Shiv Mehta

How To Make Your Kids Enjoy A Subject They Find Boring

2018-01-02T13:40:00.000+05:30

Honestly sometimes it is very hard to get kids do their homework or study, especially if the subject you want to study is tagged boring by your kid.

Original Author : Achita Ahuja

Everything is such a case turns out into an all-out battle. The situation becomes adverse if your kid does not find anything interesting in studying and hates it totally. Instead of studying your kid will rather play video games, watching television or playing.I know, it is really hard sometimes to understand how to reach when your child hates studying a particular subject. It is even harder to figure out how to motivate children to study the subject your child hates. The world has become extremely competitive today and the best scorer in school will always have the advantage but how to convince your kid to study hard is the tough task. Children’s performance in school has more to do with their parent’s strictness than with their brain power or teachers interest of teaching. A recent study reports that parental effect on exam results is five times greater than any other factor. Education is important but some children can really cause pain in the nerve to study what they should be studying. It becomes essential in such a condition to help the child with poor studying interests. But what will you do in such a condition, be strict, try to maintain the discipline to make your child study but everything fails. This is because your kid has already considered a subject or studying itself as intrinsically boring. Now no matter you decide to do but to make your kid study a boring subject will fail every attempt of yours, no matter how hard you try. No matter your kid sits in front of the book fearing your anger still their brain won’t remember as they should. May be they require a master skill that involves learning something that is found dull by your kid. So the most important thing to do to make your kid study is make it interesting so that your kid removes the ‘boring’ tag applied on it and start making effort towards it. The biggest task for you lies in making the kid realizing that the boring subjects are not boring at all. It is just you need to make them figure out the right way to learn them and hence forth the new interests and opportunities opens up.

Boring is not just boring, it may be just a way out to dismiss a subject your kid finds difficult. As your kid is not able to do it and he has to sit longer for repeating same lessons just to finish his homework. Your kid starts calling it boring and starts running away from it. The difficulty might be conceptual as your kid is not able to see the true pictures that the subject represents.

One study of student boredom suggested that almost 60% of students find at least half their lectures boring, with about 30% claiming to find most or all of their lectures boring. Probably it is the way the teachers teach in the class that makes the subjects image in the mind of kid. This image of the subject is carried further. Thus one of the simplest and most ways to prevent boredom is to have fun yourself. If you are having a good time with kid during studying a boring subject the ideation of kid towards that particular subject will change and they will start finding interest in studying the same subject. The fact is affirmed by researches also which shows that if you can put your kids in a good mood, they will learn more too.

How to enhance knowledge and skills

2016-09-08T12:29:00.000+05:30

We are all familiar with the refrain: Management finds employee performance to be slacking off while certain routine matters are flagging. What are the common responses to an issue and what are needed to provide or revive knowledge and skills within an organization? The typical answer, of course, is training. While effective, if designed and implemented right, one would think at some point whether training is the only solution, and how does it really impact on the business strategy.

Many companies, especially the more progressive ones, now look at learning solutions as an integral part of their business strategy. They adopt a broader perspective and approach for assessing and meeting their organizational requirements. Based on my experience with some of these organizations and their leaders, I have chosen three key principles, which I now put forward to other companies for consideration and, if deemed appropriate, apply them. They are:

Make the Learning & Development (L&D) group your internal business consultants

The L&D group is often looked at in an organization as just a provider of training and seminars. This calls for a change in mindset, from being a training provider to an internal consultant. As consultants, their value comes from them being able to understand the “business” of the company, including how it operates, its product and service offerings, its constituents, its business strategy, etc.

Thus, when a problem that is initially identified as a training issue is given to the L&D group, they should first find out what the business and performance requirements are, determine the issues and the root causes of such problems, and only then recommend the appropriate solution. In some cases, it may turn out to be outside the scope of L&D. This should be fine. But thinking only like trainers, on the other hand, would often limit them to the discussions they have with you and their solutions might just be too focused on the training needs. That will prevent them from seeing the bigger, truer picture.

So, how do you make them consultants? Make the L&D group your business partners, and encourage the group to ask questions; the right questions. Typically these questions are open-ended at first, so that they will encourage a broader discussion of the issue. Questions like, what keeps you awake at night, what is the problem you are trying to solve or what does success look like, may seem to be simple and trite, but it really opens up the discussion to explore the different areas that may be contributing to the needs or even beyond.

Provide a variety of learning solutions, not just training

Learning solutions, unlike training, provide a broader perspective that considers a wider array of learning approaches—experiential, social, and structured programs—typically referred to as the 70-20-10 Principle that were introduced by the Center for Creative Leadership, to enhance organizational competencies. In this model, training is just one of, but not the only, solution.

So how do you apply the 70-20-10 Principle? Consider ways by which your organization can enhance the learning experience. You can implement on-the-job programs through secondment, cross-team postings, or individual swaps/exchanges. These assignments can even extend to clients or external organizations. You can also cascade a coaching and mentoring process where constant feedback and knowledge sharing is done across all levels. It’s about building a culture and structure where your employees seek and are able to learn by application and from others, through programs or ad-hoc opportunities.

Align the learning strategy with the business strategy

Learning can be strategic as well as tactical. A major difference between the two is that strategic learning focuses on supporting the organization’s vision and strategy, while tactical learning focuses on addressing performance gaps. Strategic learning is long-term and tied up to organizational metrics while tactical learning is short-term and measured through team or individual performance indicators, typically around productivity, quality, and timeliness. Training done across the organization is not necessarily strategic unless it is aligned with organizational outcomes and goals.

So what do you do to start aligning your learning programs into strategy? A useful first approach is auditing your learning initiatives. Determine which of those initiatives support your strategy and which address specific team or individual performance needs. It’s a simple method to see where the gaps are, but it really challenges you to evaluate whether the effort and resources are being channeled to where they make the most impact and sense.

As we strive to direct our organization forward, there has to be a deliberate effort to realign our learning perspective and paradigms. Positioning L&D closer to the business core, and providing a wider range of learning experiences, will help increase organizational effectiveness, improve employees’ morale as well as the company’s chance of success.

Mon San Jose is a director with the knowledge management group of P&A Grant Thornton, a leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing firm in the Philippines, with 21 partners and over 700 staff members.

Source | http://www.manilatimes.net/how-to-enhance-knowledge-and-skills/284380/

How to prevent students from cheating

2016-03-08T15:08:00.000+05:30

To stop rampant cheating, states need to fix the quality of their educational institutions

Fifty-seven students and 14 teachers were booked in mass cheating incidents in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura and Agra last week. Pictures and videos showed friends and relatives of the students scaling walls and passing chits through windows at the examination centres. Students were caught blatantly copying from each other.

According to newspaper reports, an organised network helps students write examinations in return for money. Invigilators were booked; so was the chief superintendent of a centre. On learning of the incident, the deputy district collector visited an examination centre in Mathura. How ineffective the authorities in the state are is evident from the fact that he was attacked and his vehicle was damaged as locals pelted stones.

The whole incident is a repeat of what happened in Bihar last year when photographs of mass cheating and relatives scaling high walls to help students with chits made international headlines.

Despite the worldwide ridicule, the state government failed to take stern action against the students. Although the government holds the right to debar students from taking examinations for up to three years, jailing or charging a fine, no action of this sort was taken. The government, on its part, claimed that it had expelled several students. But most suspect that the punishment was primarily on paper. If the authorities concerned had taken stern action a year ago, we might not have seen a repeat in UP.

Shifting the blame from the state to the parents, Bihar's education minister expressed the state's helplessness - he was quoted as saying, "What can the government do to stop cheating if the parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate? Should the government give orders to shoot them?"

Shooting may be an extreme punishment, but there's no reason why the culprits should get off scot-free. I have a couple of suggestions.

Let all institutions financially supported by the central government and various other state universities refuse or place a ban on students from Uttar Pradeshand Bihar till such time that the state governments are able to get their act together and prove the sanctity of the examination system. There is no reason why a student from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh board should be placed on an equal footing with a student from Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kerala or any other state where such incidents are rarely found. On what basis can the results of the student from one of these states be treated on a par with the other state boards?

If this is the scale of cheating as has been reported, one shudders to think how much goes unnoticed or unreported. If teachers and invigilators have to be brought to book and parents and relatives are in cahoots, the problem may be more endemic than we think (evidence that it is came from a recent Army recruitment examination - again in Bihar - where examinees were stripped down to their underwear before being permitted to sit for it).

If for any reason a total ban is not a ready option, let's start with a 10 per cent penalty on the final results. So, if student scores 90 per cent marks in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, let him be treated on par with a student from other states with 80 per cent: a 10 per cent penalty for the lawlessness of the state machinery and a student and parent body that seems devoid of basic morals. There's no reason why Delhi or any other university cannot issue a decree stating that in light of these incidents it cannot continue to treat these students as they were treated in the past because that amounts to penalising the rest, the ones who do not employ unfair means.

This may not fully stop the menace, but it will be a powerful check since one of the main reasons students - encouraged and abetted by parents - cheat is that they are looking to get out of the state at any cost and study in institutions outside of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Higher education institutions in these states are pathetic, and parents and students are willing to do anything - including cheating - to escape them.

So to answer the minister's question, the state government can start by trying to improve the quality of its own educational institutions.

What is a librarian?

2016-03-08T15:03:00.001+05:30

There seems to be little argument that the stereotypical kind older matron with the white hair in a bun is no longer staffing the public library. In addition, depending on your school district, you are less and less likely to see a public school with a full time librarian staffing the desk when your children come by for reading time. It may even be true that Katherine Hepburn’s days in the classic film Desk Set depicting a corporate librarian are long gone. Indeed, with the advent of the Internet and search engines such as Google, who needs a librarian? I am here to tell you, you do. You need a librarian, and mostly because you have no idea what a librarian does.

A colleague recently sent me a copy of the WSJ’s article, In Age of Google, Librarians Get Shelved. While I generally enjoy a provocative editorial from the WSJ, I cannot fail to see how far off the mark this particular article fell. In the Age of Google, librarians are needed more now than ever. I am not here to proclaim that things must go on as they are. I am here to tell you that you cannot go on without your librarian, and your librarian is your ticket to the future. As my experience is focused in the legal arena, my comments and examples will draw from that industry.

Let’s set aside the fact that there is still a vast section of the population that does not know how to utilize the fantastic tools of the Internet, such as Google. I am not just referring to those who are older in years. My dear husband is terrified of technology. He won’t admit it, but he conveniently can’t find any electronic device to Google even the most basic of questions when the need arises. I am his search engine. Even a group text sends him into fits. He is not alone. While iPhones and Android phones are ubiquitous, it does not mean that everyone in our society knows how to research online. And even more important to the seekers of accurate information, being published online does not make a fact true. “I pulled this up on Wikipedia” might as well be, “I closed my eyes and threw a dart at the wall”. I was recently asked to verify a piece of research material found online. The truth was, there was absolutely no way to verify the material. It came from a dubious website, and had no citations or any scholarly backing. In fact, the only thing it did have were words stating exactly what the requestor was looking for. Well if that isn’t the Bible truth, then I don’t know what is.

I return to my original question. What is a librarian? Some of the best librarians I have met and had the privilege of working with could be described with a few of the following characteristics:

Organized
An attention to detail
Naturally grouping and organizing like things
An inquisitive mind
The ability to break down problems
The ability to rely on a vast amount of knowledge to recall where information is located (in print, electronically, or real tangible matter.
A detective like mind, working to find each piece of the puzzle

A librarian researches, organizes and presents information. A librarian is aware of their area of expertise. As a legal librarian I work with the law, and more specifically I work with Labor and Employment law. On my team the librarians understand the basics of Labor and Employment Law. They watch new developments and explore trends in our particular area of law and indeed in the practice of law. This expertise allows them to provide our attorneys with excellent research distilled down to the information required to best respond to the clients’ need.

What about all of the administrative work that is done in a library? Does it take a Master’s Degree to put a book on a shelf? No, it does not and that is precisely why most institutions utilize para-professionals. I dislike this term as it implies that a library assistant is not a professional, however; the term does indicate that the person in question has library skills and works in a library but does not have a MILS and does not perform high level research. In my particular organization we use library assistants to do a host of tasks that help free up time for any number of professionals including our librarians and our attorneys. Someone does have to open the invoices, shelve the books, manage IDs, maintain databases , manipulate spreadsheets, route the newsletters, and deliver requests for copies of court documents. None of these tasks should be confused with the in depth specialized research performed by highly skilled librarians. A librarian is not, and may I assert never has been the person who reads and checks out books. True these tasks must be done, and often a librarian might have done them. But in that same vein an attorney uses the copier, answers the telephone, and knows how to make coffee in the office. Does that make the attorney a clerk?

One might be tempted to ask, why can’t the attorneys (or any professional) do this research themselves? Well they could, just like you can remodel your house by yourself. The work will get done, but without the special skills needed. It will take longer, be lower quality, and in the end could cost you more than hiring a professional. If you are an attorney in a large firm with a billing requirement and a cost conscious client, you certainly do not want to waste your time, firm resources, or the client’s money.

The Wall Street journal probably did get one thing correct. That very kind white haired lady behind the reference desk at the public library is likely going to retire soon, and very likely she will not be replaced. However, the state of public libraries and local government finances is light years away from the conclusion asserted in the article that all librarians are now useless. Librarianship as a profession is not dead. If anything, this is the best time to become a librarian. Maybe we need to rename the librarian something more appropriate, such as Research and Information professional, to take away the stigma. With the VAST amount of data and information flooding the Internet someone has to be available to sort it out, organize it, decipher truth from fiction, and get you a fully formatted client ready report before your noon meeting on Tuesday. Good luck pulling that off using Google.

Mastering the art of presentation

2016-03-02T15:17:00.000+05:30

The stories showcased at TED and INK events are inspiring for listeners—but they are also a crash course in crafting an impactful presentation

It was October 2013, and 15-year-old Angad Daryani was on his way to the TED (technology, entertainment, design) India office at the Indiabulls building in Mumbai to prepare for a talk that would be uploaded as a YouTube video. Daryani had jotted down the concept of the video, which eventually got 300,000 views, on a scrap of paper in a taxi. The 6-minute talk, featured at the TEDx conference in Mumbai in December 2013, told his story—one of rebelling against the school system to study science at home, and inventing a 3D printer.

Daryani, then a class X student, had been spotted a few weeks earlier at an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Labs event by TEDx senior ambassador Yashraj Akashi. “He was a prodigy; at age 8, he had made his own robots from a Lego Mindstorms kit,” says Akashi.

Here was the kind of profile TED was looking for: a young prodigy who could inspire others, somebody who could speak at a conference and whose speech could be uploaded online to be watched by TED enthusiasts. The TED team took over, and the next few months saw Daryani being coached several times a week on how to design an impactful presentation and deliver it the way most TED presenters do.

This is what has made TED such a successful brand. It has moved from a single annual conference in 1984, featuring speakers in the fields of technology, entertainment and design, to a global entity that issues licences to individuals and institutions to organize TED-like events, referred to as TEDx events. The licences for these events are free but come with a long list of rules on the curation of speakers, content and presentation of talks.

Watching the best TED videos and attending select TED conferences is a learning exercise for every professional who has to present ideas and communicate on multiple forums. Much of this comes from TED curator Chris Anderson. “He (Anderson) can spot an idea 6 miles away and knows how to craft it into a story that has impact,” says Akashi.

TED’s website tells would-be presenters how to structure the perfect presentation. Each speaker is given access to a speaker kit on how to present a talk. “In my sessions with the TED team, I learnt how important it was to address a problem that matters to the audience. In my case, it was the difficulties of being able to invent while being in a rote-learning school system, before going on to be home-schooled. I have learnt since then how to sell things and how to convince people. That’s empowering,” says Daryani.

Deepika Malla, who was part of the founding team at TEDx Gateway in India and still works as a mentor with TEDx, explains the process: “We train speakers at several levels. We start with the main structure and draft of the talk. The speakers must have an EQ (emotional quotient) point of view. They need to be able to vary their tone, be more assertive when they are presenting data, and be more conversational and candid when they are speaking about their story. We even tell them to smile and maintain eye contact for impactful presentations.”

The power of this communication was visible at the Tata Theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai on 5 December, when about 1,000 people gathered for the annual TEDx Gateway conference. Speakers, past and present, mingled with the crowd of volunteers, students and professionals from different age groups. Apart from Daryani, now 17 years old, there were presenters like YouTube and playback pop singer Natalie Di Luccio, who has worked with composer A.R. Rahman.

As speakers like Ritu Karidhal, deputy operations director of the Mars Orbital Mission at the Indian Space Research Organisation, described the two challenges of the mission, and Sonam Wangchuk (the man who inspired the character played by Aamir Khan in the film 3 Idiots) told the story of his school in Ladakh, many in the audience took notes.

“It costs Rs.5,000 to attend, but it’s worth it,” says Mena Malgonkar, a 44-year-old artist and advertising professional. “I love that they manage to get people like the Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde as well as local talent like photojournalist Sudharak Olwe. It brings a certain freshness...,” she says.

Ever since TEDx India conferences began in 2009, the brand has cast its net wide. There are TEDx city events, corporate TEDx events and TEDx youth and college events, each hosted by local organizers.

Nimit Parikh, a third-year economics and statistics student at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai, had been hooked to TED talks ever since he saw writer Simon Sinek’s famous talk on leadership. His inspiration to apply for a TEDx licence and host an event came from the desire to make peers in college aware of ideas they had never thought of, from physics to fashion. He got the licence and successfully hosted the event in his college in February 2015.

Besides TED and its franchises, there are also TED-inspired conferences. The best known of these are the INK conferences. Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Lakshmi Pratury worked with TED before she founded INK in 2010. At its three-day event in Mumbai last year, Pratury and her team put together a TED-like line-up of speakers, including a whole set of young achievers and INK fellows. The speakers included photographer Anand Varma and corporate head honchos like Edelweiss CEO Rashesh Shah and Facebook India’s outgoing managing director Kirthiga Reddy.

This conference period is “a time to jump in and immerse oneself in a sea of ideas and stories”, says Pratury. She adds that INK tries to bring in more local stories. Like TED, it runs a fellows programme, giving talented young people an opportunity to showcase their stories. Last year, 22-year-old Babar Ali, who started a school in his native Murshidabad, spoke at the Mumbai conference; INK helped him to raise funds for his school.

“We help them shape their stories to an extent, and work with the speaker to reveal the real person behind the persona,” says Pratury, who has forged partnerships with organizations like Manipal University, Edelweiss and the Tata Trust. They work together on programmes, like that of the INK fellows, and even on identifying speakers for the annual INK conference.

“INK is a newer brand than TED and so not as advanced as TED in curating conferences,” says 23-year-old Advait Tinaikar, who worked at the auto maker Skoda and is now looking to be a social entrepreneur. He says he was a little disappointed with the lack of interaction at INK conferences, both with speakers and other attendees.

Many TED talks have YouTube views running into millions. But the expansion of the brand has also led to criticism, both of TEDx events and of the annual TED conference itself. The most quoted is that of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, who says that TED talks are a “monstrosity that turn scientists and thinkers into low-level entertainers, like circus performers”.

Inventor Kshitij Marwah, 27, admits that some scientific content may be dumbed down. “It’s often a vision of the technology rather than the actual technology,” he explains.

Marwah has presented at both TED and INK talks. “I have learnt how to tell my story. My first TED talk was all about technology; it had no emotional content. But in the second talk, where I talked about my own story and struggles and also about technology, I was able to connect a lot more with the audience,” he says.

He is all for expansion: “India needs many more of these (talks) so that authentic stories can become role models. But remember, these are other people’s stories. You need to chart your own story and be able to tell it.”

In DigitalIndia; Student will get All CBSE Books online without any charge

2015-12-22T10:26:00.000+05:30

There is a big news for the more than 14 lacs students of class 10th and 12th lakh, as they are going to get their books without any charge. Some of the books are already available and now with the #DigitalIndia mission all books will now be available in coming days.

As per theAccording to Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Smriti Irani, NCERT has already made some of its books available online through its mobile app and e-books, and will look to add CBSE books, videos and other learning material. and All CBSE textbooks and other learning material will be made available online by the NCERT.

“We made NCERT books available online for free through e-books and mobile applications a month-and-a-half ago. We are similarly going to make CBSE books available online along with additional learning material and videos as part of our good governance efforts,” Irani said at the inauguration of a new building of the school in Khichripur.

This is a really big decision as digitalizations in the education field is really important as this may impact large number of people In rural India.

Government is also taking more people online with the partnership of state owned BSNL with Facebook to offer free WiFi

How you can get these Books ?

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) currently offers copyrighted textbooks online for classes I to XII in Hindi, English and Urdu.

The online textbooks can be accessed from here
After that you need to select Class and Subject
The Title list is populated after selection of class and subject
When Title is selected the respective books is made available.

Digital India For Education

There are many updates in the field of education. These includes

HRD ministry has set up National Institutional Ranking Framework all educational institutes and universities will get rankings by April 2016
Government launches GIAN a government project to boost the higher education in India
In the month of November, Smriti Irani had announced ‘e-Pathshala’ program. Besides desktop, these books would be now available on mobile based apps as well.
Khan Academy has also launched their India-centric website in Hindi, and made the content available in Hindi.

Source | http://www.bumblebeehub.com/2015/12/in-digitalindia-student-will-get-all-cbse-books-online-without-any-charge/

Is Your Company Encouraging Employees to Share What They Know?

2015-12-04T11:00:00.000+05:30

Many of the things we need to know to be successful – to innovate, collaborate, solve problems, and identify new opportunities – aren’t learned simply through schooling, training, or personal experience. Especially for today’s knowledge-based work, much of what we need to know we learn from others’ experiences, through what’s called vicarious learning.

Organizations know this learning is important, which is why they invest significant resources in handbooks, protocols, formal mentoring programs, and knowledge management systems to share employees’ experiences. Yet analyst estimates suggest that the companies in the Fortune 500 still lose a combined$31.5 billion per year from employees failing to share knowledge effectively. By trying to recreate the wheel, repeating others’ mistakes, or wasting time searching for specialized information or expertise, employees incurproductivity costs and opportunity costs for the organization. Because while formal systems might help communicate established best practices (the what), they often don’t explain how an individual should apply them to their own work. As a manager for Bain & Co. summarized in Nancy Dixon’s book Common Knowledge, this approach to knowledge management offers only “a picture of a cake without giving out the recipe.”

As a result, employees rely on informal learning practices, such as shadowing or observing senior colleagues to “watch and learn” what they need to know. For instance, in a study of mobile phone manufacturing lines in China, Harvard Business School’s Ethan Bernstein discovered that line workers often showed“tips and tricks” that others could copy in order to assemble phones more effectively than could be done using the official methods. (They were especially more likely to share these informal lessons when they weren’t worried about over-scrutiny from managers.)

While this informal (and intuitive) approach can be effective, it is no longer reasonable to expect employees to simply “watch and learn” in many workplaces. Organizations across a variety of industries are moving away from work that is easily observed and replicated to work that is more nuanced, specialized, and adaptive. More and more of today’s work is knowledge-based and done by people who are geographically dispersed. And success in this work requires being able to adapt knowledge to complex, changing environments. Yet our approach to vicarious learning has not kept pace; our ways of learning from others often assume that work is still watchable and that unobtrusively imitating others is enough.

Coactive vicarious learning

My research has explored an alternative to this “watch and learn” approach. Rather than one person shouldering the burden of absorbing knowledge by passively observing others, I posit that people can more effectively learn through collaborative, two-way interactions with others at work. Throughcoactive vicarious learning, the person learning and the person sharing knowledge work together to construct an understanding of an experience, which better equips the learner to apply it in their own work.

Instead of simply relying on visible results, interactive conversation and questioning allows the learner to understand the underlying reasons behind someone else’s actions, making it easier to adapt what’s learned to a new situation or task. For example, one study found that pharmaceutical development teams were better able to translate and learn from another team’s past experience when they invited members of the other team — the “sharers” of knowledge — to actively participate in their discussion and problem-solving (vs. a “learner” team simply identifying the “sharer” team’s knowledge and then trying to replicate it on their own).

Coactive vicarious learning breaks down the one-way nature of observational learning, so both parties — not just the observer — can benefit. The learner’s questions and reactions can lead the sharer to rethink an assumption or understand an experience in a new way. It can even prompt a role reversal, where the learner contributes unique experience or knowledge that might help the sharer learn. In studies of MBA consulting project teams, I’ve found that when individuals engage in this more reciprocal vicarious learning, sharing past experiences and expertise with each other in turn (vs. only an expert sharing with a novice), they consistently receive higher client ratings on their performance.

Putting it into practice

While many teams probably engage in some degree of interactive learning already, there are several key steps leaders can take to help institutionalize coactive vicarious learning at work, so that people don’t fall back solely on formal learning methods.

Leaders tend to place a disproportionate emphasis on tools like training materials or knowledge portals partly because they are easier to manage and control. It is less clear how to manage amorphous, interactive learning processes; you can’t simply force coworkers to interact and share experiences. However, more often than not, leaders simply need to remove obstacles that discourage people from seeking or sharing knowledge and learning vicariously. They can create a structure that allows these interactions to take place organically by focusing on three steps:

Create a designated space for vicarious learning. Our environments directly affect how we interact. So it’s important to consider how physical space (or virtual space for geographically dispersed teams) can facilitate vicarious learning. For instance, it might be more difficult to have a reciprocal, two-way sharing of experience in stuffy offices where one person is seated behind a big desk in the “more powerful” chair. Creating a common space that individuals recognize as the gathering place for sharing ideas and experiences lays the foundation for these interactions to unfold.

For example, members of air medical transport teams have to learn from each other’s experiences to know how to transport a wide range of critically ill patients. In researching how they learn, I found that a disproportionate number of informal learning interactions took place in one physical space: near the helipad door. Despite having plenty of office space, this 10×15 ft. area became the unofficial, mutually-agreed-upon space for members to share and ask about prior experiences. (This space was a frequent stop during every shift, since it was near the supply room for restocking the aircraft.) Since everyone recognized this space was “in bounds” for these conversations, team members showed they were willing to either share or learn something simply by choosing to stand there.

Similarly, in pursuit of this type of designated space, when Google was designing its new corporate campus, it set out to encourage these learning conversations by planning for lots of small kitchen spaces, because they had discovered that people liked to mingle in these areas and share ideas.

License and endorse vicarious learning. Leaders should be encouraging employees to seek and share experiences often. This gives individuals license to seek out what they need to learn, without fear that they’re being intrusive or bothersome — or that it will make them look bad. People often hesitate to ask others for help or advice because it requires admitting they don’t know something important. So instead they work in isolation, redoing something that their colleagues may have already done or making similar mistakes.

Leaders can license vicarious learning by acknowledging and rewarding instances when people engage in interactive learning and recycle (rather than reinvent) a “wheel.” For instance, managers at Siemens implemented a systemof “points” for sharing knowledge and learning vicariously, similar to an airline mileage reward program. Managers can also encourage an open-door environment that welcomes employees to seek or share information — and helps dispel the notion that such behavior is bothersome.

Plant starter seeds of vicarious learning. Beyond creating the space and license for vicarious learning, leaders can encourage greater learning by jump-starting the process. This means leading by example: proactively sharing experiences with team members and setting aside time at the beginning of meetings for people to discuss challenges and problem solve together. Even one-off efforts, such as a team breakfast or “happy hour,” can plant the seed for vicarious learning that can then grow into a more consistent practice.

Vicarious learning interactions are not a panacea for an organization’s learning challenges. But it is an effective piece of the workplace learning portfolio, alongside formal efforts like training programs, feedback sessions, and knowledge management systems, and informal practices like mentoring and “trial-and-error” exercises. All of these approaches reinforce each other and promote greater learning. In fact, sequencing vicarious learning and experiential learning strategies together has been shown to improve performance compared to experiential learning alone, across a range of different tasks.

Whatever the sequence or strategy, this type of learning is critical for many organizations, and leaders play an important role in making it more systematic, frequent, and easier to deploy. Companies are sitting on far more knowledge and expertise than they realize. Creating the conditions that enable coactive vicarious learning is a central way to bring out the best a team or organization has to offer. As Lew Platt, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HP) famously lamented, “if only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more productive.”

Source | https://hbr.org/2015/

The six systems of organizational effectiveness

2015-12-04T10:52:00.000+05:30

The Leadership System is the central organizing system that must deliver on all functions owned by the Top Team or C-Suite

When the Leadership System functions effectively, performance improves. The Leadership System is the central organizing system that must deliver on all functions owned by the Top Team or C-Suite.

These functions include and require that leadership become cohesive, define the future (vision), set direction, create and execute strategy, ensure alignment, communicate clarity, engage stakeholders, develop talent, manage performance, build accountability, ensure succession, allocate resources, craft the culture, and deliver results.

The Leadership System is the organization’s DNA, its genetic code or distinctive brand. It sets the context that produces all outcomes, gives everything its meaning, and indicates what we are predisposed to doing and being. The effectiveness of the Leadership System determines the performance of the business.

Does your Leadership System predispose you to quality, agility, speed, stakeholder engagement, profitable growth, fulfilment, competitive advantage and strong financial performance? How can we improve business performance by establishing a healthy Leadership System?

We use our proven Whole Systems Approach to advance the Six Systems of organizational effectiveness. This approach to developing the organization, with leadership at the core, balances the development of competence and capability with consciousness and character, and transforms any enterprise into a profitable and purposeful organization. Every essential system is integrated and aligned, and every stakeholder is involved.

The Six Systems are broader in scope than functional departments and must be understood independently and interdependently as part of an integrated whole. These Six Systems set up the conditions and components necessary to create a healthy, high-performing organization.

1. Leadership: To achieve high performance or sustain results, leaders must define and refine key processes and execute them with daily discipline. They must translate vision and values into strategy and objectives, processes and practices, actions and accountabilities, execution and performance. Leaders address three questions:

1) Vision/Value. What unique value do we bring to our customers to gain competitive advantage? What do we do, for whom? Why?
2) Strategy/Approach. In what distinctive manner do we fulfil the unique needs of our customers and stakeholders? What strategy supports the vision for achieving competitive advantage?
3) Structure/Alignment. What is the designed alignment of structure and strategy, technology and people, practices and processes, leadership and culture, measurement and control? Are these elements designed and aligned to create optimal conditions for achieving the vision?

2. Communication: Everything happens in or because of a conversation, and every exchange is a potential moment of truth—a point of failure or critical link in the success chain. Strategic communication ensures that the impact of your message is consistent with your intentions, and results in understanding. What you say, the way you say it, where, when and under what circumstances it is said shape the performance culture.

When leaders maximize their contribution to daily conversations, they engage and align people around a common cause, reduce uncertainty, keep people focused, equip people for moments of truth that create an on-the-table culture, prevent excuses, learn from experience, treat mistakes as intellectual capital, and leverage the power of leadership decisions to shape beliefs and behaviours.

3. Accountability: Leaders translate vision and strategic direction into goals and objectives, actions and accountabilities. Performance accountability systems clarify what is expected of people and align consequences or rewards with actual performance. Leaders need to build discipline into their leadership process and management cycle to achieve accountability, predictability, learning, renewal and sustainability.

4. Delivery: The best organizations develop simple processes that are internally efficient, locally responsive and globally adaptable. Complexity is removed from the customer experience to enable them to engage you in ways that are both elegant and satisfying. Establishing and optimizing operational performance is an ongoing journey.

Operations need to be focused on the priority work, using the most effective techniques—aligning initiatives and operations with strategy; continuously improving operations; pursuing performance breakthroughs in key areas; using advanced change techniques in support of major initiatives; establishing a pattern of executive sponsorship for all initiatives; and building future capability and capacity.

5. Performance: The Human Performance System is designed to attract, develop and retain the most talented people. The idea is to hire the best people and help them develop their skills, talents and knowledge over time. Of course, it becomes more critical as they add abilities and know-how, that we reward them properly so they feel good about their work and choose to remain with the organization as loyal employees.

6. Measurement: A system of metrics, reviews and course corrections keeps the business on track. Organizations need concrete measures that facilitate quality control, consistent behaviours, and predictable productivity and results. Within these parameters, control is instrumental to viability and profitability. Every activity has a set of daily rituals and measures.

Leaders establish and maintain the measurement system to ensure disciplined processes. They track progress against strategy and planning; review status on operational results through clear key metrics; update the strategy regularly; and ensure action is driven by insight based on relevant, current information that is focused on achieving the vision.

This Six Systems frame helps people see how everything is integrated. Again, until the Leadership System operates effectively, all other systems are degraded. We work with leaders to ensure their Leadership System is highly effective, and we have dozens of cases that demonstrate the power of using a Whole Systems Approach.

Throughout our careers, we have partnered with CEOs and their teams across dozens of organizations and can say with confidence that successful transformation efforts were those in which the Extended Leadership Team did its work of mastering leadership and improving their individual and collective effectiveness while tending to the health of the Leadership System. These transformation efforts were not only successful, but more importantly, the success was sustained over time.

Sadly, we also witnessed transformation efforts that were less than successful and in some cases failed. These failures could be linked directly to a failure of leadership to consciously transform individually and collectively. Without a mature, highly evolved and fully functioning Leadership System, transformation efforts will not succeed.

Source | Excerpted from Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results, by Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams (Wiley, 2015).

IndianExpress.com launches Facebook’s Instant Articles for Android

2015-11-25T10:57:00.000+05:30

Facebook has started rolling out Instant Articles to Android users in India along with IndianExpress.com and four others publishers.

The 3.3 million followers of The Indian Express Facebook page will now see multimedia-rich posts which has been optimised for mobile users and open in an instant even on 2G networks. Instant Articles from indianexpress.com is live for iOS users as well.

India is the third region after US and Western Europe to get Instant Articles and the first where Android users will be able to access this content. So far, Instant Articles was limited to iOS users. Facebook executives said this showed their commitment to the region and also to the fact that given the inconsistent internet infrastructure and connectivity issues in India, Instant Articles is a natural fit here. While Instant Articles is initially available to about five per cent of the users a full rollout is expected by end of the year.

“We’re excited to be working with The Indian Express to bring their great and proven journalism to people in India with Instant Articles. Instant Articles is a great fit for Indian Express’ growing digital brand and its blend of great storytelling and young/intelligent audience. We look forward to working with them to scale the product on Android,” said Andy Mitchell, director, News and Global Media Partnerships.

“Whether it be Dadri or crucial facts in the Faridabad killing, almost every alternate day, the topic of debate on Indian news TV and on dining tables across the country comes from an Indian Express news break or an essay by one of our columnists including Pratap Bhanu Mehta, P Chidambaram, Tavleen Singh, Tunku Vardarajan, Lord Meghnad Desai, Surjit Bhalla or from an Express Blog penned by the likes of Nitish Kumar, Sushil Kumar Modi, Dinesh Trivedi or Raveena Tandon. Facebook’s Instant Articles has developed and refined as an excellent product and tool to have our award-winning reportage, columnists and bloggers reach even more readers, all in multimedia. We’re happy to be of the first line of partnerships Facebook has struck in India for the instant articles rollout and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Facebook,” said Anant Goenka, wholetime director & head (New Media) at The Indian Express Group.

Instant Articles leverage the technology used to display photos and videos quickly in the Facebook app, to load articles instantly, as much as 10 times faster than the standard mobile web. It is a powerful new creative tool that bring stories to life by letting users zoom into high-resolution photos and tilt to explore them in detail. Autoplay videos come alive as you scroll through the article and interactive maps show where the news happened.

The Express Group is one of India’s largest media conglomerates with a wide selection of publications and a network of offices spread across India.

Today, with 32 national editions, 13 publication centres and four language dailies that reach over 19 million people daily, the Express Group has stood for excellence in journalism for over 80 years. It has an illustrious line-up of publications like The Indian Express, The Financial Express, Loksatta, Lokprabha, Jansatta as well as various B2B magazines and events.

THE SCIENCE OF RECOGNITION : How to recognise and reward employees and why it goes beyond monetary incentives

2015-11-17T10:55:00.000+05:30

Qualitative and quantitative studies conducted by the OC Tanner Institute in India revealed that the more frequently an employee is recognised, the higher their personal “customer satisfaction“ scores become. The clear connect is that frequent and effective recognition is highly correlated to increased tenure, innovation, productivity, trust and engagement.

We also discovered that employees, when recognised, have more drive and determination and are far more likely to be more connected to their organisation, have better work relationships, and a stronger sense of personal standing within the company.

Our research has also found that employee who receive strong recognition are up 33 per cent more likely to proactively innovate, and in turn generating 2x as many ideas per month compared to those who aren't recognised well. With regards to tenure, organisations that offer career achievement programmes retain their employees an average of two years longer than organisations that don't.

Currently, only 58 per cent of employees in India rate employee recognition positively. What could help increase that percentage? Public presentations and communication of recognition are critical elements, as this helps make the employee more visible to their leaders and peers.

Here are five top strategies for maximising your recognition investment:

1 OFFER A VARIETY OF RECOGNITION PROGRAMMES.

Create opportunities for employees to be recognised for all facets of their work. Recognise career and other meaningful milestones, above and beyond performance, daily effort, sales achievement, customer service and so on. This will help employees feel like they can develop and grow their career.

2 RECOGNISE PUBLICLY.

Involve senior leaders, peers and coworkers, and make the presentation a big deal. At the presentation, present a certificate that calls out the reason for their recognition. Many employees consider this a “badge of honour“ that they'll take home to share with family and friends, as well as include in their personal file for use when discussing future promotions.

3 INCORPORATE SYM BOLIC AWARDS WITH THE COMPANY LOGO.

Nearly 75 percent of employees in India feel that an award at work needs to include their organisations logo in order to further communicate its meaning. In fact, employees suggested that even gift cards that include the company logo are instantly more meaning

4 GIVE TANGIBLE AWARDS.

Whether it's a paper certificate, a trophyplaque, or another award, specific details about the achievement make for a more meaningful experience for employees, and provide the opportunity easily share it with others.

5 PERSONALISE AND CUSTOMISE AWARDS TO REFLECT THE EMPLOYEES' ACCOMPLISHMENT(S).

When employees think of their best recognition experiences, a majority received a tangible award. Again, this helps extend the overall appreciation experience.When employees use that luggage or look at that watch, they'll have a tangible reminder of your organisation's appreciation of his or her great work.

Source | Economic Times | 17 November 2015

'Libraries have to ask what people want to read'

2015-11-08T11:02:00.000+05:30

A freewheeling conversation with the director of Bibliotheque Nationale de France

The changing educational, social and recreational role of the library is a hotly debated subject among planners and readers alike. On a visit to Delhi, Bruno Racine, director of Bibliotheque Nationale de France (National Library of France), explains to The Hindu how public libraries need to become more interactive spaces. France and India have signed an MoU for digitisation of old manuscripts in the National Library of France. India is working on a National Virtual Library with French support, and France will be seeking India’s assistance to decipher its collection in Sanskrit and Tamil. There is a possibility that all these will be made a part of the joint digital collection.

Excerpts from the interview with Mr. Racine:

Excluding research scholars, far fewer people are visiting libraries today. What is the French experience?

I have to say, the trend is downwards. But we have to make a distinction between those who read online and the ones who come to the reading room. The libraries have not emptied out. Students do come here; I suppose they like to work from here. They may not borrow books, but libraries offer a quiet place and a friendly environment for the young. To address the young, public libraries have to offer services that correspond to their aspirations and give them rooms where they don’t have to whisper and can work together. We have five million items online, excluding copyright material, and our experience shows that people tend to use online resources and confine their visits to the library for a specific enquiry. So, the answer to your question is, the number of books being consulted and the number of physical readers has decreased slightly because more and more people have moved online.

What is the role of a public library as a public space today?

In France, public libraries are city libraries. There are two state-funded public libraries, one at the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the other which I head. I don’t have recent figures, but I think globally the trend is of fewer people coming to libraries. A lot depends on local factors prevailing in a city. If a city opens a new modern library with reading services, it can become popular. If you go to an opera, it is not cheap. Museums are not free. In France, the policy has been to orient the library to the public. The traditional librarian thinks that if the books are good for the public, they will come. This is not the way it happens now. Libraries have become more interactive now. Libraries have to understand what the public wants. Librarians have to ask people what they want to read.

How does the public funding of libraries work in France?

The library is completely funded by the government. We had to raise money on our own for heritage acquisition, where the access to the public is not free. Ninety five per cent of the budget of the National Library is funded by the Ministry of Culture. This has always been the case, which is quite different from museums in France, which have millions of visitors and can rest a little less on government money. We have about one million visitors each year to the library. The digital library gets 15 million visitors and is growing very fast. The library in France is a very old institution whose origins can be traced back to the 14th century, the time around which kings built their library of books, which became a permanent institution at the beginning of the 18th century. The practice of acquiring books was established in the 16th century, structured in a very systematic way at the beginning of the 19th century. Whenever a book is printed, it could be audiovisual records too, it has to be deposited at the library as well. Until a few years ago, the publisher had to deposit four books with the library. Now we have simplified the process, as we don’t have the space. We ask for only one copy by the publisher. There is a law since 2006 that gives us the mission of archiving books. The paradox is, when they are online they are free; once they are in our collection, you require authorisation to access them.

What kinds of readers visit your library?

We have two kinds of readers. We have a public library which youngsters, young students and college students visit, for which the fee is very nominal. I have proposed to the government to make it free. On the other hand, for the digital library, we get an annual grant for digitisation of printed material and journals, which allows us to digitise 10 million pages every year. We get six million euros a year which is quite significant.

What brings you to India? What are your plans?

Digitisation knows no boundaries. We are interested in countries that are looking at digitisation, and we are trying to understand their priorities. We have an Indian collection which we can share. If we want to have a single digital portal, for instance, for France and India, which is what I would like to discuss, our formats have to be compatible. Exchange of information is always useful, in particular in the area of long-term preservation, which is a big issue for digitised heritage. Another area I am looking forward to is cultural cooperation, because in France, we are interested in Indian collections because of our shared history. Since we know that India is working on a national digital library, we have some material which could be of some interest, which would require expertise from India for cataloguing it. We have 2,500 miniature paintings, and paintings which are not the most beautiful in the world but interesting, and over 1,800 manuscripts in Sanskrit and Prakrit in our collection and over 1,000 manuscripts, in diverse Indian languages, which we refer to as the Indian collection.

How should the state go about funding public libraries? What should be the terms of engagement?

There are over 2,500 public libraries in France. The majority of them are run by professional librarians. Every few years, a contract is drawn between the government and the libraries, which defines goals and measures performance. Libraries are cultural institutions and they have to conduct their policy within a clearly established framework drawn between the government and the libraries.

Source | The Hindu | 8 November 2015

Work smart. Not hard

2015-09-02T08:19:00.001+05:30

Hard work by itself has a halo around it. Often the pursuit of making a living supersedes the quest for expertise and excellence

Sometime ago, a friend relocated from the US to Mumbai. He had a couple of gas guzzlers in the US and driving around was second nature to him. That he could drive in India as well was a rather tall assumption he made. Indian roads and cars were quite unlike the ones he had come prepared for. Driving was an important part of his stay here. He had no choice but to learn. Every evening he used to drive around in my car. With me sitting by his side, calming his frayed nerves.

Every move, every gear shift, would be done with complete focus. We did that for a couple of weeks. Soon he was good to drive all by himself. Driving in India is now second nature to him.

Noël Burch of Gordon Training International developed a four-stage model that explains this behaviour, or what goes into building competence in any skill.

a. Unconscious incompetence (My friend not knowing that he didn’t know the nuances of driving in India)

b. Conscious incompetence (My friend becoming conscious of the fact that he has to work on it)

c. Conscious competence (Him consciously working on it)

d. Unconscious competence (Now that he knows, it is second nature).

Everybody would like unconscious competence. Who doesn’t want to “unconsciously stay on top of the game”?

But what we ought to think about is: when you engage in a task in an automated manner, does it really build expertise? Short answer: no. Areas we want to build expertise in requires a different approach.

In 1993, Anders Ericsson and a team of psychologists published a wonderful research paper, ‘The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance’. Here, he introduced the idea of “deliberate practice”.

Practice, he argued, has to be “deliberate” and cannot be “automised”. The hours that go into practice is the base. The “unconscious competence” zone that Burch described is where automated repetition becomes reality. And that is what we ought to avoid. Question is how.

A couple of years ago, an entrepreneur friend of mine sought help. He needed some ideas to stoke his fresh entrepreneurial journey. Offering to host a round of conversations, he got a set of disparate friends to gather every Saturday evening at his office and talk. For about 45 minutes, he would describe a particular industry that he had deconstructed from a few balance sheets, anecdotal evidence, first person accounts and the like. We’d listen, share our opinions and he’d absorb all of it in. Every week, it was a different company or industry.

As much as the conversations were rich, I was intrigued by what was happening. It turned out that he was told off by a venture capitalist for a lack of “business perspective” despite having sound technical skills.

His conversations with a few others led him to believe that deconstructing industries and organizations was one way of learning and integrating different angles.

Four industries in four weeks. That was his target. He would read up on the industry, make notes and then deconstruct balance sheets of at least two organizations in the business.

Over two quarters, his understanding of what constituted the pulse of his own business changed dramatically. All of this, of course, was in addition to nurturing his fledgling enterprise.

This is deliberate practice. He was driven to put in the extra hours. He put aside his ego—that which comes from being a successful technology professional. He dived deep to acknowledge areas beyond him. Most importantly, he stayed alive to all feedback.

Hard work by itself has a halo around it. Often the pursuit of making a living supersedes the quest for expertise and excellence. Pausing to think about what we do, pondering on how we could possibly get better, and actively be present to feedback can make the world around us a better place.

It reminds me of the time many years ago when my dad would conjure up tricks to entice me to do household work. Cleaning windows was one such.

One bright summer day, when the windows were to be cleaned, I woke up early, and armed myself with “equipment”—buckets, brushes, cloth, detergent liquid and such. At the appointed hour, dad parted the curtains and we were witnesses to dead houseflies next to the glass panes. He looked at me and asked how they got there. “It surely wasn’t me,” I remember telling him.

The flies, he said, were attracted to light. So much so that they were willing to give it all they had to get to it. So what if the glass pane came in their way the first time? They just went back, did an elaborate sortie of sorts and tried again. And again. Until their heads couldn’t take the repeated crashes. “Then they die.”

His point was simple. The flies weren’t lazy. They worked hard and long on making those sorties. But doing the same thing many times over is not the way to get to the light. “If only they could ‘think’,” he said.

For many years, as I chose to approach challenges and dilemmas with the “halo of hard practice”, he would quip “Why don’t you think about the problem?” A pause later, he’d add, “You remember the dead flies on the window sill don’t you?”

Source | Mint – The Wall Street Journal | 1 September 2

Social Media Yet to Replace Emails Among Teenagers, Says Survey

2015-09-01T12:27:00.000+05:30

Despite the emergence of new social media tools and various online ways to connect with people, members of the young generation are still hooked to emails and keep checking it round-the-clock no matter where they are or what they are doing, a new survey has revealed.

According to the campaign team at global software company Adobe, millennials (those born after 1980) are more frequent users of email than any other age group.

"Millennials are more likely to check work email outside of normal work hours. One-third are comfortable using emojis to communicate with a direct manager or senior executive," wrote Kristin Naragon, director of email solutions at Adobe in a blog post on Wednesday.

The Adobe team surveyed more than 400 US-based workers, 18 and older, about their use of email.

The findings challenge conventional views of email as a tired, over-saturated medium for engaging consumers.

The team found that people are practically addicted to email. "In fact, more than half of millennials check email from the bathroom," the survey revealed.

On average, survey respondents report using email six hours a day, or over 30 hours a week.

Nine of 10 respondents say they check personal email at work and work email from home.

More than one-third report having multiple personal accounts.

"Thirty-five percent say they prefer communicating with colleagues via email, putting it on par with face-to-face collaboration," Naragon noted.

Outside of work, Americans most commonly check their email while watching TV (70 percent), from bed (52 percent), on vacation (50 percent), while on the phone (43 percent), from the bathroom (42 percent) and even - most dangerously - while driving (18 percent).

Although people are using email more than ever, many also experience email fatigue.

Twenty-four percent of respondents believe they check email "way too much".

Thirty-four percent report having had to create a new email address due to an overwhelming amount of spam.

"Most tellingly, four out of 10 report going on self-imposed 'email detox' programmes, avoiding their inboxes for an average of five days," the findings showed.

The results suggest that marketers should re-invest in email as part of a coordinated cross-channel strategy.

"With the right planning, the right tools and the right understanding of their customers, marketers can overcome the love-hate relationship and make email the most powerful part of their campaign," the blog suggested.

Source | http://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/social-media-yet-to-replace-e-mails-among-teenagers-survey-1211592

Crack your interview (without cracking under)

2015-09-01T12:21:00.000+05:30

Meeting prospective employers can be a nerve-wracking experience. From asking the right questions to picking a right belt, this guide can help you make the best impression.

Whether you're giving your first interview or the umpteenth one, there's always a bit of "How do I crack this one?" going on in your head. An interview is a daunting task — it's a power game that is always tilted towards the interviewers. But you can tip the balance a wee bit and create a favourable impression on the panel. Being in a city that has as many challenges as opportunities, here's some special advice for today's Mumbaikars.

Choose your kind of job

Mumbai has an amazing array of options when it comes to job roles. So even before you walk in for an interview, think about what work you want to do. Just because you are an IT grad doesn't mean that you have to be a programmer. You could work in an e-learning agency creating technical training modules. You could be a content writer, writing niche content for tech companies. Or, you could completely change your field and get into event management if that's what you really enjoy doing.

Partner at Ernst & Young, Devendra Parulekar strongly suggests that you reflect and find your strengths. "Trained interviewers practise the art of funnelling, where they start asking a broad range of questions and then explore the three-four areas you consider your strengths. So know what you're good at. If you're a fish, don't attempt to climb a tree."

Do your homework

Almost all companies in Mumbai have a website. Read up about the company you'd like to work in. If you want to join the finance team, find a senior in their finance department on LinkedIn. Writing to somebody in particular (john.doe@company.com) rather than to a generic email address (careers@company.com) increases your chances of getting a reply. Doing your homework on a company and its job profiles will not only help you bag an interview but will also impress your interviewers.

Plan for the silliest things

Which Mumbaikar hasn't faced the wrath of Mumbai traffic? Use Google Maps to plan your travel a day in advance. Consider factors like time of day, rain, festivals, transport strikes, waiting for the elevator and the possibility of a security check at the venue. If you're taking a train, allot time to freshen up at your destination. As a rule, you should be at the waiting lounge of your interview venue at least 10 minutes before time.

"Plan to deal with rain, wind or hot weather, because there's a chance that the interview will happen outdoors. Being prepared will help you focus on the interview," says Tristan Fernandes, a content writer who once had a job interview at an outdoor cafe.

Dress appropriately

Are you wearing shorts and chappals because it's a startup? Don't be so sure. If you get the chance, ask the person coordinating your interview what the dress code is. If you're not sure, be on the safer side by wearing formal or semiformal attire, based on your judgement.

Khushbu Merchant, a KPMG senior and corporate blogger, says, "If you're getting interviewed by an MNC, wear a suit to your interview. If you're a woman, blend it with a female touch. That makes an impression that you can stay in touch with your feminine side and still kick some a** at work."

Use an air-conditioned cab service to get to your interview to look your freshest. Avoid travelling by train during rush hour, if possible.

Answer questions carefully

When Akhil Parekh decided to settle in India after working in North America for nine years after his Masters, he realised that the interview styles in the two regions were very different. "Apart from technical skills, people here also focus on personal aspects. 'Are you married?', 'What do your parents do?', 'How much student loan do you still have to pay off?' This is the kind of stuff nobody asks you in North America. But in India, they probably do so to gauge how stable your background is."

In Mumbai, where job hopping is easy, companies want to make sure that you'll stay put for a while. Having greater personal and financial stability decreases your chances of looking for a job elsewhere anytime soon, giving your interviewers confidence in you.

Ask the right question

At the end of an interview, your interviewers may tell you to ask any questions you have. Don't say "Nothing" because that speaks very little of your thought process. If you draw a blank, at least ask where the job location is — many companies have a central hiring team that hires across the city (or country). So while your interview may be in Malad, the actual job may be based in Vikhroli.

Leave with clear next steps

Before you get up from that chair, ask your interviewers what the next steps are. Will you get a call back? How many days will they take to make a decision? Don't be too pushy and blackmailing the panel by telling them you have another offer on the table is not okay.

So, there you have it. Jobs are calling. Where's your CV?

Source | Mumbai Mirror | 27 August 2015

8 things you can do in Windows 10 that you couldn't do in Windows 8

2015-09-01T11:39:00.000+05:30

Some of the features and functions Microsoft has added to its new all-encompassing operating system

Did you hear there's a new version of the Windows in town? If your Windows 8-toting friends ask you exactly what you can do with the new Windows 10 that they can't do on their own machines, here's what to tell them.

Analyse the storage space on your PC

In the pre-Windows 10 days, you needed a third-party application if you wanted to take a proper look at the layout of files and drives on your system. With Windows 10, there's a tool built-in: Type `storage' in the task bar search box.

Next, choose the storage setting and you can see exact ly wh at types of files (like mu sic, apps or video) are taking up your hard drive space.

Use a fingerprint instead of a password

T his is pa r t of t he Windows Hello biometric platform and whether or not you can make use of it depends on the make and model of computer you're using Windows 10 on. Apart from fin gerprint sensing, it supports face recognition and even iris scanning. So if computer manufacturers are prepared to build this kind of kit into their systems then Microsoft's new OS will be able to support it.

Switch to a dedicated tablet mode

Windows 8 tried to squash a tablet mode and a desktop mode into one ungainly whole, but everything is far more civilised in the new Windows 10 interface. Open up the Action Center to switch manually to tablet mode or get out of it again. In fact you may prefer using the stripped-down tablet mode even when you have a mouse and a keyboard attached.

Stream Xbox One games

Streaming games from one place to another isn't a completely original idea, but the link Microsoft has built between the Xbox One and Windows 10 machines could be the best use of the technology yet. If the kids want to use the big screen in the living room you can stream your Xbox One gaming up to your laptop or desktop upstairs (if your home network can cope).

Share WiFi passwords with your friends

The new WiFi Sense feature (in network settings) has attracted its fair share of controversy but it's an easy way of letting people use your home WiFi while they're visiting (and for you to use theirs in return). Your contacts never actually see the password but if they're linked to you and also on a Windows 10 bit of kit they can just start browsing as soon as they get through the door.

Run modern apps on the desktop

We've already mentioned some of the ways in which Microsoft is refining the tablet vs desktop experience in Windows 10. Another improvement in this new OS is the ability to run mod ern (aka Metro) apps in windowed mode as well as full-screen mode.

The apps themselves have been improved too, so they're worth a second look if you didn't like the Windows 8 versions.

Get chatty with Cortana

Cortana arrives on the desktop.

As on Windows Phone, you can ask question s about the weather or famous pop stars, get direc tions home, set reminders and more. Besides you c a n a l so get her to turn Wi ndows s et t i n g s such as WiFi and Bluetooth on or off. Click the Cortana button on the `start' menu to get started. Set up Windows to work with iOS and Android

Microsoft has decide to embrace iOS and Android and now makes most of it s apps available for the competing mobile platforms (Cortana apps are apparently imminent) . Run t he Phone Companion app from the Start menu and you can launch a step-by-step guide to get t i n g your iPhone 6 or LG G4 working smoothly with all the data and apps you've .

Source | Economic Times | 26 August 2015

Resume for success Writing a winning Curriculum Vitae is a skill. How do you make a positive impression?

2015-08-27T12:13:00.000+05:30

If you’re someone who is done with your studies and are waiting to put your knowledge to some practical use, or someone who is looking for a career change, the first thing you do is either whip up a resume or update one.

While it’s never easy to pour out into a limited amount of space, information and qualifications that make up your resume, it is definitely something that ought to be executed skilfully.

Keep it crisp

It is no longer just the generation of black ink on a couple of white sheets of paper that drone on about what you’ve done, what you will do and how you will do it. In this day and age, the two-page resume which you’ve put so much thought into runs the risk of getting rejected or completely ignored for being too stale or monotonous.

Therefore, it’s a good thing that many individuals, like yourself, have already begun thinking outside the box.

It is an accepted fact that people charged with the responsibility of scouring through scores of resumes have a very limited span of attention. Whether it’s your qualifications or past experiences, key information represented in short, neat and evenly spaced sentences makes a huge difference.

Not only is this style easy to read, you also contribute by saving up on the employer’s time even as they simultaneously learn more about you.

The ultimate goal, on any day, is how the roles that you play and the tasks that you carry out will help you grow as a professional and as an individual as well. You might be sure about what you expect to learn from a particular organisation, but the organisation itself will need to know how you can help the company grow and why you should be chosen instead of the competition.

If the section on your past experiences state that you’ve either led a team or handled a project solo, instead of only saying that you’ve done that, you could elaborate on the process and share the positive outcome. Not only does this imply that you’re capable of dealing with such assignments, it also gives a clear picture of how you can contribute.Setting aside your capabilities and accomplishments, sections of your resume that at times do end up seeming similar to a contenders’ resume, it is vital to share information that is exclusive to you alone. Be it a hobby, a talent or a work experience in a field far from what you’re pursuing now, this section equally contributes in putting you on a future employers’ radar, ultimately leading to an interview call.

It might be too harsh to make a decision based on first impressions. But, when it comes to hiring, one look is all it takes to decide if your resume, and ultimately you, are worth spending time on.

This brings us to the most interesting and creative part of putting together a resume. Today it’s all about colours, optimum usage of space, design, visuals and even the medium itself. From graphical representations to pie charts, crisp tri-fold brochures to animated illustrations, video resumes to resumes printed on actual fabric; there is no dearth of ideas.

While this certainly puts life into the tedious task of compiling a resume, it is important to first know your audience. Quirky resumes might appeal to certain types of organisations while they may be deemed as inappropriate by others.

Last but certainly not the least is the task of stopping yourself from talking any more about yourself. You might wonder if the information provided is solid enough to get you to the next round, and, honestly, this apprehension can never completely be abated.

One way to handle this situation would be to summarise the facts about yourself, your aspirations and what you can accomplish. There’s nothing like a prospective employee who can get to the point right from the start. You may start your resume with this summary or conclude with it. No matter what you choose, you are sure to come across as someone who doesn’t believe in beating around the bush.

Finally, it’s your capabilities and the creative effort you put in that will help you stand out and eventually score the position you desire.

Key information represented in short, neat and evenly spaced sentences makes a huge difference.

Source | The Hindu | 24 August 2015

UPGRADE By giving employees the freedom to decide when and how they’re going to manage their work, organisations are getting a more responsible, loyal workforce

2015-08-26T11:37:00.000+05:30

Digital workplaces provide employees the flexibility to work from anywhere. HTShine. com’s survey on ‘How does a digital workplace impact your life?’ revealed that as many as 50% of employees working in an organisation encouraging digitisation and flexible timing felt they were productive working from home, as they were connected with the devices of their choice and had enough time to be with their families. For 52.5%, this increased efficiency.

When asked if flexible working hours had blurred the boundaries between work and private life, 47.5% found themselves to be more productive both at work and home because they got adequate time to be with their families. About 27.5% were increasingly comfortable in office, improving their interactions with teams. However, 25% found both their personal and professional life coming together in a digital mesh, leaving them with no time for family.

Moreover, 37.5% found it easy to collaborate with colleagues and teams from across geographies in real time. Exhaustion was a problem, however, with 17.5% saying that being connected 24x7 was tiring.

A massive culture change was evident. For 65% employees, the transition was smooth, motivating them to behave more professionally. Unfortunately, for 22.5%, getting used to a 24x7 work culture was tough. They were of the opinion that it was easier for the younger generation to get used to workplace changes. As many as 12.5% were overwhelmed by the changes and dismissed them, saying they were more used to their newspapers in the morning and books and had issues with the “tweeting and Facebooking culture.”

When asked if professional interactions had undergone a change, 52.5% said it had led to increased efficiency, whereas 32.5% thought the personal touch was missing. About 15% rued the fact that they no longer got a chance to speak to their team members and that “life at work had got more process-driven.”

As for managers, implementing changes was a big challenge. About 52.5% said that their role had changed from manager to coach and that they had to spend more time inspiring and encouraging the team. As many as 35% said they now had to depend on employees to do their job regardless of time zone, set working patterns and location.

Source | Hindustan Times | 25 August 2015

The logic behind assignments

2015-08-24T11:50:00.000+05:30

They provide the opportunity to do things differently, obtain feedback and build skills and insights.

A while ago, I was chatting with a former student and the conversation veered toward the familiar — my rant about how little effort young people seem to put into their assignments.

“I can see that they write their essays at the last possible moment, almost as if they are doing it just to fulfil the formality of the submission,” I complained.

“But that’s exactly what they’re doing,” she said, asking how much that particular assignment was worth in terms of marks. When I told her it was five marks (out of the semester total of 100), she laughed. “Then of course, that’s why — it’s only worth that much effort.”

Most students work through a process of elimination — how many marks will this question or task be worth? Is it enough to demand that I spend time on it? How selectively can I apply my effort and time? If it’s a multiple choice test, I have a one-in-four chance of getting something right. So how much reading will help me maximise those odds? Exams and tests become something of a gamble.

Call me naive, call me impractical, but, to me, thinking this way seems to defeat the whole purpose of education. I agree that much of what goes as education in our country is about toting up enough marks to get a decent grade so that we can qualify for the degree. So, young people spend entire decades looking at courses as nothing more than marksheets to be filled with the right numbers. The way in which classes are conducted does nothing to change this.

But, occasionally, one is presented with the opportunity to do it differently — and this happens more often than one realises.

Let me draw from my own experience here. I teach a class on writing, and, in the course of sixteen weeks, I hope to expose my students to a variety of forms of professional writing. On an average, they are required to submit twelve weekly assignments, and these tasks amount to 40 per cent of the grade. If a student calculates the value of each task in terms of marks, it works out to less than 4 marks each. That’s not very much, right? It is okay to miss a couple or not to take a few so seriously — it’s not going to affect the grade that much. Besides, there is still the 60 per cent that one can focus on to make up.

But what, really, is the “value” of each of these assignments? It is the opportunity to (however briefly) attempt a certain kind of writing task. If one misses a particular assignment, then what is lost is not just the 4 marks, but the opportunity to learn or practise that particular kind of writing.

Unfortunately, the structure of evaluation doesn’t allow me to count marks beyond 100, and, in my view, there is so much to be learnt that I have to build in many tasks — a situation that leads to several short assignments, each really “valuable” in my estimation in terms of learning. When a student approaches the task only in terms of the marks it represents, we both stand to lose. The student loses that learning opportunity that exists in the doing and in the receiving of feedback. I lose the teaching opportunity that exists in reading and giving feedback.

We do need to be smart about allocating time and effort in our busy lives. There’s so much to do and so little time and space to do it. But one can also get overly calculating about assigning value. Assignments or classwork have certain logic to them. That logic is not really measured in terms of the marks, but the learning opportunity they represent.

So how does one really evaluate this value? Think carefully about whether and what you will gain from doing the task, setting aside the marks it will fetch. Is it a repetitive task that aims to build skill or is it a creative or reflective task that aims to build insight and understanding? Clearly, you will learn more from the latter but it also takes more time and effort.

Courses are a jumble of learning opportunities, and these come in different shapes, sizes and forms, defined by marks, time, interest and effort/engagement. You may not always be able to judge the real value just in terms of the marks. That is a somewhat arbitrary measure that teachers are forced to apply.

Source | The Hindu | 23 August 2015

New CAT, new strategies - Some preparation tips Three one-hour sections, onscreen calculator… the exam has changed with the times.

2015-08-24T11:48:00.000+05:30

The IIMs have changed the format and structure of CAT this year. Specifically, there have been four key changes. First, the exam will comprise three sections instead of two sections as seen in CAT 2014. Second, the duration of the exam has been extended to 180 minutes (from 170 minutes last year) with the time split to one hour per section. Third, a basic onscreen calculator will be provided to students. And lastly, a few questions will require answers to be entered directly, instead of the traditional multiple-choice format. These changes are but tweaks that should improve the test-taking experience for students and are not a dramatic overhaul.

“Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability, Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning tested in a competitive exam that is objective and conducted across the country” This is how one would have described CAT in 1990, 2000 or 2010. This statement remains the same in 2015 as well. The core tenets remain the same; the CAT has merely decided to use a few of the inherent advantages that online testing offers.

The features introduced this year are not new to CAT. From 1990 to 2012, CAT had three or more sections every year. The two-section format was seen only in the last two years. Previously, we have also had fixed time limits for individual sections (in CAT 2013).

CAT is now effectively three one-hour exams and this is a blessing in disguise.

Counter-intuitively, the time allotted per section being fixed is a boon to students. Although the change in format appears to have taken some flexibility away from students, the freedom of allocating time across sections was illusory anyway. Students used to spend a lot of time fretting about section cut-offs and going for a ‘balanced’ score across sections. The only adjustment students will have to make is to think of CAT as three one-hour exams instead of one three-hour exam.

No place to hide

In a traditional two-section format, students had the option of treating Data Interpretation, Logical Reasoning or Reading Comprehension as less important and ‘hiding’ in the other segments. For instance, one could go in hoping to get 14-15 questions correct in Logical Reasoning and completely skip RC. These imaginary luxuries are out. Students need to have more balance in their preparation and cannot afford to have glaring weaknesses.

Computational pressure is off, which is a big relief and a great leveller.

The one unambiguous takeaway here is that the on-screen calculator is a boon. Students no longer need to worry about knowing 45x35 or computing 34.6 per cent of 72 quickly. Computation speed is not really important in the 21st century, and CAT has quietly acknowledged this fact.

Students should resist the temptation to use the online calculator for every single computation. Relying on an external computational tool for all computations dulls numerical intuition, and, so, the online calculator should be prudently used. My suggestion would be to use it for the Data Interpretation section and not really bother with it for the section on Quantitative Aptitude.

CAT has moved with the times and test-takers should follow suit. The test-setters have utilised technology well and picked a format that focuses on knowledge of the fundamentals and de-emphasises computation-speed. Students should make three small adjustments.

Learn from first principles: Ignore shortcuts, speed-math related gimmicks and focus on basics.

Read, read, read: The single-most important factor for excelling in the verbal ability section is reading comfort. Students with a consistent reading habit have a massive advantage in this section. Students should aim to read for at least 90 minutes every day.

Take plenty of ‘mocks’: Students should aim to take at least 20 ‘mock’ CATs in the new format. They should aim to take these tests from different providers so as to be exposed to different question styles.

The writer runs 2IIM, an online CAT Coaching institute, and is an alumnus of IIMB. He scored 100 percentile in CAT in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

Source | The Hindu | 23 August 2015

In the age of e-learning With advancing technology, the process of teaching and learning is also undergoing radical change.

2015-07-22T14:02:00.000+05:30

Technology has completely revolutionised classrooms. Whether it is submitting assignments and projects, or making classroom teaching more interactive, the applications are manifold. Instead of carrying heavy bags, students can now carry an enriched digital textbook which contains all the study material.

Several initiatives have been taken to enhance teaching and learning methodologies. One such initiative by Ram Gollamudi, Prasanna Boni and Ramesh Karra, founders of Edutor technologies, aims to take digital learning in India to the next level.

“Our focus has been on developing a robust set of technology to enable schools and colleges to go digital,” explains Ram. “We thought, instead of teachers doing a lot of paper-based assessments, is there an easier way for them to assess where the class stands? Can the experience of reading textbooks be made more enriching?”

Five to ten years back, companies like Educomp and Everonn introduced smart classrooms, where teachers could show interactive content through a TV or an interactive board. But the students were largely untouched by it and still had to carry heavy bags. This led the founders of Edutor to come up with the innovative idea of introducing tablets instead of heavy textbooks.

Going digital

“We work with top publishers such as McGraw Hill, Oxford and Cambridge, among others. The textbooks by these publishers are available on the tablets and are enriched. For example, wherever there’s a static picture on the page, it is converted into a video or an animation. So, the experience is much better than reading a passive textbook,” explains Ram. “If a student takes one hour to get a grasp of a topic from the textbook, he can do it in 15 minutes through the tablet,” he adds.

Not only students, but teachers can benefit from this as well. Usually, teachers test the level of understanding of students through worksheets. But correcting so many worksheets can be a tedious task.

This problem can be solved by using a tablet.

“What we have is an automated assessment solution where the teacher can ask a set of questions to the students with a single click. These are automatically corrected and the teacher can immediately know how many students understood the topic and how many didn’t. Based on this, she can decide whether to move on to the next topic or explain the same one again. She can also identify the few students who are struggling and carry out remediation for them separately,” says Ram.

Cloud services

There are several other methods that are being used by schools and colleges to integrate technology into the learning process. Edusync, a cloud-enabled service launched in 2014, is enhancing the learning and teaching experience of students and teachers through a mobile phone application.

The app provides a central platform to teachers to manage their classrooms digitally and makes it easier for students to access study materials.

“Edusync is a socially aware platform created to make education simpler. It is divided into four simple divisions — class schedules, assignments, library and chat. Edusync also allows parents to sign up to keep a better track of their wards' academic performance and track records,” says Kushal Chudiwala, CEO of Edusync.

Teachers can create multiple classrooms on Edusync’s platform, distribute and receive class assignments, make class schedules, put out announcements and have a personal talk with the students if needed. Students, on the other hand, can view their assignments, get access to all the study material, get quick solutions to their queries from their respective teachers and so on.

“Connecting students and teachers together and organising course materials on both sides has really helped them both. It has also enabled students to understand their subject better,” says Kushal.

Challenges

Traditionally, technology has been seen as a deterrent to studying. Several colleges prohibit the use of mobile phones and tablets in the campus and classrooms. Their apprehension is understandable. Often, students use their phones for texting classmates or friends, rather than paying attention to what is being taught. How can this problem be avoided?

“It is important to make the key stakeholders such as parents, teachers and principals understand that tech devices in classrooms are not a distraction, but a powerful tool. To address this issue, we have enabled the device to be locked so that students will not be able to access anything apart from their textbooks and reference material. This will ensure that they focus on their subjects and not on Angry Birds,” explains Ram.

It is also essential to train teachers to use the devices efficiently which would help them to adapt to the new technological changes. “Teachers will have to evolve from being the sage-on-the-stage to a mentor-on-the-site. Most teachers are able to adapt without much difficulty,” says Ram.

For students, the transformation has been easier. “They are inherently quite comfortable with technology. We advise them about what it takes to be a good digital citizen and teach them the best practices. Though the device would be locked, it is important for them to understand that it’s for their own safety,” says Ram.With technology progressing in leaps and bounds, the time doesn’t seem far when classrooms would get replaced by virtual classrooms.

“Some subjects and courses might fare well, but I don't know if it’s possible to replace normal classes. However, supplementing regular classrooms has met with positive results and we must push that boundary continually,” says Kushal.

Source | The Hindu | 21 July 2015

Today's librarians more than keepers of books

2015-07-14T09:12:00.002+05:30

Michele Lind doesn’t fit the image of the librarian sitting behind her circulation desk muttering “Shhhh!” every few minutes.

In fact, she says she would be thrilled — not embarrassed — if her principal walked in while kids’ chatter filled the library.

“My philosophy on quiet has changed,” said the library media specialist, who works at Roosevelt and Lewis and Clark elementary schools in Mandan. “I don’t want it to be wild and crazy and out of control, but I want it to be a little noisy.”

So do a growing number of school library heads who no longer see their sole purpose as keepers of books. They increasingly provide activities to prompt kids' imaginations and collaborate with teachers to integrate technology into the classroom.

The shift from old-school librarian to present-day library media specialist has occurred gradually over the past two decades. Still, local library media specialists find themselves debunking myths about their jobs.

Lind, for one, can see why people might question sending her students on a geocaching expedition. With GPS devices in hand, they searched their schools last year for hidden treasure.

“We are teaching them how to use technology,” she said. “We are teaching them how to apply latitude and longitude. They learn those concepts, but they are so foreign to them.”

Makerspaces

In some ways, children’s weekly visits to the library mimic those of their parents and grandparents. In Mandan and Bismarck public schools, they still check out books and listen to a library media specialist or an assistant read aloud.

“When I started, we were the study hall,” said State Librarian Mary Soucie, who worked in school libraries in the 1990s. “That’s where kids went when they were being disciplined.”

Some students today also spend their recess in the library, Lind said.

The difference? They come because they love “makerspaces,” which are designated areas within a library for kids to create anything from robotics to bookmarks.

The spaces popped up in school libraries throughout the country over the past several years, including in Bismarck and Mandan.

Library media specialists provide the supplies, then let the kids do the rest. Lind split classes into teams last year and gave each 100 red Solo cups. Each group had to come up with a way to stack the cups to ensure the structure would stand.

“I don’t think kids have time to play anymore,” Lind said. “A lot of them are on devices and computers. They forget about playing and creating.”

Misti Werle started a popular makerspaces club last year at Solheim Elementary School in Bismarck. The library media specialist, who earlier this month became the districtwide library media systems innovator for Bismarck Public Schools, regularly oversaw 25 kids who packed her library for weekly meetings after school.

“I had to turn kids away,” she said.

Collaborating with teachers

Blogs, Twitter chats, conferences and school library journals keep library media specialists up to speed on the newest tools available to enhance teaching.

The challenge is finding teachers who want to collaborate, Werle said.

“Often times, they don’t know what you can do for them,” she said.

The way she describes it, library media specialists have to advertise.

Lind knows what that's like. She researches what teachers at her schools are doing so she can devise ways to support them.

One tool she wants to try is Glogster, which she describes as a computer posterboard that can embed pictures, video and text.

“We are still trying to get that up and going,” Lind said. “It takes persistence and one teacher to set the example.”

She found some success last year teaching students email. She showed all her schools' third-, fourth- and fifth-graders how to compose and send an email, requiring them to use proper capitalization and punctuation. Every student messaged her, and she responded to each one.

One of the Lewis and Clark teachers then integrated that lesson into her class. Instead of turning in a sheet of paper with answers to questions, that teacher asked her students to email their responses to the assignment.

Split time

Lind sees the email lesson as a start to more collaboration. Part of the problem, she said, is that she’s split between two schools. She’s not always present when it’s convenient for a teacher to work with her.

That’s the case for library media specialists in Bismarck, too, which has 19 specialists split between 24 schools. Many work at two Bismarck schools, though there are several assigned to three, Werle said.

Kirsten Baesler was the librarian at five elementary schools when she started working for Bismarck Public Schools in 1989. Before she was elected state superintendent in 2012, she served dual roles at Saxvik Elementary School: assistant principal and library media specialist.

“My time as a library media specialist was the best training ground to know my responsibilities as a state superintendent,” she said. “It was absolutely essential for one to know all the standards on all the subjects for all the grade levels.”

Navigating resources

In doing so, Baesler could work better to assist teachers with classroom projects. As a young librarian, she frequently scoured the shelves and borrowed books from neighboring libraries to supply kids with an adequate amount of research materials.

“My big challenge was to make sure there were enough resources available to our students,” she said.

That changed by the time she was elected state superintendent. She taught kids to sort through the plethora of information available online, discerning reliable sources such as .gov sites from Wikipedia articles.

“There are people who say libraries aren’t relevant anymore,” said Werle, explaining that kids’ first instinct is often to turn to Google.

Students will probably find higher-quality sources in databases, which can quickly sort through articles with the search of a keyword, she said.

The State Library at the Capitol grounds in Bismarck pays more than $270,000 each year for databases, including Encyclopedia Britannica, and makes them available to school districts, Soucie said.

Werle said Bismarck Public Schools alone could not afford all those subscriptions.

“Libraries have and always will be about making connections,” Soucie said. “We’re just using different tools to do that now.”

Source | http://bismarcktribune.com/

ETHICS OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING

2015-07-13T12:07:00.000+05:30

A glimpse at world history and its contributions to mankind will reveal that man has also been constantly evolving mentally in search of a better way of life. While one section of explorers worked hard to step up the "standard of living" by using science and technology, there were others who tried hard to understand the "truth of life."

Yet, none of these personalities who broke new ground for mankind felt the need to consolidate the information on a universal platform so that mankind can progress further from the point of what they already knew about.

As a result, we have been constantly engaged in the oft repeated activity of "re-inventing the wheel". A glance through all the recorded material on various subjects which is available at the click of a button is proof enough to show that many subjects have been discussed and analysed threadbare and have reached refined heights long long ago, even as we are fumbling with the hems of the subject only now.

For instance, the heliocentric theory or the presence of atomic energy was known to ancient Indians thousands of years ago but the world consolidated the same as scientific knowledge only about 400 years ago. This is but just one example among thousands of such discoveries that were made by ancient civilisations across the globe.

Today, the scenario has changed. We live in a technologically advanced world, and all the information we need on just about any subject under the sun is available in both "hard" and "soft" forms for a price. But apparently, there are very few genuine takers who utilise this information for the benefit of mankind or self improvement.

A survey among the student community shows that while the younger children prefer to be spoon-fed by their teachers and their guardians, older students use the internet specifically for playing games, chatting with online friends and occasionally looking up for information about their role models in the sports and cine field in that order. Students pursuing higher education use information relevant to their subject only when they are pressurised to look up for some information on their own.

Many a project work, seminar and thesis submitted by students happen to be plagiarised from a source which they do not even bother to mention or acknowledge much to the consternation of the authors, who sometimes accidentally stumble upon their work verbatim in another person's name.

Plagiarised research
According to them, "If you steal from one author, it is plagiarism; if you steal from many, then it is research." It is indeed a sorry state of affairs. Experienced faculty from reputed institutions can vouch for the fact about how many times the earnest research work of an entirely unique nature has been snitched in the most unethical manner by people in authority.

While some original works do get compensated monetarily, many a creative work like a poem or a script or a formula are changed minimally and used unscrupulously. It is shameful and disheartening to note that even the teaching community cannot be spared of this accusation.

Novices in the field sometimes help themselves to the notes and the ideas of their seniors without acknowledgement or even a pang of conscience. Perhaps it was because of this reason artists, artistes, scholars and experts in different subjects held on to the keys of their knowledge to their bosoms in the past, are doing so in the present and will do so in future.

The scenario will not change as long as people reject their moral scruples and refuse to follow code of ethics. Till such time the portals of knowledge at the experimental and research level will close their doors for the fear of being robbed of their ideas which cannot be compensated with anything that is tangible. This will result in waste of time as scholars will feel queasy about sharing their opinions and findings for the fear of losing them and end up going in circles for a longer time.

The time has come when information has to be processed into knowledge through experience so that the end product can be used for the betterment of mankind.
To do so, we have no choice but to stick to the old fashioned way of holding on to our integrity and honour and acknowledging the hard work and the earnest efforts of people who may have arrived at some results in their respective fields.

Teaching and learning, which are nothing but the two faces of sharing, will become
meaningful and joyful exercises when the originator (devil?) is given its due.

REFLINK: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/487826/ethics-knowledge-sharing.html

It was difficult to cope with academic workload: Students

2015-07-13T12:05:00.003+05:30

In an unprecedented action at any IIT, the institute at Roorkee expelled 73 students whose performance was not up to the mark after their first-year of the B Tech programme.These students scored less than 5 CGPA (cumulative grade point average) in their exams and were expelled late on Wednesday .

At the time of admission, the parents of these studen ts had signed a declaration stating that their poor performance could result in their removal from the institute: this is unlike any other previous instance at an IIT.

Students have been expelled from IITs but taken back, except in one instance each in IIT-Kharagpur and IITKanpur.

On Thursday , a meet was held to consider the mercy plea of the students. The decision was taken at the meet. It was attended by over 160 senior officials, including professors, heads of departments and the director. A decision was then taken to expel the students. A former director of IIT, Kharagpur, recounted that in 2006, around 15-20 first year students were expelled on account of poor performance. This decision was taken by a panel that evaluated undergraduate students. The director, however, eventually overturned the decision to expel the students and re-admitted them.

Sources told TOI that IIT Roorkee's move to expel stud Roorkee's move to expel students occurred after the second-semester exams ended in May . Many students who fared badly were called for a meeting with college authorities and told to pull up their socks.

During counselling sessions, many students admitted that they were finding it difficult to cope up with the academic work load. Institute officials said a few students claimed they had not given much attention to studies as they were “enjoying the firstyear of college“. In mid-June, poor performers were sent a notice of expulsion by the institute. They were given time to file what the institute termed a “mercy appeal“.

Many affected students refused to speak with TOI, saying they were still in shock.

A few said it was an “unjustified decision“ and that they were never warned that scoring less than 5 CGPA would result in expulsion. “I have scored a little over 4.5 CGPA, but even then, I have been asked to leave. It is not fair. What will I do now? My whole academic year has gone waste,“ said one student Student body representatives said the institute had acted in haste and should reconsider the decision.

“Many of them come from vernacular-medium back grounds and it is difficult for them to comprehend certain subjects. They should have been given time to adjust...,“ said Rajveer Choudhary , trea surer of Students' Affair Council of IIT Roorkee.

Meanwhile, the institute's registrar, Prashant Garg when contacted, said the deci sion was justified. “The IITs are premium institutes and the rules regarding under performance were clearly no tified to students at the time o admission. These 73 students could not attain the required credits and had CGPAs lower than 5, which qualifies for ex pulsion,“ Garg said.

“The decision to expe them was taken after consid ering their mercy appeal which was rejected by the apex academic body yester day . We acknowledge that the number of expelled is huge but we will ensure pre ventive measures are taken and that there is no need to expel even a single student on the grounds of poor academic performance next year,“ Garg said. As their parents have already signed an agree ment saying the students could be expelled for poor per formance, these students are now left with no recourse said a source.

Source | Times of India | 10 July 2015

The paper tiger roars :Print and Digital

2015-07-13T10:25:00.000+05:30

Notebooks are in vogue. And no, we are not talking about the digital computing device here.

Did someone say notebooks, the ones that are crafted from paper, would die a slow, but sure death? That their fate would be similar to audio tapes, camera-film rolls and other such categories that had suffered a similar fate in the past? As even schools began to use digital devices to educate children, many had said that it was only a matter of time that the sword of Damocles hanging over the category fell.

In India, well before tablets and smartphones began to rule, the general expectation was that the stationery market, and specifically notebooks, did not offer much to write home about. Traditionally the stationery market in the country was an unorganised one. From small retailers to independent sellers, many depended on Chinese imports. But if recent market reports are to be believed, paper has found a new status in the digital age and market experts believe stationery is a segment of promise. What has changed and how did notebooks make themselves relevant in the digital age?

Writing on the wall

The growth of notebooks over the last few years, from a humble Rs. 6 for a book to a premium product that can cost as much as Rs. 1,000, demonstrates that along with challenges there are also several opportunities.

In the notebook category, brands such as Navneet, Bluebird and ITC have had a significant say in how the market has moved over the last decade. Last year Japanese stationery major Shachihata Inc announced a large investment in India.

A few years before that, the Kokuyo Group entered this market after purchasing majority shares in Camlin, a well known stationery manufacturer in India.

ITC’s Classmate notebooks, which target the educational segment, have had several sales highs over the years. The notebooks business of the tobacco-to-hotels conglomerate is now ten years old. One of ITC’s advantages was that its notebooks business could rely on its existing value chains of production – the company has a large paper business division-- to “create a new engine for growth”.

Chand Das, Chief Executive, Education and Stationery Products, ITC says, “The branded component of the market in India when we kicked off was about 6-7 per cent. Today it’s about 35 per cent.” ITC claims to have a 20 per cent share of the organised market.

“Notebooks, especially of the Classmate kind, are a seasonal category. That back-to-school period of May and June are good for us. In about six months, we manage about 75 per cent of our total sales across the country, with the rest of the year catering for top-up demand,” explains ITC’s Chand Das.

Taking notes online

Even online players like Flipkart and Amazon have a significant interest in the category. Flipkart, for instance, claims to stock 10,000 SKUs of notebooks.

An Amazon India spokesperson says that notebooks and diaries account for substantial sales in the stationery category. Online purchasing behaviour in notebooks is more prevalent in premium notebooks like BILT and Paperkraft than in the mass range of notebooks which account for approximately 50 per cent of the market. For Flipkart too, diaries and notebooks are “key traffic drivers which contribute to about 15 per cent of the total stationary segment.” Ankit Nagori, Chief Business Officer, Flipkart, says, “Fuelled by a growing economy, a burgeoning middle-class, and higher literacy levels, the notebook market in India is expanding at a fast rate. With capital being invested in the book and education industries, this sector is going to be the ground for experimentation and innovation in the coming years.”

Das of ITC says, “Our premium products are stocked first with our e-commerce partners. Those strong partnerships help our overall business in notebooks.”

“Industry growth is driven by increasing literacy and enhanced scale of initiatives in the education sector. But there’s also the shift from inexpensive products to quality products.” Flipkart’s Nagori says, “Among the technology-savvy generation, a small percentage of our users have shifted to digital mediums like laptops, smartphones and tablets. Despite this, a majority of customers prefer a notebook. We have close to 10,000 products under this category. With customised diaries seeing takers across age groups too, we believe that product innovation in this category can further add to the ‘collectible’ value of notebooks.”

ITC too has over 200 premium products. While the average price of a Classmate is Rs. 30, its premium notebooks cost a lot more.

Write is might

Even for the brick-and-mortar bookstores that take the burden of heavy rentals in urban centres across India, notebooks make serious business sense. Competition among bookstore brands means the clear demand for notebooks and related stationery products has to be met.

“Stationery is the second-best selling category across all our retail stores. It makes up about 30 per cent of our total revenue. “About 10 per cent of our revenue is generated from notebooks alone. We sell notebooks from as low asRs. 6 and it can go up to Rs. 1,000 or more. The organised notebook market in India is about Rs. 5,000 crore, which is about 20 per cent of the entire stationery business in our country,” says Darshit Shah, Vice President – Product, Sapna Book House.

Store 67 is a premium stationery brand from Sapna Book House. Shah says, “We have seen an increase of 15-20 per cent year on year in our notebook business. In India from 2009 till 2012 stationery business has grown at over 30 per year every year.

In the coming months to a couple of years, there’s likely to be added interest from foreign brands for a share of the notebook and stationery pie. Already, Relay, a book press and traveller convenience brand, is making inroads in India. Airport lounges across India may prove to be an added point of traction for premium notebook brands. Going by the scale of demand and the range of offerings here, the notebook is nowhere near extinction.

To allay fears that notebooks are not good for the environment or that they play havoc with corporate sustainability missions, ITC has spotted an opportunity. It sees the notebooks business as an opportunity to showcase sustainability across the chain of production. The company’s R & D reportedly helps it consume fewer trees and water in its production of Classmate.

A simplistic interpretation means there may be enough resources for a longer period of time and therefore notebooks and paper-based businesses will endure for years to come.

Paper has found a new status in the digital age and stationery is a segment of promise.

Source | Business Line | 10 July 2015

Oxford to soon launch 3 digital platform programmes - for school children in India

2015-07-13T09:13:00.000+05:30

Oxford University Press is launching this year three major programmes, mostly for school children in India, by using the digital platform.

The Press' Indian division is 103 years old and has a unique plan to get a stronger foothold in the Indian market.

"We have three main programmes on the digital platform

· Oxford Educate Premium,

· Oxford Achievers

· My Map

Which we are launching soon," says Ranjan Kaul, Managing Director of OUP India.

Oxford Educate Premium is a digital aid that integrates an e-book with interactive tools and learning materials. It incorporates a variety of resources: interactive animations, videos, poem and prose animations and audios for different courses, instructional slide shows, lesson plans, answer keys, additional worksheets, image references and much more.

Oxford Achievers is a web-based assessment programme that will help in measuring the impact of a teaching-and-learning process.

"This is a diagnostic tool. It was successfully used in Hong Kong and now customised in India. We have pilot tested it in about 10 schools and have got positive feedback," Kaul told PTI in an interview.

"My Map is being used in the UK and we are customising the product to the Indian curriculum. It is also an online product and uses simple animation," he says.

With methods of learning changing and children becoming more visual learners, he says the teaching methods have to undergo changes so that they become adaptable to the learning. Kaul sees digitisation as an opportunity and not as a challenge.

"We are content developers. Print is a vehicle to deliver that content. Digital is an equally good vehicle and even a better vehicle," he says.

Two of OUP's popular products - Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Oxford School Atlas - have completed 100 years.

"Advanced Learner's Dictionary is still popular in India. It is a very useful learning tool. We have been changing the format and design of this dictionary so as to help users, like helping people in writing," Kaul says.

The Atlas had its 34th edition printed recently.

"We have our own cartography team now. Our 34th edition incorporates the new state of Telangana following the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh," Kaul says.

Source | Business Standard | 13 July 2015