Blended Learning : Lessons for Schools Intending to Change

"Every organisation must prepare to abandon

 everything it does"

Peter Drucker

Extracts On Learning from DC on Blended Learning:

“District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)[1] has developed three main blended learning initiatives over the past several years:

1. Since the 2013–14 school year, district and school leaders have redesigned 17 schools (10 elementary schools, four middle schools, and three high schools) to incorporate blended learning. Students who are introduced to blended learning in elementary school do not have to change instructional methods as they progress through schools.

2. Many schools not selected for redesigns are also using blended learning in a variety of grade levels and subject areas to meet their school-level academic goals.

3. High schools offer credit-recovery programs using the Enriched Virtual model of blended learning in which content is delivered online and students meet with highly qualified teachers in their content areas at least two or three times per week.

The district has made significant investments in online curriculum, network and wireless infrastructure, end-user devices, and professional development.

It has also established a dedicated team at the central office to research, implement, and evaluate blended learning. DCPS has recorded extensive and well-studied student gains in math and reading on district-wide assessments and the National Assessment of Educational Progress since implementing blended learning.

The redesigned elementary schools use the Station Rotation model of blended learning for math and reading, with some variation based on decisions made by school leaders. The redesigned middle school uses the Individual Rotation model of blended learning for math and has worked with New Classrooms to design and implement the blended model.

Across all schools (not just the blended schools), the district uses a variety of online curriculum products, including Lexia and myON for reading and ST Math, First in Math, and i-Ready for math. Science, social studies, and world languages classes also use online curriculum.

The district retrained its teacher evaluators, known as Master Educators, on evaluation techniques applicable to blended learning classrooms.

In elementary schools, students in reading and math classes rotate on a fixed schedule through three stations: one station is teacher-led small-group instruction, another is online learning, and a third is either independent practice or project-based learning.

In the redesigned middle school, all students have a laptop that allows them to move through online curriculum at their own pace, with support from a team of teachers. In addition to the redesigned schools, there are smaller blended-learning initiatives occurring in the district’s other schools that focus primarily on math and reading.  

It has also focused on identifying strategies that improve outcomes for the lowest performing students. The district has recorded student gains in math and reading since implementing blended learning.”

Source given in Footnote  

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[1] http://www.kpk12.com/wp-content/uploads/DCPS.pdf

More on the Internet of Education

Internet of Things (IoT)  is supposed to carry a $ 19 trillion value-at-stake tag over the next decade, says Cisco[1]. That volume of a bill suggests opening up of  opportunities to individuals, households, groups, firms and companies into an economy that is struggling to be born. The frontiers of economics are expanding into  'more of techniques and less of men'  scenario. (Y= f(k,l, t) where Y = output, k = capital, l= labour  and t = technology )

Education's new challenge is that it  must  thrive within this rapidly evolving IoE economy which is machine and connectivity oriented.

Internet of Education (IoEd) should be envisaged as a networked connection of students and teachers, learning and teaching processes, of relevant data and of devices, which are charged and linked by cloud, mobile, social analytics and which is protected by security. The medium of IT would trigger off great changes in the operational technology  of delivery of education. 

IoEd is about using sensors and wireless connectivity to  support educational activities. This connectivity calls for reliability of data and systems, adherence to high standards of professional etiquette, data integrity and to continuous evaluation of performance. IoEd would connect the academic and physical worlds through information technology.  There has to be an established data bank based on the registration, progression, internal processes and the contributory and contextual environment in academic institutions. This will increase the outreach of education, dynamically augment efficiencies, stress on mechanization of academic activities and minimize delivery risk in teaching.

Education has now to move into this internet world to coexist with and exist in the cloud.  Education support professionals (read technical staff) have to evolve a portfolio and an ecosystem of cloud infrastructure and application services that allow teaching  and learning to uniquely and securely coalesce with cloud applications and services which can be used by both faculty and students. Educators have to deliver, using online and offline, on site and off site modes utilizing multiple cloud models. 

Networked connections have to make education accessible, relevant and valuable. There has to be a transformation process from mere information into knowledge. Knowledge has to collectively grow into wisdom and thus constitute the core competence of the educational institutions.

IoEd has to create new capabilities out of the many experiences and learning curves it has earned.   IoEd has to pick up the appropriate middleware platform. There has to be an IoEd Strategy which supports the identification and development of solutions.  Successful business application ensures costing and monetization of each activity.

Miniaturization technology and use of smart wearables add to the effectiveness of IoEd. In M2M (machine to machine) and M2m (Machine to men) connectivity paths, design, applications, measured performance, efficiency parameters, interoperability of devices, drawing up of scenarios, (what - if)   interactive methods are all significant.   Both, hardware and software become collaborative in their effort to deliver academic value.

Educational institutions have to use enterprise planning for new IoEd architectures, standards and protocols which are to build the working ecosystem.   Developers have to harmonize thoughts with educators to develop platforms.  The time to market for application development is short.  New technologies – hardware, software, bandwidth, sensor –have to integrate to make new solutions feasible for the first time.  Education has to   interact and change to fast lanes with computing technology . The economies will come in with the concept of leveraging academic data at micro and macro levels. Educational institutions have to reckon with hardware commoditization, software solution development, connectivity, big data and data analytics. 

   

  

 Note : These strands of thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by the author on the Internet of Education. Copyright of this material vests with the author, Jayaram Nayar. He can be contacted at jaynayar@gmail.com

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[1] The Internet of Everything—A $19 Trillion Opportunity; http://www.cisco.com/web/services/portfolio/consulting-services/documents/consulting-services-capturing-ioe-value-aag.pdf

Legal Risks in the Internet of Things

The adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) marks the need to meet several legal challenges. There are over 50 billion devices to be connected to the net and this is likely to trigger legal risks. Communication channels are immeasurably large. Traffic jams are likely. Information gathering under the IoT has to be mandated or self regulated so that the consumer is protected. The data that is collected could be a source of litigation. Devices operate on separate platforms. Manufactured by various producers, marketed by different vendors implies that IoT has to deal with a host of clients and a whole myriad of issues.

Any interaction point has the potential for a legal validity eruption point.

Issues that need to be addressed

1. IoT platforms would be global, but different jurisdictions would have different IoT regulations. There would be varying legal prescriptions for cloud, data privacy and other technologies.
2. Integration standards have to be harmonized.
3. Prescribing safety norms for the software industry.
4. Setting standard terms for services' provision like cloud computing.
5. International collaboration and public-private partnerships issues. Breach of contracts across jurisdictions.
6. Access to bandwidth and connection speeds.
7. Net neutrality (i.e. the principle that Internet Service Providers and governments should treat all data on the internet equally)
8. The right to offer tiered services.
9. Ensuring transparency of traffic rights.
10. Liability Issues  as there is not just man to machines (m2m) but machines to machines(M2M).
11. Operational risk exposures and issues.
12. Handling machine defects and its fallout.
13. Dealing with supply chain issues both locally and across borders.
14. Limiting liability for personal injury or death caused by negligence by device failures.
15. Demarcating ownership issues. Data ownership and device ownership. Cutting across the labyrinthine maze of ownerships.
16. Automated contracts emerging out of on line transactions.  
17. The machine to machine (M2M) order placement issues.
18. User profiling in micro-order placement. Limits to privacy.  
19. Errors in automatic machine orders.
20. Errors in sensor technology and consequential errors in orders.
21. Offer and acceptance under the contract law.  
22. Distance Selling laws.
23. Lucidity in seller communications to buyers.
24. Dealing with issues of corporate profitability seeking and the public's interest.
25. Inconsistencies in  regulations for smart devices.
26. Innumerable acts and laws to  balance.
27. Human Risk bringing about Operational Risk. Doctrine of Indoor Management
28. Cyber security
29. Coping with transnational cyber crime
30. Dealing with cyber crime’s effect on intellectual property (IP)
31. Protecting the rights of owners of devices connected to the internet
32. Protection from potential hackers who could use devices which are interconnected to break into home networks
33. Legalizing the IoT solutions.
34. Defining contractual relationships in the new order with so many inter-connected devices which have varied origins/ sources.
35. Data portability, data privacy and data protection principles.
36. Privacy policies and issues.
37. Protecting the plethora of data that can be inventoried and utilized.
38. Data security.
39. Data privacy.  
40. Coping with loss of privacy.
41. Privacy of designs and IP on devices.
42. Accessibility to data issues
43. Profiling  the customer on the basis of data and on-going tapping of private information.
44. Avoiding of probable data security breaches.
45. Re-dressal in the event of security breach from both consumer and corporate angles.
46. Challenging potential misuse of data.  
47. People's personal data being processed by multiple devices.
48. Potential for unauthorized access.
49. Consents from the consumer for data collection
50. Ensuring consumer rights in respect of the data collected.
51. Exercising corporate rights in respect of the data collected.
52. Law of Limitation. 

References:

 Kim Walker, The legal considerations of the internet of things http://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/The-legal-considerations-of-the-internet-of-things

Warwick Ashford, Cybercrime costs business £265bn a year, report reveals http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240222189/Cybercrime-costs-business-265bn-a-year-report-reveals

There's spam in my fridge!

http://www.taylorwessing.com/download/article_spam_fridge.html

Steve Johnson , Legal Patchwork Rules Internet of Things and its Users, San Jose Mercury News //www.govtech.com/products/Legal-patchwork-rules-Internet-of-Things-and-its-users.html

T.C. Sottek,  The Internet of Things is going to be a legal nightmare, http://www.wassom.com/top-5-legal-issues-internet-things-part-1-data-security-privacy.html#sthash.lxOWlPhw.dpuf

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/27/7921025/will-self-regulation-be-a-huge-problem-for-privacy-in-the-internet-of

Tom Mighell, The “Internet of Things” in Law Practice , Volume 40 Number 3 http://www.americanbar.org/publications/law_practice_magazine/2014/may-june/web-2-0.html

Top 5 Legal Issues in the Internet of Things, Part 1: Data Security & Privacy - See more at: http://www.wassom.com/top-5-legal-issues-internet-things-part-1-data-security-privacy.html#sthash.lxOWlPhw.dpuf^[1]

 

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 Part of research by the author on the Internet of Things by the author. Author can be contacted on jaynayar@gmail.com.

All copyright vests with the author. 

Internet of Things and GE's "brilliant" machines.

Jack Welch: GE will be around another 100 years 

For General Electric (GE),   the Industrial Internet is a 'disruptive business model'. General Electric estimates that the amount the Industrial Internet could add to global GDP over the next 20 years is $ 15 trillion and that there would be about 50 billion interconnected devices by 2020. By capturing the space offered by the Internet of Things,

GE is trying to meet the customer requirements of swift and instant gratification. GE is using the technological surf of the IoT to ride the short term and to transform it to a long term wave to enhance the return on investment. It hopes to make conversations between different IT systems and have a  unified set of meaningful metrics. GE focuses on knitting together machines  on  a common data platform. This should optimize industrial performance, enhance values to the global supply chain, and add to ROI.  

 

GE is keen to use the data generated and make it more effective from an industrial angle through data sharing. GE seeks to make manufacturing collaborative, decentralized, and efficient. Devices and people across the globe will collaborate on production in real-time. There will be a smart and efficient supply chain that is reliable and cost economic. Predictive analytics will fuse "big iron" with "big data". [1]

 GE is building partnerships with  its Predix platform. This  IoT `operating system’ originally developed for GE's own use, is being utilised to help customer projects. It is proposed to make it available  to a growing number of technology partners.

GE is positioning itself and is managing for results.   IoT's "power of one percent". The company believes that using sensors and software to make current industrial procedures and equipment just 1% more efficient will result in billions of saving for its customers.

Savings at 1 % enhanced efficiency

Industry	Amount Saved in $ billion over 15 years
Oil & Gas	90
Health care	63
Aviation	30

 Source: GE

The company now has more than 10 million sensors in the equipment it sells.  The software analytics side of its business is expected to generate more than $1 billion in revenue. (GE's total revenue in 2013 was $146 billion). As the  Predix software will be available to seekers, GE's IoT revenue will increase on volume basis.[2]

 References

1.      http://www.ge.com/stories/industrial-internet

2.      http://www.fastcompany.com/3031272/can-jeff-immelt-really-make-the-world-1-better#9

3.      http://diginomica.com/2015/03/11/general-electric-pursues-outcome-internet-things/

4.      http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/11/05/general-electric-vs-cisco-which-is-the-better-inte.aspx

5.      http://www.zdnet.com/article/ge-forges-internet-of-things-alliances-with-verizon-cisco-intel/

6.      http://www.accenture.com/sitecollectiondocuments/pdf/accenture-industrial-internet-changing-competitive-landscape-industries.pdf

7.      http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/ge-opens-its-big-data-platform/?_r=0

8.      http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527381/ges-1-billion-software-bet/

9.      http://ahmedbanafa.blogspot.in/2015/04/the-industrial-internet-of-things-iiot.html

Note : This script is based on readings of the author during his on line research on the Internet of Things. The author can be contacted at jaynayar@gmail.com 

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[1] A GE locomotive is made up of about 200,000 parts,  contain 6.7 miles of wiring and 250 sensors that put out 9 million data points every hour.  These will increase rendering predictive models of both performance and non performance possible.  A single blade in a gas turbine, if you put a lot of sensors on it, can generate 500 gigabytes of data each day; every pair of GEnx engines,   installed on Boeing's  787 Dream liner can  generate a terabyte of information every day.  

These devices wouldn't just let you know they were going to break down. They would actually repair themselves.

[2] GE currently monitors and analyzes 50 million data points from 10 million sensors on $1 trillion of managed assets daily. GE said it will open up the Predix platform to users and developers in 2015. The platform allows for customized industry apps, asset tracking and management and firewalls to protect infrastructure.

Services Industry in the Age of the Internet of Things

• The Internet of Things is to be an age of innovations. Concomitant to new  innovations come new risks. The deluge of new customer related data will enlarge and analytics will  complicate data management for services firms. Services industry has also to reckon with cyber-security as a major challenge.
• A service cycle in the Age of IoT is purely a function of expectations and how they are met.

• The key word is: Expect. All customers have expectations of their service provider, be it a bank or a service industry or an airline or a hospital to be intensely technology based.

• The shift to IoT will increase expectations for faster, more efficient and zero defect services.

• The Age of IoT will thus re-define the internet driven expectations of services from customers of every organization.

• The expectations a customer carries are a function of the customer's brand perception. (customers expect more from Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft, Google, AT&T; students expect more from Harvard, Wharton or Stanford)

• Customer expectations may not be the same across all service seekers. It would vary with expectations high on the part of tech savvy customers, the advanced educated and the new entrants to technology and  to service.

• Expectations do not exist in isolation. The customer perspective is colored by everything the customer has seen, read , experienced and heard about the service industry for example: all the advertising, all the literature, all the impressions gathered talking to the sales folks, all the word of mouth from friends that the firm is IoT biased. It is a brand perception that the customer carries. This perception will  be influenced by the perceived technological superiority of the industry and positioning the firm in the industry to meet the IoT age.

• The IoT firm has to merge and align the various multiple policies into a single, integrated  IoT service strategy for the organization. 

• It has to break this IoT service strategy back into designing IoT supported service documents and deliverables for each stakeholder.

• The IoT service organization has to train and retrain across the organization and the extended organization as the case may be on IoT.

• Staff have to rethink-In the final analysis, customer service is not all about people, it is about M2M and M2m.

• Service quality through IoT has to be  internalized into every process and mindset.

• The very first step towards creating great customer experience in the service cycle is to understand and integrate this M2M and M2m thought into the service strategy.

• Service providers have to build a truly great service culture that demonstrably pays them back not just in terms of financial returns  but also in terms of leveraging on the IoT.

•  The starting point of customer service failure would remain the failure to align service strategy with brand promise on the IoT backing the brand has.

• In IoT, a customer experiences a brand in one of only two ways, through the use of machine to machine conversations (M2M products/offerings of the service from the customer's machine to the service provider or vice versa ) or through the interaction with the machine of the service provider by the customer or by the men at the service provider to the machine of the customer - Machine to men (M2m).

• All the key stakeholders who influence the customer experience of the service organization has to talk IoT language. The heads from marketing, advertising, and branding, the chief customer officer( if  there is one), the head of finance, the heads of service delivery, the head of quality, the contact centre head, the head of technology, everybody who has a role has to talk the IoT.

• The margin of depersonalization would go up as Machine 2 Machine (M2M) conversations take over.

Copyright vests with the author Jayaram Nayar ; he can be contacted at jaynayar@gmail.com

Education and the Internet of Things: Some Implications for Educational institutions

What will the new operating platform of Internet of Education (IoEd) imply for educational institutions ?

As the Internet of Things (IoT)  progresses, modernizing educational institutions have to become an integral part of this technological sophistication, if they have to stay in the forefront of education. In an  IoT world, homes and people and devices would all be connected.  Educational institutions  have to think early on how to move ahead on sensors, connectivity and machine to machine (m2m)- backward and forward linkages.  As technology moves on to tap wearable devices, smart rings, smart bangles, smart clothes and smart watches - all sensor sensitive devices would seize the market.

As much as students receive support from devices, students would also have to permit return transmission of info flows. On the back up of these connected devices, students would share data from these devices with educational institutions.   Internet-linked sensors worn by students should enable  educational institutions  to fill in data on their activities.  Each student would send megabytes of data annually. These volumes have to be efficiently absorbed and effectively utilized by the educational institution.

Student  devices will have some form of wireless connection. Educational institutions  would have to enter into partnership with technological firms to  capture store, retrieve, analyze massive macro and micro elements. Thus, the Internet of Education (IoEd)  is not only about helping the one - off student but also in plotting/  drawing inferences at a macro level  on the strength of several packets of information received from about several hundreds or thousands of students.

Educational Institutions have to be so significantly alert on assimilating technical information in regard to:

·         Digitized communications

·         Smart m2m connectvities

·         Automated logistics

·         Application of sensor sensitive devices

Having large quanta of data implores the educational institutions on the need to go beyond data. The investment requirements will be quite high in the first round, but over time the marginal cost will come down and as such the average cost of investment will come down.  

According to Cisco Systems, by 2020, the amount of Internet-connected things will reach 50 billion, with $19 trillion in profits and cost savings coming from Internet of Things (IoT) over the next decade[1].

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These strands of thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by the author on the Internet of Education in Emerging Economies.

Copyright of this article and its contents vests with the author of this blog: Jayaram Nayar. He can be contacted at email: jaynayar@gmail.com  

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[1] http://www.appsbee.com/internet.html

Visualizing IoEd helping the 'Less Performing' Student' (LPS)

Visualizing IoEd helping the 'Less Performing' Student' (LPS) [1]

A teacher's main concern in a classroom situation is the 'less than average' student. Let us call him the 'Less Performing Student' or the  'Less Proficient Student' (LPS).  To any diligent and conscientious teacher, the LPS  is not the Least Preferred Student but the one the teacher is most anxious about. An LPS represents the limits of a teacher's explanatory abilities and therefore an LPS is an acknowledgement of the teacher's shortcoming if not failing. So, it is in the depths of a teacher's mind that an LPS be lifted up on a par with the performers of a classroom.

Developing fault lines in communication to the LPS might result in eventual blockage in the LPS' mind and turn him to become a non -performer from being a less performing student. So how do we ensure that the LPS is not detached from our train of skill formation? It is the submission here that we must use the Internet of Education (IoEd) to effective support system for the LPS..

The future of education is digital.  IoEd should be on to assist an LPS through interconnected platforms from mobiles to on line learning portals, to sensors to  robots to a host of connected devices. this connectivity is to help the average or sub-par student erase his fear of non comprehension. IoEd should sense non comprehension instantaneously. This detection of disquiet in the LPS should be possible through sensors. there should be disturbance signals that neurons send out. The captured signals will be  transmitted from the neurons of the weak student to the mega centralized robot who will transmit to him immediately the support systems to break down more simplistically the basics of the information sought.  The knowledge robot(s) will use elements to dispel their (LPS') doubts from the minds of these students in real time. (From the unknown to the known)  With the erasure of ignorance, the LPS is protected from being frozen in a shell of non comprehension. and left behind. It could well be that nanotechnology should alert the centralized server of  doubts in the  mind of the weak student and probable.

So along with  the teachers, technology in the format of a robot (on the shoulder of the LPS) should intervene. Teachers need IT professionals to support them in maintaining the value of educational supply chains. The nanotechnologists and the robotists would support only till such time as the LPS is back on the highway of knowledge. Networked, wireless communication between the LPS  and the technological environment must take place instantaneously at the point of non comprehension. Over a period, feedback from several LPS, should provide teachers with  suggestions about learning obstacles, teaching and update them on solutions.   

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Copyright of this article and its contents vests with the author of this blog: Jayaram Nayar. He can be contacted at email: jaynayar@gmail.com 

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[1] Note: These strands of thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by the author on the Internet of Education in Emerging Economies.

Internet of Education (IoEd) is a Hope for Emerging Economies

Tying up MOOCs to IoEd

The paradox of education in the emerging economies  is that there is a high level of competition for entry to a low quality  level of educational institutions. The supply side is constrained by a dearth of quality or by inaccessibility.  There is an acute deficit in the supply of quality driven school  education. The evolving global economy, seeks less of human intervention but with higher level skills.  The nations of tomorrow are built on the schooling of its nationals today. So IOEd must focus on schools.

IoEd should be an effort at strategic repositioning thoughts on education. It should make quality education mass oriented through the equitable channel of the of internet.

IoEd  should assist in building new models of blended learning applicable to schools. We might conceptualize  an ' Inclusive Network Hub'. The network approach-   a transformer of hub and spoke model is recommended for reasons  of economics (economies of scale; learning economies) and of social dynamics: ( equity, inclusiveness). A cluster of nations should work on this. may be the UNESCO should support. Corporations must be involved.

Right now, in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), the courseware and platform costs too are high. There is also more focus on higher education. IoEd needs to rethink models of cost efficient delivery and work on strategic coalitions to make foundation level schooling effective.

Inclusive IoEd as a progressive variation of MOOCs should be accessible; equitable and affordable. Devices must link to ensure online support and should ensure access to the info inventory of some of the best. IoEd should emphasize on integrated classroom sessions  which ensure course completion by students.

IoEd should target at standardizing international curricula promoting knowledge sharing and research collaboration and undertake contextualization from a quality assurance  angle.

[1]  These strands of thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by the author on the Internet of Education.

Copyright of this article and its contents vests with the author of this blog: Jayaram Nayar. He can be contacted at email: jaynayar@gmail.com  

The Internet of Education (IoEd) : Seeking A Cultural Shift in Schools in the Emerging Economies

The Internet of Education (IoEd)

Seeking A Cultural Shift  in Schools in the Emerging Economies[1]

Tomorrow's markets lay in the several frontier and emerging markets. The foundations of an economy's success lie in its schools. How can emerging economies prepare their Schools for the future in anticipation of Internet of Things?

For quality seeking schooling institution looking at positioning themselves in the future,  the most important element in a growth strategy will be ensuring that the School's  IT policy includes IoEd.

This policy should encompass from device (hardware) acquisition to in-depth technology-based learning software acquisition to connectivity and networking.  May be IT corporations could collaboratively associate to help in  lending expertise. A Community approach is recommended to save on costs of investment.

A Hub and Spoke approach to networking may be most economical. A Learning Technologies Center may be formally established in each School district to connect faculty  in proximate , contiguous areas, with the latest advancements in Internet of Education. Investment in good infrastructure which could be utilized as a community (the economies of scale)  as the base for the mindset shift in the district's schools. 

The Schools have to encourage and collaboratively organize,  intranets and discussion forums among district's schools to foster a collective learning community. These internal and external dialogues, should constitute a powerful communication tool within the community and with the students and should result in a networking of proximate schools.

The thrust of IoEd will be to connect  and network (a) the pedagogical delivery tools (b) the e-learning platform, (c) intranets (internal student - academic- administrator) communication systems (d) discussion forums, (e) assessment practices (f) student-to-teacher interaction and records student presence, learning and progress.

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[1] These strands of thought are a part of the research work being undertaken by the author on the Internet of Education.

Copyright of this article and its contents vests with the author of this blog: Jayaram Nayar. 

He can be contacted at email: jaynayar@gmail.com  

The Internet of Things- in Education (IoEd)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term used to refer to  internet based connectivity  by bringing men and machines together. Such connectivity will harness people, processes, data and  machines in a path breaking manner.  It will utilize  information and apply intelligence  to data to enable informed decisions. The Internet of Things is the next step in the evolution of the internet. This concept suggests augmented "smart" 'things', which are networked effectively among themselves and with  operating men over advanced  connections.

The Internet of Things would result in an increase of networked devices which are in common use. Such devices may include desktops, laptops, smart phones, etc. Their numbers are  to increase  from the current 4.5 billion to 30 billion by 2020 to over 50 billion  by 2050. As the world becomes tech savy, personal implants could aid  technological connectivity. As such a technological techntonic shift occurs,  education sector cannot lag behind. In fact, education should be in the forefront of things as education is the biggest influence on the minds of future citizens. The Internet of Things should reach schools and Universities as the Internet of Education (IoEd) . 

Internet of Education (IoEd) is about integrating technology with learning. IoEd is about being student-centric with technological support. IoEd is about creating smarter educational products; facilitating a new educational experience through use of  technological skills.These technological  skills and mechanical devices have to establish connectivity  to delivery platforms. 

IoEd requires conceptual clarity among mass base of teachers/ faculty. This calls for  training teachers / higher education faculty to sophisticated levels so that IoEd reaches out through key partners to the most important stakeholder in education : the student from a platform of technology.

To lay the foundations of IoEd, one has to comprehend the fundamentals of the infrastructure.

IoEd infrastructure

a) Device connectivity.  Network and network programming which will serve as the focal point;

b) Cloud architecture;

c) Data analytics;

d) Cyber security;

e) Mobile application development;

f) Other device application development.

Pre-Requisites for IofEd

      

• Education sector has to understand and appreciate the changing technological world order;
• Educators have to become tech- based and operations management obsessed rather than being just knowledge givers; ( teaching to be seen as operational deliverables rather than just services rendered ) 
• Education industry has to work with both hardware and software firms so as to deliver student value;
• Students have to be instilled with network management and integrating technological connections;
• Networking and network programming have to be an in-alienable part of school education;
• IT companies should work with educators, schools and universities as partners;
• There should evolve a technology-education partnership which will re-design curricula in both schools and higher educational institutions.

The focus in this curriculum should be:

o   Network

o   Mathematical and programming skills;

o   Problem solving skills ranging from simple to complex;

o   Thinking and critical thinking skills;

o   Data anlytics skills;

o   Communication skills: oral, and written;

o   Group and collaborative skills;

o   Learning skills  for knowedge assimilation;

o   Research skills;

o   Learning Skills to co-exist with men and machines.

Every teaching programme must be a blended learning model insisting on 60 % hands on practice and just about 40 % of traditional style teaching (classroom learning) .

This 60 % component must be sub divided to cover:

·         web labs;

·         web based researching;

·         web helped simulator styled studies;

·         access to digital libraries with earmarked library hours;

·         inducing self learning through virtual classroom sessions;

·         industry focusing on learning games;

·         webinars;

·         depending on Podcasts;

·         Video learning; (using Youtube effectively)  

All core learning must be imparted through the medium of technology so that human intervention is minimized. The student must be encouraged to seek and learn rather than hear and learn.

IoEd devices that would be connected for optimal education delivery:

1.      Laptops

2.      Mobile Smart phones

3.      Tablets

4.      Desktop PC

5.      Televisions

6.      Ordinary Cell phones

7.      Radios

Learner preferences  and parental/ stakeholder affordability have both to be studied and would have to be contextualized for delivery to each geographical area. Socio-economic segmentation should be the basis for adapting  delivery software to the available order of devices.

IOEd is futuristic. It should be the disruptive technique to lead education into the future.

Copyright of this article and its contents vests with the author of this blog: Jayaram Nayar. 

He can be contacted at email: jaynayar@gmail.com