2009

Purpleframe Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

11/2/2009

Revolutionizing India’s Education System

through Technology

Learning I Media I Technology

Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3

The Real PROBLEM ........................................................................................................................................ 4

The Real Challenges ...................................................................................................................................... 4

Other Challenges ........................................................................................................................................... 5

No Common school system .......................................................................................................................... 5

Education for all -The Advantages ................................................................................................................ 6

The Significance of E-learning and Technology ............................................................................................ 7

Some facts about Learning & Technology: ................................................................................................... 8

Types of E-learning ........................................................................................................................................ 9

Performance Support Systems for Virtual Classroom Learning Solutions .............................................. 10

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Virtual Learning Solutions .......................................................... 10

Performance Support Systems for Online Learning Solutions ................................................................ 10

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Online Learning Solutions .......................................................... 10

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Rapid Learning Solutions ........................................................... 11

Performance Support Systems for Mobile Learning Solutions ............................................................... 11

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Mobile Learning Solutions ......................................................... 11

References .................................................................................................................................................. 14

Introduction

Just Imagine... A world where every kid participates on a level education system,

challenging themselves and others, and achieving rewards and prizes for applying

themselves, no matter what their social, economic, or geographic disposition.

We can ...definitely build it….and how?

Yes... Technology is the answer……

Every man is but the product of his beliefs, and what he thinks, he becomes. It is

believed that India is uniquely positioned to achieve a significant competitive

advantage in the world economy by being among the first to implement a flat

education system for its entire people before the end of the next decade. This goal can

be accomplished by partnering with technology to develop a complete free open

source education solution for its people and peoples of the world.

We must strongly believe that access to educational opportunities is a basic human

right for all, not just a privilege for the few. Regardless of whether one is from a urban or

rural sector, one is born in a city or a village, one's status or location, all people should

have access to the best education the world can provide. And we believe that the

technology already exists to accomplish this goal--so together we can change the

world.

For over 3000 years the "sage on a stage" most instructional approach has dominated

human culture and education models. Education is now emerging as schools, teachers

and students have begun to utilize technology, open to all approach in education.

Today technology can play a intense role in creating a education system converge to

unite disparate and disconnected education systems into a single global learning

platform.

Current instructional pedagogy is tied to task allocation--a cornerstone of

industrialization. Since the mid-19th Century, training has followed the prescription of

task allocation and delivered education to students believed to be socially and

mentally standardized groups. Yet, this historical disconnect between the standard and

the needs of differentiated learners is now being felt more profoundly than ever.

Therefore, factors such as ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, language, environment,

and culture all combine to create a student body that is incredibly difficult to

homogenize.

It is important then to realize that today's students demand information to be delivered

on demand from the best minds more quickly and in more emotionally stimulating and

contextually relevant formats. What is the methodology through which technology and

e-learning can develop tools to bridge these divides? The answer lies in nature's oldest

and most successful learning tool... Play.

Such an effort to revolutionize education in India will not be possible without bringing

together leaders in government, technology industry and education into a collective

mission dedicated to realizing the vision of Educated India and learning for ALL. The

outcome we seek will benefit millions, tens of millions, in Indians. India will enjoy as a

result of elevating education to be equal and accessible for all across cities, towns and

villages. In essence this is a continuation of Gandhi's struggle for equality and fairness

for the people of India.

The Real PROBLEM

India's education system is facing challenges that may be one of the biggest facing

any nation in the 21st Century. Faced with the fastest population growth and poor

technical infrastructure in rural regions, India must find a cost effective solution for

educating its people. The traditional education solution isn't going to be adequate to

overcome the educational challenges it is facing. Under that model, India would need

to build new schools, train and retain teachers, buy books and collateral supplies, keep

these materials current and put in place more bureaucracy that leads to ever

escalating costs at the sacrifice to education. Therefore, a technological solution for its

entire people needs to be identified, actualized and implemented. And most

importantly how can we do it for less than it is currently costing India?

The Real Challenges

1 Today, India‘s education system is designed to overload the pupils with too

much 'knowledge' or theory and the focus is to enable them to improve their

memory skills rather than enabling them to be innovative/creative/practical.

2 The current system is designed to create a hierarchical society, with only a

small section scoring very high marks; the remainder gets fed up with the

monotonous and irrelevant education system, forcing them to discontinue

their studies.

3 India has made giant leaps in the field of telecommunication and

technology. There is hardly any village in India which is left out from this

excitement. This technology has not touched the education system to

provide 'remote teaching' facilities or online knowledge sharing.

4 The urban sectors are more concentrated on, whereas technology can

touch lives and enable education across the rural sectors as well.

5 The cultural differences between the urban and rural sections of people in

India; this creates barriers for people in the rural sector, who are more docile

in nature and it takes great efforts for them to open up, answering in class, or

making their ideas heard

6 The access to uniform teaching content, especially video and multi-media

content will enable removal of disparities. This will neutralize the ill effects of

absentee teachers (which is also a major problem in rural India).

7 Limited access to technology, where only a few can afford.

Other Challenges

Primary and secondary education: Lack of access, quality and literacy

Despite efforts to incorporate all sections of the population into the Indian education

system, through mechanisms such as positive discrimination and non-formal education,

large numbers of young people are still without schooling. Although enrolment in

primary education has increased, it is estimated that at least 35 million, and possibly as

many as 60 million, children aged 6–14 years are not in school. Severe gender, regional,

and caste disparities also exist. The main problems are the high drop-out rate, especially

after Class 10, low levels of learning and achievement, inadequate school

infrastructure, poorly functioning schools, high teacher absenteeism, the large number

of teacher vacancies, poor quality of education and inadequate funds. Other groups

of children ‗at risk‘, such as orphans, child-laborers, street children and victims of riots

and natural disasters, do not necessarily have access to schools.

No Common School System

Furthermore, there is no common school system; instead children are channeled into

private, government-aided and government schools on the basis of ability to pay and

social class. At the top end are English-language schools affiliated to the upscale CBSE

(Central Board of Secondary Education), CISCE (Council for the Indian Schools

Certificates Examination) and IB (International Baccalaureate) examination boards,

offering globally recognized syllabuses and curricula. Those who cannot afford private

schooling attend English-language government-aided schools, affiliated to state-level

examination boards. And on the bottom rung is poorly managed government or

municipal schools, which cater for the children of the poor majority. Therefore, while

education for all is safeguarded by the Constitution, and a majority of people can now

access educational resources, the quality of the education that young people in Indian

receive varies widely according to their means and background.

• The present Indian government, the United Progressive Alliance, appears to be

committed to confronting these challenges, as reflected in their Common Minimum

Program.

• The introduction of a 2 per cent education cess (surcharge) on tax, a stress on

employment guarantees and the establishment of a National Rural Health Mission are

thus welcome developments in this respect.

India‘s aim of providing basic education for all stems from the empowering and

redistributive impact of education. Until recently, literacy, and the related issue of

access to schooling, have taken precedence over curricular content.

J. Dreze and A. Sen argue: Literacy is an essential tool for self-defense in a society

where social interactions include the written media. An illiterate person is significantly

less equipped to defend herself in court, to obtain a bank loan, to enforce inheritance

rights, to take advantage of new technology, to compete for secure employment, to

get onto the right bus, to take part in political activity – in short, to participate successfully

in the modern economy and society.

The 1991 census indicated that about half of the adult population was unable to read

or write. Unsurprisingly, literacy rates vary widely between states, and between genders.

The northern Hindi-belt states, whose economic performance has been worse than that

of western and southern states, have lower literacy rates. Female literacy varies from

around 34 per cent in Bihar to 88 per cent in Kerala; male literacy varies between 60 per

cent in Bihar and 94 per cent in Kerala. Rajasthan suffers the widest gender difference:

female literacy stands at 44 per cent; male at 77 per cent.

Education for all -The Advantages

Technology and Learning when together will majorly help improve many of the

problems facing India by creating a complete education system -for every student,

young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural.

• Technology and Learning can enable education that is not anymore limited

to a particular region or age group.

• It will be learning anything, anytime, and anywhere from multiple authorities

from the comfort of your home, village, town, city from any web-enabled

device.

• It will be about playing exciting e-games that emphasize the topics key points

you just watched or listened too.

• It will be about students being able to earn and spend reward points for

achieving goals and milestones, or completing assignments and connecting

with others in virtual classrooms.

• It will lend a helping hand in the process of identification of brilliant global

students living in villages of India, based on their ability to interact within an

intelligent e-learning environment.

• There will be new roles for schools – it can mean the end of thoughtless

evaluation tests, grades and abusive certificates. Educational institutions,

schools, colleges that will become the heaven for networking, knowledge

application and mentoring.

• There will be shift in learning, so will there be a change in the way schools and

colleges operate.

• Our teachers will become more focused on teaching problem solving

techniques, critical thinking skills and social and interpersonal skills.

• Teachers will no longer need to be experts in subject areas. Instead experts

will be delivering their thought and ideas directly to the students.

• Teachers will become more like mentors and guidance counselors to their

students and as a result India will be able to train more teachers faster, and

retain them, helping to increase the teacher to student ratio in classes.

• It will then become easy to create and deliver a complete open course-ware

online education media solution to any web enabled device.

• It will provide tremendous efficiencies by allowing a global community of

enthusiasts, teachers and practitioners to develop open course ware.

• It will eliminate the need to repeatedly create lesson plans, and local and

regional control of educational content will become a thing of the past.

• Just as communities of writers sort out topics on Wikipedia a community of

global educators will sort out the order in which learning should progress for

every subject.

• There will be more avenues available to more people on job training and

professional training programs that traditionally were limited to specialized

organizations.

The Significance of E-learning and Technology

In today‘s times the there is important views that organizations form on the investments

in human capital and enterprise IT systems with enterprise success metrics such as

revenue, profitability, knowledge measurement, retention, and talent attraction.

Therefore, there is no doubt that e-learning provides a foundation for performance

monitoring that makes those correlations between people and learning technologies

possible.

The benefits of e-learning are twofold:

1 One focused on the needs and interests of individuals who are linked to

competency and accomplishment.

2 The other more closely aligned with the needs of the enterprise, tied to true

business results.

Some facts about Learning & Technology:

• Learning is a deeply personal act that is facilitated when learning

experiences are relevant, reliable, and engaging.

• During those early days of e-learning, we learned the hard way that simply

building a learning system that could be accessed over the Internet did not

guarantee that people would have much need for, or interest in, the courses

and programs, regardless of the provider.

• We learned that shoveling courseware online did not provide anyone—

faculty, students, or administrators—with an online experience that was much

more than tedious electronic page-turning. Sometimes we learned the hard

way that ―doing learning unto others‖ could quickly de-motivate and

disengage the very people we had hoped to serve.

• Different kinds of learning demand appropriate strategies, tools, and

resources.

• Concrete operational learning can be facilitated using representational

media, whereas teaching complex problem-solving—such as performing

surgery or landing an airplane—may be far better served by allowing learners

to practice developing those skills in a safe, risk-free virtual environment.

• Having just-in-time access to information, even in a flat-file, text-based form,

may be far preferable to having no access to any information at all.

• Questions about media appropriateness from a pure cognitive perspective

are likely to be mitigated by aesthetic and experience quality metrics.

• More than 20 years of empirical evidence underscores that there is no such

thing as a ―one-size-fits-all‖ technology solution for learning. (e.g. Clark,

1983;Jonassen, 2004).

Therefore, technology engages learners by structuring and organizing information, by

displaying and demonstrating procedures and operations. It can help make a learning

experience more memorable and can help relate new information to that which is

already known.

Technology can also simulate a range of conditions, immerse people in virtual

environments, and provide safe practice opportunities as mastery is developed—all of

which are necessary conditions for maximizing the probability that learning will occur.

Perhaps even more important, technology allows us to have relationships with

information in our own, unique ways. This phenomenon effectively shifts the question

from ―Will technology improve learning?‖ to ―How much further will technology let us

push the envelope of human cognitive, affective, and kinesthetic experience?‖

The more engaging the experience and the more intentional the results, the greater is

the likelihood that learning will occur.

Therefore, technology can help strengthen learner motivation, focus attention, make a

learning moment more memorable, or demonstrate the relevancy of learning to

performance; the greater is the likelihood that technology will have a direct positive

effect on learning.

Types of E-learning

E-learning is emerging as a solution for delivering online, hybrid, and synchronous

learning regardless of physical location, time of day, or choice of digital

reception/distribution device.

E-learning programs are implemented in the following ways:

• The virtual classroom

This model of e-learning continues to be the most familiar analogue for building e-

learning programs. The intention of virtual classrooms is to extend the structure and

services that accompany formal education programs from the campus or learning

center to learners, wherever they are located. The virtual classroom is for learners who

may be pursuing a distance education degree made up entirely of online lessons, and

it may include campus-based courses, where students join in from a variety of on- and

off-campus locations—in a real-time class session via the Internet.

Performance Support Systems for Virtual Classroom Learning Solutions

The virtual classroom model includes places for posting papers for review and

comment, and for completing tutorials and distributing class assignments for team

review before posting the secure PDF file containing multimedia assets and for breaking

away into study sections dealing with shared interest using web conferencing tools.

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Virtual Learning Solutions

In the Adobe world, common tools used for constructing virtual classrooms include such

applications as Adobe Acrobat® 8, Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly

known as Macromedia® Breeze® Meeting), Adobe Presenter 6 (formerly Breeze

Presenter), and Adobe Captivate 2.

• Online learning

This model of e-learning revolves around its dependence on courseware, delivered

over the Internet to learners at a variety of locations where the primary interaction

between the learner and the experiences of their learning occur via Networked

Computer Technology.

Performance Support Systems for Online Learning Solutions

Increasingly, learning management systems are serving as the basis for building online

programs where the education experience is entirely meditated through a digital

interface.

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Online Learning Solutions

Adobe tools, which have long been the de facto standard for creating interactive

digital learning content, include such familiar products as Flash®, Dreamweaver®,

Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Adobe Premiere®, Adobe Contribute™ and Adobe Captivate,

to name a few. The rising trend of integrating dynamic, modular learning content—

learning objects—in face-to-face and e-learning programs alike is expected to drive

greater demand for solutions built on Adobe Flex® and Adobe LiveCycle® platforms.

Greater interoperability with industry leading LMS platforms extends integration of

Acrobat Connect Professional.

• Rapid e-learning

This is a direct response to e-learning products that made it hard for nontechnical

subject matter experts and learners to contribute and make use of multimedia learning

content to the knowledge base.

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Rapid Learning Solutions

Rapid e-learning uses tools such as Adobe Captivate 2 and Adobe Presenter 6 to

reduce the time it takes to produce rich, engaging Flash learning content, while

allowing more non-technical contributors, including subject matter experts (SMEs) and

students, to share their SCORM and AICC conformant Adobe Captivate learning

objects as a stand-alone Flash movie or as an element of a multimedia portfolio that

can be securely shared within an Adobe PDF document.

• Mobile learning

This type of learning builds on the availability of ubiquitous networks and portable digital

devices, including laptop computers, PDAs, game consoles, MP3 players, and mobile

phones, and it takes advantage of place-independent flexibility that comes from

working away from the desktop. Mobile learning provides the opportunity to connect

informal learning experiences that occur naturally throughout the day with formal

learning experiences. Common tools for producing mobile learning content include

Flash Professional, Flash Media Server, and Flash Lite.

Performance Support Systems for Mobile Learning Solutions

These include decision support tools, checklists, and other kinds of performance aids

that are designed to bring workflow support to the point of need. Performance support

tools can be simple and straightforward or can be richly immersive, depending upon

need and criticality of performance.

Fundamental Ingredients for Building Mobile Learning Solutions

From specialized content creation tools such as FrameMaker® to Adobe Acrobat and

all of the Adobe Creative Suite® and Adobe Studio tools, to server products such as

ColdFusion® and those for creating rich Internet applications with Flex and LiveCycle,

Adobe tools are a fundamental ingredient for building e-learning solutions that respond

to any and all e-learning deployment models.

It is important to understand that all solutions for e-learning are all based upon creating

and extending rich, retentive, engaging learning experiences that connect learners

with instructors, other learners, and rich learning content assets regardless of physical

location.

The keyword is ENGAGEMENT and this is what binds together all types of distributed,

distant, and e-learning experiences.

• Provides the power to be able to determine the kinds of outcomes that a

learning engagement should enable guides the developments of

instructional designs, concept specifications, functional specifications, and

technical specifications. • E-learning also provides for the metrics for

evaluation. • Opportunities to use Interactions that promote and enable a

strong sense of social presence help keep learners engaged and motivated.

Therefore, e-learning and technology mediation, play a significant role and we need to

stand up and realize the value that rich, engaging content creation, distribution, and

management tools contribute to the experience of rich, effective e-learning programs

enables new levels of engagement and participation among all learning stakeholders.

Final word…

Purpleframe's solutions for e-learning are all based upon creating and extending rich,

engaging learning experiences that connect learners with instructors, other learners,

and rich learning content assets regardless of physical location. Engagement is the

conceptual glue that holds distributed, distant, and e-learning experiences together.

Being able to determine the kinds of outcomes that a learning engagement should

enable guides the developments of instructional designs, concept specifications,

functional specifications, and technical specifications. They will also provide metrics for

evaluation. Interactions that promote and enable a strong sense of social presence

help keep learners engaged and motivated.

The significant role played by technology mediation, and the value that rich, engaging

content creation, distribution, and management tools contribute to the experience of

rich, effective e-learning programs enables new levels of engagement and

participation among all learning stakeholders.

Purpleframe Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a Learning, New Media and Technology Solutions

Company offers cost effective business solutions, enabling organizations achieve their

performance management goals. Our process oriented approach ensures precise and

creative solutions for communication and learning needs in the fields of education,

entertainment, edutainment and infotainment. Purpleframe specializes in providing

blended learning solutions, engineering services, virtual reality, stereoscopy, rapid

prototyping (physical modeling) and other novel and ingenious products.

Please visit our website www.purpleframetech.com for more on our solutions for

communication and learning needs in the fields of education, entertainment,

edutainment and infotainment. You can also write to us at

sales@purpleframetech.com.

Purpleframe Technologies Pvt Ltd.

#23, Opp Big Bazaar, Banashankari 3rd Stage,

Bangalore-560085, Karnataka, INDIA

Ph- +91.80.26678494

References

For more details on the NEP and the problems of Indian education in the 1980s and

1990s, see N. Jayapalan, Problems of Indian Education (Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2001).

Ram and K.D. Sharma, National Policy on Education: An Overview (Delhi: Vikas

Publishing House, 2005), p. 1. http://www.indianchild.com/education_society_india.htm

(accessed 15.09.04). http://www.indianchild.com/education_society_india.htm

(accessed 15.09.04). Outlook, 18 August 2003.

J. Dreze and A. Sen, ‗Basic Education as a Political Issue‘, in B.G. Tilak (ed.), Education,

Society and Development: National and International Perspectives (New Delhi: APH,

2003), p. 3. 13 J. Dreze and A. Sen, Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives

(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The evolution of India‘s education policy Elitism, Nehruvianism and development

Traditional Hindu education served the needs of Brahmin families: Brahmin teachers

would teach boys to read and write. Under the Moguls, education was similarly elitist,

favoring the rich rather than those from high-caste backgrounds. These preexisting elitist

tendencies were reinforced under British rule. British colonial rule brought with it the

concept of a modern state, a modern economy and a modern education system. The

education system was first developed in the three presidencies (Bombay, Calcutta and

Madras). By linking entrance and advancement in government service to academic

education, colonial rule contributed to the legacy of an education system geared to

preserving the position and prerogatives of the more privileged. In the early 1900s, the

Indian National Congress called for national education, placing an emphasis on

technical and vocational training. In 1920 Congress initiated a boycott of government-

aided and government-controlled schools and founded several ‗national‘ schools and

colleges. These failed, as the rewards of British-style education were so great that the

boycott was largely ignored. Local elites benefited from the British education system

and eventually used it expel the colonizers. Nehru envisaged India as a secular

democracy with a state-led command economy. Education for all and industrial

development were seen as crucial tools to unite a country divided on the basis of

wealth, caste and religion, and formed the cornerstones of the antiimperial struggle.

Following Independence, school curricula were thus imbued with the twin themes of

inclusiveness and national pride, placing emphasis on the fact that India‘s different

communities could live peacefully side by side as one nation.

The legacies of this Nehruvian approach to education are considerable; perhaps most

notable is the entrenchment of the pluralist/secularist perspective in the minds of the

Indian people. Subsidized quality

higher education through institutions such as the IITs and IIMs formed a major

contribution to the Nehruvian vision of a self-reliant and modern Indian state, and they

now rank amongst the best higher education institutions in the world. In addition,

policies of positive discrimination in education and employment furthered the case for

access by hitherto unprivileged social groups to quality education. It has been argued

that while access for some marginalized communities continues to be limited, the

upward mobility of a few Dalit and tribal households resulting from positive

discrimination in educational institutions and state patronage has created role models

that help democracy survive in India.

The Kothari Commission: education for modernization, national unity and literacy

Drawing on Nehru‘s vision, and articulating most of his key themes, the Kothari

Commission (1964–6) was set up to formulate a coherent education policy for India.1

According to the commission, education was intended to increase productivity,

develop social and national unity, consolidate democracy, modernize the country and

develop social, moral and spiritual values. To achieve this, the main pillar of Indian

education policy was to be free and compulsory education for all children up to the

age of 14. Other features included the development of languages (Hindi, Sanskrit,

regional languages and the three-language formula2).

The need for change: the National Policy on Education

In 1986, Rajiv Gandhi announced a new education policy, the National Policy on

Education (NPE), which was intended to prepare India for the 21st century. The policy

emphasized the need for change: ‗Education in India stands at the crossroads today.

Neither normal linear expansion nor the existing pace and nature of improvement can

meet the needs of the situation.

Operation Blackboard (1987–8) aimed to improve the human and physical resources

available in primary schools.

Restructuring and Reorganization of Teacher Education (1987) created a resource for

the continuous upgrading of teachers‘ knowledge and competence.

Minimum Levels of Learning (1991) laid down levels of achievement at various stages

and revised textbooks.

National Program for Nutritional Support to Primary Education (1995) provided a

cooked meal every day for children in Classes 1–5 of all government, government-

aided and local body schools. In some cases grain was distributed on a monthly basis,

subject to a minimum attendance.

District Primary Education Program (DPEP) (1993) emphasized decentralized planning

and management, improved teaching and learning materials, and school

effectiveness.

Movement to Educate All (2000) aimed to achieve universal primary education by 2010

through micro planning and school-mapping exercises, bridging gender and social

gaps.

Fundamental Right (2001) involved the provision of free and compulsory education,

declared to be a basic right for children aged between 6 and 14 years.