EDITORIAL
Learnings Rain from ‘The Cloud’
COVER STORY
Recording Lectures for Better Results
SPECIAL FEATURE
Education Market is poised for a Big Leap
India learns AUDIO VISUAL lessons
Reinventing Engineering CURRICULUM
EXCLUSIVE FEATURE
Event Report
Technology will build worldclass education system
NEW PERSPECTIVE
Get Closer to Science with Experifun
Indian education system, one of its kind in the world, is in dire need of reinvention in order to keep pace with the world and to equip the Indian students with enough skills to compete at the global level. Some of the best minds in the country came under one roof at the digitalLEARNING Knowledge Exchange in Jaipur to deliberate over how to teach NextGen.
here is a need to understand and reflect upon what is needed to build a world-class education system. A serious concern for the higher education policy makers and the educationists is the need to maintain high academic standards. Today, technology and globalization have increased the accessibility to higher education, and some of the best educationists and technocrats across the country came together at the Knowledge Exchange platform provided by Elets Technomedia in Jaipur to discuss how teaching with technology is not only about staying updated on the latest tools, but also about knowing how to successfully incorporate the best tools into your teaching when and where it makes sense, and take education to the next level.
For this purpose, they held sessions over a variety of topics changing the educational landscape of our country.
Technology enhanced learning – What can we learn from MOOCs?
In recent years, the concept of online or distance learning has extended to include a growing number of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs), free higher education courses open for enrollment for an internet user. The MOOCs are a recent trend in distance learning promoted by several prestigious universities. The educationists also discussed over how the MOOCs enhance accessibility, student engagement, and experiences for lifelong learning. Interacting with audience, Dr P Balakrishna Shetty, Vice Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur opined that today’s students are not deprived of technology in any way. They are full of technology instead. “We need to provide our students enough time and incentives to use that technology”, he said and expressed that there is a need to engage students at all levels with techniques like open questions, individual questions, group questions. “We have to involve university students as researchers, give the students freedom and autonomy.”
According to a report ‘Education in India: Securing the demographic dividend,’ published by Grant Thorton, the primary and secondary education, or K-12 sector is expected to
Agreeing with Dr Shetty, Prof Iftikhar Alam, Dean, International Institute for Special Education (IISE), Lucknow also echoed that we have to keep faith in the aptitude of students. “Technology is indispensable but we cannot be slave to it.
MOOCS is here to stay. It is something which we have to use judiciously. Today, the millions can be hooked to same programme worldwide, not just one country. But even with MOOCs we have to go that extra mile to make it interesting. Then it can do wonders for our country. Maybe then reverse brain drain will happen in the interest of India if we make good use of it”, he said.
Dr RN Sharma, Vice Chancellor, IASE University, Churu said that technology should not be merely imparting info, but the aim should be to churn, so that the students can make good use of knowledge and learning gained from it for greater social betterment.
How Indian engineering education system can support “Make in India
Prof KC Singhal, Vice Chancellor, NIMS University, Jaipur said that “the traders and the politicians only spoil the education system. The purpose with which the British had painstakingly put up an education system is far from served. We, therefore, are still producing only supervisors, not innovators and thinkers. That system must change, if the country has to progress. We need to start dissemination of knowledge and building of the society from the day 1.
DD Shukla (Alpha College of Engineering, Ahmedabad), further added that “Before we start with this dream, we need lots of work before beginning to produce results. We need more relaxation for the foreign investments. Only then will we progress. More than anything else, we need to produce entrepreneurs.
New light was thrown on indigenous development by Deepakh Parekh who said that “We should come out of bureaucracy. Why is China market so vibrant and in India we have markets flooding with “Make in India”. Create more entrepreneurs than engineers. Engineering education means training in manufacturing, creating and innovation. We don’t go to industry for feedback to find out what are the lacunae in the industry, which is the main beneficiary of education system, give back to it.”
Need of global tie-ups to improve research based education
Today’s world is a global village. Stressing on this point, Rajan Mahan, Chairman – Board of Studies, Haridev Joshi University of Journalism & Mass, Communication said that “Besides the real world, a cyber world has come up. This global village is both a challenge as well as an opportunity. The human lives have fundamentally changed in every sphere. This comes for higher education at a time when we are facing a transformational change in the sphere. One way is collaboration to face challenge, where the resources and knowledge are shared.
With the view that India is being looked upon as a flourishing market, Dr Sraban Mukherjee, Director, KIET Group of Institutions, Ghaziabad, said, “Education is different and knowledge is different. Research is not carried out in isolation.”
He elaborated as to how we helped the university, the students and the teachers for more research as it should not be education for the sake of a job. “The media often creates hype regarding high packages to the IITs and the IIMs, which are not right for development. If research has to become socially beneficial, why not inter-state collaboration so it can be locally beneficial?”
Dr K Veera Venkataiah, Principal and Director (International Relations, Chaitanya Postgraduate College, Varangal) said that research should be beneficial to the society. Dr DD Shukla, (Principal, Alpha College of Engineering, Ahmedabad) said that no verification is needed if the research is genuine. All one needs to do is pay money to get it published. This brings the credibility of research done in India under question vis-à-vis the foreign universities and the students.
According to a report ‘Education in India: Securing the demographic dividend,’ published by Grant Thorton, the primary and secondary education, or K-12 sector is expected to
Role of technology to make teaching, learning & assessment convenient
Sraban Mukherjee threw light on the fact that today, even school children need smartphones. Today, Facebook and other social networking sites keep the students occupied and focused. The students are all unique with their different learning abilities. These different learning needs can be taken care of by technology. The traditional classrooms could not do that.
Dr Ashok Kumar Jetawat, Director, Aravali Institute of Technical Studies, Udaipur held that what is missing in education is motivation and raised the question as to why digital content is not available in the local languages. He shared the results of experiments, where the use of technology is much preferred and makes a successful study for the students.
Naresh Duble, DGM, Training and FMD, Armstrong explained the importance of acoustics in education. “We will develop on how acoustics really impact and can enhance higher education in the country. In India, this is a new initiative we have started. It is not enough to understand what is taught in a class. We need to absorb, assimilate and reproduce that. The teachers and the students have to connect. It can only happen if you have the correct acoustical environment and architecture. The background noise and reverberation time are the two main aspects as far as acoustics goes. We have a nice instrument which can distinguish sound once it comes back to it after .5 secs. It can help the backbenchers and people with hearing impairment. The results dramatically improve. Acoustical comfort is a new term being added, which comprises intelligence of the sound, privacy, low distraction and concentration. Global standard for background noise is 40 decibel. We need to see where we stand globally as far as reverberation and background noise are concerned.
This view was reverberated by all. Especially when today, we are not talking of classrooms of just 50-60 students, but 100-400. Singapore uses thousand seated auditoriums for the same. We need to make noise about sound. Knowledge transmission otherwise will not happen.
Prof BR Natarajan, Vice Chancellor, Sangam University, Bhilwara, said that one needs to grab opportunities. He talked about Indian mindset of Indians regarding business and how dignity of labour is impacted by it. “Why can’t we use tech in teaching the way we use it in every other sphere of life, right from travel booking, to banking, to even booking for darshan in temples. People thought that the teachers could become redundant if technology were to be used.”
The speakers agreed that use of technology is often the biggest fear of teachers. They should be trained in it and technology should be used to accurately evaluate the students.
Can incubation centres assist to boost employability?
Today, there is a growing importance of incubation centres in the country. HRD Minister Smriti Irani has been stressing on it and urging educational institutes to take them as a stimulus for nation building.
Recently, the incubation centres have become a very important part of education in the country. Prof Dr Virendra Kumar Sharma, Vice Chancellor, Bhagwant University, Ajmer said that employment generation is an important part of employment generation. While incubation centres may not be able to assist in boosting employability, they can certainly boost employment generation. All of us. “In country of billion plus population, we should have billions of entrepreneurs. I remember the time when the textile industry was nationalized and no one questioned that if a person can’t run the enterprise, can the government do it. Every student in educational institutes should be motivated for entrepreneurship. There is a great promise in running incubation centres in campuses.
Prof Satish C Sharma, Chairman, Maharaja College of Engineering, Udaipur said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon says worldwide there growing recognition of need to strengthen policies and investments involving youth. Then let’s support young people. Morgan Stanley says thatby 2015 end, India will be biggest economy in east. 500- 700 CEOs are needed in the next 2 years, 10,000 functional heads, and million jobs across all sectors.”
He said that Abdul Kalam had rightly said that unemployment is not a major problem in India, the problem is unemployability, and it will affect whole world. “There is an incubation fund in the budget (1 cr fund provided through AICTE for incubation centres). In India we are not investing in SME’s where the mass will go, we are only taking care of class. The question is how to include people from all walks of life – rural and urban. Upgradation of ITIs, polytechnics, etc for small jobs is needed. It may be noted that Telangana had introduced the first Dalit incubation centre with a corpus of Rs 5 crore. Prof S S Gokhale, Director, LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur said that incubation is something entirely new, a concept that came into being in 21stcentuary. As an academic institution, as a facilitator of incubation. Most of the incubation centres die down after 5 years. It is about an opportunity and somebody has to do it so you do it.”
Many personality traits required in becoming an entrepreneur. As far as entrepreneurial spirit goes, there has to be constant motivation to start something new after 7 years. An entrepreneur cannot stop or else stagnation will settle. In every state, incubation would be done by 1 or 2 persons only. This can’t be compared to fully grown mature company that we are talking about. The experiments show that use of technology has resulted in better performance of the students.
V Venkaataih said that today the countries are of two kinds. Some use more technology and others use less technology. The Vice Chancellors have to check plagiarism in thesis, research etc and promote genuine work.
Dr Rupesh Vasani, Director, SAL Institute of Technology & Engineering Research, Ahmedabad said, “We don’t have to see technology and traditional learning material differently. They must be used to complement each other.” He shared his experiences of delivering lectures and how well it worked.”
AICTE has given nod to 27 Delhi University colleges for running B.Tech courses. This decision came as a major relief for colleges seeking approval. According to media reports, “It was agreed at a meeting between Delhi University and AICTE officials that AICTE will take a lenient view and examine the case from a fresh perspective. AICTE is likely to conduct a fresh inspection of the colleges and consider it as a special case.” It may be mentioned that in a fresh twist to the stand-off between DU Vice-Chancellor and the Human Resource Development Ministry over the introduction of FYUP, AICTE had last week asked the colleges to submit an affidavit within ‘six hours’ through which they were asked to promise that they would address the shortcomings of faculty and infrastructure within the next six months. The principals found the deadline to be ‘impractical’ and, as a result, only about six colleges are understood to have submitted the same. “After the six-hour deadline passed, DU had approached AICTE explaining the difficulties in adhering to the directive. The varsity was assured that non-submission of the affidavit would not impact the procedure of granting the nod in this case,” as per media reports.
A study conducted by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Kerala states that though government and aided schools are losing out to private schools when it comes to Class I admissions, there seems to be a reverse trend as far as admissions to Classes V and VIII are concerned.The report of the study — ‘Shift from Government and Government Aided Schools to Unaided Streams of Schools (Nature and Causes of the Shift)’ — was recently discussed by SSA authorities.
“After analyzing the data, we found that the preference for private schools compared to government and aided schools was marginal. On the contrary, students from the unaided sector were found to be joining government and aided schools in Classes V and VIII,” said SSA project Director E P Mohandas.
The study was conducted to understand people’s perception about government, unaided and private schools and also the multiple factors that directly and indirectly contribute towards the selection of a particular school. Parents of students and teachers from the three categories of schools, education experts and education department officials were interviewed as part of the study. Also, enrolment data from Classes I to VIII in schools in three districts — Thrissur, Kozhikode and Malappuram — was analyzed.
It may be mentioned that the number of students enrolled in government and aided schools in the three districts was not only high but the number increased from Class I to VIII, while in private schools it showed a declining trend.
Also, the study found students shifting from government schools to better government or aided schools. Also, a child, once enrolled in a government school, is seldom shifted to an unaided or unrecognized school. It also states that parents consider English medium education compulsory for high profile jobs and therefore enroll their children in private schools.
With the change in teaching methods and the evolution of new technologies in education sector, there’s come a new way of teaching tool named MyPedia. Deepak Mehrotra, MD, Pearson India throws light on how MyPedia, a new technology is adding value to the education system and helping teachers and students to develop their skills. The Elets News Network peeps into a mind.
Please throw light on MyPedia?
The challenge for a learner is the skills that you are acquiring. The learner typically starts slotting and classifying them according to the subject specific capability. Where as we typically learn concepts and subjects, we try and get to know those concepts a little better. Transferability of that conceptual learning and the skills moving and getting aligned more to the concept and not to the subject is at the heart of the entire MyPedia philosophy.
It has four key elements in it in terms of the text books and the way the whole curriculum is delivered. The idea is to get a child in the formative years, to get clarity on the concepts and get the child to learn concepts through an integrated curriculum. Integrated curriculum is delivered by ensuring that the concepts that the child should be cleared about get reinforced through all the subjects he is going through. So at a particular point in time, the child will be taught a concept and in every subject teacher will be drawing from the same board and plan should be reinforcing the conceptual learning.
Integrated curriculum and text books which are ensuring that learning from one to another are reinforced and multiple layers are getting used to reinforce the learning around the concept. Ample number of schools today have digital classrooms, however, the child possibly gets to see the content only once.
All of us have different way of learning. Some of us are audio learners, active learners, video learners, so those who are not great video learners need to watch the video second time or third time or may be more, they can opt for MyPedia.
In MyPedia the curriculum is integrated and there’s a home application which is available to the child, so whatever teacher is teaching in the class, the child on that particular day (on the text books there’s an indicator that there’s a video available on particular chapter or topic) just need to put his scanner of the smartphone and the scanner starts with one visual and takes you straight to the app and the video will start playing. This way parents get to know what the child is learning in the class and can actually partner relate more with him.
The entire exercise of Mypedia is resting on a very strong assessment backbone. The assessment backbone is helping the teacher know at the root level. All of those kinds of things, which provide fantastic insights both to the teacher and the parents, help the child use time more productively.
There are set of assessments which can played on and the child typically answers those. There is a very strong assessment tool which tags the response to say what part of the learning has the child got right and in case you did not get the answers right, what possibly is the conceptual gap that the child needs to cover. The entire exercise of MyPedia is resting on a very strong assessment backbone. The assessment backbone is enabling the teacher to know the problem at the root level. All of those kinds of things which provide fantastic insights both to teacher and parents enable the child to use the time more productively.
What is the success rate of MyPedia?
We have launched the product late this year so the adoption by the schools will start by Dec 2015-Jan 2016. So, several parts of the country will see the adoption cycle growing this year. But wherever we were able to reach out we got fantastic response and have received lot of queries. We are looking at a number of 100 schools to adopt the technology in class 1-5. We are looking at North, East and West at present. South is till to happen which we will tap in June 2015.
In which cities do you see the adoption of MyPedia growing?
I see enough space for adoption in every city. The entire assessment insight is an advantage every school seeks. Irrespective of the fee point, irrespective of the city, we have seen a positive response. The aspirations in the metros are fairly well known to everybody. There are fairly well informed schools and parents but then the mini metros give an opportunity for our children to compete with the students who are the best available possibly in the metros. We are seeing a pattern of adoption all across the cities.
As part of this product, we are also offering some teacher training tools, a big plus to every school struggling to get a good quality teacher to ensure that teacher delivers.
Are you targeting government or private schools at present?
Right now we are looking at private schools. For Government, the interaction and the conversation have to happen. While we have seen some state curriculum showing interest but we haven’t really gone the government school route yet. But in some point of time we will be tapping them as well. Right now it’s only a function of ability to reach. The buying cycle of government schools is very different.
Does the teacher get an assessment report of the assignment completed by the students?
As the child does it, a teacher gets the complete report. 50 kids got the assignment, 30 attempted , 20 completed it, 18 got it right, 2 started it but not completed it, so each of these granular information is available for the teacher to actually go back and start engaging the students. The excuses don’t work in this technology.
Are the teachers comfortable using MyPedia technology?
They are excited, anxious but the fact that we are willing to handhold it and stick them through the whole journey makes it interesting. The way we are thinking and doing it like as if school picked up 1-5 class, we will actually help them create a small room within the school with the video conferencing facility or chat room facility. We are going to use technology to ensure that the teachers are in touch with their peer groups and the training that we are typically talking about for the teacher.
The education policies have long been ignored in India. Modi-led government has however broken a fresh ground. Walking the talk and pulling out all stops, commas, the NDA government has put its heads together. A new education policy will hopefully see light of the day for the first time in more than two decades. The government has made clear its priorities of reforming the internationalisation in higher education, digitisation of education and skills development.
In a fresh release of the documents, 33 discussion themes – 13 for secondary, 20 for post-secondary – stood out, central theme of which will be formulated after an open consultation with people, a process which the government expects could take up to a year. The attempt to internationalise has caught attention of many people including Richard Everitt, director of education at the British Council in India, saying, “It’s not whether it should happen, but how to make it happen.”
Among the other hallowed objectives of the Government are strengthening of vocational education, promotion of languages; integrating skills development in higher education, promoting open and distance learning and online courses, and engagement with industry to link education to employability. These issues have been thrown open for public discussion. Put on the government’s website, all the issues will be concluded at the end of March.
The international education stakeholders in the country say the list of proposed discussion themes show the government is taking a relevant approach to modernise the current education environment. However, the educationists are of the view that the government needs to make clear its stance on allowing domestic provider to partner with the foreign institutions.
“As we face our capacity challenges in India, we also have a responsibility to offer a clear framework that will make operating in India reasonably easy,” said Lakshmi Iyer, Director and Head of Education for market entry specialist Sannam S4.
Iyer added in the same refrain that India has huge potential to become an education hub for the students from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Iran and Africa, given the right government support.
“We have traditionally attracted students from these countries and Africa, we can attract more if we have international campuses that open up,” she said.
For many years, the foreign and the domestic providers have been constrained by the government’s tough but often unreasonable stance on keeping foreign providers out.
Educating India starts and ends with creating ‘infrastructure’, new schools, colleges, IITs and IIMs. It is a different matter that even the budgetary allocation is nowhere near the recommendation made five decades ago by the Kothari Commission. As is the practice in every other sector, education is an opportunity for business, exploiting a multi-billion-rupee market.
For many years, the foreign and the domestic providers have been constrained by the government’s tough but often unreasonable stance on keeping foreign providers out.
The problems have run deep into the social consciousness of the populace. Recently, the cheatings during an examination in Bihar were beamed across the country through the ever watchful electronic and camera carrying media. Now it is past its shelf life. But the shame begs for a proper explanation and careful analysis. It is rather unfortunate that one more opportunity has been missed for analysing the much larger question: Are we educating India?
Let us recognise one important fact. India is educated by its teachers and not by the classrooms, desks and benches, pipettes and burettes. The teacher must become the centre of education. The key question is: What are our schemes and plans to develop and improve the quality of teachers? Our motto should be to impart the same quality of education to every child in India, irrespective of her background, and, for that, the teachers all over the nation must be of the same high quality.
The important fundamental step required to start off in this direction is a central service for the teachers. One appears to be blind to as to why this country, while recognising the need for civil services in many spheres, did not think it necessary for education. Put aside the downside of the all-India civil services and concentrate on the obvious positive points.
Teachers being the key, two things are important: One, we need to attract dedicated and talented people to this profession by paying them the market salary and giving them the status they deserve. And two, they should be trained and retrained in modern methods of imparting education.
There is a need to introduce an Indian education service, according to some educationists. Although there is no unanimity over the suggested introduction, this can be at almost all levels — primary, secondary and high school. One wonders if the IAS model should be followed. Carefully chosen on the basis of a competitive examination, some educationists say that the successful candidates should be put through a rigorous oneyear training programme based on the IAS model. The breaking and stagnating educational institutes in the states can be renovated into at least five training academies in each State. There can also be a common programme drafted by international experts, well known for their modern teaching methods. Teaching is not only about mathematics, physics, chemistry and history. Teachers need training in understanding, motivating, moulding and even reprimanding a child.
Let these teachers be placed in government schools in the district headquarters. With time, let them adopt surrounding village schools. Let there be provision for them to grow in their profession. Let there be scope for a sabbatical for them to rejuvenate and qualify for a higher position. Let them be groomed to occupy important positions in the sphere of education.
Let them be catalysts for a revolution in education. That our education lacks quality, defined in a very conventional sense, has been pointed out by several studies. A few well-intended attempts by corporate giants, using their Corporate Social Responsibility fund of 2 per cent of profits, is not enough to solve the problem. In fact, this CSR money can well be used as financial support for the training academies, with no interference in administration.
It is not that higher education, which from the Nehruvian era got preferential treatment, is all hunky dory. Technical education is in a shambles. Sitting in an interview panel, I was shocked to see 39 out of 40 engineering graduates fumble on the equation of a straight line — a basic concept taught in school! ‘Make in India’ will remain, at best, a pleasant dream if this knowledge gap is not urgently addressed.Governments cannot take the narrow view like parents who, in most instances, look at education as a path for material wealth. Prosperity is a byproduct and not the main goal.
The idea of a central service will have the twin advantages of integrating India and normalising quality across the States. Language, no doubt, will be an issue, but not an insurmountable obstacle that can be solved with a broad frame of mind.
What is needed is cooperation between the Centre and the State, and not competition. Education cannot form the grounds for parochialism, though a child has to understand the society around her. Indian education, be it school education, higher education or technical education, requires a serious change in the mindset of the planners.
Let the government not be paranoid about growth and other macroeconomic indicators. Education is the foundation of society, its values, culture and progress. The Bihar incident is not an outlier, but yet another example of the rot that has set in. It is time we bring back the archetypal school teacher.
It is also time to realise that education is too serious a business to be left to the private sector.
Karan Manral, Head – Special Projects and Marketing, Actis believes that the market for the AV technologies is opening up in India in education sector. With the wider scope of adoption of tools among the premier institutes, the ROI will improve significantly in the long run.
How do you see the audio visual market growth?
The broader audio visual market is growing quickly in Asia, perhaps faster than anywhere else in the world. Speaking more specifically, we believe that the market for AV technologies and solutions in the education sector in India is only just opening up.
So far the implementation in schools, colleges and other learning institutions has been limited to specific tools (like a projector, or a whiteboard). Also the adoption of more powerful tools was limited to the premier institutions like IIT, IIM, ISB and so on.
But with newer concepts like Networked AV and more flexible tools like portable VC trolleys, this is now becoming a more widely applied set of practices.
What are the stumbling blocks and problems of the market?
We think that educators are sometimes a little short-sighted in calculating the ROI and impact of these technologies. Perhaps this is understandable keeping in mind for the rapid growth that the education segment has seen in the past decade. There was also a tendency to use these technologies to impress, as opposed to actually using it in a way that it enhances what the faculty is trying to communicate.
Another area where there was a bottleneck and where rapid improvement is now happening is the quality of educational content – both because content producers are getting better and because schools and faculty have developed the skills to create better content. But all of this is changing, and we believe that we are already seeing a shift on why and how AV technology is being applied to educational environments.
How many kinds of audio-visual products are available in the education sector?
There are many, audio-visual products that are useful for the education sector, such as – interactive projectors, video conferencing systems, visualisers, audio tools, wireless connectivity systems, mobile videoconferencing systems, video content recorders and streamers.
But we believe that the design and integration of these products is the key to creating effective learning environments and help institutions in applying enterprise grade AV technologies (like wireless connectivity) in a way that makes learning simpler and easier. Given the realities of the education sector, we try to design their environments in a way that provides them with good value over the longer term – both on capital and operational costs.
What are the technology trends that have strengthened the teaching and learning process? How can these help the specially-abled people?
The list of trends that are relevant to educational institutions and which are now coming to maturity is pretty amazing – Networked AV, control and automation solutions, video and unified communications, lighting control and energy management, media recording and streaming, video conferencing on the cloud and so on.
For people with learning disabilities the greatest change is the ability to “customise” the experience and content delivery to suit their requirements via different kinds of video and audio aids. For example, there are ways to create audio recordings so students with hearing disabilities can have sound reinforcement via headphones or through ceiling speakers in a specific area. They can also get “audio notes” by recordings of the teaching session. Students with visual disabilities can similarly use video recordings to refer to sessions from their classes.
Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil has informed that Raichur is Karnataka government’s first choice to set up the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state. 400 acres of land in Raichur for the purpose has already been identified and the state government is confident that the Centre will approve it from among the other places shortlisted (Mysore and Hubballi-Dharwad).
It may be mentioned that a vast stretch of land on way to Yadgir, 3-5 km from the city, has been earmarked for the purpose. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had recently hinted that the government will recommend Hubballi-Dharwad, Raichur and Mysore to the Centre.
“It’ll be an ideal location as it has highway connectivity, water facilities and greenery,” said Patil. He added that there are plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and concerned ministers in New Delhi to push for Raichur, once the government sends its recommendations to the Union HRD ministry. “Representatives of Hyderabad-Karnataka region have also joined hands to bat for Raichur,” he said.
The audio visual educational instructions stimulate the eyes and the ears the best. The successful use of motion pictures and other visual aids by the US armed forces during World War II demonstrated the effectiveness of this medium. Today, India is the leading market for audio visual medium in the field of education, attracting attention worldwide. The Elets News Network is all ears to learn an audio visual lesson
India is now the world’s fastest growing market for audio visual (AV) equipment. A study by industry association Infocomm has suggested that the audio visual market in India is expected to show a high compounded annual growth rate of 25 per cent to touch $ 5.1 billion by 2015, on the back of spending in sectors such as education, infrastructure and corporate information technology. On the other hand, the global AV market is projected to grow by 14 per cent to generate $115 billion by 2015, the study said. The audiovisual industry currently generates $91 billion a year and is projected to be a $114 billion global industry by 2016. “The AV industry is strong, thanks to a rebounding economy and a growing need for collaboration,” said David Labuskes, CTS, RCDD, Executive Director and CEO, Infocomm International. “However, growth is not universal across the world, and the strength of the burgeoning Asian market will overtake the North American market in size for the first time in 2016.”
One of the largest vertical markets in the audiovisual industry is higher education. Audio visual material must be seen in their relationship to teaching and to the learning process as a whole. Today, even a 4-5 year old is exposed to a range of technologies to which previous generations had no access to: television, DVDs, iPods, Nintendo Wiis, computer games, the internet, smart phones…the list is long. Equipment used for audiovisual presentations include dioramas, magic lanterns, planetarium, film projectors, slide projectors, opaque projectors (episcopes and epidiascopes), overhead projectors and tape recorders. The audio visual materials are produced, distributed and used as planned components of educational programs. When audiovisual aids materials are used intelligently, they can promote the most effective kind of learning, in adults as well as children, in college as well as grade school, everywhere.
The clients often have a higher number of rooms within their facility that incorporates audiovisual technology than other large verticals, such as house of worship or corporate. With an increasing number of big corporate houses entering the educational sector with ERP solutions, there are a lot of educational institutes taking help from the advanced technologies to upgrade their age old system. Also, with an advent of 3G and now 4G Internet connectivity and Internet-enabled TVs and Wifi consoles, video-based learning in schools is witnessing an unparalleled growth.
According to a report ‘Education in India: Securing the demographic dividend,’ published by Grant Thornton, the primary and secondary education, or K-12 sector is expected to reach $ 50 billion in 2015 growing at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 per cent. Simultaneously, the professional audiovisual industry is a multibillion- dollar industry, comprising the manufacturers, dealers, systems integrators, consultants, programmers, presentations professionals and technology managers of audiovisual products and services. Richard Tan, General Manager of Infocomm’s Asia subsidiary, said that corporations in India continue to significantly invest in new technology despite the economic slowdown. By 2015, India is set to become the third largest market in Asia Pacific, he added.
Due to its sheer size and enormous growth potential, the Indian education market is attracting major manufacturers and system integrators as a very lucrative one. The result is that the market now faces cut throat competition and buyers are trying to get the best solution at the lowest price. When technology is purchased purely based on price, quality is risked, which has led to products of questionable quality being imported and rebranded in India to match the lowest price expectation on the box, without focusing the quality of the total solution, and reliability of after sales support. Fortunately, the market has witnessed a growing awareness, especially private schools, who evaluate various technologies before designing total student information and school management solution, focusing on quality and reliability in addition to affordability.
With the coming of solution providers like Educomp, HCL etc, who integrate audio visual devices and provide a complete solution to educational institutions, the market is growing rapidly. For example, HCL, a big vendor, will buy projector from Panasonic and hire speakers from speaker brands and integrate all the hardware and will give a complete solution to the educational institutions.
Ramya Chatterjee, Director, Sales & Marketing, Cybernetyx said, “India is a developing country. However, Indian market has moved beyond the nascent stage, and is witnessing a steady growth in demand of AV Products. Indian schools have understood the pros of highly interactive environment of full-fledged Digital Class room. For multinational companies involved in production of AV products including interactive whiteboard, Projector etc., India and China are the two major emerging economies expected to drive significant growth. The interactive whiteboard market in India is driven by a growing demand from the education sector, where there is increased focus on ICT adoption and a conscious effort to make the learning process more interactive for students, in tune with a global trend.”
The India market is also different, thanks to the rural urban divide and vast geographical differences. Growth has to be inclusive and the problems faced by the urban Indians are vastly different from the ones in rural India. Although business will be good in metro cities, schools in remote villages could be a challenge, not only in infrastructure, but also due to mind set issues. Also, there are locations where technology has not been able to bring about change. Enabling the rural populace, by providing the right infrastructure, should be a top priority. What in India is taken something as casually as ‘load shedding’, in the United States the ‘power cut’ can take form of a national crisis. That shift in mentality will not happen overnight but it is indispensable that we compete to be at par with developed nations.
‘Stumbling Blocks’ in use of Audio Visual aids at educational institutes:
One of the largest vertical markets in the audiovisual industry is higher education. Audio visual material must be seen in their relationship to teaching and to the learning process as a whole. Today, even a 4-5 year old is exposed to a range of technologies to which previous generations had no access to: television, DVDs, iPods, Nintendo Wiis, computer games, the internet, smart phones…the list is long.
Since advent of the Modi government, the concept of audio visual in schools with smart classes has become even more relevant. Besides private schools, even government schools in states like Gujarat, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and southern states are making use of audio visual lessons.
Chatterjee further explains: “Several government initiatives encouraging the use of AV & ICT technology in schools and colleges have significantly benefitted the industry and should continue to drive growth in the future. The Union Budget has addressed some of the needs in the education space and has set the pace for new reforms have been introduced. Considering that the rural population constitutes 70% of India’s population, focusing on the employment of the rural youth would be critical. Keeping this objective in mind and to give a boost to employment of students in the rural areas, the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana was launched in September 2014 and Rs 1,500 crore has been allocated to the scheme. There are investments from the State Govt. level as well. PPP and implementation of AV/ICT in Govt. Educational institutions under BOOT model is also a very effective to drive growth & technology penetration in both urban & rural India.”
“Some of the key highlights of Govt. initiatives that may boost India’s AV market in Education vertical are: AIIMS in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam – IIT in Karnataka – Indian Institute of Mines in Dhanbad to be upgraded to IIT – PG institute of Horticulture in Amritsar – Kerala to have University of Disability Studies – Centre of film production, animation and gaming to come up in Arunachal Pradesh”, says Chatterjee.
The ambitious National e-library project, which aims to create a e-library besides designing an audio-visual interactive platform for students and academic fraternity in the country, is set to become operational by next academic year. The project aims to provide academic content through the Internet and is part of Narendra Modi government’s initiative to promote education. Several nations like Norway, the UK, Israel have shown keenness to participate in the project with international partnership also likely to worked out with Unesco. In his Teachers’ Day interaction with students Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his desire that students and teachers should utilise technology. It is learnt that the project has a strong backing of HRD minister Smriti Irani who is keen for the roll-out of the ambitious national e-library project in the academic year 2015.
According to a report ‘Education in India: Securing the demographic dividend,’ published by Grant Thorton, the primary and secondary education, or K-12 sector is expected to reach $ 50 billion in 2015 growing at an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 per cent.
With the gloomy outlook of the US and UK market, many are now turning to Asia to expand their market share. India’s status in the global picture, especially Asia, can be understood from one thing. Malaysia has set an ambition of completely digitized education by 2020. In May 2012, its Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri Mohammad Najib Tun Razak, has said that Malaysia is extremely likely to adopt cheap tablet computers such as those developed in India. With the ‘Make in India’ mission, it is important that we focus on enhancing our capabilities as a manufacturers and users as one of the biggest and most lucrative market.
To sum it, in India, a “chasm” is opening up between schools that are using audio-visual technologies successfully and those that are still waiting for a national policy to be developed, but audio visual is the future of education.
Rajeev Singh, Managing Director, BenQ India, says that an interactive whiteboard and projector costs more than a traditional whiteboard. One needs a long pocket to purchase and install the equipment. But the interactive whiteboard and projector continues to catch fancy of the educational institutes, giving the classroom a highly interactive environment
What is the difference between an Interactive Whiteboard and an Interactive Projector?
The Interactive Whiteboards are touch-sensitive whiteboard on which a projector, with the help of a computer, projects onto the board’s surface where the users control the computer using a pen, finger, stylus, or other device. On the other hand, interactive projector makes any surface in your classroom interactive, projecting onto the existing projector screens or whiteboards or directly onto the wall. You can draw, point and click by touching the screen directly with an interactive pen. This flexibility allows teachers to carry the portable solutions between the classrooms wherever required.
BenQ short throw (0.6) interactive projector MX823ST / MX806PST, with our proprietary Point Write TM PW01 interactive module and Interactive Pens and PT02 Touch Module, is one of the most popular solutions. It ensures zero space constraints, zero shadow disruption and zero eye-blinding light, thus a disruption free learning. The BenQ PointWrite technology comes featuring multi-pens collaboration allowing up to 4 students to contribute at once. With 1-second auto calibration and fast writing response time, BenQ PointWrite is effortless to set up and ensures an ultra-smooth, interruption-free writing experience. With BenQ’s interactive touch solution PT02, the teachers can now have a much more collaborated learning experience.
What is the market size of Interactive Whiteboard and Interactive Projector?
According to a latest report on Education market by Mint in Jan 2015, the education market in India, which is presently worth around Rs 5.9 trillion ($92.98 billion), is poised for some major growth by 2020. Out of around 1.4 million schools in India, the addressable market for Smart class is about 200,000 private unaided schools. These private unaided schools will convert to approx 2 million classrooms. Meanwhile, out of addressable 200,000 schools, 33% are English medium and account for 58% of classrooms. The same translates to around 1.2 million classrooms with a total market size of $ 7 billion. Only 20% of private unaided English medium schools and 10% of classrooms currently have Smart class which provides significant headroom for growth both in terms of school and classroom penetration. Smart class products for vernacular medium schools will further add to addressable market.
Hence the market scope and landscape for interactive learning is huge in India. The Government of India has also allocated Rs 500 crores (USD 81.38 million) for digitization of the classroom in the Union Budget which surely ups the expected growth trajectory exponentially. Moreover, several steps have been introduced in Budget 2015 including opening of the government institutes like IITs, IIMs. Furthermore, with the online modes of education being used by several educational organizations, higher education sector in India is set for some major changes and developments in the years to come.
BenQ, the market leader with more than 19% market share (Future Source Consulting Report, 2014) in the projector market and more than 50 % market share in Education, is committed towards further strengthening this growth trend. BenQ offers products with diverse range of technological benefits to match the need of our consumers who want to implement projectors for Education starting with entry level VGA to the higher end Short Throw and Ultra Short throw projectors. BenQ projections solutions also offer advanced interactive learning tools that enhance the learning experience, and are not only simple for teachers to use, but also future-proof, making them easier for schools to maintain.
BenQ, the market leader with more than 19% market share (Future Source Consulting Report, 2014) in the projector market and more than 50 % market share in Education, is committed towards further strengthening this growth trend. BenQ offers products with diverse range of technological benefits to match the need of our consumers who want to implement projectors for Education starting with entry level VGA to the higher end Short Throw and Ultra Short throw projectors
How much is the acceptability of interactive whiteboard and interactive projectors at K-12 and higher education level?
Digital Interactive teaching system has become a norm for today’s classroom. In every school, as per its requirements and affordability, the ICT has deployed tools in classrooms, LABs and other creative facilities.
The domestic market has moved beyond the nascent stage, witnessing a steady growth in demand. In comparison to a traditional white/blackboard, the interactive whiteboard and projectors are priced much higher and they require a significant expenditure to purchase and install, but the education institutes are still adopting these technologies, since it gives the classroom a highly interactive environment, which can be optimally utilized for a more retentive learning.
What is the interest of the institutions? Do they prefer interactive whiteboard or interactive projectors? Why?
Interactive Projectors evolved later than Interactive whiteboards with an ability to perform all the functions of Projector + Interactive white board. With current generation technologies, an Interactive Projector is giving tough competition to Interactive Whiteboards, now that the performance of both kinds of technology is matching. Along with that, an interactive projector helps the teachers bring together different kinds/formats of content from the various sources and makes it interesting for the students.
What are the new technological trends in education sector?
The key growth driver in the ongoing education revolution is definitely the emergence of world class education system integrators working towards making the technology adoption and up gradation easier and affordable for the schools as well as the students. BenQ works in collaboration with various Education System Integrators like Next Education, Extramarks Pearson, Educomp, Brio Interactive Technologies etc working with various schools and institutes. Also, the innovative way of charging affordable rates to the schools by these educational SIs have revolutionised smart classroom interactive education in India.
In technology segment, ultra short throw projection is gaining popularity especially in smaller classroom set-up with a minimal projection distance so that audience can move freely without worrying about obstructions between the projector and the screen.
Another major trend is interactivity in learning. BenQ brings interactive innovation and touch solutions to a new level of simplicity, ease and control, supporting flipped learning and engaging students like never before. The teachers can now turn any space into an interactive whiteboard and get up to 4 students to collaborate simultaneously with PointWrite pens or simply with fingers.
Real time collaboration with smart devices is also steadily gaining popularity among the schools for interaction and information sharing with audiences during lectures. The Interactive flat panel is seen to be the future of classrooms in India with enriched interactive environment allowing the audience to receive not just one-way delivery but also proactive, true-to-life experience.
In which cities do you see the penetration of the two products?
The metros and the emerging Tier II cities
What is the cost of deployment of Interactive Whiteboard and Interactive Projectors?
An interactive whiteboard starts with Rs 25,000 onwards with a short throw projector starting with Rs 30,000 onwards making the entire solution cost upwards of Rs 55000 keeping the installation and maintenance cost.
The more popular solution preferred these days by the education institutes are short throw projectors of high brightness and interactive capability and good lamp life, costing Rs 50,000 onwards.
