Ameer Khan: Time to emphasis on digital learning

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March 23, 2020

These are the challenging times indeed…for the dynamic stake holders like students, teachers and parents for the widespread COVID-19. The new epidemic has led to large scale school closures in India falling short of 20 working days. It has affected the whole education system as we don’t have ONE NATION–ONE CURRICULUM.

The recent survey has found that although 26% of the respondents are excited to spend this time with friends and family, almost 34% of students are bored at home during the break and 19% are worried.

In this context, I strongly feel we are not equipped to have online though numerous schools in the country. Even many have tied up with ed-tech platforms to offer online learning to students and majority of them have not made such associations yet.

We are expecting more schools and teachers to follow this path and introduce online learning.

To handle this situation we have come up with few initiatives like a timetable which much includes the life skills activities as this is the precious time and the better opportunity for the parents to inculcate moral values, few suggestions from our end :

WAH –in holidays (work at home )

1. Help child to arrange their books and clothes neatly in a clearly assigned space

2. Create a home timetable with half an hour for written work (for primary students)

3. One hour for handwork (drawing, painting creative work) one hour total for household chores (watering plants getting lunch, cleaning our desk ,cleaning tables )

4. Fix time off reading with parents –suggested to read more of freedom fighters

5. Plan a routine play time with children to enhance bonding (carom, Indian games astha chamma memory games)

6. No TV during school hours. Keep a strict set time table

7. Preparing snacks for parents –to develop culinary art skills

The above info is shared for the parents on our school website and Facebook page.

To meet the academic content with the help of WHATSAPP we have class groups, all the subject teachers and the students are the part of group and sharing the academic content. The content is shared in the form of editable worksheets and to teach for the concepts using GOOGLE CLASSROOMS , HANGOUTS and YOUTUBE videos. As we are affiliated to CBSE BOARD the dynamic board has taken few DIGITAL LEARNING INITATIVES which we are sharing and following with students like

1. DIKSHA – APP has more than 80,000 e-books FOR CLASSES 1 TO 12 for all subjects created by CBSE, NCERT and is available in multiple languages

website : https://diksha.gov.in

2.e-PATHSHALA – In this web portal NCERT has developed 1886 audios ,2000 videos 696 E-BOOKS and 504 flip books for classes I to XII In different languages website : http ://epathshala.nic.in

3. SWAYAM –national online learning platform hosting 1900 courses covering both school (classes XI and XII ) and to the graduate and postgraduates www. Swayam.gov.in

4. SWAYAM PRABHA has 32 DTH TV channels transmitting contents on 24×7 basis. www.swayamprabha.gov.in.

(Ameer Khan, Principal, CMR International School, Suraram)

MHRD innovation cell: Identifying and solving pressing concerns

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 23, 2020

Idea generation is the most crucial step for innovation. We are trying to inculcate the habit of thinking out of the box, looking at things from different perspectives and keeping the curious quotient alive by bringing in lot of interesting and different programmes, says Dr Mohit Gambhir, Innovation Director, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Innovation Cell, Government of India, in a conversation with Chandan Anand and Debajyoti Mohanty of Elets News Network (ENN).

MHRD Innovation Cell (MIC) has made some big strides in promoting student innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. How has been your journey so far?

Our journey has been phenomenal so far. It has been almost one and a half years and the initiatives that MIC had started since August 2018 are making waves in the existing ecosystem. I believe we have been successful in penetrating the system so as to have a multitudinous impact on our education system.

India has improved its Innovation ranking from being at 86th place, five years ago, to 52nd place in 2019. How far do you think is the target of Top 30?

Firstly, I must congratulate all the stakeholders who are working day in and day out to improve innovation ecosystem in the country and in turn making strides in Innovation rankings. I believe that these rankings are the validation of our efforts to improve the overall innovation landscape of the country. Now, as far as the question of coming in Top 30 is concerned, it may take us two more years to reach that mark, following our consistent practices at par with global innovation ecosystem.

Idea generation is crucial for innovation. How do you handle this aspect?

Idea generation is the most crucial step for innovation. We are trying to inculcate the habit of thinking out of the box, looking things from different perspectives and keeping the curious quotient alive by bringing in lot of interesting and different programmes such as Smart India Hackathons, establishment of Institution’s Innovation Council (IICs), and Leadership talks to motivate our youths in higher education institutions.

The past three Smart India Hackathons (SIH) have been a grand success. What are your expectations from the 4th SIH 2020?

The Smart India Hackathon (SIH) is a kind of initiative that has become a rage among students. Just to give you some background, the first edition attracted around 40,000 registrations. In the second edition, we had around 70,000 registrations and in the last edition, we had around three lakh student registrations. You can imagine at what humongous pace this is growing. And I referred only to the registered figures, the actual impact and reach would be much more. This year we would be hosting the 4th edition, which will be conducted in two parts just like last year, viz. software and hardware editions. Software edition event is slated for April 4-5, 2020 and hardware would happen sometime in the first half of July 2020.

This year we have encouraged all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to organise internal hackathons so as to attract and impact more students, developing these activities as a culture among all the students, expecting much better ideas from the student community for problem statements. In the 4th edition, which is being jointly organised by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), MHRD Innovation cell, Persistent and i4C, we have a gamut of associate partners supporting us in this initiative, like Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD), Doordarshan, Amazon AWS, Cisco Devnet, KPIT, and Suma soft.

I believe we have come to a stage where we should start looking at better ideas and solutions for a much better tomorrow and that is the basic essence of this year’s SIH.

MIC has encouraged creation of Institution’s Innovation Council (IICs) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). What is the potential of this initiative and how do you see it going into the future?

Establishment of IICs is one of the path breaking initiatives of MIC. Through IICs we are trying to develop a strong framework in order to provide students in HEIs with various cutting edge technologies and new age thought processes such as Design thinking, Cognitive skills development, Pre-incubation, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual property rights etc. IICs have immense potential in building a strong and vibrant local innovation ecosystem and ultimately, I believe it is need of the hour for all the HEIs to establish IICs and develop a robust start-up and entrepreneurship support mechanism.

How is MIC approaching student entrepreneurship and job creation, keeping the target of a USD 5 trillion economy in mind?

MIC is working with a clear mandate to encourage, inspire and nurture young students by supporting them to work with new ideas and transform them into prototypes while they are in their formative years. There are few other initiatives that MIC brought in such as International Hackathons, Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) and National innovation and start-up policy. Through NISP, we are trying to bring in a fundamental change in modus operandi of majority of our educational institutions by recommending them to have a concrete start-up and entrepreneurship policy framework for not only their students but their faculty members as well.

We also know that everyone cannot become an entrepreneur but at least an individual can try so if they do not become a successful entrepreneur, they may become successful an intrapreneur. So, once this ecosystem start showing the results of the efforts we are putting in today, I am sure lot of new ventures would be formed, ultimately generating lot more jobs thereby contributing to achieve the target of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.

Maya Sukumaran: E-learning can be effective medium of instruction

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Maya Sukumaran

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March 23, 2020

In the present scenario, regarding COVID-19, various steps are being taken to stop the spread of the virus and protect student community. Though many schools are shut down, e-learning is an effective medium of instruction. It provides a safe and healthy learning environment.

Keeping the current difficult times in view, Gitanjali School, senior branch is conducting online classes for all the students through video conferencing sessions. Technology is being used to the optimum for effective teaching-learning intervention.

The students’ email ids were collected through Google Forms and the data was arranged class-wise in Google Sheets. Next, a Zoom application account was created in Zoom Cloud Meeting. A timetable has been prepared for all the classes to accommodate all the subjects for the online classes. Meetings were scheduled separately for classes 9, 10, 12 and Cambridge Checkpoint 8, with each meeting catering to more than 100 students. All students were sent invites to their email ids to join the sessions.

Once all the students join in, the teachers start their sessions by whiteboard teaching as well as with the help of videos and PowerPoint presentations through the screen sharing option. Open source content available in various websites on the internet is being utilized to the maximum for the full benefit of the students. The sessions are very interactive as students clarify their doubts simultaneously.

Also read: Santhosh Ram Chary: COVID-19 can make e-learning go viral

The follow up sessions are also being conducted at flexible hours from home by the teachers so that students have the advantage of extra learning time.

Google Hangouts is another useful tool being used by the teachers to conduct the classes for Cambridge IG 10 and A Level students. Invites were sent to the email ids of the students and chats are initiated with the students through video calls. The teachers also use a Screen Pad for diagrams and other board-related explanations.

Additional support material like notes, presentations and worksheets are sent to the students through the school portal.

In its constant Endeavour to be updated and in sync with the latest developments in Technology, Gitanjali School always promotes the use of the latest technologies in all areas so that students are always benefited.

The apprehensions and fears related to the safety of the students are overcome and learning goes on.

With the growing popularity in e-learning, it occurred to me that it should mean more than the electronic ,If we are going to call it learning ,shouldn’t it be effective ,efficient and engaging?

— David Merrill

(Maya Sukumaran, Principal, Gitanjali Senior School, Hyderabad.)

Aditi Goradia calls for value based learning

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Aditi Goradia

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March 23, 2020

We are living in uncertain times. Covid-19 has literally swept over the globe. The world as we know it – our routine lives – has been disrupted. And now we are spending all of our time at home. This is perhaps hardest on a modern day parent. The moms and dads were used to the routine of going to work while their children followed structured schedules of school, academics and co-curriculars. Things have gone haywire from last few weeks.

As the Director of a residential school, I often hear parents talk about the need for self-discipline and self motivation in children.

Some parents said, “He wants me to do everything for him, ma’am. I want him to know how to do things on his own.”

Some even went on to say, “She doesn’t pay much attention to the family. Her grand-parents are getting old. This culture of digital media and socialising has made her distant from family.”

Guess what? With schools and formal education coming to a stand-still, now is a great time to tap into all the other learning we want to inculcate in our children. Formal learning is important. But value based learning, life skill, empathy and respect are a basic necessity. And while for years, we worried about what the future generation capacity for values will be, we have been given an opportunity to address these issues in the form of crisis.

Also read: Revathi Srinivasan: Time to think new and innovative

Our team at Billimoria High School has decided to take a little break from traditional academics. Let’s reconnect as humans instead. Let’s practice physical distancing. But let’s learn how to connect better socially instead. Some ideas to inculcate this kind of learning in the entire family are:

Cook meals with your kids: Use online resources to look up simple recipes for foods that you find interesting.
Explore family history: Call an elderly relative and ask questions. Introduce your children to their roots. Look things up online. Use an app or website to chart it all out.
Learn a new language: There are great free apps and websites for this.
Get Coding: Free apps like Bitsbox are a great way to learn basic coding. All age groups.
Explore an interest: If there’s a topic you always found fascinating. Now is a good time to look it up.
Create memories: Do artwork together. Video / photograph it.
Play Classic Board Games: Antakshari. Charades. There are so many options.
Talk Spend time together: This is a great time to get to know each other. Something we never really took the time to do.

The Billimoria High School social media pages (@billimoriapanchgani) is posting a new activity / suggestion every day. Our kids and parents have loved it. And we are looking forward to hear new things which our kids have learned.

Revathi Srinivasan: Time to think new and innovative

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Revathi Srinivasan

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March 23, 2020

It is just too often that we hear these words work from home (WFH) from the corporate world. We perhaps never imagined that it would ever enter the world of teaching. As an educationist, I believe that we are in the most dynamic space with rapid changes, molding our views and actions, impacting minds positively.

But, sometimes I was envious of the ones who had WFH advantage, which I thought was a privilege .Until… I actually experienced it. Not just me, but all my 300+ teachers in school had a different experience.

It all started when we all got the directive for closure of school just two days after our new academic session started. Two weeks was a long time to be at home. We knew that we had to keep the enthusiasm of the students, for the new academic year going. All that I did was to talk about making a difference to children and their parents and the need to be a learning organisation. Parents who work from home would not be able to engage their child.

Moreover, we are no longer used to spending time in the company of one another. This social isolation is not something we are used to. The teachers then decided to use technology to the best of their capabilities. It was time to start a fresh, think differently, learn something new. We already had our own school app -The Sulonian Quest-which had recorded video lessons for better conceptual understanding. The students were already used to it.

But, for students to have live lessons was truly going to get more interesting. Teachers, who were more tech savvy, began training the others who were not so confident about using online platforms. From Google form for Quizzes and feedback, we explored everything that technology had to offer. I loved the enthusiasm of the teachers. Zoom , Google classrooms, Audible stories, Skype, Hangouts -all of them were used effectively to have love classes. The 12th graders had their regular class time-table being followed. The only difference being that everyone was at home. Teaching from home provided a lot of tools that teachers could use. The teachers used quizzes from Socrative and Kahoot. Amar Chitra Katha series and books online added to the pleasure of reading lighter stuff . A reinvention !

The Year 2 IB students had their mock exams which too we conducted from their homes, with a parent volunteering to invigilate I am sure the parents too enjoyed the new experience .They sat with their 17-18 year olds ,while we watched them onscreen writing their papers . And the corrections too went online. This was the first time we were correcting subjective papers. A whole new experience !

The enthusiasm and the excitement among teachers is truly contagious. They are experiencing new tools , redesigning their pedagogy, rethinking about engagement of students and even reworking their schedules. No longer did I see good morning messages, forwards of all kinds. There were only intellectual discussions. They seem to be at it all though the day. I am left wondering, if they even realise that if they were in school, they would have packed their bags at a stipulated time but now the clock stands still. Going beyond is the new mantra!!!

Sometimes, setbacks make you look at new opportunities to learn. When you have a learning organisation, you will look positively to make a difference to yourself and to others.

(Mrs. Revathi Srinivasan, Director Education – Singhania group of Schools)

Sinhgad Institutes connect with their students online to counter the coronavirus ‘shutdown’ mode

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digitalLEARNING Network

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March 21, 2020

With the threat of coronavirus looming large each day and the laudable Government initiatives to keep the spread in check, one of the initiatives is social distancing, working from home which has led to classrooms being ‘shutdown’ and students having to spend time at their homes or hostels as the case may be. Education never stops and we, at Sinhgad Institutes strongly believe in facing and overcoming challenges that come our way in the best interest of our students who are the future global leaders.

Sinhgad Institutions is one the largest education conglomerates with 85 Colleges and 26 schools spread across 12 campuses. We are consistently connected with students and parents who are the key stake holders to ensure that their interests are not hampered and that their valuable time is not wasted. All our institutions have gone ‘on line’ with the students being given creative indoor activities, quizzes and puzzles to solve, sourcing to them library books, including kindle to get them gainfully occupied in addition to the regular studies. Many of our colleges have DSC – Developer Student Clubs which are campus based community groups for students linked with Google developer technologies, which are basically independent student organisations, need not indicate any formal relationship with Google in some cases. Here the students work together, learn from each other, share knowledge and help each other out – as in any good community. They stay updated on IT matters, from gaming to latest software applications, even getting to know the success stories of various industry leaders.

Sinhgad Institute of Management – MCA is one of the premier institutes under Sinhgad Technical Education Society. Dr. Chandrani Singh, Director of SIOM-MCA has been conducting the classes online through You tube and quickly changed over to the videoconferencing tool Zoom for better student interaction, better lecture deliverance and learning for the participating students. The student participation and their adaptability to such techniques is commendable.

Dr. M. S. Gaikwad, Campus Director of Sinhgad Institutes Lonavala Campus says that in addition to online classes, his students use the DSC for learning free certification courses online from Ivy League colleges through Coursera. Teaming up with Sinhgad Institute of Technology, Lonavala – DSC is offering online courses through Coursera wherein the deserving applicant will be chosen to undertake the desired course.

These are some of the initiatives undertaken at Sinhgad Institutes, Pune to counter the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak leading to suspension of on campus instructions and face to face seminars, workshops in the colleges.

(By Dr M.S. Gaikwad, Campus Director & Dr. Chandrani Singh Campus Director-SIOM(MCA) Sinhgad Institutes, Lonavala Vadgaon, Pune)

Coronavirus outbreak: All Board exams, including CBSE to be postponed till March 31

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March 21, 2020

In order to prevent further spreading of COVID-19 infection, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MoHRD) has ordered the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and all other educational institutions to postpone exams till March 31.

As per the schedule, the board exams conducted by CBSE began on February 24 and were scheduled to end on April 14. As of yet, the board exams were continuously conducted despite the closing of schools, shutting of public places as a precautionary move to prevent public gathering across the country due to coronavirus outbreak.

Amit Khare, Secretary to HRD Ministry, said in an official communication, “While maintenance of academic calendar and exam schedule is important, equally important is safety and security of students who are appearing in various examinations as also of their teachers and parents.” All the exams ongoing, including those being conducted by the CBSE must be postponed till March 31, Khare added.

Post the Ministry’s statement, the CBSE announced that board examinations for classes 10th and 12th have been postponed till March 31st.

EdSense co-founder Sathyavolu: High time to adopt technology

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March 20, 2020

With coronavirus on the rise in India, as a preventive measure the government has asked all the educational institutions to shut down the operations. All of a sudden people have started working remotely, do things without meeting each other or get things done with the help of the Internet. Over 190 infected in India, the numbers are expected to rise in coming days.

Co-founder of EdSense |:, said “FinTech, Pharma, AgriTech, FoodTech, and Retails have captured the opportunity by being part of the changing needs of customers. This helped them with less impact due to this global calamity”.

Sathyavolu also said technology adoption is the only answer.

Sathyavolu also said, “It is known that very few solutions are available if not end to end, but partially support these schools with the current problem statement taking care of the Technology aspect of it, however, are we ready with people & process aspect as well? It’s a huge question that every academician should ask themselves”.

“Flipped Learning is one such amazing pedagogies that would simplify the remote learning process. It is a powerful way to engage students remotely, push designated content and also organize required assessments to track learning outcomes, he also said.

“On an average, about 42% of the teacher’s time goes on non-teaching activities, and most of this could be easily digitized or automated with right toolset, teachers should be allowed to experiment rather than just seen as people just for execution, often schools and institutions tend to miss the fact going digital is a strategy and it needs thought leadership, clean execution but guaranteed results,” said Sathyavolu.

Such readiness is not just for Covid-19 or any other disasters, but this is just a process of keeping up to evolving 21st Century learning needs and ever-changing digital trends, Sathyavolu stated.

UP NTSE 2020 result for Stage 1 declared

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March 20, 2020

The Uttar Pradesh examination regulatory authority, has announced the results of state-level National Talent search examination (NTSE) 2019-20.

Aspirants who appeared in examination can check the list on its official website. The candidates can check the results at examregulatoryauthorityup.in.

The examination is conducted by NCERT, every year at two levels – Stage-I (State Level), conducted by the States/Union Territories and Stage-II (National Level).

The exam is conducted to indentify and recognize students with high intellect and academic talent.

Earlier, NCERT had released the answer key for the UP NTSE Exam 2020 on February 7.

Candidates who have cleared the stage 1 exam will be allowed to participate on the national-level stage 2 exam.

Steps to check UP NTSE Result 2020

-Login on to official site

-Search link for UP NTSE Stage 1 Exam Result 2020

-Enter required details

-NTSE UP Result 2020 will be displayed

Rajasthan govt postpones all board exams

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March 20, 2020

Rajasthan govt postpones all board exams

To curb the infection of coronavirus, Rajasthan government has decided to postpone the board exams of all the classes.

The decision came as a relief for all the parents and students who were worried about an epidemic across the globe.

In a high-level meeting, the state government has decided to postpone exams for class V, VIII, X and XII of Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE).

Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said, the govt has decided to postpone all school, college, board exams for further notice in the wake of coronavirus.

To prevent the spread of coronavirus infection, it was necessary to postpone the exams. Students are vulnerable to the disease. Now, people are requested to spread the right information and not to panic, school education minister Govind Dotasra said.

We have decided to postpone all school, college and board exams until further notice in view of #CoronavirusOutbreak. It has been done as part of our efforts to contain the spread of #COVID19.

:Holding a meeting of Health and Education department at CMO.#राजस्थान_सतर्क_है pic.twitter.com/IMIJCbJMFN

— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) March 19, 2020

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