Getting admission into Delhi University colleges has never been an easy road for the students. But for those who are aspiring to study BA Journalism (Hons) and BA English (Hons) from University of Delhi, the process is all the more difficult and competitive.
According to the official data released by the varsity, 1, 12,233 applications have been received for the 306 seats available in BA Journalism (Hons). It translates to the fact that a total of 367 applicants are contending for a single seat.
On the other hand, BA English (Hons) has emerged as the most popular course in term of number of applications. Reportedly, the university has received 1, 42,970 applications for admission into the course.
However, BA Journalism (Hons) course is offered by only seven DU colleges whereas BA English (Hons) is taught in 46 colleges. The total no of seats available stands at 2,477 which means 58 applicants are competing for a single seat for admission into the course.
If we talk about the overall response, the University has received as many as 2, 58,388 applications for the 62,000 seats available in the undergraduate courses. DU revealed this data a day after the registration process was finished on June 22, 2019.
Notably, last year, 348 candidates were competing per seat in the BA Journalism (Hons) course. DCAC had fixed the highest cut off for the course at 98.5%.
Apart from this, DU also runs an integrated five-year programme at Delhi School of Journalism, which offers 120 seats.
Similarly, the competition for admission to BA Psychology (Hons) and BA Sociology (Hons) is also high wherein 202 and 232 applicants are vying for it respectively. The situation is slightly better in BA Geography (Hons), with 176 applicants competing for a single seat.
This year, the number of applications has gone high for many popular courses.
In comparison to last year, the university has received applications from around 20,000 more candidates for BA English (Hons).
In addition to this, the university has witnessed 30,000 more applications than last year for BA Political Science (Hons) course. In a similar manner, BA Sociology (Hons) and BA Psychology (Hons) courses have also gone up by 36,831 and 36,817 applications respectively.
Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, and reinvent our approaches to learning & collaboration, Anil Mammen, Chief – Learning Design & Impact, Tata ClassEdge, for Elets News Network (ENN).
Everyone learns best by doing. You first learn to read by attempting reading. You learn to drive by sitting behind the wheel and driving. Your thoughts become sharper when you dedicate time for thinking and reflection.
Doing does not mean doing something with one’s hands all the time. Listening, reading and thinking are actions too.
But not all actions help you learn. Some are chores like brushing your teeth, chopping vegetables, watering plants and so on. They are essential – in fact, quite significant – but most times they don’t teach you more than what you already know about those. Therefore, if learning becomes a chore, there is also an inevitable cessation of learning.
When does an action become a chore? Well, it happens when there is no more trial and error. When things don’t shake you up. When the patterns remain regular and unchanged.
When you observe infants, you see them indulging in a lot of trial and error. They also inundate us with a barrage of questions. Around two or three years, they start communicating using short sentences (language acquisition), engage in a lot of creative play (creative thinking) and are hungry to learn more.
How do we relate this to technology? For one, technology provides us with the affordance to play with it, make mistakes and learn to do new things with it. Little wonder then that we see a lot of older people today effectively making use of smartphones to video-call their children, relatives and friends; post happy pictures on social media; and share inspirational quotes on messaging applications.
Learning happens when errors lead to higher gain
A plane crash due to piloting error is a costly mistake that could result in the loss of lives. Which is why pilots are made to practice on flight simulators and learn under the guidance of expert pilots. Flight simulators allow a trainee pilot to make mistakes without having to worry about a real crash. When learners feel that they gain more from making certain kinds of errors while learning, they are also learning to handle risks.
However, a lot of what passes off as educational technology today – video tutorials, animations and multiple-choice questions – is quite low on trial and error. These have all the ingredients to start children on a somewhat engaging route. But when novelty wears off, these might end up being a chore or, even worse, are likely to be dumped as non-essential for scoring well in exams.
Imagine the following three scenarios:
A child watches an online tutorial on how to calculate area and perimeter.
She attempts a few multiple-choice questions using the formula for calculating area and perimeter.
She designs a neighbourhood park, with a designated play area within it. She has to lay a fence around the park.
The first two exercises can enhance textbook-learning, as they merely represent textbook content in a virtual form. In the third task, the child is likely to get some calculations wrong, and she will notice that in her faulty design of the park. However, it’s also entirely possible that she won’t give up until she gets it right. That’s the beauty of an authentic task.
Bringing authentic tasks to the classroom
Let me give a non-technology example. If you observe children in class 3 doing a math problem, you might notice that they are more likely to get the correct answer to a question such as, “What is 50 minus 20?”. On the other hand, they find it difficult to solve a word problem based on a real-life situation like this one: “Two bars of chocolate cost Rs 30. You give the shopkeeper Rs 50. How much money should you get in return?”
Does this word problem reflect a real-life task?It does, but in a verbal form.It’s not an actual situation involving the child. The task involves first decoding the language that is used to represent the problem,and then identifying the mathematical operation in it. On the other hand, let’s imagine you take a seven-year-old child to a local grocery shop. Give Rs 50 to the child and ask her to buy two bars of chocolate for Rs 30. She might intuitively know how much the shopkeeper is supposed to return without having to do any pen and paper calculation. An authentic task is one where you could gain or lose something based on what you choose to do. And when such a task precedes theories and equations, students are likely to internalise them more sharply.
For instance, handling money by yourself means investing yourself in a task. It’s this real investment that is missing in formal education. Almost all the learning that human beings have acquired so far is a result of their interactions with their environment and other people – which include interactions with ideas, risks, and consequences. It’s the feedback from these interactions that make learning meaningful.
However, classrooms and our education systems work within certain constraints, and therefore, it’s not always possible to give children the rich experiences of the real world. And that’s where technology can play a significant role – by simulating real-world environments and situating children in real situations. When technology merely represents textbook knowledge on a screen, it’s a severe underutilisation of its potential. The role of an educational technologist is to make learning meaningful, not a chore. Let’s not lose sight of that.
Delhi University’s St Stephen College has released its first cut-off list for the 10 undergraduate course with highest cut off at 98.75% for BA English (Hons) and BA Economics (Hons).
With BA Economics (Hons) cut off same as that of the last year, BA English (Hons) has witnessed a marginal increase of 0.25 percentage points. However, the cut-off for BSc Physics (Hons) saw a dip of 0.73 percentage points.
This year, college has received 19,862 applications of which 3,505 were for English and 3,418 were for Economics.
The cut-off for BA English (Hons) stands at 98.75% for commerce students, 98.25% for humanities students and 98.75% for science students. From last year, there is an increase of 0.25 percentage points for commerce students and 0.75 for students from humanities and sciences backgrounds.
The college has also put a provision of minimum 90% or above in mathematics to secure a seat in Economics course. Moreover, the students belonging to categories other than Church of North India (CNI) and CNID–Church of North India (Delhi Diocese) including general, SC, ST need to score 92% marks. In English honours, applicants must score 90% in English Core or 85% in English Elective.
Anju Shrivastava, principal of Hindu College, said, “The cut-off released by St Stephen’s would help other colleges in assessing and deciding their cut-offs as well. Requesting anonymity, principal of another college in the north campus said other colleges are likely to have similar or higher cut-offs than Stephen’s in order to receive maximum applications and filter students accordingly.”
Young private schoolgirl gestures while using virtual reality goggles at school.
There is a strong underlying truth which continuously fuels the growth of Virtual Reality (VR) technology. It is not the technical supremacy or first of its kind aspects. But the astonishing biological factors which directly influence the human brain in a much deeper way, observes Dr C S S Bharathy, Founder, Fusion VR.
Ever wondered why the global adoption of Virtual reality is growing exponentially in recent years…?! If VR media was just hype for its glamour, then it might not have reached at its current stage. Every other day we are seeing incredible case studies getting published which evident the benefits of VR implementation in enterprise workforce training and other learning spaces. Most reports show-up remarkable numbers such as up to 90% knowledge retention rate, 80% productivity increase…etc.
Learning by Doing
“I hear and I forgot, I see and I remember, I do and I understand” – Confucius, 551BC – 479BC.
“After two weeks, the human brain remembers 10% of what it read, 20% of what it hears and 90% of what it does.”—American educator Edgar Dale – 1946.
Dr C S S Bharathy, Founder, Fusion VR
Though these famous statements are subjective and the numbers may be debatable, we can’t deny the core underlying fact that “what we learn through hands-on experience” gives utmost knowledge and wisdom. But experiential learning always comes at a cost, takes time and they also can’t be replicated or shared.
What are Real-Experiences?
Let’s try to understand how our brain interprets real-world experiences and conceives the sense of presence. Brain understands the space and the boundary between the area around our body and what is the rest of the world? This is the space known as per personal space where most our interactions with the world happens; usually the space within our hands reach. During our interaction with the physical world, various external stimuli triggers the body receptors and our sensory nerve system communicates these signals to brain. Visual cues play a major role through providing information on light directions, depths, colors…etc. The vestibular system in our ears helps to maintain our orientation &balance and proprioception provides a subconscious sense of where our body parts are relative to space.
The received signals are processed in our brain which has approximately 86 billion Neurons (computing nerve cell units). Processed information is then transmitted as electro-chemical signals to each other via as many as 1,000 trillion synaptic connections. Neural impulses generated in the Motor system of our brain controls the complex execution of various limbs muscle movements. The whole mental process of acquiring knowledge through our senses,body interactions, thoughts and experiences is known as Cognitive learning and this the way our brain’s learning mechanism is wired by nature.
Stimulated Virtual-Experiences
Let’s recall the famous dialogue from Sci-fi blockbuster “The Matrix” …. What is real? How do you define real? If you talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see…then “real” is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
Neuroscientists already found that VR can create more believable Virtual experiences by way of artificially stimulating the receptors in our sensory systems.Designing experiences as multi-sensory always helps in perceiving realism in VR. Carefully crafted Virtual environments are very effective as they follow the same rules of the real world; 3D Objects in motion should obey law of physics; Realistic shading, texturing and lighting to help us figuring out volume, depth and distance of the virtual space; 360-Spatial audio, haptics and aroma also add value for realism.
Embodiment & Sense of Presence in VR Space
Embodiment in VR is the key to induce the level of empathy and understanding. While designing first- and second-person VR experiences it is strongly recommended to use cognitive embodiment in a sensible way to increases the sense of presence and realism. This can be achieved by way of using virtually represented 3D avatars to inhabit ourselves (inside the virtual avatar) and virtual body parts for interactions. This makes us feel the ownership of virtual avatars with spatial relationship with the environment.
In addition to the above physiological and psychological elements, we also have to be mindful on technical factors such as 6-DOF head & body tracking, screen resolution, antialiasing, field of view, frame rates, latencies and navigation systems for the user to achieve a more convincing presence inside VR.
Level of Engagement and Gamification in VR
VR experiences should follow the rules of successful computer games where user engagement is achieved through multiple game-levels with incremental challenges. When the challenges in the learning methods are designed and incrementally adjusted stage by stage according to the Skills of the learner, the learning experience will put the brain into the Flow-State where the “Prefrontal Cortex (PFT)” partially shuts down (the main function of PFT is to control our conscious behaviors). This puts us to the state where we loss ourselves and time and puts us within a fully pleasant learning environment a technique termed “The state of Flow”.
The famous research by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi-Farmer Chairman, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago describes the above techniquewhere we could learn 7 times faster than usual.
The Power of Spatial learning
Referring to Tom Furness one of the Godfathers of VR with over 50 years of research – Tech like Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality leverage “cognitive embodiment” to reinforce learning. Our brain remembers places much efficiently than texts. If knowledge is provided within a 3-D spatial structure, the brain memorizes and retrieves information in a very natural way where the pace of learning will be many times speedier.
University of Maryland researchers conducted one of the first in-depth analyses of the educational use of VR and found that people remember information better if it is presented to them in a virtual environment.
Historical evidence for Spatial learning
The method of loci (loci being Latin for “places”) an imaginal technique known to the ancient Greeks and Romans is a method of memory enhancement which uses visualizations with the use of spatial memory. In this technique the subject memorizes the layout of some familiar environment such as buildings or streets which is composed of a number of discrete places. When desiring to remember a set of items the subject ‘walks’ through these places in their imagination and commits an item to each one by forming an image between the item and any feature of that place. Retrieval of items is achieved by ‘walking’ through the places, allowing thosespatial features to activate the desired items.
“Method of loci” techniques survives till today in the common English phrases “in the first place”, “in the second place”, and so forth…The efficacy of this technique has been well established and in the Brain scans of “superior memorizers”, 90% of whom use the method of loci technique, have shown that it involves activation of regions of the brain involved in spatial awareness.
Navigating in Space: Real-World
The Nobel Prize for Physiology in 2014 was awarded to Prof. John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser for their interesting findings on how we remember and navigate in different places.
Our brain encodes the sense of space and navigation abilities using two types of nerve cells.When we enter into an environment for the first time, Place-cells inside the Hippocampus area of the brain are activated and a spatial map is created marking the locations. At the same time, Grid-Cellsin the “Entorhinal Cortex” part of the brain measures and records the distances between locations which provides a metric to the spatial maps in Hippocampus. There are also “Head direction cells” which acts like a campus and “Border Cells” which stores the information on where the boundaries such as walls are. These complex networks within Hippocampus constitute a comprehensive positioning system and acts as the inner GPS for the brain.
When the spatial memory system is added inside time and few other things, the episodic memory is built which gives us the ability for remembering what we did in a particular location at a particular time in the past. Whenever we visit a same environment again, the Hippocampus enables us with an easier cognitive navigation through decoding the episodic memories. It’s also been noticed that taxi drivers have larger Posterior hippocampus as they do lot of navigations…!!
Navigating in Space: Virtual-World
The interesting finding is that the brain-cells of hippocampus fires and encodes spatial memory equally both in real and virtual environments. There are many ways VR experiences can trick our brains into responding like its real life. When we move around in VR, our brain creates a spatial map out of the environment so that we can navigate through it now and if we return later. Brain uses our past experiences to build a set of rules to interpret the world.
In a study published on Jan. 18 in the journal Nature Communications, by Center for Neuroscience, University of California: Functional-MRI was used to look for brain areas that are activated on VR Experience? As memories are recalled, especially in the hippocampus different regions were activated for different kinds of information, another interesting finding was that in this study, the hippocampus was involved in episodic memories linking both time and space of VR experiences.
The Power of Virtual-Reality
Once the brain starts to interpret the stimulated signals as real, these virtual experiences will become the ultimate weapon to break all those limitations of the Physical-Reality. Through VR, we can virtually bring the physical places inside our brain and tap the highest possible learning potential which was not possible before. In the neuro-medical treatment known as neuroplasticity, recently VR is being used extensively to rewire the neural network connections of brain. This technique establishes new connections and functionalities in our brain which might otherwise lost by the natural metabolic process known as “Synaptic pruning “and untapped throughout our life.
VR devices can also quickly learn about how the users respond to different stimuli by tracking their eye movements and head positions and even monitor their emotional states through EEG. This whole new operating system forour brain will let us learn, feel, remember and process new ideas in a more experiential way. Decision making will become through empathy and data and not just by intuition.
Developers have to be mindful about the fact that most nauseated users after a bad VR experience will immediately conclude the VR-media is always bad rather than complaining the content. Over the period, this will poison and ruin the future of this wonderful media. Creating a completely compelling VR may be practically challenging and in most cases the effort spent on attempting towards highest perfection may not really worth it. Through experience, the better-informed VR creators can soon figure out the balancing recipe while maintaining fidelity of the virtual presence.
VR-developers should also realize their biggest social responsibility while conceiving concepts for VR-games since such prolonged experiences will potentially transform the users to behave violent even in the real world. It’s our responsibility to understand and accept the technological revolution to leverage its unique potentials in the right way.
India’s tech talents are the biggest beneficiaries of Global Skills Strategy (GSS) launched by the Canadian Government in June 2017. The GSS is aimed to meet the Canada’s skill demand, especially in the information technology sector.
IRCC spokesperson Rémi Larivière said, “The objective of the GSS is to allow companies to access the top talent by getting high-skilled workers into our country at faster rate.”
The programme invites the tech talent from across the globe to work in Canada. Indian citizens appear to have taken advantage of the opportunity.
So far, the Canadian Government has approved a total of 17,312 work permits of which more than half of the work permits i.e. 9,462 are of Indians. With 1,420 work permits, China is at second position, revealed the data provided by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) at the end of December 2018.
Pleased with the success of the scheme, the Canadian Government has now made it permanent.
The top five areas that have attracted the talent are all related to the knowledge economy: Computer analysts and consultants, interactive media programmers and developers, university professors and lecturers, software engineers, and those in the info systems and data processing space.
The education arm of tech-giant Microsoft has collaborated with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create online lessons to get the kids interested about space.
As per media reports, there will be eight online lesson plans on different topics. The lessons range from designing astro socks to protecting astronauts’ feet in microgravity to designing one’s own space station.
The curriculum will reportedly comprise of 3D design challenges, data analysis lessons and virtual reality (VR) experiences.
It will take 3-4 sessions of 50 minutes each to get well versed in a course. For a single student, it will cost $2 to $3 approximately.
Notably, the two companies entered into the partnership after meeting at International Society for Technology Educators Conference in 2018, asserted Karon Weber, Partner Director, Microsoft Education Workshop.
The Microsoft and NASA, through the course, plan to create exposure around Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) modules. It will ask the students to detect seasons from biome images.
To finish the class, students will need Windows 10 and a Microsoft Office subscription.
“One of the biggest struggles that we have experienced at Billimoria is bringing in technology. May be a lot of school leaders will connect to that. Bringing in technology to teachers who have been doing things their own way for the last 15, 20 or 30 years is difficult. It’s difficult for them to keep up. We have to relate. We have to respect it. They want too. It’s not that they are challenging us,” said Aditi Goradia, Managing Director, Billimoria High School, Panchgani.
She was speaking at the inaugural session of 12th School Leadership Summit, Pune, which was held in May 2019. Along with her, other eminent personalities from the education industry also graced the inauguration ceremony.
Further, explaining her context on struggle around making teachers comfortable with technology, she said, “It’s like my classroom suddenly changes into smart board. But I am comfortable with chalk-and-talk method and also my students were doing well in the board exams. But it’s not about the boards anymore or exams, it’s about the world. The world has become such a small place that our kids need encouragement. They need our support and technology is a great way to do it.”
Sharing her experience with teachers at Billimoria, Goradia said, “One thing that I tell my teachers at Billimoria is to take five days of efforts. Five days of efforts to learn something new. Giving it that extra time after eight hours of classroom lectures with some extra effort leads to more learning and makes life easier.”
She also elaborated how the use of technology can make the lives easier and teaching a fun activity. “Technology is making our lives much easier as teaching a lesson from book, then on blackboard, then in smart class, then in AV room and then taking students outside ensure that they retain maximum of it at a faster pace. It also helps students to be inquisitive and ask 10 super challenging questions that even after being a teacher you don’t know how to answer them. However, when you figure out the answers, teaching becomes more fun than before,” she said.
Goradia also expressed her gratitude towards Elets Technomedia for providing a great platform – School Leadership Summit, for collaborating with schools across the country.
“Thank you so much for this platform for us to get together. We are collaborating because we have a common goal – quality education for our children. So be it STEM, technology or school management software, they will really help. We are getting there, there’s still a lot of confusion and there’s lot of challenges on how to on board things, what will work and what will not because everybody’s team is different. We are getting there and it is always going to be great for our children,” she concluded.
WBJEE 2019 Rank Cards have been released by the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board (WBJEEB) on its official website today i.e. June 20, 2019.
West Bengal joint Entrance Exam (WBJEE) has been conducted by the WBJEEB for admission to Undergraduate Courses in Engineering & Technology, Pharmacy and Architecture in Universities, Government Colleges and Self-Financed Institutes of West Bengal.
WBJEE 2019 Rank Card: Steps to download
Step-1: Visit the official WBJEE website: https://www.wbjeeb.in/
Step-2: Click on the WBJEE rank card link provided on the home page.
Step-3: Enter Application number, password, and security pin in the fields provided and click on submit.
Step-4: A new screen will appear where candidates will be able to download their rank card.
The board had conducted the exam in May 2019. WBJEE 2019 Counselling process will be conducted on the basis of ranks secured by students in the entrance test.
The WBJEE 2019 Rank Card will have the General Merit Rank (GMR) of a candidate which will be the basis for seat allotment of students in the institutes across West Bengal.
The board has yet to release the WBJEE 2019 Counselling schedule. A separate notification for the same will be issued on the official websites of board: wbjeeb.in and wbjeeb.nic.in.
CTET admit card 2019: The admit card for Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) 2019 has been released by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The CTET 2019 exam will be conducted on July 7, 2019.
The application process for the CTET Exam 2019 had begun on February 5, 2019. The test will be held across 97 cities in 20 languages.
Candidates who have registered for the exam can download the admit card by visiting the official website of CTET.
Steps to download CTET Admit Card 2019
Go to the official portal of CTET: ctet.nic.in
Click on the ‘Admit Card server 1 or 2’ link
Enter application number, DOB and security pin
Submit the details
Your CTET 2019 Admit card will be displayed on screen
Download the file. Take its print out.
Notably, the result for CTET 2019 will be declared six weeks after the examination will be conducted on July 7, 2019.
The exam will be conducted in two shifts. The CTET paper-1 exam will begin at 9:30 am and end on 12 noon. Whereas, the CTET paper 2 will start at 2 PM and end at 4:30 PM.
According to the National Council for Teacher Education(NCTE) notification, a candidate who will be able to scores 60% or more in the CTET exam will be deemed as TET eligible.
Education needs to be dynamic and ever changing in its contents and form as per the changing needs and requirements of society, says Swapnali Kadam, Chairperson, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Rabindranath Tagore School of Excellence, Pune, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
What are the various factors which make a school reach on top position in a city or State
Swapnali Kadam, Chairperson, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Rabindranath Tagore School of Excellence, Pune
Infrastructure, state-of-the-art facilities for accomplishing the curricular-co-curricular activities, child friendly safe campus, trained faculty, professional, and child-centric working system are some of the key parameters that help an institute build its rapport in the society. If a School excels in all these aspects, automatically it reaches the zenith.
What kind of technology has helped Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Rabindranath Tagore School of Excellence (BVRTSE) to improve learning outcomes among its students?
BVRTSE has a Wi-Fi campus and the classes are equipped with touchscreen writing/visual Smart Boards, short throw projectors. Lower classes have smart android LCDs & visualizers. Smart classes with internet connectivity has made the teaching-learning process a fruitful activity. The effective use of technology helps children to conduct research on every topic which is an essential part of IGCSE curriculum. At BVRTSE, we make a perfect balance between Screen exposure time & off-screen time. digital library facilitate children to refer millions of subject related & other books on line.
A good school must have good student-teacher coordination, what methods do you follow to maintain a healthy coordination between teachers and students?
It all begins from the empathetic attitude of our teachers. teachers with high Emotional Quotient (EQ) are given priority during recruitment. We cater to inclusive education and differential learning through personalised instructions. Individuality of every child is given due respect, they are heard and given due importance. We make sure to provide them ample opportunity to express themselves on broad spectrum platform.
In order to maintain a good learning environment at schools, what activities along with studies are conducted at BVRTSE?
Seating arrangement in the class is C-shaped which motivates them to be participative. Roundtable sessions are held in Pre-Primary and Primary classes. group activities among students of all age groups are conducted regularly. Field study sessions within school campus are also conducted. Expression of every child in the form of art/paper work is displayed in the surroundings so as to make them feel proud of their contribution in elevating the pro-learning ambiance. Beautiful campus equipped with various facilities help teachers in engaging children in multiple activities for enhancing their innate talents.
How a curriculum has been developed by the school that is interesting as well as focuses on the holistic development of students?
The lesson plans are activity-based. Teachers come up with age appropriate innovative activities. Entire curriculum is research- based in which individual students try to understand the concepts with their own observation. Students come up with their observation which is worked upon by the teachers with their quality inputs. Conceptual teaching learning process is given a due weightage. This make the teaching learning process a very lively and interesting one for the students.
