at Singapore
Emphasizing that positive peer influence can be a powerful mechanism to promote good cyber wellness practices, at the launch of the Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Programme, SPS Masagos explained that the new initiative equips students with knowledge and skills on using online tools safely and provides an extended platform to complement existing cyber wellness education efforts. Students who want to play an active role in promoting cyber wellness among their peers can now become Cyber Wellness Student Ambassadors. The Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Programme is launched today to promote safe and responsible use of Information-Communication Technologies (ICT) among students through peer education.
The programme is a part of the BackPack LIVE! Education Initiative led by the Ministry of Education (MOE), the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Microsoft Singapore. It will target students at Primary 4 and Secondary 2 levels, and kick off with 47 primary and 44 secondary schools in November 2009. The Cyber Wellness Student Ambassador Programme will not only equip students with knowledge and skills on how to use online tools safely, but will also provide schools with an extended platform to complement and support their existing cyber wellness education efforts. Through positive peer influence and peer education, the Programme will provide a platform for cyber wellness messages to be delivered from the youths' viewpoint. Student Ambassadors will also benefit from their direct involvement as they are actively engaged in planning and designing activities to propagate cyber wellness messages.
Universities to get more autonomy through self regulation
In an effort to do away with government's interference in higher educational institutions, a high-level committee has suggested that universities should be made self-regulatory bodies and recommended a new governing structure to help them preserve their autonomy. The committee, headed by former UGC chairman Yash Pal, has said professional bodies like AICTE, NCTE, MCI, BCI, PCI and others be divested of their academic functions, so as do away their interference on universities. 'Universities should be made self-regulatory bodies to be assisted by hassle-free and transparent regulatory processes. New governing structure needs to be evolved to enable the universities to preserve their autonomy in a transparent and accountable manner,' a member of the committee told reporters.
The committee's suggestions assume significance as higher education institutes have all along demanded greater autonomy to them and lesser interference from the government in their academic and administrative matters. The committee has submitted an interim report to the HRD Ministry in this regard. The report said universities should be made responsible for the academic content of the courses.
Learning carnatic music online
Now, a Chennai (Indian city)-based portal `indiamusicinfo.com' has launched the first-ever Carnatic Music learning, with Maestro Neyveli Santhanagopalan, thus taking music across every part of the world.
The curriculum will start from the basics of Carnatic learning to the most advanced and also assures of making the learner a performer of high standards, thus also offering a video feedback, in which the learner can audio-visually record his doubts and views, and send it back to the teacher. It plan to offer approximately 4-hours of lessons each month. The lessons will have in-depth information about the various aspects of the particular song like Ragam, and Swaram signing for that particular krithi/ raga. Currently there are 4 modules available, with lessons of approximately 4-hours. The lessons, in the modules, which are in the Windows Media Player (WMA) format, can be downloaded online from the portal and can also be purchased individually, at a cost of Rs 450 per lesson.
The portal would encourage and ensure a high-degree of interactivity and participation to simulate learner participation and interaction by using small group discussions, one-on-one exchanges, interaction among learners and subject-matter experts via the Internet using email, newsgroups, multi-user discussions, forums and conferencing. To facilitate a successful learning program, the portal has tied-up with a New Zealand-based company Springdoo, which has developed an entirely web-based audio and video feedback system that lets the learner record his/ her voice and video message in real time. The student can simply record their voice singing in real time, with their tone, inflection and meaning and send it to as feedback for the Guru(the teacher) to listen. The Guru would then provide informative feedback to learners about how they might prove their performance.
U-Learning in Palm of Hand
Makers of the video-on-the-go players are expanding partnerships with educational content providers as they consider it critical to survive in the ever-intensifying battle with other mobile gadgets such as mobile phone, compact PC and personal digital assistant (PDA). Such a move is in line with the South Korean government's ubiquitous learning (u-learning) plan.
Digital Cube, leading PMP seller in South Korea, which has a 65-percent share of the market, said that it started providing high-quality broadcasting of EBS TV's college entrance test preparation programs. The PMP users can download the video files of the e-learning classes via Internet free of charge. It is the first time for the TV lectures to be transformed to other platforms at high picture quality. The offering of the EBS package is likely to be a big attraction for potential PMP buyers. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is basing the college entrance test on the EBS lectures and the TV company insists about 80 percent of last year's test came from the EBS-covered contents. Before the introduction of the EBS lectures, there were various educational contents available on PMP, such as language courses bought from offline content providers. Not only teenagers will benefit from the handheld learning devices. For example, Cowon, another PMP maker, is planning to sell a yoga instruction video made to fit in the small screen of PMPs.
PMP refers to the palm-sized entertainment unit, which is geared for playing video and audio files. Applications for the technology have been extended to various fields. This year, it has been the satellite car navigation system that has spurred sales. According to Digital Cube, its sales have jumped from 7,000 a month before adopting the navigation programs to 20,000 after. The company is also planning to launch the first multi-tasking e-dictionary in October. The machine, named Udic, will be able to redirect users to multimedia files when searching for the meaning of a word.
Meanwhile, the ministry of Education and human Resources Development has launched its u-learning project by designating 18 elementary, middle and high schools in April for its pilot project. So far, online education networks have focused mainly on PCs and PDAs.
Software to help students clear exams
Blending cybernetics and principles of the ''gurukul'' system of education, a new software claims to help an average student crack exams without burning the midnight oil. Named ''CLEaRS,'' acronym for Compuertised Learning, Evaluation and Review System, the software has been developed by New York-based multinational, Learning Accord (L A).
The software teaches exactly what the student does not know, what he needs to know and is knowable to him, in the time frame available before his exams. The software has two versions, one for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) for students in the U S and Canada and another for Indians taking the board examinations and entrance tests for medical and engineering institutions. This is the fourth generation knowledge transfer system which combines the gurukul system of education and book-based teaching. It maps the student's mind 18 times per second to work out a strategy. After mapping his activities, it tells the student what time of the day he is most attentive and formulates a strategy for preparations. The software evaluates the student's lack of subject- wise knowledge and its remedial teaching technologies and provides optimal learning from a huge knowledge bank compiled by 60 full-time professors.
