1955 - Beginning of a New Era

1955 - A Great Year!

Those who believe in numerology, please help me decode the significance of the number 1955. Was this the year when the Gods suddenly woke up to gift us three gentlemen who will redefine the way the world works, connects and lives. 
 - Bill Gates - Oct 28, 1955
 - Eric Schmidt - Apr 27, 1955
 - Steve Jobs - Feb 24, 1955 
Three such talents within a span of 8 months. Here's my story on what/ how/ why/ where of these:

Lets go back to first half of 20th century. Two world wars, severe worldwide economic slowdown, ongoing freedom struggles - As the CEO of earth, these would have been real challenging times for Gods. I am sure Gods would have had marathon meetings to manage the next phase of scaling up of their own creation. And the action points were these three gentlemen who will provide Gods with:

- Super Powers: World has grown at a faster and smarter pace that Gods had ever imagined. And they now needed super power operating systems to help them manage what they created. So, he designed BILL GATES
- Hunt Information: 7 billion creatures thinking - that's a lot. How do Gods access this information. Need a search engine and here comes Eric - GOOGLE
- To put these two on the check, Give the world a charismatic magician - who drives inspiration globally .That's STEVE JOBS

Dear God,

You have been kind enough to Americas by blessing it with three greatest business beings in 1955. I, would now request you to adopt some diversification in you action plan, and fit other geographies in your plan by blessing them with such stalwarts who can cruise their way to victory. Some MBAs on earth also call it INCLUSION.

Yours Sincerely

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Cheers to THREE TITANS

The Internet Big Bang Effect

The next transitioning phase in the Education came with the introduction of Internet. While computers equipped Schools and Teachers with tools (computers, word documents, sheets and printers) to augment their existing teaching methods, it was the internet that brought the Big Bang shift with an explosion of sorts of data.

Internet acted as a solid reference point with plethora of information. Type any topic in Google and you will find not less than 10000 links ready with the content. Over time this has built a huge repository of data than can be referred by anyone with access to internet from anywhere. By this time computers also became affordable and fixed their place in our homes. So on one hand there was excess data available on each and every topic, on the other hand accessibility to the data was on an ever increasing trend.

I believe this is impacting the education in two major ways:

A) Content Development:  Schools, Teachers, Educational Institutions and Academicians have access to data and research work/ resources prepared by their colleagues in other parts of the world. This has helped in transforming the Content Development process itself. We are now beyond the Textbook Approach which is getting very well complemented through innovate Content being developed and shared.

B) Content Delivery: Developing the desired Content is job well done. Next important step is to deliver this content effectively to the stakeholders. How do Schools and Teachers ensure the Content they are developing is getting delivered effectively to the Students and Parents in a structured manner? This is where Technology can again play a major role and maintain the connect among the School, Teachers, Students and Parents towards a common learning goal even when we are bombarded with overdose of data.

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Edventz (www.edventz.com) is a new age Educational Solutions provider started by software engineers with 40+ years of experience in designing software solutions. We have recently launched our first service www.edventz.com, which provides the platform to School and Teachers/ Private Tutors to organize and deliver school content (worksheets, activity reminders and circulars) to the Parents on time.
Do visit our website at www.edventz.com

Going Beyond Textbooks

In my previous article (Textbooks – a key link in traditional teaching methodology), I shared my views on the critical role that Textbooks played in establishing connect among the Teachers, Students and Parents. The shift from "Textbook" teaching for academic education came with the introduction of Computers in schools. This led to the shift in the teaching methodology from Textbook/ Reference Books mode to Textbook ++ mode.

This period also coincided with the time when post liberalization the economy had opened, there was a new job market of computer graduates shaping up, Schools and Teachers getting exposed to the new teaching methodologies adopted globally/ international boards. Parents became demanding and there was competition among schools to devise/ adopt new teaching methodologies. There were concerted efforts put in by schools and teachers in particular to adopt new teaching methods that go beyond the textbooks.

Access to computers in schools provided teachers with a new channel to deliver content to students. However, the onus of developing the right content remained with the teacher who had to put in additional time to build their content repositories. Teachers made effective use of computer + printer infrastructure in school to prepare and share information on subjects and practice worksheets with the students. Remember, computers were still expensive not in everyone’s home then. So, the worksheets actually had to be printed by teachers and sent physically with the students to home.

This first phase of technology led transition from textbook to beyond textbook was useful for the students. They could now get additional resources prepared by their Teachers on topics of their interest and practice assignments to further improvise their understanding of the concepts. 

Teachers were, however, the key driver of content delivery during this phase, as it was the teacher who had put in all the extra hours to develop, structure and share the right content with the students. 

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Edventz (www.edventz.com) is a new age Educational Solutions provider started by software engineers with 40+ years of experience in designing software solutions. We have recently launched our first service www.edventz.com, which provides the platform to School and Teachers/ Private Tutors to organize and deliver school content (worksheets, activity reminders and circulars) to the Parents on time.

Do visit our blog at www.edventz.blogspot.in

Textbooks – a key link in traditional teaching methodology

I was doing some research work to analyse the Content Delivery mechanisms among School, Teachers, Parents and Students. These are the key stakeholders in the Education ecosystem and effective communication among them is very critical. There are some interesting observations which I am putting across through a few articles to get your views.

Let me start with the traditional method of teaching, which many of us went through during our schooling. There was no internet, mobiles and digital classroom solutions then. The curriculum was designed by the boards (CBSE or ICSE or State Education Boards) and delivered to students in classroom by Teachers through Textbooks or Notebooks.

I believe the traditional form of teaching developed an effective content delivery mechanism from Teachers to Students and Parents through Textbooks. Textbooks were the common link among the stakeholders in the ecosystem, which all of them used to refer. Teachers will teach Students from the Textbooks, Students will carry these Textbooks to homes and Parents will refer the Textbooks to revise the subjects. The practice exercises were either limited to Textbook exercises or additional exercises made by teachers and sent through notebooks. This mechanism ensured that the communication gap among the Teacher, Students and Parents is limited and all of them were in sync on the content that needs to be consumed.

While the introduction of new technologies has significantly enhanced the content quality and content customization, I believe that the traditional Textbook driven mechanism effectively linked the efforts of the Teachers, Students and Parents.

Edventz (www.edventz.com) is a new age Educational Solutions provider started by software engineers with 40+ years of experience in designing software solutions. We have recently launched our first service www.edventz.com, which provides the platform to School and Teachers/ Private Tutors to organize and deliver school content (worksheets, activity reminders and circulars) to the Parents on time. 

Do visit our blog at www.edventz.blogspot.in