# The core idea is to provide a supplement or in some contexts, a complete alternative to a course of lectures that can be accessed on a Smart Handheld device. Builds on the evolution of remote learning from mail (e.g., Jawaharlal Nehru’s “Letters from a Father to his daughter” and e-mail College of UK) to UKOU course pack of text, VHS and audio cassettes, to LMS based e-learning, and now to App based learning.
# The value: The challenge to education worldwide is massive scaling of high quality education at affordable costs. The 3rd UNESCO Mobile Learning week which concluded on Friday 27th February 2015 at Paris drew attention to its potential, especially for women and girls. Ideal for our ” Beti Padhao” movement. The success of Khan Academy as a source of learning in many domains, Duolingo as a language learning App and several Maths learning App for kids indicates that this is indeed the way forward.
# Adopts new teaching-learning model ( Heutagogy) with short learning nuggets, Flipped learning, Social learning and Analytics for Personalisation and Mastery Learning
Elements in the lecture/course App template :
1. About/ Syllabus:
This page gives the course information at the touch of a button.
2. Professor/ Faculty page provides the bio-data about the Faculty and their courses.
3. The Schedule page informs about upcoming events or assignments.
4. The Appointments Page has a form that students can use to schedule an appointment with the Faculty in charge or one of the several teaching assistants or Mobile Learning Evangelists for support.
5. Content page holds the learning nuggets in the form of :text, images, Infographics, audio podcasts, stop motion animation, short videos typically less than 10 minutes…..
7: The 24×7 HelpDesk page will allow the App to one-touch dial any number, or one -touch e-mail straight from the App, making it easy to contact the right person when help is needed.
To make this truly effective, one has to develop an App based learning environment/ecosystem ( ABLE) …. extend to ENABLE Easy and Nimble, that would help administrative, financial and managerial functions, as well.
Any educational Institution can then be run with mobile Apps on handheld devices.
Truly then, learning will be in the hands of the learner.
Prof. M.M.Pant has a Ph.D in Computational Physics, along with a Professional Law Degree, and has been a practitioner in the fields of Law, IT enabled education and IT implementation.
Drawing upon his experience in world class international institutions and having taught in various modes of Face-to-Face, Distance Learning and Technology Enhanced Training, Prof. Pant is now exploring the nature of institutions which will be successors to the IITs, which represented the 1960s, IIMs, which represented the 1970 and Open Universities which were the rage of 1980s & 90s.
He believes that the convergence between various media and technologies would fundamentally alter the way learning would be created, packaged, and delivered to learners. His current activities are all directed toward actual implementation of these new age educational initiatives that transform education in the post Internet post WTO era..
Prof. Pant, has been a Former Pro-Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and has been on the faculty of IIT – Kanpur (the premier Engineering institution in India), MLNR Engineering College and Faculty & Visiting Professor - University of Western Ontario-Canada.
He has been visiting scientist to research centers in Italy, England, Germany & Sweden and has delivered international lectures with about 80 papers published.
During his association of almost 15 years with the IGNOU, Prof. Pant has served as the Director Computing and has been the Member of All Bodies (i.e. School boards, Academic council, Planning board, Finance committee and the Board of management).
With his interest in Law, backed with practice of Law in a High Court, and his basic training in Science and IT, Prof. Pant has been particularly interested in the Cyber Law, Patent & trade mark issues, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues etc. and has been involved with many activities, conferences on “Law & IT”
Prof. Pant is presently;
• Advisor to Media Lab Asia - Chairman of working group on ICT for Education, chairman of PRSG handling projects on ICT for education.
• Lead Consultant for an ADB funded project for ICT in Basic Education in Uzbekistan
• Member of the drafting Group for India’s National Policy on ICT in education
• Chairman of the group creating books for class 11 and 12 students on ‘Computers and Communication Technology’ appointed by the NCERT
• Preparing a ‘Theme Paper” for the NCTE in the area of ICT and Teacher Training
• Advisor and mentor to several leading Indian and Multi-national Companies in the area of education.
Prof. Pant has in the recent past been ;
• Member – Board of Management – I I T, Delhi for 6 years (two consecutive terms)
• One-man committee to create the Project Report & Legislation for Delhi IT-enabled Open University
• Advisor to the Delhi Government on Asian Network of Major Cities Project (ANMC-21) distance learning project in association with Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
• Chairman Board of Studies, All India Management Association
With his mission to create and implement new business opportunities in the area of e-learning & learning facilitation, Prof. Pant has promoted Planet EDU Pvt. Ltd., as its Founder & Chairman, along with a team of highly experienced and skilled professionals from Education & Training, Operations, IT and Finance.
