eGov-Aug-2010-[36-46]-eINDIA 2010 Awards-ICT ENABLED SCHOOL

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AWARDS

ICT ENABLED SCHOOL

DESTINATION Success

CITIZEN CHOICE #1

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Indian High School, Dubai OBJECTIVES  Enable teachers to teach in an efficient and effective way  Create paperless office, quick and fast communication, virtual classrooms, video lessons, online assessments, and extended learning

CITIZEN

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estination Success is a holistic educational solution with digital content, print and digital activities, lesson plans, interactivities to evaluate student learning, professional development services, IT executive for technical maintenance and teacher support. This is one of the largest eLearning implementations in the region covering more than 7000 students, 220 classrooms with Interactive Boards, complete connectivity in school, Wi-Fi campus, more than 100 hours of IT training for over 600 teachers, and digital interactive content deployed in the school in association with S. Chand Harcourt.

The Wifi Campus with Internet accessibility in all areas has enabled students and teachers to research and study during the entire school day. The teachers have become more IT proficient, comfortable in independently navigating through the solution to use a variety of its features, including the Interactive White Board, for teaching. One of the greatest teaching steps has been the planned use of the same content by two-three different subject teachers leading to a vibrant cross disciplinary learning by students.

OUTCOME  Students have shown a marked ease and proficiency with technology  Enhances critical thinking and problem solving skills

RAISING Healthy Kids

CHOICE #2

T OUTCOME  Brought out creativity, planning, designing, imagination amongst students  An e-library was developed by the students

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he project enables the students to recognise and recall deficiency diseases and their prevention by consuming healthy diet. Through the project students came to know the importance of food in growth and health, spread awareness among peers and the community about the importance of bio pesticides, natural fertilisers and going natural, and imbibe tips given by the experts and put them into practice. The project also identify reasons of malnutrition and obesity among children, examine the cause and effect of emotional development, communicate the results of data to peers, parents and community.

The target group is children between 6 to 16 years. To create awareness among all the students of the school constructive changes in food habits at home front was brought into. After imbibing healthy eating habits amongst the students, they were made to show concern towards underprivileged children, periodically visited the schools and appraised them on ‘Need to eat healthy’, visited villages and conducted awareness programmes. As the school is tied up with Global gateway project, the project was taken to the UK, Australia, Japan, and the USA.

egov / www.egovonline.net / august 2010

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Public School, Jubilee Hills OBJECTIVES  Create an environment where physical activity and healthy eating are accessible and encouraged  Generate awareness among students through activities using technology

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ICT ENABLED SCHOOL

CITIZEN

AWARDS

EACH Child with Laptop in Classroom

CHOICE #3

OUTCOME  Increase in student’s attendance and attention  Less weight on school bags  Saves time  Revision by playing back old lessons

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lassroom equipped with Interactive whiteboard, (electronic board), projector, teacher laptop, X class (Digital Classroom Management Software), Internet connectivity, 24 laptop trolley, and 24 laptops.

Once a teacher writes anything on the whiteboard, with a click of button (through Xs class Software) it can be transferred to all the children’s laptop within a second. The file transferred can be in different formats, like pdfs, ppt, videos etc. The teacher then has an option of starting a quiz, each student gets a quiz screen with a set of questions, he/she once answers within seconds, it generates a result. This is fastest way of assessing how much a child has understood a concept. A Laptop chargeable trolley with 24 laptops is used. The laptop trolley enables to charge laptops in 1 hour. Once charged laptop works for 5 hours non-stop.

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Podar Group of Schools OBJECTIVES  Establish the success rate of laptops in classrooms for student aged around 11-12 years  Share the data written by teacher on Interactive White Board to all the laptops instead of copying of the taught lesson on board to notebook by a child

MKCL Digital School Programme

JURY AWARD

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation OBJECTIVES  Empower school children to capture various technology enabled learning experiences  Give an opportunity of personalised, self paced, collaborative learning experience to school children

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aharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) was promoted by the Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra, India. It was incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 on August 20, 2001 as a Public Limited Company under CIN. U 80302 MH 2001 PLC 133101 to create new paradigm in education and development through universalisation and integration of Information Technology in teaching, learning and educational management processes in particular and socio-economic transformative processes in general. Digital School is a program that empowers school children to capture various learning experiences in a technology enabled and teacher facilitated environment by means of different activities and interactivities complementing school curricula. The target group includes school children, reaching out to 14 districts of Maharashtra and number of schools where the program has been implemented is 397 schools. The project ensures the deployment of eLearning platform inside school for school children to offer co-curricular and extracurricular multimedia based interactive learning content.

OUTCOME  The program has been successfully implemented in 397 schools with 2, 75000 students got benefited with innovative learning experience

august 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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AWARDS

UNIVERSITY ICT ENABLED SCHOOL

LEARNING Management System &

CITIZEN

Computer Based Tutorials

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Punjab Technical University OBJECTIVES  Enable Students to learn online, anywhere any time  Enhance learning capability by providing gist of subject with animation and illustrations  Enable students to learn on their own pace

CITIZEN

CHOICE #1

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MS is a facility so as to supplement the Distance Education Programme of Punjab Technical University. This is meant to impart an opportunity of learning to the students at his own pace where he has a dedicated online mentor, a large group of fellow students, various online resources and a wide exposure to enjoy applications of computerisation and communication system. In LMS, learner is provided with a login and user id. The key idea is that an LMS in a learning context supports the teaching and learning process, rather than replacing it.

The learner can contact the system admin for any technical problem in the LMS. With LMS, learner could get real time updations regarding their course, resource library, digital library and can chat with fellow students and faculty. He can discuss any topic which is complicated and if is facing difficulty in understanding. The learner can also interact with his colleagues on blogs. With the user of LMS, learner can get the benefit of getting education from the experts sitting across the world. There is no geographic limitation for learning with the help of LMS.

OUTCOME  The concept is a very effective as learners can easily understand the concepts with the help of pictures, graphics and animations

e-Bridge

CHOICE #2

P OUTCOME  Elimination of lengthy and tedious manual processes  Effective Time Utilisation  Accuracy of data reduced man-hours

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TU has established a state of art Electronic Data Processing Unit that handles tabulation and declaration of result and certification of more than 1,50,000 students enrolled in its Distance Education Programme. All subjects are allotted unique IDs individually which are linked to various courses offered. In each session, more than 8 lakh records are entered and processed. This EDP system processes reports at click of a button, handles student verification, updates Auto Semester Progression and maintains individual Electronic Records of students. Scalable to 10,00,000 students, this unit is managed only by a team of 10 people led by the EDP Manager and an Assistant Registrar. The EDP connects the University with the Regional Centres, the Learning Centres and the students through a dynamic web portal (www.ptudep.org) and the intelligent ERP software (web based) which is operated by the Learning Centre and supervised by the Regional Centre with a central server at Reliance Data Centre in Mumbai. The Learning Centre punches the data in the ERP Software which is then imported to the EDP. Through this many reports like name ratification, subject specialisations, fee deposit sheets, compiled results. can be generated at a click of a button.

egov / www.egovonline.net / august 2010

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Punjab Technical University OBJECTIVES  Digitally and electronically connect all the tiers in the system  Have a Central Database System to ensure speedy and accurate tabulation and declaration of results  Generate an effective MIS, for analysis and intelligent reports

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ICT ICT ENABLED UNIVERSITY ENABLED SCHOOL

CITIZEN

AWARDS

EduNxt

CHOICE #3

E OUTCOME  EduNxt environment is used by over 90,000 students and will be made available to over 1, 50,000 students  Usage has increased continually to a daily average of over 2500 unique users

duNxt initiative was launched by Sikkim Manipal University’s Directorate of Distance Education (SMU – DE). Currently the University has over 1,80,000 active enroll student base from over 300 towns.

These students get counseled by university authorised learning centers. SMU-DE has 725 authorised learning centers spread across India. EduNxt enables collaborative and interactive learning environment which includes small group mentoring, virtual classrooms, simulation, self- study content, recorded presentations and shared browsing. The 3 As of affordability, zccessibility and appropriateness are the guideline to scaling up EduNxt across distributed learning. Meanwhile, the 4Cs of Content, Collaboration, Communication and Computing are the basis of developing EduNxt. The platform has functionality which provides a student to interact with 63 core faculty and 6500 counsellors in order to utilise the varied expertise and vast experience of this community. The EduNxt is also being used to train, certify and orient these 6500 counsellors to technology based education and its benefits. As of now SMU- DE has more than 1500 trained and certified faculty members at 725 authorised learning centres across India.

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Sikkim Manipal UniversityDirectorate of Distance Education OBJECTIVES  Take the fruits of online learning to all the Distance Education students of the SMU-DDE  Develop a sense of togetherness among the members and different stakeholders

N-LIST for Scholarly Content

JURY AWARD

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre OBJECTIVES  Provide access of electronic resources to government /governmentaided colleges  Enable crosssubscription to e-resources  Fill-in the serious gap of providing access of e-resources to colleges

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he Project is being jointly executed by the UGC- INFONET Digital Library Consortium, INFLIBNET Centre and the INDEST-AICTE Consortium. In the project IIT Delhi provides for cross-subscription to e- resources subscribed by the two Consortia, i.e. subscription to INDEST-AICTE resources for universities and UGCINFONET resources for technical institutions; and access to selected e-resources to colleges.

The authorised users from colleges can now access e- resources and download articles required by them directly from the publisher’s website once they are duly authenticated as authorised users through servers deployed at the INFLIBNET Centre. The project has four distinct components, to subscribe and provide access to selected UGC-INFONET e-resources to technical institutions and monitor its usage, to subscribe and provide access to selected INDEST e-resources to selected universities and monitor its usage, to subscribe and provide access to selected e-resources to 6,000 Government/Government-aided colleges and monitor its usage, and to act as a Monitoring Agency for colleges while evaluate, promote, impart training and monitor all activities involved in the process of providing effective and efficient access to e-resources to colleges.

OUTCOME  Provides access to more than 2,100 journals  Currently, 684 eligible colleges are already accessing e-resources  More than 25,000 faculty members and students in 684 registered colleges have been given User ID and Password to access e- resources

august 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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AWARDS

ICT ENABLED BUSINESS SCHOOL SCHOOL

ACADEMIC Institute Management System

CITIZEN CHOICE #1

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY MIT School of Management, Pune OBJECTIVES  Make learning more effective, more inclusive, more flexible, more interesting and personalized  Aid the teaching faculty to cater to a large group of students more effectively

CITIZEN

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he project was started with an aim to evaluate the teaching-learning process, wherein the primary stakeholders are the teachers and students, and for the management and administration of the institute, wherein the primary stakeholders are the administrators and staff members. The Learning Management System (LMS) part of the project brings in “Blended Learning” paradigm into the curriculum. Using the Institute Management System (IMS), the administrative staff, increases the efficiency of the workflow and makes it more responsive towards the other stakeholders of the system. The program is an attempt in creation of a single platform for all the tasks related to any stakeholder in an institute under one centralised system. The Net-ID for a student/faculty/administrator/staff would be the single most powerful way to access/retrieve/modify with appropriate access controls and all security measures in place. Continual Evaluation processes keep the students more involved in the process of learning ensuring higher knowledge retention and superior application of fundamentals.

Usage of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) for primer and foundation courses lets the students assimilate and master the concepts at their own pace, giving personalized learning solutions in addition to class room teaching. Usage of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) for primer and foundation courses lets the students assimilate and master the concepts at their own pace, giving personalized learning solutions in addition to class room teaching.

OUTCOME  Automated library with slim++ software with which students can check and put requisition of book on line. Examination system is automated.

ATRIUM

CHOICE #2

T OUTCOME  A single information gateway with user- centric navigation  Complete information on course outlines, grades, etc  Up-to-date information on the happenings on campus

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he Atrium, intranet platform was deployed on one of the best platforms – Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The project was conceptualised with the aim of providing a single platform for the entire ISB community students, faculty members, administrative staff, etc., to access organisation level information, with complete role based privileges so that privacy settings are assured. The complete deployment was planned and executed by the internal technical team without involving any external partners. The entire process of creating the scope, evaluation of various software, features list and user requirements mapping, beta launch, customising the navigation, look was innovative that the portal is currently a default information gateway. The portal has now become an integral part of the campus life for the ISB faculty, staff, and students as it is a centralised repository of knowledge. It is used as a collaborative tool and has effectively reduced spam emails to the entire ISB for events, announcements, celebrations, etc. For those who are new to the School, it serves as virtual induction platform, with comprehensive information on the campus and the city itself. With complete information on the School, its programmes, departments, roles and responsibilities of the staff, newcomers are quickly able to familiarise themselves with the community. The features available in MOSS 2007 have helped to create a user-centric intranet with organization level information.

egov / www.egovonline.net / august 2010

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Indian School of Business OBJECTIVES  Provide a single platform for the entire ISB community  Access organisation level information, with complete role based privileges

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ICT ENABLED ICTBUSINESS ENABLED SCHOOL SCHOOL

CITIZEN

AWARDS

SAPling

CHOICE #3

T OUTCOME  A single window for the entire organisation’s data/information, knowledge, resources with complete access control  Reduced administration hassles, and improved the core business

he Project – “SAPling” is a full-fledged, process-driven, integrated SAP system at the Indian School of Business. A higher education and research portfolio solution from SAP was introduced in order to support and plan the expansion of ISB. The project started with a small seedling effort of automating the business processes targeting the entire ISB community. The need to use cutting edge technology and best practices to deliver strategic information and improved service delivery has motivated the ISB to choose SAPs Higher Education and Research implementation. The development process involved creating a well defined scope with inputs from various key stakeholders across the organization and providing an exhaustive checklist. The support of a good customercentric, technology-oriented team and a knowledgeable partner to implement the project further contributed to the programme’s success. Meticulous training for the various stakeholders and effective change management initiatives further ensured that the programme was properly adopted across the School. The programme also enabled easier integration of data across various out-of-box applications such as bidding, event management, online application for programmes, placement portal, CRM, etc. The data is pulled from the online admissions portal, venue and event management portal, learning management system, elective bidding system into SAP for all the other departments to use as a central repository.

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Indian School of Business OBJECTIVES  Automate business processes  Unify the data in a single source for all business units; gaining access to data anytime, anywhere  Implement collaborative and systematic operational management; improving service delivery

OPEN & DISTANCE LEARNING

PTU Distance Education Programme

CITIZEN CHOICE #1

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Punjab Technical University Distance Education Programme OBJECTIVES  Provide affordable, flexible and relevant technical education  Reach out to a strong network of 32 regional centers & 1600+ Learning centers providing services to over 1,50,000 students

P

unjab Technical University, (PTU) started its Distance Education Programme (DEP) in 2001. In DEP, PTU offers undergraduate and post graduate Diploma and Degree programmes in the field of IT and management, hotel management, airlines and tourism, paramedical and allied technologies, fashion, interior, jewellery and textile designing, fire, safety and hazards management, mass communication and journalism and multi-media technologies.

All these programmes are approved by Distance Education Council (IGNOU), New Delhi. In PTUDEP, there is a unique model of PPP. The administrative, conduct & secrecy powers rest with the University wherein the University designs courses, syllabi & curriculum, prepares learning material, establishes learning centers, conducts & evaluates examinations, provide certification and maintain quality. Regional Centres coordinate with university and assist in establishment of learning centres and their trainings, prepare and publish advertisements, data base management and MIS, process forms and fees, take care of logistics and supplies, coordinate in conduct of exam, disseminate information, organise center meetings and trainings whereas learning centres maintain infrastructure as specified by PTU.

OUTCOME  There are more than 1,50,000 students acquiring qualifications in different courses  There are more than 1600 learning centres all across India

august 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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AWARDS

ICT ENABLED SCHOOL OPEN & DISTANCE LEARNING

LIVE Webcast Courses

CITIZEN CHOICE #2

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY CDEEP IIT Bombay OBJECTIVES  Provide quality education in the field of science and engineering to any willing individual from India or any where free of cost  Address the deficiency of quality faculty  Transmit its courses free and unencrypted through the satellite EDUSAT

CITIZEN

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he live webcast course at Center of Distance Education Programme (CDEEP) IIT Bombay was started with the objective to provide quality education in the field of science and engineering to any willing individual from India or any where free of cost. The project provides web based distance education solution to whomever, wherever and whatever. About 500,000 students enroll in engineering studies in India every year at the undergraduate level which is only 2.5 percent of the age group. Although only a select group studies engineering, according to McKinsey studies, only 25 percent of the engineering graduates of India are employable. The main reason for this state of affairs is deficiency of quality faculty in the engineering colleges of India. Because of this dismal state, not many students with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering are ready to go for higher studies. Moreover, less than 1 percent of them can hope to enroll in Master’s programs. Naturally there is big shortage of Master’s and Ph.D graduates in India. During last fifty year IITs have established themselves as one of the most premier institutions around the world in providing engineering education. Just 1 percent of the aspirants get admitted to the IITs, through an entrance exam JEE. IIT Bombay offers a total 1000 semester long courses in science and different branches of engineering.

OUTCOME  Till date more than 100 courses are transmitted on live webcast  Government College of Engineering Poona (COEP) has accepted the courses of CDEEP IIT Bombay as plug in replacement for there regular courses

WEB Based Examination System

CHOICE #3

W OUTCOME  The programme is running very successfully and it is going to be operational for faculty members.  It has proved to be good model for dual degree programme

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eb based Examination System is secured with IP based policy and students are allocated with roll numbers for logging into the system. The Online Examination System is a web based application developed in open source MySQL and PHP. This customised software has been developed for dual degree students of PAU. This is run from an In–House Apache Webserver on their internal network. The examination consists of different types of multiple choice questions and subjective questions. The questions and time to attempt are fixed. The answers are evaluated and the marks obtained for each along with the answer given by the student are stored in the database. The examiner can get the results immediately. The software maintains the details for each student as well as provides a facility for editing the student details if required. There is password based access for individual answer sheets and general mark lists. This Online Examination System in PHP and MySQL can be modified and customized to suit the need of any Educational Institutions, Primary and Secondary Schools, Colleges, Professional and Vocational Institutes, Universities or Training Academies. This software is suited to any kind of examinations and it will save valuable time spent on assessing the answer books and the results can be obtained immediately.

egov / www.egovonline.net / august 2010

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Punjab Agricultural University OBJECTIVES  Automate the examination procedure  Save valuable time spent on assessing the answer books and the results that can be obtained immediately

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ENABLED SCHOOL OPEN & ICT DISTANCE LEARNING

JURY

AWARDS

POCKET Education

AWARD

T OUTCOME  The mobile learning initiative was evaluated via a questionnaire and the evaluation showed that the students highly accepted the SMS learning  The messages received were easy to understand and are easy to remember

he Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) through the School of Distance Education (SDE) boasts of state-of-the-art telecommunication capabilities and innovative educational approach to enhance the educational architecture and learning environment in Malaysia.

The dawning of the age of the Internet saw SDE produce a home-grown learning management system in 2003 with full migration to Moodle in 2005. In the 2007-08 acedemic session, SDE piloted the use of the hand phone in distance teaching via the use of SMS in a second year Physics optics course with the code JIF212. The chosen topic of ‘dispersion’ was redesigned in a SMS fashion such that the students could receive short messages based on the topic. One of the main thrust of this project is to incorporate pacing by constructing the text message according to the sequence of topics in the learning materials. Being in vocation, the students could benefit from the SMS received and enhanced connectivity in their study. The success of the pilot led to the construction of a dedicated system in USM Called Pocket Education. Weekly segments of content-rich SMSes are loaded onto the system for a scheduled delivery over the period of the study. An in-house interactive system is currently being developed for a multi-application construct in the scalable mobile learning mode.

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Mobile Learning OBJECTIVES  Provide education though Mobile devices  Develop course content to suit SMS requirements  Incorporate pacing by constructing the text message according to the sequence of topics in the learning materials

SKILL DEVELOPMENT

JAWAHAR Knowledge Center Initiative CITIZEN CHOICE #1

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Institute For Electronic Governance OBJECTIVES  Socially challenged sections of the society have equal opportunities for employment in the IT & ITES sectors  Bridge the gap between industry and academia and thus improve the rate of employment

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The Institute for Electronic Governance (IEG) is a state level nonprofit society established by Government of Andhra Pradesh, to offer solutions in the discourse of quality human resources by bringing synergy among the institutions of the government, industry and academia. IEG has started its training programe by establishing Jawahar Knowledge Centers. The JKC initiative has been inaugurated in December 2004 by the Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Late Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in order to bridge the gap between industry and academia and thus improve the rate of employment. At present IEG is training nearly 100,000 students with a special focus on students from rural backgrounds. IEG has also started a separate program called Special Training Program (STP) to ensure that all the socially challenged sections of the society have equal opportunities for employment in the IT & ITES sectors through imparting state of the art training. Under this project IEG has trained about 800 socially and economically challenged Engineers for improving their skills in IT related sectors totally on free of cost and placement assistance was provided.

The so far training programs taken by IEG are in the direction of producing industry ready graduates in cooperation and collaboration with Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education and several Universities within the state.

OUTCOME  The program helps in bridging the gap between industry and academia  Helped in taking major companies for campus placements to the colleges in the tier II and III towns

august 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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AWARDS

ICT ENABLED SCHOOL SKILL DEVELOPMENT

FINANCIAL Intermediaries Course

CITIZEN CHOICE #2

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Crux Management Services OBJECTIVES  Provide basic knowledge in banking operations  Help the candidates in developing an overall understanding of the several aspects including role and function of Business Facilitators / Business Correspondents and Financial advising and counseling

CITIZEN

R

eserve Bank of India has permitted banks to use intermediaries such as Business Correspondents/Business Facilitators (BC/BF) to reach out to the rural population. Keeping this objective in mind, the IIBF has mandated Crux to offer a certificate course, with structured classroom work followed by examination, targeted at the newly-emerging cadre of financial intermediaries called BF/BCs. This course is aimed at those individuals and organisations who will take banking and financial services to people. The business facilitators/business correspondents help banks to identify potential customers, undertake advising/counseling of village people about appropriate bank products and services. They further help villagers to complete the formalities that are needed to transact with the bank, in putting through basic and small value transactions of the rural people. They also educate customers about terms of sanction and help in matters related to compliance of sanction terms, repayment and recovery. This course is aimed at enhancing the skill sets of business facilitators /business correspondents.

The journey of the IIBF started with an MOU being signed between IIBF and Crux.The program is scalable as Crux involves and associates the local authority to generate the interest and utilize the infrastructure. There is a huge demand for skilled manpower to achieve financial inclusion for more than 50 percent of the Indians who will largely benefit from the availability of financial services.

OUTCOME  The program has trained people from the less privileged background and has certified close to 95% of the participants  The program used ICT as a way to conduct the training programmes to make it more effective

SAKSHAT Amrita Vocational Education

CHOICE #3

F OUTCOME  On 11 March 2010, S.A.V.E. delivered for its first-ever module on plumbing in the Tribal Settlement of Kumbitankuzhy  First time ever that Governmentfunded vocational training in the field of plumbing was imparted to women and girls

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unded by the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development, SAVE applies path breaking haptic technology and virtual reality to the realm of vocational education. Software and hardware developed at SAVE will eventually reduce the need for instructor time and time on expensive machinery. This would also ensure that the curriculum and testing functions of vocational courses can be standardized across India. SAVE is demonstrating the means to provide vocational education on a broader scale. And by targeting individuals who have thus far been sidelined in India’s economic progress, SAVE’s work offers concrete proof that with proper application of modern technology, prosperity and growth are increasingly achievable for all sectors of society. SAVE caters to a population that until now has been disproportionately handicapped in their ability to enter into effective income-generating activities. With SAVE courses accessible from anywhere where there is Internet or satellite connectivity—desktop and laptop computers, standard mobile phones and smart-phones; location will no longer be a barrier to vocational education. SAVE courses can be transmitted to remote locales, equipping these vulnerable communities with the skills and means they need to survive and prosper in a changing world. The unique application of haptic technology to vocational education will minimize the need for materials and tools.

egov / www.egovonline.net / august 2010

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Amrita Vishwa Vidya Peetham OBJECTIVES  Apply haptic technology and virtual reality to the realm of vocational education  Offer courses that can be transmitted to remote locales, equipping vulnerable communities with skills  Demonstrate the means to provide vocational education on a broader scale

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SKILL DEVELOPMENT ICT ENABLED SCHOOL

JURY

AWARDS

COMPUTERJI Jode Duniya se

AWARD

A OUTCOME  947 people have found IT based jobs and 35 people have obtained non-IT based jobs  About 19596 farmers have accessed information related to agriculture

ga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) [(AKRSP (I) ] has partnered with Microsoft for an information technology project.

“Computerji Jode Duniya se”. This initiative of AKRSP (India) focuses on enhancing livelihoods in remote rural areas of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & Bihar by using information technology as a tool. The AKRSP (I) is active in six districts of Gujarat and three districts of Madhya Pradesh. In 2007, AKRSP(I) initiated its work in Samastipur & Muzaffarpur districts of Bihar.

The Computerji project was initiated to address all gaps in IT training and skill development. Computerji centres are located in areas with tribal and marginalized population. Five centres are located in the remote tribal areas of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and the remaining eleven centres are set up in areas of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & Bihar, which have a majority of OBC/SC population. The Computerji centre is based on Private-Public Partnership model. Private organizations and communities have contributed for setting up and running the centres. These centres impart training on computer skills at a very nominal rate as well as introduce community to the use of computers for livelihood enhancement activities. It is a revenue-based structure. People are charged for the computer course, while the information is free. This makes it financially viable.

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India OBJECTIVES  Impart training on computer skills at a very nominal rate  Introduce community to the use of computers for livelihood enhancement activities  Address all gaps in IT training and skill development

PRIVATE SECTOR

TEACHING Learning Paradigm through ICT Intervention

CITIZEN CHOICE #1

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Educomp Solutions Ltd, Haryana OBJECTIVES  Bridge the digital divide by improving education delivery in predominantly rural Government schools through ICT  Reach out to even those schools for whom technology would have remained but a dream and to make their aspiration a reality

E

ducomp has ushered a whole new teaching-learning paradigm in schools across India by developing quality courseware and multimedia in regional languages, and providing quality training to teachers, developing training modules to contain 21st century learning skills, project based learning, on making lesson plans and unit plans, and continuous evaluation.

It has introduced local language empowering MagiKeys Software to enable ‘Online’ or ‘Offline’ learning in different languages. Special local language multimedia training aids and courseware have also been developed to enable speedy and intuitive adoption by both students and teachers. It aims at helping state governments to increase their achievement of targets by investing initially minimal resources via Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) Model. They have been offered interventions, products and services that have bridged the learning opportunity gap between the haves and have-nots. The implementation process via BOOT Model in 14 states and over 15,000+ Schools, facilitating adoption by more and more schools.

OUTCOME  Educomp trained teachers in ICT and also helped to create an entire value chain where students could in turn be trained  It has helped the employees of the Company to become partners in developing rural India through government schools

august 2010 / www.egovonline.net / egov

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AWARDS

ICT ENABLED SCHOOL PRIVATE SECTOR

KENDRIYA Vidyalaya Automation Project

CITIZEN CHOICE #2

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY S Chand Harcourt OBJECTIVES  Engage students in their learning and raise their levels of conceptual understanding  Improve communication, collaborative and ICT skills and to develop higher order thinking skills in students

CITIZEN

T

he S.Chand Harcourt technology enabled education solution Destination Success was launched as a pilot programme in five Kendriya Vidalayas in different cities including: Jaipur, Udaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Simla. The pilot programme aimed at testing the solution offered by S. Chand Harcourt in these schools for its effectiveness in meeting the needs of the government schools. The purpose of the pilot was to assess the suitability and feasibility of providing a low cost self sustaining model under PPP. The academic aim of the programme was to empower teachers with the knowledge and strategies to meet the needs of the 21st century education through the use and integration of technology in the teaching learning process. Since the S.Chand Harcourt solution was the first technology enabled solution and on the basis of the discussions with the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, it was decided that the pilot programme would be introduced for the primary classes III-V in the schools. Also, S. Chand Harcourt effected a system for continuous support to the school and teachers in having a qualified IT executive on the school premises to help teachers in the use of the solution telephonic and electronic discussions with the school assigned coordinator of the programme to address queries/difficulties and follow up visits to the school by the S. Chand Harcourt trainers.

OUTCOME  The teachers are more IT proficient and comfortable in using the solution  Increased creative teaching skills and cross disciplinary teaching and learning  Using a blended approach in teaching

DIGITAL Class Room Windows

CHOICE #3

A OUTCOME  CRW engulfs components, such as, teleconferencing technologies, and enables instructions to be received simultaneously by multiple, geographically dispersed learners

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digital classroom window (CRW) is typically a teacher centered technology. A CRW can be created by streaming a live classroom activity from one place to another using the internet broadband and the innovation in ICT. A CRW can be of different types. It can be passive / active CRW. A passive CRW is one where only listening and viewing the activity in the class room is possible, whereas an active CRW is one which allows to interact and participate actively with the professor and the students respectively from a remote classes. The time mapping was convenient and the professors were cooperative and involved. An active classroom was set up at the Hindustan university campus, to facilitate lectures and interaction delivered by Australian professors, for the students, through CRW. The same facility was extended to KCG College of Technology, using the resources from the Hindustan University. This CRW facility can also be extended to the University of Sydney campus. The CRW could reach out to more students than the conventional classroom strength. In other words it maximises the reach of the class room of renowned colleges, university and resource person globally, by optimising the ICT facilities. This provides a gateway to active and live learning facilities, effectively than distance learning, learning through pod casts or elearning.

egov / www.egovonline.net / august 2010

IMPLEMENTING AGENCY Hindustan University OBJECTIVES  Llisten to the lectures of leading professors from Sydney University, who could not visit Hindustan university campus due to time factor and financial constraints