Goa Empowered with IT

Introduction Project GEIT is woven around the broad theme of technology empowerment of Goan Youth for quality employment. The primary target audiences for the project in its first phase are secondary level students from rural schools in Goa. GEIT aims to reach out to young minds, fuel their creativity and turn it into passion. We are optimistic that such passionately carried out works in domains of ones choice can transform lives and societies in turn. Broad objectives Broad high level objectives of project GEIT are  Tackling brain drain problem at the root level  Introducing secondary level students to advancements in the field of Information & Communication Technology  Acting as a connect between Academia and IT Industry with reference to knowledge sharing with special emphasis on secondary level Information & Communication Technology Education .  Contributing to IT enabling of the Teaching Learning Process  Act as a facilitator in building a quality repository of online content for secondary school level educators and learners  Being a connect between academic and government more specifically with issues related to technology Infrastructure and e-content. An effort in tackling brain drain The tiny state of Goa is famous all over the world for its pristine natural beauty. People from all over the globe wish to come and settle down in Goa, making it their second home. But, sadly the local youth are forced to leave their families and go outside Goa in search of descent avenues. Lack of suitable employment opportunities is the primary reason for this brain drain. Information Technology professionals are the most affected in this regards. Project GEIT envisages to tackle the root cause of this problem. We aim to introduce Goan Youth to a plethora of opportunities IT has on offer. With right orientation at early stage our youth can be empowered to earn their living in the most respectable means by being right here in Goa amidst their near and dear ones. Introducing youth to high end technology at early age Information Technology is a constantly changing field. Change, it is said is the only constant thing in this ever evolving domain. But, our education system has not yet been geared to incorporate and adapt to such fast paced fields. When world over attempts are being made to introduce children to fields like programming , robotics, animation at the earliest age possible, for such advancements to be reflected in our system in a formal way will surely take a couple of years. At the secondary level of education the syllabus is designed to impart significant understanding of basic concepts of most life sciences. But the field of IT which has encompassed all walks of life as of now has not been given its due place in our academic system. The fast changing pace of IT is one of the primary reasons for this non inclusion. Constant upgrading of the academic systems is not possible as these systems follow strictly laid guidelines and procedures to incorporate changes. This process is time consuming and may even take years at a stretch. That is why students are not exposed to the advancements in any field more specifically technology in true sense of the term till they actually enroll for some specialized degrees and courses. As of now areas such as programming, app development, robotics etc. are introduced to students only at much higher levels of education. The other reason why these specialized courses do not get incorporated into our education system at early levels is non availability of experts in these domains. Given the syllabus, time and other constrains, constant upgradation of teachers is next to impossible at least in the present scenario. GEIT aims to reach out to fill this gap. Project GEIT is an attempt to give a glimpse of the state of art advancements in technology to the students in Goa –more specifically to those studying in rural schools. Through GEIT regular sessions will be conducted by experts in areas such as Programming, Robotics, App Development, Animation etc. GEIT as connect between IT community and academia Another important objective of the project is to act like a bridge between the local/global Goan IT community and the academic institutions in the state, more specifically the schools. The local IT industry and entrepreneurship ecosystem is in its blooming phase. Most of the young contributors in this domain are eager to reach out to fellow Goans in whichever ways they can. More importantly they are aware of the grass root level realities. Conscious and consistent efforts will be made by GEIT to connect the expertise in the IT industry with the academia for expert level sessions, e-content and also app development, equipment development etc. Connect between Govt and Academia Project GEIT will also highlight the issues faced by the teachers and the learners with specific reference to technology infrastructure. We are in the process of creating a factual datasheet of technology related resources and services available in secondary schools in Goa. Our initial experiences have been pointing to sad state of affairs of the IT infrastructure and connectivity in schools in Goa. We wish to voice these concerns with the government with factual data so that pressure can be built up to improve the infrastructure. IT enabling of the teaching learning process It has been a proven fact that quality E-Content as well as technology empowered tools can make considerable value addition to the teaching and learning process. Technology enabling of educators as well as learners is one of the key objectives of GEIT. Preparing an online repository of publicly accessible content through community efforts, aiding the teachers in finding subject/topic specific quality content, hand holding in building the content are some of the areas in which GEIT intends to foray in this regards. Implementation Details of Project GEIT Schools across Goa will be introduced in Project GEIT in a phased manner through a carefully laid out screening mechanism. Regular sessions with students School students are divided into three broad categories based on the class in which they are studying. Group I- 5th standard students , Group II - 6th and 7th Standard students and Group III – 8th and 9th standard students. For the first group the focus will be more on helping the students learn regular subjects in a better manner using IT as an enabler. The Second group will be introduced to programming using user friendly tools and languages. The third group will be exposed to robotics, animation, app development etc. in a fun and easy manner. GEIT will conduct regular sessions in each of the schools under the project all through the year with special holiday classes wherever possible. Student community from renowned institutes of technical education like NIT, BITS, GEC, PCC, Goa University, Goa Institute of Management etc. has extended wholehearted support to project GEIT. State-of-the art technology knowledge will be disseminated to school students by this young brigade of volunteers. These volunteers in turn will be guided by faculty members from Goan academic institutions of higher learning as well as IT Industry experts . In addition there will be periodic sessions by Industry experts in schools under GEIT to introduce students to latest trends in technology. Pilot Phase In the pilot phase project GEIT has been started in three schools in Goa. St.Barthelomews Schools, Chorao, Azmane High School,Neura and Dayanand High School, Gokulde, Quepem. The response has been overwhelming from all quarters. The school students as well as teachers have shown great enthusiasm in being part of the project. Many IT Industry professionals have agreed to give in their time and resources for the benefit of next generation Goans. Our student volunteers are also geared up to start with the regular sessions post Ganesh in Programming and Robotics. We are also in the process of doing a survey w.r.t. school infrastructure as well as tech facilities available to students beyond school hours. An aptitude test has already been done at the Chorao School to short list students for regular IT classes post Ganesh. A Learning Management System(LMS) link has been created for content sharing. The testing for the same is also underway. Funding A rough estimate of 55,000/- rupees(on the lower side) per school has been derived to conduct ongoing activities and procure necessary equipments at each of the schools. Funds have also been promised through various community quarters. The responsibility of sponsoring Chorao School activities has been taken up the local community. The Dayanand Bandodkar High School, Quepem has been sponsored by the Goa Engineering College Alumni Group. A company has also promised to redirect funds to GEIT through its CSR activity. Enthused by the press reports regarding Project GEIT, Government of Goa has also spelt out plans to provide financial backing to operational expenses of activities of project GEIT to the tune of Rs 50,000/- per school to be spent over two years – to be directly transferred to the school account. Given the pace at which government system works we are keeping our fingers crossed over the speedy implementation of this scheme. Although our primary effort is in getting as much voluntary work done as possible through community effort, the field is demanding in terms of basic infrastructure requirement. Only constant inflow of funds will ensure smooth functioning of the project for years to come. We want to make a categorical mention here that since government funding involves significant amount of red tapism. That is why we wish to refrain from relying on such funding completely. As an when it comes it can be utilized judiciously under the monitoring of GEIT team but we do not wish to wait for the government funding to make the project get going and pick up pace. That is why consistent efforts are being made by our team in fund generation, equipment sponsoring etc. for the project. Although we have got good response from some quarters all help extended in this regards would be always welcome. Utilisation of Funds In each of the schools the funds will be utilized under the two designated tracks decided for project GEIT. The first track is of taking regular, beyond syllabus sessions in programming, Robotics, App development, animation etc. The second track is IT enabling of teaching learning process w.r.t. syllabus. For the first track funds will be required to pay stipend/travelling and other small time expenses to volunteers. But, procurement of accessories, robotic kits and other operational expenses will be a major expense head. For the second track funds will be utilized to procure state of the art equipments, E-content – online as well as offline, collating and making content available in the public domain so that it can be used by teachers and students from across Goa etc. Expected outcome Project GEIT aims to make significant value addition to the academic systems at the secondary level of schooling through the two chosen tracks. On track one, by working in tandem with the educators as well as the learners constantly and consistently the project expects to bring about a significant improvement in the teaching learning process. On the second track, high tech IT courses introduced by GEIT in schools will orient the students towards advancements in the field of IT. The utility of skill sets like programming, robotics, app developments go beyond the boundaries of any particular domain. Regular academic system at School level will not be able to provide these skills to students at least in the near future. By imparting these skill sets to the students in such nonconventional, open format methods through a community supported initiative we expect to give a basic boost their capabilities. Over the years enthused and charged minds from these groups can be imparted further fine tuned skills. In the process we envisage to build a brigade of technology empowered youth who know the basics of turning ideas into products. They can further build on these basic skill sets to work in their favoured domains or carry on working in the field of Information technology. By imparting practically usable skills and mentoring to students we expect to build a section of youth force that will think in terms of being entrepreneurs and employment opportunity producers and not just consumers of such opportunities. Future course of action In the next phase of the project- the time period for which may vary from the next couple of months to the next academic year depending upon the number of working hands extended toward the project, we wish to induct 10 more remote schools into project GEIT. The schools inducted in the project will be increased in a phased manner over the years with village schools given priority over city schools at every stage. Conclusion Project GEIT envisages creation of a brigade of IT empowered youth in the state of Goa through proactive community participation. The idea is to take advancements in IT to young creative minds. How, when and where they can use it is left to them. Our role is just that of a true facilitators. The option of being IT empowered Knowledge workers in their own domain or specialized IT professionals will entirely be theirs.