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Benefits of Online Learning From Editor -The New Education Starts Now Action Plan for setting up An intranet in your School
Changing Education 
by Ashok Trivedi		 That's Edutainment
 by Ken Freed		 Web Resources for Children
Mr. Vivek Sharma

From the Editor
THE NEW EDUCATION STARTS NOW

The New Education
Can Digital tools and the Internet bring about a sea change in India’s 480 million illiterates? It is a well known fact that ignorance and poverty feed on each other. There are no simple answers. Primary education in India has been pretty abysmal. Out of a total of 77.5% of children in Primary schools, only 59% reach up-to grade 5. The reasons: Poverty and Discriminations.

In India, implementation of technology, especially of computers in Education has been a nonstarter. What comes first ? Infrastructure in schools or technology implementation? Remember, technology is not important, quality of education is important. In a recent government funded initiative in New Delhi, computers were given to select government schools. All those computers never left the packaging or they simply rotted away. Lack of basic facilities such as a roof or electricity were the reasons. And last but not the least was the abundance of lackluster untrained teachers who did not have the vaguest idea of what to do with all that gadgetry.

How will computers improve the lot of the children in all these government schools? I have started with the example of government schools because there is a perception that only government can deal with education. Well that is a different topic altogether.

According to Mr. Arun Kapur, Principal of The Vasant Valley School, noted for his voluntary activities in Government aided primary school system, any technology introduction initiative without first ensuring proper infrastructure will be sheer wastage. He is starting a ‘ School Bharo’ ( Fill up government aided schools) movement. Remember, Government aided schools in Delhi have been found to have an attendance rate of just 48%. It would seem that children don’t like going to such schools? Why? Something is wrong somewhere? Mr. Kapur is trying to motivate people to volunteer and visit government schools in their neighborhood and monitor the performance of teachers and the general atmosphere of schools. According to Mr. Kapur, we should concentrate on revamping the

existing system and way of affairs. Utilize the existing facilities to their efficient ends. Don’t just use primary schools as voting booths, that is the message. Of course we need people’s active participation in the effort. Once we achieve such levels of efficiency then technology comes in.

We need to focus on appropriate technology for that the open source platform is most appropriate. Remember, India is a developing nation. Quality of life solutions must be affordable here. We can utilize legacy machine sourced free from the developed world which can run the basic functions- browsers, word processors etc.. Then wire them up to inexpensive web servers based on Linux operating systems. You can easily run productive school intranets on these systems.

Recent initiatives by Intel in India – Cyberskools, Cyberbus, training teachers are very welcome. Intel has also tied up with the ministry of education in the Project Vidya where computers will be installed in select schools throughout India and the results will be closely monitored.

In the developed world, industries and communities have always come forward to bring about changes in the quality of life. There are numerous cases of such collective efforts in Education. We need that sorely in India. Only a handful of companies- TATA, Eicher, Wipro, Infosys and a few others have come forward in India. We need a lot more.

DIGITAL LEARNING is a focused initiative to bring about constructive changes in the field of education. In the coming months we will come up with useful articles- case studies of successful educational initiative from around the world. I hope that DIGITAL LEARNING, with your active support will become a forum for change.

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Ken Freed

That's Edutainment
By Ken Freed

Opening before our eyes is a new vision of educational content on the TV and PC screen.

In our imaginations, no longer do we lean back on our sofa to absorb learning like a mindless sponge, helplessly hoping for mindfulness. Instead, we see ourselves actively engaging in the learning process. We see ourselves interacting with lessons, learning with each of our five senses and beyond. The media is our portal to worlds we enter in wonder.

We can imagine new media showing us whatever we want to learn, whenever we want to learn it. We can picture tossing aside the remote and actually talking to the TV, saying, "Show me the documentary that won all the major awards last year, you know, the one about global warming, the loss of rain forests and sea plankton." The machine understands our speech, references indexes, and moments later the content we want springs to life on a wide-screen, flat-panel display in breathtaking digital color.

In our imaginations, we enjoy and value all the benefits of education on-demand. We wish the future was here already because deep down inside, we all are lifelong learners. We just want learning to be easy, personalized. This vision is inviting, yet we must live and work in present time. And today, the reality stays apart from the dream. What blocks fulfillment? Not the technology alone. Apart from voice recognition, still perhaps a decade away from the intelligence described above, all the key technologies needed for interactive educational media are now available or coming on the market.The global infrastructure of interactive digital media is being constructed now. Many years of visionary thinking finally is starting to pay off. Today’s long-awaited arrival of interactive TV can help make the case:

· Cable operators are rebuilding their old systems for two-way digital services of hybrid fiber-coax networks. Cable set-top boxes have high-speed modems for broadband Internet and interactive TV (iTV).

· Satellite broadcasters are deploying new set-top IRDs with phoneline return paths. Next will be Ka band transceivers for broadband interactivie TV (given lagtimes).

· Wireless operators are building cell clusters in major cities for two-way data and telephony services. When enough plant is built "wireless cable" iTV services are next.

· Terrestrial antenna broadcasters are talking about using set-tops to complement the rollout of HDTV services, that means at least a phone line return path for iTV.

Telecom providers are delivering high-speed data over phonelines with DSL modems, and ADSL systems already carries video at VHF quality. What’s next?

The PC and TV are converging. On the TV screen itself, electronic program guides are tested and ready to help us find and select any kind of content a system operator cares to provide, from junk to quality. Attached to a bundle of fibers, the next generation of digital file servers stands able and ready to handle the traffic volumes for services like video-on-demand. When educational programs aren’t free, backend conditional access systems have proven their capacity for managing dynamic pay-per-use billing. A penny for your thoughts.

The technologies critical for interactive educational media are ready and waiting. What’s missing is not the means but the willingness to use those means. Education does not appear likely to be a tremendous moneymaker at first, based on our past experiences. That’s why the network operators are consecrating digital interactivity to delivering entertainment. Yet the masses do want knowledge served with their pabulum. Light "edutainment," sadly, may be the best a network will carry.

The TV programmers keep us interested, yes, but why stop there? Be glad the TV teacher is funny, but why play to the lowest common denominator? When WB’s Histeria lets their satire get sublime, a thing too rare, a bulb lights above our heads, our eyes sparkle. We learn something useful to our lives.

Recall the 1961 speech by Newton Minnow about television becoming a "vast wasteland," a cultural desert where public service is neglected for profits and popularity by an industry held in thrall to the "Dictatorship of Numbers." Will interactive media suffer the same sorry fate? If we build the education market in each generation, the demand for quality educational content will yield a thriving industry. We now live in a frightened world struggling to cope with the "future shock" caused by so much innovation happening so fast. Interactive media may be the most powerful tool for our enlightenment since Prometheus stole fire from the Gods, so we owe it to ourselves and to our children to consider the social effects of what we do now.

Will our decisions be guided by visions of hope? Will interactive media fulfill its highest and best potential? Will we stay true to our souls? Our choices today make a difference tomorrow.

 

About Ken Freed 
Ken Freed, Publisher, Media Visions Webzine.

www.media-visions.com
Journalist & Educator, Author & Speaker.

Ken Freed in Denver, Colorado, is an international writer and speaker specializing in new media trends and issues. He studies the cultural power of interactivity itself. Publishing about 1000 articles and essays since he became a journalist in 1976. He’s been writing about new media since 1992 for lead trade and consumer magazines in the USA and overseas. He’s specialized in interactive TV for seven years. He launched Media Visions in 1997 as a journal discussing what he rarely can talk about in the trades — media’s social effects.

Ken is the author of Opportunities in Educational Television (1998, Financial Times Media & Telecoms, UK), stating the business case for developing world educational media markets by developing more educated minds in the world. He advocates deep media literacy, an appreciation of our universal interactivity, which he calls global sense.

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Ashok Trivedi

Ashok Trivedi
Changing Education
"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." Carl Sagan

Learning is a truly complicated matter. If you want to produce a pool of well-educated leaders, you must first create an environment that makes them want to explore and the infrastructure that supports these desires. Great teachers, cutting-edge technology, and rich content¾even with all of these critical elements in place, it takes a community effort to effect the learning process. I should know ¾ my company iGate Capital (formerly Mastech) manages learning as it relates to the most important resource in this knowledge economy ¾ human capital.There is more than mere symbolism when we celebrate International Literacy Day on September 8. For me, this day is about government, community, and business leaders renewing their contract to create solutions for improving education. Eventually, the nature of government and nation-states will change, as governments cease to act as businesses, and instead, concentrate on "core competencies" such as defense and law. A country's people will handle its public welfare issues, such as health and education. We are already witnessing the widespread influence of non-governmental organizations in these areas.


In the first half of the 20th century, men like Carnegie and Rockefeller established extremely rich charitable foundations ¾ funded by money earned from steel, oil, and other old economy industries. Today, information economy tycoons such as Bill Gates and Ted Turner drive modern philanthropy. Besides giving out great amounts of money, they are proactively actively involved in all phases of how their money is being used. New economy donors tend to be very results-oriented, and see their donations more as investments than charity ¾ demanding accountability and responsibility.


Increasingly, Indian nationals who went abroad, worked hard, and made their wealth, are paying attention to improving things in their home country. Several have contributed handsomely to their alma mater and have built schools and hospitals in their hometowns and villages. One of the major related developments in recent times has been the establishment of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. Led by Mr. Rajat Gupta, managing director of McKinsey, one of the most respected consulting firms in the world, ISB is a world class facility. Using the latest technologies such as live video conferencing, web casting, and multimedia intranets, world class instructors and renowned visiting professors deliver a first-rate, relevant teaching curriculum. I foresee that there will be many more of such world class educational institutions in India in time to come.


Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen has repeatedly declared that quality education is one of the key parameters of development. But a country's educational program requires the collective effort of the citizens ¾ not just a few¾and it must be qualitative in nature. Today's dynamic Internet environment requires flexibility and cross-functional expertise to adapt and innovate education for a virtual environment. At iGate, we've recognized the opportunity to use the online medium to train people by investing in a company called Vcampus. Vcampus teaches a wide range of people through appropriately customized curriculum and methods, allowing them to tailor their content to their needs, and their training schedules to their private and career lives. This flexibility is a boon for a self-motivated learner. The virtual university concept enables high quality education to be delivered free of the constraints of schedules and geography ¾ empowering users to leverage the shared expertise of others worldwide.


New technologies give India a number of opportunities to leapfrog a significant portion of the learning curve, improve its current economic status, and become better integrated into the global village. Broadband and mobile e-commerce (or M-Commerce) doesn't require the huge investment needs ofroads, ports, and electricity grids that India has lagged in historically. But we can't reap the rewards of the broadband or wireless revolution without first developing a great information access and delivery backbone. India's greatest raw material is its people. A base of educated, English-speaking young people already exists, waiting to be developed and properly trained in the appropriate technologies. However, to move from a largely agrarian economy to a knowledge based economy, India needs a great educational curriculum where equal emphasis is paid to the humanities and arts as well as trade skills. Mere technology training is not enough. If we don't create a rich, holistic curriculum, leveraging state-of-the-art technologies, we risk creating glorified keyboard clerks.


So come on then…let's work together to change India's educational universe.

ABOUT ASHOK TRIVEDI :Co-Chairman of iGate Inc. U.S.A, a US$ 500 million company (formerly Mastech). He is one of india’s most successful businessmen in the USA, and has invested in cutting edge IT companies. He is also an active philanthropist and is keen to change education in India.

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ACTION PLAN FOR SETTING UP AN INTRANET IN YOUR SCHOOL

SETTING UP YOUR INTRANET

A 5 stage plan to implement an Intranet in your school.

1. Assessment of resources, infrastructure and PD requirements (pre deployment)
(for Principal & IT committee)

2. Establish Local Area Network (for key IT personnel)

  • Installation Appletalk/Ethernet cabling, boxes etc.
  • LAN related PD
  • Introduction to hardware (for all staff)
  • Trouble shooting and maintenance
  • Security
  • Filesharing
  • Printer sharing

3. Establish School Intranet (for key IT personnel)

  • Server setting up
  • Software for server and all machines
  • Establishing TCP connections
  • Set up internal email
  • Establish effective internet connection where needed
  • Constructing Intranet WEB site
  • home page
  • links
  • Intranet related PD
  • WEB File & Link Maintenanince
  • Downloading from the internet (WEB Whacker)
  • Uploading to the Intranet server
  • 4. Establish Effective schoolwide use of Intranet (for whole staff)
  • Familiarity with IE/Netscape
  • Home page construction (HTML)
  • Site and page design/planning
  • Text editor
  • Graphics Gif-conversion
  •  Digital Camera & scanning if required
  • Using Email

5. Extending functionality of the Intranet

  • Interactive student and staff use
  • Administrative use of Intranet (for executive staff)
  • Advanced Email options

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WEB RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN
Parents and Children Together Online www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/fl/ras.html A magazine for parents and children on the WWW.

Planetworks www.canuck.com/PlanetYouth based environment magazine giving youth an excellent opportunity to develop their communication and fine art skills.

Shadow nermal.santarosa.edu/~tmurphy/shadow.html Spectrum: The Family Internet Magazine www.autobaun.com/~kbshaw/Spectrum.html

Splash Kids Online Magazine www.splash.com

Sports Illustrated for Kids pathfinder.com/SIFK/ Check out SI magazine articles, try the SIFK Challenge, and send us kid art and questions.

Time For Kids pathfinder.com/TFK/index.htmlAn online children’s version of Time, the news magazine.

World Magazine www.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/mags/world/world1.htmlFascinating facts, interesting kids and cool games. Bring your curiosity.

Little Planet Times www.littleplanet.comInteractive online newspaper for kids, by kids that promotes reading, writing, and communication skills for K-5.

Kidz in the Newz www.azc.com/client/enn2/kidsnews.htm

Big Bus www.gulf.net/~ptlg/BIGBUS.html An e-zine for students with a world view.

CyberKids <http://www.cyberkids.com/>

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Benefits of Online Learning
The benefits of Online Training are best illustrated when you take the case of time starved working people who will always want to improve their skill sets .Or consider the case of far flung remote areas. Then there is always the benefit of bringing a lot of minds which the internet does like nothing other. And, one other thing. It keeps all parties : those who learn, those who want them to learn and those who impart the learning, all in an engaging touch with each other . Anyway, let us continue with the benefits of online learning.

Just in Time Training
With online training you have knowledge on-demand, with up-to-the-minute coursework covering hundreds of today’s hottest topics.

· Anytime, Anywhere

· Immediate Training Solutions to Solve Immediate Business Problems

Cost
Make the most of your budgets. From a poor high school to a major public school Put more into real training and less into travel time and expense.

· Significantly more cost effective than traditional training

Assessment
You can build a variety of assessment tools for Students and Training Administrators.

· Students can assess individual skill levels before taking a course

· You can determine the appropriate personalized training path

· Training Administrators can track pre and post assessment to determine the online learning’s effectiveness and return on investment

Retention / Frequency
With online learning you can offer the user the option of taking instructor-led classes and self-study courses as often as they need.

· Repeatable learning events result in dramatically higher retention

Administration and Reporting
An online learning system makes it easy to set up new users, monitor progress and create detailed usage reports.

· Easy to Implement, Deploy and Manage

· You can install off-the-shelf powerful tracking and reporting tools.

Depth / Breadth / Variety
Offers unlimited number of courses on a variety of topics.

· It depends now on how much of course content you can provide for in the system.

· Some promising areas are Science, History, Language skills, Information Technology, Business and Management Skills and Proprietary Training

· You can keep on updating the courses available.

Suits All Learning Styles
Using an online learning system, you are actually providing more than one way to learn and students can choose the style that suits them best. You can have:

· Instructor-led online classes

· Interactive self-study courses

· An extensive online reference library

Note 1

Online education and training has been most helpful to the cause of Higher Education Distance Learning. Only after that come the far off places which have no access to quality education.

Note 2

Types of Online Education and training
( a.k.a. 24*7*365 anywhere anytime education)

1. Colleges and Universities offering degree courses online.

2. Business Education collaborations.

3. High tech companies like vcampus.com and Lotus Learning Space.

4. Web-based educational institutions like classontheweb.com.

Note 3

There are 4 types of technologies primarily responsible for the growth of online learning.

1. The Personal Computer.

2. CD ROM

3. Networking

4. The Web

Note 4

Keep in mind that Online education and Training is no substitute for classroom or instructor-led training.

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