India is one of the world’s largest educational systems. The private education sector is estimated to reach US$ 70 billion by 2013 and US$ 115 billion by 2018, according to consulting firm Technopak. It sees enrollments in K-12 growing to 351 million, requiring an additional 34 million seats by 2018. This equals US$ 80 billion at US$ 2400 a seat.
According to a report ’40 Million by 2020: Preparing for a New paradigm in Indian Higher Education’ released by Ernst & Young, the higher education sector in India is expected to witness a growth of 18.0 per cent CAGR till 2020. At present, the sector witnesses spends of more than INR 46,200 crore (US$ 10.4 billion), which is estimated to grow at an average rate of more than 18.0 per cent to over INR 232,500 crore (US$ 52.5 billion) in 10 years.
In order to create an enviable technology-led infrastructure for both students and teachers to be successful, technology needs to be at the forefront of our growing education infrastructure. In today’s institutions, from K-12 right through to higher education, technology is merely an administrative tool. It needs to be a key tool in learning – to be used as a time saver and the ultimate teaching aid. As the business world continues to turn toward technology, it is imperative that the next generation students are taught the skills at this level.
On 21st and 22nd June 2013, EdTechReview in partnership with DynamicCIO, with the help of other sponsors like Dell Software, HP, Avaya, Aptech, CheckPoint, Polycom and Presto organized “The Education Tech Summit 2013” at The Claridges, Surajkund, Delhi, NCR on the theme “Teach, Learn and Grow with IT“. It was a first of its kind residential offsite summit for senior IT decision makers in the Indian education sector. It provided a great opportunity for IT executives in the education sector to learn and discuss the latest technology topics and trends with their peers and the leading IT industry players.
The summit hosted a galaxy of senior technology decision makers, influencers, academicians and also featured case studies, keynotes, panel discussions and technology sessions to guide institutions on Tech-enabled Education.
The keynote address was given by Shri R P Sisodia, Joint Secretary, Higher Education Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India. His opening remarks set the stage for a detailed discussion on Tech-enabled education. He said, through such initiatives to spread knowledge, we can ensure that Indian education system is ushered into the new era which should be informed with the latest tools and techniques in the market as far as education delivery is considered. He added that technology is transforming learning and classroom environment, and through various tools and techniques of imparting education, we have been able to learn about various things easily. MOOCs are making radical tranformation in the whole concept of student going to school and college. So for students of this generation, we as a country need to figure out the different ways of giving this knowledge than the traditional methods of today in the way technology facilitates random learning, random access to information, less memorization, more of engagement in classroom concepts, utlizing what we have available i.e best utilizing the available resources.
This was followed by a keynote by Mr. Dhiraj Mathur, Executive Director and Leader Education – PricewaterhouseCoopers. He started by saying that, “Education sector has various stakeholders, hence it is a complex system. We are facing the challenge of demand supply gap for quality education. Though few of the government regulations and reforms could not take place for the brick and mortar sector of education from private Indian and foreign investors, the good part is that IT revolution has entered the education space for the betterment, and it has a significant role in the growth of the sector in the future.”
This keynote was taken forward by various technology sessions and panel discussions by the speakers and panelists.
Key Topics discussed during the Summit were:
- IT in Education: New Frontiers in Innovation
- Enabling the Collaborative Education
- Need for Technology-enabled Education for Growth and Innovation
- Role of Technology in 21st Century Education
- Panel Discussion on Technology Integration in Education: Opportunities and Challenges, Vision 21st century Learning Through Technology, Emerging Trends in EdTech, Technology Training and Professional Development: Cost or Investment.
- Role of Video, Virtual and Collaboration Technologies in Education
- Enhancing the Learning Experience: Cutting Edge Technology for Creating an Edge
- Open Online Courses and Mobile Learning (Spoken Tutorials and Aakash Project)
- Social Media in Education
You can find the Post Event Report of the EdTech Summit 2013 here.
Here is the list of speakers and panelists who participated in the Summit.
Shri R P Sisodia
Joint Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, New Delhi. Watch his keynote here.
Dhiraj Mathur
Executive Director and Leader Education – PricewaterhouseCoopers. Watch his keynote here.
Prof. MM Pant
Prof. MM Pant, has been the Pro-Vice Chancellor at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and on the faculty at IIT – Kanpur (the premier Engineering institution in India), MLNR Engineering College and on the Faculty & Visiting Professor at University of Western Ontario-Canada. He has been a Visiting Scientist to research centers in Italy, England, Germany & Sweden and has delivered international lectures with about 80 published papers to his credit.
Prof. Pant has been the Member – Board of Governors – IIT, Delhi.
Watch his session here.
Prof. Kannan Moudgalya
Professor Kannan Moudgalya is a Professor at IIT Bombay. He played a key role in making of the Akash Tablet, which is the most ambitious project of MHRD, Government of India.
Prof Kannan is also a Member of the Standing Committee National Mission on Education through ICT
In the past he has been the Member, Academic Council, IGNOU, Head, Center for Distance Engineering Education Programme, IIT Bombay, Head, Application Software Cell, IIT Bombay, Visiting Professor, University of Alberta, Associate Dean, R&D, IIT Bombay, Lovraj Kumar Industrial Exchange Fellow, NOCIL, Mumbai.
Watch his session here.
Mr. Sridhar Rajagopalan
Sridhar Rajagopalan, Managing Director of Educational Initiatives, is an IIT-IIM alumni and educational entrepreneur who has helped change the way student learning outcomes are seen in India.Sridhar is a member of various central and state government committees related to education including the committee for devising model rules for the Right to Education Act in Gujarat.
Dr. Shradha Kanwar
Area Director, Educational Technology, NIIT University
Dr. Shradha Kanwar is Area Director, Educational Technology, at NIIT University. With her 16 years’ varied experience in education and corporate sectors, she heads this emerging area of Educational Technology, providing alongside an insight into the characteristic designing and implementation of research-based, innovative learning-solutions.
Ms. Shabnam Aggarwal
Edtech Consultant & Advisor at Perspectful Advisory. Shabnam is an engineer obsessed with mobile gadgets and educational technologies that empower students & teachers worldwide. She has worked with various companies in India, Cambodia, and the US, building edtech solutions for the masses.
Ms. Vasudha Neel Mani
Principal, Vidya Sanskar International School.
Watch the panel discussion by Mr. Sridhar Rajagopalan, Dr. Shradha Kanwar, Ms. Shabnam Aggarwal, and Ms. Vasudha Neel Mani here.
Mr. Varadarajan Sridharan
Varadarajan Sridharan is an Ed Tech researcher with over 10 years in IT with Fortune 500 US clients. After moving back to India, he worked with a Mobile Learning startup designing a tablet-based learning ecosystem. Since then, he has been pursuing research in Ed Tech with focus on mLearning Frameworks / Capability Maturity Model, Learning Registry, MOOC, Social or Collaborative Learning and self-learning. He has published a whitepaper on the socio-technical issues faced during Mobile Learning implementation. He is currently working with Anna University’s VLE team at AU-KBC Research Center, that conducts a completely online MSc Computer Science program.
Varadarajan actively blogs about Ed Tech, contributes to Ed Tech forums and mentors Ed Tech startups around the world with early stage R&D and product roadmap.
Watch his knowledgeable session here.
Enayet Kabir
Associate Vice President, and Head of Education Practice, Technopak Advisors
Enayet Kabir has over 13 years of experience in strategy, operations, and start-up incubation in vocational training, executive, higher education and government services (Defense). In his current assignment Enayet consults across Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education as well as Education and Training segments.
Watch his session here.
Ms. Kumuda Gururao
Ms. Kumuda is a Ph.D. (Education), Masters Dip. in Business Administration (IT & Software Marketing)with over 25 years of combined experience in Education & ELearning Industries including CLO (Chief Learning Officer) at Alpha Group of Institutions. She is working as eLearning and Social Media Marketing Consultant / Advisor to Education & Corporate Sectors.
Watch her session here.
The conference was attended by over 50 senior technology decision makers, influencers, academicians, researchers including representatives of EdTech organizations and educators.
Encouraged by the positive response from the attendees, EdTechReview and DynamicCIO have decided to organize a series of similar conferences on themes related to education technology, its adoption and implementation in the coming year.
You can see all the event photos in this album, and you can view all the videos from the Summit here in the playlist.
To access the presentations of these speakers and the post event report, kindly submit this form.
