LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized a conference “Leveraging Technology in Education” on 23rd September 2016, at ITC Maurya, New Delhi. Two faculty members Dr. Abhishek Swami, Department Applied Science and Humanities and Dr. Somnath Sinha, from Department of Information Technology of Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida attended the conference. The theme of the conference was “How can Technology support inclusive and equitable quality education and promote learning”.

The inauguration session (1030 Hrs - 1140 Hrs) started with a speech of Mr. Anjan Das, Executive director, CII. He discussed the role of information in education. Mr. Rajeev Srivastava, Managing Director, Hwelett - Packward India explained the importance of IT tools like Laptop, tablets etc. in education. Mr. Srivastava told how the confidence boost up has been recorded in the student using various IT Tools. Ms. Debjani Gupta, Vice President - Sales and Marketing Group, Managing Director-South Asia, Intel Technology Pvt. Ltd. emphasized on digital literacy for teachers by which they can easily involve with various e-learning platforms. Ms. Debjani told that e-learning is not completed without the involvement of teachers. Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India, Pvt. Ltd., discussed that Microsoft is committed to provide computers to everyone for the purpose of education. He discussed that use of teacher capacity to deal with technology to education is a must. He told about the role of various certifications introduced by Microsoft for the students. Mr. Richard Everitt, Director, Education, British Council India gave his remarks on public and private partnerships for enhancing new technology in education. Mr. Aditya Nath, Principal Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh discussed various deficiencies of resources and infrastructure in Information Technology for the purpose of education. Mr. Adiya Nath told how 8.6 crore students drop school education annually and we need to identify root causes for drop outs.

The first session (1200 Hrs - 1315 Hrs) started with the speech by Dr. Suresh Subramanian,Vice President, Industry Solutions HP, Inc. and gave his remarks on Government’s role in promoting the use of ICT education which revolves around the creation of infrastructure. He discussed that how it can be reduced school dropout ratio. Dr. Manpreet Sing Manna, Director, In - Charge Swayam Cell, AICTE, discussed the role of Swayam portal for the young technocrats. He told how the Government is trying to open a portal for School going children as well. He emphasized for making India digitally strong to enhance our education system. He told about the role of ICT in engineering education and how ICT can impact on the capacity building of our students.

The second session (1415 Hrs – 1530 Hrs) started with the introductory remark by Mr. Ashutosh Chadha, Director, Government Affairs, Microsoft, Corporation India, Pvt., Ltd., on Adaptive learning and capturing; analyzing behavior for improving out and about digital content transformation. He emphasized on the role of cloud based delivery of content and assessment in class room. Mr. Harman Singh, CEO & Founder, WixIQ discussed leveraged technology to replicate classroom experience for students and teachers. He discussed various innovative ideas for online learnings. Dr. Anjlee Prakash, Director, Educomp, told that in ever increasing universe of options, thousands of technologies are available for teachers, students as well as evaluators to improve their proficiency in teaching, learning and assessment. Dr. Anjlee emphasized that Educomp is committed to provide better technologies for better learnings.

Mr. Kishore Balaji, Director - Corporate Affairs, Intel South Asia took the third session (1600 Hrs – 1730 Hrs) and discussed on empowering teachers through sustained profession learning, next generation learning objectives and teacher generated content and recognition and reward program for motivating the converts. Dr. Hrushikesh Senapathy Director, NCERT, New Delhi, discussed about changing the curriculum at the pre-service level to create a new teaching cadre. Ms. Rupa Chakravarty, Principal, Suncity School, discussed how some of the interventions by industry in curriculum development and transforming the learning practice have motivated and inspired teachers for better learnings. Dr. Indu Khetarpal, Principal, Salwan Public School, Delhi, told that we should be approachable for embracing professional development design for K-12 teachers in public domain. Dr. Indu discussed that teachers should be inspired to embrace transformation teaching practices by reward and motivation. Dr. Vinnie jauhari, Director Education Advocacy, Microsoft Corporation, India, PVT, Ltd., provided a glimpse into the exciting world of new possibilities in the areas of 1:1 learning, classroom of the future, adaptive learning, digital content transformation, building teacher capacity etc.

In the end, Mr. Kishore Balaji, Director - Corporate Affairs, Intel South Asia, summed up the ideas shared during the conference by various speakers followed by the Hi-Tea.

Some Glimpses: