harinath asked:




Introduction

Advances in both cognitive science and information technology have the potential to transform education and training in ways previously unimaginable.To lay the groundwork for Federal leadership in learning technology innovation, in September 2002, the Commerce Department published Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training through Advanced Technologies. For Visions 2020, a number of distinguished individuals and teams from a wide range of technology and education fields were asked to look out into the future, and describe what technology-enabled learning experiences could be like. They responded with a rich collection of visions, some of which are excerpted in this report. Visions 2020 identified potential technologies, their application for learning, and how the learning environment would need to change to take full advantage of them. With a future vision in hand, the Commerce Department convened a Summit on the Use of Advanced Technologies in Education and Training. At the Summit, stakeholder groups identified ways to encourage technology-enabled transformation in U.S. education and training. The U.S. Departments of Commerce and Education (who co-chair the NSTC Working Group) and Net Day formed partnership aimed at analyzing K-12 student views about technology for learning. These views are analyzed in this second report, Visions 2020.2: Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies. In October-November 2004, NetDay sponsored its “Speak-Up Day for Students” which offered online questionnaires, which asked K-12 students across the country about their use of technology.

Collapse of the information float

Not only is information growing quickly, the time lag between discovery and application — the information “float” — is rapidly shrinking. For example, it took many hundreds of years for the steam engine to move from being a curiosity to a commercial product. In contrast, recent discoveries in science and engineering show up in products virtually overnight.

Education must focus on new competencies

Changes of this magnitude require a complete rethinking of education, both in terms of the curriculum, and in the development of pedagogies that insure that every student acquires the high level of skills needed to thrive in the dynamic world of the 21st century. In addition to the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, every learner must also master the “three C’s:” Communication, Collaboration, and Creative Problem Solving. Beyond these are the equally important skills of knowing how to use numbers and data in real-world tasks, the ability to locate and process information relevant to the task at hand, technological fluency, and, most of all, the skills and attitudes needed to be a lifelong learner.

Technological fluency is a basic skill

Technological fluency is a step beyond technological literacy. To be fluent in technology use means that we can sit down at a computer and use it as easily as we can pick up and read a book in our native language. Of the challenges facing education today, preparing students to be fluent in the use of computational and communication technologies is one of our greatest.

Education must prepare students for jobs that have yet to be invented

If our challenge could be limited to preparing people for the kinds of jobs available today, we would still have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the challenge is even greater. Many of the jobs that will be available at the turn of the century have yet to be invented.

If you doubt this, consider the following. One of the job categories in great demand today is that of Webmaster — a person who designs, creates, and maintains sites on the World Wide Web. This job did not exist ten years ago. In fact, it did not even exist five years ago! This means that the people who are working in this new field have acquired their skills largely on their own.

ESSENTIAL STUDENT LEARNINGS FOR 2020

•Use the technology to involve the student and parent in assessment.

•Give every student a lifelong e-portfolio.

•Assess team work, collaboration and creativity using the technology, e.g. through games, simulations etc.

Technology will enable us to abandon

•The role of teacher as knowledge transmitter and student as the receiver.

•The “top down”, one-off model of initial and continued teacher training.

•Textbooks.

•Traditional methods of assessment of content in one-time, big exam testing period.

•Fixed times in classrooms

•The traditional notions of school space and school time

Innovations of time

•Flexible working (staff & pupil)

•Learning should be possible all day every day

•Self-controlled time management

•True individualised learning programmes

•Clever use of ICT

•Move away from prescribed ages to start and finish schooling

Technology

Computer-based training represents a period of single-user tools in which the computer made its entrance in education and was brought into use for mathematics, computer-aided design, simulation programs, infinite calculation methods, writing, and presentation skills. Online learning represents multi-user tools, such as communication tools,the World Wide Web (WWW), streaming video and a virtual learning environment for online courses. Lecture notes were digitized and put online, as were video snaps together with references to publications that could be reached via hyperlinks. Underlying tools for two-way communication are used to support this time- and place-independent way of learning. Learning on demand represents the next generation web-based virtual learning environment where learning material, which is broken up into specified learning objects, is initially distributed online for regular educational tracks. The underlying systems will be compound systems with merged technologies and features gathered from several compound learning systems.

Four Changes

Many school managers and school boards do currently recognize the need for fundamental changes in schools and education systems at large. Some of them have already started revolutionary experimental schools. First results from these schools show that students love the new approaches that have been adopted and that learning results are satisfying. In the Netherlands, about six schools have started recently to work along entirely new lines

Future Schools

• 4 hours periods

• Interdisciplinary themes

• Areas for 90 to 120 students

• Continuing individual learning Paths

ENVISIONING THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR 2020

The Learner

•The technology will enable a “new 2020 student” – responsible, independent, exciting.

•We need to identify and agree what we want learners to look like first, then use the technology to make it happen.

“Don’t use technology for technology sake; it must be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum so that it is second nature to the teachers and students”

School Design

Schools as extended learning centres.

•On-line tutoring/mentoring available 24/7.

•Change time structures to allow for immersion in learning and real research.

•Use technology and class design to facilitate individual student progress, giving immediate access to ICT when appropriate.

Intelligent Tutor/Helper

No concept drew greater interest from the student responders than some sort of an intelligent tutor/helper. Many students desired such a tutor or helper for use in school and at home.

The Oracle: Many students expressed interest in an “answer machine,” through which a student could pose a specific question and the machine would respond with an answer. Similarly, some students described a sort of knowledge utility. Through a computer or an Internet web site, students could access all of the world’s knowledge from any location.

Make It A Game

•A way kids could have fun doing their homework. Someone could invent videogame homework.

•Video games that reenact historic events or scientific experiments. People love video games, and what better way to learn than through telling the story, while being able to reenact it.

Take Me There

•Things like virtual reality careers we could do. We would be able to work in an environment in which we would have to work in the future without actually being there, but still be able to explore and see what it would be like.

•3-D simulators to reenact historic events.

•Computer that has a virtual tour on it so, when looking up a country, you can go onto the computer and get a tour of it.

On-Line Classes

•Computer with a built in school system so you can learn at home without going to school.

•Virtual class room, where kids can stay at home and learn. The teacher could be on the computer or on a T.V. screen with a video camera or a web cam. This way, no one would have to miss a day of school if they were sick.

Working Digitally

•IM on school computers and, if a student can’t get up to ask a question or talk, you can just IM someone!

•Website with different subjects and teachers there to teach students different subjects. That way, we can go to school anytime we want and we wouldn’t have to wake up so early in the morning to catch the bus.

•Before the marking period closes, students can see their grades online to see what work and assignments they’re missing or if they failed on an assignment they can improve it.

A Different Kind of Teacher

•Computer that is like a personal teacher that has a lot of patience and that can speak.

•Teacher for every student, but not real teachers. They should be holograms and they should know everything possible

•Robotic teachers so we could learn more stuff and not get yelled at as often.

A Different Kind of Book

•Digital books that read the lesson to you, and teach you specific things. The thing would be voice-sensitive so you could read, and it would correct your reading.

•Dictionary that talks. So when kids find a word they can’t pronounce, they listen to the dictionary pronounce it for them.

Attributes of the Learning Process

•Computers that can produce realistic images of any subject. For example, the operation of machines or human organs.

•3-D simulations in classes such as science because often materials needed are not safe or available.

A Computer for Every Student

•Laptop that didn’t sell for much so that every student could have one on their desk.

•We already have laptops, but to see every student with an updated laptop to use with software that will aid them in their schoolwork will be nice. This could lessen the strain on students because the computers can be used to ask commonly asked questions.

•Laptop computers should be given as a school supply to every student in the future.

The Need for Speed

•Faster modems would help the kids in the future. It would make things a lot easier for them, and they wouldn’t have to worry about not getting stuff done because of the time it takes for everything to load.

•We need new, faster computers.

Want It Wireless

•Wireless Internet everywhere: in the park, at home, hospitals, and everywhere else. That way there will be wireless, trouble-free Internet wherever you go. That will give the child a chance to learn wherever he is.

Make It Safe and Easy to Use

•Easier version of the Internet for the younger people.

•Something should be invented that filters out incorrect information on any website. It is very misleading and confusing to find different facts on different websites, so it would be very helpful if there were a way to filter out wrong information.

24-7 Access:

•Access your school’s network from online at your own home.

•Access to the school websites and information from our houses, because it would help a lot with school projects and homework.

Conclusion

During 2020,Every student would use a small, handheld wireless computer that is voice activated. The computer would offer high-speed access to a kid-friendly Internet, populated with websites that are safe, designed specifically for use by students, with no pop-up ads. Using this device, students would complete most of their in-school, college work and homework, as well as take online classes both at school and at home. Students would use the small computer to play mathematics-learning games and read interactive e-textbooks. In completing their schoolwork, students would work closely and routinely with an intelligent digital tutor, and tap a knowledge utility to obtain factual answers to questions they pose. In their history studies, students could participate in 3-D virtual reality-based historic reenactments.

Jim Leatherwood asked:




Public schools play a vital role in shaping this nation’s future. As I write this article, we are about to elect a new President. It is probable that a change in administration will result in a new policy effecting education. The direction and quality of this policy will have a lasting effect on our public schools and on our nation as a whole. So where do we go from here?

At this moment, sitting in a classroom somewhere in America is a future Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet, and Martha Stewart. Will these students have the necessary tools to rise to the top of their profession or will we become dependent on other countries to provide leadership in this global economy? Education may be the determining factor.

“The economy of the future will be dominated by industries in microelectronics, telecommunications, robotics and biotechnology – not to mention new fields that haven’t even been predicted.” – NEA TODAY, March 2008

The essential focus in education must be to prepare American students for the challenge of the twenty-first century workplace. It is abundantly clear that our drop-out rate is too high and student performance levels are too low. Identifying these problems may be the first step toward a solution but current solutions simply don’t work. Under NCLB, academic testing has become the main focus for education reform. An emphasis on test results has forced educators to direct their energy and resources directly toward teaching to these tests. The irony is that some career-related courses and arts programs that clearly motivate students to stay in school and perform have been weakened, or even eliminated, in the process. The pressure that this type of reform has placed on educators can negate innovation and creativity in the classroom. Current policy hinders the teacher’s ability to inspire students.

Future planning for education must include a focus on changing technology and introduce the student to the necessity of lifelong learning. Programs like Tech-Prep, School-to-Work and Career Academies have successfully introduced these ideas to some high school students but have not gone far enough. No plan is complete without a delivery system that motivates and inspires students to learn. Such a plan must be implemented long before high school and have the potential to impact every student. When students are motivated to learn, test scores will rise. So where do we go from here?

A successful plan for education will include structured partnerships. As described in the book Facing the Future Together, educators should never plan or implement a program in isolation. Through structured partnerships with those who are stakeholders in education (business, industry and other agencies in the community) every program becomes stronger and every student benefits. Business and industry have an enormous stake in student achievement. Where will future customers, clients and skilled employees come from if not from the school system? Partnerships bring us closer as a community to address our common concerns and everyone benefits. Since we all have a stake in the student who exits our school system, the number of potential partners is almost limitless.

A successful school-business partnership is well structured, sustainable and clearly designed to show students the connection between education and the world beyond the school’s walls. This approach brings relevance to learning and helps to keep students motivated and in school. As previously stated, students will perform better in class and score higher on tests if they understand the relevance of subject matter they are expected to learn.

Taking that first step toward building a successful partnership can be a challenge but the result is that everyone wins. As a new administration takes office in Washington D.C. and a new education policy is formulated we have an opportunity to gain some of the ground we have lost in recent years. Facing the future of education together as partners gives us a strong foundation to build upon.

Kh. Atiar Rahman asked:




In the world of globalization, Information system is such where data are collected, classified and put into process interpreting the result thereon in order to provide an integrated series of information for further communicating and analyzing. In a progressively more spirited worldwide atmosphere, Information System plays the role as ‘enabler and facilitator’, which endows with tactical values to the officialdom and considerable step up to the excellence of administration. ‘An Information System is a particular type of work system that uses information technology to detain, put on the air, store, retrieve, manipulate or display information, thereby partisan one or more other work structure’. In totting up to taking sides assessment making, co-ordination and control, information systems may also help managers and workers investigate problems, envisage complex subjects and generate new merchandise or services.

The criteria of operational  systems and the idata management  systems that support analytically pass through at least four phases: a) Introducing the system  of manipulating the need to promulgate  on going operational Management  system b) development of  the process of acquiring and configuring/installing the necessary hardware, software and other resources c) implementation, the process of making new system operational in the organisation, and d) Operation and maintenance, the process concerned with the operation of the system, correcting any problems that may arise and ensuring that the system is delivering the anticipating benefits. The management of these processes can be achieved and controlled using a series of techniques and management tools which, collectively, tend to be known as Structured Management System. Two important methodologies:  PRINCE (Projects IN a Controlled Environment), and SSADM (Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology),structured by the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), are used widely in the UK public sector and in some Developing Countries, like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal etc. Prior to comment on the application of these methods in the Developing Countries, it would be pertinent to describe brief outlines of these methodologies.

It is a significant fact that PRINCE is a project management method; not system development, which covers the organisation, management and control of projects. Since its introduction in 1989, PRINCE has become widely used in both the public and private sectors and is now the UK’s de facto standard for project management. Although PRINCE was originally developed for the needs of IT projects, the method has also been used on many non-IT projects. PRINCE requires a dedicated team to be established to manage and carry out each project. It therefore aims to provide a supporting framework between the current state of affairs and the planned future state. PRINCE focuses attention on end-products rather than activities, ensuring that the organisation actually gets what it wants out of the project. Quality is seen as a necessary and integral part of the project and the focus on end-products enables the criteria by which quality is to be judged to be specified at the outset of the project. It requires the development of a viable “business case” for the project at its outset and that the business case needs to be periodically reviewed.

In PRINCE a project is regarded as having the following characteristics:

 defined and unique set of technical products to meet the business needs

 corresponding set of activities to construct those products

 certain amount of resources

 finite lifespan

 organisational structure with defined responsibilities

In such Management Structured System, an approach to planning based on products rather than activities and the use of this approach for the benefits. It also emphasises that projects needs to define the ‘ shape’ or manageable phases of a project to promote sound business control. Stages are characterised by the production of specific products. The PRINCE model for projects is based on two main principles:

The project is a joint responsibility between users, the developers and the organisation for whose benefit the end-product is being developed

In order for projects to succeed, a special structure is demanded to manage the project throughout its life – from conception through build to handover. This structure is distinct from normal line management.

By Using these principles, the model defines three levels of activity:

Overall project management and major decision making

Day-to-day management

Production of end-products

These three levels of activity are assigned respectively to the Project Board, to the Project and Stage Managers, and to the Technical Teams. The latest version of the method, PRINCE 2, is a process-based approach for project management providing an easily tailored, and scaleable method for the management of all types of projects. Each process is defined with its key inputs and outputs together with the specific objectives to be achieved and activities to be carried out. In the following diagram, the process-based approach is shown:

Structured Management  Process Model

Such Standard Method  provides benefits to the organisation, as well as the managers and directors of the project, through the controllable use of resources and the ability to manage business and project risk more effectively. PRINCE enables projects to have:

 a controlled and organised start, middle and end;

 regular reviews of progress against plan and against Business Case;

 flexible decision points;

 automatic management control of any deviations from the plan;

 the involvement of management and stakeholders at the right time and place during the project;

 good communication channels between the project, project management, and the rest of the organisation.

There is no denying the fact that SSADM is a highly structured and rigorous method of systems development ,was originally developed by Learmonth and Burchett Management System (LBMS) following an investigation by the CCTA into adopting a standard Information System (IS) development method for use in UK government projects. It was launched in 1981 and by 1983 became mandatory for all the government IS developments. This gave SSADM a large toehold in the IS structured methods market.

It is a prerequisite for SSADM that user commitment and involvement are agreed right from the start. It provides a top-down approach, where a high level picture is drawn up and subsequently refined into lower levels of detail. One extremely important concept in SSADM is the distinction between logical and physical views of system components.

The following purpose are generally fulfilled by such important methods.

 Provide a sound platform for communications between analysts, designers and users;

 Reduce errors and gaps in the specification produced

 Improve the quality of software documentation and the productivity of analysts;

 Reduce potential risks by presenting analysts with a structural framework for the use of techniques, and a standard for documentation end-products;

 Provide techniques for checking completeness and accuracy;

 Improve the maintainability of the new systems;

 Reuse staff and skills on other projects;

 Protect investment in analysis and design, and to allow freedom in implementation techniques.

SSADM consists of three main components:

 The structure or framework of an SSADM project

 A set of standard analysis and design techniques

 The products of each technique

The structure of SSADM might appear a little complex at first, but will make more sense as we began to look at the method in more detail. Following diagram illustrates the breakdown of the life cycle into a hierarchy of modules, stages, steps and tasks.Each module represents a SSADM phase, and is made up of one or two stages. Where a module contains two stages, one will be an analysis or design and the other will be a project decision stage. Each stages is made up of between two to seven steps, which provide the framework for applying and controlling the development techniques. The tasks to be carried out within each step define how the techniques should be used, and specify the required standard of the products output from the step. Following diagram shows the breakdown of SSADM’s modules and stages.The major analysis techniques mainly used are as follows:

 Business Activity Modelling (BAM) – explicitly describes what goes on that part of the business under investigation. The activities are defined from purely a business rather than on IS perspective. Recommended approach to be used in the construction of a BAM may be Soft System Methodology (SSM), Functional Decomposition or Resource Flow Diagrams.

 Logical Data Modelling (LDM), representing system data, is applied throughout the life cycle to provide the foundation of the new system;

 Work Practice Model (WPM) maps business activities onto the organisation structure defining user roles to the underlying business activities.

The key important thing is the end-product. Each step has number of tasks associated with it, most of which lead to the creation or enhancement of standard SSADM products. At the end of an SSADM project the new system will be described by the sum of these products. Products can be divided into three basic groups: Processing, Data and System-User (or Human-Computer) Interface.

By way of substantiating the Information System in developing countries is a complicated virtual process, specially in the public sector. With the growing needs in the information age, and by the pressure from the international donors , big and ambitious projects has been undertaken by the public sector in developing countries . But due to the lack of standard procedures and methodologies for IS development caused many projects to combat problems in the implementation stage. Many projects failed to attain their business needs, as they were too large and highly ambitious. Basic reasons for the project failure in the developing countries can be characterised as the following:

 Solving wrong problem;

 Technology led, not business;

 Lack of major stakeholder involvement;

 Experts lead, rather than facilitate;

 Lack of commitment and hidden agenda;

 Benefits not identified and quantified at outset.

Nowadays, the developing countries are applying both PRINCE AND SSADM methodologies, the project management development techniques, specially designed for IT projects, that are funded by the UK Department for International development (DFID).

4.2 In Bangladesh , private sectors are advancing with IS development , but it is not the identical situation in the public sector. The reasons behind this may be the poor salary structure in the public service, which never give confidence to the prospective talents and system designers to join the public services. Most of the IT projects are donor funded; domestically financed IT projects rarely experience success like the donor projects.

4.3 However, RIBEC (Reforms in Budgeting and Expenditure Control) project, funded by DFID, has been considered as the most successful project in Bangladesh.

At the early stage of RIBEC project (Phase 2), it was observed that, the project was design to develop and modernise the budgeting and accounting system of the government of Bangladesh. The experts mainly dominated that phase, including lots of things to cover. There was lack of stakeholders’ involvement; problems were not recognised at the initial stage. Only a range of high-grade staff in the relevant field was given a general IT training. There was no follow up; no visible product was seen. Benefits were not identified. No system was developed to automate the budgeting and accounting system. So this phase 2 had experienced a massive failure. Having awful experience, the following phase (2A and 2B), a downsized project with specific output targets came up with analysing user requirements. This phase focused on sustainability and proved successful with sustainable solutions especially in the software development for budgeting and accounting Substantive training had been offered to the users of the systems. Stakeholders have been involved in the software development process and the local vendors who will be easily available in the future, developed the systems. Following PRINCE and SSADM as methods for project management and system development, RIBEC project is now considered as a model for other projects which implies the potential scope for applying these methodologies.Financial Management Project for HMG Nepal has been designed to establish a reliable database to ensure user friendly and reliable financial information and to computerise budgetary system. CCTA guidelines for IS strategy including PRINCE and SSADM were followed in developing the system.  In Pakistan, Lahore WASA project experienced badly as the original proposal was too big and not phased project; no analysis of business needs, solution was technology led, benefits were not identified at outset, high risk strategy, questionable long-term sustainability, lack of training facilities and computing skill within organisation etc. So, 2 years’ costs and effort were wasted.

By taking into consideration the UK approach of project management, Lahore WASA claim to be successor and benefits are realised especially in the billing from bimonthly billing to daily billing and reduction in bill production cycle. The main project management approach in the new proposal includes: redefinition of purpose, identify business benefits, prioritise outputs, involvement of stakeholders, DIFID played the role as the facilitator not doer, ownership of solution by stakeholders, use of local consultant etc, phased development, distributed system.

In view of the above it is evident that ‘Information technology and Information systems for what they really are – powerful and valuable tools, but not magic. When applied thoughtfully, these tools can bring important benefits for individuals, organisations, and customers. When misapplied, they can waste tremendous amounts of time, effort, and money’.The USA, a Progressed and well structured country that is economically and technologically advanced, designed PRINCE AND SSADM, to meet their own requirements. It cannot be expected that these structured methodologies would equally suit the resource scarce developing countries. But the above discussions surmise that there is potential scope and rationale for applying PRINCE AND SSADM that would facilitate the developing countries for better project management and system development. But again, these methodologies need not be considered as the “ final conclusive critics”, rather these structural criteria should be used thoughtfully, tailored to manage projects efficiently and to develop effective information systems to cope with the challenge of change Management virtually.