EDUNEWZ-EDUNEWZ

Rehabilitating Street Children through Education, leveraging ICT..

2010-01-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year – 2010. In the New Year, I am working with an NGO on examining the possibility of introducing ICT in the teaching-learning process. You may have noticed that in "3-Idiots", a Hindi movie released last week has a character called Millimetre. The boy who plays Millimetre is a rehabilitated street child in real life. In fact, he is rehabilitated by the same NGO that I am working with. His is a phenomenal success story, but there are millions more in India who have similar dreams but end up doing petty jobs, or as thieves or permanent beggars.

I have discovered from few interactions with the people involved in actually rehabilitating street children, that one of the important role models for the urban street child are the film actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachhan, Rani Mukherjee, Priyanka Chopra, Amir Khan, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachhan, Abhishek Bachhan, etc. This is because these children love watching film posters and hang around near movie theatres while begging.

Please suggest any proven strategies to design multimedia self-learning content to keep these children motivated throughout the self-learning process. We will be teaching the basic literacy skills from alphabets, words, sentence formation, numbers, counting, subject verb agreement, genders, addition, subtraction, word problems, etc.

Is overseas Education Important even when you cannot really afford it? Cash-strapped Indian students in UK scrounge for food.. I feel yes, it is important.

2009-12-01T05:06:00.000-08:00

Some of this I have endured..read on..
http://beta.thehindu.com/education/article57226.ece

Skilled Workforce creation requires Rs750000 crores (US$165billion)..

2009-11-28T22:29:00.000-08:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rs-750000-crore-needed-to-create-50-cr-skilled-workforce-Planning-Commission/articleshow/5281040.cms

Indicators assessing ICT impact in education, why do you wish to reinvent the wheel? This is so much of knowledge here..

2009-11-28T21:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/links/indicators-assessing-ict-impact-in-education/

CNN Heroes: A note to educators

2009-11-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/studentnews/02/08/heroes.educator.note/index.html

Idol English to help with your idle English Japanse way..Read more..

2009-11-27T01:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/idol-english-help-your-idle-english-093411

Learn the five Secrets of Innovation..Professors from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University have just completed a six-year study ..read on..

2009-11-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/26/innovation.tips/index.html

Designing Text Books, Neglected Areas in India

2009-11-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

Recall the government text books both at the state level and NCERT level? Recently, I was checking out the ITI (Industrial Training Institute) text books, they were so user unfriendly for the target learners. Find out more.. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/Design-to-learn-better-/articleshow/5259330.cms

Smartphone application allows users to carry out a virtual dissection of a human body.

2009-11-23T23:27:00.000-08:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/14/iphone.virtual.dissection/index.html

Bringing education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership.. read on

2009-11-22T04:13:00.000-08:00

Pushcart educator named CNN Hero of the Year

Only few students pursue higher education: Sibal. 12%-Shocking Statistics

2009-11-08T23:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.ptinews.com/news/362513_Only-few-students-pursue-higher-education--Sibal

INDIAN RETAIL INDUSTRY’S ENGLISH TRAINING RAT RACE

2009-11-08T07:06:00.000-08:00

Communicating with the retail staff at stores in India can sometimes be a very challenging affair. I have had many such experiences where I have had to make a lot of effort to understand what they are trying to convey or explain my requirement. Recently, a friend told me that the retail industry suffers from high attrition among store level staff and therefore training is a high pressure 24X7 operation.
When a steady supply of quality input (job applicants) is impossible, the HR department experiences enormous pressure. This compromises the hiring standards and the investment in training increases. This has been the saga in the software industry too and we see it in the retail industry now.

Very often when I have tried talking with the retail staff in English, they seem ill at ease. But whenever I have quickly switched to one of the regional languages or sometimes, Hindi, I have found better communication and result.

In India, all training programs for the retail store level staff are in English. In a maximum of 7 (or sometimes even less) days training, these employees are expected to acquire a level of language proficiency where they can interact with customers in English to sell products or services. This, I feel is a daunting task for most of these trainees who may lose the big picture and focus only on language.

Worldwide, for most customer interactions, the goal is simple and straight: to quickly establish rapport, quickly understand customer needs and complete the interaction successfully. While this remains the primary goal, the secondary goal is to use an appropriate language to make this happen. If you look at it this way, you may think, why should the retail staff in Cafe Coffee Day or Big Bazaar in Lucknow, Thane, New Mumbai, most parts of Mumbai, Patna, Jaipur, and Chandigarh be forced to converse in English? Especially when in such cities you are most likely to get at least 80% Hindi speaking customers who will feel at home with a Hindi speaking retail executive than someone struggling in English and making the conversation difficult, boring and worse, not establishing any rapport with the customers.

Somewhere in the euphoria to professionalize customer interaction, our HR and training heads consider that interactions must always be in English, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. This does not make business sense. First you train these people and burn cash as training expenses. Next you deploy them on the job to create poor rapport and boring interactions with the customers so that you lose customers, which amounts to burning cash again. After all this, you still lose most of the staff due to high attrition.

Does learning English language become more important and fashionable? Do we sometimes use incorrect tools like English language in this case, to achieve business goals? Retail Industry is just an example. Such problems exist in other industries as well. Training programs must also focus on the use of correct tools to achieve business goals. Using incorrect language in the process of interaction dampens the pursuit of achieving business goals and does not make business sense.

India at no 44 in IT competitiveness, Sad but true...

2009-09-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Unlike popular belief in India, we are no. 44 and not no. 1 in IT competitiveness. Any guess on where India would be in elearning, educational technology or ICT for education?
Click this link for more info:
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News/India-at-no-44-in-IT-competitiveness/articleshow/5023020.cms

Research on Web Conferencing, Critical Success Factors

2009-09-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

A very good research summary for anyone trying to use Web conferencing for Education.
http://blog.umt.edu/xlscommons/2009/07/20/web-conferencing-research/comment-page-1/#comment-382

Voice over artist male or female US accent 20 minutes max

2009-09-07T09:55:00.000-07:00

If you have a good voice and have the facility to record your voice in mp3, please get in touch. Please send a sample narration clip for evaluation.

Rapid Instructional Design with Thiagi. Ready to forget ISD?

2009-09-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Learn how Thiagi and his team undertake complete instructional design projects without the use of time-consuming, low value added traditional ISD models. Thiagi has created, tested and successfully...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYqm8ao1i2c

Why is podcasting so successful if 93 percent of communication is nonverbal?

2009-09-04T00:48:00.000-07:00

"Great insight into Podcast design..Not just that, this article also tells why some of our distance education programs like the VTU, IGNOU, Manipal Sikkim, Hughes Direct way have failed in generating interest amongst learners. There are several common design issues here....Most teachers are uncomfortable infront of a camera...and there are other areas for improvement" Vivek

"If you choose to listen to the podcast, you’ll notice that the piece is not merely a narrator telling a story: along with narration, there’s dramatization, eye-witness accounts, and incidental and background music. Other sound elements included in the series of podcasts include archive recordings, wild track, and a very cool sound collage to set the scene for the outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939."..Click the link to know more.. http://elearningcurve.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-is-podcasting-so-successful-if-93.html

Learning Technology - Learning on the go with an iPod Touch

2009-08-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

I know that few organizations in India have tried using iPod as mLearning. Read this.. another application:
http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/e_article001484388.cfm

A good option to try when bandwidth is a concern. I am actually suggesting this to a client with few changes.

Time to Exploit Multi Mice Technology

2009-08-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

At last, I have started designing multi-mice learning games for K-12. The challenge is to ensure collaboration, competition and project based approach to learning.

So far I have seen about 10 to 15 different games built around this technology in the last 3-4 years. I am not very fascinated by them. Mainly because I see the opportunity lost in these games to create very good learning experience besides creating some fun for the learners. Yes, in our games we will add the fun component to a certain extent.

I am at the high level design stage right now. And it is so exciting already! I feel that there is a lot at stake in making this successful. I don't mean from the business perspective. Multi mice technology truly reduces the total cost of ownership of ICT based learning almost by 75% per child. Imagine the savings on a national scale. Not just in India, this can be used very effectively in all developing and under developed countries.

I have a great team to complete the programming, graphics and usability part after my game and pedagogy design are finalized. I hope to see the first few games ready in about 3-4 weeks. If you have any suggestions, please post them here. Else, stay tuned...

Vivek Padubidri

Educational Technology in Indian Schools

2009-08-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

After visiting several schools, talking to teachers and closely watching how they are trying to use educational technology and content made available to them, I am disturbed. Teachers are not equipped with the time, skills, right technology and content.

Business wise, observe the noise made about investments in Education. VCs are desperately looking for funding opportunities, obviously to make quick bucks and exit.

Management of schools across India appear to think that deploying these technologies (in their current form) will genuinely help teachers and students. Unfortunately, most of these schools get carried away by the USP this "technology" will add to their school in the immediate community. These schools want to stand out. It is now proven that most of such solutions deployed, I mean nearly 90% and above in India, seems to be ineffective. Sadly, teachers begin to resist, principals and the management begin to question teacher commitment in using this technology. The school management, principals, teachers and the parents realize its ineffectiveness only after about 1 or 2 years after the investments are made and by then it is a sunk cost, almost sunk cost.

In one way, what is happening in India is nothing different from what happened in the western countries. However, the kind of design and implementation flaws we see in India now have been mostly corrected in the west about 10 years ago. West is about 10 years ahead in design and implementation. As Education Science, they are ahead of India by few decades. I must add that countries like Singapore, Malaysia are also ahead of India.

In such a situation, the easiest thing for us to do is to examine why and where the west failed and ensure that we do not make the same mistakes. Parents money is being wasted, they are the ones who bear the brunt of this, they pay for the increased school fees. No one else suffers.

This is not to say that Educational Technology will never work. I love it. The possibilities of using it are limitless. Not just that, India badly needs it for capacity building to sustain economic growth. We are still in the euphoric phase of Educational Technology, with little substance being delivered. As a country, India is wasting billions of US dollars in experimenting in certain areas of Educational Technology that does not require any more experiments, if one were to see the west and learn. In areas of implementation, India does have few unique challenges. Indian ICT solution providers and buyers of such solutions in schools, colleges and universities need much higher understanding of design, development and implementation of Educational Technology solutions. Just spending funds on this technology is not the answer. How well have we used the money, say in the last 10 years and what are the results achieved? Think about it.

Interestingly, this problem is not unique to Educational Technology, it applies to all types of investments in India, is it not? Most of it may be in government projects, but it does happen in private sectors and schools too.

I was just wondering, how about some accountability for all the stake holders involved in the Educational Technology investments?