E-learning solutions provider in India Educomp Solutions Limited plans to scale up headcount at its Bangalore facility by adding 250 people.
The company plans to invest close to RNI 4 crore in a new 30,000 sqft facility, that would house its global development centre here.
Educomp is in the business of developing digital content meant for K12 students (kindergarten to class 12), and has installed its 'Smart Class TM'
Technology startup PocketLearn Inc (www.pocketlearn.com) has introduced a suite of software products that enable many cellular telephones and personal digital assistants or “PDA's” to become mobile tools for learning. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Among the products are special “Viewers” that are installed on the devices, as well as Windows based content creation tools. PocketLearn has initially targeted Windows Mobile devices such as the Pocket PC and Smartphone, as well as Java phones. Almost all mobile phones today will run Java software. This means that if your device is a true “smart” device that meets the minimum requirements, you can run the software. There is also a Windows version of the PocketLearn Viewer, which means it will run on Microsoft's newly announced “Oregami” device. A version for Palm devices is in the works.
PocketLearn has sought to establish a standard for educational software on these smart devices by building products on top of industry-standard technologies such as HTML and XML, and by making most of their software available for free. Their strategy is to standardize the format of the content and provide viewer software for a variety of devices. Content creators can really focus on content, with the assurance that their creations will be viewable on a very wide range of devices. PocketLearn content can include not only HTML-formatted text, but also images and audio.
Key to the PocketLearn strategy is their online content repository (also at www.pocketlearn.com), which serves as a searchable and categorized collection of content that can be downloaded, rated and reviewed by the user community. In fact, the web site is also “small device friendly” and provides a good browsing experience for the limited browsers found on these devices.
With reference to the survey conducted by Dell, a technology company, on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education, it is quite transparent that teachers are showing more interest in adopting ICT in classroom.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
This new research from Dell shows that technology is increasingly critical to helping teachers deliver the national curriculum and improving pupils' learning, particularly those in hard-to-reach groups. The survey showed technology was supporting the delivery of the Department for Education and Skills' 2005 e-Strategy, which was transforming learning and enabling children to fulfil their educational potential. It was also increasing productivity by lessening the administration workload for teachers. Younger teachers were particularly supportive of the expansion of technology into classrooms, but older teachers were also seeing the benefits.
Preston Community School, a secondary school in Yeovil, Somerset, has boosted its pupils' language learning skills following a successful pilot scheme of Rosetta Stone's online language learning. < ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
80% of pupils of mixed ages and abilities, including those with literacy and/or behavioural problems, that evaluated the online French, German and Spanish programs claim to have learnt new language skills, consolidated previous learning, and are keen to continue using the software.
The online courses were introduced in computer classes, language lessons and after school clubs. Passwords were also allocated so that pupils could continue learning at home, thereby gaining the support and encouragement of their parents. The objective of the e-learning pilot was for pupils to learn new language skills and grammar structures and to support previous learning.
Rosetta Stone's Dynamic Immersion method stems from two core beliefs: that the natural way people learn their native language as children remains the most successful method for learning new languages; and that interactive technology can replicate and activate immersion-based learning that is a powerful method for learners of any age.
The wide range of units on offer meant that pupils were able to find the ability level at which they were happiest working, as well as choosing the content they found most interesting. Pupils were monitored using the online tracking system and marked for each unit completed. Many took great pride in their scores, which introduced a competitive element and encouraged them to continue learning at home.
The College of Telecommunications and Information Technology is going to launch the first-ever online training programme at postgraduate diploma level in the country this year to meet the demands of Information Communications Technology professionals.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The programme is going to be started form next July as the regular training. The programme in different areas of ICT and telecom would enable students to take the courses in their own time by accessing the training materials in textual and video content form. The regular training programmes are offered in the fields of telecom engineering and information technology at MSc levels, and Master of Business Administration (MBA) in telecom in order to move the telecom industry of the country with the pace of the changing technology.
The British Computer Society (BCS) website is going to give career advice to IT students and professionals as a part of the news which would be supported by personalised accounts from people working in a wide range of IT roles.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The careers section offers guidance on securing the elusive 'first job' and switching to a career in IT as well as identifying the roles available and how to access them. The website as a whole benefits from 600 additional pages providing all-embracing information on all aspects of the IT profession. A new students section, much of it written by students for students, also provides young aspiring professionals with advice, career profiles, new IT developments and reviews, project news from other colleges and universities and networking opportunities.
Zambia Police is planning to digitalise the operation system to fight against crime because criminals are becoming sophisticated day by day.
Dr Jere, a senior Officer in Zambia Police, called on the media to join hands in fighting crime and creating peace in Zambia and challenged the media to verify their information before publishing to avoid misleading the public. Police would soon be conducting a press tour to the three police training institutions to familiarise press people with the training offered to officers.
ICT provide a practical and enabling solution for improving overall quality of education. It has been found that different institutions are using different ICT tools, which helps the student to improve the knowledge base.< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
At Columbia University, a real-time Web-based service called LaundryView lets students log on to a Web- based system to see which washing machines are free before they head to the laundry room. Lecturers at Joliet Junior College in Illinois use an interactive learning software to increase student participation. At Babson College lecturers use voice-annotated spreadsheets that allow accounting and statistics students to make sense of complicated course work. In this way ICT innovation changes the old paradigm of teaching learning. The concept of paperless and pen less classroom are emerging as an alternative to the old teaching learning method.
Despite all the hullabaloo about India's prowess in IT and sky-rocketing telecom subscriptions, the country still figured at the bottom rung (rank 40) in the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006. US topped the list, followed by Singapore, Denmark and Iceland at second third and fourth positions, respectively.
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India's ranking at 40th position amongst 115 economies remained largely unchanged. In fact, India slid one rank from last year's 39th position. China's rank dropped 9 positions from 41 last year to 50 th position this year.
US regains the top position in the rankings, reflecting an impressive performance in the areas of ICT physical infrastructure and high levels of business and government usage of the latest technologies. US topped the rankings for the third time in five years. Last year, US was ranked fifth on the list. The US also stands out for ready availability of venture capital.
Singapore had topped the list last year. Singapore benefits from an excellent regulatory environment and exemplary macroeconomic management. Singapore apart, Asia and the Pacific also did extremely well this year with Taiwan in 7th place, gaining 8 positions from last year and in the top ten for the first time, followed closely by Hong Kong (11), Korea (14), Australia (15) and Japan (16).
The Greenstone Digital Library had introduced by John B. Rose of the University of Waikato at the British Council, which is produced in the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.
The advantage of digital libraries is that they provide access to and storage of multimedia and allow for cooperative input. The software has provision for multi-lingual interfaces and data entry. Hindi and Kannada databases have been created by some of the Indian users. The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and the Archives of Indian Labour are among the institutions that have put the software to use. The Greenstone software is available at www.greenstone.org and the digital library of the University of Waikato at www.nzdl.org.
