A website on Vedic literature, history and music, www.vedicsangeet.in, was launched on Sunday at a seminar on the importance of Vedas in modern times in Chennai, India.
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The seminar was organised jointly by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chennai Kendra and Vedic Sangeeta Foundation. The site introduces the four Vedas and details events and programmes of the Foundation.
Sony Electronics and Borders Inc have declared a joint venture of a reading device for e-Books and text documents, available through about 200 Borders stores in the US. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The Sony Reader will debut in Borders and more than 30 Sony Style stores around the country as well as online at www.sonystyle.com. The reader will allow active readers to carry as much as they want to read whether they are travelling on the road or just around the corner, says an online release. The device can store hundreds of books and other documents using a combination of internal flash memory and optional Memory Stick or Secure Digital (SD) flash memory cards. In addition to e-Books offered through the Sony Connect service, the Reader can store and display personal documents in Adobe PDF format as well as JPEG photos.
The Ministry of Education and Sports in Ghana has initiated a special best teachers award for teachers who will develop computer software for various subjects this year.
The move was part of the government's efforts to promote information and communication technology (ICT) in schools in the country; the prize for the award had already been donated by Microsoft Corporation. By the end of next month, the government and INTEL would launch the first phase on
Some schools in Singapore have adopted an e-learning system to keep up with lessons for their students in the event of a flu pandemic.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
In case of an emergency closure, teachers in these schools may upload lesson slides, set homework for their students, track whether the homework is done, and even conduct tests online. Students can discuss study topics with each other and post questions to their teachers all day long by way of online forums.
However, the e-learning system is inapplicable to some neighborhood schools as its operation costs at least 20,000 Singapore dollars (about USD 12,000 a year and some of their students do not have broadband access at home.
The Education Ministry is saying that it will facilitate free-to-air television broadcast services to ensure that all students can continue with their lessons once the schools are shut.
Companies these days want more from the language schools charged with training their staffs, and this is raising the stakes for professional teachers to get creative in how they meet this demand. < ?xml:namespace prefix = v ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" />
Companies are also demanding higher foreign language proficiency from their workers. This spells good news for professionals who make careers out of teaching foreign languages, as their services now appear to be in demand outside of traditional classrooms.
Language agencies and schools are reaching out to the human resources departments at large companies in the Czech Republic and offering help in tracking the progress of their employees. Skřiv
The Open University will become the first institution in the UK to offer free course materials online to students and the wider public later this year.
The university will select educational resources from all levels from access to postgraduate study and from a full range of subject themes, including arts and history, business and management, languages and science and nature.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The material will be free to teachers and students studying in the UK and abroad, with the project following a long partnership with the BBC, which broadcasts the university's television programs. The material will not only be course or subject specific and students will also be able to access a range of study skills material to improve their research.
In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made nearly all of its course materials- including lecture notes, course outlines, reading lists and assignments- available online for free. The US institution now has material for 1250 of its courses online and expects to have all of MIT's undergraduate and graduate courses on the web by next year.
The university plans to provide both educational material and a range of learning support, with one site aimed for learners, where material with suggested learning pathways will be offered. The second site will be mainly for course creators to encourage the sharing and re-use of materials.
The Open University has more than 210,000 students studying courses this year, with around 40,000 studying outside the UK. The online project will start in October.
A special teachers award is constituted by the Ministry of Education and Sports in Ghana for encouraging software development for various subjects this year.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The move was part of the government's efforts to promote Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools. Since ICTs had become the driving force of educational system, Ministry opines them to be an integral part of national education policies and plans and has started equipping the schools with ICT facilities. To achieve the unifying task of digital divide the greater responsibility of role of computer has also been reiterated in education. Microsoft Corporation donated the prize for award.
The government of Haryana and Intel India join their hands together to equip teachers of Haryana to became professionally well in the computerised environment in schools.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
They have inked a MoU for this purpose. The state government has accepted the proposal from Intel to train the teachers. Intel's training programme for teachers would include their sustained professional development for the integration of ICT in government schools in the state. The programme also includes a post-training implementation factor. Intel would collaborate with the commissioner and director general, school education, Haryana, to develop independent subject-wise education modules.
The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) will reduce the number of online services and brands it provides for schools in response to the Department for Education and Skills five-year strategy and e-Strategy, 'Harnessing Technology'.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Over the coming months some changes would be seen in Becta's online presence. This includes the news, features and school website directory. The aim is to work towards a position where teachers should be able to work from any Internet access point at any time, linked to the tools and learning services they need in order to plan, prepare, manage and follow up learning experiences for their students. The site provides online curriculum, which features multimedia resources to support teaching and learning. This site is an example of the Government's ongoing commitment to ICT and the drive to transform teaching and learning in schools.
When the first homework was handed out to kindy and first graders at Glenorie Public School this term, there were two groups to instruct. First, the children: their task was to compile a mini animal project using a set website and then email their picture and a simple descriptive sentence as an attachment to the school's online homework site. Then, there was the parent-teacher night to help parents understand what their youngsters were doing.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Glenorie Public is a school of few textbooks and exercise books, except for practising handwriting or in an emergency, like a computer going down. Every classroom has internet access and teachers steer students through online resources using a system called LAMS (Learning Activity Management System) to avoid Google overload and keep them off inappropriate sites. Homework is posted online and students use forums to comment on novels they are reading or to ask each other for help with maths.
Glenorie is a government school on Sydney's north-western fringe, relying on standard funding, says the acting principal, Debbie Evans. But it has put its resources into e-learning. For students without home computers there is extra computer time at school. The result, says Evans, is a learning model which encourages discussion and can be tailor-made for different competencies.
Teachers identify high-quality internet sites and set multi-stage activities, leading students to a wider range of sources as they progress and getting them talking in online forums.
