Global degrees for Asian students, a click away

News

By

-

December 11, 2014

A new web service launched recently is aiming to make international higher education more accessible and affordable for Asian students looking to earn their university degrees in the West.

StudyInternational.com combines an extensive international education search tool, in-depth education content, and practical help and advice to assist students in their search for education opportunities.

With many Asian nations still lagging well behind their Western counterparts in the quality of higher education that they provide, many students are looking to universities in the UK, US and Australia to gain quality undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

While the more affluent Asian nations – Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore – can hold their own in the global university rankings, their less well-off neighbors struggle to keep up. Universities in countries such as Thailand, India, Cambodia and Vietnam simply do not feature in respected league tables such as THE’S Top 100, and look to have little hope of doing so in the near future.

In light of this, more students are looking abroad for top quality degrees. In 2012 UNESCO estimated that the international student population was approximately 3.5 million in 2010. Conservative estimates put this number at around 5 million today, with most international students coming from Asian countries and most studying in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.

James Craven, managing director at Study International, says that this could potentially be the tip of the iceberg in an age of international student migration. “The potential for growth is huge,” he said. “An international education is seen as something for the privileged in many developing countries, but it doesn’t need to be that way. With good planning and the right information on scholarships and grants prospective students can discover a world of options.

“That is not to say there aren’t hurdles. Access to information and access to education are two different things. The Internet is helping students to find information about the best opportunities, but in emerging markets like Asia there are still major obstacles such as complicated visa processes and messy immigration policies. At Study International we have an expert team of advisers to help with the application process and assist students in navigating these difficult waters.”

The launch of the StudyInternational.com website earlier wasn’t the beginning of the UK-based company’s journey; it has been quietly helping international students finding the right higher education paths for the last three years. It has already assisted dozens of students from all over the world to secure places in universities such as Bristol University, Cardiff University and University of Technology, Sydney.

Microsoft releases list of education innovators

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 11, 2014

Microsoft Asia-Pacific recently announced its 2014-2015 class of education innovators featuring 23 Microsoft Showcase Schools and 173 Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE) Experts from 10 countries across the region.

Hailing from countries including Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, the APAC group make up close to a fifth of the 830 teachers and 150 schools being recognized as the best of education innovators from across the world.
The showcase schools were recognized during a ceremony held in line with the Education Policy Exchange, an event organized by Microsoft with partners Intel and the British Council at the Stamford American International School and attended by education government officials, senior education leaders as well as development partners.
Almost 22 percent of MIE Experts from around the world are from APAC while around 15 percent of Showcase Schools globally also come from the region.

“These APAC Microsoft Showcase Schools and Innovative Educator Experts are leading the way in transforming learning environments and delivering more personalized education to students,” said Beth Watson, Education Director, Public Sector, Microsoft Asia-Pacific. “We hope to continue celebrating innovation and the rethinking of teaching, learning and assessment, so that young people in the APAC region will be empowered to do more and achieve more.”
Microsoft Showcase Schools are selected for demonstrating strong vision for educational change through the effective deployment of Microsoft technology school-wide and applying this vision to the transformation of their local schools.
Brunei’s Chung Hwa Middle School (BSB) was one such example, selected for its excellence in transforming its school’s learning environment to deliver more personalized education to students, using mobile and cloud technology to better prepare students for success in the workplace.

As an active Office 365 for Education institution user, BSB utilizes deep features of the software to enable anytime, anywhere learning that helps their students communicate and think out-of-the-box. BSB was also the first school in Asia to integrate the use of Skype in the Classroom, using it together with other tools including Office 365, OneDrive, OneNote, Office Mix and Yammer to inspire educators to produce effective yet creative and thought-provoking lessons.

“Our school has always embraced technology at its best and Microsoft tools have inspired us to be experiential in our classroom environment, transforming our teaching and learning to the highest level of excellence,” Madam Kho Guik Lan, Principal of Chung Hwa BSB, said.
Thailand’s Bangkok Christian College (BCC) is another example, selected for its innovation in integrating Kodu – a visual programming language made specifically for creating games, as well as Project Spark – a “game maker” video game for Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Xbox One into its curriculum.
“At Bangkok Christian College, we choose only the best education technology for our students to spark off their ideas creation process and enable them to learn to their fullest potential. We integrated Kodu and Project Spark into our curriculum, using these technology tools to conduct lessons as a special technology subject for our students,” Watcharapong Apinyanurangsri, Acting Manager, Bangkok Christian College, said.

British Council will teach teachers

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 11, 2014

The British Council in India has recently initiated a line of activities which is a part of their work in education. The council launched books and held seminars on the professional development of English in schools and addressed the standards of quality in education. The council has decided to focus on offering something different to the teachers.

The council has also decided to initiate a programme named, ‘The Agents of Change: Teacher Accreditation Conference’ which would address the role of research in school education. Apart from this, there would be a round-table conference on ‘Creating Schools for Future citizens’ which would be followed by an award ceremony.

The award ceremony would see almost 850 people from about 300 schools from across the nation. Those schools who would win will be accredited with the International School Award (ISA), an accreditation scheme that recognizes and celebrates conduct of international standards in particular schools in fields of academic studies and overall extra-curricular activities. The award helps to provide a framework for other schools to make up their own action plans to implement their schools into international standards and encourages schools to collaborate with the overseas schools that would help students to get opulent learning experiences through exchange of ideas and creative pedagogical practices.

The British Council has worked with many private and public schools across India to promote quality education through various projects, events, courses, workshops through various digital platforms and resources. The aim of the council is to bring the best out of UK expertise and innovation in Indian schools and its education system. It is also responsible for taking the mutual beneficial relationship between the school systems in India and UK for the future possibilities.

Intel inside digital India

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 11, 2014

India is sitting at the cusp of a massive digital revolution, says Timothy Q Parker, vice-president—Sales and Marketing Group, Intel Asia Pacific & Japan region.

“The world is watching India with great interest,” reveals the senior official at the American microprocessor giant, visibly excited by India’s grand efforts to build massive digital infrastructure that would ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically. His reference is to the Digital India initiative—first announced in July and approved by the Cabinet in August this year—which has been widely debated in government and industry circles to identify the challenges and opportunities in the connect-India programme, as well as prepare a roadmap that will lead towards a truly digital India.

Imagine a gigantic national optic fibre network being laid out to cover the country’s 50,000 gram panchayats this year, 100,000 next year and the remaining 100,000 the following year—entire India will be covered by broadband within three years and the internet will reach the remotest villages. This in essence is what Digital India—the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious e-governance initiative—is all about.

Without doubt, this is a great opportunity for the industry to come in and do its bit in contributing to the nation building agenda. As a first-mover, Intel has come forward to support the government’s Digital India vision. Last week, Intel India launched its ‘Digital Skills for India’ programme in the capital. It will work with the government to impact 5 million citizens by the end of 2015 with skills to compete in the global digital economy. As part of the initiative, Intel India unveiled the Digital Skills training application comprising of modules on digital literacy, financial inclusion and cleanliness in 5 Indian languages. This application is available freely on the Android Play store, and a similar offline training module will also be available in 7 Indian languages.

According to RS Sharma, secretary, department of electronics & IT, the Digital India programme is an umbrella initiative with the vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society. “For this digital transformation to be completed, it is imperative that the government and corporates work together in creating a sustainable model for digital education. It is great to see tech leaders like Intel come forward and support the cause with innovative computing solutions that will help Indians harness the benefits of a digital India,” he says.

Intel will also work with Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) to build capacity by imparting digital literacy training to key resource persons in the first 1,000 panchayats under the national optic fibre network roll-out in India. “Enabling broadband highways is an imperative of the Digital India vision and the national optic fibre network roll-out aims to deliver true broadband to panchayats. Intel’s initiative to provide digital literacy training will go a long way in digitally empowering citizens at the grassroots so that they can fully utilise the benefits of these broadband highways,” says Aruna Sundararajan, chairman-cum-managing director, BBNL.

In addition, Intel announced the ‘Innovate for India Challenge’, which will be launched next year. This is an initiative to drive technology innovation across platforms to create solutions that are relevant for India which will be imperative if we want pervasive technology adoption in the country. “The industry has been asked to participate to realise the Digital India vision and it is now upto us to work jointly with the government to do the right thing for our country,” says Debjani Ghosh, vice-president, sales & marketing group, managing director, Intel South Asia.

Intel has been committed to making Indian citizens digitally empowered for several years now. For over two decades, Intel has been investing in improving the quality of education in India through the effective use of technology. Intel believes that technology has the ability to transform lives and has digitally empowered Indian citizens through several initiatives like Intel Teach Programme that has trained 18 lakh teachers in India, or the Intel Learn Programme which has reached 2.35 lakh students and 4,500 faculty members. Intel India had launched the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) in 2012 and under this programme has reached 38 lakh citizens through the Intel Learn Easy Steps digital literacy training. NDLM is now being scaled by the government and digital literacy is being called out as the cornerstone of success in the Digital India vision.

Even though India is known as a powerhouse of software, the availability of electronic government services is still comparatively low. Hopefully, the ongoing build up of national digital infrastructure should help government agencies to connect directly with people to deliver efficient governance.

ELS eyes Indian market

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 11, 2014

US-based education services provider ELS International Education Pathways is planning to expand its presence in India by opening two new centres in north India, where it would counsel the students aiming at admissions in foreign universities.
The ELS is also keen on providing on-campus English language training for international students getting admissions in the well-regarded Indian varsities.
As part of these plans, ELS, which had entered into an agreement with SRM University in Tamil Nadu a year ago, is currently training around 1,000 foreign students for English in the latter’s campus. It is also exploring similar opportunities with other varsities in the country.
“We have quite a lot of MoUs with universities and high schools in India that we are looking to operationalise in the future,” said Mark W Harris, president & CEO of ELS International Education Pathways Pvt Ltd.
Harris said the expansion would help address demand from the metros in the north. Currently, it has four offices in India at Chennai, Coimbatore Bengaluru and the Hyderabad centre, which it opened. It also unveiled its ‘University Guide 2015’ to assist students in career decisions and guidance here.
The company is also exploring partnerships with Indian universities and high schools to design content and more relevant programmes for students.

India is regional guru

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 11, 2014

India has become an educational hub for students from the SAARC countries, including Afghanistan and Nepal.

The South Asian University in New Delhi is providing scholarship programmes in various disciplines to the South Asian countries. The varsity offers post-graduate and doctoral programmes in various disciplines that include economics, computer science, biotechnology, mathematics, sociology, international relations and law.

Out of 437 students from the SAARC countries, 30 of them belong to Afghanistan and 27 students from Nepal. The South Asian University was founded in 2010 with an aim to promote peace, security and harmony in the SAARC region.
South Asian University president Kavita A Sharma, who was earlier associated with the Delhi University, recalled that there were special provisions for students from Bhutan and Nepal there. “And the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly said that greatest aid perhaps we can give to Afghanistan is to educate and so there were large number of students who came to Delhi University also. And I think it would benefit everybody if education spreads in this region in a large way,” she said.
The students from Afghanistan look towards India for better prospects. Omar Sadar, who is pursuing his PhD in International Relations from the South Asian University, said Afghanistan needs to invest in the education sector.
“And as I mentioned before Afghanistan does not have that much of capacity domestically to invest on. India is offering one thousand scholarships per year through different channels for Afghanistan. Besides that, many people come from Afghanistan with their own financial support to study in India,” he added.
The Afghan students pray for early return of peace and normalcy in their country so that education and infrastructure can be built. “Peace is the main concern in Afghanistan. Every single person in Afghanistan they want peace and security in Afghanistan that’s the pivotal matter and once you have that you can overcome other challenges,” said Mahdi Frough, a second-year student of MA (Economic Development Studies) in South Asian University.
“Poverty is another problem. Human development, education sector, health sector and infrastructure is lacking,” he added. India provides 1,000 scholarships to students from Afghanistan every year. “I believe India has its role in building capacity in Afghanistan through educating the young generation by providing so many scholarships annually and through opening its gates and their hubs for the Afghan students,” said Jamal Ahmad Mahmood, a student of Masters in Bio Technology.
India not only provides education to Afghan students but also supports in building up schools, besides assisting in the development of medical education in Afghanistan. The South Asian University offers silver jubilee scholarship to Nepalese students.
“India has done so many things to build bilateral relationships to support the Nepalese people and Nepal as a state. For instance, India has been providing silver jubilee scholarship to Nepalese students through its embassy and that is one of the best practices and best efforts that India has been providing for the Nepalese youngsters and Nepalese graduates as well to enhance their academic qualities and to bring them in the national market,” said Krishna Pandey, a student pursuing PhD in Sociology.
India plays a major role in educating Nepalese students by providing scholarships to them. “The main challenges are political instability. There are a lot of loop holes in the education policies otherwise. The other major challenge is that the youth are moving out for higher education. There are other students who have left Nepal for further studies. The main issue is that the youth is moving out of the country,” said Vegsha Gautam, a first-semester student of Masters in Development Economics.

India plays guru for SAARC

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 11, 2014

India has become an educational hub for students from the SAARC countries, including Afghanistan and Nepal.

The South Asian University in New Delhi is providing scholarship programmes in various disciplines to the South Asian countries. The varsity offers post-graduate and doctoral programmes in various disciplines that include economics, computer science, biotechnology, mathematics, sociology, international relations and law.

Out of 437 students from the SAARC countries, 30 of them belong to Afghanistan and 27 students from Nepal. The South Asian University was founded in 2010 with an aim to promote peace, security and harmony in the SAARC region.
South Asian University president Kavita A Sharma, who was earlier associated with the Delhi University, recalled that there were special provisions for students from Bhutan and Nepal there. “And the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has rightly said that greatest aid perhaps we can give to Afghanistan is to educate and so there were large number of students who came to Delhi University also. And I think it would benefit everybody if education spreads in this region in a large way,” she said.
The students from Afghanistan look towards India for better prospects. Omar Sadar, who is pursuing his PhD in International Relations from the South Asian University, said Afghanistan needs to invest in the education sector.
“And as I mentioned before Afghanistan does not have that much of capacity domestically to invest on. India is offering one thousand scholarships per year through different channels for Afghanistan. Besides that, many people come from Afghanistan with their own financial support to study in India,” he added.
The Afghan students pray for early return of peace and normalcy in their country so that education and infrastructure can be built. “Peace is the main concern in Afghanistan. Every single person in Afghanistan they want peace and security in Afghanistan that’s the pivotal matter and once you have that you can overcome other challenges,” said Mahdi Frough, a second-year student of MA (Economic Development Studies) in South Asian University.
“Poverty is another problem. Human development, education sector, health sector and infrastructure is lacking,” he added. India provides 1,000 scholarships to students from Afghanistan every year. “I believe India has its role in building capacity in Afghanistan through educating the young generation by providing so many scholarships annually and through opening its gates and their hubs for the Afghan students,” said Jamal Ahmad Mahmood, a student of Masters in Bio Technology.
India not only provides education to Afghan students but also supports in building up schools, besides assisting in the development of medical education in Afghanistan. The South Asian University offers silver jubilee scholarship to Nepalese students.
“India has done so many things to build bilateral relationships to support the Nepalese people and Nepal as a state. For instance, India has been providing silver jubilee scholarship to Nepalese students through its embassy and that is one of the best practices and best efforts that India has been providing for the Nepalese youngsters and Nepalese graduates as well to enhance their academic qualities and to bring them in the national market,” said Krishna Pandey, a student pursuing PhD in Sociology.
India plays a major role in educating Nepalese students by providing scholarships to them. “The main challenges are political instability. There are a lot of loop holes in the education policies otherwise. The other major challenge is that the youth are moving out for higher education. There are other students who have left Nepal for further studies. The main issue is that the youth is moving out of the country,” said Vegsha Gautam, a first-semester student of Masters in Development Economics.

Technology and Human Interaction in Adult Learning

Guest Speak

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 4, 2014

In this technological era, we are witnessing a huge surge in innovations in almost every sphere. I am amazed by the fact that every now and then, there is an entry of a new device or a new app in the market.With the advent of newer technologies, the face of education is also changing. Internet now is flooded with online courses and learning modules. Even the topmost universities/ colleges of the world are not shying away from offering a wide array of courses on the internet. This has opened a new gateway of learning for the learners. For the universities, this offers increase in outreach. But one question always puzzles me – what is a good point of interaction of technology and human beings for an effective learning?

Let me start with an incident to make my question clear. I have observed that many of us are conditioned to start taking notes as soon as an instructor starts writing on a board or a PPT is shown. Simply to say, we start copying what is presented to us. This happened in one of my trainings (post lunch session) with teacher’s educator on the basic principles of instructional design. I drew a plus (+) on the whiteboard, which divided the board into four equal parts. The participants, who were experienced, mid-aged (average age was 43), and conditioned for a particular kind of training, also drew a plus sign in their notebooks. After a pause and looking into everyone’s eyes, I erased that plus sign, turned back and said “now you erase!” They were surprised and in the state of disbelief. One of them even asked “are you serious? Do we need to waste a page? You cannot do this” and I asked “why I cannot?”

In another incident, the participants were post-graduates, and were not so good in the usage of English. Except some 10% of them, they were also lacking basic computer knowledge (and even were not aware of internet surfing). Many were using computers for the first time in their lives.On top of it, this session was a new one and I was also experimenting it. I asked them to surf internet and come up with an understanding (in the form of a PPT) of a particular instructional design method. In each group, there was a person who at least knew how to open a search page. What surprised me was that there was a pin-drop silence in the session.Participants were working in their groups, reading andunderstanding the concept. Even when they presented their understanding of the method with their own examples, it looked fabulous to me as a facilitator. This session engaged them for more than 3.5 hours (which I was unsure of!).

These two incidents always make me wonder about the criticality of roles played by both technology and human beings.In the first incident, understanding the mood, emotions and psyche of the participants was very important and this is where technology fails. In the other case, I find technology useful,as a medium of exploring new knowledge and newer boundaries. The human capacity is limited here. Yet in this case, we cannot ignore the role of a guide, and the advantages of working together in a group.

When I look back and reflect further, the whole thing revolves around one question – what makes people passionate about learning?I have been through several workshops and trainings, and my observation about what makes people passionate about learning in these environments, is really simple – “great experiences”, a term which I borrow from Jesse James Garrett, a user experience designer. Great experiences come from learner’s interactions with various components in a workshop or training – like co-learners, facilitator, technology, environment etc. And we need to find mechanisms to create such great experiences! On top of it, one is required to set clear-cut learning outcomes, which havebearing on designingsuch activities that provide opportunities of developing an intimate technology and human interaction.

This reminds me of Steve Jobs, what he once said beautifully. “There’s no other company that could make a MacBook Air and the reason is that not only do we control the hardware, but we control the operating system. And it is the intimate interaction between the operating system and the hardware that allows us to do that”.

P.S.

In a recent meeting the other day, one of my colleagues was taking notes on his tablet. Suddenly he found some mistake in what he was scribbling and deleted it. It reminded of the first incident – what would have happened if the participants had tablets instead of their paper notebooks? Seriously, no pun intended!

*About the author
Gaurav works in the social development domain, and has an avid interest in social innovations especially educational innovations. The views expressed here are personal.

Test Quality of Mid Day Meals: Centre to States

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 4, 2014

The central government has requested all the states and Union Territories for testing of the meals provided to school children under Mid Day Meal Scheme from accredited labs. The states and UTs Government may involve Food Inspectors to collect the food samples for testing on quality parameters.

The Governments of NCT Delhi and Punjab have engaged accredited labs for testing of samples in their State.

Mid Day Meal Scheme covers 10.80 crore children in 11.58 lakh schools during 2013-14. The Scheme provides for a mechanism to deal with complaints and grievances of the stakeholders. The Ministry of HRD has been issuing instructions from time to time for effective implementation of the Scheme.

Under Mid Day Meal Scheme, only hot cooked meals are served to the children as per the direction of the Supreme Court of India.

Centre Moots Reforms in Teachers’ Training Curriculum

News

By

digitalLEARNING Network

-

December 4, 2014

The National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), which is responsible for monitoring standards in teacher education, has recently revised the B.Ed. D.El.Ed. and M.Ed. course and curriculum. In addition, the Government of India through the NCTE and University Grants Commission, is interacting regularly with universities to improve the quality of teacher training programmes. Through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan programmes, elementary and secondary school teachers are provided regular in-service refresher trainings, on an annual basis.

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha question.

LATEST NEWS

Top Trending News

Top Trending Categories