With a view to enhance the application of latest technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, the first ever ‘education days’ by Microsoft in India started Tuesday in Gurugram.
Aimed at transforming the educational landscape of India, the unique event, besides showcasing innovation and knowledge-sharing, comprises of an interactive session designed specifically for ‘Microsoft innovative educators’.
As per the official information shared by Microsoft, under a workshop on ‘education transformation framework’ (ETF), many interactive sessions are planned during the course of the two-day event. The workshop is designed for policymakers to facilitate edu-leaders and school principals introduce path-breaking IT-led changes in their respective institutions.
As part of the first ever ‘education days’ by the IT major, an educators’ exhibition focusing on innovations is also scheduled. The unique expo will see the presence of more than 120 teachers representing various schools from across the country. These teachers will showcase various innovative projects implemented in their schools focusing on AI, gamification, personalisation, localisation and collaboration.
Education must incorporate technological advances in the digital domain – primarily AI – to revamp a student’s learning experience so it is personalized, targeted and effective, observes Vivek Varshney, CEO and Founder, Speedlabs.
A Concerning Scenario
Nearly 50% teenagers feel addicted to their mobile devices.
70% adolescents feel the pressing need to respond to texts and social media messages immediately.
50% teens spend online time on gaming.
Needless to say, as a parent, one can’t help but feel worried about their child’s education in an environment that is becoming increasingly saturated with online distractions.
The solution to better education lies at the source of the problem
Vivek Varshney, CEO and Founder, Speedlabs
Your child – whether you like it or not – is going to be spending a substantial amount of time on their mobile device, and online, in general. At the moment these elements are serving as a source of major distraction, hindering a child’s academic performance. Most students are not very good at multitasking. So, if you assume a child will watch a video lecture on heir phone, take notes, answer prompts and successfully refrain from giving into checking Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and games, that’s wishful thinking. 97% students use their phones during class for NON-educational purposes! The truth is the percentage of students who have enough discipline to tune out all these distractions is miniscule. Most teachers admit retaining student interest and engagement is difficult when students are constantly connected to the outside world on their cell phones.
According to a research study conducted by Ohio University, Illinois State University and Nebraska University, students who use cell phones score lower results and are less likely to be able to take thorough notes – they are mentally preoccupied with irrelevant information. London School of Economics’ research study indicates that students who did not have access to cell phones in the classroom actually scored 6% higher on tests. There is research that suggests just the presence of a phone (not even actual usage of it!) can result in a drop of attention and hinder cognitive performance in tasks such as completing homework.
If more students are spending time on mobile apps, learning to turn a source of distraction into an empowering tool is integral as we look toward the future.
Passive Vs Active Learning
AI has the ability to turn students from passive to active learners – this is no small feat! When Di Xu, en economist at Columbia University’s Teachers College, analyzed data from over 40,000 students who had enrolled in online courses at 34 colleges around the state of Washington, he discovered these students earned lower grades and were less persistent compared to students enrolled in classroom based courses. Similarly, in another research study administered by Troy University on over 50,000 students taking online and face-to-face courses, students enrolled in online classes had higher failure rates than those attending traditional classroom courses.
However, a meta-analysis conducted by University of Washington, concluded that teaching methods, which turned students into active participants rather than passive listeners, reduced failure rates and boosted scores on exams tremendously. In fact, active learning was effective to the extent that it converted the score of students from a B to an A. In a small classroom environment, where interaction with peers and teachers is encouraged even further, the amount of knowledge gained was fully maximized.
The true war is not between mobile devices and education, but between traditional, outdated teaching tactics and new, contemporary ones. Traditional learning might offer more holistic education than online courses that treat students in a passive manner sans acknowledgment and accountability, but traditional learning also lacks the ability to personalize education as per the needs of each and every single student’s individual needs and background. A hybrid teaching method that serves as the perfect marriage between traditional tactics and futuristic technology is imperative.
AI Presents Lucrative Positive Impact On Learning
Simon Balderson, Assistant Head at Wells Cathedral Schools, recently wrote about how AI’s rise will enhance a student’s educational experience by leaps and bounds. Classrooms of the future will incorporate technological tools which are handpicked and carefully implemented by teachers to maximize benefits. This hybrid teaching style will lend itself to an adaptive learning ecosystem that responds to the individual progress of each student and accordingly personalize the experience for every child. Teachers will act as mentors who guide children through their educational journey, armed with AI tools that empower them to administer education in the most personalized manner possible so each student responds fully.
No two children are alike, so why should education take a cookie cutter approach?
AI enables educators to acquire fine-tuned details about every student, monitor progress closely, identify specific weak points and strengths and the best ways to communicate complex concepts to a child so they process and retain information in the long-run. Before, we had to wait till the day of the final exam to assess a child’s progress academically. With AI and machine learning, we will have this information at hand in real-time! Of course, teachers must be trained to use AI and machine learning so they can control the reins of technology in a manner that yields the best results.
People are already beginning to harness the power of AI already with early-learning tools like Osmo, i-Ready, machine-learning based curated course materials, scheduling tools like Abl Schools, adaptive testing platforms like NWEA and more. With the rise of AI, technology and teachers do not need to pit against each other as loggerheads but as allies working toward the same end goal collectively – improving the education ecosystem.
Practicing What We Preach – SpeedLabs
At SpeedLabs, our strong point is our ability adapt to the changing environment and to draw from the best tools available in the market. Our holistic educational tools are rooted in tech and controlled by experienced teachers who carefully monitor students’ progress like caring mentors.
Our AI based algorithms identify a child’s learning gaps so we can offer suitable interventions.
We engage students actively throughout the learning process so they participate and take ownership.
Our team offers students positive reinforcement to motivate growth. And, corrective feedback is offered through hands-on clarification as and when needed.
Most importantly, our tech platform cross-checks how much each student is actually learning in real-time with regular check points.
We believe your child’s education shouldn’t be a source of stress. Instead, it should be an exciting journey full of transparency, growth and purpose. Do away with unwanted surprises by embracing the good AI has to offer – after all the “I” in AI does stand for intelligence for a reason!
The Learning & Development (L&D) industry has been undergoing sea changes owing to the growing technological advances which is transforming the business environment and subsequently the economy – the latest buzzword being Artificial Intelligence and automation, observes Sanjay Bahl, CEO and MD, Centum Learning.
Sanjay Bahl, CEO and MD, Centum Learning
Behind every successful transformation lies the adaptation of contemporary capabilities, a scenario starting at the corporate training segment within the country and across the globe. With the global digitisation of economies at the national scale owing to big data, IoT, advanced analytics and much more, workforce reorganization has become inevitable. A research by McKinsey reveals that two-thirds of business transformations do not adequately meet their objectives, as transformational aspirations must be adequately supported by a skilled workforce, ready to achieve the change mission.
What began as a face-to-face training in a closed environment over a dedicated period involving huge logistics costs of offsite has gradually evolved to having strategic partnerships with dedicated organizations and teams involved in the training process. The ‘stand and deliver’ approach proved to be tedious and exhaustive giving limited time frames of attention from the employee. So, if your team seemed tired of subjecting themselves to classroom environments in order to attend courses on corporate development and training, they were not alone.
Technology is a boon to this segment as technological advancements are making transformation better paced and well received, aiding and enabling the growth of corporate training. While the basic principles of corporate training have not changed much, their delivery has certainly undergone an evolutionary cycle and is still changing.
Need of the hour
Corporate training has assumed significant proportion in this ever-evolving business environment. Industry estimates reveal that the global corporate training market is worth $320 billion (S$435.55), and $130 billion in the US alone. Global expansion of businesses and increasing domestic as well as global competition has been major growth drivers for the market along with the millennial workforce forming the much talked about demographic dividend.
With a talent pool comprising of a majority millennials (born post 1980s), choosing and retaining the right workforce is becoming seemingly challenging. This digitally savvy, ambitious growing work-life balance is a rising society that’s tough to satisfy. Having grown up with technology and experiencing it from much close quarters, it has become their driving inspiration at working environments. With access to information just a click away, this new breed of workforce finds controlling corporate environment uncomfortable.The demographic dividend is turning out to be an increasing demographic difficulty for the recruiting industry and the organizations at large.
Expectation of rapid progression, diverse and engaging career prospects that is accompanied with a steady flow of feedback makes them seek a management style that matches these desires. Employers of today have a tough challenge on hand to hold on to this new-age talent pool of millennials who do not shy away from shifting jobs in rapid succession. An effective module of corporate training is essential to keep the attrition rates at bay.
Change is the only constant
With 15 million youth entering the workforce each year, more than 75 per cent are not job ready. According to the industry statistics, India would need 700 million skilled workers by 2022 to meet the demands of a growing economy. While the skills scarcity augments the need for corporate training, inflation and global economic slowdown has put a lot of constraint on the training budgets. This has made the organizations to look for and adapt technology aided and technology driven training modules to save on the training costs. Evolving from a group activity to a more personal experience, technology or e-learning enables them to access the training material as per their convenience. On-demand video, Web-based training, online virtual lab programs and virtual classrooms have been adding on to employee capabilities based on individual, team and business needs.
To further tackle the capability challenge, organizations have also explored the path of experiential learning that challenges people to go beyond their established work routines and get into a learning zone. As McKinsey’s research states, “Experiential learning is a preferred approach for building the skills of adults, who are accustomed to learn through action and experience”. Peer interaction brings learning about new knowledge and skills in experiential learning.
Blended learning models through integration of Technology and VR is what is being adapted over traditional learning methods as it offers the employees to improve their job performance thus fulfilling the primary need of a training session. A perfect blend of online and on the job learning experience, blended learning, extensively being used by Centum across India and Africa, is an extremely useful tool for corporate training. Blended learning is also an effective tool to keep attrition rate in check as feedback from trainers and absorbing and engaging activities make the learning environment engaging and absorbing.
Digital future
AI, Virtual Reality (VR) and even mobile phone apps are taking over this burgeoning training market. The promising future of training using artificial learning and augmented reality is being aided by the growing technological interdependence and digital penetration. These high-tech advancements are disrupting the training content market and giving options of creating different levels of employee engagement and involvement at their own pace and leisure.
It will not be completely wrong to say that AI is eating jobs but at the same time, it is creating a lot more where a lot of specialized skills are required to address the current industry requirements. That is why corporate training is of utmost importance now which is the only road for employee retention. Besides only soft skills will save your jobs when robots and automation actually hit the job market.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has directed that the Government will reimburse the expenditure made on books, uniforms, and transport of disabled children studying in the schools.
Minister of State (MoS) for Human Resource Development Satyapal Singh said, “The directions have been issued to all the schools in the country that all the expenditure incurred on books, uniform and transport will be reimbursed by the government”. He also said that the girl child will be given Rs 200 per month.
While addressing an award ceremony by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People and Mindtree, Singh said that out of 12 million disabled people in the country, only one per cent go to schools.
“Specially challenged people just do not need courtesy and compassion, but real empowerment which would come through education. How to ensure it is a big challenge,” he said at the Helen Keller Awards 2018.
“It is one of the top most priorities for this government to make sure that the rights of specially challenged people are ensured. The government from this academic session has also issued directions that there will be minimum 5 per cent admission in all educational bodies,” Singh said.
Directorate of Education (Private School Branch) of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi has released the schedule for Delhi nursery admission 2019 according to which the same will start from December 15, 2018.
As per the dates released by the Directorate, the last date to apply for various schools will be January 7, 2019. As per the new ruling from this year onwards, there will be an upper age limit for the nursery admission process in Delhi. The upper age limit will be less than four years for admission to nursery whereas the age limit will be less than five years and less than six years for admission to kindergarten and Class one respectively.
In order to conduct the admission process smoothly for the academic session 2019-20 at the Entry Level Classes (below six years of age) in Private Unaided Recognised Schools of Delhi, the following schedule is for the Open Seats (other than EWS/DG Category seats):
Uploading the criteria and their points in the module of the Department by the schools: December 14, 2018
Commencement of admission process and availability of forms: December 15, 2018
Last date of submission of application forms in schools: January 7, 2019
Uploading details of children who applied to the school for admission under Open Seats: January 21, 2019
Uploading marks (as per point system) given to each of the children who applied for admission under open seats: January 28, 2019
The date for displaying the first list of selected children (including-Waiting List along with marks allotted under point system): February 4, 2019
Resolution of queries of parents, if any (by written/email/ verbal interaction) regarding allotment of points to their wards in the first list: February 5 to 12, 2019
The date for displaying the second list of children (including Waiting list along with marks allotted under point system): February 21, 2019
Resolution of queries of parents, if any (by written/email/ verbal interaction) regarding allotment of points to their wards in the second list: February 22 to 28, 2019
Subsequent list of admission, if any: March 15, 2019
CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) has partnered with Merck to establish a ‘High End Skill Development Centre’ in Chandigarh.
The Proposed centre in Chandigarh will be equipped with the next generation technologies, like gene editing and single-molecule biomarker detection. India’s premier National Research Laboratory CSIR-IMTECH in partnership with Merck – leading German science and technology company will help accelerate healthcare research and train Indian students and researchers in latest life science technologies and make them industry ready, said a statement from Ministry of Science and Technology.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding, Merck in collaboration with CSIR-IMTECH will use their expertise in Life Science to build a centre which will help researchers and students develop advanced competencies and analytical skills required for life science research.
The first of its kind, Academia-Industry-led, laboratory in Chandigarh has been established to augment Government of India’s initiative for skilling India in the area of Life Science, said the statement. The centre will facilitate hands-on experience to learning and real time sample analysis.
The proposed state of the art Centre will integrate Work-based and Research-based learning by providing next generation lab set-up for carrying out real time sample analysis and learning workshops for selected group of technologies in the domain of Life Sciences.
This High-End Skill Development Centre will function on the principle of “no-profit, no-loss” basis and has been primarily created to augment Government of India’s initiative for building skills in the area of Life Science, added the statement.
Samsung India has announced the MyDream project, a research study in collaboration with UNESCO MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development) and Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.
Under the project, ways of enhancing learning outcomes for middle school students in India and how their stress levels can be reduced.
The 14 Samsung Smart Class will deliver 200 hours of course curriculum that is being developed for the Andhra Pradesh Government under the UNESCO MGIEP initiative ‘Teaching Teachers for Technology’. The course is been developed by UNESCO MGIEP so that future teachers can be effectively trained to teach students with the help of the latest technology using digital pedagogies.
Under the MyDream project, Samsung and UNESCO MGIEP will conduct a two-year research study at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) schools across India. This study is designed to understand how project-based and socio-emotional learning (SEL) can be used to drive learning outcomes of students as defined by their Mathematics and Science scores measured by Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and also to reduce their stress levels.
“Through the MyDream project, UNESCO MGIEP wants to build intellectually and emotionally resilient young people. We seek to make learning fun and stress free, and training young people to be mindful, empathetic and compassionate,” said Dr Anantha K Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP.
“This research project will help us understand how learning outcomes for students can be improved and how their stress levels can be mitigated. This partnership between UNESCO MGIEP, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti and Samsung will pave way for not just an impact in India, but a global one,” he added.
For the study, 64 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya schools, where Samsung already operates a Samsung Smart Class, have been chosen.
“MyDream Project in association with MGIEP and Samsung is likely to add impetus in furthering the digital pedagogy and increase digital competitiveness for India. Navodaya Vidyalaya being a residential system, introduction of project-based learning and social & emotional learning through Samsung Smart Class digital platform will give a strategic direction in reducing perceived academic stress amongst children,” said B K Singh, Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti.
At the end of the study, a comprehensive report and recommendations will be submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has unveiled its policies on student internships, examination reforms and training of technical teachers.
Laying down the roadmap for major changes in engineering courses, AICTE recommended that students pursuing bachelor’s degree in engineering have to undergo at least 600 to 700 hours of internships which would earn them credits. The regulator also suggested testing a student’s ability to apply knowledge rather than cram facts through examinations. It has also given the nod for open book exams.
In its revised guidelines, AICTE directed that technical teachers have to undergo an induction course at the time of joining and also keep themselves updating as they progress. According to officials, the policies released by human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar, are focussed on improving employability.
According to the AICTE’s Internship policy document, a minimum of 14-20 credits of internship or entrepreneurial activities may be counted towards B Tech programme and 10-14 credits for the three year diploma course. This will result in about 600-700 hours of total internship duration for B Tech students and 450 to 500 for diploma students.
The AICTE has also suggested an initial induction programme for teachers and updation of their skill set through in-service training programmes.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to increase a seat in its “Comparative Political Theory” stream to grant admission to a differently-abled student.
The court also directed the university it should work out a mandate under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.
The decision was given by a bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Rao. The bench instructed JNU to grant admission to the student, Dharamveer Yadav, by increasing a seat in the stipulated seven-seat course stating that the seat would be supernumerary and lapse when the student is awarded his degree.
“Also, we find that many reserved seats, at least 15 have gone waste as no person with disability could get qualified, against the said seats. In such an eventuality and in peculiar facts of this case, the court is of the view that the Respondent No 3 (JNU) shall increase the intake to eight in the ‘Comparative Political Theory stream,’ which shall be supernumerary, which shall get lapsed after Dharamveer is awarded the degree,” the bench said in its order.
“It is for the University to work out the mandate of the Act, so that every person with disability, who qualifies get admission. But in no case they can violate the mandate,” it added.
The order was given by the bench while hearing a plea by an NGO – National Federation for Blind (NABH). The NGO challenged admission policy of the JNU for the year 2018-19 after two students with disability, Dharamveer Yadav and Deepak Mishra were not granted admission by the university.
