Delhi University to Track PhD Progress through Online Portal

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February 6, 2017

Delhi University is soon going to develop an online portal to track the progress report of a PhD student. Right from the enrollment of a student in Phd to his/her thesis submission will now be available on the portal dedicatedly developed for the purpose by the University.

An examination department official said, “A portal is being created to make the students’ works reliable. Notification regarding their research works and field reports will be available on the portal. However, the research work and findings will be kept confidential”

Currently, all work related to PhD including admission, thesis, research report, attendance, marks, interview, viva, progress report and others is being done manually, which involve a lot of paper work.

“But with digitisation, all these records will be maintained on the online portal. The portal will not only help PhD scholars but will also ease the work pressure on the staff,” the official added.

In 2014, an MoU was signed between University Grants Commission (UGC) and Delhi University had to upload thesis and dissertations of its research scholars. The digital database was named as ‘Shodhganga repository’.

Delhi University is currently running PhD courses under 27 departments which include fields of arts, commerce and science.

MHRD to Bring Graded Regulatory Mechanism in UGC soon: Prakash Javadekar

News

By

Akash

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February 6, 2017

As part of the key reforms in University Grants Commission (UGC), the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) will bring in a “Graded Regulatory Mechanism”. The mechanism will help to bring greater transparency, freedom and autonomy, said HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.

The HRD minister also announced that ‘SWAYAM’, an open web based platform from which 2000 courses will be run for students across the country, will be launched next month.

Javadekar said that the Union Budget 2017 reflects the government’s vision of raising quality in the education sector. This time the sector got additional funds involving Rs 6,000 crore. He added, learning outcomes are being defined as per the Right to Education Act and will be part of coming academic session.

He said that an innovation fund of Rs 100 crore will also be introduced for schools in educationally backward districts. Along with this, a separate exam agency has also been announced to conduct major exams in the country. The agency will help CBSE to release its pressure of conducting exams and focus mainly on school education, revealed the HRD Minister.

Referring to SWAYAM which, a Massive open online courses (MOOCs) platform, Javadekar said it would become what ATM is for money. “It will be any time learning and anywhere learning,” he said while thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the budget provisions.

Delhi High Court ordered to set up grievance redressal system in all varsities

News

By

Akash

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February 6, 2017

Delhi High Court directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to set up grievance redressal system in all varsities within four months.

The bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal ordered to appoint an ‘ombudsman’ in every university. The bench further passed a mandate to set up a grievance redressal committee (GRC) in every college or group of colleges.

The court further said in its order that failure in appointing an ombudsman or to constitute GRC for universities and colleges would defeat the very object of grievance redressal mechanism provided under the UGC (Grievance Redressal) Regulations of 2012.

The court also directed Delhi University (DU) to “take necessary steps forthwith and appoint the ombudsman” in terms of provisions of the regulations “as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of four months from today”.

The court has issued the aforementioned order in response to a PIL filed by a former law student. The student alleged non-compliance of the UGC regulations with regard to appointment of ombudsman by universities, particularly DU.

The bench noted the regulation in its judgement which says, “The ombudsman shall be a part-time officer appointed for a period of three years or until he attains the age of 70 years, whichever is earlier”.

Top Schools of India Ranking 2016 :: December 2016

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digitalLEARNING Network

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February 6, 2017

Editorial
	Demystifying the Finest Schools of India
Cover Story
	Defining the finest schools of India
	School Education in India
	E-learning
	Augmented Reality
	Government Initiatives in Sports Education
	Teacher Training
	Academic Excellence
	Flipped Classroom
CorporateInterview
	Techior Solutions:Changing eLearning Landscape Through Innovation
	Next Generation Schools – Set to define new age learning
	Making Digital Education a Reality
School Profile
	Bringing Best of Modern, Traditional values together
	MD International School, Bijnor
Special Story
	Demonetisation brings modi-nomics to schools
Interview
	A Blend of Multiple Intelligence
Ranking
	Top Schools of India Ranking 2016
	Result Based Ranking
	Top Schools List

Result Based Ranking

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digitalLEARNING Network

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February 4, 2017

CBSE Board
“Top Schools of India – 2016” is the school ranking issue of Digital Learning, Asia’s premier education magazine. For the fourth time, the ranking has been published by us after considering various factors. For the first time, the ranking has been decided on the basis of a school’s result in class 10th and 12th of Central Board of Secondary Education. Students’ performance in subjects like Mathematics, English language, arts, science, and social studies in their CBSE board exams of current year is the only factor that decides the ranking of any school. Graduation rate data of previous years is also used for schools. Overall Ranking that each school receives is based on the performance components of student achievement and their improvement from previous year.
Average score of a school on the basis of its result is the deciding factor for any school. More the score of school, better will be its ranking. Public schools can also identify their areas of both strength and challenge. Ranking is also used to recognize the top 5% of schools in the overall ranking and the top 5% of schools with the highest improvement values.
All schools are included in the ranking if they at least have two years of assessment data for five or more full academic year. Along with that, students must have assessed in two or more subjects during these years.

ICSE Board
School ranking issue of Digital Learning, Asia’s premier education magazine is out now with “Top Schools of India – 2016”. We have published the ranking for the fourth time after considering various factors. This is the first time when ranking has been decided on the basis of a school’s result in class 10th and 12th of ICSE board. Performance of students in the subjects of ICSE board exams like mathematics, English language, arts, science, and social studies of current year is the only factor that decides the ranking of any school. Graduation rate data of previous years is also used for ranking of schools. Performance of a student is decided on the basis of two components, first one is student’s achievement and second one is their improvement from previous year. Overall Ranking that each school receives is based on the performance components of students.
Average score of a school obtained on the basis of its result is the deciding factor for any school. More the score of school, better will be its ranking. Ranking will help the public schools in identifying their areas of both strength and challenge. Ranking is also used to recognise the top 5% of schools in the overall ranking and the top 5% of schools with the highest improvement values.
All schools are included in the ranking if they at least have two years of assessment data for five or more full academic year. Along with that, students must have assessed in two or more subjects during these years.

Top Schools of india Ranking 2016

Magazine

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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February 4, 2017

Ranking Parameter: Goodwill and Legacy

Schools have traditionally been viewed as places where one gets the opportunity to obtain education. But these places play much bigger role than usually assumed or believed. The impression that a school is actually a home away from home is based on the fact that there is much more that a kid learns while being nurtured at schools than just learning about the academic syllabus.
Be it imparting skills or developing the right aptitude for learning, exploring progressive thinking in life, much more depends upon the school we send our beloved children to. In brief, a good school has to have diverse and compelling ways to measure of success.
So, while evaluating the top schools of India, some of the parameters that digitalLearning magazine adhered to included Goodwill and Legacy

Goodwill and Legacy
With societal expectations and careerrelated challenges witnessing an unprecedented high, almost any parent wants to first know what has been the legacy of any school and what is its present goodwill?
How a school is going to take care of our wards is also influenced by the culture and system that has dominated the place of education over the years. And, obviously it is bound to be any concerned parent’s prime concern.
Apart from academic information and skills, a good school also aims to serve a number of purposes from building confidence to inculcating a habit of believing in team work and achieving big success in coordination with others. We, at Digital Learning magazine, considered five criteria under Goodwill and Legacy parameter for acquiring detailed information of a school before ranking it. The criteria were as follows:

School Environment
Effective schools have a warm environment. Students feel welcomed and know that the staff cares about them.

Unbiased Environment
A good school is disruptive of bad cultural practices. These include intolerance based on race, income, faith, gender and apathy towards the environment.

Safe and Secure Environment
With a number of incidents being reportedly occurring in schools off and on, how secure a school is for a child makes a difference. It is important to consider what kind of security or safety standards are being complied with to keep child abusers at bay or how foolproof the school is from security perspective for the children from not just outsiders but their peers and internal staff as well. Thus, it’s crucial how seriously a school considers this aspect and what kind of measures are in place.

Effective Discipline
Discipline is viewed by many as the base of entire educational journey. Be it any sphere of life, the approach to learn and implement is influenced by discipline. So how does a school inculcates such an important habit in its students or in what fashion it is taught or brutally imposed on students reflect the character of any school.

Alumni Feedback
How do alumni of any institution view the school? What kind of reviews they feel like offering about that edifice where the new students should or shouldn’t spend their years to come? All this matters a lot while evaluating a school. So, alumni relations or engagement should be considered by every school. A good alumni network could prove to be the best source to get a detailed report of the reputation of the school.

Ranking Parameter: Learning Experience

In the present time, how wellthought out and updated methodologies a school abides by can make or mar the success of any student’s learning experience. And, teaching strategy is one of the most vital aspects of that. It can enable students learn the right thing, the best way for the finest possible objective and achieve all this in a wellplanned way.
Assessment of the learning capabilities of students is a key pillar in the development of a successful teaching strategy. For benefitting the students and making them future ready, education sector is undergoing a paradigm shift from Traditional Teaching Method to Innovative Learning Process.

Traditional Teaching: The Chalk-and-Talk Method
In the pre-technology education era, the teacher was the sender or the source, the educational material was the information or message, and the student played the role of receiver of the information. In the delivery medium, the educator can deliver the message via the “chalk-and- talk” and overhead projector (OHP) methodologies.

Innovative Learning Process: The new-age learning
Confucious, the Chinese philosopher, teacher and political figure widely known for his popular aphorisms and models of social interaction, used to say: “I hear and I forget, I see and I believe, and I do and I understand.”
In the similar fashion, multimedia is the combination of various digital media types such as text, images, audio and video, integrated into an multi-sensory interactive application or presentation to convey information to an audience.

Why “Learning Experience” is a parameter for ranking Top Schools of India – 2016?
Traditional educational approaches have led to a mismatch between what is taught to the students and what the industry needs. As such, many institutions are moving towards problem- based learning as a solution to producing graduates who are creative, critically thinking, and analytically attempt to address problems or challenges.
The Digital Learning magazine considered “Learning Experience” as one of the parameters for its Top Schools of India-2016 ranking because the cognitive experience of a student should be fun and thrill rather than become a monotonous experience.

Ranking Parameter: Academic Excellence

Though academic excellence is pivotal in laying the foundation of learning, it is also integral to the holistic development of mind and personality. Since the society is going through a transition, to make the students futureready, academic excellence cannot be replaced by anything. It requires to be supplemented with needs of ensuring holistic education and development.

What’s Holistic Education?
Holistic education is a methodological paradigm shift which focuses on preparing students to meet any real life challenges. The most important theories behind holistic education are learning about oneself, developing healthy relationships and positive social behaviour, social and emotional development, resilience, and the ability to view beauty, experience transcendence, and truth.
Digital Learning magazine’s Top Schools of India – 2016 ranking included academic excellence as a parameter to acknowledge the efforts of Schools which adopt the best practices for overall development of their students.
Why “Academic excellence” was chosen as a parameter for ranking Top Schools of India – 2016? Keeping academic excellence in mind, it is important that schools should also lay emphasis on complete development of a child which comes only through holistic education.

Career Advancement

Of the various parameters employed while ascertaining the ranking of schools in India, we believe ‘Career Advancement’ has been one of the most significant of all.
With career prospects remaining the chief concern of both — parents and students — this parameter to evaluate any educational edifice has gained currency in general. Hence, it was evaluated what career advancement courses the schools offer to help students in the initial stage of their career.
Digital Learning has used ‘Career Advancement’ as one of the parameters to rank the schools.
Schools provide students careerrelated research and advance courses so that they manage to develop an effective and result-oriented job search strategy, build a professional network, and market themselves in best possible fashion during interviews, drew a higher score in ranking.
Career advancement courses, as we all know, are actually undertaken to consolidate one’s career prospects and ensure a bright future, empowering students and alumni to translate their academic success into professional success. Through industry-specific training, global networking connections and apprising about relevant opportunities to put a world-class education into practice, these courses enable students to embark upon a journey of success without much hassle or struggle.
Whether students require short-term or summer internships, or wish to build a lifelong career in a stream, career advancement courses help students in realising their dreams of professional world.
Career advancement also covers career counselling that schools provide to their students. Career guidance and counselling programmes aim to help students make more informed and better educational and career choices.
Among other things, these programmes offer information on high school courses offering various career options, the type of academic and occupational training needed to succeed in the workplace and opportunities that are linked to their field of interest. Such programmes also provide teachers, administrators, and parents with information to support students in career exploration.

Future Ready Infrastructure

While evaluating how one school holds edge over others in the industry, one of the yardsticks we evaluated it through was ‘Future Ready Infrastructure’.
But what defines Future Ready Infrastructure or Schools can be gauged from components such as Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, Personalised Professional Learning and Robust Infrastructure.
Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment: The more the digitisation of the curriculum, higher will be the ranking of school.
We noticed that the digitisation has turned classrooms more interactive and participative than they once used to be about a decade or two ago. Today, a lot of school teachers can teach students with ease by showing 3D models availing the benefits of digitisation. They can ensure imparting of education is effective and cohesive than letting things remain cumbersome for students through handdrawn diagrammes on the blackboard.
Introduction of digitisation has definitely made process of education more simplified and interesting to draw maximum attention than it used to be once. Furthermore, it has proved helpful in promoting higher education.
Personalised Professional Learning:
Schools imparting professional training to their students are ranked higher. To prepare students for future jobs, it is necessary that they are trained as per the job oriented curriculum.
Robust Infrastructure: When employed as part of a comprehensive educational strategy, the effective use of technology provides tools, resources, data, and supportive systems that improve teaching methodologies and promote efficiency. High quality, high speed technology and infrastructure system within a school are essential to the advancing of digital learning and hence the ranking in the Top schools of India.

Online Presence

With almost every sphere of technology being influenced or linked to the web world, every institution’s online presence has acquired immense significance. Hence, making it possible to assess what makes a school important in the eyes of its visitors or prospective clients, the schools’ websites have acquired immense significance.
Since almost all parents wish to know what kind of school their wards should be sent to and why they should zero-in on any particular school than the others, they wish to be informed about everything in black and white instead of relying on hearsay.
They wish to know about the school’s culture, mission and priorities?
How much importance does it offer to foreign or regional languages? What is the medium of learning? What sort of extra curricular activities are encouraged in the school and much more. Overall, this sort of information is accessed to know before hand how a child is going to benefit in term of overall personality development, as all this paves way for the holistic development of children in future.
Since it is quite difficult to know by parents from any official of the school or gain access to parents whose children are already studying there, it is the school’s website that can serve this purpose.
The school website answers all these questions at one platform. A good website can quickly influence whether the parent of a prospective student seeks more information about the school.
We used Moz, an online tool which ranks schools according to their online presence.
For a good school website, the following features were kept in mind:

‘Useful’ Homepage
Homepage is expected as much useful and friendly to handle that it motivates visitors to click on every icon without getting bored from any of the icons available to click on the website. It shouldn’t involve too much scrolling.
We observed if the homepage of any school was appealing and informative enough for students or parents and if it engages the read on or leads to closing the website down in no time, feeling little educated or informed about the school. We did take a note if the homepage was too crammed with useless or avoidable information on it.

Responsive Design
Since responsive design (i.e. mobile friendly) is a crucial element of a school website design. We noticed if it prompts easy access by a wide variety of mobile devices. A good responsive design is supposed to assure each webpage is readable and usable on a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet or a smartphone. It automatically resizes and reformats pages to eliminate that annoying and time-consuming zooming and dragging that serve as barriers to the viewer.
A school website that incorporates responsive design can be shared and viewed through e-mail links, or social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, which more than half of users now access through mobile applications.
Social Media Integration Social media is a must for any school looking to create stronger connections with the community. A well-designed school website should have all its social media icons in the top navigation of the website. That’s where people look for them.
In addition, website should be easy to share. Social media ‘sharing’ buttons should be placed on all news, calendar, blogs, video and other shareable content. This is critical to spreading the word and promoting the school website as a valuable source of useful content. These design tips not only make the website look nice, but assure that its most important function is carried out: effective communication.

Ranking Parameter: Social Footprints

The popular platform of connecting and popularising one’s update of life events is being used to reach the top in popularity charts in following ways:

Connectivity: Social media helps to develop networks of students and teachers. Students can also use these platforms to connect with various educational institutes as these institutes constantly communicate through social media channels promoting and sharing relevant information from student point of view. Online presence of any school helps it to strengthen connectivity without any limitations on proximity.

Community Building: It is a great way to reach out to potential students and professionals. It gives a chance to network with different industry experts and faculty of different institutions, social media can provide a better industry exposure.

Stimulate Knowledge and discussion: With the help of various social media channels, there is constant sharing of information, educational content at rapid rate by the schools. Educational content shared by educational institutions include views and opinions of faculties, new updates in the education sector and knowledge on various topics. Other than this these platform may help the institutions in assessing, analysing, retaining and sharing the information on a widespread.

Parental Involvement: In order to engage parents and encouraging them for their involvement, social media networks prove to be valuable tool for education institutes. The online presence of educational institutes through social media help the parents in accessing institute’s curriculum and knowing the teachers better. This helps them get clarity about the educational institute.

Visibility Advantage: According to IMAI (Internet and Mobile association of India), 65% of the population go online to search educational content.
Thus, institutes with more online or social visibility have an advantage of being more accessible by the student. Having an online presence often contribute towards a positive approach for the institute.
The below facts are self-explanatory about how social media is taking off in the 21st century. Today, social media is not only a medium to stay connected with friends and family but various social media channels are the ways for professional learning and researching.

Facebook added over 200 million users in less than a year
iPod application downloads hit 1 billion in 9 months
80 percent of companies use social media for requirement
YouTube is the second largest search engine of the world
India has 22.2 million Twitter uers in 2015. n

Making Digital Education a Reality

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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February 4, 2017

Seeing immense opportunities in the education space, Rohit Midha, Director, Commercial Accounts & Tablets Business, Lenovo India, in an exclusive interview with Elets News Network (ENN), tells about his company’s versatile product portfolio that has been designed keeping in view the specific requirements of educational institutions both in urban and rural areas.

What is Lenovo’s idea behind collaborating with various schools, colleges and government education bodies across India?
Lenovo sees these collaborations as a growth opportunity and as a contribution towards the government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative. All around us content is getting digitised and educational institutions are no different. For example, we are seeing police training divisions starting to use tablets as part of their course curriculum. On the country’s education front, the government is considering reducing the number of books students are forced to carry to schools. The education fraternity has already set weight limits for the books students can carry with them, thereby creating the need for devices that can reduce the number of books. Devices and technology are being used to prevent pilferage in many government aided education schemes. We definitely see an opportunity here and we want to make learning more interactive. Technology coupled with a good device opens up a host of opportunities. Both governments and private institutions are beginning to see the need to provide laptops to students in order to give them early exposure to the world of internet, digital technology, touch-enable experience and globalisation. Basis our experience, we understand there is a clear need for device-enabled education for better tracking of performance and mentor students.

Which education segments does Lenovo majorly focus on and what are your product offerings in these segments? The education space in India offers immense opportunities when it comes to IT enablement and we work across the entire spectrum of services. We directly collaborate not just with governments to provide students with devices like we did under the ELCOT deal in Tamil Nadu, but also with various institutes across the country.
From digital text books to graphic-rich content, audio lectures and use of devices to record attendance or even conduct tests, our list of user cases is long. Our versatile product portfolio across diffrent screen sizes, their robustness and design innovation make us a natural choice for this segment. We have propositions for K12, higher education and other specialised courses including skill development. For example, we collaborated with ConveGenius, an educational technology company, to launch ‘CG Slate’, a kindergarten specific product. This is an animation rich product that enables parents to pre-define intervals wherein the child can take a break and watch cartoons on the same device.
When dealing with such a varied audience group, it is critical to understand the customer’s key requirements. While one may be looking for devices for content interactivity and graphics, the other may be requiring a product with a better processor or RAM for enhanced computing, or superior audio for more effective course delivery, or robust built and product reliability.
As for our collaboration with premium institutes like Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), Bhubaneswar, we have provided them with Windows products. Their requirement wasn’t content interactivity alone, rather they wanted devices that support online examinations and tests. In other words, there are various factors we need to keep in mind when catering to the demands of educational institutions. Firstly, we need to understand ‘content compatibility’ required and provide systems that can support the demand of 50 plus students using different platforms at the same time. Secondly, we should keep in mind the ‘nature of requirement’ itself, as some of our customers look for devices with embedded fingerprint scanners to be used as an attendance monitoring system.

What is your opinion on the impact of technology on education and how do you think it can enhance the level of education in rural areas?
Opportunities within the education segment for players like us are immense. For example, the usage of devices in rural education institutions is not limited to teaching alone. To day, Lenovo devices coupled with biometric devices are used for attendance monitoring, monitoring on pilferage of various aids offered to these institutes and at the same time making the student future ready. Rich graphic and interactive content-based subjects like mathematics and science can become easier to understand and learn by using such devices. Educational institutions can shift from semester-based examinations to online exams. Our devices also eliminate the requirement of manual and time consuming evaluation systems and enable parents to monitor their wards’ reports online.

We see challenges as a way to understand user specific requirements and meet expectations through closer mapping of our offerings.

Using such devices also does away with the tedious process of collecting test papers, manual evaluation and creating score cards. Easy access through Lenovo devices makes the entire process more convenient for students and teachers alike. Additionally, solar powered chargers, eyeball scanners and projector-based products are also gaining momentum in rural areas.
Our objective is to provide students both in urban and rural areas one such device that combines good battery life, quality audio output, clear display and responsive service support. All in all learning can become more fun and enable a better future.

What are the challenges that Lenovo faces when it comes to aligning with modern day technology and meeting student expectations?
We see challenges as a way to understand user specific requirements and meet expectations through closer mapping of our offerings. Therefore, this is not specific to only the technology on offer, but the entire experience. This includes aspects like buying experience, after sales service, total cost of ownership. For example, ‘Accidental Damage Policy’ that we offer on our products can really enhance the user experience. All our learnings from addressing various requirements have helped build a robust go-to market strategy for this segment.

What are Lenovo’s plans for the next five years in the education space?
We would like to be seen as pioneers in the education space, not just from a business opportunity point of view but as an enabler providing access to education across the country, and therefore contributing in building a better tomorrow. We want to be the market leaders in this space and stay abreast with the changing time and technological advancements. We will continue to bring forth our innovative technologies and use our deep understanding of this segment to offer best-in-class products that make learning a fun filled experience.

A Blend of Multiple Intelligence

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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February 4, 2017

The use of technology is one of the major USPs of Kalorex. The teachers use technology to implement curriculum methods and strategies to maximise student learning. They apply technology to facilitate variety of assessment and evaluation strategies, says Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD & CEO, Kalorex in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). Excerpts:

What factors help a school attain top position in a city or state?
Well-qualified faculty and consistent excellence in academic/board results can help. But other useful factors can be teacher training and innovations, students’ recognitions and alumni placements, and use of innovative teaching methods and latest pedagogies.

How technology can be useful in influencing learning outcomes, which one clicked for your school?
ERPs and mobile apps help schools to communicate with students and parents. These enable parents to know the learning outcomes whenever they require. Technology also helps students to update themselves at home by revising what is taught in the classroom.

How do you maintain good balance between academic and co-curricular activities at your school?
The schools conduct large number of cocurricular activities for students entire year. These include intra and inter school events for sports, dance, drama, music, social causes, literary events/festivals, field trips and educational trips, Model United Nations (MUNs), career counselling workshops etc..

How do you develop an interesting curriculum which also focuses on the holistic development of students at your school?
Kalorex has formulated its curriculum framework in a way that caters to shaping global learners. Curriculum of Kalorex Preschools is a blend of Multiple Intelligence, Piaget’s Cognitive Theory, Reggio Emilio and Montessori. Kalorex curriculum imbibes the best of 21st Century reading – learning skills along with local value system. The most important goal of our curriculum is to help children become independent, self – confident along with gaining excellence in studies.
At Calorx Public Schools, DPS & COIS, the four Theories of Learning – Constructivism, Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Connectivism form the basis of instructional delivery.
The theories are beautifully woven into the curricula with different approaches likeConventional, Interdisciplinary, Active and Blended Learning. The school follows a balance of “Humanist” and “Constructivist” pedagogies.

With ever changing dynamics of the education sector, how teachers are changing their ways to educate? How do you keep the curriculum up to date to meet the changing demands?
In Kalorex, we ensure that the teachers are kept updated on the latest teaching practices through in-house and external trainings. The curriculum follows the board requirements as applicable for CBSE, IGCSE and IB and immediately incorporates any changes that come about.

What strategies do you follow for innovation and reform in the school administrative system?
All the project heads and senior Altus members get together once a month for the Kalorex ‘Huddle Meeting’ where some quality presentations on best practices and new educational policies are shared. The centralised learning development and quality department circulates a training calendar to all projects after taking their specific requirements and organises training throughout the year for admin staff and teachers. These trainings focus on building competency, developing skills and orientation to Kalorex. Management Information Systems have been put in place for Academics, Trainings, Transport and other departments.

To administer a school effectively, what challenges have you faced in system monitoring?
We have various tools for monitoring like MoM (Minutes of Meetings), MIS (Management Information System), departmental audits, feedback mechanism, various surveys, reports, tracking systems etc. All systems and processes are monitored through these tools. Presently we are working on introducing business intelligence and ticketing software for monitoring.

How do you integrate the development of students with professional development of teachers?
Students are exposed to a variety of scholastic and co scholastic activities. The opportunities given to students to hone their skills and talents are exemplary. Teachers are also given opportunity for upgradation of skills and orientation towards school policies through training programmes offered by the LDQ department as well as arranged by the schools.

MD International School, Bijnor

Article

By

digitalLEARNING Network

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February 4, 2017

MD International School, Bijnor was established in 2014 by Manorama Devi Memorial Charitable Trust with Mr S K Jain as founder Chairman and Mr Navneet Jain Secreatry playing a pivotal role.

Under the aegis of Manorama Devi Memorial Charitable Trust, MD International School, Bijnor is positioned to be regarded as a centre of educational excellence. Philosophy of MD is based on a set of strongly held beliefs which are put into action everyday by every member of the institution. It’s a philosophy of treating each child in a sensitive manner and providing appropriate developmental programmes so as to encourage not just learning but also the love for learning.

Life at MDIS centres on a shared commitment to academic excellence, intellectual growth, art, athletics, and high standard of ethical awareness, sportsmanship, and community service. The school’s transitions and accessibility to a broad curriculum add path to each student’s life. MDIS considers education to be a life-long process which should have a strong foundation in a student’s life.

The goal of MDIS is to inculcate love for learning and desire to excel among the students. MDIS also aims at equipping the students with the intellectual and practical skills that are necessary to meet the real life challenges in the future. It is also committed to provide an environment that is safe, clean, healthy and child-oriented. An environment where classrooms are arranged in a manner that it offers learning choices at a range of development levels. Specially designed activity areas allow children to explore, experience, and succeed.

The school has a team of well trained 80 staff members. The teachers under the direction of Principal Mrs Ritu Kochhar are motivating and caring for every individual student committed to help the students to reach their full potential across all key learning areas. The school is providing all sorts of opportunities, grounds and equipment to participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities.

MDIS is a co-educational day boarding secondary school affiliated with the CBSE board focusing on improving the quality of education in Bijnor through innovation and achieving excellence. The school is also working for accreditation from British Council.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF SCHOOL

Clean green campus.
Nominal fee structure.
Modern security and safety( through CCTV cameras and restricted entry and armed security personals).
High standard of hygiene and health.
Portable RO filtered drinking water.
Wi-Fi enabled 4 Mbps internet access campus.
Specialised dance, art & craft rooms.
Language lab to remove pronunciation related problems.
Well equipped science labs.
Auditorium.
Well furnished Indoor Gymnasium.
Badminton Academy with wooden flooring.
A large multipurpose ground for skating, volley ball, football, cricket , Yoga and aerobics.
Electromagnatic Shooting Range with modern equipment.
Cafeteria and eatery.
Smart classes .
100% power and water back up.
Health and wellness centre to take care of minor health issues and medical guidance.

Mission of the school is to provide comprehensive education for holistic development of individual personality with a human touch and visionary outlook and to provide an atmosphere where every child finds itself comfortable to unlock theirtalent and develop an inquisitive mind. MDIS is the signature statement of an education concept that takes a lifetime to evolve. It is a fairy tale translation and prudent synthesis of innumerable views of the elite thinkers of contemporary school education.

MD International School is working to encourage mutualism, develop global vision, enhance value based education and capacity among students to take decision in difficult times.

The school is committed to provide state of art infrastructure, vigorous out-door life, vibrant campus and free access to technologies in vogue. The school is assuring a rewarding future, modern Gurukul life, secularism, impartial judgement and an ideal blend of tradition and modernity.

Next Generation Schools – SET TO DEFINE NEW AGE LEARNING

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

February 4, 2017

Future schools will incorporate Augmented Reality, Grading and instant feedback through Artificial Intelligence programmes and Virtual Classrooms with more Flipped Learning techniques, writes Ajay Ola, Product Head, NIIT NGuru, MindChampion Learning Systems Limited.

The biology students are about to dissect frogs. The specimens arrive and complete silence follows. Each student enthusiastically dissects the animal without any ethical dilemma of killing a living being. All kids are delighted instead of feeling pained or uncomfortable. How?
Because the frog was dissected in a virtual 3D simulator, providing students a crystal clear lesson without the hassles associated with current teaching. Welcome to ‘Next Generation Schools’!
In schools, the pedagogy and teaching environments have not seen much change since 19th century. But with the dawn of information technology, the segment is hopeful of a significant change. We have already seen the advent of interactive classes and more immersive learning. But that’s just the beginning.
The term Next Generation Schools holds much broader significance than just something that is meant to educate next generation of students.
It is about engaging the next generation of students through next generation of teaching. It involves learning methods to enable them to realise their potential and prepare life-long learners who can successfully navigate the world.
By adapting futuristic approaches, the Next Generation Schools promise significantly higher achievement for their prospective students.
On the philosophical side, the future schools will focus more on individualised learning with greater emphasis on situational and experiential understanding. Teachers will evolve as a friend and facilitator, nurturing constructive and inquiry based environment for students.
The complexity of learning will increase as more and more focus will shift towards interdisciplinary. Assessment of students will be individualised and it will nudge children to demonstrate competency than flaunting just examination scores.
Such a much awaited change is certainly possible. But it will take better technology to make it possible.
Future schools will incorporate Augmented Reality, Grading and instant feedback through Artificial Intelligence programmes and Virtual Classrooms with more Flipped Learning techniques. Students will learn through personal digital devices augmented through Google apps, Dropbox, Microsoft Office Online and other content available over Internet.
Augmented reality would be a game changer in the way learning occurs. Research has suggested that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.

By adapting futuristic approaches, the Next Generation Schools promise significantly higher achievement for their prospective students.

Just imagine how interesting the learning will feel when history would be taught through virtual graphics of cities and kingdoms, while geography and wildlife would be learnt through interactions in a digital forest. Further, with overlaying of digital information on these physical environments, the possibilities of learning would be immense.
Another significant teaching methodology in Next Generation Schools is “Simulated Teaching”. It can help students, especially in biology practicals, where they may dissect frogs without any ethical dilemma of killing a living being.
A virtual 3D simulator provides students a clear lesson without the hassles associated with current teaching methodologies.
As more and more content is digitized and available 24×7, the idea of 8am – 2am schools would be futile. The focus of classrooms would shift to conveying higher order thinking skills than just teaching mundane lessons. Kids could learn anytime, anywhere, at their own pace and be in classroom to do homework and clear doubts. In a interesting experiment, a study conducted at Clintondale High School, a flipped model was implemented and they found that Maths failure rate decreased from 44% to 13% and that of in English from 52% to 19%.
Further, softwares embedded with artificial intelligence will transform the assessment and learning practices. It will speed up the learning process but help and individualise the teaching to a greater precision by diagnosing and suggesting paths for improvement.
Online learning with its collaborative tools will also aid more interactions among students, even if they are far away. However, online classes will require support of tutors in the form of a call center to instantly address doubts that students may have.
The Next Generation Schools are full of possibilities. To help every child in his or her growth and learning, a balanced system can be developed with the help of Next Generation Schools which can ensure a positive change in the way we have been teaching and learning all these years.

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