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REFLECTIONS

Reflections 1

Bottom line 3

Pro Talk 4

In the News 6

Events 7

Adding Value 8

Trending 2

A very happy and creative New Year to one and all.

At the dawn of the year 2018 let me share a story of our journey. 20 years ago, in 1997, IL&FS Education & Technology Services Ltd (IETS) was born. It was known as ‘Schoolnet’, then. We started with great gusto. We had the singular aim to transform the educational ecosystem by making quality education accessible and affordable by leveraging technology. It was received with great enthusiasm as it filled in a major felt gap. Initial euphoria, however, gave way to hard realities. Internet itself was in its infancy. Reflecting in hindsight, we were ahead of our time. Taking lessons from ‘Schoolnet’ experiences we reinvented ourselves as IETS. Today, IETS is impacting 12 million students and close to half a million teachers across the country on daily basis. We stand today with substantial experience and wide footprint across the country and beyond.

Educational technology (Ed-tech) is transforming the learning opportunities and spaces with a dizzy pace. Multi-media and simulated content makes learning ever engaging. MOOCs and Open courses make best of teachers available to all. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as a demi-god in the Silicon Valley redefining the world in general and education in particular. It is not easy to predict the future. However, integrated, interactive, adaptive teaching -learning seems to be the future of education.

At IETS we are bracing with the challenges of education by way of innovating, scaling and creating larger impact. To achieve our goals, we are designing appropriate solutions to make impact at scale. Today, we have live ICT labs with instructors in over 20 thousand school reaching out to 8 million students. K-Yan has been our flagship educational solution device to achieve the learning efficiency and outcomes. It is an amazingly simple device combining innovative features to serve a variety of learning needs. More than 40 thousand institutions are reaping the benefit of K-Yan.

To design quality education ecosystem and impact at scale, we need to have a ‘community of knowledge’. More than individual prowess it is the time to harness collaborative wisdom. So, we have partnered with technology and industry leaders including Google, Microsoft, IBM, Linkedin and other. Startups like Nextstep, Avanti have also joined hands with us. We are, thus, creating a collaborative ecosystem for everyone to thrive together.

We have also introduced Future Classroom in partnership with Google for Education as new age edu-solution for digital India by creating an efficacious combination of chromebooks and K-Yan. Our ‘connected classroom’ uses tabs to create a vibrant learning space. Technology is effective when presented as customized solution. IETS has gained core expertise in designing suitable solutions.

Integrating technology is essential but teacher must play pivotal role in realizing the transformational potential of education. This is an approach based on insights from learning sciences provided by cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology etc. So, an effective educational solution must integrate student, teacher and technology in an organic way.

Leveraging our longitudinal experience and deep understanding we are greeting the new year with our versatile learning app as ecosystem called Geneo. It offers a variety of collaborative resources – textbook, multimedia, simulation along with assessment to check your learning. Geneo as an AI backed solution offers adaptive learning experience personalized to each student’s liking and levels. And, to meet learners further query there are experienced mentors available to respond and interact. It is a blend of cutting edge digital learning with personal touch.

Our learners are our brand ambassadors. If they vouched for it, we rock!

Happy Reading

A Newsletter of IL&FS Education & Technology Services Ltd.

JANUARY 2018

Innovate, scale, impactVantage

RCM Reddy, MD & CEO

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A solar system with as many planets as our own has been discovered with the help of Kepler space telescope powered with Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is one of the latest startling discoveries made possible last month. Driverless cars are a reality, so is intelligent personal assistant like Alexa that obeys your multiple commands. In educational field, adaptive learning makes education more engaging and personalized. The student-initiated learning environment, Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) and AI assisted educational diagnosis and assessment are shaping the educational scenario in a major way. (See the box for the ways AI is impacting education)

AI has made some phenomenal growth in the last couple of years heralding era of data science, big data and emerging possibilities of ‘superintelligence’, a hypothetical agent having intelligence far surpassing most gifted human mind.AI seems to transform the world in a major way. But how much? How soon?And, where is it going?

TRENDING

Photo by Bryan Bedder Courtsey: Getty Images for National Geographic

The truth, however, is that the field of AI is still evolving. Even experts have little clue understanding and mapping the progress across the field. “Without the relevant data for reasoning about the state of AI technology, we are essentially “flying blind” in our conversations and decision-making related to AI.”

AI100, a group of leading AI thinkers from Stanford, decide to find a solution. They aimed at tracking the progress of AI as an emerging field. As a result, came about the AI Index 2017. The AI Index is an initiative to track, collate, distill and visualize data relating to artificial intelligence.

AI and technological progress The inaugural annual report of AI Index 2017 published in November 2017 showcases the aggregated data and presents discussions and expert commentaries on key trends and ideas. AI Index looked at a number of measures of progress, including “volume of activity” and “technical performance”.

“The goal of the AI Index is to provide a fact-based measuring stick against which we can chart progress and fuel a deeper conversation about the future of the field.”, said Prof. Yoav Shoham, Emeritus Faculty, Computer Science, Stanford and one of the moving spirits behind the Index.

Like UN development index or GDP (gross domestic product) the AI Index is supposed to provide a comprehensive baseline on the state of artificial intelligence and measure technological progress. The metrics in the index include evaluations of academic papers published, course enrollment, AI-related startups, job openings, search-term frequency and media mentions, among others. The Index tracks and measures minimum 18 independent vectors including academia, industry, open-source software and public interest among others. It also engages in technical assessments of progress toward “human-level performance” which covers areas like speech recognition, Q&A, algorithms to identify objects and activities in 2D images.

What has it achieved? Consider the following facts about Artificial Intelligence (AI):

• The number of active AI startups increased 14-fold since 2000.

• Venture capital investment increased six times in the same period.

• Publishing in AI has increased nine times in the last 20 years

• Course enrollment in the introductory AI-related machine learning at Stanford has grown45-fold in the last 30 years.

Some of the charts representing the technological progress are striking. For example, image and speech recognition programs seems to be matching, if not surpassing already, human capabilities in just the past couple of years. The authors note that AI systems have excelled in such real-world applications as object detection, the ability to understand and answer questions and classification of photographic images of skin cancer cells.

AI – Whither Artificial Intelligence – AI Index 2017

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Bharti had just returned from the morning shift of her school. She quickly had her lunch and got ready to go back to school again to attend after school ‘Future Classroom’ (FC) classes till 5 PM. Rakesh Bhai, the spirited principal of the school got special permission to allow motivated students to attend these classes. Around 100 Students of classes 6 to 8 regularly practice in the after school FC classes here.

IL&FS Education in partnership with Google for Education set up ‘Future Classroom’ at Chandlodiya Primary School, Ahmedabad, last year by giving 30 Chromebooks, a K-Yan and designing special classroom for it. Today FC has been integrated in regular teaching routine. “Students search relevant videos and resources and go through them the previous day in FC. It helps them strengthen their interest and knowledge in subject areas substantially. Thus, our students alone bagged 6 out of 300 national merit cum means scholarship meant for over 800 schools of this area. FC has certainly contributed to make our students a cut above the rest. We also had 40 students from nearby private schools moving to our school this year,” the principal shared proudly. Parents are mostly poor and daily wage people. They could not believe their kids could get such high class education in a government school, said Dharam, the dedicated coordinator of FC.

‘Future Classroom’ transforming the present

What is missing?Having said that, the question remains if it can’t gauge sarcasm, identify jokes, or account for a million other pieces of cultural context that are crucial to understanding even the most casual conversation? No. The report acknowledges this and includes a critical open section on ‘what is missing’. Diversity and inclusion are two major areas among the missing aspects. The AI Index, in nut shell, is a reminder that we must be “woke” about the major switch that is taking place.

Will AI be a real game changer?

Wait and watch. Till then read the AI Index Report at https://aiindex.org/

How AI Impacts Education

Is a robotic teacher round the corner? Could AI-enhanced entities solve our most pervasive and systemic issues in education? We need to wait to get an answer for these questions. But AI is already impacting education in major ways. Some of them are enumerated below.

• Adapting Assessment and Educational SupportAI has already made adaptive learning processes possible through assessment software, learning games and digital textbooks to individualize learning. These tools detect patterns, highlight and emphasize key areas where students need support. It also allows one-on-one focus on learning process as per individual needs.

• Learning anywhere and at your own pace and way AI powered MOOCs, online learning classes and blended class experiences offer benefit from customized, individualized learning environment making education available anywhere and as per learner’s choice.

• Out of the Classroom SupportThrough AI, tutoring and study programs are growing more advanced. Teaching fundamentals to students struggling with basic concepts is simple and personalized through AI.

• Immersive Technology in the ClassroomAI has brought about exciting new opportunities in the form of immersive technology like Augmented Reality (AR) and Vitrtual Reality. Now learners are able to see and interact with the human body or a microscopic cell instead of just reading about it in a book transforming how students engage with the educational materials.

• Automating educational Administration Tasksstreamline and improve tedious admissions processes by automating the process of paperwork and support for students with common admissions questions via chatbot and interactive website.

The education department now cited this school as an example of achievement in improving educational standard. The school community of this area was trained to use Google sheet and Docs applications for sharing data and information by this school, said the Principal.

“I am grateful to our education department who gave free hand to me. My spirited staff members and school management committee extended support. And, of course, IL&FS Education has made it happen for us to make our school a leading one in the area.” Rakesh Bhai acknowledged all for the transformation brought about by Future Classroom in the educational environment of the school.

Rakesh Bhai, PrincipalChandlodiya Primary School,

Ahmedabad

BOTTOM LINE

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Face to Face

PRO TALK

Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), is a premiere national institute of educational technology under NCERT. Its major aim is to promote utilization of educational technologies viz. radio, TV, films, satellite communications and cyber media. The institute undertakes activities to widen educational opportunities, promote equity and improve quality of educational processes at school level.In this Face to Face Vagish K Jha interviews Prof. Amarendra Behera, Jt Director, CIET who highlights the emerging perspectives on ed-tech in the school education. ( This is the abridged version of the interview. )

Vagish K JhaCongratulations for assuming the full-fledged responsibility of Jt. Director, Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), NCERT. Could you please share the vision of educational technology that we are going to see under your guidance?

Amarendra P Behera Conceptually educational technology is development, implementation and evaluation of materials, systems, technique and method used for enhancing learning among all stakeholders. When we talk about the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) we mean all digital and digitizable resources and the communication technologies for dissemination of these resources to all stakeholders and enhancing their capacity, capability and quality of education. A lot of initiative related to that is taking place in the form of creating digital infrastructure in and delivery of all educational services whether it is educational digital content, digital books, assessment of students, performance, having a cumulative report card of performanceof learners etc.

We cannot improve quality of education if we only

address government systems. It has to be holistically addressed. Government - private partnership in a collaborative mode needs to be developed. There are many areas where it is difficult for the government to develop skills. Hence, there is a need to have lot of collaboration with corporates, NGO sector and government sector.

Vagish K Jha Can you tell us more about the government - private partnership in Edu-tech field?

Amarendra P Behera Edu-tech initiatives needs to be seen within the vision of digital India campaign which includes the digital literacy of citizens including school students, teachers, teacher educators and parents. Many a times NCERT is also questioned that textbooks are not reaching on time to many remote places like Leh, Ladakh and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. In such a situation, for example, NCERT has developed e-pathshala mobile app and digitized all the NCERT textbooks to provide digital books to students, teachers, parents and teacher educators. Using this, we can send the text book to them through mobile app and they can start studying

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service Professional Development of Teachers and Teacher Educators - itpd.ncert.gov.in). NCERT and its constituents organise nearly 400 teacher training programs every year.

NCERT has also started a 24/7 DTH TV channel under Swayam Prabha umbrella. The e-contents developed by NCERT is also simultaneously used through telecast of these programs on 24/7 basis. Teacher training is also being done through DTH TV channel.

Teachers can also use their telephones to access our two toll free numbers 1800-111-265, 1800-112-199 to listen to the resource persons and interact with them. Using technology and scaling the number in a time bound manner is our concern.

Vagish K JhaWhat is the vision of PPP model that you have and how the organizations corporates and others can come and take it forward?

Amarendra P Behera Actually there is no need to reinvent the wheel again and again. If some NGO has done something which is very good then we need not redo the same thing. Rather government has the capability for scaling. So, why can’t corporates and NGO sector and government join together andscale it?

There are some platforms where a portable box can be used as school server with all the contents given in the form of K-Yan or IL&FS’s Geneo kind of learning platforms. All the resources and teaching tools are embedded into it along with local area network.

Similarly, we have collaboration with Google and IL&FS in Bhopal. Such experiments can be scaled also. We should rather focus on customization. Translation into regional languages will be the second option.

Recently government of India launched a portal called ‘shala sarathi’. If any corporate would like to fund 100 schools to provide infrastructure and e-content and help the school to become a smart school and impart quality education, they can provide their funds under CSR to the government.

We not only talk about delivery of digital content but we also talk about automation of the whole process. In fact, Technology is not only providing e-contents solutions for teacher training, solutions for assessment, solutions for e-governance but also solutions for transparency and accountability and truthfulness in the management of the system.

(The full version of the interview is available at ILFS website- www.ilfseducation.com)

those material in the fraction of a second.

Now a days we have one tablet per child or one laptop per child system also. So, we can think to put them all their books in digital format. They can even do all their exercises, assessments and questions in digital format and also put these together in the form of a server like a K-Yan or Geneo that IL&FS Education has developed. In fact, democratization of digital resources is also required.

Vagish K Jha We give things like ICT and educational technology to schools but then how these are being utilized in teaching and training becomes very important.

Amarendra P Behera The government has recently launched the SWAYAM platform- Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (swayam.gov.in). It is a learning management system. There are more than 400 online courses.

The online courses for students and teachers and teacher educators are also coming there. These are the platforms which are going to help in continuous professional development of teachers. Onsite training can also happen through blended mode using a mix of face to face and distance mode without disturbing their work place.

Similarly NCERT has recently developed a course portal which is popularly known as IPDT (In-

There are some platforms where a portable box can be

used as school server with all the contents given in

the form of K-Yan or IL&FS’s Geneo kind of learning

platforms. All the resources and teaching tools are

embedded into it and there will be local area network

with that

“

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The EdVantage Newsroom

IN THE NEWS

Launch of EnglishBolo EnglishBolo, an online solution for improving spoken English skills was launched by Shri Nand Kumar, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of School Education & Sports, Govt of Maharashtra on 25th October, 2017 at IL&FS Financial Centre, Mumbai. English Helper & IL&FS Education & Technology Services Ltd. (IETS) hosted this event followed by a thought-leadership conference on Tech Enabled English Language Learning in India.

http://www.indiannewsandtimes.com/2017/10/25/63808-thought-leadership-conference-to-discuss-and-deliberate-on-the-road-map-for-technology-enabled-en-glish-language-learning-in-india/

Toyota Road safety multi stake holder consultative meetMr. Dependra Pathak, Spl. Commissioner of Police (Traffic), inaugurated the multi-stake holders consultative meeting on road safety held at Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi on November 8, 2017. The round table focusing on ‘Road Safety Education in Schools’ was organized by IL&FS Education in collaboration with Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited. Earlier, Mr. RCM Reddy, MD & CEO, IL&FS Education, welcomed the participants to this exclusive brain-storming consultation attended by eminent experts and major stakeholders from the corporate, education, media, Police, UN agencies, Hospital and Civil society organizations.

https://auto.economictimes.india-times.com/news/industry/toyota-kirlo-skar-motor-organises-road-safety-work-shops-in-school/61581897

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EVENTS

Launch of Gyankunj ProjectOn the occasion of teacher’s day, Mr Vijay Rupani, the Chief Minister, Gujarat, launched ‘Gyankunj E- Class Project’ at Ahmedabad, Gujarat in the presence of Mr RCM Reddy, CEO & MD, IL&FS Education. Aimed at promoting digital literacy among primary students in all government aided schools in the state this initiative enable 3.2 k classroom in government schools of Gujarat to go digital.

India Afghanistan Trade & Investment Show 2017

#Passage2ProsperityIL&FS Education & Technology Services Ltd. (IETS), IL&FS Institute of Skills and IL&FS Clusters participated in India

Afghanistan Trade & Investment Show 2017 held between 28th to 30th September at ITC Maurya, New Delhi. To

advance regional integration by strengthening economic ties between Afghanistan and India through partnerships this

forum provided opportunity for showcasing and dialoguing with potential partners.

Launch of Future ClassroomsA total transforming of education geared for the 21st Century has been initiated with the launch of Google Future Classroom in 12 Government Schools in Krishna and Guntur districts, Andhra Pradesh impacting 10,000+ students and 200+ teachers. This significant step has been taken under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) of Sri Y. S. Chowdary, Hon’ble Minister of State, Science and Technology & Earth Sciences and Sujana Foundation in partnership with IL&FS Education.

Dream Change -Arunachal Pradesh 2017

‘Dream Change – Arunachal 2027’ Conclave, an initiative by government of Arunachal Pradesh was held on 8th & 9th December, 2017 at Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh. It aimed at bringing various stakeholders together to brainstorm

the strategy and actions for ‘re-shaping the development discourse’ of Arunachal Pradesh. Mr RCM Reddy, MD & CEO,

IL&FS Education, presented an array of edtech solutions that can transform the teaching-learning environment.

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GeneoX A Confluence Platform for Technology in EducationGeneoX, a unique initiative by IL&FS Education, is a platform to bring together talent and expertise in the use of technology for teaching-learning while ensuring active participation from all stakeholders to learn, share & achieve

GeneoX is designed to evolve over the years with two distinct but interlinked elements:1. GeneoX Championship has students, teachers, principals and parents participate in challenges for annual awards. The challenges has a strong focus on use of technology across Innovation (Ideation and Design), Academics (Math, Science, ..), IT (Basics, Robotics, Programming, …) & Life Skills (Language, Good Citizenship).

2. GeneoX Edu Meet aims at engagement of all stakeholders to discuss, debate, share, learn and showcase work in the ‘technology in education’ space through varied events.

• Conferences would involve discussions/debates on innovations, sharing/showcasing new techniques & methodologies, exhibition of products, research submissions….

• Workshops would focus on developing digital skills and awareness of global trends in education

Excitement of doing and knowing The Championship invited students of Class IX to showcase their IT proficiency and knowledge starting with School-level competition and moving to block and district levels. The State Finals would be followed by the Nationals. Participating at various levels, students develop core cognitive ability of faster and deeper thinking, creative problem-solving and better analytical reasoning. In the process, they get exposed to handling pressure, interpersonal skills and develop confidence creating a high degree of enthusiasm.

ADDING VALUEEditor - Vagish K Jha Sub-Editor - Ridhim

a Mehra Design - Poonam

Panchal Design support Shahid Iqbal

IL&FS Education & Technology Services LtdNTBCL Building, Toll Plaza, DND Flyway,NOIDA - 201 301. U.P. INDIA

Tel : (0120) 2459200 / (0120) 2459201

www.ilfseducation.com

27Districtsparticipated

Impact

3000+Schools completed the test

178,000 Students appeared

Multiple stake holders Join handsThe championship has been designed as a comprehensive engagement of multiple stake holders to bring together talent and expertise in the educational space ensuring active participation to learn, share and achieve though collaboration between learners, teachers, technology. Simultaneously, it envisions, bringing together the expertise of the academic community, competence of the corporates, reach of the government and ownership and commitment of communities for greater awareness towards ‘Technology in Education’.

Testimonials Nayana Satapathy, TeacherKonark School (SSD), Puri, Odisha“When the Championship was rolled out at our school…. it was wonderful to see the students prepare – wanting to do well in the quiz. Of course, winning was important for the students but as a teacher I saw my students confident, motivated, alert …..which is an applaud for GeneoX & the IL&FS Education team!”