digitalLEARNING-Dec-2010-[23-29]-Event Report-Awards for Best in K12 Innovation, eCampus and Labs

event report

Bal Bharti Public School

Awards for Best in K12 Innovation, eCampus and Labs

BGS International Public School

By Yukti Pahwa

Indraprastha International School

RPVV School

Tagore International School

The British School

Following the grand success of the school education conclave event on November 20, 2010 at New Delhi, awards were bestowed to the schools that have excelled in space of innovative pedagogy, best e-campus and ICT laboratories. The awardees were decided upon, after review of overwhelming amount of nominations received, by eminent jury of educationists. The selection criteria for choosing the best schools in the given field included factors such as the programme /innovation being fully operational for a minimum period of six months in the school at the time of application submission; the use of ICT/innovation having some practical outcomes that have improved teaching, learning, curriculum design, and/or assessment in schools; and so on.

There were three schools chosen as winners in each category and because all the initiatives were decided as eminent, all the three schools were given the same position, under three respective categories.

School with Best Innovative Pedagogy • The British School • DL DAV School • Tagore International School

School with Best eCampus • BGS International Public School • Indraprastha International School • Sanskriti School School with Best ICT Laboratory (Language/ Science/ Mathematics) • Bal Bharti Public School • Doon Public School • RPVV Rajniwas School

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CATEGORY I: INNOVATION IN PEDAGOGY ning and preparation for classes as also develop as professionals.

Components: ICT enriched curriculum; interdisciplinary approach; online programmes for specific subjects for classes 6th to 10th, with a server based programme in others; provision of projectors and an LCDs in all classrooms in the middle and lower senior classes; interactive boards in the mathematics, social science and the EVS Laboratory; three computer labs; separate labs for teachers; personal laptops for teachers; wi-fi campus; and e-school management system.

Impact: Amongst teachers there was improvement in areas of ICT skills; use of blended approach in teaching; effective evaluation of students’ learning; and improved lesson planning. Amongst students there has been an increase in easy understanding of concepts; independent learning, communication and higher order thinking skills; and improved ICT proficiency.

The British School DL DAV Model School Introduction: The pedagogy followed in the school is based on interactive learning, focusing on use of technology to enhance the delivery of subject contents to the students.

Objective: To offer a whole gamut of modern educational technologies; to assume role of facilitator - to ‘explore’, ‘experience, ‘enlarge’ & evaluate; to generate a sense of creativity, innovation and enterprise amongst the students; and ‘to learn, relearn and unlearn’ or ‘to learn to learn’.

Components: Interactive whiteboards (with software from ‘Class Teacher Solutions’); research centre; two multi-media labs; use of JIL (Bhartiya Vidya), CALComputer Aided Learning) Capsules; hi-tech library; computer labs; robotics club; Bridge an annual computer symposium; computers installed in all school departments; science and Math’s labs; and trained teaching personnel.

Impact: Built confidence, generated

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motivation, curiosity and promoted better understanding of concepts; increased computer savvy attitude; increased awareness; increased effectiveness and retention for slow learners; increased information accessibility and transparency; and greater satisfaction amongst parents, students and teachers.

Tagore International School Introduction: ‘Empower teachers, engage students’, is the mission on which the school operates and believs in using ICT as a teaching learning tool to enrich the teaching learning process in the school.

Objective: To integrate ICT in order to enrich and enhance the teaching learning process to raise students’ interest and level of understanding, making them independent learners and improving their performance; to make teachers improve the teaching methodologies; and focus on higher order plan-

Introduction: ICT is used to support all curriculum areas, collaborative and co-operative learning, and to develop higher order thinking skills in students.

Objective: The objective is to develop and maintain anytime, anywhere learning, personalised learning, and flexible learning spaces.

Components: Wireless campus and laptop access; interactive white boards; sharing teaching strategy with teaching staff around the world via the Promethean learning community; cross curricular approach to lessons; e-portfolios; curriculum mapping; personalising learning-moodle; CEM assessment; onsite training for existing and new staff; and robust bank of resources.

Impact: Personalised learning experience, while addressing all kinds of learners and learning styles; support to SEN (Special Educational Needs) and EAL (English as a Second Language) students; heightened motivation and engagement; creativity; metacognition; critical thinking and problem solving; and self assessment and evaluation.

CATEGORY I I: SCHOOL WITH BEST eCAMPUS BGS International Public School Introduction: The school has set up a technology oriented e-campus. The idea behind it is to manage students’ database, provide technical support 24X7 with an interactive software and to be in touch with the students even after school hours.

Objective: To have a real-time, automated, cost-effective, monitored for analysis of relevant data for various functional areas of school administration and management; student and parents’ interaction; knowledge management and student performance tracking and management at a single platform.

Components: ICT enabled ‘User Manager’; inter- and intra- communication through modes such as websites and software for administration, academics and extra-curricular activities; daily eupdates; use of SMS technology and Hotmail messenger; online preview, student profile registration and management; eenabled syllabus and curriculum; online parent teacher meetings; maintenance of time table; and report centre.

Impact: School has facilitated the collection and management of data at their points of origin and provides the right information and control to the right People. It has elevated the quality and efficiency standards to match the best in a global scenario.

Indraprastha International School Introduction: The school aims at comprehensive quality education .The school believes in imparting education and providing opportunities that promote social, cultural, mental, emotional and physical growth to every child. The school has contributed its mite to extend the child - centric quality education. The school has adopted the motto ‘Teach Each Child, Develop Whole Child’.

Objective: The school believes in liberating the minds of students, thus collaborative learning along with new innovative teaching methods is the hallmark of this institution. To realise

the motto, the school introduced the project “e-GYAN”, an E-GYAN based programme to incorporate technical knowledge in their day to day life. The other objectives are to provide 24x7 upgraded knowledge, learning a convenient process, to create innovative and imaginative minds, to establish International Links with educational institutions to facilitate international learning opportunities for students and teachers through e-education, to participate in research activities with global institutions, to provide students about educational and career opportunities, and to interact globally via networking mediums like video conferencing.

Components: Computer Aided Learning (CAL); smart/ interactive boards; IPIS e-software for maintaining attendance of the students and staff, result entry, report card generation according to new CCE format, circulars maintenance; payroll and fee management, transport management and students’ Database; school website keeping a track of academics, achievements, activites, admission and notices; robotics lab to implement AI (Artificial Intelligence), language laboratory; and computer based activities through ‘Mouseketeers’ – the computer club and use of teletyping software.

Impact: Achievements including International School Award, membership with UKIERI (The U.K. India Education and Research Institute), organising and participation in national and international Olympiads.

Sanskriti School Introduction: Sanskriti’s vision includes an IT enabled school. Hence, provisions were made at the very beginning to provide for a growing IT infrastructure.

Objective: Enhanced teaching/learning to empower the teacher to use technology to enhance their lesson and to deliver concepts with greater clarity; and to encourage the students to think and actively construct their knowledge on the basis of their individual understanding.

Components: All activities using Setchpad and graphic calculators; LAN cabling; focused computer training, strengthened by the Intel Teach to the Future training by INTEL; computer labs to double up as ICT labs in their free periods; exclusive Maths lab and a German language lab; one Audio Visual Room; the Biology, Physics, EVS, Psychology and other rooms have been enabled to impart ICT so that departments; and time-tables are continuously worked out to ensure all departments get minimum facilities usage.

Impact: ICT at Sanskriti has facilitated the teachers by giving them a variety of learning tools that are multidisciplinary and multi-sensorial. This has facilitated in transforming classrooms into new rich, interactive, virtual learning environs with the help of internet, websites and knowledge blogs, educational software and assessment tools; developing the multiple intelligences in students by giving learners a fair opportunity to learn through their preferred medium - multimedia lessons; and keeping teachers abreast of latest developments in subject areas and the field of education through sharing of ideas, lesson plans, teaching strategies etc.

ICT has encouraged students to think and actively construct their knowledge through specially designed interactive tasks on the basis of their individual understanding. This has facilitated learning collaboratively; creativity and interactive learning environment; presentations and projects and assessment as a part of the learning process.

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CATEGORY I I I: SCHOOL WITH BEST ICT ENABLED LAB (SCIENCE/ MATHEMATICS/ LANGUAGE)

Bal Bharati Public School, Pitampura Introduction: Classroom teaching can sometimes limit the teaching-learning process. The language lab in the school helps overcome this major hindrance by stimulating the interest of the learners and helping them learn the language in a better way. The lab lets the learners shed their inhibitions and makes them inquisitive.

Objective: The main objective for initiating the language lab in school is keeping in view the concept of multiple intelligences. Language skills can be divided roughly into 4, which are - listening, speaking, reading and writing. The school wants to focus on all the four, also encompassing grammar and a little bit of vocabulary in the teaching-learning process. The aim is to also make teaching-learning process more interesting. And finally, the aim behind including ICT is for letting the students keep pace with the upcoming computer-savvy world.

Components: To enhance the listening skills of the students they are taken to the lab where they get an opportunity to hear the stories through headphones individually. After listening to the stories and short comprehensions, they are given questionnaires wherein they are supposed to answer the question related to or based on the comprehension.

Apart from this an oral activity is also undertaken which helps in empowering the child’s confidence, expression and

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vocabulary. The use of mike helps them overcome the stage fright answer confidently. A lot of grammar exercises are also undertaken as a part of listening and comprehension which make learning more of a fun activity.

Impact: Students have started paying more attention to voice modulation and pronunciation; they have become aware of pronunciation, specifically like stress patterns, accents and differences in vowels and vowel glides; unconsciously and consciously they have started correcting themselves and others regarding correct pronunciations; students have become more focused in listening due to several listening activities; they have learnt to listen to relevant information and details, ignor-

ing the irrelevant ones; and a deeper concentration is developed which can be seen in their overall performance..

Doon Public School, Paschim Vihar Introduction: An environment for student-centric explorative (learning by doing). It is all about learning, verifying and visualising mathematical concepts in a ‘fun’ way. It inculcates learning through ‘Applied Reasoning’.

This learner centered approach to math helps every child imagine, investigate and interact effectively. The multiple teaching and learning aids comprises technology applications, videos, manipulative and measuring instruments, tables, charts and so much more.

Objective: To impart quality education; to ensure the proper physical, mental and moral growth of the students, in tune with modern scientific temper; to enlarge the mental horizons and to broaden the outlook of the students through the inculcation of the Reading Habit and the Book Culture; to arouse in them the aesthetic sense; and to provide the students with opportunities (through a built in system of cocurricular activities ) to be innovative, independent and confident.

Components: Digital display, manipulatives, nodes, GSP and support from NIIT team. Teachers are able to now implement the practicality behind mathematics. mathematics has now become fun learning for all the students. The biggest achievement has been the response of students. An average student has also learned more and perceived more.

Impact: Improvement in performance of students; students are taking more initiative in learning mathematics; and teachers have got a tool by which they can explain concepts better to students.

Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, LC 1, Rajniwas Marg Introduction: HeyMath! Zone is created by converting the existing Math Lab or a classroom in the school into an attractive and cheerful informal learning environment. HeyMath! Zone complements the teaching process and supple-

ments text book information by introducing multiple sensory experiences in an otherwise black and white world of text books and black boards ‐ making learning a truly memorable experience for students.

Objective: The objective of the HeyMath! Zone is to change the manner in which Maths is perceived by students and establish a unique differentiation for the school as a “center for learning Maths using multiple intelligences”.

Additionally, to facilitate experiential learning and teaching through discovery and exploration; cater to multiple intelligences and learning styles; maximise learning value within a confined space through innovative and interactive activities; and provide an inclusive/ equitable platform to ensure that every

child is benefited.

Components: e‐Lessons mapped to school’s exam board for classes one to ten; orientation and professional development sessions for teachers; laptop; projector; pull down screen; UPS; multimedia speakers; posters on various mathematics concepts such as big numbers, factors, symmetry, golden ratio, spatial dimensions, size comparison, etc.

Impact: It has generated a lot of interest and enthusiasm amongst the students. Teachers find it easier to explain concepts that are otherwise difficult to explain in a conventional classroom environment, using ‘learn while you play’ techniques with the aid of various activities and manipulatives in the Math Zone.

Over 1,400 students participate in Delhi edition of TCS IT Wiz 2010

The TCS IT Wiz 2010 edition conducted and organised by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), received an overwhelming participation in Delhi. It was a packed auditorium with over 1400 students from Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon School participating in the prelims of TCS IT Wiz - India’s largest tech quiz for schools held on Saturday at Dogra Hall, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. After the prelims and some grueling and intense round of quizzing Prem Pal Singh and Anshul from New Era Public School, Mayapuri walked away with the coveted winners trophy, along with a ThinkPad Lenovo laptop each, closely followed by Abhishek Gupta and Mrinal Mohit from Delhi Public School, Noida as Runners-up who received their trophy along with IdeaPad Netbook. Basant Gupta, Additional Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs who was the chief guest on the occasion distributed the prizes along with Debashis Ghosh, Vice President & Head, TCS Delhi operations.

The 6 Regional finalists also received an array of prizes from TCS ranging from backpacks, MP3 players, headphones, t-shirts and water sippers. Among the special prize for the Winners included dinner with N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of TCS during National Finals. The Regional rounds of TCS IT Wiz this year was held in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Pune, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Kochi, Lucknow. After Delhi and Mumbai edition the 12 regional winner will compete in the for TCS IT Wiz National Champion title at National Finals to be held in Chennai on December 18. TCS IT Wiz was open to school students studying from Class 8 – 12 (including PU students). The regional rounds of the quiz included rounds suhc as that on Autonomic Computing - The world of IT has seen change at every crossroad. It is also perhaps the only industry where change is so fast that one has to keep pace with it. This round will explore the knowledge of the contestants on how abreast they are with the IT world around them and the changes that have taken place. This round also featured a question asked by N Chandrasekaran, CEO & MD of TCS on a video link.

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