National Education Grid
as Knowledge Infrastructure for
Education and Open Learning
Proposal presented to
National Knowledge Commission
by K.R. Srivathsan
[email protected]
About IIITM-K: IT for Social Sector,
Science & Technology
IT: The Technology
Computers,
Networks, Systems,
Devices, Systems
Software …
ITES, SW Services
BPOs, Business
Solutions
Transcription,
Call Centers, ERP
IT for Social Sector
Education, Agriculture,
Health, Water
Resources, Trade,
Environment,
E-Governance,…
IT in S&T, R&D
Datawarehouses,
Computational
Sciences, Knowledge
Management, CAD,
CAM, Entrepreneurship
IIITM-K: Leader in Information Systems
and Portals
•
•
•
•
•
www.iiitmk.ac.in
- Institute
www.edugrid.ac.in
- Education Grid
www.compchem.in
- Computational Chemistry
www.kissankerala.net - KISSAN - Kerala
www.tvmcitypolice.org - Trivandrum City Police
Portal for Community Interaction.
• www.vuatkerala.org
- Virtual Univ. for Agri. Trade
• www.e-krishi.org
- Agri. Trade Facilitation
More to come:
 Health, Information Security Education.
On Technology Enhanced
Learning & Teaching
1.
2.
3.
All of our educational institutions – universities,
colleges, schools to absorb effective use of TELT.
E-Content, Course Management, Digital Learning
Resources, Scientific Databases, E-Journals and
Publications, E-Discussion Forums, Advanced
Computing access, multimedia, remote classrooms
– as part of colleges’ educational systems.
Instructional processes management, learning
management, teacher support systems, continuing
education at all levels, just-in-time and on-demand
learning needs, virtual institutions formed by
collaborating institutions – all will need high tech
support systems.
A View of ICT Requirements in
Education & Research
Terrestrial
Broadband and
EDUSAT
Network
Synchronous
Interactive
Classroom
Environment
Asynchronous
Knowledge
Interaction
Environment
Regional
Computational
Server(s)
E-Learning &
E- Library
Streaming
Services
Network
Scientific
Portal(s)
ERP &
Management
Software, IP Library &
E-Publications Management
Security & Access
Control Management
Systems far too complex for most institutions to handle
 Establish Edugrid Centers for Communities of local colleges
Malcolm Baldridge Parameters of Excellence
in Education Management
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
Visionary Leadership
Learning-Centred Education
Organizational and personal learning
Valuing faculty, staff and partners
Agility
Focus on the future
Public responsibility and citizenship
Focus on results and creating value
Systems perspective
Education Grid will build a supportive learning
ecosystem across all universities, institutions
and colleges that help them achieve the above
parameters.
Education Grid: Vision & Opportunity
VISION FOR NKC?: “Enable, Educate and Empower
Every Citizen and Community through Knowledge”.
“Quality Education to all Independent of Geography”
The Opportunity and the need:
a) Broadband fast moving in. All institutions will soon be over
broadband; SWAN, Mission-2007…
b) Increasing availability of open source, systems, open
courseware and web-accessible resources
c) Education Grid - one click away for any competent teacher,
learner or institution who seeks knowledge empowerment.
 Need for servicing the complex systems and tremendous
capacity building in institutions and people.
What is an Education Grid?
1.
Network supporting educational Services across
2.
Resource Centres in premier institutions.
Develop and maintain pedagogically sound
refereed courseware in identified subjects.
Subject specific Portals as Course
Knowledge and Collaboration Space.
Dev. & Deploy Scientific & Comp. Portals
backed by PG Schools
Introduce an IT facilitation layer in the
University/ Higher Education System.
3.
4.
5.
6.
colleges
 Governed by quality management of
Content, supported Learning and
Teacher Training Processes.
Ack.: Geoffrey Fox, Indiana U
Campus or
Enterprise
Administrative
Grid
Learning Management
or LMS Grid
Science Grids
Bioinformatics
Comp. Chemistry
Particle Physics
Earth Science …….
Typical Science Grid
Service such as Research
Database or simulation
Integrated in to the EduGrid
through web services.
Content
Publisher
Grid
Education Grid
Digital
Library
Grid
School of
Education ?
Student/Parent …
Community Grid
Continuing
Education
Teacher Educator
Grids
Education Grid as a Grid of Grids: Will NKC fund establishing
such national knowledge infrastructure?
NPTEL over Education Grid
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Under the National Programme on Technology
Enhanced Learning, the IITs and IISc have produced
pedagogically effective/useful content in ~230+
courses.
IITs have established facilities for ongoing
production of sophisticated content.
Rich open e-courseware from other sources like the
MIT-OCW, OUW-UK, many leading universities of the
world.
How do we deploy these content in the colleges in
ways that enhance the quality of education?
EDUCATION GRID supported instructional services
will help a great deal in achieving this important
objective.
Managing Quality Educational
Processes using Technology
Enhanced Learning and Teaching
LEAD A GRAND
NATIONAL QUALITY
MOVEMENT IN
EDUCATION
Quality
Instruction
By Teachers
 Need to build
Learning Resources
and Processes that
address Quality.
TE
LT
Quality
Efforts by
Students
Objectives of Quality Education
 To make our graduates EMPLOYABLE.
 To be PRODUCTIVE ON THE JOB and in LIFE.
 To observe REAL WORLD PROBLEMS, abstract the
issues and apply what they have learnt and their innate
sense to solve them.
 Three dimensions of
Employable Graduates.
Quality
Instruction
Professional
needs teamwork Competence,
Maturity
and effective
management
Foundations,
Concepts,
Contextual
Skills
Self-development
Responsibility,
Accountability
Quality Education imparts effectively all three dimensions
in a balanced way.
NKC TO PROMOTE THE GRAND
NATIONAL K-INFRASTRUCTURE
Resource
Centre 3
Scientific
Portals
College 1
Communication
Gateway &
Resource Centre
National
ERNET
&
EDUSAT
Services
Network
Programs
Coordination
Centre
College n
Supports all types of
open learning and
classroom learning.
College 2
College 3
Regional
Broadband
& EDUSAT
Network
Resource
Centre 1
E-Learning
Resource
Centre 2
Computational
Servers
College 4
Learners anywhere
Typical Grid: Needs advanced
technologies and competencies
(Ack.: G. Fox, IU)
Re-use
Application
Customization
User
Services
Application
Service
IIITM-K builds such grids
in open framework.
Portal
Services
Application
Service
Libraries
Application
Service
Middleware
Re-use
“Core”
Grid
System
Services
System
Services
System
Services
Raw (HPC)
Resources
Databases
EXAMPLE: COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY PORTAL of
IIITM-K
Research Colleges Universities
Communities
R&D Labs
Open Learning
& Continuing
Education
IIT Madras
Gateway & LAN
National/
International
Collaborations
INTERNET
Industries
Linked
Software &
Computation
al Resources
Digital Library,
Open Archives &
E-Publications
IIITM-K/Education Grid
Gateway & Web-server
Web Services
Mini
Brokering &
Computer Authentication
Services
Linked
Chemical /
Molecular
Databases
Content
& LMS
High-end
Computer
Proxy
User
Agent
Ensure TELT as Facilitation Layer
as K-Infrastructure for colleges
Course Processes
Instruction planning and
Evaluation Scheduling
Education Grid
Facilitation Layer
TELT Environment
Functions
Infrastructure &
Administration
Today Universities must recognize TELT as part of
Learning Infrastructure
Upgrade capacity of every institute / university
college to absorb TELT and use it in their in house
and open learning activities.
Educational Grid: Technology Enhanced
Collaborative Learning Environment in Every Subject
College
Students &
Teachers
Mentors,
Referees &
Experts
Course Knowledge
and Collaboration
Space
Course related
World,
Industry
Learning &
Instructional
Excellence
Content
Inputs, Course
specific Digital
Library, Links
Education Grid: Distributed Information &
Collaboration Architecture
Advanced Web-Tech based Servers
College 1
R&D
College n
Resource
Institute
* *
Digital Library and Resources
Content Development and Collaboration Space
Learning Management Space – one for each course
Experts,
Mentors
Course
Administration
Automated Grid concepts developed at IIITM-K.
 Get each course supported by industry for sustaining the
above collaborative environment.
Quality Learning Environment of
Tacit-Explicit Interplay
 At the end of a learning effort, a Learner should be able to
say ‘I understand’  Add to his/her Tacit capabilities.
People’s
Competencies,
Communications,
Feelings,
Intuitions, Social
interactions
People’s Real
World
T
A
C
I
T
E
X
P
L
I
C
I
T
Codified
Knowledge and
Processes
accessible over
the net, paper…
Global
networked
Information and
computational
base
Build Instructional Cycle into Content
(Merrill’s PBL Model)
1. Motivation
2. Activation of
cognitive process
Next Module
3. Learning from
past experience
5. Challenges
4. Application
Need to go much beyond syllabus, classes,
cookbooks, tests and marks
LAUNCH GRAND THRUSTS IN SCIENTIFIC PORTALS
& KNOWLEDGE SERVICES SECTORS OVER EDUGRID
R&D Organizations
INDUSTRY
Govt. Organizations
Premier
Institutions
K-Services
SCIENTIFIC &
COMPUTATIONAL
PORTALS
Data Sources
Organizations
ACCESS
& INTERACTION
PORTALS
UNIVERSITIES
Knowledge
Services
Postgraduate
Institutions
K-AGGREGATION
INTERFACE
U
S
E
R
S
Example: Agriculture Info
Services
Farm Inputs
Suppliers
TRADERS
ASSOCIATION
Kerala
Agri.
Univ.
Etc.
APEDA
VALIDATION &
EDITING
MASTER
AGGREGATION
PORTAL
Commodity
Boards
Dir. of
Agriculture
Farm Info.
Bureau
Research
Institutions
PRESENTATION
& INTERACTION
PORTLETS
K-AGGREGATION
INTERFACE
F
A
R
M
E
R
S
Education Grid supports Virtual K-Enterprises
Inputs:
Information,
Requests,
Observations
Global Data
Group
Knowledge
&
Computing
Base
Collections
Group/Virtual
Knowledge
Enterprise
Decisions &
Action Out
People’s world
Web accessed area
Information
to other
Groups
Group
Workflow
Processes
Process Capture
&
Communications
Business Model
and Services
Excellence
FUTURE INSTITUTIONS AS KNOWLEDGE
RESOURCE & LEARNING CENTERS
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Institutions to fulfil Public Responsibility
Functions: Open Education on demand.
E-Learning and Teacher Training Resource
Centers.
To host Scientific Portals and Open
Computational Servers.
 To act as KNOWLEDGE SERVICES
CENTRES backed by Postgraduate Schools.

Recognise and reward efforts in quality
education and educational processes and
knowledge services.
How do we build such grand K-Infrastructure?
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Propose a referral Advanced Informatics
Development Agency (AIDA - to be hosted
at IIITM-K?) as the coordinating agency.
Like the way ADA coordinates in mission
mode LCA related developments across
multiple agencies.
AIDA may function as the hub of NKC’s
National Knowledge Mission and
K-Infrastructure.
There will be many advanced informatics
centres of specialized areas in leading
institutions, universities and R&D
organizations associated with the AIDA.
“Virtual Institute of Science, Technology
and Arts”: VISTA over Education Grid
(promote virtual institutions on need basis)
Experts
from
Academic,
R&D,
Training
Institutions
AIDA/IIITM-K
Education Grid
to help build &
service
VISTA
Programs
Management,
Community Datacentres
E-content, systems, college
portals, Computational
Portals, etc.
LEARNERS
Anywhere
Establish the Grand VISTA Collaborations
over Education Grid Facilitated by AIDA
VISTA = Virtual Campus + Formal Education, Collaborative
Research and Open Learning Programs
Advanced
Informatics
Development
Agency
Academic and
Research
Institutions in
diverse fields
Virtual Campus ‘Knowledge Bus’
 Such Learning Ecosystems already piloted in IIITM-K.
AIDA ROLE
Under
collaboration
across premier
institutions
Postgraduate Studies,
Research and
Training
Education
Grid
Development
& Servicing
AIDA
Inter-institutional
K-Mission
programs
coordination
OPEN LEARNING
PROGRAMS
[VISTA]
ADVANCED
INFORMATICS
R&D
KNOWLEDGE
EMPOWERMENT
PROGRAMS
Knowledge
Services for
Agriculture,
Health,
Education,
Development
… etc.
 Different Programs launched and coordinated in Mission Mode.
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Gordon Moore, “Education is our Achilles Heel”.
It is about time we REINVENT THE EDUCATION
SYSTEM with FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, OPEN
LEARNING, OPEN DATA ACCESS AND OPEN
COMPUTING!
Build the Grids of Grids: Grid Computing, Grid
Accessed Computing, Data Grid & Scientific Portals,
Information and Knowledge Sharing Grid.
Make the Grids support KNOWLEDGE INTENSIVE
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.
Involve college youth and postgraduate in
development.
Restore the Joy of Learning and the Dignity of
Scholarship.
AN OFFER OR A REQUEST ?
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IIITM-K is the most ready institute in India to host
the AIDA operational centre.
About to get 10 Acres in Technopark – just 25 mts.
From Trivandrum Int’l. Airport – ready to host
AIDA.
Education Grid and AIDA as the mission
coordination agency provide the best enabling
approach for rolling NKC’s plans.
Peter Drucker: “Knowledge has become the key
economic resource and the dominant - and perhaps
even the only source of competitive advantage."
THANK YOU
References
Available for download from www.edugrid.in
1.
2.
3.
4.
“Management of Refereed content generation and
utilization in formal education.”
“Future ICT Infrastructure for Education.”
“Concurrent Instructional Services over NPTEL
content for quality education in the engineering
colleges.”
Go also to NPTEL website: http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/
T OGETHER
E VERYONE
A CHIEVES
M ORE