1

Education must not be driven by a dogmatic set of values and practices. It needs to be directed by a clear-sighted vision that ‘senses the future’ trend by taking due cognizance of the emerging needs, risks, opportunities and uncertainties. Edu-Tech for us is not a cop-out. It is an opportunity to reimagine education to become an efficacious incubator of learning virtues. It is an occasion to systematically nurture the habits of mind that value curiosity, critical thinking and learning to learn among other. The concerns of education are ever-evolving. It interacts with the dynamic social context, ongoing research and development in the field and emerging innovations. This means that educational solutions need to be diverse and alert in responding to the plural realities and the context of learners.

This also led to our understanding that we cannot think of creating a great learning environment without considering the crucial role played by teachers in this. Educational solutions will have to be designed as enabling devices rather than a magic wand. Because we know there are no magic wands in education. Education is a real-world concern and thus a teacher must be seen as a key actor for the real impact of education to unfold.

With this view as the guiding principle, our single-minded pursuit has been to impact education ecosystem at scale through technology empowering students and teachers. Our efforts are directed to the core set of concerns – How do we improve the level of a student’s engagement in the classroom? How to help teachers consolidate and augment their knowledge? How to create a rich learning ecosystem to address the varied teaching-learning needs of students and teachers alike?

One of the core challenges of education is how to make education a more meaningful quest for students and teachers in the time of ever burgeoning edu-tech space and modes of interventions. What is that approach that is best suited for teaching-learning success? We as an organization are striving toward improving the learning ecosystem using the blended learning approach.

We have adopted this ecosystem approach in a leading School in South Delhi – Bloom Public School, Vasant Kunj. Here we have offered a range of our solutions inside the classroom and outside as live companion to the learners – teachers and students. So, they have received learning devices for both offline and online modes and teaching-learning materials in both digital and non-digital format. In addition, we have offered online assessments to make adaptive learning easy. There is a robust teacher’s professional development programme in place to keep teachers aware, informed and efficient in keeping learning outcome in sharp focus. All these help create a diverse and flexi learning environment that not only aims at achieving conventional learning outcomes efficiently, but also helps to hone the 21st century abilities among learners such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity.

But, offering solution is not the end of the commitment; it is the beginning. Do they succeed in creating a rich and flexible learning environment? Do they help achieve having an engaged classroom and achieve a desired learning outcome? For gathering evidence to these questions, we have set up a responsive feedback mechanism at the school. Thus, Bloom Public School is our ‘Learning Lab’ to check the efficacy of various solutions, services and interventions where we are undertaking a detailed and longitudinal assessment measuring the efficacy of the solutions on learning environment. Our yardstick of success is to see constructivist classrooms in action where technology plays a more integrated role by serving as a cognitive tool to facilitate an authentic learning ecosystem.

To sum up, we believe, what the leading developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik captures so beautifully in her latest book ‘The Gardener and the Carpenter’ – “Our job is not to shape our children’s minds; it’s to let those minds explore all the possibilities that the world allows…We can’t make children learn, but we can let them learn.”

A Newsletter by IL&FS Education & Technology Services

RCM Reddy, MD & CEO

REFLECTIONS

Innovate, Scale, ImpactVantage

Reflections 1

Trending 2

Bottom line 3

Pro Talk 4

In the News 6

Events 7

Adding Value 8APRIL - JUNE, 2019

2

Digital technologies, no one would disagree, have disruptive implications for economic and social structure including educational institutions. What is interesting is that these implications are not predetermined. It ushers an era where discontinuity is the most salient feature. ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’ by Yuval Noah Harari’s is yet another scintillating investigation into some of the most urgent issues facing the exciting future before humanity. Harari asks, “How do you live in an age of bewilderment, when the old stories have collapsed, and no new story has yet emerged to replace them?”

Talking about education he wonders, “what is the right thing to do when confronting a completely unprecedented situation? How should you act when you are flooded by enormous amount of information and there is absolutely no way you can absorb and analyse it all? Can technology help?” Harari is skeptical. Technology can help you a lot, but if technology gains too much power over your life, you might become a hostage to its agenda. If we look more dispassionately we wonder if we are already not walking into the technology trap!

Amidst all the conspiracy theories and the Luddite fear, what is clear is that education was never so accessible to all as it is now. The boundaries of textbook and schools are broken for all practical purposes. Digital technology now allows us to find entirely new responses to what people learn, how people learn, where people learn and when they learn. In addition, the best of teachers and the best of institutions’ content are all available at the click of a button.

TRENDING

Creativity in the digital world: Interplay of technology and humans

Thus, they enrich and extend the reach of excellent teaching as never before.

Today, learners can choose the content that is most relevant. They have freedom to get hold of, ‘form of the content’ that is most suitable to them. They are at a liberty to choose the teacher or facilitator who speaks the way learners understand better. A whole new range and new forms of learning are available through interactive, non-linear courseware. Others use state-of-the-art instructional design, highly intuitive

software, gamified learning nuggets, sophisticated simulation and bot-guided social media to support various kinds of learners.

In the age of digitization, education faces another dilemma. Now the educational content are being bundled into byte sized modules. This way, they are more digestible as well as flexible and friendly to the technology carriers. MOOCs (massive open online courses) are also adjusting similarly as are the degrees being offered. Degrees are chunked into modules; modules into courses; courses into short segments. However, the fundamental challenge is that the routine cognitive abilities that are easy to teach and easier to evaluate are also the easiest to digitize, automate and thus, outsource. An AI-enabled Sophia can do much better in these routine jobs than any

efficient or experienced teacher can hope to achieve.

This is a time, to borrow the phrase of Harari, ‘when profound uncertainty is not a bug, but a feature’. Such an abstruse digital flux also presents us with great opportunities. A learner today is not saddled with limited choices between the textbooks, reference books, physical laboratory, etc. There are several options available to tap on. Even textbooks look so different in the digital world.

Technology as educationists from the world over have shown, does not offer pre-determined options or limits or constrains the possibilities, but it opens creative possibilities. “Innovations in Open and Flexible Education” by Kam Cheong Li, Kin Sun Yuen, Billy Tak Ming Wong (Editors), Springer, 2018, captures a broad range of innovations in education all over the world. It covers a number of case studies based on digital pedagogy, such as flipped classrooms, to present how teachers have used creativity while dealing with technology in education.

Digital technology now allows us to

find entirely new responses to what

people learn, how people learn, where

people learn and when they learn.

“

“

3

‘GENEO’ Success Story BOTTOM LINE

Ananya Bhaskar from Bloom Public School, Delhi

My favorite feature in Geneo is the video section, which provides us a variety and appropriate content to choose from. Looking for suitable videos on the internet for studying is not only time consuming but also tough to find. I remember watching a video on K-Class on the subject matter of disease. The video provided me with all the necessary information including classification of diseases and their causes. The video provided information on being healthy and disease free, in addition. As a result, I got the gist of the chapter at one go.

The case studies and practical applications presented here illustrate the effectiveness of new modes of education in which the latest technologies and innovations are widely used in the global context. The book also gives a good idea of the educational use of social media, mobile learning, educational resources and MOOC (massive open online courses). It also deals with the theoretical discussions and practical applications in the use of augmented reality and educational technology to improve student engagement and pave the way for students’ future studies and careers.

In this context, ‘Geneo’, the versatile learning app, is a case in point. Incorporating insights from deep learning theories and practical issues that a learner faces, ‘Geneo’ aims to make the process of engagement vibrant and deep. Here, every page of the NCERT textbook is available in digital form. A learner can read a chapter of the digital book, underline or take notes and share ideas/concerns

with friends. Each page is tagged with appropriate resources – videos or exploriments simulated virtual experiments. It gives students a variety of ways to engage with the content. The inbuilt assessment gives them an instant view of their level of understanding. AI-enable features learn from an individual student’s performance, diagnoses the learning difficulties, and throws up customized assessment

every time s/he decides to assess his/her performance.

To make the learning a wholesome experience, a Geneo student can post their queries to a mentor, a pool of highly qualified resource persons who get back with their

responses quickly. Since the learner is at the centre, it is s/he who has the last say in deciding if his/her query is resolved or not. If not, the intense engagement and dialogue must go on.

Geneo, therefore, is one such example of how technology can be leveraged better to the advantage of the learner. Teachers have been using ‘Geneo’ in the class by taking full advantage of this versatile digital solution. Geneo also provides the pedagogical flexibility to a teacher for using the methods of blended and/or flipped classroom.

The way technology-induced innovations are shaping up in the field of education, it is clear that digitalization is connecting people, educational institutions, countries and continents in ways that increase our individual and collective potential tremendously. The same forces, however, also make the world volatile, complex and uncertain. However, it is the nature of our collective responses to these disruptions that determines their outcomes. It is the continuous interplay between the technological frontier and the cultural, social, institutional and economic contexts and agents that are mobilized in response which matter in the end.

Geneo also provides the pedagogical

flexibility to a teacher for using the

methods of blended and/or flipped

classroom.

“

“

4

FACE TO FACE

Vagish K Jha: Mr Batta, Bloom Public School is among one of the best schools in this area. This school was ranked third by the Hindustan Times C4 in terms of the personal attention given to the students. Being the founder principal and now advisor to the school, tell us - what makes Bloom Public School special?

Ashutosh Batta: Any school that focuses on the efficient delivery of the content or the curriculum will be termed as creative, innovative and student-centric. This is because the delivery is the key to learning. Our focus has always been on how to deliver creatively. Considering that there are 35 students in a class, it’s a daunting task to ensure that every student is learning. There is a complex matrix of emotional connect - the human angle, the love and bonding between student and teacher.

Enabling infrastructure and technology is another factor that facilitates learning. Effective delivery of curriculum must ensure that the mix of humans, technology, and infrastructure presents a perfect blend. That is what makes a school standout. Having eminent people as guest speakers more often is an important aspect. Finally, if a school has teachers who help in audit, research and counsel, it helps classrooms teachers deliver better. Professional development programmes for teachers and transparency in the running of the organization, makes up the magic potion, so to say.

VKJ: Bloom Public School was one of the early converts, so to say, to adopt technology for education. What has been your experience, what role do you envisage for the technology in education?

AB: It has been a very fascinating journey. It started some 20 years ago with ‘Schoolnet’ (this initiative was rechristened as IL&FS Education later). It was one of the pioneering efforts to integrate technology for educating better beginning with teachers’ preparing PPT on basic concept and so on. It has been growing since then. Technology has to be looked in a holistic way. Access and ability to use technology cannot be seen as the privilege of a few; it is basic necessity for all. It has to be a means of getting learning across to all students whether they are first generation learners or children who are from families where parents are educated. If technology cannot cater to such differences, then technology is not going to succeed in its purpose in schools.

So, the challenge for school is how to use technology for the economically weaker sections; the children who are very distracted; the children who are average in academics and also the children who are gifted. Schools cannot only look at interventional steps. They also have to facilitate students who are very strong in academics. This is a challenge.

Ashutosh Batta, the founder principal and now the Chairman of Bloom Public School, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, is a veteran educationist. Mr Batta has over 30 years of experience in various domains in the field of education. He is a member of the prominent association of School Principals and School Management.

PRO TALK

5

So, fixing smart-boards and having digital content are all fine. But how do we ensure that the same content with the creativity of the teacher can be used effectively for diverse needs of students of different types. You need to have regular workshops for your teachers to give them direction and ability for efficacious use of technology for improved learning outcomes for all.

VKJ: Recently, your school has gone for one of the latest technological advancements by adopting ‘Geneo Class’. Tell us about the idea and importance.

AB: It’s a holistic edu-tech solution offered by IL&FS Education (IETS) to schools. ‘Geneo Class’, a comprehensive ensemble of technological solutions that includes offline solutions like KClass, ‘Read to Me’ (RTM) and online ones like Geneo licenses, a platform agnostic versatile learning app, and the ‘Google Future Classroom’ along with a variety of teacher training and support services. It offers a number of flexible possibilities to create an engaged classroom. The context again is important here.

Demographics of a school is changing because of RTE. Today, schools are in dire need of having an ensemble of hardware and apps to address the learning needs of students who have varied learning abilities. Let’s take the example of RTM. It reads out the text with a number of additional functionalities. They can hear a text as many times as they want. When we are looking at students of first-generation learners, RTM is a boon for them.

It is useful even for the teachers as they do not have to read over and over again. It is useful for not only those students who do not speak, but also those who are shy, introvert, or who are just scared to speak out. The more they hear English, the more they will speak English. So, it is a win-win situation for everyone. If a child is made to hear a neutral accent, spoken English and proper pronunciations in the classrooms, I do not see any reason why a child will not be able to communicate in English very soon. So, I think RTM is a wonderful thing and other than that it has got wonderful dictionaries, pictorial dictionary and a child can save his own recording and it goes very well with the current educational scenario of different schools.

We all know that there is an endeavour by the government to cut down on the amount of information we are stuffing into the students. So, the KClass offline solution satisfies the current educational needs of a school. It involves teachers to create a vibrant context for blended and deeper learning too. Offline is very important because you can play it as many times you want without bothering about bandwidth or internet.

The advantage of online is basically giving the children opportunity to be active participants in the learning process. So, the Geneo app allows students to see the digital textbook where each page is embedded with relevant resources to

reinforce or clarify the topics. Students can underline, take notes and take online assessments that gives instant response. They can even ask questions to mentors, if they are not clear. We are waiting for Geneo online for teachers which will enhance its utility further.

We have also adopted the ‘Google Future Classroom’. We have chromebooks that can be linked with K-Yan to connect each chromebook and project them in the class. We are still very new in this novel way of delivery of learning, but we are finding a lot of interest from the students. The reason we are not giving every child a chromebook because a lot of students cannot afford to buy it and take it home and bring back into the classroom.

So, we are doing it in phases. In the next two years our aim is every student should have a chromebook which they will be allowed to take home so that they are able to communicate from home as well. This way we would have extended the learning hours beyond school. That will be a platform – kids will use at home and teachers will use it in schools. So, the synergy will be huge, and the effect will be just amazing. This will happen once we get the teacher version of Geneo. So, together both online and offline makes a magical combination for learning. It is up to teachers to weave the magic and make learning happen.

VKJ: I am curious to know how well teachers are responding to the new educational technology like Geneo. How are they responding to the technological infusions you are making in the school?

AB: Very, very mixed reactions. It has lot to do with the receptivity of the teacher. We notice younger teachers are more open in accepting the technology. With age, there is a little inhibition in teachers to adopt the technology. But we find it is the environment you create, and it is how much hands-on practice teachers normally do. It is like playing a musical instrument. You devote hours. Whether it is young or old teacher, they need to devote hands-on practice on how to use the technology till the stage where it becomes a part of their teaching process.

Some teachers are wary that students are more familiar with technology than they are. So, they have to overcome this fear by doing hands on practice. It is not just proficiency in handling the technology, but the way edu-tech is to be used to engage students and achieve learning outcomes which is crucial. So, teachers do a lot of browsing of the content using technology and we insist that they practice on Saturday and give demonstrations of how they will be using the technology in the classroom. Other teachers watch and ask questions. So, it is really how you make teachers prepare to utilise technology for education in an efficient manner. Regular and relevant teacher training plays a crucial role in honing the teacher ability to use technology effectively.

6

THE NEWSROOM

All Aboard the Computer BusTouring villages and spreading the word on digital literacy, in a Computer bus, is a harbinger of hope for young learners. The Computer Bus is part of the CSR initiative of FIAT, titled Learning Enrichment and Advancement Programme (LEAP), and is being implemented in six ZP schools, at Shirur, since June 2017, by IL&FS Education. LEAP helps schools improve their educational outcomes, by offering comprehensive solutions, a blend of technology infrastructure, teaching-learning resources and relevant capacity building initiatives supported by project management, and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Diverse tools, such as multimedia labs, adding dimensions boards, mentors in schools, English/Maths/Science kits, and life skills, among others, are integral parts of this initiative.

Paradigm shift in the domains of teaching and learning

Geneo is a blended learning and teaching solution that offers best in class digital content with one-on-one Q&A based teacher support, thus making it unique from conventional digital learning platforms. IL&FS Education, a leading provider of education solutions, deployed the Geneo Learning Environment at the school premises of Bloom Public School. The solution was launched at an event attended by Mr. RCM Reddy, Managing Director and CEO of IL&FS Education, Mr. Ashutosh Batta, Director of Bloom Public School and Ms. Shyma Vinod, Principal of Bloom Public School.

The Geneo Environment provides customized, anytime and anywhere learning, with focus on the learner, and support of a mentor. The dynamic components of the Geneo Environment include: Geneo Class, Geneo Home, Learnet Assessment, Read to Me (RTM) and Google Future Class.

IN THE NEWS

7

Creating the FutureOur newly launched programme ‘ASPIRE’ also referred to as, ‘Naipunya Vikasam’, is running in 425 schools of Andhra Pradesh, an initiative introduced by the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC). The objective of the project is to ensure the upliftment of students of the Social Welfare and Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

The programme is designed with an objective to create future-ready students by introducing a blend of 21st century skills including Computer Skills & Technology, Computational Thinking, Functional English, Life Skills and Soft Skills, thereby providing the required exposure to technology.

Intelligence having fun

Incubating Ideas of Young Minds

Learning, Anytime-Anywhere

Lens Foundation organized a visit to Kidzania - an interactive city in Noida that combines experiential learning and fun activities through role-play exercises - for 140 children of ‘Panchi.’ The children participated in various forms of activities – right from preparing food to appearing in a mock fire drill, from stepping into the shoes of a policeman to that of an ambulance driver. The students also experienced what it is like to be a rockstar by singing, playing the guitar and even the piano. It was an uplifting and exhilarating experience for the students.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) organized a Hackathon at IIT Delhi for students of classes 9 to 12. It was a collaboration of IL&FS Education and Indian Road Safety Campaign (IRSC), to develop effective digital road safety solutions, with an aim to enhance road safety awareness.

ICT Intervention Summit was jointly organised by Google for Education and IL&FS Education in collaboration with DMS, Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Bhopal and CIET-NCERT, New Delhi. During the summit, students presented their tech integrated projects and teachers shared their journey of experiencing the Google Future class.

EVENTS

8

K-YanThe Knowledge vehicle

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

Tel : (0120) 2459200/(0120) 2459201

www.ilfseducation.com

For feedbacks/queries, please write to vagish.jha@ilfsindia.com

Exactly a century ago, in 1920, a mechanical device was invented that could administer multiple-choice question; it was set such that it moved on only when the student got the right answer. Sidney Pressey, a psychology professor at Ohio State University, came up with this mechanical device called Teaching Machines. Eventually, teaching machine could also provide control over drill-and-practice exercises, teaching as well as testing. This was followed by another device called GLIDER invented by B F Skinner, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, from, which he used his ideas on how learning could be directed with positive reinforcement.

Much water has flown down various rivers on the globe since edu-tech made its appearance. Several devices have emerged since then. They all have a shared concern – students should get interested in learning, become attentive and learn efficiently. Learning outcomes are better achieved through experiencing the education – a method of learning that involves a combination of watching, listening, deeply engaging – by doing and reflecting.

So, it was in the early years of the new century that Prof K K Trivedi of the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, ‘saw a new kind of poverty emerging – the poverty of access to knowledge, severely limiting one’s future growth’. This led him to develop a device that “will have the potential of giving the benefits of new ICT tools to all learners. This led to development of the first model of K-Yan for IL&FS Education and Technology services (IETS),” said Prof Trivedi. “It was conceptualized as an easy-to-use, portable all-in-one device that would meet all group learning needs of a class…K-Yan was launched in IT Show in Bangalore in November 2003, where it attracted great deal of attention. It won the silver prize for the most innovative product in India at the India International Trade Show in Delhi in 2004. It featured as the cover story of the Outlook magazine,

listing it as one of the 10 most innovative technologies from India,” he added further.

K-Yan was designed to be constantly upgraded, absorbing new technologies as they appear. This has resulted in it constantly being a state-of-the art product. The main appeal and reason for its growing demand is due to its ease-of-use, which allows

Editor - Vagish K Jha Sub-Editor - Mohini Singhal Design - Shahid Iqbal

most teachers to use it intuitively. The associated academic training orients teachers to understand and adopt the digital pedagogy for achieving efficacious learning outcomes and lead an engaged process keeping learners in the centre. Due to reduced size of PCs and reduced power needs of LED projectors, battery operated K-Yans with built-in SIM cards will allow them to be used in rural areas where there is no electricity and internet connection, says Prof Trivedi.

“IETS has partnered with Technology Leaders to strengthen its capabilities at every step of the development process. This empowers us to develop effective, robust and unparalleled devices. Today, the seventh generation of K-Yan is rolled out and by now we are present in more than 45,000+ classrooms in India and 1100+ digital classrooms across 12 countries,” says K Rajesh, the Vice President and head, devices at IETS. The next generation of K-Yan is future ready, has been upgraded to follow strict universal standards and is designed to address the emerging demands of the educational community at present, Rajesh added further.

In a nutshell, K-Yan creates a versatile learning environment for a facilitator to make group learning easy, so that students learn the spirit of enquiry and enjoy learning by asking questions; seeing things and doing experiments on their own. K-Yan is an intelligent companion of the 21st century teacher for creating a rich learning ecosystem.

ADDING VALUE