Friday 29 April 2016

CampusHunt.in -India gets its first free, highly Interactive Education Portal

The first fully transparent, interactive higher education portal has been introduced in India. This education portal and android mobile app, CampusHunt.in is registered under Scandium Technologies Pvt Ltd.

With the aim to transform the future of education by improving the quality and making it easily accessible, affordable and career focused, this portal was created by young professionals from various MNC’s such as IBM, Wells Fargo, Infosys and Accenture.

Link | Click Here

Study | Twitter to become your future teacher Micro-blogging can help teachers-students engage better

Study | Twitter to become your future teacher

Micro-blogging can help teachers-students engage better

· The study finds that 93% of students surveyed think Twitter enable them to interact and share perspectives with a global audience outside the classroom

· The study shows the potential benefits of using Twitter as a pedagogical tool based on survey results, interviews, and classroom observations of eighth-grade students in science classes, according to researchers from University of Vermont in the US.

· Students reported significant increases in four key areas that contributed to their learning—exposure to reputable science and leaders, in real time; a broadening of the audience for their work outside the classroom; more opportunities for connecting science to their own lives; and new ways to communicate about science.

More Information | Click Here

HRD Ministry and NCERT work together for ‘Digital India’ via e-classes,e-books and websites

Slowly, but steadily the dream for ‘Digital India’ of our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is being fulfilled. In a recent development, the Ministry of HRD has come up with a proposal to impart education through e-Classes and e-books. Working on the lines, about 93,000 e-Books for the college students are already available under National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) Programme.

Laying more stress on digital education, online courses’ called ‘MOOCs’ for students from class 9 to post graduation, in any discipline, will be made available through e-Classes under a programme called Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM), which is likely to begin around the middle of this year.
Moreover, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled teaching and learning is supported in government and government aided Secondary and Higher Secondary schools.

Link | Click Here

Thursday 28 April 2016

Zoho Writer review: Lean, mean, write machine @ powerful browser-based word processor

Zoho Writer is a powerful browser-based word processor.

Word processors go a long way -- to the pre-personal computer late 1970s. Older readers will remember Wordstar, the first and for long, the best of them all -- till Apple's MacWrite and Microsoft's Word appeared. Today, GoogleDocs, found on Android and Chrome machines is widely used, because it saves you having to buy an office suite. MS Word has evolved into a good omnibus product --but sometimes plenty can be problem: so many menus to drop down before you find your choice of settings... it can be intimidating.

Link | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/2016/04/zoho-writer-review-lean-mean-write.html

A study titled “Internet addiction and its association with psychopathology: A study in schoolchildren from Mumbai”

A study titled “Internet addiction and its association with psychopathology: A study in schoolchildren from Mumbai”

The study was carried out by the Department of Psychiatry at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai, on 603 youngsters studying between classes 8 and 10.

Findings

· Found prevalence of internet addiction in 3.96 per cent boys and 1.62 per cent girls

· Over 15 per cent of the sample showed internet overuse but not addiction

· Stress scores were significantly correlated with the internet-use patterns in both sexes

· Most students browsed the internet at home while over 50 per cent of the sample owned mobile phones or laptops or both.

For More Information | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/2016/04/a-study-titled-internet-addiction-and.html

New education tool: Tabs with literacy apps

After using the tabs for a year, children were tested on their understanding of 20 English words.

Tablets loaded with literacy apps may help improve the reading skills of young children living in economically disadvantaged communities, say scientists who have launched new trials of the devices in India.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Tufts University, and Georgia State University in the U.S. examined the use of tablet computers loaded with literacy applications in a range of educational environments.

Link | Click Here

New education tool: Tabs with literacy apps

After using the tabs for a year, children were tested on their understanding of 20 English words.

Link | Click Here

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Do you look at a screen all day? It could be causing more damage than you think

Highlights

• Blinking is an important function for our eyes, which spreads tears over the ocular surface.
• When blinking stops, the crucial tear film evaporates, causing stress to the cells which line the corea.

Computers have become a necessity for many of us, but they're causing an epidemic of a painful medical conditions for many office workers. Whether it's a phone, a tablet or a laptop, it's becoming increasingly commonplace to see people glued to a screen. Computers and hand-held devices have woven themselves into everyday life, and a vast number of us wouldn't be able to do our jobs without them. While it may come as no surprise that excessive screen time, however necessary, is bad for us, there's been a worrying development associated with it.

More Information | Click Here

Virtual stamp, coin museum will go online this week

Mumbai: Later this week a city businessman will launch a web portal that is a virtual museum for collectors of coins, banknotes and stamps in India.

The portal called www.mintageworld.com will be launched on the 25th anniversary of Shukla Day, India's largest display of numismatics, philately and notaphily. This exhibition will be held at the World Trade Centre in Cuffe Parade from April 22-24.

More Information | Click Here

Regards

Kindle Oasis Review: Thinner, lighter, sharper

The 8th avatar of the Kindle reader gets closer than ever to a real book.

It is nine years since Amazon launched its dedicated e-book reader, the Kindle and though there have been about seven variants, these come down to three models from the original 2007 Kindle book to the much sharper Paper White in 2012 to the Voyager two years later, which came with navigation by touch within the book and an adaptive light sensor.

On April 27, the new Kindle Oasis will be available in India at Amazon.in and for the first time, it appears to have shrunk in size. In fact, all Kindles have come with a 6-inch diagonal reading area, but the Oasis has chopped away the empty spaces and perhaps for the first time ever, users will feel they are holding a real book. And for a more “bookie” feel, you now have a soft leather jacket.

Link | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/2016/04/kindle-oasis-review-thinner-lighter.html

Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report 2016 Good News

Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report 2016

Good News

The good news is that apparently we are sharing less personal information on Facebook. Even though one doesn’t know if this is because of the awareness of the pitfalls of sharing personal information online, a change in user demographics, or just a fatigue with the way the platform functions, it still bodes well from a security perspective since making personal information public — and social media is a public platform irrespective of all our privacy settings — is a risk to our cyber-safety.

Link | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/2016/04/symantecs-internet-security-threat.html

A social network to connect book lovers

If you’re a bibliophile who’s not too crazy about Twitter or Facebook, Litsy — a new mobile app designed to connect book lovers — might make you reconsider your stance on social media.

Todd Lawton and Jeff LeBlanc, founders of a literary-themed clothing company, were inspired to launch Litsy after meeting fans at book festivals and comic book conventions, TechCrunch reports. “We realised that there’s a really passionate conversation that happens face-to-face with readers that wasn’t necessarily captured digitally,” Lawton told the tech news site. But wait, don’t book-lovers already form their own niche communities on platforms like Goodreads, FB, and Twitter? Yes — which is why Litsy works a little differently.

Link | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/2016/04/a-social-network-to-connect-book-lovers.html

Regards

One academic authority for all classes, says state

We are unable to upgrade the syllabus to the national and international level so far as there is no cohesion of thought among academic agencies working for primary to higher secondary education NAND KUMAR, principal secretary state school education department

MUMBAI: To bring the syllabus of classes 1 to 12 at par with the national and international boards, the state school education department has decided to keep just one academic authority for designing syllabus, curriculum, assessment, teacher training and others for all the classes. This will be done by dissolving all the existing board of studies working under different agencies for developing the syllabus and other academic work.

According to the government resolution issued by the department on Monday, a common board of curriculum-consisting of 250odd members- will be formed under the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT). These members will be appointed on the board of studies and expert committees in all the agencies MSCERT, state textbook bureau, Balbharti and Maharashtra state board so that there is a unity in thought.

Currently, MSCERT looks after designing syllabus for classes 1 to 8 and training teachers, state board for Class 9 to 12 and the textbooks are printed by the state textbook bureau, Balbharti. They each appoint different members to their board of studies. “We are unable to upgrade the syllabus to the national and international level so far as there is no cohesion of thought among the different academic agencies working for primary to higher secondary education,” said Nand Kumar, principal secretary of the department. “If class 12 syllabus is upgraded to the international level and if the syllabus of other classes continues to be of a lower level, it will lead to a large number of students failing.”

For this reason, the department has decided to have the same members in all the academic panels in these agencies. “Having the same people on the boards in all academic areas from syllabus making, textbook printing and assessment and evaluation, will help in bringing continuity in thought and vision in education from Class 1 to Class 12,” said Kumar. The appointments to the board of curriculum have already been done by calling for applicants online.

Source | Hindustan Times | 26 April 2016

What’s missing in the Indian ranking f

or varsities?The all-India ranking for higher education institutions in the country released by the human resource development (HRD) ministry last week is being seen as a big step in improving the quality of education imparted by Indian universities. It also aims to make these universities globally competitive. While 100 institutions each were ranked under the university and engineering categories, 50 each were ranked in management (research and teaching) and pharmacy (research and teaching) categories.

Prominent names missing from the list

One of the surprise elements was that some prominent institutions in different disciplines were missing in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). These include Delhi Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, National Law School of India University (Bengaluru), Faculty of Management Studies (Delhi), National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad), Mudra Institute of Communication (Ahmedabad), Indian Institute of Mass Communication (Delhi/Dhenkanal) and School of Planning and Architecture (Delhi and others).

More Information | Click Here

Thomson Reuters Collaborates with Indian Education Ministry to Advance the Global Impact of its Academic Research Performance

Initiative will provide 165 higher education institutions with access to Web of Science, the world's most trusted citation index of scientific and scholarly literature.

PHILADELPHIA, April 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters announced a strategic partnership to provide access to its online scientific citation indexing service, Web of Science, to India's e-Shodh Sindhu: Consortia for Higher Education Electronic Resources (ESS).

Formed in 2015, ESS is an initiative of India's Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to provide academic institutes with access to electronic resources and promote their usage.

More Information | Click Here

Gateway to the World Wide Web

Is Google Chrome slowing down your computer? Are you still stuck with the Internet Explorer? Perhaps it is time to start afresh

The Web browser, that simple app you use on your PC and phone to access the World Wide Web, isn’t as simple as you might think. Every Web browser has a different set of features which may or may not be relevant for you, in the same way that gadgets and apps that work for one person may not necessarily work for another.

On 7 April, Jon von Tetzchner, a former chief executive officer of Opera, a company that makes Web browsers, launched the Vivaldi Web browser, focused on enhancing productivity. Microsoft is constantly adding to the Edge browser, the latest being Skype plug-in support. Mozilla has announced that it is starting Project Tofino as it struggles to make more headway with the current-generation Firefox browser. Google’s Chrome, which has released its 50th version, remains the undisputed leader globally.

We take you through the highlights of the five major Web browsers for Windows and Mac OS X devices. The results may surprise you, and even help you make a smarter switch to a Web browser that suits your usage better.

Link | Click Here

Saturday 23 April 2016

Online career test for class 9 th 12

Click on following link to appear for the test Questionnaire
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
Total no of questions 72
Average time 15-20 mins
Get the printout of the result report to the school counselor for the further career discussion