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Top Schools of india Ranking 2016

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

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
-

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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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

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-
MD International School, Bijnor

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
-

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.

Demonetisation Brings Modi-Nomics to Schools

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of `500 and `1,000 notes in November, the move has evoked innumerable responses and discussions in almost every sphere of life in India. The world of education certainly was not an exception, Rashi Aditi Ghosh and Priyanka Sharma of Elets News Network (ENN) tried to explore the influence.

Despite having a huge significance for the Indian growth story, the education sector’s response somehow got sidelined or perhaps not given a proper heed to.
Be it students, academicians or powers that be in various academic institutions, a big section of them appears to be unanimous in stating that the move’s overall effect on education has been positive.

Effects of Demonetisation on Schools
Advantages:
Wide Scope for Poor Students:Demonetisation will create a level-playing field for aspiring and deserving students, who are unable to pay capitation fee, which has been widely prevalent in the private education system.
Respite from Capitation Fee: The government’s demonetisation is likely to give a big relief from the monetary harassment done in the names of capitation fees. This is actually the money paid to educational institutes to cover up for the academic underperformance of students who wish to seek admission based on capitation fee. Described as “donation”, sometimes its amount is more than 100% of the usual fee.
Speaking on demonetisation and its ablity to curb capitation fee, Vaishali Parikh, Headmistress –Anand Niketan, Bhadaj Campus, said, “Demonetisation can change the course of expensive education which can be made more affordable devoid of the capitation fee. The seats in the so-called management quota will not be up for sale by the institutions instead they will be in the hands of meritorious students.”
A Curb on Black Money: The amount of unaccounted wealth with many such parents is likely to considerably reduce, resulting in increased opportunities for those students who are capable, but previously used to edged out by capitationfee-paying students.
Getting Closer to Digitisation: With demonetisation the usage of various e-payment gateways like online debit/credit card transactions, e-wallets and mobile banking has registered an enormous rise. It has opened a whole new way of making payments required for educational institutions. E-books, paying fees online, buying and sharing digital projects will see a definite rise post-demonetisation.
Talking about the impact of demonetisation on educational institutions, Kiranjit Singh Pannu, Principal, Tapti Valley International School, said, “Demonetisation, although sudden, it has given a great boost to the schools. Because of this initiative schools from now on will get digitally enhanced and cashless.”

Disadvantages:
Poor Internet-connectivity areas may face problems
Nearly 20 per cent Indians have access to the internet. While, a mere 14 per cent Indians can access internet occassionally through their mobile phones, according to Pew Research Centre, an American research Organisation.
Explaining the issue of poor Internet-connectivity and its impact on demoentisation, Joseph Thomas, Chairman, Mount Litera Zee School, Mysore, said: “Schools in cities may not have a big problem adjusting to demonetisation, as parents are educated and tech savvy. But it may be a hassle for institutions in rural areas where more awareness and training is required. We don’t anticipate any big difference or change as people are adapting to the reality.”Demonetisation May Raise Cyber Threats In a recent

Demonetisation May Raise Cyber Threats
 In a recent cyber attack of unprecedented scale, safety of over 32 lakh debit cards was compromised in October, the culprit being a malware. It was reportedly the biggest data breach in the Indian banking history.
According to the India Risk Survey-2016 conducted by Pinkerton and FICCI, the information and cyber insecurity has been listed as the second biggest threat to businesses in India for two consecutive years.

Impact on higher education overseas
Since some parents use black money to fund student expenses for those who are studying abroad, the flow of Indian students to foreign countries may also dwindle.

Government Endeavours to Promote Digitisation post-demonetisation

HRD Ministry to award educational institutes promoting digitisation
Promoting the Prime Minister’s favourite demonetisation move in a major way, the Ministry of Human Resource Development gave a deadline to all educational institutions to go completely digital for payments, and the institute that makes the best effort will be awarded by the ministry.
A roadmap on how e-payment mode should be adopted has been given to various institutions. By January 12, all institutions should complete the first step of going completely cashless.
A circular in this regard was sent to all colleges and universities recently. Institutes are also required to submit the details of the steps taken by them till January 12 and the number of student volunteers that have been enrolled.

“Schools in cities may not have a problem in adjusting to demonetisation. But it may be a hassle for institutions in rural areas where more awareness and training is required.”
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Joseph Thomas, Chairman, Mount Litera Zee School, Mysore

CBSE goes the cashless way Smart Cards and e-Wallets to be introduced in schools soon by CBSE
From next quarter, cashless transactions will be mandatory for all CBSE affiliated schools. The educational board has decided to make payment of teachers’ salary and school fees cashless. Thus, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also decided to introduce smart cards in canteens and tuck shops to promote financial literacy and to inculcate the habit of cashless transaction among students.
CBSE has conducted meeting with 350 nodal schools on December 7 and they made them understand how to make the schools completely cashless. And, just after this meeting, within three days a circular on staff payment through bank transfer and payment of fees only through “non-cash” mode.
CBSE recently declared that from January 17, it will go cashless with affiliated schools, accepting fees through e-payment.

“Demonetisation can change the course of expensive education which can be made more affordable devoid of the capitation fee.”
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Vaishali Parikh, Headmistress -Anand Niketan, Bhadaj Campus

Rajasthan Education Board to initiate e-payments
To help students pay their fee on time and ease their difficulties due to demonetisation, the Rajasthan Education Board on December 9, 2016 announced that it will be taking steps to digitalise their fee payment options. The Board has begun digitising its cash counters.
The Board is contemplating going cashless for student service centres in many districts as well as other offices as well.
The Board has made certain arrangements to digitise payments at these centres in the coming few days. For this, UPI addresses have been made ready, through which 30 terminals will be prepared.
Explaining about the preparedness pertaining to demonetisation, Kiranjit Singh Pannu, Principal, Tapti Valley International School, said, “We have commenced our measures for total Cashless transaction and Cashless school. We have briefed parents, teachers, staff and support staff about the change, implications and way ahead. We have organised a workshop by Chamber of commerce certified CA’s for our children of Grade 11 and 12 (Commerce). We are also organising awareness workshop for the parents and staff.”
Adding more about preparedness, Preeta Pillai,  Principal-Podar World School, said, “The benefit of cashless transactions are enormous therefore our school introduced online facility and non cash mode for collection of all types of school fees much before the announcement of demonetisation. Our school is interacting with Parents during Parent Teacher Meeting to spread awareness about the benefits of non-cash transactions and motivate students of senior classes to undertake promotional initiatives in their neighbourhood to promote cashless transactions among common people.”

Bringing Best of Modern, TRADITIONAL VALUES Together

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Ajanta Public School was created to encourage the children to dream big and discover their innate potential to achieve their dreams. Vaibhav Kapoor, principal of Ajanta Public School, who truly believes that it’s never too late to rediscover the child inside us, explains how technology helps education segment in touching new heights.

Education and technology are synonymous to each other. The objective of education is to give profound and in-depth knowledge of the various subjects to the students in a creative way. Similarly, technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and environment. In today’s competitive world we educationists have clubbed these words together to make it educational technology for imparting quality and valuable knowledge to our youth.
Ajanta Public School is trying to incorporate the same in our educational institution. Among the endeavours we have undertaken to become a Microsoft showcase school and provide training to the students include introduction of ‘Cloud 9’ school app for disseminating information to parents and school transport app for safety of students. Many more such apps are in pipeline.
We have also tied up with Net 2 School for live streaming, delayed broadcast and E-magazine. Besides that, we organised live experts’ session for our senior secondary students to help them gain better insights into their future prospects.
While keeping pace with technological advancements, we strongly believe in the Indian education system and try to inculcate our students with basic values and ethics which are cornerstones of the Indian education. Our focus is the holistic development of children by providing them equal opportunity in academics and co-curricular activities. Our students have performed meticulously to come out with flying colours in academics as well as cocurricular activities by bagging 97 per cent marks in Class XII Board exams and 11 students getting selected for various national level sports competitions in 2016.
Our students have stupendously done well in MUN (MODEL UNITED NATION) sessions and felicitated by leaders.
We are trying to tie them with a string of digital and traditional education and shaping them to strive for more in this competitive world. I wish all the budding and future leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, educators and others to hold good of modern and traditional values together to create their own path.

Techior Solutions: Changing eLearning Landscape Through Innovation

By
digitalLEARNING Network
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From managing regular school operations like pre-admission process, fee collection and student attendance to generating question papers for exams, the software solutions from Techior ensure schools gain efficiency at affordable cost. In an exclusive interview with Elets News Network (ENN), Neelam Moharil, Director, Techior Solutions Pvt. Ltd. talks about the company’s offerings and how they are benefitting schools in India and abroad.

What kind of software solutions does Techior Solutions Pvt. Ltd. offer to the education sector in India?
Techior Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a company based in Nagpur, Maharashtra, which specialises in the education software space. Our company is in this business for the last nine years and has several hundred customers in India and overseas. We are very proud of our product quality and customer support. We provide 100 per cent money back guarantee if customer is not satisfied with our product or service. Our products are available for managing schools, managing tests, conducting online tests to reduce on papers, and Android-based test. Our innovative products help schools save time and money.

What different kinds of software solutions does your company offer to schools?
 For schools, we have launched school management software that helps in regular school operations like pre-admission, admission, fees collection, student attendance, biometric attendance, managing test marks, score card, CCE report card, staff management, payroll, HR, inventory, bus transport, library, hostel, visitor management, time table generation and SMS or email communication with parents. There are more than 100 reports that are just a click away to help schools with readily available information. The software is available for small schools as well as multischool institutions. It is a very affordable solution and our customers say it is a real value for their money. Our software is different in the sense that it is very simple to use. Our training department trains users to draw maximum benefits out of it. Product videos are available on our website and YouTube so that users can see them any time.

Please tell us about the question paper or test generator software your company provides.
 Our question paper generator is used to manage content at education institutions. Most schools and colleges conduct regular exams and in most places we see a lot of chaos and running around for exam controllers prior to exams. Typically, teachers mark the questions in books or give handwritten questions to DTP operators who in turn enter it in digital format. Then it is given for proof reading to teachers, who correct it and give it back to DTP operators for carrying out the corrections. The cycle continues until the task is done. Our software helps with test generation in a click. We also have a readymade question bank of 60,000 plus questions for CBSE, JEE (Main and Advance) and state board syllabus. The software makes it really easy for schools to conduct exams. The software supports mathematical equations, images and multiple languages. You can generate objective, subjective, or board pattern exams very easily. You can enter your own questions in the software or import data from word documents.

Which new software your company is planning to launch in near future?
 Digitisation is increasing in India and penetration of computers, internet and smartphones is on the rise since last few years. Techior is committed to help schools reduce usage of paper to save trees as well as their time and money by making information readily available to schools, students and parents. We also help improve the speed of various operations in schools. We are launching a test pad that students can use to write tests. It will reduce the usage of paper. We are also working with clients in Singapore and Qatar to conduct exams completely on test pad. We are always innovating to make schools more productive.

Why do people like Techior Sofware?
Techior has built its software keeping in mind the user base. Our solutions are known for their simplicity and user friendliness. Our customers are extremely happy with our services. We work from our office and use the technology to remotely sell and service our software at the client site. This removes the dependency of personnel in various regions and saves lot of travel time. Our remote desktop management tools help us reach any place in the world within seconds. We can help our clients within seconds if they have internet connectivity. This reduces the sales and service cost which is passed on to customers. We invite schools across the world to try our software and realise their benefits.n

Flipped Classroom

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

Many schools have embraced the concept of flipped classrooms which have transformed teaching practices. In this, teachers are no longer required to stand in front of their students and talk to them for 30 to 60 minutes at a time.
The flipped classrooms have changed the classrooms. Top schools from around the world have adopted the model and are using it to teach classes in all curriculum areas to elementary, middle, and high school students as well as adults.
According to Rita Kaul, Director Acdemics, Millienium School, Noida, flipped classrooms have made learning a very interesting, innovative and interactive experience.
“The ICT tools have made learning more effective and interesting for all learners. All these ICT tools have indeed enhanced the teaching learning process in a positive way.”
Anil Mammen, Chief – Learning Design and Social Impact, Tata ClassEdge, said, “A flipped classroom converts one’s home into a learning space for acquiring information (watching videos, looking up websites, etc.) and classrooms into active learning spaces with activities, experiments, discussions and feedback. When learning gets powered by such high engagement and interaction, learning outcomes are certainly bound to go up.”
On significance of flipped classrooms, Ujjawal Singh, Chief Product Officer, Pearson said, “Flipped Learning allows for a really high quality interaction to take place between the teacher and the taught in the classroom. It allows for more time on concepts and applications and thus enhances the overall efficacy of the entire process. What it also does is that it significantly increases learner participation which allows for a great learning culture to prosper and grow”.

Flipped classrooms have made learning a very interesting, innovative and interactive experience. The ICT tools have made learning more effective and interesting for all learners.
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Rita Kaul, Director Acdemics, Millienium School, Noida

Field Trips

Alot of modern-day schools ensure students undertake field trips. Top schools endure the expense and disruption of providing field trips because these experiences help schools to produce civilised young men and women. With field trips, public schools viewed themselves as the great equaliser in terms of access to our cultural heritage.
In top school, teaching staff always try to develop a professional yet friendly atmosphere. It’s important for students to know and understand the purpose and aim of schooling, in clear terms. Various school trips, educational tours, projects, and a host of inter house activities with involvement of teachers develop a closer understanding among students.
Sharing his views on importance of field trips, Junaid Hussain, Head, Advocacy and Customer Relations, INME Learning said, “We do not consider these as trips. Our interventions form an integral part of a child’s learning journey. Experiential education methodologies play a crucial role in a child’s development, even more in today’s day and date due to the heavy reliance on technology. Outclass has been inspired by our own rich beyond-the-classroom learning experiences as students. These experiences powerfully complement children’s ‘academic growth’ by building real ‘life skills’ that help us in our lives – looking inwards with honesty, working effectively with our teammates, and leading others with commitment”.
Dr Srimathy Kesan, Director, Space Kidz India has shared the genesis of her school that is completely based on experiential learning, “World is a book and those who do not travel will read only one page” Nothing works better than a touch n feel therapy. Seeing is believing, educational trips leave a lasting impression on a child’s mind forever, giving him or her an all round growth and development. More hands on and outdoor pedagogical teaching is healthy for both the tutor as well as the child. “Education through Travel”, in fact is the tagline of our organisation. This is the same principle that Schools all around the Country follow except that it would be for a shorter duration, to refresh the minds of the children, or to create an awareness into a particular stream of study and get them back to classroom learning.
According to Ravinder Pal Sinh, Director, Dell, flipped classroom methodology allows students to first read/review topics at home and then attend lecture. This way student can ask lot better questions and queries, which helps him to understand more better. This is a common teaching methodology in global reputed organizations, and same needs to be adpated here as well. Schools following are clearly winners here.

Academic Excellence

By
digitalLEARNING Network
-

As a way to promote academic excellence along with other skills, few schools ensure their authorities, teachers, and students work as a team in various activities or projects to offer their students a sense of leadership and maturity. Collaboration of work with proper division of labour is most important. Various departments are headed by experts in their own fields are assigned with different work to execute them effectively. There is coordination and synchronisation among the various departments for the smooth functioning of the institution.
Top schools lay down processes to ensure performance by their students, teaching staff and school administration. The schools ensure that systems and processes are defined and imbibed by the school administration so that no room is left for ambiguities. In order to ensure academic excellence, a close synergy is maintained between the school management, teachers, students and parents by following the best procedures and practices.

Students are also able to learn at their own pace because they have all the materials at their disposal. Moreover, instead of just teaching, teachers can guide students while the latter applies their understanding in discussion sessions. With our digital learning solution, we, at Next Education, facilitate a flipped classroom.
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Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO, Next Education

While many schools excel in just one domain, top schools stress on the holistic development of each student, for example, Indraprastha group of schools admit each child with a motto ‘Teach each child, develop whole child’ that corroborates their vision of all-round growth of the personality of each student.
Sulochana Raja, Ryan International School, Mayur Vihar opined that diversified curriculum will help the schools to achieve academic excellence and develop the students holistically. According to her, “We encourage a curriculum where students not only develop critical and reflective thinking skills but also encourage them to have an empathetic view/outlook about classrooms of mixed ability students community services like contributions to orphanage, old age homes, adopting ‘Sapera Basti” ,food bucket challenge, rallies on cleanliness drive awaress on social issues. Value based education is imparted for a holistic and character development in students”.

As a progressive school  we believe that the multidisciplinary approach has become an important and challenging technique in shaping the curriculum.
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Geeta Rajan, Principal, St Marks Sr Sec Public School

Explaining the methods followed for academic excellence in his school, Anit Arora, Principal, Cambridge International School, Dasuya, said,“The school has been using a very formalised structure with clear lines of authority from the top down. This is a hierarchical structure. The administrative team consists of an organized central head and then heads of different departments. The reporting is as per the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly action plan. The plans are executed in appropriate ways and the records are maintained meticulously. All the faculty members are made aware of all the concerns. For the better functioning of the administrative structure the feedback is taken from parents as well as faculty members.”
Geeta Rajan, Principal, St Marks Sr Sec Public School said, “As a progressive school we believe that the multi-disciplinary approach has become an important and challenging technique in shaping the curriculum. This approach synthesizes more than one discipline and creates team of teachers and students that enrich the overall educational experience. Students taught with this technique master higher order thinking skills. This is definitely the future of discovery and innovation. We assign such projects to our students and we have noticed an advancement in critical thinking, communication and creativity of the students”.

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