Marks Vs Merit

It is well observed that students who can't write a few sentence on their favorite film star secures more than 80% marks in board examination. This reflects to the dire situation in which our education system is. Marks do not guarantee intelligence. Our edu-examination system is like eating too much and then vomiting it. Those students who get good percentage are better in stuffing their memory with cramming and then vomiting over the answer books. The better the vomit, the better the marks! It would be better if we introduce continuous assessment system where in daily performance of the students in all the walks of education, including sports, NCC/NSS, Cultural events etc is also considered seriously for merit. We never give any weightage to extra-curricular activities in the mark-sheet of student, neither is it considered as merit for admission in higher education. We are making grave mistake by missing the mark. Our educationist must realize that marks does not contribute to overall development of personality, it is extra-curricular activities which contribute to it.

India’s need of the hour: Young Educated Politician

Education enlightens. It helps to look beyond horizons. It gives vision to look at the things in newer ways. Fortunate are citizens of Rajkot and Bhavnagar to get well-educated Mayors to serve them. It is a happy sign that highly educated young people are devoting for community service through politics. Young nation like India wants younger generation with good higher education to serve her. And Yes…  Isn't it the impact of Lead India campaign that generationext is coming forth to lead & reign Youngistan?

VC stoops to conquer favour of CM

This is with reference to the news about Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University touching feet of Chief Minister Narendra Modi during one public gathering. It is really sad to see the guardians of education stoop so down to win political favors. It is said that education leads to empowerment & it makes one nirbhay(fearless). What sort of fearlessness would such vice-chancellors give to the students? It is nice to read that in past, there were several vice-chancellors who defiantly stood against the then governments. Today's vice-chancellors, professors and teachers are totally lost in their moral strength and ethical ground. No doubt, the ethical standards of such societies are dwindling down. The dream of Ravindranath Tagore to see his country awake, where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, is still nothing but a dream.

Responsibility of Media and Police in Democracy

Arushi-Hemraj murder case is one of the worst examples of irresponsible behavior of media and police. There is an outcry, since time immemorial against the way police and media behaves. Both have tremendous responsibilities on their shoulders. They are strongest pillars of democracy. It is time that they should understand that with great power comes great responsibility. This case, let us hope, will open their eyes and in future they will behave with responsibility and accountability.

WikiEducator: Platform for managing e-Learning Resourses

Wiki has become a very popular brand name. Today, one need not teach netizens the meanin of wikipedia, wikimapia, wikinews, wikiquote, wikisource, Meta-wiki, wikispecies, wikitionary, wikibooks, wikiversity etc, etc.... I dont thing people alien to this concept would ever be reading this blog. If they are, here is the answer of What is Wiki?
The name "Wiki" was chosen by Ward Cunningham -- the creator of the first Wiki. It is a shortened form of "wiki-wiki", the Hawaiian word for 'quick'.
A wiki is a web site that is generally editable by anyone with a computer, a web browser, and an internet connection. Wikis use a quick and easy syntax to allow users to apply formatting to text and create links between pages. This simple formatting syntax means that authors no longer need to learn the complexities of HTML to create content on the web.
The main strength of a wiki is that it gives people the ability to work collaboratively on the same document. The only software you need is an Internet browser. Consequently, wikis are used for a variety of purposes. If you make a mistake, it's easy to revert back to an earlier version of the document.
Wiki is in Ward's original description:
The simplest online database that could possibly work.
Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly.
Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.
Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.
WikiEducator is a similar kind of platform for teachers, researchers and any-who-and-what related to teaching, learning, research and education.
WikiEducator is a community resource supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) for the development of free educational content.COL is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to encourage the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.
WikiEducator's purpose, in thier own words, is to build an evolving community intended for the collaborative planning of education projects linked with the development of free content;
colloborative development of free content on Wikieducator for e-learning;
colloborative work on building open education resources (OERs) on how to create OERs.
The WikiEducator is a community which believes in:

• The social inclusion and participation of all people in our networked society (Access to ICTs is a fundamental right of knowledge citizens - not an excuse for using old technologies).
• In the freedoms of all educators to teach with the technologies and contents of their choice, hence our commitment to Free/Libre and Open Source technology tools and free content.
• That educational content is unique - and by working together we can improve the technologies we use as well as the reusability of digital learning resources.
• A forward-looking disposition working together to find appropriate and sustainable solutions for e-learning futures.

WikiEducator: A Community for OER from Dilip Barad

WikiEducator is a dynamic and exciting community of educators who believe passionately that learning materials should be free and open to all. Listen to Desmond Tutu on freedom in education and check out the exciting roles in our community.
If you think you believe in similar sort of values, Please join WikiEducator in developing free and open educational content for the world!
Get started today and register now for free wiki training.
http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Dilipbarad