Learning has hugely shifted online and is no more restricted to schools and colleges. The modern ways of learning have evolved with technology with a variety of tools and resources available online to facilitate this learning. It is to understand and deliberate on this that the 4th ICT in Education Summit was conceptualized and organized, which was attended by around 200 guests comprising of academicians, think tanks from the corporate world and government representatives.

The morning session started with the lamp lighting ceremony in the presence of Hon’ble Chief Guest Prof. Marmar Mukhopadhyay, Chairman, ETMA, and other distinguished guests that included Ms Sara H. Basson, Ph.D., Worldwide Program Director, IBM – TJ Watson Research Center; Mr Shantanu Dash from MGurujee; Mr Sujit Panigrahi, CTO, Convergent Technologies, besides Mr Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Chief Editor, Kalinga Digital Media and Ms S. Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA.

While addressing the audience, Mr Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Chief Editor, Kalinga Digital Media, stressed on how education can be used as a powerful tool to change the world. “Despite the prolonged economic downturn, depreciation in the currency and policy paralysis, the global investor interest in India remains healthy. Investing in education is also the smart thing to do. Why? Because education imparts people the skills they require to help themselves out of poverty and into prosperity. Education is the bedrock of social and economic development, too. It is only through education that we can hope to eradicate social evils.”

At the beginning of the event, Mr Shantanu Dash from MGurujee spoke at length about his initiative of how it facilitates Mobile Collaborative Learning and of its different Apps and Mobile Learning Solutions that empower teachers, students and parents to make use of the Mobile platform. Ms Sara H. Basson, Ph.D., Worldwide Program Director, IBM TJ Watson Research Center, also spoke on her take on ICT in Indian educational institutions and its many advantages to the students and teachers.

In his presentation, Mr J. R. Kaim, Director – Education, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, gave a snapshot of the MCD schools across Delhi and highlighted the current state of education in these schools and the adoption of e-governance projects that have brought these institutions closer to ICT.

The enlightening speech given by the Chief Guest, Prof. Marmar Mukhopadhyay, Chairman, ETMA, left the audience enthralled. He spoke in detail about the current education system in India, on the strides it has taken so far to transform the system and how it can be further improved, besides laying emphasis on educating the girl child.

Ms Manju Rajput, Headmistress, Modern School (Junior), who could not join the Summit, sent a message in which she shared her thoughts and addressed some vital issues around ICT in education. In her message, she had stated, “While the value of ICT in today’s wired world needs no testimonials, we, in our context of ascertaining its role and place in education, need to understand that ICT is only an enabler and that we need ‘it’ to supplement the mainstream teaching and learning processes. As such, school education system must adopt and adapt to this new and ever-changing reality. The new technologies and corresponding new gadgets and instruments have introduced us to new ways to talk and new ways to listen, new ways to teach and new ways to learn.”

In the corporate presentations, Canon, HP, Datawind and WD took to the stage to discuss about their initiatives on the education front and how their various innovative business models have helped in taking ICT to the educational institutions in India. While Mr Ravi Sethi, Sr Manager –Marketing (OIS), Canon, shared his perspective on The Value Builders in Educational Ecosystem, Mr Suneet Singh Tuli, President & CEO, Datawind, presented his views on why the adoption of ICT has been so slow in the educational institutes in India. Ms Ankita Saikia, India Business Development Consultant, HP (Education), gave her company’s outlook and spoke on winning solutions for the education sector. Mr Deepak Jain, Sr Regional Manager, North India, WD, and Mr Kinney Nair, Marketing Manager, Branded Products, WD, walked the audience through what is new at WD and gave a glimpse of the latest internal and external HDD options available with the company.

The afternoon session started with Prof. Rajaram S. Sharma, Joint Director, CIET, NCERT, addressed the audience on the development of an ICT curriculum.