The PMU Meeting held in OPEPA on the 3rd of Oct'13

The PMU (Project Monitoring Unit) meeting was held on the 3rd of Oct'13 in OPEPA at Bhubaneswar. The meeting was chaired by Shri Siba Brata Das,the Director of Elementary Education, OPEPA, Shri K.G. Mohapatro, the State Project Director, OPEPA, Shri Pravat Mishra, Director MIS, OPEPA and Shri Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, DE Odisha, AIF. The discussion focused on the critical issues as far as implementation of the CAL program is concerned and the members emphasized to enhance Student IT literacy. 

The financial training program held at the AIF State office, Odisha

A One day training program on finance was imparted by Mr Subrat Kumar Nayak from Meljol on the 10th of Oct'13 in the AIF State office at Bhubaneswar. All the DE team members including Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, Odisha participated in the training Program. Every one in the team enjoyed the activities that would help in implementing the Program at the DE Schools for spreading awareness among children about the benefit of saving money.

Meeting with the Chief Gopalpur Project, TATA Steel Ltd

Mr Subrat srkar, Operations Director, DE Odisha, called on Mr Sushanta Kumar Mishra, Chief Gopalpur Project, TATA Steel Ltd, along with Mr Tanmay Kar, Unit Head, TSRDS and Mr Santonu Hazarika, Senior Executive, TSRDS to held up a meeting on the 13th of Sept'2013. The possibilities were explored to collaborate with TATA Steel as far as Education and Livelihood Programs are concerned were discussed as part of the meeting. Ms Sharmishtha Pattanayak and Mr Santibhusan Padhi from DE Odisha escorted Mr Subrat Sarkar during the occasion.

Meeting with the Commissioner cum Secretary ST & SC Dept.

A meeting was organised at the ST & SC welfare Dept. under the chairmanship of the Commissioner cum Secretary for a presentation on Edukit developed by the DE Odisha team. The commissioner cum secretary has shown great interest in Edukit and is exploring the possibilities of translating the same in Oriya language and taking it across to all the tribal schools across the state.

Meeting with the DPC Ganjam, District to brief about implementation of the DE Program

A meeting was organised with Mr Sudam Charan Mandal, DPC, RTE-SSA, Ganjam District and Mr Pradeep Khatei, Programmer, DPO, SSA, Ganjam District on the 03rd of July 2013, to brief about the implementation of System Embedded Model of DE Program across the CAL schools. DPC emphasised on output indicators at school level and said he would visit the blocks of Ganjam District at least thrice a month to check the process and work progress.

The DE briefing meeting held with SSA Functionaries, Kendrapara District, Odisha

A meeting was organised to brief the SSA Functionaries about the system embedded model of DE Program at DPO, Kendrapara District, Odisha on the 01st of July 2013 including Mr Bishnu Prasad Satpathy, Programmer and Mr Amiya Ranjan Nayak, CAL Asst. The meeting was chaired by Mr Kailash chandra Das, DPC, RTE-SSA, Kendrapara and members of AIF team, DE Odisha. The focus of the meeting was to brief the SSA Functionaries regarding effective implementation of the CAL Program to bring about a shift from the BOOT Model to Home grown Model. 

The DE briefing meeting held with SSA Functionaries Cuttack District, Odisha

A meeting was organised to brief the SSA Functionaries about the system embedded model of DE Program at DPO, Cuttack District including Ms Hiramani Mohanty, Programmer and Ms Bagmi Das, CAL Asst. on the 29th of June 2013. The meeting was chaired by Mr Bijaya Kumar Ratha, DPC, RTE-SSA, Cuttack and members of AIF team, DE Odisha. The focus of the meeting was to brief the SSA Functionaries regarding effective implementation of the CAL Program to bring about a shift from BOOT Model to Home grown Model. 

The Review meeting held in Banglore

A five day Review meeting was organised in Banglore from 17th of June 2013 through 21st of June 2013 by AIF, presided by Mr Hemant Paul, Country Director, DE and Mr Sundar Krishnan, Director, DE, India. Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, DE Odisha, made a presentation on the scope for strategic collaboration with Corporates and PSUs for CSR activities in Odisha. This was followed by a presentation done by Mr Santanu Mishra and Ms Sangita Dash on the evolution of DE Program in Odisha so far and plans for future expansion. 

Sensitization workshop on CAL Program held in OPEPA

A two day meeting on the Computer Aided Learning (CAL) Program was organised in OPEPA(SSA), Bhubaneswar on the 21^st and 22^nd of May, 2013. The meeting was chaired by Mr Pravat Mishra, Asst. Director, MIS and Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, DE Odisha, AIF comprising members from DE team along with the 30 CAL Assistants from all the respective Districts of Odisha. The meeting commenced with a welcome note by Ms Juthika Acharya, Programmer (CAL), OPEPA. The Connectix team made a presentation on SUSE Linux operating system with specific focus on installation and trouble shooting. This was followed by a presentation on the genesis, evolution and impact of the DE program by Mr Subrat Sarkar, along with a video clip. The meeting basically focused on the implementation plan and strategy for the current academic year.

On the 22^nd, Mr S.K. Bhol, Technical Director from NIC (National Informatics Centre), Odisha, attended the meeting and discussed in details the base line study to be  undertaken by AIF for the current set of schools. He also highlighted the importance of research and evaluation, focusing on learning outcomes.

CSR Partnerships Training Workshop organized by PIC in KSRM Campus, Bhubaneswar

A two day training workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was organised by the PIC (Partner in change) team in the KIIT School of Rural Management (KSRM) campus at Bhubaneswar from 22.05.2013 through 23.05.2013. Ms Laura Donovan and Mr Bhomik Shah from PIC along with Prof. L.K. Vaswani and Prof. Sumita sindhi from KSRM, addressed the participants from different NGOs.

The following points were discussed as part of the meeting:

1. CSR practices and SROI (Social return on investment) theory
2. CSR Business and stakeholders
3. The scope for NGOs in CSR partnerships
4. The evolving CSR ecosystem in India
5. DPE (Dept. for Public Enterprises) Guidelines
6. Business mapping for CSR partnerships
7. Concept note writing and Capability Statement

DE Review cum refresher residential workshop held in Gopalpur

A three day  review cum refresher workshop was held in Swosti palm resorts, Gopalpur from 23.03.13 through 25.03.13. The basic focus of the workshop was to design the implementation plan for future expansion of the DE program from 2013 on wads. Every body had a chance to learn the fundamental nuances of different kinds of Mindset while editing videos using software like Adobe premier element, Windows movie maker, Adobe photo shop etc. A fourteen members from the DE team participated in the meeting.

Meeting organised with the Director, TE & SCERT to brief on DE Program

A meeting was organised to brief the Govt functionaries on DE Program in SCERT, on 20.03.2013. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Nihar Ranjan Patnaik, Director,TE & SCERT, Odisha and presided by Sri Subrat Sarkar, Ops Director, DE Odisha, AIF. The meeting basically focused on the significance of the DE program and its impact since its inception in 2004 and concluded with the future expansion road map across the six districts of Odisha, for the academic year 2013-14 on wards.  Dr. Dibakar Sarangi, SR. Lecture, Mrs Bijaya Patra, Dy.Director, Mrs Salila Sethi, Dy. Director, academics and the members of AIF participated in the meeting.

The MHRD team visits Odisha for Inspection

A six member team from MHRD (Ministry of Human Resources Development) was on an inspection trip to SCERT, Odisha from 11.03.13 through 16.03.13 . A JRM (Joint review mission), chaired by Dr Harekrushna Sahu, Principal, RNIASE, Cuttack was held during the visit of the delegates on 12.03.13. As part of the meeting the delegates were briefed about the DE program and its objectives including the achievements as far as positively impacting student learning is concerned while empowering teachers with additional tools and resources with the help of technology integration. 

Impact Evaluation of DE Program by Policy Innovations team

An Impact evaluation on DE program has successfully been carried out by the Policy innovations team across the three Districts, during their second visit to Odisha, from 21^st Feb 2013 through 23^rd Feb 2013. The assessment was done between six schools spread over the three Districts such as Cuttack, Ganjam and Bargarh comprising of three DE Schools or Treatment schools and three non-DE schools or Control schools.

DE Review meeting held in SSA office on 18th Feb 2013

DE Review meeting was held in SSA office, on the 18^th of Feb 2013. The meeting was chaired by the State Project Director. Additional Director Planning SSA, Assistant Director MIS SSA, Operations Director DE, AIFT participated in the meeting. A status update on the DE Program was provided by the AIFT team. Expansion plan along with a concrete road map were also discussed as part of the meeting. 

Core Group meeting held in Delhi for 2012-13

The final core group meeting for the academic year 2012- 13 was held in Delhi from 13^th through 15^th Feb 2013. The meeting basically focused on key learning, for the year 2012-13 along with planning and budgeting for the coming academic year. Dr. Hemant Paul, Country director AIF and M.A.Ravi Kumar, CEO, AIF attended the meeting. 

6th Resource Group team workshop at RNIASE, Cuttack

The 6^th Resource Group Team Workshop has been held at RNIASE, Cuttack on the 6^th Feb 2013. The meeting was chaired by the Principal, RNIASE and was presided by the Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa. The one day orientation program was conducted on the topic: “Motion of Earth” meant for Grade 6^th as far as School curriculum is concerned. A total of ten teachers from the selected DE Schools of Cuttack Dist thronged to the Zonal resource center where in they were taken through the presentation based on latest developments and researches in Cognitive Science domain “How we Learn”. Technology integration is a pedagogic decision and is completely at the discretion of a teacher as to when and where they can either complement or supplement it along with their curriculum rather than supplanting it which otherwise does not yield to better learning output. The instances sited by Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa, during explanation related to exploratory play and Mindset (Fixed and growth) captivated everyone’s attention and encouraged to implement and follow the process at filed level to achieve significant improvement in academic ground in students. The objectives of DE program was explained to the participants for building capacity in teachers in order to bring revolutionary change in making learning joyful and fun. The choices and tools that teachers are now equipped with after completing 18 days of training were emphasised. Even if in case of the teachers having teaching experience more than a decade, came forward with many riddles during the presentation and demonstration of the power point on the same topic as was designed in collaboration between Trainer and MEs. The meeting was concluded around 4.30 pm by asking every participant to accept the Teacher subject forum to post their questions and answers, to take the discussion to next level.   

8th Resource group team workshop at DPIASE, Berhampur

The 8^th Resource group team workshop was held on the 1^st Feb 2013 at DPIASE, Berhampur. The Dist Education officer had given his kind consent to grace the occasion on the said date however due to unavoidable circumstances the meeting was chaired by Prof (Dr). Maheswar Panda the Principal, DPIASE. The meeting was planned to be carried on the topic named “Latitude and Longitude” with a total strength of 7 teachers from the selected DE schools across Ganjam and Gajapati Dist. The meeting kicked off at 10.30 am. The initial round of discussion was based on “Rotation and Revolution of Earth” that was organized in the previous Resource group team workshop, following that the participants were taken through the presentation “How We Learn” as directed by the Operations Director, AIFT, DE Orissa. The latest research and developments included in the presentation pertaining to cognitive Science was appreciated by the participants as it would add value to class room teaching process while enabling the constructivism learning theory said the participants. The resource members participated in the activities designed and came forward in demonstrating the concepts that needs to be internalised in the topic using the choices available to address the hard spots. Nevertheless it was urged to share questions and answers based out of the same topic through the Teacher subject forum that has already been created using Google groups for the resource members of GEOGRAPHY while implementing the same in their class room practices and was complied by everyone before we winded up the meeting with vote of thanks. 

Policy Innovation team on their first visit to Orissa

The Policy Innovations team from Hyderabad was on visit to Orissa from 15th Jan through 17th Jan 2013. The notion was to conduct a study at pilot level on the effectiveness and impact of DE program at selected schools since its inception back in June 2011 through centralized Model. The team comprising of two members named as Naveen Mandva and Palaash went out on  visit to three DE schools in Cuttack on 15th Jan, where they interacted with the HM and the teachers regarding development in their teaching style as far as technology integration is concerned along with pedagogic component that has been mapped along with their curriculum. They wanted to identify the critical parameters that’s being practised to drive exercises like Lesson plans, TLMs, Student training and projects. In addition to that they interacted with students of different grades  and observed the presentations done by students on the projects they had prepared in group. The second day of their visit was at RNIASE, Cuttack. They provided couple of questions to the teachers who were present, regarding the benefit and challenges in DE training, that was followed by a meeting organised in the same premises and was chaired by the Operations Director, AIFT, Orissa. During the last day they paid a visit to Ghatipari High School and Gurunthi Nodal UPS from Ganjam Dist. They were quite happy with the overwhelming response from both the schools during their overall interaction. Now that the student training part has taken center stage, hence going forward the same indicator has to be strengthened for  bringing effectiveness in DE program while impacting lives, said the Policy Innovation team. 

Inter state visit of Karnataka DE team to Orissa from 7th through 10th Jan 2013

The Karnataka DE team, comprising of 3 members were on a inter state visit to Orissa from 7th through 10th Jan 2013. The objective of the visit was to observe the current DE model in Orissa, its implementation and the way the program has impacted lives of school children across the selected DE schools in rural and urban sectors. During their first day of visit, a meeting was arranged in Bhubaneswar Office in the presence of DE team members of Orissa, presided by Mr Subrat Sarkar, Operations Director, AIFT, Orissa. The meeting focused on importance, implementation processes and the ways to followup and track output at school levels while palnning out assessments in between in the centralized DE model. The members from Karnataka team shared about their DE model, since its inception, including the achievements at filed level so far.

 

           During the second day, they paid a visit to RNIASE, Cuttack and Beleswar Nodal UPS, Cuttack as part of their visit. They had a chance to interact with the School teachers who are part of DE training program in the particular batch during that phase. Various questions were posed by the team regarding progress in school level as far as student learning is concerned and student's contribution and participation. The basic pedagocic components being practised during class room transactions, lab transactions and while performing collaborative projects, added much importance to the appropriate way of integrating technology, said the team while observing a couple of lab transactions and a classroom transaction. During their third day of visit to the Khan nagar high School, Cuttack, the team had an interaction with the School teachers, in the presence of HM as part of focus group discussion. The positive impact of DE program through various tools including EDUKIT was demonstrated by the Students and was much appreciated. The second half of the day was crucial in discussing about the EDUBURNTU software package thats being used in almost all the Schools in Karnataka. Resources including videos and animations on different subjects were shown and explained by the team before they left for Karnataka in the end of the day. 

Interstate visit of Punjab DE team to Orissa on 3rd week Nov'2012

A DE team comprising of 6 members from Punjab were on a interstate visit to Orissa from 22nd Nov 2012 through 24th Nov 2012. The objective of the visit was to acknowledge the various aspects of technology integration in Punjab since its inception there, while understanding the centralized DE  model and its nuances that has been impacting lives in Orissa so far, in a combination of 104 schools that includes 52 Upper primary and 52 Secondary Schools. The team made it to the Ravenshaw Girl's School, Cuttack on 22nd Nov 2012, where they spared a few minutes interacting with the HM and the Teachers who are part of DE program regarding their views in implementing, imparting student training, and the initiatives they have been taking at present to sustain the CAL program post intervention. Also they had a chance to observe a classroom transaction as well as a lab transaction in the same school during their stay for near about two and half hours. During the second half of the day they made it to the Kunja bihari Jew High School, Cuttack and observed a classroom transaction. Efforts are being made to bring about the 21st century skills among children by practicing through pedagogic activity based methods and approaches that has been adopted by teachers which is inevitably need of the hour. Said the members from Punjab. The next day the team visited couple of schools in Ganjam Dist. Three of the team members made it to the Ex-Board UPS in Aska and the other group called on to the Gurunthi Nodal UPS, where in they interacted with children regarding their view and how far their level of understanding has gone up as far as their curriculum is concerned. The team was  excited indeed at the response they saw as students came forward in explaining about the projects they had performed in groups. During the last day of their visit, a meeting was organized at AIFT, BBSR office along with the team members of Orissa. The discussion happened to be quite meaningful as the Operations Director, Orissa focused on crucial aspects of  DE program that needs thorough attention while implementing and conducting an Impact evaluation assessment which is about to kick off in near future.