“Innovations in Education” session organized by Confederation of Indian EdTech Organizations (CIEO) at Rajasthan Startup Fest

An interesting and interactive session on "Innovations in Education" was recently organized  by Confederation of Indian EdTech Organizations (CIEO) during the Rajasthan Startup Fest at Jaipur Exhibition & Convention Center (JECC) under the aegis of Startup Oasis & RIICO. The session started with an introduction to the concept of CIEO. CIEO has been built with an intent to enable EdTech companies and Educational Institutions at all levels to come together to share problems, discuss issues and build solutions that really help in better learning for students.

The main speaker for the session was Mr. Shrutidhar Paliwal, VP of Corporate Communication at Aptech Limited. He spoke about how job-oriented courses were the need of the hour. He touched upon a variety of issues facing educational technology and innovation in today's world including social media impact, advent of tablets and other gadgets in the classroom, the power of internet in the hands of the student, dilemma of teachers and how to prepare students for tomorrow.

The panel discussion featured:
– Mrs. Kamaljeet Yadav, Principal, Subodh Public School (Airport), Jaipur
– Mr. Shrutidhar Paliwal, Vice President, Corporate Communcations, Aptech Ltd.
– Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, Director, Jaipuria Institue of Management, Jaipur
– Mrs. Suniti Sharma, Principal, MGD Girls' School, Jaipur

The panel discussed pertinent issues facing educational institutions today. 

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Mrs. Kamaljeet spoke about how students were better prepared now as compared to the past. The pace of development of technological innovations in education has left a huge gap in the expectation of students and ability of teachers to deliver.

Mrs. Suniti Sharma touched upon the dilemma of teachers on whether to enable students with technology or not as it creates a bigger pressure on teachers to first adopt technology themselves.

Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, gave some great anecdotes on how his institute has adopted technology. He mentioned that instead of giving students 2-pages to read, asking them to watch the professor's 3-minute video was far more successful in getting the students introduced to the concepts. He also shared that students will copy what teachers do. If they carry books or go to library, students will follow suit.

Mr. Paliwal gave an industry perspective on how the education institutes of today had to deal with a lot more in the past and the higher expectations of students coupled with technology availability has given rise to markets like MOOCs and vocational training programs.

The session gathered positive response from the audience and was appreciated for highlighting and clarifying a much needed topic of discussion related to school education.

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More information about CIEO, It's mission, vision and members is available at http://www.thecieo.com/