Teachers from India qualified to participate in E2

Be it maths, music, psychology or literature, education tools are changing the lesson plans in class. “We are moving towards a paperless classroom,” says Pooja Sachdeva, a teacher in Pathways World School, Aravalli. These educators are teaching a tech generation who view life through their devices. Hence, it has become even more important for them to embed technology in their teaching to keep students `hooked’ to their lessons, adds Brian Aspinal, a teacher from Canada.

Many teachers across the globe are using tools to enhance learning and achieve better student outcomes. However, usually these innovations in the classroom occur in isolation and the achievements go unnoticed. Therefore, E2 - Educator Exchange provides a platform for teachers and experts to share good practices and find solutions to 21st century challenges.

This year, around 300 teachers from 75 countries participated in E2, which was held in Budapest earlier this month. Says Anthony Salcito, vice president, Worldwide Education, Microsoft, that has been hosting the event for several years: “We bring together the most innovative educators from around the world to share their experiences on how to transform education. It is very inspirational.”

Eleven teachers from India qualified to participate in E2 this year and four were in the winning teams. This year’s theme was `Hack the Classroom,’ meaning innovations in the classroom. The conference highlighted innovative approaches such as using skype to engage students in lessons on climate change by connecting with scientists working in the Arctic region. Also, OneNote, a modern replacement of the paper notebook that allows teachers to collaborate with students in real time, creating, editing and grading assignments. And game-based learning like Minecraft, especially to help children with special learning needs, among other innovations.

In the group challenge --- Class Hack Competition, each group was assigned a 'hacker’ persona and teachers had to work in teams to identify a common problem that they face in the classroom and find a solution with the help of technology. The different `hacker’ personas were strategise, personalise, gamify, minimise and delocalise.

The Grand Prize Winner was the team that focussed on `The Multicultural Classroom:’ Migration is a major global challenge. Students new to a country oftentimes face inequity because of the language barrier. Teachers can use OneNote’s built-in translation tool to overcome this barrier by allowing new students to tell their story in their native language.

The new features of OneNote were launched during the conference. According to Mike Tholfsen, principal programme manager of OneNote, they gathered feedback from teachers to make the tool even more useful, and the main consideration was to save time for teachers.

On the key takeaway from the conference, Chandhirakala Venugopal from the Titan School in Hosur, says, ”It’s very useful to be introduced to new tools and also to find out how other teachers are embedding technology in their teaching methods.” Teachers from Nigeria echoed similar views, saying that though smartphones and other devices are now common in the classroom, but with erratic power supply they have to improvise. “At E2 I realised teachers from other countries face similar challenges but nevertheless implement tech tools. This is the first time we have travelled outside our country, so it’s learning beyond borders,” says Oluwakemi Olurinola, educational technologist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University.

Several teachers admitted that it’s the students who guide them about tech tools or games that can be educational. So in this tech era, both teachers and students are learning together.

‘Make in India’ will boost the Indian jobs market

The ‘Make in India’ scheme is aimed to build India a global hub of manufacturing, aimed to raise the share of manufacturing in gross domestic product (GDP) to 25% by 2022. The government has identified 25 key sectors and plans to provide relevant support and incentives to boost investments in them. Some of these sectors include construction, textiles, food processing, and skill-intensive sectors such as aviation, defense equipment manufacturing, and electronics, among others.

Besides friendly policy interventions, people or workforce would form the key element to achieve the desired objectives. Hence, jobs across the levels would be strengthened with addition of multiple set of jobs under this umbrella. While the niche and high-technology oriented profiles would be a value addition to the job roles, management and soft skills roles would go hand in hand as demand from hiring managers. Mass hiring in front line jobs and vocational trades would open a floodgate of opportunity for job seekers.

Important things that need increased focus to keep the momentum rising in the jobs market would be improvement in skill levels of existing employees, properly train the workforce entering the jobs market and innovation in human resource activities like hiring, induction of new employees, retention of existing employees, and effective employee engagement initiatives.

‘Make in India’ is a promising initiative and is expecting the employment scenario to get a boost in the years to come. While this initiative intends to make India a top destination for foreign direct investment, it primarily focuses on job creation and skill enhancement in targeted 25 sectors, with an estimate of 100 million new jobs by 2022.
There is already a positive response to the initiative in the last year. Next year, we estimate another 7-8 lakh temporary jobs to be created. It would also add 8-13 % to the current job pool as investment into manufacturing and related sectors. Refocusing on India's traditional occupations would also add to this and should potentially create 10 million jobs a year.

Key drivers of job generation
Key drivers are foreign direct investment in identified 25 sectors of the economy, which should lead to additional workforce demand. This includes sectors like automobile and its components, chemicals, defense manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceuticals, ports and shipping, textile and garments, tourism, hospitality and wellness. These sectors being the key industry sectors of India, these are in itself the key drivers for job generation.

Levels at which jobs would be created
There will be a huge requirement for entry level jobs for both semi-skilled and skilled workforce. We estimate a rise in the number of young workforce in the age group of 15 to 29 from the current 153 million to 158 million by 2025. There will also be an increase in niche high-technology opportunities demanding specialist skills.

As this initiative touches manufacturing and engineering and related sectors, key skill would be required in the space of design and engineering, project planning, execution, erection, commissioning, operations and maintenance, transmission and distribution, trading and regulatory, renewable energy, and manufacturing.

Most certainly, we see hiring trends and initiatives to change, as there is a huge skill requirement and an obvious skill gap. In the immediate term, investing corporates should upgrade the skilling infrastructure, plan appropriate hiring and quality trainings. Initiatives like structured workforce readiness programs and On the job trainings may help in catering to existing supply and demand gap. We also see a rise in campus and contractual hiring to support the mass hiring needs.

Discovery of gravitational waves, with Indian participation

The world sees such big-bang discoveries in about 30 years, says a UK-based academic who is a part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) that discovered gravitational waves in September 2015. Given its importance, the find will spawn new study, research and career options in astrophysics, astronomy, theoretical physics and high-precision experiments with the presence of a gravitational wave observatory in the country. Last month, the Union cabinet approved a project to set up the facility in association with the US-based LIGO Laboratory run by Caltech and MIT. 

“Our students will have access to this observational facility (LIGO-India) on a regular basis through, for example, summer projects, research and internships,” says Bala R Iyer, chairperson, IndIGO consortium, India’s initiative in gravitational-wave observations and visiting professor, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR). 

The LIGO-India project will mean new openings for engineers from fields such as optical, mechanical and vacuum engineering and scientists specialising in areas including high-precision experiments, and optics, “at this point,” adds Iyer. “At the moment, we don’t have expertise in areas like high-precision experiments in India. So, LIGO-India could build capabilities in this field.”  

The world outside of academic portals, too, may see useful spin-offs from the waves captured by US-based twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors at two locations in the US -- Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington -- on September 14, 2015. “For society at large, engineering challenges like LIGO spur on the development of new technology,” says Ed Daw, reader, department of physics and astronomy, University of Sheffield. “We are developing control systems with new and interesting properties that have many applications, from control of electric motors to new protocols for mobile phone communications. These control systems were developed to remove noise from LIGO data,” he says. “All this should be particularly exciting to students thinking about going into physics or engineering, or particularly those having interests at the boundary between these two subjects.” 

Ripple Effect
-Two black holes collided into -- and merged with -- each other about 1.3 billion years away from earth
-The resulting energy sent ripples, termed gravitational waves, into the universe
-On September 14, 2015, at 5.51am Eastern Daylight Time, the waves passed through the blue planet where scientists had installed a twin observatory to ‘catch’ them 
-Einstein had predicted them 100 years ago  
-These are called gravitational waves as they are associated with a gravitational field in general relativity
-Founded in 1997, LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), which discovered the waves, has more than 1,000 scientists from 15 countries, including India.

Education Opens Door

46% of Teenagers Admit to Text Messaging While Driving

According to AAA, 46% percent of all teenage drivers admit to text messaging while driving, and that says nothing of the teens who won’t own up to the practice. 51% admit to talking on the cell phone while driving, though most of us who know teens would probably estimate that figure to be closer to 99%.

Unfortunately, both practices are quite dangerous, especially for young and inexperienced drivers. In many states, it’s actually illegal to do either, and more and more states are moving toward similar laws.

A study by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance has pointed out that while alcohol-related teen auto fatalities are down, the overall death toll hasn’t changed. Their theory is that modern technology and distracted driving have balanced out the decrease.

Texting while driving is the act of composing, sending, reading text messages, email, or making other similar use of the web on a mobile phone while operating a motor vehicle. Texting while driving has come to be considered dangerous by many people, including authorities, and in some places has either been outlawed or restricted. A survey of more than 90 teens from more than 26 high schools nationwide conducted nationwide by Liberty Mutual Insurance Group in 2006 showed that 37% of students consider texting to be either "very" or "extremely" distracting.

Texting has become a social norm fairly quickly since the year 2000, as most cell phone plans include a text messaging package. The popularity of smartphones that allow people to communicate in even more ways, which increases the likelihood of usage. There have been many studies that have linked texting while driving to be the cause of life-threatening accidents due to driver distraction. The International Telecommunication Union states that “texting, making calls, and other interaction with in-vehicle information and communication systems while driving is a serious source of driver distraction and increases the risk of traffic accidents”.
A 2010 experiment with Car and Driver magazine editor Eddie Alterman that took place at a deserted air strip showed that texting while driving had a worse impact on safety than if you were driving while intoxicated. While legally drunk, Alterman's stopping distance from 70 mph increased by 4 feet; by contrast, reading an e-mail added 36 feet, and sending a text added 70 feet. While celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey have campaigned against texting while driving, there are reports that the message has not been getting through to teenagers.

If you’re a parent, that means that you need to be especially clear with your teen about the dangers of engaging in cell phone use while driving, whether it be making a call or sending a text message. To do that, there are a couple of basic steps you can take:
Set a Good Example: When you pick up the cell phone to make a call as you drive down a deserted stretch of interstate, your teen isn’t thinking, “Well, this is a relatively low-risk driving situation and Mom has a lot more driving experience than me.” He’s thinking, “I guess it’s okay to talk on the phone if you’re a good driver, and I’m getting pretty good…”
No matter how hard it is, you need to resist the temptation to use your cell phone while driving if you want your teen believe it’s a rule worth following.
Set Rules & Enforce Consequences: You can’t always watch your teen, but you can definitely let trusted friends and relatives know that you would like to be notified if they spot your teen using his phone to talk or text message while driving.
If your parenting style is a little more James Bond than that, you could even go so far as to match up your teen’s usual driving times with cell phone call and text message records. If your teen is a habitual offender, you’ll know pretty quickly.
Restrict Temptation: If your teen spends a lot of time text messaging, it might be wise to reduce his messaging package and hold him accountable for any extra text message fees. With fewer messages to work with, it’s less likely that he’ll develop the kind of text-addiction that leads so many teens to risk their safety by texting while driving.
Of course, if that doesn’t help, you may want to disable your teen’s text messaging capabilities entirely. Your cellular provider’s Customer Service department should be able to help you if you decide to take that step.

Ultimately, though, you’ll have to trust your own parenting skills and your teen’s common sense. You definitely can’t be present in the car at all times to make sure that he or she isn’t talking on the phone or sending text messages while driving. It’s scary, but all you can do is work hard to help your teen form the right habits and hope that most, if not all, of them stick.

Drive Safely.
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